Avengers: Endgame theory fixes the biggest Loki plot hole
Let chaos reign.
Loki aimed to assuage Marvel fans perturbed by the ending of Avengers: Endgame. After two years of speculation as to why the Avengers let the timeline in which Tony Stark’s Iron Man perished go unchanged, Loki swept in with a grand explanation: the Sacred Timeline.
Though the Avengers had gained the ability to time travel, the outcome of Endgame had been determined by the Time Keepers, who worked to keep the universe in working order.
Of course, Loki upended that status quo — but thankfully, a new fan theory works to repair the plot holes ripped open by the Disney+ series. Here’s how.
By the end of Loki, the “Time Keepers” were exposed as a front for He Who Remains, a variant of Kang the Conqueror. The events of Endgame happened not because they were part of a larger Sacred Timeline, but merely because He Who Remains wanted them to happen.
But why did Kang want Endgame to unfold the way it did? Why did he determine a certain series of events to constitute the Sacred Timeline?” Here’s one theory: what if Kang needed the Snap to happen in order for Tony Stark to invent time travel, so that Kang could wreak havoc later?
The Time Keepers provided a tidy explanation for Endgame — but it was all a lie.
That theory, floated by Redditor okjk0123, would have major implications for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Considering the Avengers still have access to time travel and the multiverse has been established, perhaps someone will threaten to go back in time in order to rob Kang of his own time-travel abilities.
The most likely candidate is Ant-Man, as Kang the Conqueror (the actual Kang, not a variant) is set to make his MCU debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. However, this theory isn’t perfect. Now that the multiverse has opened up, any time travel to mess with its flow would merely create another universe in the existing multiverse — and Kang can seemingly jump between universes.
With the multiverses unleashed, there’s no telling how time travel works now.
But regardless of whether this theory hold water, Marvel still needs to explain why He Who Remains let Endgame happen. He had the ability to arrest the Avengers through the TVA, but he didn’t. Why?
Was it just to see what would happen? Did he know he needed Loki and Sylvie to meet up with him, meaning he’d push Loki to break the Sacred Timeline?
Unfortunately, when it comes to Kang, there’s no telling what his motivations are. Though he’s poised to become Marvel’s next Big Bad, we haven’t even truly met him yet — just his variant. Hopefully, we’ll learn Kang’s true intentions in his next appearance.
Loki is now streaming on Disney+.
