Loki fans already found a huge plot hole in the TVA's sacred timeline

The Time Variance Authority claims to have a clear set of rules in Loki, but Marvel may have missed one Asgardian-sized plot hole.

It’s been less than a week since the first episode of Loki premiered, and Marvel fans wasted no time analyzing every second of the latest Disney+ show. Some moments, like the Miss Minutes video, the Infinity Stones drawer, and a certain demonic stained glass painting are all obvious fodder for new fan theories. However, we may be overlooking one even more important detail.

The theory — When Loki is put on trial by the TVA in Episode 1, we learn that according to the “sacred timeline,” it was totally fine for the Avengers to travel through time in Endgame. But when Loki did it, well, that was crossing the line.

Loki moves quickly past from this moment, but if you think about it for a few extra seconds, the TVA’s logic seemingly falls apart.

Think about it: In Endgame, the Avengers don’t just time travel once, they do it multiple times. Iron Man and Captain America visit 2012 before heading all the way back to 1970. Apparently, that’s all part of the sacred timeline — but none of it would have happened if Loki didn’t steal the Tesseract in the first place.

That’s right, an entire part of the Avengers’ time heist only happens because of Loki. So how come Tony Stark and Steve Rogers are fine, but Loki gets tossed in time jail? Well, there are a few possible answers.

The Inverse analysis — The annoying answer here is simply that the Avengers have plot armor. They have to be allowed to do the things they do because that’s the plot of Endgame. End of story.

But is it? Here’s another answer: The TVA is lying. Maybe Loki wasn’t arrested for breaking the sacred timeline. Instead, maybe he was arrested as part of the sacred timeline. The plot of Loki could be as important to the Time Keepers as anything else we’ve seen in any Marvel movie so far. We just don’t know what the TVA and its leaders are plotting — yet.

Finally, here’s one other answer: It doesn’t matter who steals Infinity Stones or travels through time, the only thing that matters is your final intent. The Avengers always planned to return the stones after using them, but it’s pretty obvious that Loki was never going to return the Tesseract after picking it up in 2012.

So does Loki belong in time jail? We’re honestly not sure, but there’s one thing we do know: The TVA’s story isn’t quite as simple as Episode 1 suggests.

Loki is streaming now on Disney+.