Isn’t that the idea posited by the Time Variance Authority in the first episode of Loki? The timeline has happened because it is the timeline that is supposed to happen and if things go off the timeline the TVA travels back in time to get things back on track. Hitler was they first thing I thought of once Loki showed TVA’s power. The TVA is at the very least a complicit, possible active, actor in allowing Nazism to grow in Germany. Also every other massive disaster caused by human folly but Hitler was so bad that he’ll stand as evidence for TVA’s malpractice. To me, Loki posits that we either live in a strictly deterministic universe and everything has been preordained or the beings in charge of the Time Variance Authority are operating on a strict utilitarianism philosophy.
If the world presented in Loki is purely deterministic, Hitler was going to rise to power and nothing would stop him. Determinism is a real possibility according to an in-universe educational cartoon showed to Loki the character. The cartoon acts as exposition for Loki and the audience and describes a great war between all the possible timelines. Long ago the Loki timeline emerged victorious as the only remaining timeline. As a result, this is a deterministic timeline and everything bad that happens is because this is the only timeline left. The Time-Keepers in charge of the TVA are focused on ensuring this timeline survives else all of reality destroyed. This idea leads into the utilitarianism argument for Loki.
Utilitarianism as imagined by Jeremy Bentham wants us to believe “the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.” An elimination of all reality would not be considered happiness for anybody, much less the greatest number. So the Time-Keepers in this context are focused on keeping the timeline stable for the simple fact that it is the only timeline left. Long before the great timeline war, there was a timeline where Hitler was accepted into art school and went on to have a solid but undistinguished career painting landscapes for rich patrons. Unfortunately that timeline lost and now the TVA is forced to ensure Hitler becomes the Hitler we all know and hate. Strict utilitarianism is an extremely mercenary philosophy because it allows any means to be justified by the ends. A real utilitarian wouldn’t have hidden a Jew in their cellar because the happiness of the family weighs more than the happiness of a single person. This is what the TVA is doing on a much larger scale. The victims of every preventable atrocity are less important than the happiness of everyone else.
I hope this philosophy is something explored in Loki. Popular culture should be used as a method to introduce audiences to hard questions. I want the show to have characters grappling with the idea they are enabling terrible things just to keep order. Loki the character is not the best to make the TVA justify their actions. Any atrocities that Loki would really care about will be fictional and not hit hard enough with the audience. There is a visceral difference between comparing the genocide of a fictional alien race to the Holocaust. I know it won’t happen because the X-Men aren’t part of the MCU, but bring Magneto in front of the TVA’s judge. I want him to demand answers to why the TVA allowed the Holocaust to happen.
Time travel and multiverses raise so many questions. This is doubly true if an organization is all powerful as shown so far Loki. I am a bit worried that Marvel does not want to raise these questions because there are no easy answers. Will audiences be turned off if they are forced to start rethinking the nature of reality and God? I know I will be more turned on if Loki makes me think about the limits and responsibilities of omnipotence.
The Keasy Depot 