What's Really Going on With the TVA in 'Loki'? (SPOILERS)

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for Episode 3 of Loki.

Three episodes into Loki and it already appears that everything we've learned so far is a lie. In Episode 1, we were taught that the Time Variance Authority (TVA) was full of good guys, created by the Time-Keepers to keep the Sacred Timeline safe. We saw that magic didn't work at the TVA, which existed outside of time and space. As Loki (Tom Hiddleston) saw it, the TVA could be the most powerful place in the universe.

But now we know that things aren't exactly as they seem. As Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) revealed in Episode 3, the TVA agents didn't just appear one day, built by the Time-Keepers. After becoming variants, they were plucked from their existences and turned into TVA agents.

This raises many more questions than we already had. When, how, and why was the TVA created? Where is it? Could it really be in the Quantum Realm? And perhaps the most important question of all is: Are they the bad guys? Read on for an explanation of what we know of the TVA so far.

We've met a few of the TVA agents so far, with the most prominent one being Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson), who has a fascination with plenty of Earthly things, especially jet skis. Mobius believes that he was made to be a manager for the TVA, which lines up with what we know about the TVA from the Marvel comics.

In the comics, TVA employees, known as chronomonitors, are created by quantum technology when a new reality appears in order to monitor it. However, judging by Sylvie's reveal, that might not be the case in Loki. Sylvie claims that the TVA worker she kidnapped had a life before she was with the TVA. She wasn't just created. She was taken from her life and had her existence rewritten.

In the comics, the TVA exists in the Null-Time Zone. However, like the history of the TVA agents, Loki might be flipping the script. One such idea of where the TVA really is comes from YouTuber Devin Eckardt, who posits a very possible theory that would explain a lot.

In his video, he explains why he believes that the TVA is really in the Quantum Realm, the microcosmic universe from the Ant-Man films that was also used by the Avengers to go back in time in Endgame. Time moves very differently in the Quantum Realm, and the explanation of how time moves in the realm and how time moves in the TVA is very similar. Plus, when Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) first entered the Quantum Realm, we saw a brief glimpse of a city.

While many theorized that the city was Chronopolis, the home of Kang the Conqueror, who has already been confirmed as the villain for the third Ant-Man movie, the city might really be the TVA headquarters. That doesn't mean that Kang might not have his hand in the TVA. The TVA and Kang have grappled before in the comics, and other theories suggest that Kang is involved in this current iteration of the TVA in Loki.

After all, Kang is in love with Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in the comics. Some believe that the mysterious other agent that Ravonna talks to Mobius about might be Kang. Other theories suggest that Ravonna and Kang are in cahoots and that the TVA is truly all Kang's work.

A company that exists to keep time moving and from imploding on itself doesn't sound too bad. A company that exists by capturing people, variants or not, and turning them into mindless cogs in their machine? That sounds pretty evil. The question of who the villain is in Loki has been pondered quite a bit, with many suggesting the answer to be Loki, Lady Loki, or Kang. But the answer might be the TVA itself.

At this point, the biggest question is why they do what they do. Is it really to keep the Sacred Timeline in check? Or is there something more nefarious going on? We'll have to wait and see.

New episodes of Loki drop every Wednesday on Disney Plus.