WARNING SPOILERS FOR LOKI AHEAD, DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED EPISODE 1!!

Loki came back to our screens with a bang this morning and there’s just one question on everyone’s lips: What is the TVA?

Well, I’m here to answer!

What does TVA stand for?

TVA stands for Time Variance Authority.

What does the TVA do?

The TVA monitors the timeline and stops people from altering the past and the future. They monitor the multiverse for anomalies and get rid of any timeline that is deemed too dangerous to continue. Think of them being a bit like The Commission in The Umbrella Academy.

They’ve been overseen by many different beings over the years, the most notable being Kang The Conquerer, who I will be going into more detail about when Ant Man And The Wasp: Quantumania releases.

For now, who I will give more information about the Time Keepers, who have shown up in Loki.

Who Are The Time Keepers?

The Time Keepers are made up of three beings: Ast, Vort and Zanth. They were created by the very last director of the TVA being the end of the universe, and they protect the timeline from destruction. To do this, they have the ability to manipulate temporal energy, as in, they can age people up until they die, or reverse them to before they were conceived (sort of like what the Master did to The 10th Doctor during his time as Harold Saxon). Currently, only near-immortal beings, such as Asgardians, can resist this power.

They can also summon anyone from any time stream, can travel through time, travel to various alternate realities, form energy shields, and can grant power to others. Essentially, they are rather powerful beings you do not want to mess with.

TVA operatives. Image by Andy MacDonald

Who works for the TVA?

The TVA have a lot of people working for them. For starts, they have faceless robots called chronomonitors, who monitor timelines.

They also have clones who are the managers of the TVA, one of which is named Mobius M. Mobius (played in the Loki tv show by Owen Wilson). A fun fact about these clones, is that they are all styled after long time Marvel writer Mark Gruenwald (and later Tom DeFalco).

Mercenaries have also been hired to do the more dangerous missions over the years, including a character called Professor Justin Alphonse Gamble, who is a pastiche of The Doctor!

As for more named characters, there aren’t that many who appear on a regular basis, save for Mobius. But, some of the more interesting character names include: Mr Paradox, Mr Orobouros and Mr Tesseract.

Where can I read more about the TVA?

The best place to start would be Thor issue 371 by Walt Simonson, as this was their first appearance in Marvel Comics. I’d then go onto Simonson’s Fantastic Four run, where the TVA are hunting down The Fantastic Four.

Other than that, there’s Avengers Forever by Kurt Busiek and Dan Slott’s She-Hulk run!

What does this all mean for Loki/the MCU in general?

It could mean a lot of things – we’ve heard about the Time Keepers stopping the multiversal war and keeping the timeline in one piece, and we know that Multiverse Of Madness is coming up, so there’s almost certainly going to be a connection there. And, seeing as the TVA have had run ins with the Fantastic Four and Deadpool over the years, could we be seeing the building blocks for their appearance in the MCU?

They’ve also used the Nexus word again, during the explanation as to what the TVA is, which ties back to WandaVision, and again Multiverse Of Madness.

This could also tie into Ant Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, so we already know Kang is turning up in the film, and he used to run the TVA in the comics.

She-Hulk has also run into them, as I said above, so we could get a connection to She-Hulk.

As for my personal opinion, I think that maybe, just maybe, by the end of the series, Loki may become Mr Tesseract. The character isn’t that big in the comic books, but, with Loki’s love of the Tesseract, could we be seeing him take on the name and become a TVA agent?

Or, will he be the one to blow apart the multiverse, and stop the Time Keepers, who have done some very questionable things in the comics? Could he try to be ‘good’ now, and try to save people instead of hurt them, and hence try to save certain dead Avengers *cough* Natasha *cough*, using the Infinity Stones the TVA use as paperweights?

Who knows! All I know, is that we are in for one hell of a ride!

What do you think of the TVA? Do you have any other questions about them? Or theories about where the show is going? Leave me a comment down below!