LOKI Season 2's Time Travel Rules Explained By The Show's Head Writer Eric Martin

LOKI Season 2's Time Travel Rules Explained By The Show's Head Writer Eric Martin

Loki season 2 head writer Eric Martin states that as long as you maintain the show's "emotional logic" audiences will forgive you if the mechanics of time travel unravel a bit.

By MarkJulian - Nov 14, 2023 06:11 PM EST
Filed Under: Loki
Source: Script Mag

Loki season 2 perhaps did not have the same auspicious launch as season 1 in terms of ratings, but the show went on to find its stride, and from a critic standpoint, it's one of the best MCU television offerings to date.

With the second and perhaps final season of the show wrapped, we're hopeful that head writer Eric Martin is given his preference for what future Marvel project he wants to tackle next.

However, before we put Loki season 2 to pasture, we'll look at a new excerpt from Martin's interview with script magazine where he explained how he approached the show and its complicated time-travel/time-slipping mechanics.

"You must track the emotional story first. This can all sprawl out in crazy directions. You’re going to have to tamp that down. But I think audiences will forgive you if they lose a little bit of the time travel logic there as long as they understand the emotional logic. I don't want to ever lose the emotional logic of the characters. Right? The human story is the important thing and don't want to lose focus with that. I wanted to use the time travel as a dramatic device, but I didn't want it to just overwhelm the story. So how can we keep this as simple and intuitive as possible?

 I look at the time travel stuff as like, this is a toolbox that we can go into, and when we have a story thing where our characters can use it. In episode one, the way we used time in that in an interesting way, I think, is that conversation with Loki happening in two different moments of time. Between Mobius and Loki. That was something that just popped up as an idea and it's like, 'Oh, wait, no, I can understand how that would work…'

It's a slightly complicated idea, but in execution, it's very simple. I think everybody can understand that. I'm not trying to shove time travel stuff in. This is part of the canvas for our storytelling. I'm going to pull parts of it in as needed, but I'm never trying to write time travel. I'm never trying to force it. It is just part of the toolbox."

Currently, Marvel veteran Tom Hiddleston is playing games with fans, giving separate interviews recently where he implied that his time as Loki was over while in another interview, stating that he'll eventually return and even reunite with Chris Hemsworth's Thor.

Do you want to see more of God Loki/God of Stories Loki in future Marvel projects? Or do you think the season 2 finale was the perfect sendoff for the character and neatly wrapped up an Avengers: Endgame loose end? Let us know in the comment section below.

Loki Season 2 Official Synopsis: Loki Season 2 picks up in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Along with Mobius, Hunter B-15 and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie, Judge Renslayer, Miss Minutes and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.

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bobevanz
bobevanz - 11/14/2023, 6:26 PM
Give Eric Martin more projects
JFerguson
JFerguson - 11/14/2023, 6:30 PM
@bobevanz - if they do, that would be marvel's own undoing
BlackSpider
BlackSpider - 11/14/2023, 6:32 PM
@JFerguson - No? He's made maybe the best mcu project.
kg8817
kg8817 - 11/14/2023, 7:18 PM
@bobevanz - He’s still a Rick and Morty writer.
JFerguson
JFerguson - 11/14/2023, 7:22 PM
@Tigerman33 - for fans and critics maybe. But the general audience will gawk at his Rick and Morty writing.
tylerzero
tylerzero - 11/14/2023, 6:27 PM
Superheromoviefan
Superheromoviefan - 11/14/2023, 6:28 PM
i knew it was gonna be bad when they start using time travel to change the present
i remember people said feige explain the rules
Origame
Origame - 11/14/2023, 6:31 PM
While I understand the thought, the problem comes that the rules are important for understanding why characters do what they do.

Take back to the future. It's established that the DeLorean requires significant power in order to run. And without access to plutonium, the only option is a bolt of lightning they know is happening.

Why is Marty talking to his future parents and getting them together? Because they need to get together for him to be born. Why does he need to do this instead of just letting the past events happen? Because when he first came he already f@#$ed up the events.

The rules and logic make sense so we don't have to think about that and focus on the emotions.
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 11/14/2023, 7:08 PM
@Origame - exsctly. Endgame complicated the rules and now they cant keep up and make it consistent.
Origame
Origame - 11/14/2023, 7:37 PM
@vectorsigma - yeah. I don't get this thought that emotional logic and mechanical logic are polar opposites and it has to be one or the other.
Fogs
Fogs - 11/14/2023, 6:39 PM
It was pretty clear to me the causality (a là BTTF) in the TVA/End of Time happens because there's only a single timeline there, unlike the sacred timeline which can branch and generate more universes if meddled with.

The last scene in S1 did put that logic to proof, but since later on S2 we realized that huge Kang statue was there simply cause Loki was in the past (and not in a TVA branch), it reinforced that idea.

So far I couldn't think of anything that contradicts that logic.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 11/14/2023, 7:01 PM
@Fogs - I just immediately think that, despite there being no time, time still passes somehow. There is clearly still an order of events happening, so there must be something dictating that. And that can't be broken imo
Fogs
Fogs - 11/14/2023, 7:04 PM
@bkmeijer1 - yeah, totally. And the "time not passing" was TVA BS just like the Time Keepers, even OB was surprised with Loki's time slipping.

People don't age, but that's something else entirely.
Fares
Fares - 11/14/2023, 7:05 PM
@Fogs - Two things off the top of my head that made me confused concerning the time travel logic:
Why is Loki not meeting his duplicates anymore when he time slips? Is he now just sending his consciousness back and forth to one single body?
Why did the TVA start "noodling" after the conversation that Loki had in the past with Morbius? Only non-sacred timelines get "noodled" and the TVA shouldn't have multiple timelines.
Fogs
Fogs - 11/14/2023, 7:11 PM
@Fares - After he faced the end of the multiverse he changed his way of time slipping, projecting his conscience and not his body, like Logan in DoFP. He who Remains realizes he has this control once he meets Loki again.

The "TVA noodling" happened cause as HWR says, it's a fail safe, taking everything that formed the TVA back to their timelines. That's also the reason Loki was alone at the beginning of ep5.

At least that's what I got from it.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 11/14/2023, 7:12 PM
@Fogs @Fares - the "there is no time" is probably just another fluke by the TVA indeed.

Think there might actually be multiple TVAs. Better yet, there have to be. Everytime Loki warped his consciousness back into his previous sekf, he must've created a new timeline because he already experienced those moments differently.
Fares
Fares - 11/14/2023, 7:17 PM
@Fogs - the TVA "noodling" happens in the time of season 1 episode 1, waaaaaaaay before the Loom begins to malfunction, if the TVA should ever noodle, it would only be at the exact time that they're trying and failing to fix the Loom.
Fogs
Fogs - 11/14/2023, 7:20 PM
@bkmeijer1 - My guess is that's the reason they used the gimmick of him projecting his conscience instead of travelling physically. Cause he could come back to a specific point in time for the 500th time without seeing other 499 Lokis. If he always travels to the same point in time he "rewrites" his actions with his new conscience, and a single TVA timeline can still exist. The experience only exists in his memory, just like Marty rmembers the bad 1985 in BTTF.
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 11/14/2023, 7:21 PM
@Fogs - its nice to continue this discussion here and see that i am not the only one getting confused.

Might need to rewatch the show 😅

So far the BTTF rules only in the TVA logic might be true, but it wasnt explained really well or I just forgot
Fogs
Fogs - 11/14/2023, 7:22 PM
@Fares - Now that's a VERY good point. You mean when he's greeting Mobius in the interrogation room, right?
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