Loki! (spoiler thread)

[Staffan]

But Sylvie is at that point existing in the same timeline as the hunter - so from her perspective its still hundred of years ago, which implies their shared timeline is in the future. Also Sylvie having spent years on the plan would suggest that there is a shareable time reference.

Based on last weeks dialogue about Duplicate castings being identical at the molecular level, I wonder if Sylvie is in reality the mindwiped molecular duplicate of Loki-A from a future in which Loki died - She's Sylvie Lokisdotter

The way I understood it is that in this particular case we have two separate timelines to keep track of: the Hunter C-20's, and Sylvie's.

The Hunter's timeline goes like this:
1. Lives a life on what seems like modern-day Earth.
2. Gets involved in something timey-wimey and is labeled a Variant.
3. TVA "recruits" her.
4. TVA does something to her memory and then she spends a few hundred years doing TVA stuff.
5. When investigating the RenFaire incident in the 1980s, she gets kidnapped by Sylvie and taken to the Roxxcart mall in the 2050s.
6. Sylvie puts the mental whammy on her.

Sylvie's timeline instead goes like this:
1. Various undisclosed stuff.
2. Attacks TVA agents investigating a thing in the 80s, and kidnaps one of them.
3. Takes the kidnapped TVA agent to the 2050s.
4. Puts the mental whammy on the TVA agent in order to learn stuff about the time keepers.
5. The stuff we just saw in episode 3.

So C-20's 5-6 co-incide with Sylvie's 2-4, but the "hundreds of years" Sylvie refers to are C-20's step 4.

On a related note, I wonder if TVA agents actually become unaging or if the TVA works the same as Death's Domain in Discworld: time doesn't pass there so you don't age while inside, but if you go back to the "real" world you still age in normal time.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

OK but if she's from the "present day" more or less, and the TVA exists outside time, then what does "hundreds of years ago" actually mean? How can she have been working for the TVA for several centuries if time "works differently" in the TVA?

She has hundreds of years worth of accumulated memories.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Someone spotted a reference to her as "Sylvie Laufeysdottir" on a TVA sheet somewhere. The image is in the thread about the replica crowns.

EDIT:

The use of "dottir" implies the child was born female, rather than just chose a female form, so either she is a sister or the "variance" occurred before conception. One thing they may be hinting at is although we know the identity of the father, we do not know the identity of the birth mother.

 

[hopeless]

She's aware where that TVA Agent came from.
That's what that sounds like, she used an actual memory and superimposed herself over whoever the TVA Agent was with at that bar or restaurant.
Curious she doesn't know about the power dampening effect within the TVA.
That suggests when the TVA came for her she turned the tables and has been on the run outside the TVA pulling her shenanigans.
I wonder how told her how to avoid detection because that doesn't sound accidental?

 

[Staffan]

The use of "dottir" implies the child was born female, rather than just chose a female form, so either she is a sister or the "variance" occurred before conception. One thing they may be hinting at is although we know the identity of the father, we do not know the identity of the birth mother.

In Iceland, which is the only Nordic country that still routinely use patronymic surnames, a person who transitions will have their surname changed. So under Icelandic law, Laufeysson would have become Laufeysdottír. Recently they also allowed -bur as a suffix, meaning "child", for non-binary people, so should we encounter a third Loki who's more actively fluid, they might go by Laufeysbur.

And it seems pretty clear that the TVA uses the person's current name rather than their "original" name, whatever that is. After all, "our" Loki is Laufeysson, but he only learned of his true origins about 2 years ago.

 

[Staffan]

Another thing I thought of, that I might be reading too much into: the Time Variance Authority. I'm not a native English-speaker, but to me the word Authority implies some form of lawfulness or legality, of power given instead of taken. You're doing a thing because someone authorized you to do it, not just because you think it should be done.

So: whose authority? I guess the easy answer is "The Time Keepers", but I'm not particularly happy with that answer.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And it seems pretty clear that the TVA uses the person's current name rather than their "original" name,

I would say say Loki considers his name to be Odinson, irrespective of biological parentage. He is irritated by "Laufeysson" - using that looks like TVA pedantry rather than "current name".

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Another thing I thought of, that I might be reading too much into: the Time Variance Authority. I'm not a native English-speaker, but to me the word Authority implies some form of lawfulness or legality, of power given instead of taken. You're doing a thing because someone authorized you to do it, not just because you think it should be done.

So: whose authority? I guess the easy answer is "The Time Keepers", but I'm not particularly happy with that answer.

You shouldn't be happy with that answer. The TVA are almost certainly in the wrong, even if they don't know it. Something calling itself "the Authority" does not mean that they deserve that power.

 

[Campbell]

I'm guessing the authority only really extends from the Time Keepers themselves, especially if they are who I think they are.

 

[trappedslider]

I'm guessing the authority only really extends from the Time Keepers themselves, especially if they are who I think they are.

Spoiler

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