The first season of Loki introduced a grave new threat to the MCU in the form of Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror. Where once there was only a single version of Kang, pruning the timeline to prevent his alternate selves from coming into existence (and slaughtering countless others in the process), now there’s an entire multiverse of Kangs threatening the multiverse. We assumed that meant some version of Kang would emerge as the main villain of Season 2. But so far, that hasn’t happened.
In fact, it’s hard to say who the true villain of the series actually is right now. That’s not a complaint, but a testament to the unexpected direction this new season is taking us. There are now several characters who could conceivably turn out to be the true villain of Season 2. Let's take a closer look at the shifty cast of Loki and why their moral ambiguity is making the show so fun this season.
Ravonna Renslayer
It’s been obvious from the beginning that there’s more than meets the eye where Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer is concerned. Her very presence in the series was the biggest clue that Kang’s debut was inevitable. In the comics, Ravonna is Kang’s great love and one of his prime motivations in his endless war of conquest. She was never going to be just a TVA agent in the MCU.
We’re beginning to see signs of that deep Ravonna/Kang bond in the series. The Season 2 premiere featured a cryptic audio recording of Ravonna meeting with He Who Remains. Now, in Episode 3 we learn that Ravonna is carrying out He Who Remains’ final orders, delivering a TVA handbook to a young Victor Timely in 19th Century Chicago. It would seem that the TVA’s very existence is a time paradox with no beginning or ending.
That all being said, it’s clear the MCU is going its own direction with Ravonna. She’s a woman whose own stated goal is a search for “free will,” wherever and whenever that quest may take her. She may be charmed by the adult Victor Timely, but love isn’t the driving force of her journey. She’s a woman determined to take charge of her destiny after spending so long serving the TVA. That could ultimately lead to her standing against the TVA and her old pal, Owen Wilson’s Mobius.
Season 1 teased the threat of Kang. But what if it’s Ravonna Renslayer Loki and the gang should really be worried about?
Miss Minutes
Episode 3 certainly changes our perception of Tara Strong’s Miss Minutes. What seemed like an innocuous cartoon mascot/AI assistant in Season 1 has turned out to have a true mind of her own. As her rampage through the World’s Fair shows, Miss Minutes can be a little bit scary when she so desires, even if she lacks a true, physical form.
We’ve known since the Season 1 finale that Miss Minutes has been serving He Who Remains rather than the TVA itself. Now we know that she’s carrying out her old boss’ final wishes by ensuring the TVA still comes into existence. She’s doing far more than just following her programming. Miss Minutes is shown to harbor real love for He Who Remains, to the point that she yearns for a body with which to consummate that love.
This is where Miss Minutes evolves from a treacherous cartoon character to a truly unsettling, sentient lifeform. There’s a clear desperation to her desire for He Who Remains. She craves a real body, yet her boss pointedly refused to give her one. What will she do to make her dream a reality? Will her love for He Who Remains devolve into an obsession that clouds everything? Miss Minutes may be trying to preserve the TVA, but we could easily see her instead trying to burn everything to the ground when she’s denied her heart’s desire. He Who Remains may have created a monster here.
Ouroboros (O.B.)
Ke Huy Quan’s Ouroboros has quickly become a fan-favorite MCU character since his debut in the Season 2 premiere. What’s not to love? He’s a goofy, cheerful inventor plugging away in the TVA’s basement and treating the impending end of existence like just another problem to solve.
However, some viewers are convinced that there’s more to O.B. than meets the eye. Some have speculated that he may be a villain in disguise, plotting against Loki and Mobius even as he appears to help them save the TVA.
So far, there doesn’t seem to be any real evidence to support this theory. There’s no indication that O.B. is anything other than what he appears to be - an eccentric tech genius holding the TVA together through sheer grit and ingenuity. Heck, he effectively is the creator of the TVA now, as it’s his work that inspired Victor Timely to pursue the science of time travel.
Still, it wouldn’t be the MCU if fans weren’t waiting for another shoe to drop. Let’s not forget that O.B. has been down in his lab for a very, very long time. That level of isolation can weigh on a person’s mind. Perhaps O.B. resents the TVA for ignoring him and failing to appreciate his genius. Maybe he’s ready to make a power play amid all the chaos caused by the death of He Who Remains. Is O.B. gearing up for one of the greatest heel turns in the MCU? We can’t write off the possibility, unlikely though it may seem.
Victor Timely
When it comes to the question of which character is the real villain of Loki: Season 2, we can’t forget about Victor Timely. This is a very different version of Kang from the one we met at the end of Season 1, even though it’s possible that He Who Remains is simply a much older version of Victor. Time travel is confusing, and it’s not clear yet if Victor eventually becomes He Who Remains or if we’re seeing the genesis of a wholly different incarnation of Kang here.
Victor certainly isn’t as outwardly villainous as He Who Remains or Quantumania’s Kang the Conqueror. He’s brilliant, to be sure, but at the moment he seems content to use his mind as a means of generating get-rich-quick schemes and scamming the rubes. Odd and antisocial though he is, we also see that he’s capable of forming genuine human connections through his interaction with Ravonna. Is this really the sort of man who will grow to rule the timeline with an iron fist?
We’re in the midst of the Multiverse Saga right now, and that means all roads eventually lead to Kang in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. But we don’t know how Victor Timely factors into that equation. We also don’t know what other Kang variants we could encounter before the end of Season 2. For all that Kang was set up to be an ominous, all-encompassing threat in Season 1, this version of the character is surprisingly ambiguous. And that’s what makes him so much fun to watch.
Who do you think the real villain of Loki: Season 2 is? Cast your vote in our poll and let us know your thoughts in the comments below:
For more on Loki, find out why Sylvie has become the true heart of Season 2 and brush up on every Marvel movie and series in development.Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/loki-season-2-villain-ravonna-kang-ouroboros