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In Loki, Loki gets pruned. He then wakes up in the middle of a street and is found by some other Lokis.

  • Other Other Lokis have beef with Loki(Thor-killer)

  • Loki (who hid on an uninhabited planet) said that they’d been surviving, and knew a lot about Alioth

  • Sylvie and Möbius must have been teleported to different times (in a place where there is no time, and therefore was simultaneous) but Möbius has already gotten a car working.

  • we see several instances of things popping into existence as the episode progresses.

Not similar to this because it is about the TVA only. This is about the location that all pruned objects go. Looking for an answer why time passes in a point in time in which there is an end of time/space.

This question is specifically about the Void at the End of All Time

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    Because the clock in San Dimas is always running.
    – Valorum
    Feb 27 at 18:03
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    I'm not sure why this question was closed as a duplicate, since it asks about the void at the end of time, while the dupe target asks about the TVA headquarters, which is in an undisclosed location that is apparently not the void at the end of time. Feb 27 at 20:13
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    @LogicDictates - Because both seem to exist in the same "outside time" place. An answer to one would pretty much answer the other, hence they're duplicates of each other
    – Valorum
    Feb 27 at 20:24
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    The show doesn't present them as being in the same place, and the void at the end of time is apparently part of the Sacred Timeline, so it's not outside of time. Feb 27 at 20:43
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    In this fictional universe, that's apparently how the end of time and space works. And why shouldn't it? If you can explain how the end of time and space works in real life, that's great, but not on-topic for this website. Feb 27 at 21:45

2 Answers 2

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We're initially told about the Void at the end of time by Ravonna Renslayer, in Loki S01E05. She indicates that it's "a place on the timeline" where "every instance of existence collides at the same point and simply stops" and that "the end of time is still being written."

RAVONNA RENSLAYER: When we prune a branched reality, it's impossible to destroy all of its matter. So we move it to a place on the timeline where it won't continue growing. Basically, the branched timeline isn't reset. It's transferred.

SYLVIE: To where?

RAVONNA RENSLAYER: A void at the end of time. Where every instance of existence collides at the same point and simply stops.

SYLVIE: Why?

RAVONNA RENSLAYER: I don't know. The dogma states that the end of time is still being written, that the Time-Keepers are transforming it into utopia.

SYLVIE: That's nice. Super believable.

RAVONNA RENSLAYER: Whatever the real reason... nothing ever comes back from there.

Loki (2021) - S01E05 - "Journey Into Mystery"

From what's stated and shown though, it doesn't appear that Ravonna has ever been to the Void herself to witness any of this first-hand. Rather, she's apparently relaying "dogma" that she's been indoctrinated with, presumably by the Time-Keepers.

Later in the episode, Sylvie speculates that the Void might not be the end of time, and that there could be a place beyond it where the TVA couldn't detect you, since -- if time is still being written there -- it'd be impossible to create a nexus event.

SYLVIE: Wait. What about the end of time?

RAVONNA RENSLAYER: It's just a void.

SYLVIE: What if The Void isn't the end? What if there's something beyond it? Hiding in the shadow of apocalypses obscured me from the TVA because I couldn't create a diverging branch there, right? So if all of this is still being written, whatever happens is just a new timeline. It would be impossible to start a nexus event there. You could be completely undetectable.

RAVONNA RENSLAYER: That's it. That's the only place they could be.

SYLVIE: So how do we get past The Void?

Loki (2021) - S01E05 - "Journey Into Mystery"

Miss Minutes brings up a diagram in this scene, in which the Sacred Timeline is depicted as a thin, white, horizontal line up to a certain point, beyond which it spreads outward in a cone-like shape and takes on a myriad of colours.

enter image description here

Loki (2021) - S01E05 - "Journey Into Mystery"

Getting back to Sylvie's speculation, it appears that she was on the money, since at the end of S01E05 and the start of S01E06, she and Loki manage to get past the Void to the Citadel at the end of time, where He Who Remains awaits them.

Going by what he says, everything Sylvie and Loki had experienced prior to their arrival at the Citadel was all part of the Sacred Timeline he'd personally scripted.

HE WHO REMAINS: Been a long journey for you, hasn't it? Lot of running, lot of pain. And you... you're a flea on the back of a dragon. In for one hell of a ride. But you did manage to hang on. Mmm-hmm. I guess that counts for something.

LOKI: I'm not sure you quite understand the situation. You've lost. We found you.

HE WHO REMAINS: Duh. Of course you did.

( Sylvie attacks, He Who Remains evades. )

HE WHO REMAINS: Whoa! A swing and a miss. So, we're still doing that, hmm? Let's get all this out of the way. Okay. Here we go. You can't kill me because I already know what's going to happen. See?

( He Who Remains produces a paper script, on which the conversation he's currently having with them is written. )

LOKI: It's a parlor trick.

HE WHO REMAINS: Okay. Don't you wonder how I'm able to get out of the way just before you kill me?

SYLVIE: No. It's because of that little TemPad you have there.

HE WHO REMAINS: Right. But how do I already have it loaded up with everything I need to know to keep from being killed by you two? It's easy. I know it all. And I've seen it all. Everything you guys did on Lamentis, I saw. All the stuff the TVA didn't know about, I knew. All the scheming, all the... talking. That little look by the lake. Quite sentimental, very touching stuff, by the way.

SYLVIE: No. No, we broke out of your little game. That's how we got here.

HE WHO REMAINS: No. Wrong. Every step you took to get here -- Lamentis, The Void -- I paved the road. You... you just walked down it.

Loki (2021) - S01E06 - "For All Time. Always."

As noted in the block quote above, He Who Remains produced a literal paper script to corroborate what he told them.

enter image description here

Loki (2021) - S01E06 - "For All Time. Always."

He also indicated that time was still ongoing at the Citadel -- counting the passing seconds at one point -- and referred to a "threshold" beyond which the Sacred Timeline hadn't yet been scripted; a threshold that was apparently reached during his conversation with Sylvie and Loki.

HE WHO REMAINS: We just crossed... the threshold. Oh. So, I fibbed. I fibbed earlier when I said I know how everything's going to go. I... I know... I knew... everything up to a certain point, and that point was about... seven, eight, nine, ten seconds ago. But now I have no idea. No idea how the rest of this is going to go.

Loki (2021) - S01E06 - "For All Time. Always."

At that point, the Sacred Timeline -- depicted visually outside of the building they were in -- began to diverge into an ever-growing number of branching timelines, and as a consequence, He Who Remains could no longer predict Sylvie's attacks, which allowed her to kill him.

So, if we take everything shown and stated above, and try to weave it all together into a cohesive whole, the takeaway seems to be that the Citadel at the time of time doesn't literally exist at the point at which time comes to an end, nor is it limited to a single point in time at all. Rather, it exists within an unquantified window of time that begins at some point on the Sacred Timeline when it's all flowing in the same direction, but crosses beyond the point at which it begins to separate out into an ever-growing number of branching timelines.

It's unclear how close the Citadel is to the point at which time genuinely comes to an end, assuming there is such a point in the MCU. It may be that the "end of time" part of the Citadel's full name never truly referred to the end of time itself, but merely the end of He Who Remains' scripted Sacred Timeline, beyond which time evidently continues to flow.

It also follows from all this that the Void at the end of time doesn't exist at the literal end of time itself either, and isn't limited to a single point in time. Rather, it exists within a window of time on the Sacred Timeline chronologically preceding the one within which the Citadel exists.

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    It sounds like the Citadel exists in the present, the point in the timeline where time stops being a distinct single line and fans out into myriad possible futures.
    – J Doe
    Feb 28 at 6:38
  • @J Doe - It depends what you mean by "the present," since that's a relative term. While Sylvie and Loki were there, it would've existed in the present for them, but from the perspective of most or all of the characters that we saw in prior MCU material, it apparently existed at some point in the distant future, overlapping the point beyond which the timeline hadn't been written yet. We don't know exactly when (i.e. what year) that is, but it's apparently some time after the 31st century, when He Who Remains was allegedly born. Feb 28 at 11:44
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Okay, this is gonna get very complicated, but bear with me.

Explanation of the Timelines

Imagine the Sacred Timeline as the blue line below: it has a beginning (not important), and no end yet. Towards the right side, we have the period (not point) perceived by our heroes as the Void at the End of Time (orange dotted line). Then we have the black dotted line, which represents the "threshold" He Who Remains refers to—past which, the Sacred Timeline starts branching.

Then we have the Supreme Timeline (in purple), which is the one followed in the TVA. This is what we viewers mostly perceive as the chronology of events in the show (see my answer to the linked question).

Now the most important part: the Present. For viewers, TVA agents, and main characters, there is chronologically one present. There's a present at the Void on the Sacred Timeline (the lower red dot). And there's a present on the Supreme Timeline in the TVA (the upper red dot). These two presents are linked (shown by the green line). They move together through time, as shown below:

enter image description here

Before I explain the link, let me make clear what kind of time travel the TemPads can do. Moving back and forth on the Supreme Timeline is not allowed. The Supreme Timeline is the base chronology of events in the show; if moving back and forth on it were allowed, the TVA would just travel back to undo any of the Chaos Sylvie caused.

enter image description here

However, accessing any point on the blue part of the Sacred Timeline is allowed. The TVA does this every time it needs to investigate a nexus event.

enter image description here

You can think of it like this: the Supreme Timeline is the timeline we experience as viewers. When some variant creates a nexus event, the event takes place in the present of the Supreme Timeline. For the TVA, time proceeds on the Supreme Timeline, while the concerned point on Sacred Timeline is more of a location (like the TVA itself). The TVA agents travel to the location in time (Supreme Time) to catch the variant, then go back to the TVA to try them. This is less like time travel and more like regular travel. True time travel (manipulating one's past or future) is not possible on the Supreme Timeline.

Now, here's the catch with pruning: whenever the TVA prunes someone, it sends them to the lower red dot (the "present" of the Void). But since the Void present keeps moving along with the Supreme Timeline present, the people pruned later (like Sylvie) enter the Sacred Timeline at a point of time after the people pruned earlier (like Mobius). That's why it makes sense to say that the two presents are linked.

enter image description here

The last episode of the show takes us to this point: the threshold. This is the point up to which the Sacred Timeline is written; beyond it, the Sacred Timeline began to diverge as we see towards the end of the episode.

HE WHO REMAINS: We just crossed... the threshold. Oh. So, I fibbed. I fibbed earlier when I said I know how everything's going to go. I... I know... I knew... everything up to a certain point, and that point was about... seven, eight, nine, ten seconds ago. But now I have no idea. No idea how the rest of this is going to go.

Loki (2021) - S01E06 - "For All Time. Always."

enter image description here

Regarding the Citadel at the End of Time: the Citadel is simply an actual, physical location in the world, which exists during the Void part of the Sacred Timeline. The End of Time refers to the end of the Sacred Timeline as we know it (where it starts branching into madness), not the end of the Supreme Timeline itself (the show doesn't just pause when it reaches the Citadel, so clearly, Supreme Time goes on)


A possible contradiction one might think of is this: Time travel is impossible along the Supreme Timeline, but possible along the Sacred Timeline. But if the Supreme Timeline present is linked with the Void present (which is on the Sacred Timeline), doesn't that make time travel possible along the Supreme Timeline?

No, it doesn't. This is because of the special treatment given to the Void. As far as the TVA knows, the Void is just the lower red dot. The TemPads cannot access any point in the Void portion of the Sacred Timeline—this is why the Void is in a sense "out of time". The Sacred Timeline present exists exclusively in the Void (the beginning of the Void seems to correspond to the beginning of the TVA).

enter image description here

Besides, even if the Void Spacecraft was real, and the time travel shown in the above image was possible, it wouldn't really be a problem. Because that would make the Void's past accessible from the TVA—but not the TVA's past from the Void (the return journey would simply take them to the TVA's present on the Supreme Timeline). A time paradox would only arise if on the return journey, the Void Spacecraft could arrive at a different point on the Supreme Timeline.

Answer to the Question (finally)

The pruned objects/people do not appear simultaneously in the Void, because the Void and the Supreme Timeline follow the same chronology (since their presents are linked at all times). The Supreme Timeline and the timeline in the Void may or may not follow the same speeds, though; perhaps the present in the Supreme Timeline moves twice as fast as the Void present (somewhat like the time travel in the Chronicles of Narnia). But there is still a point-to-point correspondence between the timelines of the Void and the TVA.

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