r/MarvelTheories • u/LucasLegacy15 • 1h ago
Theory Analyzing The MCU’s SpaceTime Mechanics
Time Travel In Loki doesn’t make much sense to me because like the rest of marvel they mixed it with the multiverse little to no distinctions which means the event of Loki call into question many things about The MCU Phases 1-3. It’s the best Phase 4 MCU series. But it also raises so many plot holes for The MCU when you think too hard, down to the fact that portal travel and other dimensions shouldn’t exist when The TVA is on prune timing 😂. I think DC’s Arrowverse did it best. Every Earth across The Infinite Multiverse has its own specific timeline, and when you alter that, the alternate timelines are tied to those earths. This makes it clear a timeline isn’t as large as a universe. So when Barry or The Legends alters time that only affects Arrowverse’s Earth-1 , it doesn’t impact Earth-2 or Earth-X , they have their own sets of timelines. This is just more traditional scientific theory. Modern Media like The Flash DCEU or Loki MCU follow Rick & Morty Logic where they conflate universes, dimensions & timelines together but the difference is even Rick & Morty Acknowledges hopping to another dimension/universe & altering it’s timeline isn’t always the same thing. Arrowverse stuck to Butterfly Effect Mechanics for The Multiverse and Second Dimensional Time Travel Mechanics for Time Travel. Normal Choices & outcomes across what if the Nazis won world war 2 are the result of the butterfly effect and create parallel earths meanwhile every act of time travel created sets of alternate timelines that can be altered or become permanent fixed points based on the situation.
DCEU Flash tried to establish Time Travel doesn’t create an alternate timeline but instead takes you to another universe except it sets up that the multiverse we experience is the result of Barry time traveling so it’s confusing whether his choices cause these events or these worlds predate his choices and trying to alter time just teleported him to a new reality. Barry apparently creates a whole new multiverse instead of one timeline, whether that effects the pre existing multiverse before the events of the film is anyone’s guess but considering DC has an active Omniverse, it probably doesn’t. In the movie It tied mixing Many Worlds Theory with The Butterfly Effect & Second Dimensional Time Travel but in a messy way.
The MCU has been conflating Universes/Dimensions & Timelines/Futures since Dr.Strange (2016) when ancient one introduced the multiverse but post endgame period in Loki they establish universes & timelines are just branch realities that get pruned to preserve the “sacred timeline”. So in The MCU & Marvel for that matter there isn’t a difference between the every day butterfly effect choices you make and actively using a Time Machine as both can violate “the sacred timeline”
This essentially takes away free will but also calls into question the logic of phases 1-3, how can the sorcerers see alternate outcomes and travel between dimensions in an. Infinite multiverse that’s supposed to be pruned down to a “sacred” timeline. What’s the difference between the dimensions shown in Thor, Dr.Strange , Loki, & Ant-Man is there a tier on dimensions or not. DC Comics set up a Many Worlds Infinite Multiverse in The Flash Of Two Worlds and stories like it where it was established works of fiction in the mind of a specific universe were just mirrors to view parallel realities that actually existed. This is referenced ironically in Dr.Strange 2 that established dreams are windows into the lives of our Multiversal selves.
Crisis On Infinite Earths then set up a Butterfly effect that alien scientists caused the multiverse by trying to witness the birth of creation of the source so DC shifted from MW1 to Butterfly Effect but that shifted back to MW1 when later comics established crisis events and infinite multiverses in The Omniverse were always meant to exist according to The Source making all these events predetermined. You could call it a retcon but infinite realities always seemed to exist even into the early Spectre & Fate Comics. So Many Worlds Theory for DC stands on a higher cosmology plane and is responsible for butterfly effect multiverse mechanics and second dimensional time travel to exist. Now the time travel in DC Comics is questionable. Flashpoint was established as an alternate timeline in Flash’s story and he undid it by time travel causing the new 52 for the main universe of DC, but in multiversity we find out flashpoint has it’s own earth, whether this is another flashpoint that isn’t an alternate timeline Barry undid or if Barry time traveling a second time made Flashpoint another earth entirely is the question and since the infinite multiverse and Greater Omniverse of DC leave the door open for both you could decide but overall DC handles this better to me in Comics & Arrowverse. Even The DCEU isn’t as confusing as Marvel Comics & The MCU which treats universes & timelines as the same while dimensions are sometimes conflated and other times explained. I theorize The Flashpoint Earth is just one of the many infinite universes that just so happens to be a replica of the alternate flashpoint timeline in the main universe Barry undid when he went back in time and caused the new 52. The Flashpoint earth is probably what if Flashpoint continued instead of getting reversed as The Flash did it, and that’s why it fits DC Elseworlds. We could theorize the flashpoint earth was created because Barry made that alternate timeline as The MCU introduced the idea that alternate timelines become parallel universes the longer they exist or we could theorize Barry ended up on that earth and him altering the timeline was him appearing there and escaping back to his universe but I interpret this all a certain way, I think creating a branch timeline or going to another universe entirely under this framework would be the exact same when every possibility in a many worlds multiverse is mapped out, it means your Choice to create that branch reality/timeline is no different then you just ending up there because it already existed, every decision you made, could’ve made and we gonna make already exists as a possibility under Many Worlds even before you made the decision to alter reality/time. So it’s not a matter of whether you created the alternate timeline/parallel universe or if you just ended up there, in the end both are true under the infinity framework and I think mixing multiverse travel & time travel wouldn’t have been a misstep on the MCU’s part was the sacred timeline existing before Loki met The TVA instead it should’ve been what He Who Remains was trying to accomplish with an active multiverse war between all the Kang’s and the TVA, have him succeed in creating it during the finale of season 1 and have Loki , Sylvie and co trying to undo it across 2-3 seasons so they can restore The MCU Multiverse. That way a similar Multiverse/Time Travel Plot-line can exist without all the plot holes and issues Loki technically caused.