Loki (TV series)

Loki is an American television series created by Michael Waldron for the streaming service Disney+, featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name.

Season 1

Glorious Purpose [1.01]

Loki: I am Loki of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose.

Clerk: Please confirm to your knowledge that you are not a fully robotic being, were born an organic creature, and do in fact possess what many cultures would call a soul.

Loki: What? "To my knowledge"? Do a lot of people not know if they're robots?

Clerk: Thank you for your conformation. Please move through.

[Loki enters, but does not move forward.]

Loki: What if I was a robot and I didn't know it?

Clerk: The machine would melt you from the inside out. Please move along, sir.

[Loki is one of two people in an extended wait in line]

Loki: [angrily] THIS IS A MISTAKE! I SHOULDN'T BE HERE!

Miss Minutes: [narration] Hey there! You're probably saying, "This is a mistake. I shouldn't even be here." Welcome to the Time Variance Authority. I'm Miss Minutes, and it's my job to catch you up before you stand trial for your crimes. So let's not waste another minute. Settle in, sharpen your pencils, and check this out. Long ago, there was a vast multiversal war. Countless unique timelines battled each other for supremacy, nearly resulting in the total destruction of... well, everything. But then, the all-knowing Time-Keepers emerged, bringing peace by reorganizing the multiverse into a single timeline, the Sacred Timeline. Now, the Time-Keepers protect and preserve the proper flow of time for everyone and everything. But sometimes, people like you veer off the path the Time-Keepers created. We call those Variants. Maybe you started an uprising, or were just late for work. Whatever it was, stepping off your path created a nexus event, which, left unchecked, could branch off into madness, leading to another multiversal war. But don't worry. To make sure that doesn't happen, the Time-Keepers created the TVA and all its incredible workers. The TVA has stepped in to fix your mistake and set time back on its predetermined path. Now that your actions have left you without a place on the timeline, you must stand trial for your offenses. So, sit tight, and we'll get you in front of a judge in no time. Just make sure you have your ticket, and you'll be seen by the next available attendant. For all time.

Workers: Always!

Loki: "Time-Keepers"? "The Sacred Timeline"? Who actually believes this bunkum?

Loki: I'm gonna burn this place to the ground.

Mobius: I'm gonna show you where my desk is, you can start there.

Loki: Are you taking me somewhere to kill me?

Mobius: No. That's where you just were. I'm taking you some place to talk.

Loki: I don't like to talk.

Mobius: But you do like to lie, which you just did. Because we both know you love to talk. Talkie-talkie.

Loki: How long have you been here?

Mobius: I don't know. It's hard to say, you know? Time passes differently here in the TVA.

Loki: What does that mean?

Mobiua: You'll catch on.

Mobius: That is the proper flow of time, and it happens again and again because it's supposed to. Because it has to.

Loki: What's your name?

Casey: Casey.

Loki: Give me the Tesseract, or I'll gut you like a fish, Casey.

Casey: What's a fish?

Loki: How do you not know what a fish is?

Casey: I've lived my entire life behind a desk.

Loki: Well, what difference does it make?

Casey: I wanna know exactly what I'm being threatened with before I comply.

Loki: Death, Casey. Violent, painful death.

Loki: I don't enjoy hurting people. I...I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to.

Mobius: Okay, explain that to me.

Loki: Because it's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear.

Mobius: A desperate play for control. You do know yourself.

Loki: A villain.

Mobius: That's not how I see it.

The Variant [1.02]

Loki: We have a saying in Asgard, "Where there are wolf's ears, wolf's teeth are near." It means to be aware of your surroundings.

Loki: By the way, at your desk, that magazine...

Mobius: Yeah, the one on jet skis?

Loki: Yes. Why do you have that?

Mobius Because they're awesome.

Loki: [chuckles] Suppose they are.

Mobius: Yeah, you know some things, actually most things in history are kind of dumb and everything gets ruined eventually but in the early 1990s for a brief shining moment there was a beautiful union between form and function which we call a jet ski and a reasonable man can't differ.

Loki: Have you ever been on one?

Mobius: No. No, I think a TVA agent showing up on a jet ski on the Sacred Timeline, that would create a branch for sure.

Loki: It would be fun, though.

Mobius: Yeah, it'd be really fun.

Mobius: Who created you, Loki?

Loki: A frost giant of Bodenheim.

Mobius: And who raised you?

Loki: Odin of Asgard.

Mobius: Odin, god of the heavens, Asgard, mystical realm beyond the stars, frost giants, just listen to yourself.

Loki: Those are different things.

Mobius: No no no, that's exactly the same thing because if you think too hard about where any of us came from, who we truly are, it sounds pretty ridiculous. Existence is chaos.

Mobius: Kablooie.

Loki: What's that?

Mobius: Candy. Do you have candy on Asgard?

Loki: Yeah. Grapes, nuts.

Mobius: No wonder you're so bitter.

Mobius: Hey! These people are scared.

Hunter D-90: They're about to die. They should be scared.

Mobius: Okay. Not of us.

Lamentis [1.03]

Loki: Brute force is no substitute for diplomacy and guile.

Loki: Um, uh, look, I can't go backwards on a train.

Sylvie: Well, I never sit with my back to a door.

Loki: What? There are doors on both sides.

Sylvie: Oh, just sit down.

Loki: A pity the old woman chose to die, don't you think?

Sylvie: She was in love.

Loki: She hated him.

Sylvie: Maybe love is hate.

Loki: Should probably remember that. [materializes a quill pen and paper] What was that? [writing] "Love is... Love is hate."

Sylvie: Oh, piss off!

[Loki makes the quill pen and paper disappear again]

Loki: So, on the subject of love, is there a lucky beau waiting for you at the end of this crusade?

Sylvie: [sarcastically] Yeah, there is, actually. I managed to maintain quite a serious long-distance relationship with a postman whilst running across time from one apocalypse to another.

Loki: And with charm like that, who could resist you?

Sylvie: Well, people are quite willing in the face of certain doom.

Loki: I'm sure they are.

Sylvie: It was only ever just to keep me going. How about you? You're a prince. Must've been would-be-princesses or perhaps, another prince.

Loki: A bit of both. I suspect the same as you. But, nothing ever...

Sylvie: ...real.

[Loki nods]

Loki: Love is a dagger. [materializes a dagger] It's a weapon to be wielded far away or up close. You can see yourself in it. It's beautiful. [turns the dagger towards himself] Until it makes you bleed. But ultimately, when you reach for it,...

[Sylvie reaches for the dagger, only for it to disappear]

Sylvie: It isn't real.

Loki: Yeah.

Sylvie: Love is an imaginary dagger.

Loki: Doesn't make sense, does it?

Sylvie: No. Terrible metaphor.

Loki: Damn. I thought I had something there.

Sylvie: You're not a serious man.

Loki: You're right. I'm a god.

Sylvie: You're a clown. You got drunk on the train.

Loki: I'm hedonistic. That's what I do.

Sylvie: I'm hedonistic. A lot more than you, I assure you. But never at the expense of the mission.

Loki: Oh, the mission? The mission? What, your glorious purpose? Give me a break. You can't beat them.

[frustrated, Sylvie walks off and screams in anger while causing a small energy blast in the ground]

The Nexus Event [1.04]

Sylvie: I remember Asgard. Not much, but I remember. My home, my people, my life. The universe wants to break free, so it manifests chaos. Like me being born the Goddess of Mischief. And as soon as that created a big enough detour from the Sacred Timeline, the TVA showed up, erased my reality, and took me prisoner. I was just a child. I escaped. Stole a TemPad and I ran for a long, long time, which really sucked. Everywhere and every-when I went, it caused a Nexus Event. Sent up a smoke flare. Because I'm not supposed to exist. Until, eventually, I figured out where to hide. And so that's where I grew up, the ends of a thousand worlds. Now... that's where I'll die.

Sylvie: Do you think that what makes a Loki a Loki is the fact that we're destined to lose?

Loki: No. We may lose. Sometimes painfully. But we don't die. We survive.

Mobius: Well?

Loki: Well, what?

Mobius: I know you got some quip you're dyin'to say.

Loki: I don't have a quip. I've got nothing to say to you.

Mobius: Come on.

Loki: By the way, I should have an equal amount of security. This is insulting!

Mobius: You just can't help yourself.

Loki: You betrayed me!

Mobius: You betrayed me!

Loki: Grow up!

Mobius: You grow up! You know, it occurred to me that you're not really the God of Mischief.

Loki: Oh, here it comes. The folksy, dopey insult from the folksy dope. What am I? The God of Self-Sabotage, yeah? The God of Back-Stabbing?

Mobius: Just kind of an asshole and a bad friend. Yeah, chew on that for a little bit.

Loki: I'm a horrible person. I get it. I really am. I cut off your hair because I thought it'd be funny. And it's not. I crave attention because I'm... I'm a narcissist. And I suppose it's... It's because I'm scared of being alone.

Loki: I'm not lying.

Mobius: Now, I'm supposed to believe your girlfriend.

Loki: She's not my girlfriend.

Mobius: Whatever you want call her. What, your female self that you have some demented crush on…

Loki: You're all Variants! Everyone who works at the TVA. The Time-Keepers didn't create you. They kidnapped you from the timeline, and erased your memories. Memories she can access through enchantment. So before this, you had a past, maybe you had a family, a life.

[Mobius is silent for a few seconds.]

Mobius: Nice try. That was good. You two, what a pair! Gosh! Unbelievable. Wherever you go, it's just death, destruction, the literal ends of worlds. Well, I'm gonna have to close this case now, 'cause I don't need you anymore. Yeah, or as you might say, our interests are no longer aligned.

Loki: You know, of all the liars in this place, and there are a great many, you're the biggest.

Mobius: Why? 'Cause I lied about your girlfriend?

Loki: Oh, no. That I can respect. I mean, the lies you tell yourself.

[Mobius enters Loki's time-looped prison.]

Mobius: What are you doing?

Loki: Passing the time.

Mobius: Do you care about her?

Loki: Sylvie? I'm not sure if it's the right word. We covered this back in there.

Mobius: Shut up! Do you really think you deserve to be alone? Loki!

Loki: You told me to shut up.

Mobius: Do you believe you deserve to be alone?

Loki: I don't know.

Mobius: You better figure it out quick, because the Nexus Event the two of you caused, whatever that connection is, can bring this whole place down. So, we better understand...

Loki: We?

Mobius: Do you swear she didn't implant those memories in Hunter C-20?

Loki: Mobius, no. I believe her.

Mobius: So, I just have to trust the word of two Lokis?

Loki: How about the word of a friend?

Mobius: You were right, about the TVA. You were right from the beginning. And if you wanna save her, you need to trust me. Can we do that?

Loki: Yes.

Mobius: Okay. You could be whoever, whatever you wanna be, even someone good. I mean, just in case anyone ever told you different.

[Loki smiles.]

Journey into Mystery [1.05]

Loki: [yelling] Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going on?! [lowers his voice] Look, it's been a very, very, very trying past few days. Months? I don't even know how long it's been since New York. All I know is I got pruned, and I woke up here, and now I'm surrounded by Variants of myself, plus an alligator, which I'm heartbroken to report I didn't even find all that strange.

Loki: [to Classic Loki] Why do you wear the horns? You let a child command you.

Classic Loki: You'll do well to respect the boy. This is his kingdom.

Loki: Right. And what was your nexus event, Your Majesty?

Kid Loki: [looks right at Loki] I killed Thor.

Hunter B-15: What exactly do you want from me?

Renslayer: You had a link with the Variant. I want you to tell me what drives her.

Hunter B-15: Revenge drives her. Killing the Time-Keepers. But they turned out to be fake, in case you forgot. So she'll be searching for whomever created them. [regards Renslayer and realizes.] This isn't about protecting the TVA at all, is it? You just want to find whoever is behind all of this, too. [chuckles] You'll never find them. Not before she does.

Renslayer: And why is that?

Hunter B-15: You only want it. She needs it.

Sylvie: How do I know that, in the final moments, you won't betray me?

Loki: Listen, Sylvie, I... I betrayed everyone who ever loved me. I betrayed my father, my brother, my home. I know what I did. And I know why I did it. And that's not who I am anymore. Okay? I won't let you down.

Mobius: Looks like you got away in the end.

Loki: I always do. What will you do at the TVA?

Mobius: Burn it to the ground. Thanks for the spark.

Loki: I think we may be stronger than we realize

For All Time. Always. [1.06]

Sylvie: Aren't you gonna tell me not to kick the door in?

Loki: It never made a difference.

Sylvie: Well, if you think it's a bad idea, I prefer you to speak your mind.

Loki: No. Nothing to say.

Sylvie: That would be a first.

Miss Minutes: All of it. Everything. Exactly the way you've always wanted. And you can have it all, together.

Sylvie: It's fiction.

Loki: We write our own destiny now.

Miss Minutes: [mockingly] Oh, sure you do. Good luck with that. [disappears]

He Who Remains: I understand your moral objections to what the TVA does. And my methods are deceptive. But the mission, it never was. Without the me, without the TVA, everything burns.

Loki: Then what are you so afraid of?

He Who Remains: Me.

Sylvie: And just who are you?

He Who Remains: Oh, I've been dubbed many names by many people. A ruler, a conqueror, He Who Remains, a jerk. But it's, it's not as simple as a name. Eons ago, before the TVA, a Variant of myself lived on Earth in the 31st Century. He was a scientist, and he discovered that there were universes stacked on top of his own. At the same time, other versions of us were learning the same thing. Naturally, they made contact, and for a while there was peace. Narcissistic, self-congratulatory peace. "I love your shoes." "I love your hair." "Oh, man, nice nose." "Thanks, man." Et cetera. They shared technology and knowledge, using the best of their universes to improve the others. However, not every version of me was so pure of heart. To some of us, new worlds meant only one thing: new lands to be conquered. The peace between realities erupted into all-out war, each variant fighting to preserve their universe and annihilate the others. This was almost the end of everything and everyone.

Sylvie: And then the Time-Keepers came along and saved us all.

He Who Remains: Amen. No. No. Nope, this is where we diverge from the dogma. That first variant encountered a creature created from all the tears in reality, capable of consuming time and space itself. A creature you both know.

Loki: Alioth.

He Who Remains: Bingo! I harnessed the beast's power and began experimenting on it. I weaponized Alioth and I ended, I ended the Multiversal War. Once I isolated our timeline, all I had to do was manage the flow of time and prevent any further branches. Hence, the TVA. Hence, the Time-Keepers and a highly efficient bureaucracy. Hence, ages and ages of cosmic harmony. Hence, you're welcome. You came to kill the devil, right? Well, guess what? I keep you safe. And if you think I'm evil, well, just wait 'til you meet my variants. And that's the gambit. Stifling order or cataclysmic chaos. You may hate the dictator, but something far worse is going to fill that void if you depose of him. I've lived a million lifetimes. I've gone through every scenario. This is the only way. The TVA, it works.

[Loki has just intercepted Sylvie before she can kill He Who Remains.]

Loki: [softly] Stop.... [softer] Stop.... I've been where you are. I've felt what you feel. Don't ask me how I know. All I know... is I don't want to hurt you. I don't want a throne. I just... [sighs] I just want you to be okay.

[Sylvie breaks down, drops her sword and kisses Loki, turning him away from He Who Remains.]

Sylvie: But I'm not you.

[Sylvie blasts Loki through a portal back to the TVA.]

Mobius: That's, what, 63 new branches in this unit alone?

Hunter B-15: Does he want us to just let them all branch?

Mobius: At this point, how are we going to stop it?

Loki: We can't!

[Mobius and Hunter B-15 turn towards Loki.]

Mobius: What? What did you say?

Loki: It's done, Mobius. we made a terrible mistake.

Hunter B-15: What's done?

Loki: We freed the timeline. We found him beyond the storm. A Citadel at the End of Time. He's terrifying. He planned everything. He's seen everything. He knows everything. It's complicated, okay? But someone is coming. Countless different versions of a very dangerous person and they're all set on war. We need to prepare.

Mobius: Take it easy. You're an analyst, right? What division are you from?

Loki: What? What are you talking about?

Mobius: Who are you? What's your name?

[Hunter B-15 radios other minutemen.]

Hunter B-15: Boots on the ground now. Archives.

Mobius: Who are you?

[Confused beyond belief, Loki turns around in horror and sees that the statues of the Time Keepers have been replaced with a statue of He Who Remains.]

Season 2

Ouroboros [2.01]

[Regarding telling people at the TVA the truth about the Timekeepers.]

Mobius: "Hey, everything you've been doing is wrong and all your gods are dead!" How are people gonna take that?

[B-15 and Mobius stand on trial against General Dox and X-5, with Judge Gamble presiding.]

Mobius: Look, we get the concerns, 'cause we had 'em also, but let's also admit that the Timeline is branching, the sky hasn't fallen, that we—

X-5: What sky are you looking at? Are you seeing this... robot head on the table? Oh, the sky has fallen, Mobius. This changes everything!

General Dox: This changes nothing! We won't let the Timeline branch. I'm sorry, Hunter -- if we don't protect it, what on earth are you suggesting?

Hunter B-15: "Protect"? Is that what you think we've been doing?

Loki: Mobius... We got to the man at the end of time. And he made sense.

Mobius: Don't do the "Coulda, woulda, shoulda", just focus on what we know.

Loki: That. [He points to a mural depicting a bombardment.] That is what we know. War. And it's on its way.

Mobius: You just disappeared.

Loki: I know.

Mobius: And I can't keep looking at it, 'cause it's horrible.

Loki: What? I thought you said it didn't look that bad!

Mobius: I was lying i-- it's terrible! It looks like you're being born, or dying, or both at the same time.

[Mobius is introducing Loki to Ouroboros]

Ouroboros: Wow! How long has it been?

Mobius: "How long has it been?" Uh... Could it be three or four--?

Ouroboros: Four hundred years...

Loki: What?

Mobius: Feels like a thousand!

Ouroboros: Remember? You got off on the wrong floor and I told you it was the wrong floor?

Mobius: Wait, that's right! Yes, because then I stayed for a little bit! He took me over--

Ouroboros: No! You left immediately.

Mobius: ...well, I'm back!

Ouroboros: The work orders really pile up if I take a break, so I just keep at it! Forever. No sleep.

Ouroboros: It's impossible to time-slip in the TVA!

Mobius: I know, but we just saw it happen!

Ouroboros: Yeah. I'm having trouble reconciling that!

Loki: I've been time-slipping in the TVA--

Past Ouroboros: It's impossible to time-slip in the TVA!

Loki: But you just saw it happen.

Past Ouroboros: Yeah. I'm having trouble reconciling that!

[In the present, O.B. and Mobius discuss the plan to stop Loki's time-slipping.]

Ouroboros: But it could be dangerous!

Mobius: How dangerous?

Ouroboros: Oh, not too bad if you're quick about it.

Mobius: Gotta be quick about it!

Ouroboros: But if you spend too long in there, that kind of temporal energy will peel the skin right off you!

Mobius: Wait, I thought you said "not too bad", and now you're talking about me getting my skin peeled off of me?

Ouroboros: Oh! Not too bad compared to what Loki has to do.

Mobius: Why? What's Loki gotta do?

[The Past]

Loki: "Violently rip myself from every thread of time and space"... all at once?!

Ouroboros: Well, have you heard about how, if you fall into a black hole, you turn into spaghetti?

Loki: No.

Ouroboros: Good. The less you know about that, the better.

Mobius: Wait, now hold it! I mean, am-- am I ready to get my skin peeled off? I dunno...

Loki: Yeah, am I ready to violently rip myself from every thread of time and space?

Mobius: I would actually rather have that...

Loki: What, you'd rather be atomically disassembled and then never reassembled again?

Mobius: Yeah, than have your skin ripped off? Yes!

Loki: What are you talking about? Then, at least, you get to live!

Mobius: "Live"? What's the quality of life with no skin?!

Ouroboros: Okay! You've got about an hour.

[A loose strand of Time crashes against the glass in the Time Loom chamber, cracking it.]

Ouroboros: You've got about five minutes.

[Sylvie has traveled to a McDonald's in the 1980s and has come up to the counter.]

Sylvie: How do I do this?

Jack: What would you like?

Sylvie: Not squirrel, not possum, not rats... something that's already dead, and nothing with a face. Please.

Sylvie: I wanna try everything...

Breaking Brad [2.02]

Brad Wolfe / Hunter X-5: You quit with the magic and fight fair!

Loki: It's not a fair fight.

[Brad has refused to respond to questioning and is now antagonizing Loki.]

Brad Wolfe / Hunter X-5: See, I've read your file. It's you! You're the problem, every time we've ever found a you. Problem is, you think you're special but you're not. So it doesn't matter what outfit you put on, play dress-up or all the little lies you tell your friends or even the lies you tell yourself. At the end of the day, you just make everything worse. For Mobius, for B-15... For your mother. 'Cause that's what you do. You lose. You loser.

Mobius: Loki...

Brad Wolfe / Hunter X-5: Stop trying to be a hero, man! You're a villain. You're good at it. Do that.

[Loki chuckles.]

Loki: Thank you, Brad. Very much. I really am touched. You know, you're right. I have done some terrible, awful things. Yeah, maybe that is who I am! I mean, he knows... It's the real me. A loser. Always have been, always will be. And perhaps I've been... Holding something back.

Mobius: Loki--

Loki: Perhaps I've just been... biding my time. Perhaps I've just been waiting for a moment like this, so I can do... terrible, awful things to you.

Brad Wolfe / Hunter X-5: The TVA is not your real home. Mobius isn't even your real name.

Mobius: Well, it's what I answer to.

Loki: You've never wanted to visit your place on the timeline?

Mobius: Look, that's the last thing I should be thinking about.

Loki: Why? Aren't you curious? I mean, don't you want to see the life you were supposed to live before they kidnapped you and brought you into the TVA?

Mobius: Not really!

Loki: Why?

Mobius: Because it's not my life!

Loki: But it could've been.

Mobius: It isn't. This is. I'd like to thank the guy who kidnapped me and brought me here! Got me this pie...

Loki: If you never look, you'll never know.

Mobius: The TVA is the only life I've ever known. I like it!

Loki: Look, I understand. I, like, I-- I get it! Y'know, you might think twice in case it's... something bad, or--

Mobius: Or something good! Something bad, I can handle. What if it's something good? You-- You think I wanna have that rattling around in here? Of course not!

Loki: I'm not trying to be a hero, Brad. I'm a villain. Remember?

[Brad is trapped in an amber box that can shrink at Loki's command.]

Brad Wolfe / Hunter X-5: Okay...! Look, I swear, okay?! I went down there and I went to get my life! Okay? Because-- none of this is real!

Loki: Well, if none of this is real... I guess you aren't either.

O.B.: We're all gonna die! Oh, hey! Nice to meet you! We're all gonna die!

Loki: It's the future; it's going to happen.

Sylvie: Is it? Really? Because that sounds a lot like the future's already been written. And we both know it hasn't, not anymore. I made sure of that.

Mobius: There's a lot to unpack when you're basically in a relationship with yourself.

Loki: Sylvie--

Sylvie: [angrily] Is this the best you lot can do?

Loki: There was nothing we could do.

Sylvie: Some defense. The TVA is the problem. It's broken. It’s rotten! I’m going home, if it’s still there.

Loki: Please don't. It’s harder...

[Sylvie leaves.]

Loki: To stay.

1893 [2.03]

Victor Timely: Time is everything. It moves through each and every one of us. It shapes our lives. Our futures. But, perhaps, we can shape... it!

Loki: It's him.

Mobius: What? You made him sound like this terrifying figure!

Loki: He is.

Robber Baron: So you can light a few bulbs? Big deal. You'll need a lot more than that to light a whole city!

Victor: Don't misunderstand me, sir. I do not want to light a... "city". I aim to light, to power, the entire planet! So, call it a dream. Fine. Sneer. Laugh it off as pure science fiction! But if it can be dreamed, it can be achieved! Because all science is fiction! Until! It's! Fact!

[Timely activates the loom, sending lighting coursing through the room.]

Victor: WELCOME! WELCOME TO THE FUTURE, MY FRIENDS!

Sylvie: Stopping that place from being destroyed and fixing it are two very, very different things. And working with one of his Variants is not gonna get you either.

Loki: Well, your machete hasn't solved any problems thus far.

Miss Minutes: Loki helped murder a Variant of you.

Renslayer: It's true.

Victor: But he... protected me!

Renslayer: He switches sides. It's a well-documented behavioral trait.

Miss Minutes: When you first created me, long before the TVA or Multiversal War, I was just a simple AI -- just something to play chess with. But you knew I could be more for you... So you gave me autonomy to write my own programming! I was allowed to have wants and follow whims and become who I am. And still, each night we played and talked.

Victor: A loyal f-- friend.

Miss Minutes: More than friends! The War, the TVA, the eons after, I alone was by your side. There was one whim you never allowed me... why didn't you allow me a real body?

Victor Timely: That wasn't... me.

Miss Minutes: If I had a body, we could truly be together!

Victor: Yes, that's... that's something I-- I don't know how to do.

Miss Minutes: You never even tried, with all your powers and all your "brilliance". You just kept me as your thing. Your computer. Your toy. Instead of what I could have been. Your... girl!

[Victor considers the TemPad.]

Miss Minutes: Victor? What are you doing.

[He snatches it from the table. Minutes charges at him.]

Miss Minutes: Put that down! Don't do this, you need me, we're a team! I love--!

Ravonna Renslayer: After all those years of doing your dirty work... cleaning up your messes... making the hard decisions you never had the nerve to make... After all the times... I put the TVA above myself, even at the cost of my own happiness... my humanity... who are you to lecture me about losing my way?

Mobius: We have all lost our way! But someone has to keep track of the big picture here!

Ravonna Renslayer: You have no idea what it takes to lead! To act! To keep order! Did you happen to notice, the second I left, everything crumbled? I'm the only one who can bring stability to the TVA because that's what I've been doing, thanklessly, for eons. None of your words mean a thing. All that matters is order vs. chaos. I'm order.

Ravonna Renslayer: If you're gonna kill me, just do it.

Sylvie: I've killed you a thousand times in my mind, each time more brutal than the last. It's a crippling kind of obsession. I'm starting to realize that. It's power for you, isn't it? That's what you want. A seat at the end of time. Well... be careful what you wish for.

Heart of the TVA [2.04]

Renslayer: So He [Who Remains] built this little tower... and while he sat on his throne... I continued to do all the work to keep him there?

Miss Minutes: Well, something like that.

Renslayer: So, what are you proposing?

Miss Minutes: That we don't need him. Maybe we never did.

Mobius: Here's the deal: You have to trust us, and we don't have time.

Victor: I'm from Chicago, friend -- the schadeocracy capital of the world. I don't trust anyone.

Victor: So, I built all of this? Or, I did-- Well-- Or, I will and I did?

Loki: So, if your work is based on his work and his work is based on your work--

Mobius: Exactly -- which came first?

Ouroboros: It's like a snake eating its own tail!

Sylvie: [to Mobius] Clocks don't tick at the TVA, do they? You found out you're a Variant, and you haven't even looked, have you? It's just another bad day at the office for you. Timelines are just lines on a monitor. It doesn't matter if a few disappear, because you've never bothered to look if one of them was yours. Who cares if a few just disappear? Enjoy your pie.

Sylvie: What if you're wrong? What if you are wrong to believe this place can be any better? What if I was wrong to spare him? It would just be easier to burn this place down and start from scratch!

Loki: Sure, burn it down, easy. Annihilating it, easy. Razing things to the ground is easy. Trying to fix what's broken is hard. Hope is hard.

Sylvie: Sounds like, whatever we do, we're playing god.

Loki: We are gods.

General Dox: [To Renslayer] How does it feel, knowing that all of us here would rather die than follow you out that door, hm?

Miss Minutes: [last words] They're taking me offline! I'm losing my cognitive facilities! I only have moments left! Victor, I need to tell you...! You'll never be him.

Victor: I will be brave.

Brad / Hunter X-5: [as Zaniac; audio only] You died! Insert your coin, loser!

Science/Fiction [2.05]

[Loki has just encountered A.D. Doug, PhD -- O.B.'s original self.]

Loki: Wait... You're a writer?

A.D. Doug, PhD: Yes. Science fiction!

Loki: I'm doomed.

A.D. Doug, PhD: But -- and this is kinda embarrassing -- had to get a PhD to keep my day job teaching theoretical physics at CalTech.

A.D. Doug, PhD: You time travel in a place that has no time, right?

Loki: Right.

A.D. Doug, PhD: That's not possible.

Loki: I know...

A.D. Doug, PhD: So you traveling to a place that doesn't exist anymore is equally impossible, and therefore, it's something you might be able to do!

Loki: Sure. Excellent. Y'know, makes total sense. Doesn't sound like science.

A.D. Doug, PhD: No. But it does sound like fiction!

A.D. Doug, PhD: With science, it's all "what" and "how". But with fiction, it's "why".

Loki: [regarding Don's Jetskis] "A beautiful union of form and function..."

Don (Mobius): Oh, that's lovely, yeah.

Loki: What?! How did you build a TemPad so fast?

A.D. Doug, PhD: I don't know if I'd say eighteen months is fast. Well, nineteen months -- I had to take a break and move out when I lost my job and my wife left me.

Loki: I can bring you back to any point in time. It'll be like you never left. Your boys won't even know you're gone.

Don: Yeah, but I will.

Loki: How many, if they had a choice, would have chosen to stay? Mobius always said the TVA was the only life he'd ever known and he liked it. It gave him... purpose.

Sylvie: It was never his choice to begin with, Loki. He Who Remains did that.

Loki: But Mobius should have a choice now, no? Shouldn't they all? To return to the TVA if they want?

Sylvie: No. You would be ripping people from their lives, showing them something that they cannot unsee... what kinda choice is that?

Loki: You don't care? I guess not. I guess it's all worked out just the way you want it to, and you're fine just walking away. So selfish!

Sylvie: Of course I'm selfish! I want a life! I want to live. What's wrong with wanting something, Loki?

Loki: I want my friends back. I don't wanna be alone.

Sylvie: See? We're back to selfish. I know this is hard, but your friends are back where they belong.

Loki: But without them... where do I belong?

Sylvie: We're all writing our own stories now. Go write yours.

Lyle: [handing Sylvie a record] This will either kill what's ailing you, or make it a whole lot worse.

A.D. Doug, PhD: You controlled your time-slipping!

Loki: Yes. It's not about where, when or why... It's about who. I can rewrite the story.

Glorious Purpose [2.06]

Loki: [repeated line] Again.

Loki: "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."

Loki: O.B., how long will it take me to know everything that you know about mechanics, physics and engineering?

Ouroboros: How much do you know?

Loki: Let's assume I don't know much. But I'm a fast learner... and I'm a god.

Victor: My Loom will never be able to accommodate for an infinitely growing multiverse. You can't scale for "infinite".

He Who Remains: This... This isn't the first time we've had this conversation, is it?

Loki: How did you know?

He Who Remains: I know about the slipping? And who do you think paved that road? Any guesses? Survey says...

Loki: He... Who Remains.

Loki: "We die with the dying... We're born with the dead."

Loki: [to He Who Remains, after freezing time] And what makes you think... this is the first time we've had this conversation?

He Who Remains: I made the tough choices, that's why I get the big chair. I keep us safe. Can't you see what I'm offering here is mercy?

Loki: For me, or for you?

Mobius: You wanna hear a good story? Listen to this one. A couple Hunters went out on a mission somewhere near the Black Sea to find a Variant who's gonna be responsible for five thousand deaths -- five thousand deaths that were not in the proper flow of time. They get there, and there's a little hiccup; the Variant is an eight-year-old boy. He was just minding his own business! Swimming with his brother, jumping off the dock... And one of the Hunters, who had never had trouble pruning before, he had never hesitated but that day, he did! He paused. Timeline started to branch, more Variants appeared, happened so fast his partner had to step in and prune the kid. But by then, cat was out of the bag. Couple Hunters died, all because that one Hunter... he lost sight of the bigger picture. You gotta keep the big picture in mind.

Loki: Hm.

Mobius: Most purpose is more "burden" than "glory". And trust me, you never wanna be the guy who avoids it 'cause you can't live with the burden.

Loki: How do you live with it?

Mobius: ...scar tissue.

Mobius: She knew the hard thing to do was the thing that had to be done. And by "hard", I mean "impossible". No, there's no comfort. You just choose your burden.

Sylvie: It's not enough to protect the Sacred Timeline, Loki. Even down there is full of death and destruction and injustice. Do you really wanna be the god who takes away everyone's free will so you can protect that?

Loki: But what good is free will if everyone's dead?

Sylvie: And who are you to say we can't die trying? Who are you to say we can't die fighting? You're replacing one nightmare with another. I grew up in apocalypses, Loki. I've lived through enough of them to know that sometimes, it's okay to destroy something.

Loki: I know what I want. I know what kind of god I need to be. For you. For all of us.

Mobius: You think the TVA is gonna miss a tired, washed up ol' analyst with a heart of gold?

B-15: I think there's one or two who will.

Mobius: Where you gonna go?

Sylvie: [shrugs as if to say "I don't know"] You?

Mobius: I might just wait here for a little bit. Let time pass...