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| “ | 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. | „ |
| ~ He Who Remains revealing he has gone through many names. |
| “ | You came to kill the devil, right? Well, guess what? I keep you safe. And if you think I'm evil, well, just wait till you meet my variants. | „ |
| ~ He Who Remains warning Loki Laufeyson and Sylvie Laufeydottir about his variants. |
Victor Timely, better known as He Who Remains, is the overarching antagonist of the Infinity Saga and one of the main antagonists of the Multiverse Saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He is a version of a 31st century scientist named Victor Timely, who discovered Multiverse and tried to stop his hostile variants, mainly Kang the Conqueror, from conquering it. This ultimately led him to use Alioth to restructure and isolate the Multiverse into the "Sacred Timeline" and create the Time Variance Authority, made from brainwashed people from alternative universes, to prevent time streaming from splitting into new branches and thus spawning more Kang variants.
He was portrayed by Jonathan Majors in his first villainous role.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
Debated Validations[]
- It's unclear to what degree he was involved in the Multiversal War, whether he fought hands-on and killed numerous people, or was simply a passive observer who attempted to make peace with his variants.
- He states that it was his original self that discovered Alioth, not him. It's unknown whether his original self perished during the war, or if He Who Remains killed him, alongside his other variants.
In General[]
- Despite claiming to be pure of heart in stark contrast to Kang, he still acknowledges that what he does is not morally sound, yet he still continues to kill trillions of innocent people, believing the ends justify the means.
Before Loki[]
- He weaponized Alioth and killed numerous of his own variants, destroyed countless timelines, killing countless people and destroying entire realities in the process.
- He used Alioth to destroy the entire Multiverse leaving only Earth-616, then rebuilt the entire Multiverse just as copy-pastes of Earth-616.
- He brainwashed numerous people into becoming his slaves, kidnapping them from their timelines and making them believe they were created by the Time Keepers and forcing them all to work under his thumb.
- After the TVA sent numerous people and places to the Void via reset charge, he had Alioth devour them.
Loki[]
- As he states he "paved the road to get to him", this means all of the events of Loki happened due to his influence, including:
- Loki (the Variant L1130 from 2012) being prosecuted and brought to the TVA, which almost got him sent to the Void.
- Sylvie being captured by the TVA, and possibly allowing her to escape after pruning her timeline, just so that she could get in Loki's path and accelerate his development on his 'journey'.
- Loki and Sylvie getting stranded on Lamentis-1, a planet on the brink of destruction.
- Loki, Sylvie, and Mobius getting pruned and sent to the Void.
- Classic Loki sacrificing himself to Alioth, to allow Loki and Sylvie enough time to enchant it.
- He used Miss Minutes to manipulate Loki and Sylvie, offering them a deal, stating he could place them both on the timeline and give them anything they could ever want: Loki, to defeat the Avengers and rule the world and Sylvie, the chance at a better life. He did this knowing it was impossible, as the Sacred Timeline could never be altered.
- Eventually growing bored of being the one above all, he abandons his goal of preventing Kang from re-emerging and allows Sylvie to kill him with the idea that, if Loki and Sylvie don't take over the TVA, he will just come back and the cycle of the Multiversal War will start all over again with himself victorious.
- He had a back-up plan which instructed Renslayer and Miss Minutes to mold Victor Timely into taking his place as the TVA’s ruler had Loki and Sylvie rejected his offer to take the throne for themselves, which stirred him away from the life he could’ve had.
- Although done with good intentions, he installed a failsafe in the Temporal Loom that would wipe out anything except the Sacred Timeline.
- He tried to manipulate Loki into killing Sylvie to ensure his own survival.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is a genuine extremist who only does what he does so that Kang and other hostile variants of himself don't come back to take over all of reality and start another Multiversal War, which indeed happened right after his death.
- He claims to have tried millions of different scenarios to avoid the destruction of entire timelines to avoid Kang from re-emerging, only falling back to it because he could not find any alternative solution.
- He even added a failsafe in the Loom to prevent the evil variants of Kang from re-emerging should the infinite multiverse begin to grow, discussing with Loki that only having the Sacred Timeline is preferable to Kang's variants destroying everything.
- He claims to have tried millions of different scenarios to avoid the destruction of entire timelines to avoid Kang from re-emerging, only falling back to it because he could not find any alternative solution.
- He is genuinely affable, being nothing but polite to Loki and Sylvie despite the horrible crimes he commits.
- He seemed to have a degree of care for Ravonna Renslayer and took no pleasure in erasing her memory.
- Due to being nigh-omniscient, and overlooking the Sacred Timeline for millennia, he suffers from agency issues due to his own insanity, which is demonstrated through his manic gestures, such as his random outbursts and climbing atop his desk when explaining his motives to Loki and Slyvie.
- He is comedic, as his over-the-top mannerism and banter with both Loki variants are played for laughs, particularly when Slyvie tries to attack him and he playfully dodges by teleporting behind her, or when Loki and Slyvie fought and he interrupts, reminding them that the timeline has already started branching and they need to hurry up. However, this is a minor prevention, as he's usually taken seriously in-universe.
Trivia[]
- His status as IH is somewhat intentional on the creators’ part, as they purposely made him the less evil possible to emphasize how heinous Kang truly is.
- His comic counterpart doesn't qualify due to being bog-standard and serving as a minor antagonist with little screen time.
- Additionally, his comic counterpart wasn't a Kang variant nor had any association with Kang the Conquerer.
- His comic counterpart doesn't qualify due to being bog-standard and serving as a minor antagonist with little screen time.
- He has the highest kill count of any MCU character due to being the master of Alioth, numbering nearly infinite, although this gets undone once Sylvie kills him and the timeline branched freely again.
- He was most likely one of the variants of Kang that originally tried to help other universes, though this isn't confirmed.
External Links[]
- He Who Remains on the Villains Wiki
- He Who Remains on the Heroes Wiki
- He Who Remains on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
- He Who Remains on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- He Who Remains on the Disney Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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