Loki (Season 1)

Loki is arrested by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) when he creates a new timeline after escaping from the Battle of New York with the Tesseract in 2012. The TVA resets the timeline, and this "variant" Loki stands trial in front of Judge Ravonna Renslayer for crimes against the "Sacred Timeline". Loki blames the situation on the Avengers, who had traveled back in time to 2012, but Renslayer says their actions were meant to happen unlike Loki's escape. Agent Mobius M. Mobius takes Loki to the Time Theater to review his past misdeeds and question his history of hurting people. He reveals that Loki, in his intended future, inadvertently causes the death of his adoptive mother Frigga. Loki attempts to escape, but gives up after realizing that the TVA's power exceeds that of the Infinity Stones. He returns to the Time Theater and watches more future events, including his own death at the hands of Thanos. He then agrees to help Mobius hunt another Loki variant, who was killing several TVA agents and stealing their timeline-resetting charges.

Loki joins a TVA mission to the site of an attack by "The Variant" in 1985 Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he stalls and attempts to bargain his way into meeting the Time-Keepers, who the TVA claims created them and the Sacred Timeline. Renslayer objects to Loki's further involvement, but Mobius convinces her to give him another chance. Loki researches TVA files and theorizes that the Variant is hiding near apocalyptic events where their actions do not affect the timeline. Loki and Mobius confirm this possibility by visiting Pompeii in 79 AD, before deducing that the Variant is hiding during a hurricane in 2050 Alabama. There, they are ambushed by the Variant who enchants several locals and TVA agent Hunter B-15. The Variant reveals herself to be a female version of Loki and rejects his offer to overthrow the Time-Keepers together. She sends the stolen reset charges to various points along the Sacred Timeline, which activate and create numerous branched timelines that throw the TVA into disarray. She teleports away, and Loki follows her.

With the TVA distracted, the Variant arrives at their headquarters and attempts to find the Time-Keepers, but is followed and confronted by Loki. They are attacked by Renslayer, and Loki uses a TemPad to teleport them both to 2077 Lamentis-1, a moon that is about to be crushed by a planet. The TemPad runs out of power and is magically hidden by Loki. The Variant, who goes by Sylvie, agrees to work with Loki to charge it. They sneak aboard a train bound for the ark, an evacuation spaceship that could recharge the TemPad, but Loki gets drunk and draws attention. This leads to a fight with guards who throw him off the train. Sylvie follows him, only to find the TemPad broken. The duo continue on foot, intending to commandeer the ark so they can escape before Lamentis-1 is destroyed. On the way, Sylvie reveals that the TVA's workers are actually variants of people from Earth. Loki and Sylvie fight their way through guards and a crowd of people attempting to board the ark, but meteors from the oncoming planet destroy it before they can board.

Sylvie tells Loki that she escaped from the TVA as a child. They form a romantic bond, which creates a unique branched timeline and alerts the TVA to find and arrest them before Lamentis-1 is destroyed. Mobius leaves Loki in a time loop of a bad memory he has of Sif while Sylvie unlocks B-15's memories to prove that B-15 is a variant. Renslayer tells Mobius that C-20 died from a mental breakdown, but Mobius finds a recording of Renslayer interrogating a mentally sound C-20, who insists that the TVA workers are all variants. Mobius frees Loki from the time loop, but Renslayer confronts them and has Mobius "pruned". Renslayer takes Loki and Sylvie to the Time-Keepers, who order Loki and Sylvie to be deleted. With B-15's help, Loki and Sylvie defeat Renslayer and the Time-Keepers' guards. Sylvie beheads one of the Time-Keepers, but discovers they are androids before a recovered Renslayer prunes Loki. Sylvie overpowers Renslayer and demands the truth. In a mid-credits scene, Loki awakens surrounded by several other Loki variants.

Renslayer tells Sylvie that when Loki was pruned, he was sent to the Void at the end of time, from which nothing has ever returned. They deduce that the TVA's true creator is hiding beyond the Void. TVA mascot Miss Minutes stalls for time until TVA troopers surround Sylvie, who prunes herself and soon meets Mobius in the Void. After interrogating B-15, Renslayer plans to reach the TVA's true creator. Meanwhile, the other Loki variants tell Loki that a massive cloud-like creature called Alioth destroys everything in the Void. After encountering a second Loki group that devolves into infighting, Classic Loki helps Loki, Alligator Loki, and Kid Loki escape. They come across Mobius and Sylvie, and Mobius returns to the TVA using a TemPad that Sylvie brought with her. Sylvie attempts to enchant Alioth while Loki distracts it, but they fail until Classic Loki sacrifices himself, creating an illusion of Asgard to draw Alioth's attention. Loki and Sylvie successfully enchant Alioth together, and the creature shows them the way to a citadel beyond the Void.

Renslayer leaves on a mission to find "free will" after Miss Minutes gives her information from the TVA's creator, "He Who Remains". B-15 proves to TVA troopers that they are variants by showing them a Renslayer variant who is a school vice-principal. Meanwhile, in the Citadel at the End of Time, He Who Remains tells Loki and Sylvie that he ended a multiversal war between his variants by using Alioth to destroy alternate timelines and created the TVA to maintain this peace. As he has grown weary, he offers them a choice: kill him and risk another multiversal war or replace him in overseeing the TVA and a singular timeline. Sylvie wants to kill him, but Loki pleads with her to stop. They kiss, but Sylvie sends Loki back to TVA headquarters. She ultimately kills He Who Remains, unleashing a multiverse with alternate timelines that the TVA cannot prune. At TVA headquarters, Loki warns Mobius and B-15 about He Who Remains' variants, but they do not recognize him and Loki sees that a statue of one of the variants[d] has replaced statues of the Time-Keepers.