Loki: Why One Statue In The Citadel Was Broken

Screen Rant

By Thomas Bacon

Published Jul 19, 2021

Loki episode 6 hinted there was once a fourth Time-Keeper - and that may well be a surprisingly deep cut to Fantastic Four comic book lore.

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Loki episode 6.

Loki episode 6 saw the trickster god discover a Citadel at the End of Time - and one of the Time-Keeper's statues there was broken, possibly as an Easter egg from the Fantastic Four comics. The last two episodes of Loki season 1 were absolutely packed with Easter eggs, as Loki (Tom Hiddleston) was transported to a void at the end of time - and, by uniting his power with Sylvie's (Sophia Di Martino), he successfully discovered the power behind the Time Variance Authority's throne.

Loki and Sylvie found their way to a Citadel at the End of Time. There, they confronted He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) - the victor of the last Multiversal war, a variant of Kang the Conqueror who had been careful to conceal his existence. He Who Remains was the one who had constructed the three androids known as the Time-Keepers, rulers of the TVA, in order to operate in the shadows. But attentive viewers noticed one curious detail about the statues of the Time-Keepers at the Citadel at the End of Time; there was a statue of a fourth one, but it had been broken.

This is probably a deep cut into Marvel comics lore, where there was in fact a fourth Time-Keeper - a cosmic being with an incredible degree of temporal awareness. This Time-Keeper was banished by He Who Remains for unknown reasons, abandoned in ancient Egypt where it took up the identity of the Oracle of Siwa. The Oracle became a notable figure in Egyptian history; when Alexander the Great was conquering the known world, he traveled to the Oracle to have his rule of Egypt legitimized, and when Queen Hatshepsut declared herself Egypt's first female Pharoah she did the same thing. In the present day, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four became interested in the accounts of the Oracle of Siwa, and deduced she was a Time-Keeper. When he and other members of the Fantastic Four were stranded in ancient Egypt, he went to her for guidance.

This is one of the lesser-known Fantastic Four stories, published in 2015's Fantastic Four #15-18, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and featuring art by Jim Muniz. It's certainly a remarkably deep cut into Marvel lore, because those issues can't even be found on the digital Marvel Unlimited platform. But the story arc - dubbed "Divine Time" - is also one of the more interesting stories of Kang the Conqueror, with Kang's son Ramades attempting to prove himself superior to his father by defeating the enemies who had bested Kang on countless occasions.

Of course, the MCU's Time-Keepers are different to those of the comics; they're androids, artificial beings who are under the control of He Who Remains. It's possible this fourth android developed enough sentience to resist He Who Remains, and was either destroyed or banished into the timestream for this affront to his rule. If the latter, it will be exciting to see whether the fourth Time-Keeper ever turns up in the MCU's ongoing Multiversal and time travel stories.

More: Loki Ending & Future Set-Up Explained

Loki will return for season 2.