The MCU changed the rules for the Infinity Stones in Marvel’s Loki, and this was likely due to tampering by Kang the Conqueror, the true power behind the TVA. Following the Avengers’ time heist in Avengers: Endgame, Loki inadvertently reacquired the Space Stone (housed inside the Tesseract) but was quickly apprehended by the Time Variance Authority. In an equally dramatic and comedic moment, Loki learned that the TVA has plenty of Infinity Stones at their headquarters, but they lack power and are used by the staff as paperweights. At this point, Loki discovers that the TVA is perhaps a greater power than he could imagine, but comic fans were familiar with the limitations of the stones, as was Kang.

The latest episodes of Marvel’s What If…? seem to break the rules of these limitations by introducing a new version of Ultron. This iteration of the android killed Thanos and acquired all six Infinity Stones from him, using them to continue his genocidal mission across the multiverse, much to the surprise of some viewers and The Watcher. This reveals that, in the MCU’s multiverse, there are different rules for how the Infinity Stones work, which had to have been exploited by Kang in Loki to remove the stones’ potency in the TVA.

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Although his name isn’t directly spoken in Loki, the secret leader of the TVA is known as “He Who Remains.” Once the brilliant human scientist, Nathanial Richards, He Who Remains created the TVA as a means to prevent conflict within the multiverse. His death in the season finale unleashed his most dangerous variant, Kang the Conqueror, who may prove to be an even greater threat than Thanos in the coming MCU installments. As the leader of the TVA, Richards was most likely personally responsible for neutralizing the Infinity Stones, considering both his ingenuity and the different properties that the stones have in the MCU when compared to the comics.

The Infinity Stones Don't Work At The TVA But Do Elsewhere

Infinity Stones in Loki

In the Marvel comics continuity, aka Earth-616, the Infinity Stones were among the most powerful objects in the universe, but they did have their limits. While Infinity Stones could move along the timeline via time travel, they lost their power once they left their reality of origin. The eighth episode of What If…? broke this rule by having a new version of Ultron acquire the Infinity Stones and use them at full power in other realities. While What If..? has occasionally had some plot holes, this seemed like a deliberate choice, establishing that the MCU’s Infinity Stones lack their comic counterparts’ limitations.

Despite this, the Infinity Stones still didn’t work in the TVA headquarters, which existed somewhere outside of the boundaries of time and space. Given that the stones were used by an Ultron variant throughout the multiverse, it’s not the TVA headquarters’ location that neutralized the stones, it’s likely some other factor. He Who Remains, who was nearly omniscient, couldn’t have any anomalies use the Infinity Stones against him or his TVA employees, so he must have taken some measure to remove their power when they enter the TVA headquarters. Based on MCU lore, there are several potential reasons why the stones ended up losing their power at the TVA.

How Kang Could Have Stopped Infinity Stones From Working At The TVA

he who remains kang jonathan majors loki character poster

Based on the What If…? version of Ultron’s use of them across the multiverse, the MCU’s Infinity Stones don’t lose their power when outside of their home reality. The realities that are shown in episode 8 of What If…?, however, seem to be similar enough to Ultron’s home reality, allowing the stones to work normally. The TVA may exist on a plane so far removed and so fundamentally different from any other in the multiverse, however, that the abilities of any reality’s Infinity Stones simply no longer apply. Outside of normal spacetime, in a fundamentally different reality, where the minds and souls of its inhabitants can’t be affected the same way, the stones would no longer have their power. Kang would have chosen this location quite deliberately to neutralize the stones. Kang also originated in the 31st Century and could possess advanced technology far beyond anything seen in the MCU so far that could block the power of the stones.

Related: Endgame Already Solved Phase 4's Confusing Infinity Stones Question

Another, less likely possibility, is that Kang employed a similar method to Agatha Harkness when neutralizing Wanda Maximoff’s magic in WandaVision. Since “magic” in the MCU is technically an advanced form of science, similar rules and limitations may apply to the Infinity Stones. The TVA headquarters may have been protected with runic symbols, similar to Agatha’s basement, albeit on a far larger scale. In this protective field, the Infinity Stones would lose their power. If this is the case, Kang could potentially make himself immune to their power by putting a protection spell on his body.

Kang's Infinity Stones Rule Would Set Him Up As Even More Powerful

Thanos and Kang

The Infinity Stones and Thanos were central to the first three phases of the MCU, but now that the stones are destroyed and Thanos is dead, Kang seems poised to take his place as the next greatest threat. From the beginning, the TVA, and thus Kang, are shown to be a greater power in the MCU than the Infinity Stones. Thanos was a threat on a universal scale, but Kang threatens all of time and the multiverse. With Sylvie having killed He Who Remains, the one person holding Kang at bay is gone, and he has now been unleashed upon the multiverse, leading the powerful TVA as well.

The rise of Kang the Conqueror exemplifies the growing importance of the multiverse to the MCU. With the Infinity Saga now concluded, this has proven to be an effective way to increase the scale of the franchise’s latest threat. What If…? and other Phase 4 material have explored different realities and greater-scale threats, such as their new iteration of Ultron. The TVA’s casual collection of Infinity Stones essentially trivializes Thanos, and their new leader, Kang may not be beaten as simply as the Mad Titan was. Marvel’s Loki suggested that Kang can render the Infinity Stones useless, making him a much bigger (albeit different) threat than Thanos.

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