As the Marvel Cinematic Universe progresses, the importance of Loki Season 1, Episode 6, “Forever. Always.” continue to grow. Not only does it reveal the physics of the multiverse, but it also introduces Kang the Conqueror’s predecessor, the Remainer. The variant was tasked with preventing the creation of alternate timelines and stopping Kang’s threat in the process. Sylvie murders him despite his warning that it will only lead to the rise of worse versions of himself, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania confirms the truth in his warning.
And yet, while actor Jonathan Majors does a masterful job of demonstrating just how different the two characters are, Kang and He Who Remains have more in common than meets the eye. They both have similar goals and motivations, and both are willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve their version of reality. These shared traits could provide insight into the other variants of Kang unleashed on the multiverse at the end of Quantum.
Whoever remains fears Kang, but uses similar methods
When Loki and Sylvie confront The One Who Remains in “Forever. Forever”. it explains the origins of endless wars with its variants. He was originally a scientist who discovered the existence of the multiverse, only to see chaos unleashed when less scrupulous variants decided to take over multiple realities. His solution was to establish a single “sacred timeline” – constituting the MCU up to that point – using the Time Variance Authority to enforce it. He prevents the emergence of variants of Kang that would challenge him and keeps the weather stable.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily make him better than all the other Kangs. TVA employees are all plucked from shattered realities, stripped of their memories, and erected into picnics of He Who Remains. The elimination of the divergent realities requires the death of trillions, condemned to nonexistence at the slightest change in their chronology. This leads to “real estate orphans” like Sylvie, who eventually kills him in revenge for destroying his life. Her act has catastrophic consequences for the MCU, but she certainly has reason to be angry. Most people at TVA would probably agree with her if they ever learned the truth.
Kang has many of the same motivations as the remaining one
Kang is certainly more open about his ambitions than He Who Remains, with the military to prove it. Janet Van Dyne discovers his brutality after helping to repair his ship in Quantum and immediately sees him as an irredeemable monster. And yet, Kang’s motives – and his warning – seem to be very similar. He wants to conquer reality rather than shrink it down to a manageable size, which amounts to a more elaborate version of He Who Remains’ solution. It also warns Scott Lang of “worst” versions of himself should he be killed, a threat confirmed by the Council of Kangs and serious enough to give Lang serious pause midway through the otherwise upbeat ending. of the movie.
That, in turn, probably says a lot about future Kangs that may arise to plague the MCU. If they are ruled by the same motivations, it can help the heroes predict their actions. More importantly, it demonstrates that the various Kangs secretly fear each other, and although QuantumThe Kang Council seems united now, it could fall into infighting very easily. This can prove essential in stopping them once Avengers: Kang Dynasty And Avengers: Secret Wars arrive.
In Loki‘s “For all time. Forever.” Whoever Remains hinted that freeing the multiverse was futile, and it would all ultimately lead to another version of him sitting at that desk and protecting a single central reality. He’s probably wrong, but it also shows how each variant resembles the other despite their vast differences in methodology and motive. The Kangs clearly don’t like that fact, which could prove their Achilles heel before all is said and done.
To officially Kang the Conqueror, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently playing in theaters.