Loki season 2 reveals how the TVA's guidebook created the ultimate Bootstrap Paradox

The fourth episode of Loki season 2, titled Heart of the TVA, closed on a shocking note. However, we won't be discussing that topic in this article. Let's first talk about how this episode further solidifies the "Bootstrap Paradox," which was first teased in Loki season 2 episode 3.

When Victor Timely encounters his hero, Ouroubours, the author of the TVA manual, in episode 4, OB says that Timely is in fact his hero since his principles and ideals led him to create the TVA handbook thus mentioning something called the Bootstrap paradox. The paradox is a cyclic time loop when anything from the present produces itself from the past.

Timely finally meets his hero and so does OB (Image via Disney+)

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Loki season 2 remixes an old time-travel trope

In episode 3 of Loki season 2, titled 1893, we found that Ravaonna Renslayer gave the TVA Guidebook to a Kang variant named Victor Timely. After that, Victor utilized this manual to invent a number of things, including the Time loom and the Throughput Multiplier (both as prototypes).

Thus this information in Timely’s present helped create the TVA handbook and the TVA itself. He says that Ouroboros is his hero and that he expects to meet him and he finally does in this week's Loki season 2 episode 4.

When Renslayer gave Victor Timely the TVA guidebook in episode 3 of Loki season 2, she carried out a continuous time loop known as a bootstrap paradox, in which anything in the present causes itself to exist in the past or future.

Everyone is bamboozled upon the reveal (Image via Disney+)

Without the TVA handbook, Victor Timely—who is stuck in the 19th century—would not be the genius he is, and as we discover in episode 4, the TVA would not exist if OB hadn't been inspired by Victor Timely.

There's a reason this is termed a paradox: it defies logic and leaves room for interpretation of the origin of the cycle. It just is and fans have to accept it as is. Even Mobius and Loki joke in a scene in this week's Loki season 2 episode 4 where Víctor meets OB. Loki says,

“So if your work is based on his work and his work is based on your work- Exactly, what came first?”

OB makes a funny gag too saying how this whole scenario is like a snake eating his own tail, which is of course a mention of his own name, Ouroboros. The circular Ouroboros sign represents totality or infinity by showing a snake—or, less frequently, a dragon—eating its tail. The episode thus cites something called the Bootstrap Paradox.

Sylvie breaks up the bromance the two had going on (Image via Disney+)

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What is the Bootstrap Paradox?

The Bootstrap Paradox is a speculative time travel paradox that arises when an item or piece of knowledge sent back in time becomes caught in an endless cycle of causes and effects, losing its ability to have a clear point of start and appearing to be self-created. It is sometimes referred to as an Ontological Paradox in the context of ontology, a subfield of metaphysics that studies existence and being.

Loki season 2 serves as a perfect example of the Bootstrap Paradox. Here, the item sent back in time is the TVA handbook which led to the creation of Victor Timely who in turn learned everything he knows from Victor Timely. If the handbook had never been sent back in the past in 1893, the TVA as we know it might have not existed, and neither would OB or the TVA handbook. A snake eating his own tail.

The two geniuses work together throughout the episode to fix TVA's temporal loom but fail (Image via Disney+)

Oroubourous name makes so much sense now thanks to the genius writing of Loki. He is, quite literally a paradox and this justifies his name in the series.

Loki season 2 episode 4 “Heart of the TVA” is now streaming on Disney+. Fans can catch this episode along with the previous season and episodes of Loki on the platform. With only 2 more episodes left, Loki season 2 is surrounded by mystery and hype.