Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Loki season 2, episode 1The Loki season 2 following the titular God of Mischief's return to the TVA. As the MCU continues to grow along with an expanding multiverse, it seems as though the original conventions of time travel and what can be done with it are growing as well.

Although the MCU just broke Endgame's time travel rules in Loki season 2, it's not the first time the rules have been bent (or outright ignored). The MCU has significantly broken its own time rules in 4 big ways since the release of Endgame in 2019. Here's each time the MCU's rules have been broken as they were first established by Bruce Banner's Hulk and the Ancient One in the culminating film of the Infinity Saga.

4 Ms Marvel Broke Hulk's Time Travel Rules

One of the biggest examples of the MCU breaking its own time travel rules can be seen in Ms. Marvel episode 5 where Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) finds herself magically transported back to 1947's Partition of India, the night when Kamala's grandmother Sana mysteriously disappeared as a young girl and was separated from Kamala's great-grandfather. With Sana having always said that she was led back to her father by a "trail of stars", it was revealed that Kamala and her hard-light powers were said stars, saving her grandma and thereby ensuring her own future existence. This means that Kamala created a causal time loop, also known as a bootstrap paradox.

Ms. Marvel's causal loop shouldn't have been possible according to Bruce Banner's Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in Avengers: Endgame. According to Banner, undoing Thanos' Snap couldn't be as simple as going back in time to prevent the Snap from happening or even killing Thanos in the more distant past as suggested by War Machine. This is because changing the past does not rewrite the present: "If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future, and your former present becomes the past, which can't now be changed by your new future"

Essentially, this means that changing events in the past would simply create a branching timeline going forward with a new reality. Meanwhile, the original present remains unchanged. This means that casual time loops such as Kamala bringing about her own existence by saving her grandmother shouldn't have been possible. However, a different means of time travel was in play with Ms. Marvel's being sourced in magic from the Noor Dimension, so perhaps the explanation lies there.

3 Loki Season 2's OB Scenes Break The Rules

Most recently, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is experiencing a new temporal affliction known as "time-slipping" in Loki season 2's premiere. This is something that allegedly shouldn't be possible inside the confines of the TVA where time works differently. Regardless, Loki is being violently thrust between the past, present, and future all the same. As such, Endgame's rules are very much broken when Loki starts having a conversation with Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan) in the distant past while Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) is talking to O.B. in the present.

Having time-slipped during the conversation, Loki is seen speaking with O.B. centuries in the past while Mobius continues talking with the head of Repairs and Advancement in the present. As a result, a paradox was created where O.B. initially didn't have a Temporal Aura Extractor, only to that he did in fact have one as Loki had just asked him to make one in the past. The memories of the past conversation had a direct implication on the present, rewriting the same timeline rather than creating a branch timeline. Again, this shouldn't have happened according to Endgame's rules.

The reasoning behind Loki season 2 breaking the established MCU rules likely comes from the combination of a rapidly expanding multiverse, the differences in the flow of time within the TVA, as well as whatever caused Loki to start time-slipping in the first place. Regardless, it's dynamic proof that the rules are changing, and will likely continue to do so going forward based on narrative need and the expansion of the multiverse as the MCU heads for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.

2 Incursions Are Created When People Stay In The Wrong Timeline

2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness introduced the concept of multiversal incursions in the MCU where two or more realities collide, effectively destroying each other. Likewise, incursions were revealed to occur via the tampering with the multiverse itself as well as beings staying too long in timelines that aren't their own. While that seems simple enough and something to be avoided, it does create a problem regarding the fate of Captain America at the end of Avengers: Endgame.

After Captain America goes back in time to return all the Stones and clip all the branched timelines that would have been worse off without them, Steve Rogers decides to stay in the past to be with Peggy Carter. This should have created a branch timeline with a reality he didn't belong in, though no incursion was caused. As such, it stands to reason that there must be more to triggering incursions than was revealed in Multiverse of Madness.

Furthermore, there is some debate between Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely about whether Steve created a branched reality in the first place. According to the writers, Steve is still in the main MCU timeline as the past was always where he was meant to be. Conversely, the Russos believe Captain America created a branched timeline, though either option has wrinkles like the question of how Steve returned to the main timeline as an old man to talk with Sam Wilson if he did indeed create a branch, though Loki season 2's Temporal Loom has seemingly smoothed over this potential plot hole.

1 The Infinity Stones Don't Control The Flow Of Time Alone

While the Ancient One specifically said in Avengers: Endgame that the Infinity Stones control the flow of time, it's since been revealed that they aren't solely responsible for it. As seen in both seasons of Loki, branch realities have been created that presumably still contain all their Stones, proving that other forces and nexus events can and have affected the flow of time. Likewise, Loki season 1 went out of its way to show that the TVA views the Infinity Stones as nothing more than trinkets and paperweights.

Where time is involved, Loki has served as a key indicator that there are greater forces in the Marvel multiverse than the Infinity Stones. Likewise, it's becoming clear that the foundational rules of time travel established in Avengers: Endgame are becoming quite irrelevant. It stands to reason that new and more flexible rules will gradually be created as the multiverse continues to grow in the MCU.

New episodes of Loki release every Thursday at 6pm PT / 9pm ET on Disney+.