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At a certain point in Season 1 Episode 6 of Loki, He Who Remains no longer knows what's going to happen. Up until this point, he (supposedly) knew exactly what was going to happen at each point.

But how did he know? How could he dictate what happens? The only method we know of is pruning/resetting branches of the timeline that he doesn't like. But it seems unlikely to me that, up until that point, whenever Loki and/or Sylvie did things he didn't expect, and created a brunch branch in the timeline, he just took a quick detour to prune it. For one thing, because in those branches they might have killed him, so that he won't be able to (and obviously the TVA isn't cut out for that - they don't even know about him).

So is this some other power we don't know of, or am I just missing something?

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    “created a brunch in the timeline” — the potential for multiversal chaos must be weighed against how delicious those eggs look.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 18:01
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    @PaulD.Waite I pruned the brunch, but in a way that it preserves the joke.
    – Hans Olo
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 18:17
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    There is precedent in MCU characters that are capable of seeing the future being only able to see to the point of their deaths: Doctor Strange's Ancient One. Perhaps He Who Remains know he was going to die at that point, regardless.
    – notovny
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 19:08

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Just remember the story „he who remains“ tells Loki: he is from the year 3’100, from the far future (at least for Loki). I assume he has a kind of computer based library that has all the information about HIS universe in it.

So: he simply lets the TVA prune anything that would lead to another universe with an alternate version of himself that could start the interdimensional war.

Regarding the Lokis‘ visit to his castle: I think that he had lost control about what’s going on long before and was just pretending to have forseen everything until that point, using some illusions and tricks to make Loki and Sylvia THINK that he still is in control.

Or probably he really knew „his“ history until the point it became present for him, and from that point could not see anymore what will happen.

For me that would make much more sense than him „dictating“ the timeline. And this would also return the „free will“ in the MCU: nothing is „pre written“ at all: it‘s just that if one of your decisions would have lead to another timeline, then this „variant“ of yourself was pruned. The variant that decided according to the timeline still made the decission on his own but was allowed to continue as this one matched the „sacred timeline“.

I like this interpretation much more than that of an all knowing good writing the storyline of the universe. And after all: „he who remained“ seamed to be a totally normal being, no super powers larger than what we had seen in the past… just a little more advanced as… well, technology from 1‘000 years in the future…

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  • "Regarding the Lokis‘ visit to his castle: I think that he had lost control about what’s going on long before and was just pretending to have forseen everything until that point, using some illusions and tricks to make Loki and Sylvia THINK that he still is in control." - so you think it was all just an act, and during the "moment" they passed the "threshold" nothing actually happened?
    – Wade
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 18:35
  • From the dialogue he tells Loki and Sylvie, I saw it more as a logical loop. If time doesn't lead to the point where he's at now, a variant of his will end up solving the multiverse war and loop time to get to where he's at now anyway so that a multiverse war never happens, and gets time (and him, and Loki, and Sylvie) to the same point anyway.
    – DariM
    Commented Jul 21, 2021 at 0:52

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