If there is only one true Sacred Timeline according to the Time Variance Authority (TVA), then how could Doctor Strange have seen 14 million of them in Infinity War? Or did he only see the true timeline and didn't reveal it to avoid causing Nexus Events?
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11Presumably he saw the possible futures, remember time isn't set in stone else the TVA wouldn't constantly need to be interfering to "fix it". However, what he likely doesn't know is that if they did take a different route the TVA would correct them back to the Sacred Timeline. It's not that there's only one possible future; it's that there's only one possible future that the TVA deems correct else it will step in to put things back how they should be.– TheLethalCarrotCommented Jun 17, 2021 at 10:55
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3Seems like an answer @TheLethalCarrot. As you say, the Doctor Strange timeline was the Sacred Timeline.– iandotkelly ♦Commented Jun 17, 2021 at 11:28
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1@iandotkelly I'll write one up later (if I remember) when I have more time if someone doesn't answer first.– TheLethalCarrotCommented Jun 17, 2021 at 11:33
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8Also keep in mind that what we know about the 'sacred timeline' comes from a potentially unreliable narrator.– dnaCommented Jun 17, 2021 at 15:28
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2Indeed, we know nothing of the TVA other than what we have been told. Their motives are unknown and possibly not as benign as might be given.– Paulie_DCommented Jun 17, 2021 at 16:05
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1 Answer
The most likely possibility is that the other 14,000,604 outcomes Strange saw would have resulted in a nexus event, and would have been reset by the TVA had they occurred.
Free will - or the illusion of free will - has been a major recurring theme of Loki. Loki is adamant that he's had full control of his life thus far, but the TVA are adamant that everything he's done (and will do) has been according to the Time-Keepers' designs. We also learn that
Loki has actually strayed from the Sacred Timeline on numerous occasions, resulting in the many Loki Variants seen throughout the series, with the TVA aggressively "pruning the branches" to ensure Loki's life proceeds as it should do.
So there really were 14 million possible outcomes, but while Doctor Strange believed that he had to do everything in his power to ensure the one winning outcome occurred, in reality that was the only outcome the TVA were ever going to permit.
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2Free will has been handled quite well in the show so far. Everyone has it i.e. their choices and what they do are their own. It's just that if you do something the Time-Keepers haven't dictated you'll be reset. Commented Jun 21, 2021 at 11:54