WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Loki Episode 4, "The Nexus Event" now streaming now on Disney+.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the Men in Black franchise is how far the organization will go to keep intergalactic peace. Its agents put their lives on the line without the promise of glory to protect the Earth from all kinds of threats. And as fans take in what's transpiring in Loki, it's clear the Time Variance Authority takes everything the MiB stands for as an organization and twists it for nefarious purposes.
The Men in Black have a responsibility to ensure threats from other worlds don't harm Earth, which is why its agents deploy neuralizers quite frequently. It's a device that mind-wipes civilians' short-term memory, covering up evidence of alien activity so mankind can bask in their ignorance and J (Will Smith), K (Tommy Lee Jones) and other agents can operate in the field.
Other than if an agent is ready to retire or if a trainee's mind has to be mended, though, MiB doesn't alter people's brains. That builds trust within the organization and allows them to maintain a modicum of their humanity. And this is where the TVA differs in the most sinister way. Thanks to Sylvie, fans learn the TVA has been plucking Variants out from the Sacred Timeline, erasing their memories and turning them into mindless workers. It's why Mobius recalls a jet ski, Hunter C-20 remembers her experience in a bar and B-15 sees memories of her happy life. They all had family and friends, yet like so many others, the TVA cleaned them out mentally and threw them to work, feeding them the lie they were created by the Time-Keepers.
It's a heartbreaking revelation because this mental conditioning is making them into mindless soldiers, willing to prune histories and kidnap kids like Sylvie without questioning the system. It's a demented way of keeping control, and when you couple that internal activity with how the TVA then uses reset charges to alter timelines, it's clear this organization is an evil that has to be brought down.
To make matters even worse, while the MiB had Chief Zed and other leaders who felt like kind people, the TVA has the vicious Renslayer and fake Time-Keepers, who appear to be nothing more than puppets to a corrupt time god. In reality, the TVA is more of a threat than a peace-keeping organization, which is why multiple Lokis are waging war on it.
Loki stars Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Sophia Di Martino, Richard E. Grant, Sasha Lane and Eugene Cordero. New episodes air Wednesdays on Disney+.