The following contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Loki.
Disney Plus's Loki introduced a new group to the MCU: the Time Variance Authority, also known as the TVA. In the first episode of the show, the titular character was apprehended by the TVA because of his deviation from the timeline. The TVA agents are clear about their mission statement and their methods, but the first few episodes of Loki seem to already be hinting that there is more to them than meets the eye, and that they may not be trustworthy.
From the TVA's first appearance in the series, it was already clear that they are nothing like any group previously seen in the MCU. They are not at all intimidated by Loki, and are able to subdue him despite his magic powers. They are shown to have a technology that "resets" the area of time that the variant--people like Loki who have caused a break in the timeline--has affected. Unlike everyone else who has encountered the Tesseract, which Loki had on him upon capture, the TVA agents seem uninterested and unbothered by it, treating it as just another piece of evidence that can be filed away, its power useless in the TVA.
The TVA is set up like a bureaucracy, and so Loki, and therefore the audience, is made to watch an introductory video which explains the TVA. The video states that there are beings called Time Keepers who are the survivors of a multi-versal war and have reorganized the universe into what they call the "sacred timeline" in order to prevent another one. The TVA and its agents are their enforcement officers, keeping the sacred timeline in check. According to the video, someone stepping off of their pre-ordained timeline creates a Nexus event which, left unchecked, could create another timeline and therefore another multiverse and eventually a multi-versal war. The TVA's motto is "For All Time. Always." Both the video and the motto positions the TVA as protectors of the universe, saving people from themselves.
Loki questions the concept immediately. When brought in front of his judge, Revonna Renslayer, Loki asks why the Avengers aren't the ones on trial, given they are the ones who travelled through time and caused his own deviation. Revonna says that what the Avengers did was supposed to happen. Loki does not like the idea that his choices are pre-ordained, even saying, "You ridiculous bureaucrats will not dictate how my story ends!" However, even Loki is shaken when he sees a full drawer of Infinity Stones in the desk of one of the employees, being used as paperweights because they are powerless to the TVA. Loki wonders if this is the greatest power in the universe, especially when they have footage of his life and death as it was meant to have gone.
In the second episode, "The Variant," Loki is learning more about the TVA, learning what an employee would learn. He is asked what happens when a Nexus event "breaches past the red line," and the answer is that the TVA can no longer reset it, which would lead to the destruction of the timeline. It is not specified what the red line is and how a Nexus event crosses it. Later on a mission, the TVA agent Mobius tells Loki that Nexus events destabilize the timeline, which is why agents must turn up in real time rather than before the event occurs.
Loki has also learned how the "reset" technology works; "Reset charges prune the affected radius of a branch's timeline, allowing time to heal all its wounds. Which, by the way, sounds like a nice way of saying disintegrates everything in its vicinity." Loki continues to question the TVA's methods and claims later in the episode. He questions whether the TVA believes free will exists if everything is pre-ordained, and if people are only free in the TVA. Meanwhile, Mobius fully believes in the TVA, the Time Keepers, and the end goal; "Existence is chaos, nothing makes any sense, so we try and make sense of it."
In episode one, Mobius consistently reiterates his belief in the sacred timeline, stating, "It happens again, and again, and again, because its supposed to, because it has to." He continues with similar sentiments in episode two. When Loki asks, "how does it all end?," Mobius responds that it's "a work in progress," and that the Time Keepers are working to unravel the sacred timeline and come to the epilogue. When it's complete, the work of the TVA will be done, and everyone will live in peace and order at the end of time. Mobius truly believes this, almost as if its a religion, while Loki remains very distrustful and skeptical, convinced its all a trick or manipulation.
It makes sense that Loki is skeptical. The very concept of the TVA and the Time Keepers invites question. What makes the Time Keepers worthy of deciding what the "sacred timeline" entails? What are their true objectives and desires, because it seems unlikely they are entirely altruistic, especially given the methods the TVA uses. Most of the TVA, including Mobius, have never even seen or spoken to the Time Keepers. One of the few that has is Revonna Renslayer, who approves all missions. She states that the Time Keepers are closely monitoring the TVA's mission to find the variant of Loki that is disrupting the timeline, and that she has never seen them so involved. This alone suggests they are not objective, if Revonna's statement is to be trusted, as they are specifically interested in the variant Loki.
The Time Keepers and the TVA clearly do have some level of power. They are able to reset time, they can show Loki his entire existence, and very powerful forces, such as the Infinity Stones and Loki's magic, genuinely do not work within the TVA. Mobius also says that time passes differently in the TVA, not going into specifics, but unable to state exactly how long he has been there. But how the Time Keepers and TVA came into that level of power is a mystery. The files regarding the beginning of time and the history of the TVA are deemed "classified," so Loki cannot read them. It seems certain that there is something to hide.
Both the power of the TVA and the patience and objectivity of the Time Keepers are set to be tested during the rest of Loki. The variant Loki used stolen reset charges to bomb the sacred timeline, creating several branches off of it. What this means and how this will be handled is yet to be seen, but it is possible this could expose the true mission of the TVA, and exactly how trustworthy they are.
Loki is now streaming on Disney Plus.