‘Loki’ Writer Reveals Why He Chose Alioth as the Episode 5 Villain
The God of Mischief and his variant Sylvie tackled a formidable monster called Alioth in Loki Episode 5. The all-consuming entity has quite a history in Marvel Comics. And in a recent interview, the show’s head writer revealed why he chose to use Alioth as the villain for the episode.
‘Loki’ Episode 5 introduces Alioth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
In Episode 5, “Journey Into Mystery,” Loki (Tom Hiddleston) wakes up in the Void and encounters pruned variants of himself, including Alligator Loki, Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant), Boastful Loki (Deobia Oparei), and Kid Loki (Jack Veal). The variants warn Loki about Alioth, the dark gray, cloudy, dragon-like monster rolling through the landscape.
“This is the Void, that’s Alioth, and we’re his lunch,” Classic Loki warns Loki just before urging him to run.
Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) prunes herself to save Loki and also winds up in the Void. She faces Alioth and enchants it for a few seconds. But her enchantment reveals that getting through Alioth is the only way to find out who’s running the Time Variance Authority. https://twitter.com/LokiOfficial/status/1412758300907642882
“I think the person we’re after is beyond the Void at the end of time,” Sylvie says. “And if they are, that thing [Alioth] is just their guard dog protecting the only way in.”
Loki and Sylvie defeat Alioth by combining their powers to enchant it. When the monster dissipates, they step through to find Kang waiting for them at the end of time.
Why the writers chose to use Alioth as the villain in ‘Loki’ Episode 5
Loki and Sylvie faced plenty of hurdles in Episode 5, including President Loki and his band of mean variants. But according to head writer Michael Waldron, the writers wanted Loki to face a monstrous villain that threatened to consume him.
“I think it was our writers’ assistant, Ryan Kohler, who originally had the idea of ‘What if the Void is like a trash compactor?’” he told Screen Rant. “They get thrown down there, and something devours them. And then we went on a hunt for a comics version of that, and Alioth was there.”
“I love that deep-cut stuff,” Waldron added. “He certainly has had his own run-ins with the TVA and everything.”
What’s Alioth’s story in Marvel Comics?
In Marvel Comics, Alioth, aka Alioth the Usurper, has ties to both Ravonna Renslayer and Kang the Conqueror. The trans-temporal entity first appeared in the 1993 Marvel comic, Avengers: Terminatrix Objective #1 as a destructive cloud that causes temporal disturbances in different dimensions as it consumes everything in its path.
Alioth lives near the border of Kang the Conqueror’s realm, Chronopolis, and remains unaffected by time. In the comics, Kang and Renslayer recruit the Avengers to help defeat the monster.
