Did Loki Create Yggdrasil at the End of Season 2? Explained

Trees have been extremely powerful symbols in numerous mythologies around the world since the beginning of time. That kind of influence is transferred over to Marvel Comics as well, which are heavily (in some aspects) influenced by Norse mythology. Now, one of the most important trees from Marvel comics seemingly debuted in the MCU as well, but in a different role. Let’s see whether Loki created Yggdrasil in the finale of season 2. 

What kind of role does Yggdrasil have in the comics? 

Yggdrasill, the world tree, serves as an energy field connecting the Ten Realms, represented as a tree with roots and branches linking different realms like Asgard and Midgard. It was initially Ten Realms, but Heven was cut off by Odin. At its base are wells like Urdarbrunnr (Well of Fate) and Mímisbrunnr (Mimir’s Well). After Ragnarök, it’s a source of new life. After Asgardia crashed, a seed of Yggdrasil survived, growing into a new tree. Thor used the tree to gain knowledge during the War of the Realms, and a vestige was used to grow the Watchtower Tree in Asgard.

The problem is Yggdrasil already debuted in the MCU

Now, it serves as common sense that if you have a Norse god who suddenly turns into a giant cosmic tree, you’re going to jump to a conclusion and call it a day by naming the tree Yggdrasil. But the problem is that the tree is already in the MCU as its aspect in Thor’s storyline is too massive to ignore.

It was referenced in numerous projects and appeared as part of the vision in ‘Thor: The Dark World.’ Yggdrasil, also referred to as the Tree of the World or the World’s Tree, is a concept employed by the Asgardians to depict the cosmic nebula. Each branch or root symbolizes one of the Nine Realms in this cosmic representation.

This also corresponds to the role that it has in the comics. But the tree we’ve seen in the finale of ‘Loki’ not only looks different, but it serves a different purpose as well. 

How did Loki create that mysterious tree? 

When Loki realized that he would either have to doom all the alternative branches and millions of lives with it to death or kill Sylvie, he knew that there had to exist a third option. And he was right. The catch was that it required the biggest kind of sacrifice that he could do, damning himself to eternal loneliness.

Loki stepped on that gangway with the full intent of fulfilling his glorious purpose; he transformed into his godly self and started dismantling the Temporal Loom with his powers. Doing that, timelines started to die rapidly, but he saw that he could revive them. Each touch brought a pulse of life to the branches, and the only way to hold them all together was to gather them and combine them into a tree, every branch and root of the tree representing a timeline. 

So Loki created “The Time Tree” with himself in the center. He serves as the conduit, not to control the timelines but to keep them alive. 

This is quite a difference from the tree’s original purpose, but if you modify the definition of it slightly, you can still make it out to be Yggdrasil. 

So, is the three Yggdrasil or some other tree? 

I’m afraid that without an official statement, we can’t really confirm that the tree we saw in the ‘Loki’ finale was Yggdrasil, but it’s heavily implied that it is, even though the tree debuted in a much lesser role years ago.

However, I’m confident that since Asgard was destroyed some time ago, the role of Yggdrasil could change as well. 

The original tree wasn’t exactly able to escape the destruction, and all the events were unscathed, so it’s possible that Loki rebuilt it in the multiversal context. The safest way to refer to the tree currently is “Time Tree.” At least until we get a confirmation whether the tree in question is THE World Tree from the mythology. 

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