Marvel's Longest Running Easter Egg? My Theory That the Sacred Timeline Was a Giant Arc Reactor Powering Doctor Doom

What if Marvel Studios still had a major trick up its sleeve? My theory is that the Sacred Timeline was simply an enormous arc reactor, borrowed from Tony Stark's invention by Doctor Doom and used to power something very important to him, until Loki destroyed it at the end of Loki season 2.

The move from Kang the Conqueror to Doctor Doom as the big bad of the Multiverse Saga had been reported as a panic pivot. I want to suggest that the groundwork may have been laid all the way back at the start of the Infinity Saga, in the very first entry in the MCU, Iron Man. I am going to try not to "stretch harder than Reed Richards" as I lay it out, and I will also explain what I think the Sacred Timeline was doing for Doom and what its role in the plot could be now that it has been destroyed.

The clue in Iron Man is the miniature arc reactor, not the Mark I mask

You might assume I am talking about the mask of the Mark I suit, which clearly resembles Doctor Doom's. That comparison has already been pointed out plenty of times. What I am actually focused on is the miniature arc reactor.

The arc reactor had already been invented before Tony built the small one. He mentions that he has a larger one running his lab at home. What matters for this theory is how he applied and reapplied that science to create a miniature arc reactor to suit his own needs. That idea of taking existing technology and adapting it for a new purpose sits at the heart of this theory, because I believe Doom borrowed the concept and forged it into a much bigger arc reactor.

The Sacred Timeline is more than the 616

Before going further, I need to clarify one piece of canon that I see mistaken quite a bit. The Sacred Timeline does not refer solely to the 616. The Sacred Timeline is what we saw encircling the citadel of He Who Remains: a collection of realities, a collection of universes, woven into a circular path through the loom in order to prevent a multiversal war.

In other words, it is the stack of timelines that was controlled. These were the timelines the TVA was looking to prune so that branch realities would not form and overload the loom.

Doom's monolith and the Avengers tech he appears to have stolen

I have previously speculated that Battleworld was already revealed officially by Marvel in the laser show for Avengers: Doomsday at the Shanghai Expo. That show featured an enormous tower containing pieces of a triangular multiverse, as shown in What If, all within one monolith that has a keyhole. The key appears to be placed on Doctor Doom's belt. My reading was that this resembles what will become Battleworld in Avengers: Secret Wars, but as Doom's own building of a universe.

Alongside that monolith, Doom's costume certainly appears to borrow many aspects from other Avengers. My supposition is that these are heroes he has already beaten in the past, such as Captain Marvel, Thor, Shang-Chi and even Iron Man, since there are repulsors in his gloves. If he is stealing tech and artifacts from other Avengers, and for that matter Tony Stark's face, it would follow that he would steal the arc reactor as well, especially if he needed to power something. At the end of that same laser show, the very first thing that manifests between his gauntlets is what looks like the outside of an arc reactor.

Part of my argument was that Marvel Studios would not give away the end of Avengers: Doomsday in its very first reveal, a light show over a year and a half early. More likely, I argued, it was showing us details the movie opens with. If that is right, Doom has his own version of either a multiverse or one singular timeline inside a monolith that only he has a key to.

How the Sacred Timeline and the loom could have powered Doom's branch reality

As established by canon, Doom would need an immense power source to run even one timeline. My conjecture is that the Sacred Timeline, coupled with the loom, was simply an enormous arc reactor built to power that timeline.

In this reading, Doom used He Who Remains as a pawn. The fact that the arrangement kept all the other Kangs at bay was simply a way to create a circle, an endless supply of power for Doom's own little branch reality, a world where his rumored dead family could be alive and they could be together. My conjecture is that this had been going on for quite some time, and everything was perfect and fine around him.

Loki breaking the loom could explain Doom's rumored revenge quest

Then Loki broke the loom at the end of season 2. In doing so, he turned what was a circular, endless supply of power for Doom's own timeline into the Yggdrasil world tree. By my theory, that ended Doom's ability to be with his family, and that is what sent him on his revenge quest to go after Loki and try either to restore the timeline or, if he could, to replace them.

I think there is a chance he may be able to do just that even without a loom, or without being able to reconstruct it now that the Sacred Timeline has become a world tree. Someone like an omega level mutant, the highest level of reality warper, and Franklin Richards, combined with the power taken from Loki, God of Stories, as Doom assumes his seat on the throne as God Emperor Doom, could be enough. If he can somehow harness the two, he may not need the loom at all.

So the revenge quest Doom is rumored to be on would be because everything was going fine until now. Loki ended all that, and that would be why Doom is ready to go after Loki at all costs, either to restore that power source or, better yet, to create Battleworld once he becomes God Emperor Doom.

Doom the narcissist would have no qualms stealing Stark's tech

I know this requires some level of theory building based on what we have seen, and there are more than just a couple of conclusions I had to draw to get here. But keep in mind that Doctor Doom is a true narcissist through and through. Anything he thinks he deserves, he is simply going to steal. As I see it, "That's part of being a narcissist is being a thief." He has no qualms about that whatsoever.

If he is willing to go as far as stealing Tony Stark's face to get what he wants, he would not stop at stealing Stark's tech and ingeniously using it in a different application, such as enlarging it to the size of the Sacred Timeline.

Does this theory have merit, or have I stretched harder than Reed Richards?