‘Loki’ Could Feature the MCU’s Weirdest Romance Ever

loki tom hiddleston sophia di martino sylvie
Courtesy of Marvel Studios

[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Loki, episodes 1-3.]

Loki might take “love yourself” to a whole new level.

In “Lamentus,” viewers were treated to an hour of “getting-to-know-you” hijinks on a crumbling planet with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and “Lady Loki,” Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), who went from enemies to friends throughout the course of 40ish minutes. But there were times when it almost — almost — seemed like there was more than alternate universe-related friendly curiosity brewing between them… and we’re not sure how to feel about that.

Whether or not you saw sparks between the Lokis, it’s undeniable that certain aspects of the episode had a not-entirely-platonic undertone. When Sylvie tries to enchant Loki, the way the characters are positioned and the scene is framed suggests they could kiss; Loki drunkenly serenades her in the bar car on the train and dedicates the song to her, which is, again, usually romantic. Their constant bickering could be viewed as sibling-like, but given how many love interests in media start out the same way — at each other’s throats constantly to mask a growing attraction — it could signal something deeper.

loki tom hiddleston sophia di martino sylvie

Courtesy of Marvel Studios

Also interesting is the fact that they have an entire conversation about the nature of love, a subject we’ve never seen Loki show even the slightest interest in before — and he brings it up, curious to know whether she’s involved with anyone. She mentions a postman, which is probably a joke. But the fact remains — why does Loki care in the first place? And more importantly, wait, are we supposed to be rooting for this?

The “ethics” of it are murky, no doubt. Like, is getting together with a duplicate of yourself similar to getting together with a cousin, or even a sibling? (Jaime and Cersei Lannister of Game of Thrones would no doubt approve.) Sylvie has rejected the name “Loki” and wasn’t raised by Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and Frigga (Renee Russo), but at the end of the day, she’s still a version of Loki himself, which makes this whole hypothetical thing… awkward. Now, if Sylvie ends up not being a Loki variant at all and the fan theories about her being Enchantress end up coming true, it’d be much easier to ‘ship these two. But that doesn’t seem likely after “Lamentus,” since she has knowledge of Loki’s backstory and Lady Loki’s familiar helmet.

On some level, even though it’s wacky, a romance between Loki and his variant-self would make sense. Loki is absolutely narcissistic enough that we could see him falling in love with himself; in fact, given that he’s still Avengers-era Loki who tried to conquer Earth only days earlier, it’s kind of hard to see him falling for anyone else. Maybe Mobius (Owen Wilson), now that it’s been confirmed Loki is canonically bisexual — but we’re not holding our breaths, considering showrunner Michael Waldron made it clear in an interview with Vanity Fair that there is love between the duo, but whatever affection exists isn’t romantic.

loki tom hiddleston sophia di martino sylvie

Courtesy of Marvel Studios

In that same interview, Waldron stated that there are “love stories” running through Loki. One is Loki and Mobius… but where are the rest? With three episodes left in the season, we haven’t seen a whole lot of love; just a lot of time-related shenanigans. And in an interview with Collider, Hiddleston, speaking on the subject of a hypothetical love interest for the god of mischief, said that “the first stable relationship you have to have is with yourself,” which, technically, since Sylvie is himself, Loki could do both.

One of Waldron’s love stories could certainly be Loki and Sylvie; platonically, as versions of the same person who understand each other’s pain… or, uh, all of that, but not platonically. We’ll just have to wait and see if this heads in a Game of Thrones direction, or if Loki gets a love interest this season at all (he might not, and that’s fine). But in the meantime, there’s no denying that the Loki-Sylvie dynamic is fun to watch.

Loki, Wednesdays, Disney+

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