It's fair to say that, heading into Loki, none of us expected the series to introduce a love story. However, after yesterday's episode, it's clear that the God of Mischief has fallen for Sylvie (we're assuming she feels the same way), and that could be a game-changer for the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward.
After all, we've never seen Loki embark on a romantic relationship, and these two as a power couple (assuming they stay on a heroic path) would be huge!
Talking to Marvel.com, Head Writer Michael Waldron revealed that this unexpected romance was, "one of the cruxes of my pitch [for the series], that there was going to be a love story." He added: "We went back and forth for a little bit about, like do we really want to have this guy fall in love with another version of himself? Is that too crazy? But in a series that, to me, is ultimately about self-love, self-reflection, and forgiving yourself, it just felt right that that would be Loki's first real love story."
As for why the two Lokis created such a significant Nexus Event, Waldron explains that "These are two beings of pure chaos that are the same person falling in love with one another. That's a straight-up and down branch, and exactly the sort of thing that would terrify the TVA."
Loki director Kate Herron adds to that point, making it clear that the God of Mischief and Sylvie are two separate beings. "Who’s a better match for Loki than himself? She is him, but she's not him. They've had such different life experiences. So just from an identity perspective, it was interesting to dig into that."
As you might expect, Tom Hiddleston is similarly intrigued by this new direction for Loki and is excited to see the character finally prove he's capable of loving someone other than himself (well, technically).
"I don't think Loki's relationship with himself has been very healthy," the actor posits. "Trying to accept those aspects of himself, which he's been on the run from, was a way of thinking about that in a really interesting way. Also, Sylvie's not Loki. Sylvie is Sylvie. That's interesting, too. I'm really excited to see what people make of it."
The response so far has been positive, and this is hopefully a concept Marvel Studios decides to fully explore. For that, we'll probably need a second season, and there have been rumours for a long time now that another six episodes are in the works (Loki was Disney+'s biggest premiere for an original series, so it would be a smart business decision to bring the show back).
Are you shipping Loki and Sylvie?