They say there’s someone out there for everyone, and in Loki‘s case that person turns out to be… Loki? The latest episode of Marvel’s smash-hit series landed on Disney Plus today, and for the first time it teased a romance for Tom Hiddleston’s Asgardian trickster. After striking up a rapport with Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie in episode 3, episode 4 pushed the two closer together as they both appeared to realize they had deeper feelings for each other.
However, as Loki’s attraction was mostly spelled out to him by Mobius (Owen Wilson) and he was pruned by Ravonna (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) before he could declare how he felt to Sylvie, it wasn’t necessarily 100% spelled out this was the direction the show was going in. But any lingering doubt has now been washed away as Loki showrunner Michael Waldron has confirmed this love story is what he really wanted to explore in the series.
Waldron revealed all in an interview with Marvel.com, explaining that a Loki/Sylvie relationship was a key part of his initial pitch. To him, the unifying theme of self-love, and Loki learning to forgive and like himself, made it obvious that Loki should fall in love with a version of himself.
“That was one of the cruxes of my pitch [for the series], that there was going to be a love story,” Waldron said. “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.”
Waldron went on to add that he believes the scene early on in episode 4, where Loki and Sylvie open up to each other because they think they’re about to die on Lamentis-1, is the moment where their connections deepens.
“The look that they share, that moment, [it started as] a blossoming friendship,” continues Waldron. “Then for the first time, they both feel that twinge of, ‘Oh, could this be something more? What is this I’m feeling?’ 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.”
You’d expect Marvel fans to be thrilled that the God of Mischief is finally getting a love interest, but in actual fact the Loki/Sylvie romance is getting a lot of backlash online, as many folks are feeling weirded out by the couple – who some view as essentially siblings. Well, it’s clear that this is only something that will be further explored in the final two episodes of the season so fans had better get their heads around the concept.
Loki continues next Wednesday on Disney Plus.