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Tom said in an interview that Loki won't stop searching for Sylvie

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Post-finale Sylki makes people uncomfortable because they're not used to see a man do emotional labor for a damaged and complicated woman, and go out of his way to try to fix her and bring her out of the dark. It's always the other way around. Men are allowed to be complex and fucked up, and there will be always a kind and compassionate woman with no turmoil of her own to tend to his emotional wounds and be his personal balm, the light to his darkness, the beauty to his beast, and similar gendered imagery. Sylki inverts those poles and now people are angry and confused. They can't conceive that there's hope for Sylvie, that she deserves to be saved. To be taken care of. Women only exist on a binary of saints and harpies, and the failure of fitting the first category will throw her straight to the second. There's no room for greyness and complexity for female characters. And that's because, unlike Loki in previous movies, and unlike many other male anti-heroes and anti-villains, Sylvie never did anything out of malice. She committed a honest mistake. She did what she thought was the right thing for the good of the universe and did not consider the consequences because she was too tunnel visioned in her pain. This is nowhere near what other morally grey fandom darlings have done out of actual ill intent.

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“It isn’t about possession, it isn’t about desire, it’s about understanding her fragility and not wanting her to go through the same horrors that perhaps he experienced.” | Tom Hiddleston on Empire Spoiler Specials Podcast

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Long post about Loki's romantic history in the comics

So, got inspired to do a little research mainly because of this: Tom Hiddleston pitched his own standalone movie in 2013 to Kevin Feige, explicitly referring to Loki and Enchantress' romantic relationship as a springboard.

Which actually confused me because my personal memory of Loki from the Bronze and Silver Age was definitely along the lines of "I think Amora and Loki worked together but I'm pretty sure Amora wasn't that interested, because Loki was an asshole and she knew it."

Turns out I was correct, buuuuut, they were a lot closer than I remembered. Especially in recent comics.

So I'm going to do a (relatively) brief overview about Loki's relationships as far as I remember. The guy fucked a lot, especially when he was evil. Latest incarnation is actually kinda more chaste imo.

BIG post, lotso images, reflection on MCU Loki at the bottom after the history lesson.

OG 616-Evil-Loki (since the 60s up till the 2000s)

For MCU new fans, imagine Classic Loki but he's purely an asshole with zero or very little redeeming qualities. That's OG evil Loki. He was always a villain, at best he sometimes helped out of selfishness, but he ended up dooming Asgard and the world the multiple times.

He also fucked. A lot. Mostly as a male, not necessarily in a 'human' form.

SOME of his notable romance partners (mostly the named gods)

Angrboda (1985)

Storm or Frost Giant. Mother of Fenris wolf, Jormungand the Midgard Serpent, and possibly Hela (her parentage gets really tricky after multiple reincarnations). Because Fenris and and Jormugand are several of the main constants of the Asgardians despite the multiple reincarnations from past Ragnarok cycles (in Marvel, Ragnaroks always happen and the Asgardians always reincarnate after each occurrence, with some differences.), it's suggested that Angrboda is one of Loki's oldest mates, if not THE first.

Also fun fact, it's actually suggested in the Marvel Universe book that because both Loki and Angrboda are shapeshifters, the reason their kids came out as a wolf and a serpent is because they each bear the form of the animal that their parents had assumed at the moment they were conceived. Kinky!

Angrboda only appeared once in comics and has never been depicted since, and even then she was 'dead' in her only appearance because it was in Hel. Even tho most characters connected to the Asgardians are reincarnated with them after each Ragnarok cycle, she never has been (tho her children and their respective descendants always reincarnate/persist). Which is a shame, because she has a really cool design and has lots of story potential.

She was also known as a sorceress or a witch.

Sigyn (1978)

Oh boy, Sigyn. Loki wanted to seduce her, but she was already engaged and knew he was evil. So Loki killed her fiance, used illusion to take his form, tricked her, and then tricked Odin into marrying him and her. Odin tried to annul the marriage but ancient laws prevented her, so he exiled Loki and Sigyn now bound by marriage vows, went with him, so Odin declared her Goddess of Fidelity.

Sigyn was seemingly very puritan, as she stated that she could never live outside of wedlock.

What follows is a long, long history of spousal abuse. Loki resented and despised her, sometimes pretend to return her love only to mock her. Loki constantly 'cheated' on her and also did evil, Sigyn fulfilled her duty and always went with him. At some point they literally got shackled together because I think Odin wanted her to guard Loki from doing some kind of mischief.

At one point, Loki finally released her of her marriage vows and she was no longer bound by them so they finally fully parted ways.

And after her last appearance, she presumably died during one of the Ragnarok cycles and she has never appeared in print or has been referenced since.

Amora the Enchantress (1964)

So basically she was like Loki, treacherous, untrustworthy, seduced men a lot, but she was relatively the better person of the two because she bordered the 'evil' spectrum. She actually minded the Apples of Idunn which gives Asgardians their immortality and did her job. She was also obsessed with getting Thor to fall in love with her constantly.

Which is why it honestly confused me when Tom mentioned her and Loki have a thing, cos I thought she wasn't interested and knew better. Which turns out, was brought up in the comics.

"I can't be trusted, and you can't trust." hmmmmmmmmm

So this was the crux of it. In the bronze and silver age, Amora knew way better to get personally involved with Loki, but they did collaborate on evil time-to-time. They may have had a fling or two, seems likely.

Loki also once had a thing with Amora's sister Lorelei (Lorelei got into some love potion and fixated on Loki, who took advantage of that until he tired of her).

Also Loki deliberately created a mortal (Sylvie Lushton) with a copy of Amora's powers, looks and name just to mess with Amora. And she did actually got pissed enough to come down and test Sylvie herself before passing her and allowed her to use her name and powers.

Which brings us to them in more current comics.

Current God of Stories/Outcasts Loki (since 2011)

The current incarnation of Loki (also known as Ikol, which I'll use to differentiate between him and his past self). The original evil Loki of 616 is dead and this incarnation is the current 'Loki'.

More chaotic good/neutral than evil, Ikol was born when a copy of his past evil self's soul combined with the truly innocently good Kid-Loki (who acts like a conscience).

After aging himself up, he basically decided to try to atone for his past misdeeds (he has kept all his past memories as evil Loki), and restyled himself from God of Evil and Lies, to the God of Stories, and currently is the God of Outcasts (yup, referenced by Classic Loki in Ep 5).

Quick note that the 'Loki' in publication was Kid-Loki when Hiddleston's Loki debut in Thor (2011) and Ikol had not yet 'appeared' in print. So MCU-Loki was not based on this Loki. In fact there's a scene where Ikol ages himself up (2014) and was deciding on a form based on other reality Lokis which he can view. MCU-Loki was one of the forms he saw (far left, the one with no horns).

So it's possible Ikol based his appearance on MCU-Loki!

Also Ikol is the Loki who is more openly gender fluid. However, I've not seen them really switch genders much ever since they've become titled the God of Outcasts and generally being more depressing lately.

Anyway, ever since Ikol reinvented himself, he's generally gotten better relationships with everyone, or at least tries to. This seems to include Amora actually being interested in him again, presumably because Ikol not being as evil as Loki means he won't try to backstab her as badly.

Notably, there was a comic event called AXIS that also included a spell that inverted everyone's alignment. Good becomes evil, evil becomes good. This affected Loki and Amora both, and they decided to get together apparently while they're both aligned 'good'.

Eventually they had to undo the inversion spell, during which they did hope they would stay together after getting their alignments back to normal...but unfortunately no they didn't.

And that's pretty much as far as their relationship has gotten. Basically, there IS something there, but old-Loki couldn't be trusted, and current Amora hasn't really become a better person like Ikol has become. And Ikol harbors too much guilt over past misdeeds to really get close to anyone romantically. The inversion temporarily gave them peace-of-mind to actually pursue their relationship, but it was temporary.

How does this reflect on MCU-Loki's love life?

So key thing to note, MCU-Loki debut before Ikol became the current incarnation. At the time of Tom's debut, it was Kid-Loki who was the incarnation. The inversion AXIS event happened in 2014.

Even then, somehow, Tom found the old comics showing that Enchantress and Loki had a thing and directly petitioned Feige with the idea of having her as Loki's love interest in the MCU in 2013, so kudos to him, he researched a deep cut.

The complication comes from choosing the variant-Loki angle combined with Enchantress. Like if it was a direct adaptation - i.e. Sylvie = Amora = another Asgardian, this would be easy. Alas, MCU's gotten a lot more complicated.

But, it does play into the main aspect of Amora's and Loki's relationship - that they were too similar, and knew each other too well, to ever trust each other and get into a relationship, even tho they did have an interest and had some mutual respect (pretty big deal for 616-Loki especially).

Which of course with Sylvie's backstory and status as a Loki variant, plays right into that. Two people too similar, and knowing how bad they could potentially be towards each other because they can't trust each other.

In a sense, MCU-Loki changing himself for the better in the series is similar to how Ikol chose to make himself a better person than the old him i.e. someone capable of loving unconditionally. Sylvie would be at the stage Amora is in the comics, who has lapsed into old bad habits which led to her not really growing as a person as much as Ikol.

Anyway, hope this was enlightening. It was kinda fun to go through old stuff again. Also Loki's sheer army of offspring (from his evil incarnation, but Ikol acknowledges all of them as his still) is an amazing thing to read through lol!

And to evil-Loki's credit, he tried to do right by his kids when he could, possibly his sole redeeming quality (notable story is him working with Spider-Man to save his half-mortal daughter Tess Black) Amora also has her own kids fathered by men she seduced.

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Not only is #Sylki comics-accurate, but Tom Hiddleston has been saying he's wanted to see Loki get together with Enchantress since at least 2013.

“When I was first reading the comics, the relationship with the Enchantress was one of the really fun things I thought would be good to explore, and may have even pitched it to Kevin Feige at some point. Because she is as sneaky and as untrustworthy as he was. They basically had a really fantastic and twisted relationship until they both say, 'You know what? I don't trust you as far as I can throw you. It's over.' Because they keep betraying each other, in a way. So it could be good.” - Tom "Captain of the Sylki Ship" Hiddleston

loki always been a simp

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Tom Hiddleston´s narration from Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Loki.

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Sylvie’s one good memory is with Loki

Loki’s glorious purpose is Sylvie

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when a loki bits a loki

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Apparently there could've been all the sex in Loki

Lmao the Loki: Disassembled featurette has some true gold in that early whiteboard brainstorming session! Here's some shots of the brainstorming behind what looks like Episode 1 (at 7:51):

From the most visible list, it appears the brainstormed sequence of events were:

Loki visiting different time periods

Doing crazy mischief aka sex

Pivots to taking power

Collecting infinity stones

Has the gauntlet, takes power…more sex. Bi, alien, etc.

Alone in the throne room. He’s taken power, but is infected with thought it isn’t “real” because of TVA’s control over free will.

Returns to TVA - Gauntlets power down. Mobius waiting for him.

Loki gives honest answers to Mobius. Mobius shows the sheer power of TVA.

Then the whole episode or season whatever, rounds-off with "Fucks off with Sylvie" (the top of the plot circles)

So Loki and Sylvie could've met as early as episode 1 and Loki would've 'fucked off with her'. Which after seeing how much of a horndog he was going to be, I can believe implied all kinds of fucking LMAO.

Like it either means Loki leaves with Sylvie, or they had a 'fuck off' to see who was the most hedonistic, or hell let's remove one word 'fucks off with Sylvie'. We could have been in a world where this was gonna be canon!

Note: I think this was a brainstorm to stick the most bawdy shit they could think off on the wall to get in the groove. Plus then you can tell the editor that 'okay we take out all the sex if you let us do this' kind of bargaining.

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I just realised that the Nexus advert in Wandavision literally describes the events in the Loki series during the side effects of the medication.

Feeling your feelings

Confronting your truth

Seizing your destiny

More depression

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There’s just something so subtly romantic and angsty about how hesitant Loki is to touch Sylvie. The way his hands hover above her arms and shoulders because he’s so unsure as to how she would react if he embraced her. But also I love the fact that Loki respects her space and has allowed Sylvie to be the one to initiate the physical contact. It was Sylvie that first held his arm in Lamentis. It was Sylvie that first grabbed his hand in the void. It was Sylvie that first kissed him. But he allowed it all, and even deepened all the physical interactions. I can’t imagine how epically romantic and swoon-worthy it will be when HE initiates the kissing.

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Loki & Sylvie are the two biggest catalysts in the MCU

Loki stealing the Tesseract created the Avengers.

Sylvie killing He Who Remains created the Multiverse.

Maybe the universe really does need to manifest some Chaos and Mischief sometimes...

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After the kiss, right before she sends him away, it looks like he’s reaching out to hold her, did you see it?

Loki is clearly close to kissing her again, you want to say?

And yes, he was ready to wrap his arms around her.

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But... Sylki’s not rushed at all?

As someone who prefers her slow-burn to last roughly 5000 years, I don’t think I understand the complaints about the romance between Loki and Sylvie being rushed and underdeveloped. Does it happen quickly? Sure. But that doesn’t necessarily equal sudden and underwritten (rewatch The Last Jedi if you want a counter-example). The speed with which the two get from “just met” to “twin flames” may be fast, but otherwise their story follows a fairly typical romantic trajectory, with all the usual steps those entail.

After meeting, they banter and act as two antagonistic snarky office workers, a standard romance trope.

More bantering as they interact during an adventure, sharing a new experience together and seeing how the other works.

As they go on, they become more open around one another, actively choosing to get to know each other better. A connection is established based on their shared sense of loss and family relationships.

Loki does a thing for no other reason than to make Sylvie happy. This is where we see an obvious romantic attraction appear as they discuss love and sex, clearly trying to sus out whether the other is dtf. Also, more banter but this time without the snarky edge.

They grow comfortable enough for the pathologically distrustful Sylvie to fall asleep in his presence and Loki to outright woo her with a song.

After Loki screws up Sylvie’s mission, he offers his support, both emotional and practical. In contrast with their first slog through the wasteland there’s no antagonism; they see themselves as partners in crime now and have a perfectly normal conversation. Upon entering the town they verbally verify trust and work as a team.

About to die, Sylvie shares her deepest pain with Loki, he expresses his admiration for her, and she initiates physical contact as they hold hands and gaze into each other’s eyes, ignoring the looming apocalypse and realizing they’re in love.

Bam, the basis of the relationship is established, escalating and deepening from there.

They are worried for one another.

They have each other’s back without thinking.

They attempt to verbalize their feelings.

Loki is Sylvie’s only good memory.

They (attempt to) engage in outright self-sacrificial heroics in order to be together again.

They contrive a scenario where they 100% need to cuddle under a blankie for science or whatever as they discuss their future together.

They refuse to leave each other’s side in a fight.

They protect each other some more.

They hold hands again.

Their bond and mutual trust help them defeat a monster, improving one another and making them realize they’re stronger together than apart.

Bad guy tempts them with a vision of a shared future, Loki refuses the notion of having power without Sylvie.

Revealed as twin souls destined to fall for one another.

A means to an end with no intent to cause harm, their fight ends with Loki expressing deep empathy with Sylvie’s suffering and pleading with her out of concern for her own wellbeing, acting out of selfless love.

Then and only then, after all this stuff, do they kiss.

It’s all there, from the flirty bickering and mutual attraction to opening up and deep bonding. Nothing is missing. The boxes are checked off fast, but they’re still there to be checked off. And the absolute best part about it is that the romance manages to stand as an element of its own and develop the characters while staying true to them and their individual stories. These new feelings don’t magically correct Sylvie’s crippling trust issues in a single blanket-sharing session and they don’t make her stray away from her mission. They’re a complicating factor and facilitate both current and future development instead of hampering it. The story takes precisely as much time developing its individual aspects as it needs to, not hesitating to put its characters in a conflict with each other if required.

So again, please, where is that rush I’m meant to dislike? Because the fact that all this happens in the span of four episodes, all the while moving the plot along, developing side characters, and seeding future plots while packing one hell of an emotional punch the entire time? That’s not rushed. That’s fucking great filmmaking, my guy.

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Love is a dagger. It’s a weapon to be wielded far away or up close. You can see yourself in it. It’s beautiful until it makes you bleed. But ultimately, when you reach for it… it isn’t real.

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I was watching Thor: Ragnarok last night and I saw this and I was like LOVE IS A DAGGER?