Warning: This article contains spoilers from Episode 3 of Loki.
Loki has reached the midpoint of its narrative, but there's a sense that more will be revealed in the coming weeks. Directed by Kate Herron and created by Michael Waldron, the much-talked-about Disney+ series follows the story of an alternate version of Tom Hiddleston's God of Mischief who was re-introduced during the Time Heist of Avengers: Endgame.
As fans now know, this Loki escaped that timeline, but his freedom was cut short due to being intercepted by the Time Variance Authority. The first episode established the rules of the TVA, introducing fans to a brand-new corner of the MCU.
At the tail end of the show's pilot it was revealed that the villain of the series is another version of Loki, leaving the titular character confused as to what's really going on.
The second episode took a deep dive into this mysterious Variant, showcasing Loki in several missions with the TVA to catch the show's presumed villain. Sophia Di Martino's Loki Variant made her presence felt in the final moments of the installment by leaving the Sacred Timeline in shambles.
The latest outing showcased what happened next to the runaway pair of Loki and Sylvie, and it introduced a whole new dynamic between the two Variants. The episode unveiled the first major team-up of Hiddleston and Di Martino's MCU characters, and as expected, it led to a bunch of back-and-forths.
LOKI'S DRUNKEN SPEECH EXPLAINED
Loki creator Michael Waldron and star Tom Hiddleston recently sat down with Marvel.com to talk about the definition of love conversation between the God of Mischief and Sylvie.
To recap, the episode featured a discourse between Loki and Sylvie, which eventually led to the question of "what is love?"
Sylvie mentioned that "love is hate," but she backtracked by wondering if it is just mischief. Meanwhile, Loki said that he can't come up with anything until he's had another drink to figure it out.
After a few too many, the titular trickster then explained to Sylvie that "love is a dagger," saying that "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 disappears]."
Sylvie responded by saying that "it isn't real," admitting that love being compared to an imaginary dagger is a "terrible metaphor."
During the interview, Hiddleston agreed with Sylvie's point that it's a bad comparison.
“It's one of those things that Loki comes up with spontaneously. They were having a talk about love and trusting other people, and not being able to either love or trust for whatever reason, and Loki thinks he's come up with something profound.”
The nonsense explanation of love from Loki further established the idea that Sylvie will be hard to manipulate.
"It’s a chance for Sylvie to burst the bubble of Loki's pomposity. He's always coming up with things that he thinks are profound, but actually, they're not particularly profound.”
Waldron explained that he wrote the scene "really, really quick," with the creator pointing out that Loki's drunk moment "freed" him up to not think about the speech too hard.
“I wrote that really, really quick. I remember I was revising Episode 3 in the two weeks leading up to my wedding. It’s interesting because that's probably the most romantic episode. At that point, Loki is a little bit drunk. That freed me up, where it was just like, ‘Don't think too hard about it,’ which is sort of my first thought that Loki would think here.”
The MCU writer then took note that it doesn't need to make sense for Loki to be convincing with it, admitting that it "almost" worked like many of the Asgardian's metaphors.
“I just ran with it, ‘Love is a dagger.' And fortunately, like many of Loki's metaphors, it almost works.”
WILL LOKI FALL IN LOVE?
The third episode of Loki is full of intimate character moments between the titular trickster and Sylvie. It's worth noting that this marks the first time that fans have ever seen Loki drunk in the MCU, and it makes narrative sense that his "love is a dagger" speech to Sylvie doesn't make sense.
Given that Loki is still the God of Mischief, it's possible that he did it on purpose to lure Sylvie into his trap. After all, this isn't the only time that Loki has been trying to stall his enemies to his advantage.
This would fit Hiddleston's comment about the fact that "Loki thinks he's come up with something profound," but his plan fails altogether when he realizes that Sylvie is not easy to mess with. This goes to show that Di Martino's Sylvie is a formidable ally to Loki's schemes, and this spells bad news for the rest of the TVA moving forward.
The inclusion of the conversation about love in the episode led many to believe that Loki will finally explore the idea of the God of Mischief being involved with a romantic relationship. However, Waldron's comments about not having to think too hard about the dialogue in the scene suggest otherwise.
Despite that, Waldron previously teased that the series will showcase "some love stories" during its debut season, and this could hint that one revolving around Loki and Sylvie could be in the cards. It remains to be seen if this will happen in the show, but the third episode might be the first major hint that Loki will be struck by the love dagger in the near future.
The first three episodes of Loki are now streaming on Disney+.
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