Meeting Sophia Di Martino's Variant in the final moments of last week's Loki prompted a week of fan theorizing not seen since WandaVision's beekeeper days of yore. Ostensibly, she is Lady Loki, the female version of the God of Mischief taken straight from the comics. But what if she were actually another character from Marvel canon? What if she is Enchantress?
The evidence mounted up: She's blonde, for one, a 'do associated more with Enchantress than Lady Loki in the books. She repeatedly says she does not want to be referred to as a Loki, perhaps because she isn't one. And a region-specific credit identified the character Di Martino plays as "Sylvie." Enchantress' name is Sylvie Lushton.
Loki's third episode, titled "Lamentis," clears things up. Sort of. In the MCU's most Mandalorian-esque outing yet, the episode finds Tom Hiddleston's Loki and Di Martino's Variant on the run from the TVA and hiding out on the soon-to-be apocalypsed titular moon, Lamentis-1, with a particularly relatable problem: They left the house without charging their phone.
That is, their nifty TVA TemPad, which allows them to open portals through space and time, is dead and they need to find a power source strong enough to charge it before the moon blows up and everyone on it, Lokis included, perishes. Throughout the mission, Di Martino's Variant gives us some clarification of her true identity.
Seemingly, she is a Loki Variant. (The two each share stories of their respective mothers and being adopted.) But she is also Sylvie. "I'm Sylvie now," she informs Loki. "It's called an alias." (Sylvie Laufeydottir, an episode 2 Easter egg clarified). So, a sort of hybrid of the characters, if you will, a Variant of Loki whose main powerset is, as we've seen, enchanting.
Speaking of identities, our Loki's -- Hiddleston's Loki -- sexuality is made canon during a back-and-forth with Sylvie that plays like the "Love is patient, Love is kind" bit from the Bible, Loki-ized: Love is hate, love is mischief, love is an invisible dagger.
But in discussing various love interests, the two have this exchange:
Sylvie: How about you? You're a prince. Must've been would-be princesses. Or perhaps, another prince?
Loki: A bit of both. I suspect the same as you.
With that, Loki becomes the first openly queer lead character in the MCU.
"From the moment I joined Loki, it was very important to me, and my goal, to acknowledge Loki was bisexual," director Kate Herron tweeted when the episode dropped. "It is a part of who he is and who I am too. I know this is a small step but I'm happy, and heart is so full, to say that this is now Canon in the MCU."
As for the doomsday plotline of the episode, that ends on a cliffhanger, as Loki and Sylvie watch their getaway spaceship blown to bits. As for the overarching mystery of the season -- mainly, what's the TVA's whole deal? And are the Time-Keepers as benevolent as we've been led to believe? -- Sylvie drops a meteor-sized bit of information during episode 3:
The TVA staff -- including Sasha Lane's C-20, but likely also Mobius and the other Agents and Minutemen -- were not created by the Time-Keepers with the express purpose of working at the TVA. "That's ridiculous," Sylvie says. "They're all Variants. Just like us."
Mischief Managing:
◦ So, who is Enchantress then? In the comics, the first was the Asgardian sorceress Amora, who serves as a frequent foe for Thor. The second is Sylvie Lushton, who names herself after Amora but has a different origin story: Her magical powers were given to her by none other than Loki.
◦ The coal mining moon of Lamentis-1 is a deep cut from the comics: It is briefly mentioned as existing at the very edge of Kree space in 2007's Annihilation: Conquest Prologue Vol 1. Though it may resemble the coolest laser tag arena ever, the word "Lamentis" is the "second-person singular present subjunctive form of lamenter," or one who expresses suffering and sadness. (As one would when they entire planet gets obliterated!)
◦ While Loki is indeed bisexual in Marvel comics, he hasn't actually had that many love interests over the years. (Certainly, less than Thor.) Loki was once married to a goddess named Sigyn, but that remains his most notable romantic relationship. Which leaves the MCU open to ship him as they see fit. Which begs the question: Can Variants hook up? Or is that, ya know, frowned upon?
◦ For those of you that watched Falcon and Winter Soldier, you may know the deal with the credits: Each cast member gets their own title card that plays at the end of every episode, but their name only appears after the episodes they're in. Right now, we've got a lot of title cards to be filled in. We know Richard E. Grant will take one at one point, but who else is in Loki that we don't know about?
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