Marvel Shouldn’t Have Said No to a Sylvie-Centric Episode of Loki
And they should have gone even further.
Loki is still being processed by fans. The choices it made in the season finale have remained divisive, and many are taking time to see if the six episodes we got did justice to such a big ending, especially in terms of its characters.
Sylvie, played by Sophia Di Martino, is very interesting. Ripped from her timeline and on the run since she was eight, we have seen her as both a brilliant long-game tactician and a rash, impulsive person. Di Martino gave a very impactful performance, and I truly think that elevated a lot of the character. Sadly, according to a tweet from Loki writer Eric Martin, we did have a chance to see more of her, but Marvel said no.
CBR found a tweet where Martin was asked by a fan of the series named Chris Graham, “Any memorable notes/mandates/curveballs from the higher-ups?”
“We outlined a very different episode two that showed much more of what Sylvie did on the timeline,” Martin responded. “But they wanted us to stick with Loki.”
We outlined a very different episode two that showed much more of what Sylvie did on the timeline, but they wanted us to stick with Loki.
— Eric Martin (@MrEricMartin) July 15, 2021
As I look back on Loki and what its missteps were, I think it needed to focus more on Loki’s relationships to his variants beyond just Sylvie. No, I’m not against the relationship between the two, but I think that, by not taking the time to do that, all that was done was make Sylvie important because of her gender. We see so many different Lokis dealing with their own issues with power and loneliness, but it’s just in dialogue. The story doesn’t sit with it because we are running towards the plot.
It also sucks because Lady Loki in the comics was a really dynamic character and part of just the essence of Loki, and it feels as if the Loki writers enjoyed the idea of a female Loki, but without all the things that made that genderfluid choice in the comics queer and iconic. When I think about the things Loki didn’t do, it involves not tapping into the character-driven story that was very easily set up. Just like WandaVision had an entire episode going through Wanda’s backstory, we could have had an episode seeing each Loki’s Nexus Event and getting a real taste of what brought them to this place.
Right now, it feels like we got a six-episode Kang backdoor pilot, with Tom Hiddleston looking very hot in his smedium shits and swinging his sword around. But the characters deserved better than that—especially Loki, who has so much to offer, but just like his brother Thor, always plays second fiddle to the plot.
(via CBR, image: Marvel/Disney+)
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