WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Loki Episode 3, "Lamentis," streaming now on Disney+, and for Season 2 of Netflix's Ragnarok.
In the Loki TV series, it's safe to say that Tom Hiddleston's God of Mischief is undergoing a transformation. Whether or not it's for the better remains to be seen, but he's showing a bit more humanity, for want of a better word, as Sylvie, the Variant, gets him to open up after Mobius dug away at his sins and regrets. Now, as the Asgardian trickster navigates PTSD after seeing the terrors his alternate self committed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we finally discover why he became a villain.
As Sylvie and Loki talk about relationships and romance, love comes up. Sylvie's clearly damaged from losing her family, and Loki is as well -- especially his mom, Frigga. She taught him magic and believed in him when no one else would, so it's a deep, sentimental cut.
But when Loki tries to define love for Sylvie, it gets a bit more nuanced and revealing than expected. Loki likens love to a dagger; while it's nice to embrace its power, it will turn on you, cut you and you'll bleed in time. In other words, love -- just like a heart -- is a weapon, which explains so much of the character's history.
It's clear that Loki's afraid of loving and losing, which is why he's all too eager to cause the separation first and break away from people he thinks he'll disappoint -- especially Thor and Odin. It harkens back to the first Thor movie, when Loki basically told his dad he could have been the anointed son as the Bifrost broke. Instead, rather than trying to be the Chosen One, Loki shut himself off and turned evil as he felt the love was an illusion that would fade, hurt him and he'd eventually be seen as the enemy and a failure. He just opted to be proactive by giving people reason to hate him, fitting the narrative and character he sees when he looks in the mirror. And this reflection is in the blade of love according to the trickster.
It exposes the real you, and seeing as he thinks he's a monster, he might as well embrace and become it before others realize. It provides context for how he dodges questions on his real mom and why his appearance is more Asgardian than Frost Giant -- once more hinting that no matter what, he's always seen himself as the Laufeyson in disguise.
He just never believed he had good in him, ergo why he felt his family would love then disown him. It's a defense mechanism to push people away before they push him away. Loki wants everyone at arm's length so he can hurt or abandon them, thus placing blame on the other party and absolving himself.
And this is where Sylvie feels sorry for him, because no matter how much he touts up being all-knowing, royal and badass, he's just a scared child. He masks his cries for help with his crimes, and all this time he's lashed out as he never opened his mind or heart to what love truly is.
Loki stars Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Sophia Di Martino, Richard E. Grant, Sasha Lane and Eugene Cordero. New episodes air Wednesdays on Disney+.