Loki is confirmed as the MCU's first openly bisexual character in Episode 3: 'I could cry right now'

Ethan Alter
·Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment
·6-min read

After two episodes of time-hopping shenanigans, Asgardian mischief-maker Loki (Tom Hiddleston) mostly stayed in one place (and one timeline) for the third installment of his eponymous Disney+ series. But that didn't make "Lamentis" any less dramatic. Midway through the episode — which was penned by Bisha K. Ali, the head writer of the upcoming Ms. Marvel series — the gender-fluid Loki casually disclosed that he's the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first openly bisexual character.

That revelation came in the midst of a conversation with his female counterpart, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) as the tricksters bonded over their variant histories while aboard a train criss-crossing Lamentis-1 — a distant moon hours away from experiencing an apocalyptic event. While discussing their romantic pasts, Sylvie asked whether Loki's status as an Asgardian prince meant that he was ever wooed by "princesses" or "perhaps another prince." Without missing a beat, Loki replied: "A bit of both. I suspect the same as you."

Not long after the episode dropped, director Kate Herron took to Twitter to confirm Loki's bisexual identity, and how it mirrors that of her own life. "It was very important to me, and my goal, to acknowledge that Loki is bisexual," she wrote. "It is part of who he is and who I am too."

Marvel fans immediately celebrated Loki's coming-out moment, and the artistry with which it was executed. Some also expressed optimism that Loki's small step will allow Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder to take a giant leap forward for LGTBQ+ representation in the MCU. Waititi's previous film, Thor: Ragnarok, famously omitted a scene that would have established Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie as Marvel's first bisexual hero. But both Thompson and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige have since gone on record as saying that Love and Thunder will allow Valkyrie to finally "find her queen."

Besides confirming Loki as the MCU's first bisexual hero, "Lamentis" also appears to confirm fan theories that Sylvie is a fusion of two Marvel Comics characters: Lady Loki and the Enchantress. As she explains to her counterpart, she adopted the name "Sylvie" as an "alias" that would make her independent from the other Loki variants. She also mastered a magical trick that eludes the Loki we're familiar with — the ability to inhabit other peoples' minds.

That particular power allows Sylvie to learn a key piece of intel about the Time Variance Authority and its supposed masters, the Time-Keepers. Although those heretofore unseen monitors of the "sacred timeline" are said to have created all of the agents who staff the TVA, it turns out that they've actually been employing variants who are unaware of their past selves. That means that Mobius' professed love for jet skis may not just be a character quirk — perhaps he was a pro wave rider in another multiverse.

Just like Henry Winkler once jumped that terrestrial shark, we're ready to see Owen Wilson jump a space-shark on a jet ski.

Loki is currently streaming on Disney+

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