Loki's TVA Twist Steals Sylvie's Comics Backstory | Screen Rant
Loki episode 3 dropped a major bomb about the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and the people who work there, and through this, the show is stealing Sylvie’s backstory from the comics. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is now moving forward with its Phase 4 after the Infinity Saga came to an end with Spider-Man: Far From Home following the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. As Phase 4 will cover both TV shows and movies, it kicked off with two TV shows – WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – and before it moves to the movie side with Black Widow, it’s bringing the God of Mischief back in Loki.
Loki was killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, but the time heist in Avengers: Endgame allowed him to escape, and that’s why he can now lead his own TV show. Loki sees the title character being brought to the TVA, an organization that oversees the timeline and makes sure everything happens as planned. The TVA is seizing Loki’s talents and using him on a big mission: catch another Loki variant that has been creating chaos across space and time. This variant turned out to be Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), believed to be Enchantress instead of Lady Loki, and in that case, the MCU has just stolen her comic book backstory for the TVA.
The first episode of Loki featured Miss Minutes, the TVA’s mascot, in an informative video about the origin of the TVA, the Time Keepers' role, and how the multiverse and its potential madness are created. Miss Minutes explained that the Time Keepers created the TVA and its workers, and Loki later confirmed this with Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson). However, this was revealed to be a lie in episode 3, where Sylvie told Loki that all the TVA’s employees are also variants, who were normal humans at one point, but for some reason were brainwashed and are now trapped working for the TVA, with no recollection of their past lives. This is reminiscent of Sylvie’s backstory in the comics, where she was also a normal human until Loki arrived.
Sylvie, at first referred to simply as The Variant, was initially believed to be Lady Loki, but her name and more are now pointing at her actually being Sylvie Lushton, the second Enchantress in Marvel Comics. Sylvie was a young woman who believed she gained powers overnight, but in reality, she was being used as a puppet by Loki, who gave her magical powers with the purpose of infiltrating teams who called themselves “Avengers”. Surely, most (if not all) of the people working at the TVA didn’t mess with the timeline on purpose to become variants trapped as employees, so in that sense, their stories are reminiscent of that of Sylvie Lushton and how she was targeted by Loki to become something else, leaving her once-normal life behind without her wanting it.
There’s still a lot more to learn about the TVA, their real purpose, the Time Keepers’ goals, and Sylvie’s backstory, as well as how all of these will connect and affect this new Loki. Sylvie’s antagonist role might also be a result of the TVA’s actions, hence why she wants to bring them down and meet the Time Keepers, further changing her backstory from the one in the comics and making her a unique version of the Enchantress or a combination with Lady Loki.