Welcome to my Mega Problematic Sylvie post
I wanted to make a list of everything problematic about Sylvie in s1 and s2 because she gets away with whatever she wants and it bugs me to no end that she never takes accountability for any of the pain she causes.
You have been warned. So let's get into it.
1. Sylvieâs way is the only way and she expects everyone else to just bend to her will without complaint
2. She is physically mentally and emotionally incapable of trusting anyone besides herself
3. She uses other people's emotions to manipulate them into getting what she wants
4. She refuses to even entertain the possibility that anything besides her own opinion is correct
5. She criticizes others' attempts to clean up the mess she caused while she herself does absolutely nothing about it
6. Always looking to ruin and run, taking the easy way out and avoiding any accountability
7. Puts her own need for revenge above the well-being of everyone else in the multiverse
8. Blames everyone else for the problems she herself caused
9. Insults everyone at the TVA for their lack of empathy despite it being the exact reason she didn't want to return in the first place. Every critique she delivers just illustrates how much of a hypocrite she is
10. Berates Mobius and all the people who are actually trying to fix her problem even though they never once blamed her for the mess they're in
11. Acts like she's doing everyone a favor just for being there and insulting everyone when in reality, Loki had to ask multiple times before finally getting her to return
12. Never willing to put in more effort than just destroying everything and walking away
13. Even when directly asked for her help, Sylvie straight up refuses. She couldn't care less about anything besides her McDonald's employee-of-the-month badge
14. Sylvie gaslights Loki into thinking they're the same, that she's not in the wrong because they're both only thinking of themselves. In reality, Sylvie is thinking only of going back to her own timeline, alone, while Loki is thinking only of making his friends happy, because that's what makes him happy too.
15. While being completely unsympathetic to Loki struggling with his greatest fear, Sylvie makes the decision that Loki's friend's are all better off where they are now. But is it really better for them, or just better for Sylvie?
16. And now, after 11 episodes and countless requests for Sylvie's help, she actually cares about the rest of the multiverse. And yet it's still solely because her own timeline is finally in danger
17. When Loki ends up sacrificing himself to solve the problem Sylvie created, her only response is a joyful shrug that she's now happy, alone, and responsibility-free.
Overall, I know Sylvie's only purpose as a character is to be a darker mirror of Loki and everything she does is understandably informed by her trauma. This is likely a result of having a limited-episode-series and having all male/not diverse writers creating female characters. Sylvie is used only as a comparison to Loki before he met Mobius, and unfortunately is never given any thoughtful character moments like Loki had showing how he was aware that his actions hurt others. In 1x1, Loki talks about how he doesnât enjoy hurting people and only does it to maintain control. The only time we ever see Sylvie reconsider her actions is when she didnât kill Timely, which I think is more because she saw herself in Timely as someone who didnât want to be controlled by their âdestiny,â not because she developed any kindness or compassion toward him.
I understand the fact that Sylvie was never given someone like Mobius to allow her the opportunity to change like Loki did, but I don't think that should excuse her causing so much pain and being so self-centered. Sylvie never trusted or cared about anyone and that's also my biggest argument against Sylki; her loving or being driven by anyone besides herself is just so inconsistent with her entire character.
Anyway, my purpose here was not to be hateful or to search for any reason to criticize Sylvie, but instead to look critically at her character since I've seen a lot of people praise her as the strong, independent female Loki whose behavior can always be forgiven. Unfortunately, the way she was written is that Sylvie turned her own trauma into everybody else's problem and they all spent 2 seasons trying to clean up her mess. That's my take thank you and goodnight
