(And not inc*st either, jeez)

TLDR at the bottom

I am so tired of hearing this. It's like people didn't pay actual attention while watching the show!

First of all, about Loki's narcissism in general. Narcissistic personality disorder is a true personality disorder diagnosis, but I think it is a bit pointless and too restrictive to truly try to diagnose a fictional character, because the diagnostic criteria for a personality disorder are in reality quite rigid and in fiction they act more like plot-devices than something that is meant to be taken literal.

But Loki is characterized as being narcissistic here and it is something he realizes and stops being when he is confronted with Sif's simulation. It has little, and by this point nothing, to do with Sylvie. Instead, it is established that Loki does bad things for attention because he is scared of being alone.

So, now about Sylvie.

When Loki first hears about this Variant of his he is intrigued, wants to prove that he is the most superior Loki there is and wants them to assist him in ruling the TVA. Mobius correctly assesses that Loki does this because of "insecure need of validation". So yeah, at the very beginning it is about Loki's "narcissism" and his supposed "love for himself", or rather curiosity and being intrigued because he wants to use this Variant to take over the TVA (which is a facade because, as established, he is actually very, very insecure about himself and his relationships with others, and this is why he seeks out attention and positions of power, like taking over the TVA. At this point he has nothing else or feels he has nothing else because his timeline has been pruned).

I know some of the series' creators have talked about it being funny that Loki falls for a variant of himself but this really all concerns Loki pre-character development. Because yeah, when Loki still behaves in this self-centered way, it is kind of funny that it is a variant of himself that he ends up falling in love with. But when Loki meets Sylvie and interacts with her, he actually changes being like that.

Yes, they do bond over their similarities. Yes, this is an allegory for self-love. But this is another, non-narcissistic/non-incestous kind of self-love I'll address later.

Notably, they also very much bond over their differences. Loki is intrigued that she taught herself magic, that she always knew about her adoption, and later at the lake he is intrigued about Sylvie managing to survive and run from the TVA all those years on her own. Sylvie is intrigued by Loki's eclectic use of magic, and she is visibly touched when he recounts his relationship with his mum. His mum isn't her mum, and when she tells Loki that it sounds like his mum was proud of him she is solely doing this for him, not for her own sake. And while she is annoyed by his silliness it is also something she finds endearing (see the moment when Loki mocks Sylvie's "Love is hate" and she starts smiling for the first time, for example).

And noticeably, when they do talk about their similarities, it becomes a thing where they start to support each other: talking about how Loki's survive, and later in the void that they are stronger than they realize. This is where the self-love elements come in: Loki does not love Sylvie because she is like himself. But Loki starts to love himself more because of his love for Sylvie. This is an important distinction. Because he loves her despite there being things that are similar between them. So he starts to love himself despite there being parts of himself that he maybe doesn't like but he realizes that this shouldn't be in the way of loving yourself because you don't have to be perfect and flawless in order to be worthy of love.

Now, Mobius is someone who in-universe calls their relationship "narcissistic" on Loki's part. But context is so important here. Mobius believes that Loki has betrayed him and he's lashing out at him. He still somewhat believes the propaganda that variants are all the same, which Loki rejects when he corrects Mobius's "you fell for yourself!" with "her name was Sylvie." Later, when Mobius finds out the truth and finds out that he is a variant himself, he takes everything back: he tells Loki that he can be whoever, whatever he wants to be and he even encourages his relationship with Sylvie:

"Whatever this relationship is, I think it has the power to bring [the entire TVA] down."

There is no judgement whatsoever anymore. He also apparently talked to Sylvie in the car in the Void about it and encouraged her, too, as we see by her bringing it up to Loki:

Sylvie: "So... Mobius and his, uh....theory..."

Loki: "Right, right, about our Nexus Event."

She wouldn't bring this up to Loki if Mobius said anything negative about it to her. She is already scared of her feelings as they are.

Apropos Void, here, Loki exhibits truly selfless behavior that shows that there is no narcissism involved. He is willing to die distracting Alioth with his flaming sword to give Sylvie a chance to reach her goal. Then, when the two try to enchant Alioth together, he is risking his life again even though he doesn't think he can actually perform enchantment. He closes his eyes and thinks he is going to die but he doesn't flee because he won't abandon her. "You go, I go." There is no narcissism here.

And then, in the citadel, he goes even further. He loves Sylvie for herself, and he does not want to betray her or her to even think that he is betraying her. But he is willing to destroy his bond with her to protect her from making a terrible mistake and endangering the entire multiverse. And he again risks his life by teleporting between her sword and He Who Remains. Sylvie could have easily killed him there. She almost does kill him but he does it anyways. Again, no narcissism here.

And then there is him saying "I just want you to be okay." It cannot get any less narcissistic than this. He does not make this about himself. He does not say "I love you" or "I want you." He is only thinking about her well-being.

I get that some think this is a funny thing to say but it bothers me when people actually think that this is a narcissistic love from Loki when the story establishes that this is not the case.

(And briefly about the inc*st allegations, because I don't really want to engage in this nonsense. But Loki and Sylvie clearly do not have the same DNA. They are NOT the same person. There are 2 types of variants: 1: variants that look like you but made different decisions, like Series Loki, Sacred Timeline Loki, and president Loki, or the different Doctor Stranges in MOM. 2: variants like Loki, Sylvie and Alligator Loki, or the Peter Parkers in NWK. Variants like 2 could be compared to actors playing a role in a stage play. There are many different people who have played Hamlet and they are all not the same person. Just like many people played the role of "Loki" in the multiverse. Some are the same person and some are not. Would you think that it's inc•st if Loki started to date Alligator Loki? No, probably not. Because they are not the same person, and neither are Loki and Sylvie)

TLDR: Loki had narcissistic tendencies at the beginning of the series but he dropped them over the course of his character development. He loves Sylvie for who she is not because she is a variant of him. While some variants are the same, some are not and have even different families (see the Peter Parkers) hence Loki and Sylvie are not the same person.