Eternals (Spoilers)

[Ryujin]

That was a fait accompli they didn't need to consider.

I disagree. If the argument is that 94% of their remembered lives have been in combat, with only 6% being in relative peacetime, then the type of leader that they are familiar with from that 94% has a great deal of bearing on how they would move forward.

 

[billd91]

And there, we have to stop for a second. Thanos claims to be a Titan. Unless there's adoption involved, that means Eros is also a Titan. That implies that the Titans are Eternals, but not under Arishem's rule. Interesting that Arishem would not stop one of his own creations from eliminating half the population he needs to birth new Celestials, isn't it?

And in the comics, Thanos is the son of an Eternal (though with Deviant Syndrome) and the Titans were a colony of Eternals.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I liked it more than I expected to. I don't feel that the characters were interesting enough. (I mean, my favorite characters after watching it were Gilgamesh and Kingo's Valet - I don't think that should be the takeaway). Also, their powers were both weirdly unique-to-them and yet all the same, making them shockingly forgettable/interchangeable for such a diverse cast.

But it was a lot more watchable than I expected after all the negativity I've heard.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Edit: and we're meant to think that this group that is struggling to take on 1-3 deviants midway through the movie is the same group that killed alllll of the deviants as of 400 years ago.

It was five Deviants total in the main jungle fight. Also, look at how out of shape professional athletes can get with just a year or two away from their sport. Now think about these Eternals not having to fight anything for over 400 years. They may not have been physically out of shape because their synthetic bodies don't do that, but their mental skills and fighting skills and teamwork skills turned to mush in that time. And also, when they finally get back together to deal with the thawed out Deviants, they have to do it without the one who was their leader for 7000 years. And with a traitor trying to screw them over.

 

[Tonguez]

My main problem was that basically Arishem and Tiamut came across as discount Galactus, with the Eternals filling in for both the Silver Surfer and the Fantastic Four. And it seems really weird for Marvel to be doing a discount Galactus story.

To be fair the Celestials are discount Galactus, nobody would dispute that

Theyre both super cosmic beings from before their respective big bangs, but Galactus is the Devourer of Worlds whereas Arishem mere judges them. As to why Marvel did it, I suspect it was because Inhumans was a flop and the Celestials had already been seeded

 

[Umbran]

To be fair the Celestials are discount Galactus, nobody would dispute that

I would. But I don't think it a valuable exercise to do so here.

 

[Gammadoodler]

It was five Deviants total in the main jungle fight. Also, look at how out of shape professional athletes can get with just a year or two away from their sport. Now think about these Eternals not having to fight anything for over 400 years. They may not have been physically out of shape because their synthetic bodies don't do that, but their mental skills and fighting skills and teamwork skills turned to mush in that time. And also, when they finally get back together to deal with the thawed out Deviants, they have to do it without the one who was their leader for 7000 years. And with a traitor trying to screw them over.

That is an explanation, sure. But it's not well supported by the movie. Based on the movie they walked off their spaceship at apparently peak fighting capability despite "never" fighting these deviants before. Which do you think is worse, coming back to fight something you've fought for thousands of years, or fighting something for the first time?

In fairness though, the overall scope and extent of the fighting they had to do over those thousands of years wasn't ever really established. Was it a few deviants a week, a decade, a millennium? It may be that the Eternals are less a crack team of hardened warriors and more like reservists in the national guard, called up for emergencies and some occasional training exercises but otherwise doing something else with their time.

Ultimately, it was one of those things where I kept asking myself, even during the movie, "How powerful are these characters supposed to be?"

TBH, I still don't know the answer, so the best I can come up with is "as arbitrarily strong or weak as the plot requires them to be."

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

TBH, I still don't know the answer, so the best I can come up with is "as arbitrarily strong or weak as the plot requires them to be."

So basically like nearly every other superhero/villain ever?

 

[Janx]

Now I would buy that argument, if the original leader wasn't the party's healer.

that and they had 400 years to contemplate.

What kind of shallow person doesn't reconsider their philosophies given 400 years of downtime?

Phaistos did. Heck, why isn't he in charge?

 

[the Jester]

And in the comics, Thanos is the son of an Eternal (though with Deviant Syndrome) and the Titans were a colony of Eternals.

Should we tell him about the Skrulls?