Eternals has a lot to answer for in terms of the titular group's absence from human history. An immortal race of god-like beings created by the even more god-like Celestials, the Eternals will make their MCU bow in Chloé Zhao's highly-anticipated effort, now set for November 2021. As revealed in the Eternals trailer, the likes of Sersi, Ikaris and Kingo arrived on Earth thousands of years ago, while man was still in its primitive phase. Assimilating into human society, the Eternals have remained hidden ever since, and will only make their presence known in the year 2023 of MCU reckoning. This poses a tricky moral question for the gang - why didn't they lend the Avengers a hand against Thanos?
Sersi tries addressing this issue in the latest Eternals trailer. According to Gemma Chan's character, they've been subtly guiding humanity from the shadows, advancing technology and providing a valuable helping hand, but never directly interfering in the affairs of man. This suggests that when Thanos threatened the entire universe, the Eternals had no choice but to sit out. Unfortunately, this reasoning is flimsier than John Walker's homemade Captain America shield. What dictates that the Eternals can help develop Earth's agricultural techniques, but can't stop a raving Titan decimating half of all life?
While the Eternals' relationship to Thanos is important, the group have an even bigger question to answer - why they sat back and allowed Earth's worst historic atrocities to happen? From wars and genocides to famine and disease, the Eternals have been idle long before Thanos, and their non-interference policy makes even less sense in this context. The Eternals trailer literally shows Sersi irrigating dry crops on human farmland. If this act falls within the parameters of "permitted interference," why is hunger still so prevalent across the world - especially in the post-Blip landscape depicted by Falcon & The Winter Soldier?
Like religious leaders in real life, the Eternals might argue that humanity requires the free will to make its own mistakes; that without war, hardship and disaster, Earth can never reach its full potential, and interference from the Eternals would prevent that. This argument only goes so far, however. As a result of the aforementioned historic atrocities, children have been killed, entire races have been persecuted, and those in desperate need have been routinely exploited by the rich and powerful. At any time, an Eternal might've swooped in and solved these issues with their immense power or advanced technology, and neglecting to do so serves as a damning indictment of the aliens' mindset. If they were so hellbent on leaving humanity to its own devices, why settle on Earth at all? Why interfere a little bit, but stop short of making a meaningful effort to wipe out suffering?
When Eternals finally releases later this year, deeper reasons for the team's neglect will almost certainly come to light. Perhaps Sersi and the others tried to take a stronger hand with humans, but only made things worse. They might've become jaded and bitter by humanity's uncanny ability to be its own worst enemy, and simply gave up. With that said, the Eternals trailer gives no indication of such ill-feeling, as Sersi speaks proudly of Earthlings, and the group jokingly discuss who the next Avengers leader will be. Nonetheless, a darker reason for the Eternals' lack of help during mankind's darkest moments may emerge.
Eternals might also reveal that our planet's secret settlers didn't involve themselves in human history because the Celestials prevented them from doing so, though this explanation raises ethical questions of its own. If Tony Stark can sacrifice himself to defeat Thanos, surely the Eternals can risk the Celestials' wrath by preventing a World War, or holding back a devastating tsunami. The only justifiable reason for being so laissez-faire would be the Celestials threatening to destroy Earth (or the entire galaxy) if the natural course of history were altered. Most of the Eternals could've desperately wanted to intervene, both during Thanos and long before, but couldn't without risking an even graver threat from beyond the stars.
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