18 Fan Theories About 'Eternals' That Actually Make A Lot Of Sense

From Redditor u/SicknessVoid:

TL;DR: The Avengers could have won against Thanos in many ways, but if the snap doesn't happen and isn't reversed the events of Eternals don't happen and a Celestial destroys Earth.

So, we all know Dr. Strange's infamous line about only one timeline out of 14 Million leads to victory against Thanos. This single line is the only reason why all the ways Fans have come up with since the release of infinity war to defeat Thanos don't work apparently. But what if I told you that all the ways people thought of DO work? What if I told you that Thor going for the head would have actually stopped Thanos?

The problem is, for the Earth to survive, Thanos has to succeed and the Avengers have to reverse his actions. Because otherwise a giant celestial will bust out of the earth's core a few years later with no one able to stop it.

Let me explain further, the events of Eternals only happen the way they do because Thanos' snap was reversed. Because Thanos' snap was reversed Ajak decides that humanity is worth saving. This sets in motion the events of Eternals. In a timeline where the Avengers succeed against Thanos, there is no snap to reverse. In this timeline Ajak and Icarus never tell the other Eternals about the Celestial sleeping in the Earth's core and it destroys Earth when it busts out a few years later.

Dr. Strange probably saw hundreds or even millions of timelines where the Avengers actually win, but all of these timelines eventually lead to Earth's destruction. The only one where it doesn't happen is the one in which Thanos snaps and then his snap is undone.

From Redditor u/hoenndex:

There is a perfectly good reason why this diversity in the Eternals is brilliant. If Eternals are supposed to guide humanity, the success rate increases tremendously if you have Eternals that look like members of the group they want to guide. Imagine you are a member of an African or Asian tribe in the year BC5000, how suspicious would you be if the team of Eternals showed up as a team of pure white guys? But add some members who look like your in-group, now there is someone who looks familiar to you, and the Eternals could use that person as their main person to initiate contact.

Diversity of Eternals group increases the chances of successfully befriending a group. It uses in-group out-group psychology to the Eternals advantage. This also explains why one Eternal is deaf and another permanently looks like a child-they can approach people with disabilities and children, respectively, and meet them at an even ground.

From Redditor u/jonoave:

Why did Arishem design Makkari to be deaf?

A semi-canon explanation is that the being deaf prevent Makkari to withstand the sonic booms she creates from her superspeed. But why could't Arishem design her to use a superspeed without being deaf?

Now, first it's important to understand Arishem's goal - to birth Celestials. He's a powerful being, but he's not a "perfect designer" or "God" as humans tend to refer too.

Arishem is actually pretty human in his trial-by-error approach, that he keeps doubling down on his error and fix them as they come along.

First he make Deviants to eat predators -> Oops, Deviants evolve to eat humans -> Create Eternals that can't evolve -> Oops Eternals instead develop emotions and personality

This is similar to so many things humans do in real life: E.g. Pest beetles in Australia -> They bring in cane toads --> Cane toads become new invasive species, destroying local fauna -> now offers bounties to catch and kill cane toads.

Arishem just wanted someone with superspeed, so he just made that person deaf to use that power. He probably didn't think of it as a disability of inconvenience to Makkari, he just wanted a superspeed soldier. Or even care at all.

Same with Sprite, he just wanted an illusionist without considering the pain and struggle she will face as a kid that doesn't age.

There was a good line by Sprite "why did Arishem made me this way?" The answer is no one knows, probably Arishem doesn't even know himself and neither does he care. However, if somehow being deaf or being a kid prevented the goal of birthing a Celestial, Arishem might do somethng to "fix" this in the next generation of Eternals - who knows, maybe make them full androids?

And as real life analogy, I'm sure this same question would have crossed the mind of anyone who is struggling with something that the greater society frowns on. To add a religious aspect, we can even add "How do you know that being made is not part of (insert deity)'s grand design? We cannot understand (insert deity)'s plans, we just have to trust in (insert deity)'

From Redditor u/ProfessorOfLies:

As we see in Eternals, the Celestials seed some planets to become incubators for new Celestials. Once the planets have grown a certain amount of sentient life it hatches killing the inhabitants of the planet. My Theory is that Odin (or Bor) shielded the city of Asgard and the surrounding area from total annihilation when their celestial hatched. Hence when we see Asgard in the Thor movies, it isn't a full planet.

Further speculation to tie into other theories: The celestial that it birthed was Ego, who was beheaded and killed by Odin as he defended Asgard. The head became Knowhere and part of its brain survived to become the ego we knew and loved.

Odin had an Infinity Gauntlet (Thanos' was a copy) so either he or his father must have collected the stones. perhaps that was to save Asgard from the Celestial Birth.

From Redditor u/LuckyMe111:

TLDR: Dr Strange knew about the emergence so he made sure Thanos wins in Avengers: Infinity War.

I don't know if this has been posted around here, upon rewatching the Avengers: Infinity War in the scene where they are in Titan and strange saw 14,000,605 different futures and why he didn't stop star lord from punching Thanos when they was so close from taking the gauntlet from his hand, I think strange saw the future where they beat Thanos on titan and the snap didn't happen but later on the emergence happened, I think Dr. Strange purposely gave the stone for the snap to happen to delay the emergence and later on bring everyone back for the eternals and Ajak to see that earth is a planet that is worth betraying Arishem.

From Redditor u/cfbethel:

Tl;dr. The Eternals created the Ten Rings during a failed rebellion eons ago. The Rings were cast into space where they landed on Earth and were found by Wenwu who used them to create the Ten Rings organization.

In Eternals, it is revealed to Sersi that the Eternals are not the peacekeepers and protectors of Earth they think they are, but are instead helping birth a celestial which will result in the destruction of Earth and the death of all the humans. She also finds out that Earth is not the first planet they've helped destroy, they're significantly older than they thought they were, and there's other Eternals out in the universe (Eros, Pip the Troll). In an attempt to stop this, Phastos constructs ring devices for the Eternals so they can channel all their power into one of them.

In Shang-Chi, Wenwu's discovery of the Ten Rings gives him incredible power and allows him to live for over a thousand years. Further examination by Wong, Bruce Banner, and Captain Marvel indicate the Rings are significantly older than that and are cosmic in origin.

I believe that the Ten Rings came from a failed rebellion attempt by the Eternals against the Celestials several millennia earlier. While not explicitly said, it is quite possible that Eternals had a similar moment of revelation of their true purpose and chose to fight against it. I believe that is was during this conflict, that Phastos (or another engineering Eternal) actually made a set of ten rings for the Eternals to fight back. However, they ultimately fail, the planet they are trying to protect is destroyed, their memories are wiped, and the rings are cast into deep space to drift for eternity. Except they didn't. They just so happened to land on a small backwater planet called Earth where they were found by Wenwu who was able to access the power and immortality of the Eternals.

As for why Wenwu doesn't exhibit all ten powers the Eternals do, despite his intelligence and skills, he is only human as he's only scratched the surface of what the Rings are capable of. It's also very likely that he found a set of moves and powers that gave him enough of an edge to create his Empire. And while the comic origin of the Rings could still be used in some way, the story of how Wenwu found the Rings is vague enough that I think this origin makes more sense.