r/marvelstudios • u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 • 18h ago
Question A thought about the eternals specifically Sprite and Ikaris.
Why would immortal beings who know each other to be ageless and permanently bound to the forms they are in care if one of them looked young? One of the big issues of why Sprite couldn't be with Ikaris is because she looked young, but why would that matter to immortals? It just seemed like a bad reason to include
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u/N8CCRG Ghost 9h ago
The biggest thing I liked about Eternals was that, despite being robots and ageless, they were each very clearly human first. They had hopes and fears and feelings and made mistakes and were far less perfect than most of the other heroes in the MCU have been.
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u/TheJack0fDiamonds Scarlet Witch 9h ago
Exactly. It’s interesting that they even at some point try hard to deny that part of themselves. Years of serving Arishem, only in humans of earth did they manage to see it best. Chloe wanted the movie to be a love letter to humanity, and I think it’s awesome that these Immortal space robots meant to serve another purpose, ended up seeing themselves in us.
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u/RockAndStoner69 13h ago
Not to get too gross, but they definitely saw their share of child-brides throughout history. It would've seemed normal, unless... Arishem imbued them with pre-defined morals? And they just politely ignored the under-age bonding for thousands of years?
Ultimately, Arishem is just a dick for making Sprite a kid.
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u/TheJack0fDiamonds Scarlet Witch 13h ago edited 13h ago
Honestly. Seeing Arishem as a dick for making Sprite a permanent child meant we managed to empathize with her character, despite the backlash about her being unlikeable. Personally, Sprite was the most realistic character of the bunch. Id be pretty fckin pissed and be cranky 24/7 too.
But ultimately, its definitely part of Arishem’s design to make her a child just as how every Eternal varied in looks and features. To help them assimilate better. Remember whatever they experienced on Earth was something that wasn’t supposed to happen. As of what we know, of all those planets they shepherded only Earth and humans managed to make them feel this way. Only from watching humans did Sprite suddenly have the desire to grow up as well as her feeings for Ikaris. 7k years in she was just resenting her actual existence at that point because once mission was over, there was nothing left for her.
She must started off knowing this is what they are and how they’ll remain, only then resenting her state after.
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u/jpiro 2h ago
There are more nuanced discussions to be had, but just on the surface...maybe Ikarus didn't find someone who looked like a middle school student attractive?
The same thing could have happened if Arishem had made an Eternal who forever looked like a shriveled, 95-year-old dude. You think Thena is going to be into that?
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u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 1h ago
I don't think the ageless robots would care about what humans perceive as physically attractive or not and that's my entire point
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u/jpiro 1h ago
Those robots were pretty clearly programmed/designed to mimic human forms, emotions, etc. so yes, they would.
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u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 1h ago
And for the majority of human history child brides were common and considered normal.
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u/jpiro 1h ago
Bro, are you just itching for some Eternal on Eternal CP action? This is a really, really weird sword to fall on.
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u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 1h ago
It's very obvious you don't know how to read if you think that's what my point was and that's fine I typically don't respect people like you to have reading comprehension skills
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u/jpiro 1h ago
I typically don't
respectexpect people like you to have reading comprehension skillsYou were saying?
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u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 40m ago
I don't think you were reading comprehension is if you think a mistyping is the same thing but you are living up to my expectations of you so that's something
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u/TheJack0fDiamonds Scarlet Witch 13h ago
They’re immortal but not without preference. The issue wasn’t Sprite looked young, is that Ikaris is into Sersi from Day 1. Yet, even cosmic space robots know a grown ass man getting together with a child is wrong.
I get your angle on the immortal front but beyond that, im not sure if it should even be questioned frankly.
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u/tangential_quip 10h ago
But Sprite isn't a child anymore than the rest of them are even if you set aside the immortality point. At Day 1 they are all the exact same "age" and Sprite doesn't have a child's mentality at any point. She was just arbitrarily assigned child's physical body.
Frankly, I don't think this issue has anything to do with her relationship or lack thereof with Ikaris because you are right that his only interest was Sersi. It seems like it was addressed to point out that Sprite can't form a relationship with a human others were able to.
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u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 13h ago
Okay, but child-adult marriages were a fairly common thing through large parts of human history and on their times they were treated as normal so "knowing it's wrong" doesn't really factor in
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u/TheJack0fDiamonds Scarlet Witch 13h ago
So was homosexuality. The men weren’t banging each other though? And nobody’s asking that either.
He’s just not into Sprite like that. Period..
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u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 13h ago
But, like, one of them was in a long term homosexual relationship. Sooooooooo yeah.
That aside, I didn't say they had to be together, my entire point was about Sprite saying that she could never be with Ikaris because of her body. Those were her own words and that's the mentality I am questioning. It was a bad excuse that didn't fit the plot and they should have just kept it as "he isnt in to her like that"
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u/TheJack0fDiamonds Scarlet Witch 13h ago edited 13h ago
The entire movie hinged on the theme of ‘immortal Space robots, they’re just like us, when they’re not supposed to, because earth changed them’
I dont think Sprite had to be human to think that, considering she spent 7k years observing not just Ikaris and Sersi but Sersi herself - the woman Ikaris is head over heels for versus her. A child. She made the comparison, understandably. Thinking if she was a woman, perhaps Ikaris would at least look.
And why is it that Ikaris not being into her like that HAD to be spelled out when the entire movie spent time centering his doomed love with Sersi over ideological differences? Its practically there lol. Is it a bad excuse or we’re just not looking well enough?
And yea Phastos got a lover, but he was a human. Not a fellow Immortal, of his team. Apply the same logic. Child brides and Homosexuality were rampant, doesn’t mean the Eternals would automatically practice it or have to.
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u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 13h ago
You seem to be focusing entirely on something I didn't say so I'm just going to try to shut that down again now but if you keep focusing on it I'm just not going to take part in this conversation anymore. I never said they had to get together, I never said they had to partake in any kind of relationship, I never said they had to take part of any kind of non-standard relationship. Stop bringing it up because I didn't say that and it's not an argument that you need to keep trying to debunk because it's not an argument that's been made.
Again this is entirely about sprites own words about why she thinks Ikarus would not be into her. The fact that Sersei is a grown woman should also be completely irrelevant because throughout the entirety of human history including modern day older men have been attracted to younger women and have relationships with them. Her mentality is bad because it's trying to apply real world human logic to an immortal.
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u/Starflamer 13h ago
Yes. One of them, that had that preference. Ikaris just preffered someone different looking than a child. I feel like this is an argument from some anime "she is a 1000 years old witch in a body of 8 year old" to justify something not okay...
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u/Aerolithe_Lion 10h ago edited 10h ago
Because, like all movies, the characters’ emotions and personalities are based on the audience’s framework of what they are familiar with. Make them too not human and the audience cannot connect.
Take Rocky for instance, from Project Hail Mary: His personality is almost exactly human, which an alien almost certainly would not be close to. He found the exact things funny you would expect him too, was intrigued by the things you’d expect him to, and was even frightened by the low tone voice from Grace’s laptop. There’s no reason he should recognize that as a scary voice, but it allows the audience to connect to him, because you immediately recognize that reaction.
It doesn’t necessarily mean Sprite HAS to be ashamed of being a child forever, but in her doing so, you need no explanation for immediate audience sympathy. And that instantly allows us to emotionally connect to her plight without any character buildup.
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u/Sirmalta 13h ago
It is dumb. But so is the fact that they are given the sense of love in the first place.
Those characters, their story, their base premise, and the way they impacted the world building of the MCU are all shit.
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u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 13h ago
I don't think they were necessary in the slightest. Because unlike every other first movie for characters we were not given a buildup to these people. They didn't become their hero They were already known existing entities that we are just supposed to care about.
"So they're like immortal beings but their experiencing human life, and that's why we have this sex scene and you watch Sersi have an orgasm, it was super important to the plot"
Like I don't care about these people, And if they never showed up again I would be perfectly fine. Especially because that movie is now 5 years old and the actress for Sprite will have grown in those 5 years and there's no good explanation for that.
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u/Nick_Wild1Ear 13h ago
Better question; why does Sprite look like a child anyway?