#ikarsi

>> Ajak tells Ikaris everything (the truth about the upcoming Emergence on Earth in few thousand years) as a secret much before, in 575 B.C Babylon!

>> Ikaris is shocked & shattered to know that the humans they've been told to "protect" from deviants are destined to die

>> it gets hard for him to live with them knowing the truth as they continue loving humans & their world (Druig wants to bring peace & harmony; Phastos wants to help them advance as a species & oh! his dear Sersi! She wants to be with them, be a part of them & spread love)

>> Ikaris knows the longer he'll stay with them all, esp. with Sersi, the harder it'll be to keep the secret a secret, & once they all know, esp. Sersi, she'll be devastated knowing what's going to happen to Earth, to humans, & that they won't be able to do a thing until their team leader commands. So, he leaves.

>> leaving Sersi wasn't at all easy for him, that's the last thing he ever wanted. But he didn't want to hurt her, couldn't see her getting devastated, so he leaves her with a heavy heart. It was very dificult staying isolated, away from them all, from her, all these centuries!

>> now in present day, Ajak suddenly tells him they all should stop the emergence as after exploring human world & loving it, she wants to save it.

>> so, if they had to save the Earth, what were all of Ikaris' sacrifices for!? Leaving all his family? Leaving Sersi, the love of his life!?? Staying in isolation? Living with the truth every single day as it kills him? Everything to waste? Of no use? His sacrifice, his patience, his tolerance, his loneliness? For nothing? He would've rather lived a happy life then with Sersi if Earth was going to be saved

>> this is why at this point, Ikaris couldn't afford to be emotional, to be loose and weak & decides to let Emergence happen. 'A loyal soldier' was rather more of a convincing excuse to hide the real reason - his sacrifice of giving up life with Sersi will go to waste if he helps Emergence delay.

>> Emergence wasn't a villainous act from cosmic pov, it was a natural process (had happened many times in past & will keep happening again in future), so supporting that plan didn't make Ikaris a villain or a bad guy at all! He knew he would die too.

So please STOP calling him a straight up villain of the movie. It's so sad to read all such things on Tumblr & mostly Instagram. If anything, we should feel bad for him, sympathise with him & understand that he had to carry the burden of Ajak's secret!

From the first second to the last, I enjoy every minute of it. I love the characters, the relationships, the dynamics, the visuals, the performances. It all connected with me and kept me invested throughout the long runtime. Never, in either showing, did I get bored or become aware of how long I’d been watching - which I did with Dune. Every character was given enough content for me to invest in them and understand them well enough throughout the plot - which isn’t an easy thing to do with a handful of characters - let alone 10. It was the one concern I had before seeing it - Will it balance the ensemble well enough? - and I honestly think it did. While I would obviously love to see more from them - I never felt like I didn’t get enough — which is a sign of success in my book.

Notes with spoilers and no order to them:

First off - Druig is my fave. I knew it from the moment he entered the screen and was very happy to see he didn’t become the villain and/or get killed off. That was a nice surprise - since that’s what always happens to the characters I decide I like. I will accept all the content about him - he is such an interesting character - even more so now I’ve watched it again. There is so much to say about him - though I can’t quite think up what that is in words yet - might have to wait for it’s full release. Though I will say one thing - and I saw someone else say this first and they were absolutely right - Druig isn’t grouchy/grumpy. He’s snarky and blunt about what he thinks/feels - but he’s not grumpy - I’d say Sprite actually fits that category better.

I obviously adore the relationship between Druig and Makkari - it may just be the best live action relationship I’ve ever seen - and I don’t usually get that invested in romantic stuff. I think it’s so compelling because they are using other forms of affection to show their love - like the forehead touches and hugging - rather than just kissing. It feels more refreshing to see other ways of showing affection - and not just in a romantic sense either - because there is so much more to love than just romantic. (I have no idea if that makes any sense). The same can be said about Dane and Sersi - they don’t just kiss each other to show they care for one another - I actually thought their most tender moments were when they embraced. I was definitely rooting for him over Ikaris.

Especially after this second viewing, I am super interested in the relationships Druig has with both Ikaris and Sersi - I wanna find some fic’s exploring those dynamics but haven’t spotted any yet. Druig and ikaris really come across as having that brotherly rivalry because they just can’t see eye to eye. While ikaris is totally focused on Ajak and her leadership, druig is seeing the people of whom he wishes to protect - thanks to his power, he can’t separate himself from their pain which makes him question the logic of their orders. It’s a tumultuous relationship which I wanna see more of - the line which sticks in my head when ikaris tries to kill druig is - “I should have done this five centuries ago.” There’s a lot that can be unpacked in that statement - as well as the impact the attack could have on druig as a survivor of ikaris’s wrath.

Then there’s the contrast of Druig and Sersi’s relationship - where she sees the light in him - has faith in him - even when others treat him like the worst. That’s always a beautiful dynamic to explore - especially with her sharing the connection she has with Druig’s biggest rival, Ikaris. Also I noticed this time in the film that druig is the one who realises Sersi’s strength and potential - before they even leave the Domo, he points out her defeat of the deviant, he knows she has the ability to do what needs to be done - she just doesn’t see it herself yet. When he says he’s “got this”, I think he knows he won’t succeed - especially with Ikaris still out there - but he can buy a bit of time for Sersi to realise the truth. He does go to help her instead or return to the fight - he shows the same faith she always showed in him. (I don’t know if any of that is true - but that’s the reading I got this time.)

Speaking of that moment with Druig in the final fight - while he does knock Sprite out with little remorse - and it is a pretty great moment - he never actually leave her the whole time she down. You can see he’s still there when they all connect to the Unimind and they return together to the beach - which I think shows how he’ll do what’s right to protect - but he still cares enough not to cross that line Ikaris does.

I haven’t seen anyone comment on this as of yet - but it made me love ^ that ^ Drukkari moment even more. Obviously this is a beautiful moment for Druig and Makkari, but the shot I particularly like is where Sprite is perfectly framed by the pair just before they break apart and exit the shot. (Below) The vision of Sprite watching them from afar - seeing the love Druig and Makkari have for one another - the love she has never been able to experience for herself - is truly heartbreaking. She is unable to see past the thing she is denied as it’s constantly plastered in her face by the people around her showing and receiving love. She is longing for connection yet can only find isolation. So in this shot of such compelling love and unity - which is now everywhere - there is such pain and loneliness which remains present but overlooked… like Sprite. It’s a great shot. (GIF isn’t mine and the screenshot is from this video)

Makkari is a FORCE! Obviously she was incredible when she fought Ikaris - but you can also see her strength in all the flashbacks too. Every time you’d see Ikaris fighting a Deviant - Makkari wouldn’t be far behind him - and she goes so fast it’s likely she was actually there before him too. She is truly amazing and not someone to mess with.

I really love Kingo and Sprites relationship - it really worked well. Their heart to hearts allowed us to see the vulnerable sides which they hide behind their respective attitudes - Kingo with his outspokenness and Sprite with her snark. They clearly bond the strongest with one another. One of their standout moments for me was in the Amazon fight, Kingo gets thrown through one of the shacks and Sprite refuses to leave him, she tries hiding them with an illusion and when that fails Kingo just throws himself over Sprite to protect her. It’s not a big moment - but I noticed it this time round and it’s stuck with me. I wanna see their adventures with Karun the valet - it’d be fun.

Also Karun is precious

Thena and Gilgamesh were also a perfect pairing - I love the shot of him taking her hand in the introductory fight - he has such respect for her and it set up their bond perfectly. Though I did expect him to get killed off - that’s usually what happens to the caretaker character - so while it hurt like hell - I wasn’t shocked.

Gilgamesh was so pure - the tough guy softy is the best character type - and it’s portrayed brilliantly with his learning about Ajak’s death. The pie falling is quite comical and you don’t know whether to laugh, but then he takes the pan and crumples it like paper and collapses into the chair overwhelmed with grief - you know this is a completely serious and heartbreaking moment - not to be laughed at.

A fun thing I didn’t pick up on the first time was that Druig is nearly always eating something in the scenes he’s in and I love that - it’s a nice little character trait.

The big question I still have though, is can Druig only control the minds of humans, or can he also control the minds of sentient beings - like Eternals and/or Deviants? Thena does say Gilgamesh asked him to put her to sleep once - but I can’t work out if that was just a joke or something he genuinely could do.

Anyway, I’m definitely missing things, but this has gotten really long so I’m gonna call it quits there. I love this film and it’s characters so much - which is something I haven’t felt in a while with an MCU film (certainly not at this level anyway). I mean I actually saw it a second time - which I haven’t done since Endgame - and y’know what, I wouldn’t say no to seeing it again. It was brilliant!