The Eternals serve as precursors to heroes that appeared in the previous phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
Sersi with her transmutation powers is an Eternal version of Wanda Maximoff.
Ikaris, with his abilities of flight, strength, speed and shooting lasers from his head, is an Eternal version of the Vision. His stoic demeanor and his romantic connection to Sersi further this parallel. His arc of conflict with his duty precedes soldiers in the MCU (Captain America, Bucky, Okoye and Carol Danvers) having conflicts with their own service.
Thena precedes future warrior women in the MCU, notably the spear-wielders Sif and the Dora Milaje.
Gilgamesh is an Eternal predecessor to strong bruiser types like Hulk for the Avengers, Gorgon for the Inhumans, Luke Cage for the Defenders, M'Baku for Wakanda and Razor Fist for the 10 Rings. He also fits the role that Thor does, being a mythological warrior and the strongest of their team.
Phastos the inventor/mechanic is an Eternal predecessor to Tony Stark; both having ties to nuclear technology furthers that parallel (Stark with the Manhattan project, Phastos with Hiroshima). As a black man in gold who wields special technology, he also precedes Heimdall. Phastos' tech also seems to appear out of nowhere, suggesting he uses nanotech, making him the predecessor to Hank Pym.
Ajak is an Eternal version of the Ancient One, a wise and calm mentor who can achieve astral/mental projections. She is also this to Jaiyang from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Both are immortal, elderly Asiannote Salma Hayek is half-West Asian as she is Lebanese, though Ajak is technically not human women who lead a team of superhumans (Eternals and Inhumans). However, they both have ulterior motives, with Jaiyang wishing to destroy humans, whilst Ajak was willing to allow the Emergence to destroy Earth for Tiamut's birth. However, whilst Jaiyang fully embraces her evil plans, Ajak has a change of heart. Both of their respective healing powers reflect this too—Jaiyang can drain others' life force to heal herself, whilst Ajak can heal anyone (including herself) without such a cost.
Druig is an Eternal version of Mordo and Kaecilius; both eventually grew disillusioned with their service and left to seek their own way of doing things. He can also control minds like Wanda Maximoff, especially since they both took over a small settlement. His psychic powers and renegade/hermit personality make him a heroic foil to Kilgrave and Maximus Boltagon in a way.
Sprite is an Eternal version of Loki, a trickster who hides a ton of resentment against their adoptive sibling. On top of that, her status as an Eternal stuck as a child is basically Kid Loki's predicament. She can also be seen as an Eternal version of Wanda Maximoff; both can make constructs that are not real and face problems around that. For Wanda, it's that even though she can make physically real constructs through Reality Warping, such as her version of Vision, they are not logically real. For Sprite, it’s that her illusions aren’t physically or logically real because they can’t be interacted with. This is fitting because Sersi can also be seen as the Eternals version of Wanda, making her and Sprite even more of a Foil to each other.
Kingo is an Eternal version of most light-hearted MCU heroes but is also an incredibly vain, wealthy celebrity, much like Tony Stark; he even uses Hand Blasts as his main attack and has at least a private jet and personalised sports car. His preference of different types of energy blasts can be comparable to Hawkeye's long range style of fighting with his arrows.
Makkari is an Eternal version of Quicksilver the speedster. Her deafness also precludes Hawkeye and Echo, the deaf superheroes.
The schism that develops between them regarding the Emergence precedes the Avengers' own Civil War.
While it is stated in-story that Ajak picked Sersi over Ikaris to replace her because Sersi loved Earth and Ikkaris didn't, another pretty obvious reason is that Ajak clearly grew to have the same feelings about Earth that Sersi did, so obviously, she would want her successor to be in that same vein.
Who better to leave in charge of the quest to stop the Emergence with Ikaris there pretending he's not fanatically devoted to allowing it than the one person everyone knew he wouldn't even say anything mean to, let alone actually hurt?
A parallel to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the prior MCU film to feature Celestials heavily in its plot, is telling in the sense that the Celestials are presented in a positive light for the most part at the start, only for the main character to learn about their true purpose and working alongside their friends to stop them.
The revelations about the Celestial's life cycle cast a new light on Ego's backstory from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: a Celestial seed is supposed to be planted on a planet bearing intelligent life, until enough sapient beings populate it in order to provide the necessary life-energy to trigger the Emergence. This explains why when the infant Ego instead found itself floating in deep space, it instinctually created a planet around itself. The lack of a gestation period on an already established planet also explains why Ego was unable to grow a body for himself along the same lines as the other Celestials.
A good, subtle reference to where this movie takes place in the timeline is that Steve Rogers is called Captain Rogers, instead of Captain America, which means that Sam has officially became Captain America by the time of this movie. This indicates that the Emergence happens possibly, at the quickest, six months after Avengers: Endgame.
Kingo says that the Eternals helped out the Asgardians in stopping the Frost Giants in the battle depicted at the beginning of Thor. There's no mention of Deviants, whom the Eternals were supposed to fight, but they didn't matter then: the Frost Giants were going to transform Earth in a frozen planet, interrupting Tiamut's life-cycle. It's very likely that the Celestials commanded the Eternals to help the Asgardians in order to protect the unborn Tiamut.
Odin may have known about the Eternals' involvement, but he left it out in telling the tale to his children. After all, from his perspective, it's Asgard and its heroes that count, as well as their war with the Jotuns.
Ikaris nominates himself as a leader to the Avengers, which everyone laughs at. After The Reveal about the Celestials he serves destroying the Earth for one of its own to emerge, this rings true: a good leader looks after his own people, and Ikaris instead fought/killed his own comrades for what he believed was right. This makes sense in-story too because Ikaris didn’t bother to check up on any of the Eternals for centuries except for Ajak, which they didn’t know about until after Ikaris reveals that he killed her. One can consider Ikaris’ lack of sociability as another reason why he would be a poor leader for the Avengers.
Fridge Tearjerker if one considers that this was the closest Ikaris got to trying something new after millennia of doing the same role.
On a first watch, Ikaris appearing not as sad or surprised as Sersi and Sprite when they find that Ajak is dead could be attributed to him being more stoic than them, especially since he still looks upset and guilty. On a rewatch, this is actually because he knew that Ajak was already dead due to his actions and while he felt deeply guilty, he wouldn't have been shocked and his guilt would be different from Sersi and Sprite's - they regretted not stopping the Deviants, while he regretted Ajak's planned betrayal of the Celestials.
Featuring the scene of Ajak telling Ikaris about how the Blip helped lead to the Deviants in the trailer as heavily as they did was genius, partly because it positions the Deviants as the main Big Bad of the movie when stopping Tiamut from emerging is. Also, showing Ajak dead near the beginning of the story would cause fans to assume that she isn't really dead, that it would be a fakeout akin to Fury in The Winter Soldier, only for it to be revealed to be a flashback.
Fridge Humor that the technical first appearance of Blade in the MCU is of him asking someone if they really want to pick up an ebony blade.
Fridge Sadness: While Sersi's feelings for Dane seem to be genuine, his resemblance to Ikaris and the fact that she still clearly loves the latter shows that it is very possible a big reason why Sersi initially started a relationship with Dane was to replace Ikaris, and in addition to his physical resemblance to Ikaris, he is a Nice Guy who she would want to be with.
While he mainly directs it towards Sprite, with her being the jealous Tinker Bell, Kingo’s Peter Pan analogy perfectly fits Sersi and Ikaris as well. Though Peter and Wendy fall for each other in their youth, Wendy eventually grows up while Peter stays the same. Just as Ikaris remains committed to his original purpose while Sersi grows beyond it.
All the Eternals, who consider each other family already, have a deeper relationship to one particular member, a human they've gotten to know over their immortal lives, or both:
For Sersi, it was with Ikaris, with whom she shared a marriage that lasted thousands of years and they still had unwavering love for one another.
Also with Dane Whitman, her human boyfriend after Ikaris who was also the first person she revealed her powers to.
Sersi also had a big sister-like relationship with Sprite, whom she lived with for centuries as per Ajak's orders.
For Ikaris, it was with Sersi; he didn't let the Earth die because Sersi loved humanity...and he loved Sersi.
For Kingo, it was with Karun, his valet and personal assistant who went with him on his quest to find the others.
For Druig, it was with Makarri as the two constantly flirted with one another despite the former's antisocial, cynical personality.
His Amazon village can also count as he spent centuries keeping them safe.
For Gilgamesh, it was with Thena as he willingly spent the rest of his life with to ensure her safety and well-being.
For Phastos, it's with his husband and son, as he claims to see the good in humanity within them.
For Ajak, it was with Ikaris as she found him to be her best warrior and most loyal to her, and both of them kept the truth as to why the Eternals were sent to Earth.
A meta-example, but the mere existence of Phastos and Ben's son Jack throws a wrench into any plans of de-gaying the couple for homophobic regions. If the husbands had been childfree, it would've been way too easy for them to be edited into "housemates." Jack's presence—and prominence in several key scenes—makes it impossible to present Phastos' home life as anything other than a gay couple raising their son. Disney's refusal to remove their kiss was simply icing on the rainbow cake.
In the closing credits, Richard Madden (Ikaris)'s credit is featured alongside the painting "St. Michael Vanquishing Satan". In Christianity, Michael is depicted as the soldier angel, who leads angels to war against demons. And as a soldier, Ikaris simply follows his orders above all else in the film.
The Emergence is remarkably similar to climate change in many ways, beyond just the simple "ice melting" bit. As with climate change, the Emergence is ultimately caused by human prosperity, by the increase in population and the increase in living standards thanks to technology. However, all this advancement ultimately has side effects that could end life on Earth if unchecked. And many powerful beings don't want to stop the Emergence because doing so threatens their own plans. Of course, a real Green Aesop is somewhat lacking considering how relatively simple it is to stop the Emergence, but it's very impressive as a worldbuilding concept.
With Sprite's transformation into a human, we end the movie with three dead Eternals, three Eternals imprisoned by Arishem, and three Eternals looking to rescue them. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
What was Icarus' Fatal Flaw in the myths? Arrogance. Pretty fitting, huh?
Why is Circe presented as an evil witch in the myths, when the real Sersi is sweet and gentle? Keep in mind that the story was told by Sprite, so it was a Stealth Insult from someone whose spiteful nature was hidden, or alternately had started to appear.
Adding to this, Kingo is named after an Iraqi deity, Kingu, who fought the rest of the Mesopotamian pantheon to defend his water dragon mother, Tiamat. (Which ironically sounds like Ikaris, though Kingo did support Tiamut's emergence from the ocean.) But nothing is really known about Kingu in the myths outside of him possessing a chestplate that grants him undefined power. Considering Kingo abandoned Sprite in Greece, which she held a grudge over, she likely stopped telling stories about him and destroyed any sculptures, statues or tablets referencing Kingu/Kingo. Adding insult to injury, Kingo is a massive Attention Whore, being a Bollywood actor, and is implied to have inspired Indonesian Wayang/shadow puppet shows (as implied by end credits). So having his name almost erased from history would probably be a blow to his ego.
This could also apply to Gilgamesh. In Iraqi/Mesopotamian myths, Gilgamesh was the Tyrant of Uruk and would routinely abuse his power as king (threatening his subjects, participating in pointless violence, and raping the women of Uruk), which is nothing like MCU Gilgamesh. But Gilgamesh is shown to be a bit of a drunkard (much like the myths) and has a habit of innocently annoying or mocking the other Eternals: He has a shit-eating grin when he learns Ikaris couldn't kill a Deviant and allowed it escape, whilst drunk he sits next to Kingo, who for some reason gets annoyed at Gilgamesh over this, demanding that he can sit anywhere else, and finally he makes fun of Sprite being stuck as a child. That last one would explain why Gilgamesh in the myths is a jerkass king—because Sprite secretly hates him and decided to portray him negatively.
Kingo having played himself and his sons in India makes sense considering the culture of that nation. Nepotism is strong in the Bollywood film industry (the Kapoors and Khan clans are proof of that) and Indians also tend to deify their actors into near-gods, so it would have been easy for Kingo to hide in plain sight over there.
Although this example may involve a bit of Values Dissonancedue to most humans being inclined to agree that the continuation of the species is pretty neat, on the surface there really isn't any reason the Eternals should be willing to side with Earth against the Celestials. Especially when you factor in their age, as each of them would have personally seen hundreds of generations of humans die off and would presumably live to see the current generation go as well anyway, so the prospect of the population dying shouldn't be as shocking to them. Then you realize that they were literally designed to care for and protect human civilization after the initial failure of the Deviants, so their extreme empathy could also just be a function of that instinct being over-corrected to the degree that the mission failed for the opposite reason. Now, instead of hunting the species to extinction, they become too attached to let them be destroyed in the Emergence.
There's also the fact that while the Eternals have watched hundreds of generations of humans die off, each time they watched new generations step up to take their place. It's one thing to watch a person, or even a hundred or a thousand, die; it's another to know that all of humanity will be erased forever, along with all the beauty of Earth.
Sprite's internal frustrations are hinted at in her first scene. Where do viewers meet her in present day? She is masquerading as a 20-something woman while watching Sersi enjoy a date with Dane. She then brushes off a guy hitting on her because she knows he wouldn't accept her as she truly is with the appearance of a child.
For all the flak the Eternals get for not helping to fight Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame, they did have a few good reasons beyond simply following Arishem's orders:
First of all, the Avengers had no idea that the Eternals existed, and neither group (for a given value of "group"; the Avengers were divided and the Eternals went their separate ways centuries before) has any means of contacting each other.
The Black Order's attacks in New York and Aberdeen were over quickly, with the villains either getting what they wanted or being made to flee; the attack on New York made the news (and the Aberdeen battle likely did as well), but the Eternals would have had no way of knowing the Avengers' plans to go to Wakanda, and by the time Thanos arrived on the planet, his entire campaign was decided within minutes. To sum up, even if they'd be willing to help, the Eternals would have had no time to seek out the Avengers or any idea where to go.
Most of the Eternals live in relative isolation (Ajak on her ranch, Ikaris wherever he spent his time, Druig in his compound, Makkari on the Domo, Thena and Gilgamesh in the Outback), with no means of quickly ascertaining what was happening or where to go. Most of the few who explicitly live among humans would either be unwilling to fight (Phastos) or had non-combative powers (Sersi and Sprite).
The Avengers had already prevailed against twoother potentially apocalyptic events; there was no reason to believe that this one would be any different until Thanos snapped his fingers. Besides which, the Eternals had been based on Earth for thousands of years and would therefore have no idea who Thanos was or have any reason to treat the Black Order's attacks as any different from previous threats overcome by the Avengers.
Post-Snap, Thanos' actions were, to all appearances, irreversible, and even when the Avengers found a way to undo it, they kept that knowledge to themselves, so the Eternals would have spent the entirety of Endgame simply living their lives, with no need to reveal themselves to the Avengers (the damage was done, and exposing themselves would have done no good). 2014!Thanos' subsequent attack would, like his present-self's attack five years prior, have happened far too quickly for anyone other than the Avengers and their allies to respond, and would have occurred moments after billions of people had suddenly reappeared on Earth; by the time anyone other than the Avengers even knew that Thanos had attacked, the battle would have already been over.
This also applies to other events in the MCU. Most of the super-battles take place in a matter of a few hours or less. Unless there were any Eternals actually in New York at the time of the Chitauri invasion, for example, there's no way any of them would've been able to get there in time to make a difference. Especially since commercial flights to the whole region would've been grounded the minute the Chitauri appeared.
And for that matter, who's to say that they didn't interfere and help out from the shadows, in large and small events in history, and it's just not touched on in the movie?
The revelation that the Eternals are basically robots whose purpose is to prepare for the Emergence. This strongly hinted that the titular characters are responsible for the loss of billions of lives in at least one (or more) past missions, and after each mission they would be mind-wiped into practically new robots ready for yet another mission. Ajak seemed to be the only Eternal whose memories of a past mission are not erased, so this means she knew, experienced, and supported the awful consequences of each Emergence event. The horror that the protagonists felt upon the revelation was pretty much understated throughout the film.
While it was ultimately a heroic act and it would have happened at some point even without doing it but the heroes in the Time Heist probably wouldn't feel great knowing that their act helped speed up another possible apocalypse.
On that same end, the question of 'why didn't [the Eternals] help fight Thanos' becomes darker considering that Thanos' snap bought Earth much needed time and slow the apocalypse by a lot. Even darker to think that, if they were to intervene, they'd take the "fight" part out of that infamous question.
One can only hope that this version of Eros doesn't employ his emotion-manipulation powers in as morally dubious a manner as his comics counterpart does.
The last scene of the movie has Phastos, Sersi and Kingo taken by Arishem to examine their memories to see if they made the right call in choosing to sacrifice Tiamut's birth for the people of Earth. Considering that a lot of the memories of the Eternals that we see do not paint humanity in an especially good light, most notably when Ajak and Phastos are shown in Hiroshima in the aftermath of the bombings and Phastos makes his declaration of being done with humanity. It's possible that Arishem might not see Phastos being happy after finding a husband and adopting a son outweighing that.
On top of that, Kingo, despite having millions of fans and claiming to love humanity, didn't bother to fight against the Emergence and even argue against it at Gilgamesh and Thena's home (before he knew about Ikaris' betrayal). So whatever is going on in his head, Arishem will see and possibly deem humans as unworthy in the same light Kingo did.
The Eternals didn't get all the Deviants, not even the second time. There are probably dozens of monsters melting out worldwide and anyone who can fight them is either dead or gone.
Dane seems to be gearing up to join the fight, and it remains to be seen whether Sersi somehow let Sprite keep her powers. And even if she's a "squib" now, she knows enough about Deviants to be able to assist any superhero who ends up encountering a Deviant with her knowledge.
On top of that, the appearance of Eros/Starfox shows that there are more Eternals out in the universe. It's entirely possible that some of them could help, either of their own accord or because they were sent by Arishem, who probably wouldn't want the planet destroyed before he can judge it.
Plus, there's no rule saying only Eternals can fight Deviants. There's no reason, as far as we know, that anyone with superpowers or even just sufficient weapons couldn't take them on.
There's also the revelation that every home planet in a very populated universe has a dormant Celestial buried in its core. Most of them probably went through the Snap the same way Earth did, which means many other emergences might be happening right now, and there's no guarantee the Eternals on those worlds are empathetic towards life as this ten was.
Did the lead Celestial explicitly say that the Celestial egg is in every populated planet?
Arishem explicitly said that every planet to *develop* intelligent life has a Celestial egg. The idea that space colonization was a viable method of letting humanity survive the emergence implies that other species, such as the Kree, Skrulls, or Xandarians, may well have survived their own emergences — if they are not still primarily inhabiting their original planet (which is true for all three in the comics).
It is very possible that in the millions of futures Doctor Strange saw, he saw Tiamut's birth due to the lack of The Snap taking lives, which would result in the permanent death of Earth's heroes when it wakes up soon after. Because of this factor, he realised that The Snap had to happen no matter what, which in turn leads to most of the heroes surviving and the Eternals aiding Earth in stopping Tiamut from being born instead. Literally two birds with one stone. This means that thanks to the Celestials' life cycle, the whole universe paid the price.
To think what would've happened had Ego had known there was a Celestial about to be born, and on the same planet he met Meridith, no less. He would've taken control of Tiamut the same way he did Peter, and his expansion would probably happen a lot faster with a full Celestial rather than a hybrid like Quill.
How loud was Arishem speaking when talking to the Eternals? So on that day, people saw a huge alien appear in the sky and state he will return to pass judgement on humanity. Arishem isn't the Biblical God, but to the people of Earth, he might as well be. The threat of Armageddon will cause religious zealotry to skyrocket, with groups like the Westboro Baptist Church or the Taliban cracking down on their extreme religious practices to avoid damnation.
Since there's no oxygen up in space, he must've been speaking to the Eternals via telepathy. Of course, it's unclear whether he was speaking directly to them or just "broadcasting," but it's probably the former.
The Eternals are a diverse group; half of them are women, six of them are visibly non-white, one is LGBTQ, one is disabled and most have noticeable accents when speaking English. This means over the centuries living on Earth, at least 4/5 of them must have had to experience extreme prejudice at some point.
Ikaris is the least social of the Eternals and ironically the least likely to experience discrimination directed at him. However, his Scottish accent may not make him popular among, let's say the English during William Wallace's Rebellion, and his marriage to Sersi could have been seen as taboo due them appearing to be an interracial couple. His accent in later times could still have earned him mockery by racist Anglo-Americans.
Sersi seems to have settled among humanity in the UK. Being a woman and outwardly East Asian meant she may have had to deal with era-appropriate sexism and racism. Even in the modern day, she could face backhanded comments. Notably, racism toward the British Far East Asian community is taken less seriously and some even claim it's more casual racism (inappropriate jokes) than hateful racism (violence due to fear of immigrants taking over). note Sadly Truth in Television, as the UK has a large presence of Brown Asians (South and West Asians) and black (African and Black Caribbean) people who are seen as threats to UK culture or will seduce their white women, and are systematically targeted (especially if they're Muslim). Meanwhile, many of the same racists would see the Far East Community in the UK as hard-working people who can take a (racist) joke at best or immigrants that know their place and don't try to change UK society at worst (on top of some gendered racism by white men preferring more Oriental women to be welcomed and less Oriental men around).
Druig is in a similar position to Ikaris. Being a straight white man doesn't victimise him as much but his Irish accent would likely have made him unpopular in the Anglo-sphere due to the English having a history of notorious hatred for the Irish. Though Druig had isolated himself in Peru since the 1500s, so the only time he may have experienced any anti-Irish racism is whenever he ventured out of his village to likely look after Thena in Australia (which is also isolated but it's possible he encountered anti-Irish racism from Anglo-Aussies) when Gilgamesh wanted some time away.
Makkari being a deaf-mute African-Latina looking woman would definitely make her unpopular in many parts of the world throughout history for one reason or the other. So it's probably no wonder she chooses to self-isolate in the Domo under Iraq.
Gilgamesh is an East Asian man with a Korean accent. Since the 1500s, he chose to care for Thena, due to which they ended up living isolated in Australia. However, it's possible that before settling there, Gilgamesh had to deal with era-appropriate racism and due to being Thena's caretaker (and possible lover), was hated for simply being an ethnic man living with a blonde white woman. Hell, even if they lived isolated in Australia, Gilgamesh probably still had to buy necessities from a nearby city where white Australians likely gave him grief for his non-white appearance. Even worse, during WW2, he'd risk getting mistaken for the Japanese or even accused of being a Japanese spy.
Thena being a blond white woman with a posh British accent probably wouldn't have much trouble outside of era-appropriate sexism. But considering she lives in Australia with Gilgamesh and likely had to travel there before settling, it wouldn't be surprising if she ever got accused of being a race traitor by local whites for living with him (regardless if they are lovers or not) before interracial relationships became more acceptable. Add in her Mahd Wyry, she probably would not have been popular at times when people with mental health issues were seen as possessed by demons, beyond help or perfect potential abuse victims.
Phastos is an African-looking man with an American accent and is also homosexual. It's a wonder why Phastos would even live in America in the modern day considering the country's tragic history with both blacks and the LGBTQ community. Even in this day and age (if anything Killmonger says is to go by), black Americans still suffer, as Luke Cage (2016), Cloak & Dagger (2018), and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier can attest to. It's likely Phastos may have met his husband Ben in Lebanon (where being gay is prohibited) and chose to move to the US when LGBTQ rights and interracial marriage/adoption was made legal, which meant Ben and Phastos could live happily as a gay African-West Asian/Arab couple with a son. Such changes between the 1940s to the 2020s may be the reason Phastos changed his mind about humanity. But the thought of Phastos living in the US during the eras of slavery or segregation would be nightmarish. (He likely didn't live in the US after the 1940s and moved back there in the 21st century.)
Ajak is portrayed by an ethnically half-West Asian/Lebanese, half-South European/Spanish actress from Mexico, with a Mexican accent, and she was shown to live a quiet life in a house with a horse ranch in the Southern US. Any southern state Americans, especially prejudiced border force or police/sheriffs, could have tried to threaten Ajak with deportation or exploitation. (Considering she is an extremely attractive woman, unsavoury sexual coercion/propositions could also be made by such people). Though she presumably had Ikaris, Sprite, Sersi and Phastos all visit her and vice versa, so they likely may have been around to support or vouch for her if possible, she still was a visibly beautiful brown woman living alone and isolated, which at the very least would've caused people to stigmatize her.
Sprite being white and American-accented wouldn't be an issue. Her problem would be being stuck as an Eternal child and being a girl. She likely had to deal with era-appropriate sexism and ageism (especially at times it was legal to exploit or abuse children for work, sex, war, etc.), as well as presumably spending her whole life with an Eternal acting as a parental figure/guardian. The only ones implied to have even done so are Kingo, Sersi and Ajak—all of whom are not white passing, which may have raised eyebrows or gotten unwanted attention from anyone offended over what looked like an interracial adoption. Add in the fact Sprite doesn't age so she had to keep moving around (something which Kingo got fed up about and abandoned her over). The cherry on top? She is ginger-haired and for some reason in the western world, gingers were targeted for bullying or genuine hatred just because of their hair colour. While her illusions would ameliorate this to some extent, since they're intangible she would have had to be very careful about human contact.
Which also feeds into some extra Fridge Brilliance: After all those millennia, if she feels like she always has to hide her true self to be accepted, it's no wonder she isn't a fan of humanity.
Kingo is a brown-skinned South Asian passing Eternal with a Pakistani accent. While he is currently living it big as a beloved Bollywood star, he may have also had to deal with era-appropriate racism and live as a second-class citizen, especially if he was in India during the British Raj period. At best, he may have been seen as appropriate to serve the empire's military as a high-ranking Sepoy and be classified under one of the martial races. At worst, he may have been considered untouchable or an enemy of the crown if he refused to follow the orders or rebelled against his English Memsahib overlords. Plus, given Kingo is likely the most connected to the internet and social media, he probably witnessed and even experienced cyberbullying, especially racist trolling over his ethnic appearance or due to being an actor in Bollywood instead of Hollywood. Finally, throw in the fact South Asian male actors are still given less variety in their roles in the West, being portrayed as Butt Monkeys, Bollywood Nerds, or emasculated/de-sexualised men. Even muscular, tall or attractive actors are denied films roles due to not fitting their stereotypes (most end up in mini-series or minor supporting TV roles). If Kingo tried to make it big in Hollywood and failed due to such attitudes, then it's no wonder he was willing to allow the Emergence to happen; his love for humanity is likely eclipsed by a hidden hatred/bitterness towards them.
