SPOILER DISCUSSION
1. I think, for the most part, Eternals does a better job portraying a group succumbing to discord and fighting amongst themselves than Captain America: Civil War. The conflict between the two factions is established at the start of the film when Druig asks whether or not Arishem’s commands should still be followed. The group aligns themselves alongside the lines of following the Celestial’s dictates or not following them.
Their reasons for joining these sides is based on their relationship to humanity. Druig, being able to sense humanity’s feelings, is on their side even if it takes some convincing to get him there. Likewise, Phastos, despite giving up on humanity at large, finds a connection to humanity in the form of his husband and child, singular instances which prove that there’s good within the species.
On the opposite side, Ikaris, who is devout to the will of Arishem, as a religious follower would be to their God, sees humanity as irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Sprite follows him because she’s unable to find love in humanity, as evidenced by her inability to genuinely touch humans at the start of the story, and must find affection outside of humanity. Ikaris might not be in love with her, but at least the possibility of contact exists.
Kongo leaves the situation because he looks up to Ikaris, like a younger sibling who holds their older sibling on a pedestal. Kongo’s introduction starts with him roleplaying Ikaris, demonstrating the extent of his loyalty and admiration. This also explains why he knows Sprite’s feelings. They’re both looking at the same person with love, even though their loves are distinct from another. While Sprite joins Ikaris, Kongo leaves and this orientation is precisely why. Once he sees Ikaris attack the rest of the group, he can no longer bring himself to do anything because his vision of the family picture from before is shattered.
2.I love how the film attempts to posture as a thematic engagement of sorts to Thanos’s reasons for engaging in “the Snap.” Thanos makes his decision because he thinks the universe is finite in its resources and has to make better use of those resources in a limited capacity to survive in a manner that befits life. He sacrifices half the universe’s population to afford a better living for those left over, providing them a hearty amount of resources to have a more fulfilling life.
Arishem and the Celestial’s by extension do the same thing during every “Emergence”. They prioritize a “people to come, the future populations who are going to inhabit the universe, at the cost of current ones. Resources would dwindle absent the Celestials providing them, so the sacrifice of any finite number, even if its in the trillions of lives, is reasonable in contrast to infinite resources for a seeming equivalent of other lives.
In this sense, it becomes interesting to think if Thanos would engage in the snap at all if he understood that the explosion in life would in turn lead to a “reset” of sorts where a plethora of resources would be generated for new lives all together. Though the Celestials and him agree in aims, maximizing resources for creatures who are living, their knowledge of the scope of the universe and its potential alter the method but not the aims by which and for which they engage with that universe.