Let us talk about the latest almost-villain of MCU, arguably the most powerful Celestial in the universe, who is none other than Arishem the Judge. In the MCU, Arishem is a Celestial who fights (or claims to fight) for sustaining the universe.
According to Arishem, humans or humanity alone do not matter in the larger scheme of things because they are simply like specs of dust in the grand universe which he has the self-proclaimed responsibility to protect.
But with the MCU, you never know. I have a lot of doubts about Arishem’s true intentions because honestly speaking, they do look fishy. It is hard to believe that he is only interested in protecting the universe.
Arishem may or may not be evil. According to him, his intention is to protect the universe in the greater scheme of things. But whether these are his true intentions or not is yet to be explained.
Here’s everything else we know till now about Arishem and how it might affect the future of MCU.
Who is Arishem the Judge?
Arishem the Judge in the MCU is the leader of the four Celestial Hosts on Earth. He is basically the ultra-powerful Celestial who is hard to budge. In the film, Arishem is the one who sent Sersi, Ikaris and other Eternals to Earth to protect it from the threat of the Deviants around 5000 years ago.
It is later revealed that the Eternals and Deviants are merely puppets in the hands of the upper lords and the real battle is with the Celestials, not the Deviants.
In the comics, Arishem was created by John Kirby and first appeared in a 1976 Marvel comic titled Eternals #2. As the leader of the four Celestial hosts, Arishem’s job was to judge which planets or civilizations were worthy of being protected and chose not to destroy them himself.
In theory, he is actually just a bigger and fiercer version of Thanos. According to the MCU and Eternals, he is now considering whether humanity is worth sparing, which the Eternals are against because they want to protect humanity.
What is Arishem’s True Motive?
According to Arishem himself, his motive is to sustain and protect the universe. In the grand scheme of things, humanity is like a speck of dust for him, and he does not mind if a few human beings die in the process of greater good.
Whether his “greater good” truly is the sustaining of the universe is a question that MCU is yet to answer. It is not clear whether his intentions are actually good. I think it is going to be a mix. Even if his intentions are good, his method is wrong and his complete disregard for human lives is what will paint him as evil.
Arishem revealed a truth: there is this Celestial cell which is embedded within a planet. There is going to be an Emergence, which refers to the Celestial Tiamut rising from this confinement. Tiamut will feed off the energy of the Earth which is house to 7 billion lives.
Tiamut (who is yet to emerge fully) along with other Celestials continued creating worlds using the energy they derived from the destruction of other planets. This is how the universe remained intact.
This truth was only revealed after Sersi took over as leader after Ajak’s death. So in that sense, for the Eternals Arishem is definitely the villain because he hid the truth from them for long and used them as pawns by pitting them against the Deviants.
He asked them to protect the Earth while all along he was actually using them by making them protect the intelligent beings of the planet so that the Celestials can destroy them. In that way, he is really not creating a good image of himself for the Eternals.
In the comics, he is regarded as one of the main villains, so we have to wait and see as more information is revealed about Arishem’s intentions in the movies.
Is He Going to be The Villain?
Arishem cannot exactly be called a villain yet, but he is moving towards that direction. Going by the comics, he is indeed an antagonist whose main aim is to oversee the emergence of powerful Celestials.
These Celestials will consume planets and the energy of the destruction from various planets will help them emerge. Arishem is not interested in protecting the Earth. He used the Eternals and Deviants to aid in the fulfilment of his main goal.
So for the Eternals he is already a villain. MCU seems to be setting him up as a bigger and more fearful version of Thanos with little regard for human lives. So, he is going towards the antagonist route.
But as of now, I won’t label him as an out and out villain. There is a lot of explanation we are yet to get about how the universe works and why it works the way it does.
Arishem VS Thanos: The Better Antagonist?
Arishem seems to be a fiercer version of Thanos since he was introduced. They have similar motives: one wants to destroy one half of the universe while the other has weird ideas of sustaining it by killing humans.
In terms of power, Thanos without his Infinity Gauntlet can come nowhere near to the power of any Celestial, let alone Arishem. But with the Infinity Gauntlet, he is one of the most powerful beings in the universe and can challenge a Celestial.
Thanos was a brilliant antagonist and we all loved watching him. There’s a lot of Arishem left to be revealed in movies but it does seem like he will give Thanos tough competition in being the bad guy.
The Celestials alone are almost as powerful as Galactus, while Thanos with his Infinity Gauntlet is considered to still be less powerful than the Galactus.
To sum it up, Thanos with his gauntlet is definitely worth a shot against a Celestial. But Arishem is the leader of Celestials, so he is definitely more powerful than Thanos even if he has his gauntlet.
About Eternals
Eternals is a 2021 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics of the same name. It is the 26th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Chloé Zhao, who wrote the screenplay with Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, and Kaz Firpo.
In the film, the Eternals, an immortal alien race, emerge from hiding after thousands of years to protect Earth from their ancient counterparts, the Deviants.
It stars an ensemble cast including Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie.
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