Favorite Characters: Sersi (Eternals)

*Spoilers.*

The Eternals I’ve highlighted so far have definitely been supporting characters. Figures integral to the story, but not the main drivers of the story themselves. Sersi is the first major Eternal I’m writing about, and I do think being a protagonist can make her character pop a little less than some of the others onscreen, but I genuinely like her and the direction the film takes her.

Some of the Eternals, like Ikaris and Kingo, came to their mission on Earth primarily focused on battling Deviants, but Sersi’s focus has always been on helping the people of Earth in other ways. Throughout the millennia they spent protecting/shepherding humanity, she stood shoulder to shoulder with its peoples, aiding them in their harvests, traditions, and development. To her, humans aren’t just faceless lifeforms to preserve. They’re people, and she involves herself, learning their languages and taking part in their communities.

Even when the Eternals split up, each laying low as they wait for the Celestials to recall them, Sersi doesn’t seek out some reclusive home to wile away the centuries. She integrates herself into society. By the 21^st century, she’s living in London and working as a professor at the Natural History Museum. She’s got a boyfriend, she goes out at night, she seems for all intents and purposes like an “ordinary” person. But of course, no one knows that she’s actually a nigh-immortal being from the stars, one who presumably needs to uproot herself every handful of years to keep people from noticing that she doesn’t age. (Since Sprite, who has the appearance of a child, is living with her as well, she probably has to move around even more often.)

So by necessity, she’s unable to truly put down roots anywhere, but if London is any indication, she gets close to people wherever she goes. It must be a hard life for a warm, empathetic person like her, but she keeps on doing it until the day the Deviants reemerge, at which point she immediately sets about bringing the whole group back together to investigate the mystery and address the crisis.

When she’s selected to be Ajak’s successor as the leader of the Eternals, most everyone is a little unsure about that, including Sersi herself. Hers is a quiet voice, thoughtful and intelligent but not really one to put herself forward in a commanding way. As she works to reunite all of her friends, she struggles with whether she’s able to lead them. But really, Sersi’s soft, compassionate leadership is just what they need. After learning the truth about their mission, that Earth is really just an incubator for a new Celestial and humanity will be wiped out when he finally emerges from deep within the Earth, Sersi is quietly resolute in her determination to save the humans from this fate. It’s a resolve that comes between her and Ikaris, and this is where she shows her strength, refusing to back down as her former lover openly turns against her.

Sersi’s powers at first seem neat and, while helpful in the whole “aid humanity’s development” thing, not super useful in a fight. She can transmute non-living matter with a touch, for instance creating fertile farmland or changing falling rubble during an earthquake to dust that falls harmlessly to the ground. It’s cool and lovely to see her transform things, but in the action scenes, her powers are initially defensive at best. When she, Sprite, and Dane are beset by a Deviant, she temporarily liquefies the pavement, then solidifies it again as a short-term means of trapping the Deviant. But as the film goes on, she discovers new dimensions to her power – turning a Deviant into a tree is wild, beautiful, and badass – and she’s ultimately crucial in defeating the emerging Celestial, harnessing the energy of everyone’s power to amplify her own and transmute the Celestial to stone before it can break the world apart.

I appreciate this depiction of a quiet, gentle heroine whose compassion is her greatest strength. Superhero personalities tend to run more towards extroverted confidence, so it’s cool to see this woman, ageless and incredible as she is, win the day with love rather than force.