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Alright I really want to talk about my theories concerning eternatus. Especially since most of the theories I've seen about eternatus assume that it's evil. This is going to be a very long post, so I'll put all the full explanations under the cut.

Here's the short version of everything under the cut:

Eternatus is not complete.

Eternatus could be pieced together with wishing stars in a similar way to how zygarde can be constructed from zygarde cells.

Eternatus represents the universe and the concept of infinity/eternity.

Eternamax is not natural for eternatus.

Eternamax eternatus is not a hand, it's either a hydra or each finger is an eye :)

Eternatus went on a rampage after escaping the power plant because the process of using eternatus for energy was actively harming it.

2 possible explanations for how Rose found eternatus.

Rose was reviving and mistreating eternatus (something out of character when compared to everything we know about Rose) because he didn't realize that eternatus was alive until he was in too deep.

@criticaaaaaaaal ​‘s theory on the connection between eternatus and eternal floette

Why did eternatus start the original darkest day, and how did eternatus end up torn to bits in the first place. 

Theory 1: the eternatus we see in game is not complete. I know that I've talked about this before and so have others, but since this is going to be a collection of most if not all of my eternatus theories, I might as well include this. My list of evidence for this theory is as follows:

it doesn't have every wishing star and piece incorporated into it, and those are literally pieces of its body. Case in point; Sordward and Shielbert stealing enough wishing stars from Sonia's lab to not only forcefully dynamax a large number of pokemon, but also drive one of the legendary wolves mad. That would take a lot of wishing stars.

It is skeletal, but then when it is eternamaxed it is not all that skeletal. Perhaps an echo of its original appearance?

ok, but it's a SKELETON.

if you have watched it move in the poke camp, you may note it both moves like an eastern dragon and moves painfully slowly. Perhaps it is attempting to replicate how it used to move when it was whole, and it's sluggishness is due to moving via magic and sheer force of will instead of tendons and muscles. That, and lacking large portions of its body is probably causing it to be in agony.

I have some thoughts on how eternatus ended up missing parts of its own body, but that's something I'll come back to later in this post.

Theory 2) eternatus can be constructed from wishing stars in a similar manner to how zygarde can be constructed from zygarde cells. The basic idea is that if you were to collect enough wishing stars together, they would coalesce into eternatus' core. This would probably take a truly massive number of wishing stars. Alternatively, there could have been a unique wishing star (vaguely reminiscent in function to a zygarde core) that was originally eternatus' core. This 'core' wishing star would merge with any wishing stars it came in contact with, eventually reigniting into an active eternatus core. In either case, giving this newly reformed core more wishing stars would cause it to grow and eventually develop into eternatus.

Theory 3: eternatus represents the universe and infinity/eternity. I've seen people asking about this occasionally on this website, but I haven't seen a lot of actual theories. I've come to the conclusion that eternatus is an embodiment of eternity and the universe because a) it's name, and b) it's eternamax form is a spiral galaxy, with its core representing the super massive black hole found at the center of every galaxy.

Theory 4: eternamax is not natural for eternatus as well as excruciatingly painful, thus why we can't eternamax eternatus in game. My thought is that originally eternatus could gigantamax itself as a last resort self defense mechanism. However if eternatus attempts to use that ability it goes horribly wrong due to its body no longer being complete. Instead of gigantamaxing eternatus basically turns inside out as eternamax. Some evidence:

it's triggered by OVERLOADING its core. You know, that thing that is most likely a mini star/powered by nuclear fusion (or possibly worse, powered by something eldritch). That can't go well.

eternamax eternatus looks like its body has completely broken in ways that it shouldn't. The "hand" is actually its head TURNED INSIDE OUT, its spine has been pulled apart, its wings(? I honestly don't really know if that's what they are) are floating around the spiral, and its claws are currently floating in a ring around its core.

This could give a lore reason for why you can't eternamax eternatus; it is physically excruciatingly painful for Eternatus, and it would be cruel to force them to.

Theory 5) eternamax eternatus is not a hand, and the "fingers" are either eyes or heads. I already made a post about this that you can find here. It's real cursed. My own curiosity lead to my downfall, so now I must curse others with this knowledge.

Theory 6) eternatus went on a rampage after escaping Rose because using it for energy actively harmed eternatus. Although it's never explained how Rose was going to use eternatus as an energy source, I think it's pretty safe to say he planned on draining energy from eternatus' core. Problem is, all of eternatus' energy comes from its core. Eternatus is probably kept alive by the energy of its core, so draining its core would be draining its life force. That would definitely cause eternatus a lot of pain. In all likelihood eternatus was probably lashing out because it thought its life was in danger.

Side note: I've seen some people suggest that the reason eternatus went on a rampage is because it was being force fed wishing stars. Personally I think that it's more likely that eternatus can naturally reabsorb wishing stars into its body. It's never really implicated that Rose was specifically feeding the wishing stars eternatus, he only says he gave the wishing stars to eternatus. If you can just throw a bunch of zygarde cells together and they'll become a 10% zygarde, I don't see why eternatus wouldn't be able to osmosis wishing stars into itself.

Theory 7) how did Rose find eternatus. I originally talked about this on a thread by @bl00diedhell. You can find their original post here! Anyways, I have 2 different options for how Rose found eternatus: 

One possibility is that Rose had been collecting a large amount of wishing stars in hopes of running experiments on them. It was known that wishing stars emit energy, so maybe he was trying to see if there was a way to use them as a renewable energy source. Eventually Rose would have accidentally stockpiled enough of what are literally pieces of eternatus’ body for it to reconstruct itself. One moment it’s a pile of wishing stars, the next they’re glowing and clumping together until poof: you now have one sickly looking god. Or at least eternatus' core.

Another possibility focuses on how Rose owns the galar mines. If I understood the lore correctly, then the glowing gems all over the caves are used for fuel. Not only that, but considering how much time Bede spends hunting for wishing stars in the mines its more than likely there are a lot of them down there. It could be possible then that eternatus had been hibernating somewhere inside the mines. Maybe while excavating a new tunnel the miners open up a sealed cavern with a hibernating Eternatus within. It would probably look similar to the cocoons of yveltal and Xerneas. Something like that would get reported, so Rose would come to investigate.

Theory 8) Rose abused eternatus for power because he didn't realize that eternatus was alive until he was in too deep. Before I explain further, I'd like to credit @swapauanon for bringing up the idea that eternatus was originally just it's core at the start. You can find the thread with their theory along with my original post about my theory on why rose abused eternatus here.

Firstly, let's talk about how out of character Rose's actions towards eternatus are. Everything we learn about Rose in game points to him caring deeply for all of the inhabitants of Galar, both human and pokemon. He’s even the one who gives the player the “pokemon are our friends, partners, and family!” spiel at the start of the game. So it makes zero sense that he would ignore all of his principles and abuse eternatus for an energy source... Unless he didn't know that eternatus was a living being. This could be possible for a number of reasons:

The closest comparison for reconstructing eternatus from wishing stars is zygarde. But zygarde cells have features that make it clear they are alive, notably their face. This is not true for wishing stars. They appear to just be rocks, no features that could reveal how they are actually alive. There is nothing about eternatus core that proves it's alive either.

the legends of the hero and the darkest day do not at any point hint that the darkest day was actually a living pokemon. This means that Rose wouldn't have gotten any evidence or warnings about eternatus actually being alive by reading galar's legends.

Although there are some rock type pokemon that at first glance don’t particularly have any living characteristics, I can’t think of any that don't at least have a vague caricature of a face. And as I've mentioned already, wishing stars don't even have that.

Unlike both zygarde cells and any rock type that lacks obvious living features, wishing stars and eternatus' core are completely immobile on their own.

All of this put together would result in Rose not having any reason to think eternatus is alive. He didn't realize he was trying to use a living pokemon as a power source, he would have thought he was just harnessing the natural power of a special material. It probably took a long time and a lot of wishing stars for eternatus to start resembling a living being, and even longer for it to start responding to its environment. By the time Rose realized that eternatus was a pokemon, he might have felt that he was in too deep and had poured too much time and resources into trying to use eternatus for power to turn back.

Theory 9) @criticaaaaaaaal 's theory on how the eternal flower floette is connected to eternatus. This theory belongs to @criticaaaaaaaal! Seriously this theory belongs to them, all I did was help them patch up holes in the theory with my obsessive knowledge of eternatus and built a bit onto it. You can find the thread about their theory here! Anyways let's get to the theory.

Let's start with some necessary background info: one of eternatus' pokedex entries states that it came to earth 20,000 years ago, meaning that it was on earth for 17,000 years before starting the darkest day. That means it would be reasonable to believe that eternatus was a wandering legendary for that time. Skip to 3,000 years ago, there is a massive war in kalos that kills AZ's floette. AZ decides to make this ultimate weapon to bring floette back. Thing is, this kills thousands of innocent pokemon in the process. So, if AZ was willing to kill thousands of pokemon, who could say he wouldn't kill a legendary too? Maybe AZ captured eternatus and began using parts of its body to power the machine, but due to eternatus being immortal this doesn't kill it. The machine imbues floette with eternatus' power, making floette immortal. After the machine is activated, eternatus escapes and starts the darkest either as retribution for what AZ did to it, due to being too compromised to control its own power, or both. Here's a list of evidence to back this theory up: 

Junichi Masuda confirmed in an interview that the reason AZ is so ridiculously tall is due to the power of his ultimate weapon affecting his body. This could definitely be used as evidence that AZ was using eternatus to power his machine, as eternatus' power causes living things to get huge.

AZ's ultimate machine requires a legendary to function. In X and Y Lysander uses yveltal or Xerneas, it's possible that a different legendary could have been used by AZ.

Kalos and galar are based off of France and the UK, respectively. That would make them geographically very close. If Eternatus was a wandering legendary,  it could easily travel between kalos and galar.

Both the war in kalos and the darkest day occurred 3,000 years ago.

There are some striking visual similarities between eternatus and eternal floette.

Theory 10) possible reasons why eternatus started the darkest day, as well as how eternatus became incomplete. I’m putting this into one theory because my ideas on how eternatus got torn to bits and why eternatus started the darkest day are deeply connected. First off, let's start with some important info. as mentioned before, one of eternatus’ pokedex entries states that 

“It was inside a meteorite that fell 20,000 years ago. There seems to be a connection between this Pokémon and the Dynamax phenomenon.”

There’s a lot to unpack there. First, this means that eternatus was on earth for 17,000 years before causing any problems. Something big must have changed for eternatus to start the darkest day. Second, it doesn't explain why eternatus was with that meteor. That leaves open some possibilities.

It's possible that eternatus was struck by the meteor and then dragged to earth with said meteor. The combination of the initial impact with the meteor,  burning up while entering earth's atmosphere, and then crash landing would almost certainly cause some serious damage to eternatus. This could explain why eternatus didn't leave; it was too injured to do so. However, this probably wouldn't cause the catastrophic damage necessary for eternatus to be literally torn to shreds, not to mention how it would be rather difficult for eternatus to start the darkest day while literally completely shattered. Nonetheless, eternatus could definitely have sustained enough damage for a relatively small amount of wishing stars to be scattered. That also means people could find those wishing stars and discover their power. 

To sum all of that up, 20,000 years ago eternatus gets struck by a meteor and dragged to earth. The combination of being hit by the meteor, entering earth's atmosphere, and then crash landing results in eternatus getting damaged, preventing eternatus from leaving earth. This damage also caused a relatively small amount of wishing stars to break away from eternatus and scatter around the galar region and possibly other nearby regions. Due to wishing stars inherit power, they would become a rare and sought after resource. 

So here is where this can go in different directions. 

Option one draws from @criticaaaaaaaal 's theory. After Floette dies, AZ begins working on his ultimate weapon. Since he was a prince it would be likely that he had access to a small amount of fallen wishing stars. AZ decides to attempt to use the wishing stars to power his machine. He may have even gotten promising results from experiments, something like being able to breathe life back into floette's dead and dried flower. However, his small sample of wishing stars didn't have enough power to bring floette back. So AZ decides to try and get more directly from the source: eternatus. AZ manages to capture eternatus and harnesses the legendary's energy to power his machine. How he does this I'm not entirely sure, but one possibility is AZ may have cut open eternatus's chest to get direct access to its core. No matter how AZ went about harnessing eternatus' power, doing so critically injures eternatus, destabilizing its core. After the machine is activated, eternatus escapes and attempts to gigantamax. However due to its now unstable core and extensive injuries something goes wrong. Instead of gigantamaxing eternatus undergoes eternamax, setting off the darkest day. 

Option 2 draws from what the tapestries in hammerlocke leave unsaid. It's stated that the tapestries tell the story of the creation of a kingdom in galar. But who was in control of galar before the darkest day? It's very unlikely that there was just simply no civilization in galar before the darkest day. So let's say there was a different kingdom. The king of this kingdom may have been seeking to increase or legitimize his power. Considering that the current known lore of calyrex is that it used to rule over all of galar, it's more than possible that a human king would feel threatened by a powerful legendary such as eternatus. Maybe the people of galar revered eternatus, and that fueled the king's insecurity even more. So the king decides that to protect his own claim to power he needs to get rid of eternatus. The king raises an army and sets out to ambush eternatus. Eternatus is caught off guard and vastly outnumbered in the ensuing battle, and is grievously wounded. In a last ditch effort eternatus attempts to gigantamax, but their core overloads due to their injuries, causing them to eternamax instead.

With either option the end result is the same. The darkest day begins, and the 2 heros and the legendary wolves come to defeat eternatus. Upon its defeat, eternatus' body is beyond the breaking point. The strain of the unnatural transformation brought upon by eternamax, it's unstable and overloaded core, and numerous injuries causes eternatus' entire body to shatter like glass. Wishing stars are scattered all across the galar region, some being thrown into orbit, eventually to return to earth years later. The energy eternatus generates now freely pours out, and over time this culminates as power spots and raid dens.

Hi! If you managed to read all the way to the end, all I can say is holly noodles thank you so much for reading my long rambles! It's been bothering me for a while that so many people just assume eternatus is just a big bad evil villain. I don't remember this much animosity for any other legendary, and there is literally a legendary that is the embodiment of death. And guess what? The embodiment of death is actually just a silly birb that likes sweet pastries and wants to be pet.