Spaztasm: dreamed times a billion
I should be doing my writing assignment (yes, school hasn't started and they already gave me work) about why I'm awesome (yes, that is the topic). I should be writing for the hinabnexchange (yes, I'm still not done) but I rightly don't feel like it. I should be doing a million things right now, but instead, I have:
INCEPTION SPECULATION AND POSSIBLE ARTHUR/EAMES FICTION IN THE MAKING.
This is from a chat between Steve and I, with some (but not all) of the flailing deleted. This is posted without Steve's permission, because I am an evil waifu.
o0o_faor_o0o: i want to write some a/e soooo badly. a spectulative piece where, right after cobb turns around and walks out of the baggage claim, the team (ariad, arthur, eames, saito, yus [+fischer?]) hears the jump song and are yanked out. and mal's with them, of course, in the real world.
o0o_faor_o0o: and mal's sad but appreciative/resigned that at least cobb is safe in his mental world, but arthur is all I'M TOTALLY HEARTBROKEN ON THE INSIDE D: D: WEEPS FOREVER because he was srsly hoping that /this/ time they could save cobb
o0o_faor_o0o: and i'm not sure how a/e fits in just yet, but it'll be epic
steveness2310: ...!
steveness2310: SO MAL NEVER DIED?
steveness2310: AND COBB IS THE ONE WHO IS REALLY DREAMING?
o0o_faor_o0o: Steve she was actually right all along.
steveness2310: WHUT WHUT WHUT
o0o_faor_o0o: cobb has been constructing his own world-those "memories" he pushes onto mal at the end? [aka, that he performed inception on her.] LIES. he made those up to make sense of the limbo of his mind. he's been stuck up there for forEVER
o0o_faor_o0o: i can't decide if fischer is part of the act or if he's the most elaborate projection, like, ever
steveness2310: fischer could be the extractor
steveness2310: he's taking on cobb's role, but they reverse it
o0o_faor_o0o: oooooooooooh yeah. you would need one of those.
steveness2310: create a puzzle for cobb to work through
steveness2310: but.... the puzzle is backwards?
steveness2310: something like that
o0o_faor_o0o: actually, fischer would be more of a inception guy
o0o_faor_o0o: OH MIGOHEIFSJM
o0o_faor_o0o: Steve you know how fischer's story is all about the love of the father? and rekindling family bonds DESPITE the fact that you're really just covering the harsh world with pleasant lies?
o0o_faor_o0o: WELL
o0o_faor_o0o: that whole thing is the inception. the team plays this whole saga to prepare cobb's mind with the sense of reunion and parenthood
o0o_faor_o0o: mal has been sitting bricks over the possibility that limbo'd!cobb would kill himself while working in dream!extraction jobs. sooo she hires everyone to give cobb back his family and security. and it. works. perfectly.
steveness2310: I THINK YOU HAVE AN EPIC ON YOUR HANDS
o0o_faor_o0o: MY BRAIN JUST EXPLODED
o0o_faor_o0o: HOLY FUCK
o0o_faor_o0o: and what's really the kicker is that they could have spent /years/ in cobb's mind just... setting this all up because FOR SRS cobb's mind is in perpetual limbo. they wouldn't even have had to gotten old, they could come out and it would be, like, five minutes
Some other thoughts:
-After news of losing Cobb to Limbo breaks, dream work becomes far more careful and controversial. Mal and Arthur are still somewhat legit, but they have largely separated themselves from the government because of The Man's insistence to study Cobbs and Limbo despite the risk involved. Not much is different from what we see in the movie, actually, but they aren't (always) running from the police.
-Eames is still Eames.
-I'm pretty sure Yusuf is still Yusuf.
-Ariadne is the architect for the team and constructs the rl inception. Cobb is too familiar with Mal's work and Mal's also given up constructing dreams much in the way dream!Cobb did, so she couldn't do it herself. Mal met Ariadne like dream!Cobb did: through Cobb's father. Actually, it was exactly the same since Ariadne had to put in memories since it had to feel as real as possible. She is not actually changing Cobb's dream, though; it's too complex for that. She can influence it. Like, you know when Cobb picks Eames up and then he has to flee from the authorities? Yeah, notice how they went to a bird's eye pan of the maze-like backalleys? And they did this just a few scenes after we meet Ariadne and see how much she enjoys mazes? NO COINCIDENCE THUR.
-Cobb's totem is a lie. He shouldn't be using someone else's totem in the first place, but beyond that, he's so lost in limbo that even totems are affected. (Do we ever see someone use their totem other than Ariadne's, whose doesn't really count in the first?)
-I don't see how Saito can be a projection of Arthur's, meaning he has to be real... but I haven't thought up his job yet. Maybe he's a scientist-turned-tourist?
-Saito wasn't supposed to be shot... I think.
-Nash was one of Cobb's projections. Dream!Cobb needed an architect so Cobb made one for himself.
-As I mentioned in the chat, Fischer is working for Mal. He's a true inceptor. His job is to act out whatever will influence the mark's mind the best. In this case, Fischer influenced Cobb by acting like he was influenced. The trick is that he has to act out everything. Sure, they can tell Cobb that xyz happened, but in order to make his mind believe it, the team has to literally act it out, whether or not dream!Cobb is "there" to see it.
-There's a lot of other parts to this, but I'm feeling lazy so I'll stop here. I'm also working out a lot of the logistics of some of this, so expect there to be some THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS DEARY.
And to reiterate, the movie assumes this. In this theory, I assume that there's a Level ZERO, the real real world that Mal escapes back to when she jumps out the window. Everyone except Cobb and Nash (who is one of Cobb's projections) retreats to ZERO after the airport scene. ONE is actually Cobb's subset of Limbo/FIVE. TWO, THREE and FOUR are Ariadne's architectural creations, but who is dreaming what remains the same. I'm not yet sure if TWO, THREE and FOUR exist as part of Ariadne or Cobb's main dream (I'm pretty sure it's mostly fixed to the former's).
INCEPTION SPECULATION AND POSSIBLE ARTHUR/EAMES FICTION IN THE MAKING.
This is from a chat between Steve and I, with some (but not all) of the flailing deleted. This is posted without Steve's permission, because I am an evil waifu.
o0o_faor_o0o: i want to write some a/e soooo badly. a spectulative piece where, right after cobb turns around and walks out of the baggage claim, the team (ariad, arthur, eames, saito, yus [+fischer?]) hears the jump song and are yanked out. and mal's with them, of course, in the real world.
o0o_faor_o0o: and mal's sad but appreciative/resigned that at least cobb is safe in his mental world, but arthur is all I'M TOTALLY HEARTBROKEN ON THE INSIDE D: D: WEEPS FOREVER because he was srsly hoping that /this/ time they could save cobb
o0o_faor_o0o: and i'm not sure how a/e fits in just yet, but it'll be epic
steveness2310: ...!
steveness2310: SO MAL NEVER DIED?
steveness2310: AND COBB IS THE ONE WHO IS REALLY DREAMING?
o0o_faor_o0o: Steve she was actually right all along.
steveness2310: WHUT WHUT WHUT
o0o_faor_o0o: cobb has been constructing his own world-those "memories" he pushes onto mal at the end? [aka, that he performed inception on her.] LIES. he made those up to make sense of the limbo of his mind. he's been stuck up there for forEVER
o0o_faor_o0o: i can't decide if fischer is part of the act or if he's the most elaborate projection, like, ever
steveness2310: fischer could be the extractor
steveness2310: he's taking on cobb's role, but they reverse it
o0o_faor_o0o: oooooooooooh yeah. you would need one of those.
steveness2310: create a puzzle for cobb to work through
steveness2310: but.... the puzzle is backwards?
steveness2310: something like that
o0o_faor_o0o: actually, fischer would be more of a inception guy
o0o_faor_o0o: OH MIGOHEIFSJM
o0o_faor_o0o: Steve you know how fischer's story is all about the love of the father? and rekindling family bonds DESPITE the fact that you're really just covering the harsh world with pleasant lies?
o0o_faor_o0o: WELL
o0o_faor_o0o: that whole thing is the inception. the team plays this whole saga to prepare cobb's mind with the sense of reunion and parenthood
o0o_faor_o0o: mal has been sitting bricks over the possibility that limbo'd!cobb would kill himself while working in dream!extraction jobs. sooo she hires everyone to give cobb back his family and security. and it. works. perfectly.
steveness2310: I THINK YOU HAVE AN EPIC ON YOUR HANDS
o0o_faor_o0o: MY BRAIN JUST EXPLODED
o0o_faor_o0o: HOLY FUCK
o0o_faor_o0o: and what's really the kicker is that they could have spent /years/ in cobb's mind just... setting this all up because FOR SRS cobb's mind is in perpetual limbo. they wouldn't even have had to gotten old, they could come out and it would be, like, five minutes
Some other thoughts:
-After news of losing Cobb to Limbo breaks, dream work becomes far more careful and controversial. Mal and Arthur are still somewhat legit, but they have largely separated themselves from the government because of The Man's insistence to study Cobbs and Limbo despite the risk involved. Not much is different from what we see in the movie, actually, but they aren't (always) running from the police.
-Eames is still Eames.
-I'm pretty sure Yusuf is still Yusuf.
-Ariadne is the architect for the team and constructs the rl inception. Cobb is too familiar with Mal's work and Mal's also given up constructing dreams much in the way dream!Cobb did, so she couldn't do it herself. Mal met Ariadne like dream!Cobb did: through Cobb's father. Actually, it was exactly the same since Ariadne had to put in memories since it had to feel as real as possible. She is not actually changing Cobb's dream, though; it's too complex for that. She can influence it. Like, you know when Cobb picks Eames up and then he has to flee from the authorities? Yeah, notice how they went to a bird's eye pan of the maze-like backalleys? And they did this just a few scenes after we meet Ariadne and see how much she enjoys mazes? NO COINCIDENCE THUR.
-Cobb's totem is a lie. He shouldn't be using someone else's totem in the first place, but beyond that, he's so lost in limbo that even totems are affected. (Do we ever see someone use their totem other than Ariadne's, whose doesn't really count in the first?)
-I don't see how Saito can be a projection of Arthur's, meaning he has to be real... but I haven't thought up his job yet. Maybe he's a scientist-turned-tourist?
-Saito wasn't supposed to be shot... I think.
-Nash was one of Cobb's projections. Dream!Cobb needed an architect so Cobb made one for himself.
-As I mentioned in the chat, Fischer is working for Mal. He's a true inceptor. His job is to act out whatever will influence the mark's mind the best. In this case, Fischer influenced Cobb by acting like he was influenced. The trick is that he has to act out everything. Sure, they can tell Cobb that xyz happened, but in order to make his mind believe it, the team has to literally act it out, whether or not dream!Cobb is "there" to see it.
-There's a lot of other parts to this, but I'm feeling lazy so I'll stop here. I'm also working out a lot of the logistics of some of this, so expect there to be some THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS DEARY.
And to reiterate, the movie assumes this. In this theory, I assume that there's a Level ZERO, the real real world that Mal escapes back to when she jumps out the window. Everyone except Cobb and Nash (who is one of Cobb's projections) retreats to ZERO after the airport scene. ONE is actually Cobb's subset of Limbo/FIVE. TWO, THREE and FOUR are Ariadne's architectural creations, but who is dreaming what remains the same. I'm not yet sure if TWO, THREE and FOUR exist as part of Ariadne or Cobb's main dream (I'm pretty sure it's mostly fixed to the former's).
