let's talk about limbo.
Happy Valentine's Day, chocolate and paper hearts for all and sundry, etc. Now that I've got that out of the way, I have a question for the Inception fans out there:
How do you get out of Limbo?
Okay, obviously, you have to die. But it can't be quite that simple, or Limbo wouldn't be such a bogeyman for dreamers. In my head!canon, at least, a death from natural causes in Limbo is the rough equivalent of brain death -- "lost in Limbo 'till our brains turn to scrambled egg," as Eames puts it. Death by projection doesn't seem to be an issue -- the Cobbs' Limbo seems to be completely empty, though they do mention that projections of their kids had been there with them; Saito's Limbo has armed guards and servants who all seemed quite devoted to protecting him. Presumably the mind in Limbo very much wants to stay there. Which argues that to successfully wake up out of Limbo, one has to kill oneself with intent. That would explain Dom & Mal's suicide by train and Ariadne's leap off the building, and if we're assuming the ending of the movie was real, Dom and old!Saito both committed suicide as well.
But. Fucking Fischer, guys, I have no idea how to justify him. He doesn't kill himself; Ariadne shoves him off a fucking building. He has no awareness of his own death, or of his circumstances in Limbo at all, though god knows what projection!Mal told him before trussing him up on the balcony. So is that all it takes? A kick like in any other dream? That seems...way too cheap and simple. I get that when you're in Limbo, the hard part is convincing yourself that you are in fact still dreaming -- though Ariadne never seems confused at all, fucking outliers, would it kill you to provide us with a little specificity Chris Nolan?
Anyway. Possibly I am overthinking this. But seriously, why is Limbo so scary if it's so easy to escape?
(This train of thought is really pushing me in the Cobb-never-actually-woke-up-at-the-end camp, I gotta tell you. It all makes way more sense if you assume everything from Ariadne shooting Mal onward is all just in Cobb's head.)
Seriously, anyone want to weigh in on this?
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. Comment wherever you'd like.
How do you get out of Limbo?
Okay, obviously, you have to die. But it can't be quite that simple, or Limbo wouldn't be such a bogeyman for dreamers. In my head!canon, at least, a death from natural causes in Limbo is the rough equivalent of brain death -- "lost in Limbo 'till our brains turn to scrambled egg," as Eames puts it. Death by projection doesn't seem to be an issue -- the Cobbs' Limbo seems to be completely empty, though they do mention that projections of their kids had been there with them; Saito's Limbo has armed guards and servants who all seemed quite devoted to protecting him. Presumably the mind in Limbo very much wants to stay there. Which argues that to successfully wake up out of Limbo, one has to kill oneself with intent. That would explain Dom & Mal's suicide by train and Ariadne's leap off the building, and if we're assuming the ending of the movie was real, Dom and old!Saito both committed suicide as well.
But. Fucking Fischer, guys, I have no idea how to justify him. He doesn't kill himself; Ariadne shoves him off a fucking building. He has no awareness of his own death, or of his circumstances in Limbo at all, though god knows what projection!Mal told him before trussing him up on the balcony. So is that all it takes? A kick like in any other dream? That seems...way too cheap and simple. I get that when you're in Limbo, the hard part is convincing yourself that you are in fact still dreaming -- though Ariadne never seems confused at all, fucking outliers, would it kill you to provide us with a little specificity Chris Nolan?
Anyway. Possibly I am overthinking this. But seriously, why is Limbo so scary if it's so easy to escape?
(This train of thought is really pushing me in the Cobb-never-actually-woke-up-at-the-end camp, I gotta tell you. It all makes way more sense if you assume everything from Ariadne shooting Mal onward is all just in Cobb's head.)
Seriously, anyone want to weigh in on this?
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. Comment wherever you'd like.