The origins of fanon!Eames (and fanon!Arthur too, come to think of it)

[sibilantly]

So I was watching Inception (again) because I wanted screencaps for a separate piece of meta on Arthur, and also because I wanted to compare my IRB fic's characterisations to canon. And as I was watching the scenes with Eames, I started wondering: where did fanon!Eames come from?I don't mean fanon!Eames v. 1.0 (illiterate, borderline dumb), but

Comments

[citrinesunset]

Interesting discussion! To be honest, I haven't read a whole lot of recent Inception fic, so I haven't observed the recent trends in characterization as much. I also don't read Arthur/Eames as a rule, so I don't look at either Arthur or Eames' characterization in the context of A/E.

In any case, I agree with your perception of Eames. He does strike me as distanced and mostly interested in his own self-preservation for the most part. I'm sure he could be warm, but I don't see that much in how he interacts with the team. He's more snarky. At the same time, he's not mean-spirited. I think he can certainly relate to people, judging from how he's able to get into Fischer's head to come up with a strategy for the inception. And he shows some acknowledgement that the job is important to Cobb. He's just not that personally invested. His interest in the job seems much more academic--he's curious about doing inception. He's not in out of loyalty or concern for Cobb's future or anything like that.

But I think he comes closest to being genuinely warm when he's interacting with Saito, particularly toward the end.

[sibilantly]

*sings quietly to self* Not everything is about Arthur/Eames~. Thank you for that. I... forget sometimes, even though I happily ship Arthur/Cobb and Eames/Saito on the side. And... Eames/Cobb in that one fic by delires, the one that makes my chest hurt.

However, now I'm curious! In your non-Arthur/Eames fic readings, do you see much of this particular fanon!Eames characterisation? Because I'm now wondering if this fanon!Eames is a phenomenon specific to Arthur/Eames.

His interest in the job seems much more academic--he's curious about doing inception. He's not in out of loyalty or concern for Cobb's future or anything like that.

But I think he comes closest to being genuinely warm when he's interacting with Saito, particularly toward the end.

Agreed. I really enjoyed the mini-evolution of their interaction/relationship. Someone in campfire chat commented that Eames seemed to perform a complete 180 in his attitude toward Saito, which really surprised me. I thought the development of their relationship was mapped out quite nicely, albeit in background scenes.

[citrinesunset]

That's a good question! To be honest, I don't think I've read as many non-A/E fics involving Eames as I have fics involving Arthur. At least, I haven't read as many fics where Eames was the main character or part of the main pairing. But yeah, I would say that I've seen this version of fanon!Eames. I feel like in general, fic does tend to play up his playful side. I've seen it in a few Ariadne/Eames fics, I think. But aside from Eames/Robert, which I haven't read that much of, I don't see a lot of fics with Eames front and center.

I agree with you that Eames' character and his dynamic with Saito are consistent and develop well over the course of the film. I don't really see any inconsistency in Eames, in general. He can be snarky and playful, but I don't feel like it detracts from his focus or seriousness.