Inception gender switch
I was thinking about Ariadne in Inception today...and I'm going to put it under a cut just in case spoilers come up, but basically I keep reading about how
And I actually have a ton of opinions on that that would be really long to write out. In a nutshell, I respect people just not being interested in a movie that is all about a white man and his problems (actually two white men in their problems, Cobb and Fischer) where anybody else is just helping him work through them.But I really don't understand the criticisms where you accept the movie's premise and mark out Ariadne as particularly weak character-wise. Criticisms of Mal I can understand more, since she has a pretty thankless role as the wife who started the problems by having a weaker grip on reality than her husband (if we believe Dom's narrative, which I don't think we have to do). Though I did appreciate what seemed to be the many places where the movie seemed to be reminding me that Mal was a character I never actually met, whose motivations and state of mind and actions were unknown to me because they were unknown to her husband.
Anyway, back to the thought I was having about Ariadne as a female character. When in my mind I switched Ariadne to a boy, I found myself feeling like Cobb/boy!Ariadne would have become a major slash ship. She's the young, talented protege who sees him for what he is and challenges him. She doesn't accept his brush offs and follows after him for the good of the team, ultimately taking over as leader of the mission when Cobb allows it to fail. They end the movie with a respectful relationship with boy!Ariadne clearly Dom's heir apparent as architect and leader.
That led me to wonder about think about simply switching Arthur and Ariadne's roles, since the two of them basically mirror each other on either side of Dom. And of course this is conjecture--who knows what anybody would have really said in that alternate universe? But I found myself thinking that if that was the case it would have been girl!Arthur who was a big problem where boy!Arthur isn't. Girl!Arthur would be the person who followed Dom around and barely questioned his decisions. Who knew that Mal was showing up but wasn't proactive enough to actually do anything about it other than accept Dom's reassurance. Then boy!Ariadne shows up. Within minutes he sees that what's going on with Don is just not on, and is endangering everybody, and you'd have to be a fool to just blindly follow him into the dreams. Clearly his subconcious is sabotaging them all. So he immediately slips into the right hand man position, protecting the rest of the group without their knowledge. Ultimately he and Dom are the two who venture to the deepest level on purpose after boy!Ariadne takes over as the maker of plans even though it's his first job.
And I actually have a ton of opinions on that that would be really long to write out. In a nutshell, I respect people just not being interested in a movie that is all about a white man and his problems (actually two white men in their problems, Cobb and Fischer) where anybody else is just helping him work through them.But I really don't understand the criticisms where you accept the movie's premise and mark out Ariadne as particularly weak character-wise. Criticisms of Mal I can understand more, since she has a pretty thankless role as the wife who started the problems by having a weaker grip on reality than her husband (if we believe Dom's narrative, which I don't think we have to do). Though I did appreciate what seemed to be the many places where the movie seemed to be reminding me that Mal was a character I never actually met, whose motivations and state of mind and actions were unknown to me because they were unknown to her husband.
Anyway, back to the thought I was having about Ariadne as a female character. When in my mind I switched Ariadne to a boy, I found myself feeling like Cobb/boy!Ariadne would have become a major slash ship. She's the young, talented protege who sees him for what he is and challenges him. She doesn't accept his brush offs and follows after him for the good of the team, ultimately taking over as leader of the mission when Cobb allows it to fail. They end the movie with a respectful relationship with boy!Ariadne clearly Dom's heir apparent as architect and leader.
That led me to wonder about think about simply switching Arthur and Ariadne's roles, since the two of them basically mirror each other on either side of Dom. And of course this is conjecture--who knows what anybody would have really said in that alternate universe? But I found myself thinking that if that was the case it would have been girl!Arthur who was a big problem where boy!Arthur isn't. Girl!Arthur would be the person who followed Dom around and barely questioned his decisions. Who knew that Mal was showing up but wasn't proactive enough to actually do anything about it other than accept Dom's reassurance. Then boy!Ariadne shows up. Within minutes he sees that what's going on with Don is just not on, and is endangering everybody, and you'd have to be a fool to just blindly follow him into the dreams. Clearly his subconcious is sabotaging them all. So he immediately slips into the right hand man position, protecting the rest of the group without their knowledge. Ultimately he and Dom are the two who venture to the deepest level on purpose after boy!Ariadne takes over as the maker of plans even though it's his first job.