[Inception movie/fandom review] HELP ME I'M DROWNING IN ARTHUR/EAMES FIC

[vikki]

Random Inception thoughts, just because otherwise I'm going to vomit these things all over the journals of other people who don't know me or care

Comments

[blackmarth]

In all the dream sequences, Cobb is seen with a wedding band and he's fingering it, some people think that's actually his totem, and the spinning top might be the way he checks to see if he's in Mal's dream or not. Just a theory. He probably tells other people as a way to throw them off, though I doubt Nolan thought that far ahead, just put hints in

[vikki]

Cobb is seen with a wedding band and he's fingering it, some people think that's actually his totem
I've seen this idea played with and I quite like it. But like you I think that Nolan never planned that out. Or maybe we'll get a surprise on the DVD extras!

I think you're able to only get out of it when you are aware it's a dream, only then does dying become an escape.
When I first watched the movie I was like 'unconstructed dream space what does that even mean', but while I was checking this rant/meta for html errors it crossed my mind that 'unconstructed' dreamspace is actually quite possible in this world: if you're sharing a dream and there's no defined dreamer/subject relationship, than Limbo is whatever comes after the lowest level you've actively constructed. I agree that Limbo can't be escaped unless you understand it's a dream.

even if you're creating things lucidly, you still aren't necessarily aware that you're dreaming.The movie explicitly states that dream architecture is addictive when Cobb promises Arthur that

[blackmarth]

I think Nolan intentionally put the wedding ring in, but didn't develop a huge thing around it, it was more if you found it, it enriched your experience and planted inception in your mind that maybe his top is NOT his totem

[alessandriana]

I have to admit, I went "noooo!" really loudly in the theater when I first saw the ending. >.< But then I had a moment of fridge logic later that night that kind of killed the tension. I mean, if it really had all been a dream, and when Mal jumped off the ledge she really did wake up, why didn't she just... go back under and talk to Cobb and say, hey, it really is a dream! You'd think that would solve the issue, right?

And even if it *were* a dream after all, and Mal couldn't come and tell him for whatever reason, all Cobb has to do is wait until he dies (from old age, if nothing else) and he'll wake up and be young again. Am I right? It's not like he'd be trapped there forever.

-Interestingly, of all the characters, Eames was the one I just... barely even noticed. It was weird wading into the fandom and seeing all the Arthur/Eames fic because I had to take a minute and go, wait, who was Eames again?

[vikki]

Good points about Mal going after Cobb! I read a fic (which I will have to find for you) that proposed that Mal didn't want to go back for him because she was afraid of getting sucked into the dream reality again, but overall that's a pretty big hole. (I'd kind of love to read that AU, though!)

I lost track of Eames towards the end of the movie but I think that overall I enjoyed his intelligence and banter with Arthur enough to notice him, even if his name just didn't stick with me until the second viewing.

Also, on a side note, how hilarious is it that Arthur, the slimmest of the men on the team, is also the bruiser/muscle? I LOVE THAT.

[alessandriana]

Ooh, yes, link please; I'd like to read that.

The snow outfits made it *really* difficult to tell who was who in that whole last bit, was the problem. Not to mention the fact that half the time Eames was looking like someone else besides himself...

XD Yeah, I loved that about Arthur. I loved Arthur in general, actually. It makes me curious if he's really that kickass outside the dream world; I've only seen the movie the once, so I can't remember if he did any fighting in real life?

[gryvon]

About Mal's totem

[vikki]

Thanks for all the thoughtful plot hole explanations! I have no problem with the concept of a kick unto itself - specifically the sensation of falling in the level above kicking a dreamer up a level - but I'm a bit confused as to why the kick has to occur on both sides. (I'm generally willing to accept that the kick only has to occur on both sides in limbo, which is clearly a Special Case, but Eames sets the charges to kick everyone up before Cobb and Ariadne resolve to follow Mal and Robert to limbo.) The reason I bring up the zero gravity example is because the impact of the car with the barrier, vaulting level 2 into zero gravity, was violent enough to send Arthur catapulting down the hotel hallway and therefore would probably have jerked everyone up from their beds with enough force to be a kick on its own.

I haven't read much fic for it yet, but in my mind Eames is well educated.ME TOO. If nothing else, Eames is a brilliant psychologist - as any con man ought to be, perhaps, but being a subconscious con man as often as not,