I love the way Arthur and Eames are shown here and we can immediately see what's going on in just in one shot. They're equal and opposite visually and thematically on a purely film school nerd analysis level, regardless of fandom goggles.
Honestly, seeing this interaction giffed on Tumblr and the way it established the characters and their relationship to each other in one second without sound was what made me jump into the whole fandom and Dream Husbands ship in the first place, because it shows just how much they belong together.
Their postures - Arthur still and formal, Eames slouching and constantly fidgeting. Their outfits - Arthur's coordinated gray suit and tie all done up nicely and Eames with his jacket hanging off the chair, obnoxious watch, and weird mustard colored short sleeved shirt. Arthur diligently taking notes while Eames distractedly plays with his totem, his notes sitting unopened on his knee. The way Eames spins his whole body to talk to harass Arthur while Arthur just turns his head maybe 45 degrees. Plus the actors themselves physically with coloring and build, and different accents. They're situated symmetrically on the screen (same distance from the edge of the screen), same height, same distance from the camera.
Their characters are there to be left brain (logic and order, "lacks imagination") and right brain (emotion and imagination, "not like you") for Cobb.[1][2] Their totems both being so similar (red cheating gambling tokens - but their methods controlling different aspects of the game) are a sign of their connection. In the first third of the film they're in conflict, but in order for Inception to succeed, left and right brain have to come together and work in sync. And so there's a whole-ass montage of them in the final third simultaneously laying explosives to get the kick going on level 2 and level 3, blindly trusting the other to do his job, so they can complete the heist successfully.
The fandom goggles do come in when they're both played by extremely attractive actors who interpreted the tension between the characters LIKE THAT, but I mean, come on. Darling. They're two characters who are each others' equals, opposites and rivals in every way; who have tension but begrudging respect and ultimately trust, work brilliantly alongside each other, and have some kind of unspecified history together. They're two halves of a whole as dictated by the narrative.
How are we not supposed to ship this?
I suppose you could make an argument for Id/Ego/Superego or Ethos/Pathos/Logos, the whole Kirk/Spock/McCoy dynamic. But the movie is about neurological pseudoscience so left/right brain works better imo. Esp given that they actually mention the imagination thing.
I saw a menswear blog post that pointed out that whatever Cobb's wearing always lies between what Arthur is wearing (dressed up) and Eames is wearing (dressed down). Except for the scene where he and Arthur are kidnappers.
Each fandom canon has its own unique challenges when writing fic and Inception requires extensive googling of various countries' law enforcement agencies to be accurate about who specifically is trying to arrest our boys now
All Arthur and Eames want is to find a place where they can have a nice, peaceful, and legal wedding. Same-sex marriage is legal in 38 countries, yet finding a location turns out to be harder than they thought.
Direct sequel to megaphone to my chest (and part of the Louvre heist timeline) but can be read standalone. T-rated, 8,674 words.
Tags etc. under the cut
Words: 8,674
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Tags: Established Relationship, Post-Canon, POV Alternating, Fake Marriage, Real Marriage, Backstory, Fluff and Humor, Trans Ariadne (Inception), Banter, Bickering, Be gay do crime taken literally, Pet Names, Weddings, the Animaniacs countries of the world song but gay, the Eurovision Song Contest of fake marriage fics
Arthur speaks foreign languages exactly as he's been taught (courtesy of Uncle Sam). He remembers his conjugations and has studied all of the relevant vocabulary. At best, he sounds like American-accented text to speech. At worst, he's picked up a few odd artifacts from his textbooks - in some languages he's excessively formal, in others he sounds somewhat effeminate, in others his vocabulary is 50 years out of date. It's enough to manage a job with just a few odd looks.
Eames has learned all his foreign languages from pubs and hostels and the occasional bedfellow. His accent is fantastic but extremely local to wherever he picked up the language, which makes people laugh when he goes elsewhere. He regularly forgets vocab and has to resort to mime (thank god he can act). He does however know every single swearword. He gets by well enough to travel under the radar.
At some point over the years they’ve spent doing jobs together, Arthur started filling in the blanks for Eames - cutting off his "um"s and "you know, that thing"s with the correct words, finishing his sentences properly. They work together well like that - Eames builds fluent rapport with their target while Arthur focuses on getting the specifics of what they need.
Their team members finally realize something is up when they start doing it in English.
