Fanon Eames is closer to Canon Arthur and Vice Versa
Hear me out, here me out
I’ve been thinking about this since forever, and I only recently started talking to people about it and I am?? So shocked but happy about the amount of people who agree with me. You lot are amazing :’)
I shall try to make my thoughts coherent, stay with me.
Before I do, I just want to say your opinions are valid, always, even if I may be going at this hard right now.
[lots below the line]
This isn’t to say that our fanon perceptions are terrible, that I don’t love them. I do! They’re lovely, heck, go through my feed, there’s a lot that’s gripping fanon.
And our writers are so wonderful. Honestly if one of you wrote a fic describing contents in your trash cans I’d probably read that too. Oh and!! What I continue saying may actually be your fanon perception, if so, awesome, ty pfft.
But here’s the thing.
Arthur isn’t prissy? He’s not really an uptight stick-up-his-yeehaw person. In canon he’s actually quite warm.
I say this from a v neutral POV, no ships or anything.
He’s very understanding and warm to Dom right from the start, when he notices Mal’s shadow. He’s so soft and caring about it and it is 😭💞
Everyone knows about this one but The way he says “she was lovely” about Mal to Ari :((
The way he treats Ariadne the entire time.
I know Christopher Nolan tried to make their ship happen, but the thing is, that’s still him? As much as a lot of us cringe at the kiss, it’s canon. It happened. And it definitely adds to how little we know about Arthur.
See thing is, you can tell a lot about a person by the way that they treat someone new. It’s very ... well, it sort of defines a person in a way. (By that I don’t just mean first impressions— I mean after the first one, well.)
He’s very nice to her at the start when she’s learning everything and etc, he’s super warm (and oh my God that little smug smile he had the first time? Come on.) and encouraging. We love him.
And he flirts. This trope is usually given away to Eames, if so, but truth is; he flirted with Ari when he said give me a kiss. You smooth little point man you 😫❤️
I’ll keep saying that he’s super warm because he is, okay >:(❤️
If I watched the movie again right now while talking about this, I assure you I could go on and make this post longer than my own fics. But I’ll spare you guys from that this time around.
Ahhh gosh, there’s one thing that I see around that Arthur’s not very ... smiley?
I’m gonna have to. Disagree there. He actually does smile a lot.
I feel like I should point out that a lot of the scenes we see are when he’s working, when he’s on a job. He’s a point man, yaknow, it’s kind of a built in this to be determined and keep your head in the game.
At the start when he’s frowning and all, it’s because the job might get botched, because Saito’s in the helicopter, etc.
But then there’s the scenes in between mainly when he’s teaching Ari, and if you can’t see how soft he is there, I really do urge you to give it a rewatch.
He smiles!! He’s adorable.
And what’s the first thing we see of his when we’re at the end of the movie, back in the plane? Him smiling again.
But before that, they were trying to do a job when projections start shooting them up, Saito’s bleeding, Dom Cobb’s yelling. It’s just. Hell.
And it’s super justified for him to be so tense. He’s the point man, he was supposed to know all the little bits around their job but now a man’s bleeding while someone yells at him saying it’s his fault, of course he’s going to take that blame to himself.
He actually handles Cobb very calmly (if I were there —as I mentioned before—, I would shoot Cobb, no questions asked.), he’s very patient about it. But after Cobb stops hovering over his head, he’s had time to process how this might truly be his fault (I’m sorry bby you did your best :(().
Another thing is—, Arthur’s a very expressive person. A lot of that goes to Joe, ofc, but my man cannot keep a stony face, his expressions are always saying something. A lot of fics say that his face is unreadable but really, it’s just that he has a lot of layers on sometimes <3
(ALSO WAIT I HAVE TO MENTION—HE WHISPERS “PARADOX” INTO THE PROJECTIONS EAR BEFORE PUSHING HIM OFF THE STAIR AHSHJSHDHD THAT WAS SO ADORABLE PFFT)
What I’m really trying to get at here is that Arthur!! Is actually A very warm. Kind. Lovely. A bit flirty. A lot supportive. Very smart (everyone gets this one right always ofc) person.
Honestly, bless the creators who’ve already written my babe like this, but I just really really needed to get it out there.
It isn’t to say your fic is of less value. Tbh my favourite fics, Arthur’s a bit of the cold prissy person, but I’m just trying to distinguish here, yaknow?
Okay I was adding the pictures and I remembered wanted to say that the way Arthur carries himself is actually quite carefree!! Just how he handles himself in general, he moves with ease, but ngl an example is the chair leaning thing. Hes so ,,, not rigid guys :((
I also made one tailored towards Eames!! Didn't want completely flood this and make it a long one. Check that out too, if you'd like, thanks!
Edit: I can’t believe I tried so hard not to make this ship-like I completely forgot to add Eames skhjdfhf
