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

annejumps/clickthefrog (sorry, it won't let me sign in)

[anonymous]

Very interesting. You know, I started writing in Inception fandom as a private RP between myself and my best friend. She is Eames and I am Arthur. However, over time, I've more or less reached a point where I'm exclusively writing fic, not RP, from Eames' perspective

Re: annejumps/clickthefrog (sorry, it won't let me sign in)

[sibilantly]

(LJ won't let me sign in via comments either. It's quite odd. I thought it was just me, but maybe it's some new bug.)

Nah, I don't think your Eames is overly gregarious or perfect. I think motetus made a good point about this particular characterisation being more prevalent in fics with Arthur POVs. Not to say that writing from Eames' POV is some sort of automatic protection against perfect!Eames characterisation XD. But I think it's perhaps easier for an author to see if they're making Eames too good to be true if they're writing from his POV.

I'm a big fan of Eames-observing-Arthur, too! He's so in tune with human behaviour in a way that Arthur arguably is not. And I don't think we're alone in this preference - I believe it was resonant who remarked that a good deal of Arthur/Eames fics written from Eames' POV are 'love songs to Arthur', lol.

The way I see it, Eames will pick up on something right away, but he won't openly acknowledge such because he's rather guarded and cautious.Okay, this comment just gave me a thought: perhaps Eames

now i can log in

[anne_jumps]

I actually have a serious weakness for -- okay, it's basically a requirement for me with this pairing, at least in writing it -- Arthur and Eames being ...tied to each other, like, yin-yang or the left and right side of the brain (which you can make a pretty good case for them representing in the movie) and just sort of being Fated To Be Together. I mean, that's a sort of fantastical element that I like having when I write them. And that's not really necessarily something you can get from the film. I sort of end up... not focusing on the darker aspects of their lives. I know other people can do better jobs at that. So I... can appreciate fics where they don't end up together, but I can't really hang with that. Soooo by default they sort of have to be Perfect For Each Other for me, without actually being literally perfect.

Also I must say, a lot of the fun of writing Eames observing Arthur is describing the loveliness of JGL.

[mruczanka]

Ooooooh yes! fanon is my fave meta subject, I find it fascinating. I agree completely with your reading of Eames and I wondered at times where this fluffy Eames came from too. I figured it might be due to actor's personality bleeding into fanon characterisation, Tom Hardy is a sweetie, nuff said. I also recall a quite popular Eames meta that read him as doubble bluffing about his enderments which are pretty sarcastic and insecurities (Your condescention... etc.) coupled with fandom's tendency to exagerate and atration contrast. I can see it producing this heartfelt lovely Eames... I don't know how much sense I'm making so I'm off to read the other comments :P

[sibilantly]

You're totally making sense.

I figured it might be due to actor's personality bleeding into fanon characterisation, Tom Hardy is a sweetie, nuff said.

Ooh, yes. Good point about elements of TH's personality possibly bleeding into characterisations of Eames. Because the characters of Inception are painted with such a broad brush (a really good brush, with really good paint! XD), writers will naturally look to other sources, such as the actors, to flesh out the characters. You can also see this with Arthur, who is sometimes written as being Jewish and originating from California because JGL is.

I also recall a quite popular Eames meta that read him as doubble bluffing about his enderments which are pretty sarcastic and insecurities (Your condescention... etc.) coupled with fandom's tendency to exagerate and atration contrast.I personally feel that Eames - if he really did feel something for Arthur and knew/thought that it was unlikely to be reciprocated - would just keep it all locked down. But, then again, we see that he can't

[anonymous]

Hi

[sibilantly]

I'm splitting this into two replies: one about fanon!Eames, the other about Scott Summers, lol.

Yaaaaaay, more people coming into the discussion! :D Do not apologise for writing so much, I loved reading all of it. And, heh, we've all tangented out in this discussion on Eames (God I missed this about LJ). However, funnily enough, your entire third paragraph is probably the most on-topic of this whole discussion, and quite insightful to boot! I went to quote bits of it, and ended up trying to quote the whole paragraph, which is rather redundant. So instead I'll just say: let me lick your brain

[anonymous]

I'm glad you didn't find it too TLDR

[sibilantly]

Part 2:

Hahaha! Goodness, how did you remember I was a Scott Summers fan? I think I've only mentioned him once or twice on my blog. But yes, he is my utmost favourite, and I still get irrationally defensive of him when people say he's a boring stick-in-the-mud. He's nooooot. You just need a writer - like Joss Whedon or BKV - who gets his complexity without falling on the crutch of making him 'dark'*.

Aaaaand... this isn't the first time I've thought about this, but I now fully realise I absolutely have A Type. As in, I'm drawn to characters who have fierce loyalty as a defining trait, who often work in the background/as the second-in-command, and are sometimes dismissed as boring: Scott Summers, Arthur, and John Blake. I'd probably throw Brendan Conlon in there, too. Tom Hansen is kind of an exception to this, given his neurotic behaviour, but he has an everyman quality to him that I find appealing

[kdchan]

Since the fandom began, I always noticed the slow, gradual change in characterization regarding Eames. A lot of fics (and filled prompts in inception kink) from the beginning, had his snarky and indifference attitude spot on. But it really started to broaden months into the fandoms birth, and I began to see different written versions of him (which was totally fine!) but a popular one was the incredibly affectionate and kind Eames, and I too wondered, where did that sprout from

[sibilantly]

A lot of fics (and filled prompts in inception kink) from the beginning, had his snarky and indifference attitude spot on.

I think I saw something slightly different at the start of Inception fandom. At the beginning I saw what I like to call 'fanon!Eames v.1.0'. This Eames was, well... for lack of a better word: dumb. A lot of really really really early fics characterised him as this illiterate, constantly horny fashion disaster. I guess they took the lines about Eames' poor spelling and maths and just ran with it (hahaha, more of that 'fandom boiling down and intensifying certain character traits' XD).

Then there came that fateful prompt and influential bit of meta 'You're a Smart Man, Mr. Eames' by Aja. But, after this happened, I agree with you - there was a new wave of fics featuring an Eames that was sharp, incisive, selfish, witty