Comments | the_empiricist: sea legs

the_empiricist

sea legs

Apr 23, 2011 00:37

Title: Sea Legs
Author: beanarie
Rating: R
Warnings: This story includes a rape scene between a primary character and an OC. While I made every effort to portray the act and its aftermath with sensitivity and respect, it's sure to be incredibly triggery.
Characters: Mal, Eames
Summary: A few seconds later, she realizes that she implied a claim on him. But ( Read more... )

mal/eames, fic, reverse bang, london au, inception

Comments 17

persephone_il April 25 2011, 13:31:55 UTC

yayayay Mal ends up being a mob doctor. so much love. SO MUCH LOVE.

I adored this story from start to finish. I loved how you've built Eames and Mal's relationship, how it's complicated and occasionally tenuous but all the stronger for it. I loved the peeks into Mal's life as an interperter. This story is entirely made of win and awesome.

the_empiricist April 25 2011, 21:31:29 UTC

Wow, you're one of my favorite writers. I kind of want to frame this comment. Thank you for reading and for such a lovely review. ♥

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the_empiricist May 9 2011, 17:26:42 UTC

Rare pairs unite! Dude, I've had your Eames and Yusuf smoking together fic on my to be read list for ages. ♥ I'm so glad you liked my story and that you felt I did okay by Mal. She's got such potential as a character, even if she had almost no time onscreen as her actual self.

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the_empiricist May 13 2011, 01:38:58 UTC

Yeah, I feel like Nolan has an amazing, amazing creative brain. And he seems to kind of try to have a strongish female presence? But he doesn't seem aware of his male privilege at all and I can think of a ton of examples, in all his movies. Rachel Dawes, or Dawson. Eeeurgh. *shudders*

I understand what you mean about reclaiming, completely. Also that's what's so fantastic about fandom. It's like they fill in all the cracks he left and make it pretty close to perfect.

Sorry! I'll get to all the rest, I promise. ♥

draven98 May 8 2011, 15:08:57 UTC

This was beautifully written. First time I read this pair and love it. Thanks so much for writing and posting.

the_empiricist May 9 2011, 17:27:45 UTC

That is incredibly nice of you to say. Thank you.

beta-mode finally wore off. night_reveals May 10 2011, 08:30:38 UTC

First, some lines and parts I just enjoyed so much, or were incredibly apt:

There isn't much to dislike about being an interpreter, but Mal misses her old job sometimes. She used to have more power than this.

I love the little flashbacks to Mal's old life, her old dreams, that we get as readers. It makes the whole story bigger. Her familiarity and fascination with pain was another wonderful way to give her bite while maintaining the storyline, as well.

It would make her feel better to have even one insignificant something stricken off her list.

This little detail really brings it together for me: it's such a relevant feeling, when you have so much to do that every tiny step forward is a personal victory.

They don't progress; they don't fill in each other's empty spaces. They could if they wanted to, probably, but neither of them does.

This is such an elegant way of describing that space between lovers and acquaintances, where both parties are holding back. Beautiful.

The messages pile up on her phone, but she always has ( ... )

Re: beta-mode finally wore off. the_empiricist May 18 2011, 17:49:58 UTC

Let me preface this by saying that this took me so long because I am really embarrassingly bad at responding to praise, not because your review was unappreciated in any way. Just so you know, the delay was all me flailing, "What do I even say to that!"

I feel like this whole story hinged on my portrayal of Mal. If she didn't work, then she definitely wouldn't be worthy of someone like Eames and the pairing would fall utterly flat. Not to mention, none of the events in the story would matter. So it means a lot that you liked Mal as a character and could identify with and root for her. Nolan's priority was not deeply layered characterization. Tom Hardy even said in an interview that Eames was an archetype. I think he depended on the actors a bit more than normal to make them more than just two-dimensional. Credit to him, he cast it perfectly and it worked out. They each of them have such potential though, that was kind of left to the fans to explore. I had so many thoughts about Mal and what she could have been like if not for a few ( ... )