Eames
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Eames |
| Occupation: | Forger, dreamworker |
| Relationships: | None in canon; Arthur/Eames is the most popular one in fandom |
| Fandom: | Inception |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Eames is a secondary character from the film Inception, portrayed by Tom Hardy.[1]
Character overview
Eames enters Inception as Dom Cobb is assembling his team. His role is described as that of forger, and the course of the story proves that he's an elaborate dream con artist, taking on personalities and looks of other people to impersonate them and tricking the dreamer into thinking they are meeting someone they know. This is a key element in the first level of the dream they enter in order to incept Fischer.
Fandom reception
Eames was an instant fan hit, despite being a secondary character and, in an odd twist, became half of the major fandom pairing for the film's fandom, along with Arthur. The Arthur/Eames pairing beat all odds in becoming popular, no doubt in part due to the charisma and gung-ho attitude of Eames played up against the far more sensible and cool-headed Arthur. The canon also heavily implies there is backstory between Arthur, Cobb, Yusuf and Eames, and the competitive nature it takes between Arthur and Eames has endeared the characters to fandom.[2]
Meta and Discussion
- You're A Smart Man, Mr Eames by Aja. "EAMES IS BRILLIANT: A TOTALLY PERSUASIVE ARGUMENT" with picspam and quotes
- that's what we wanted you to think by deepsix. Meta proposing that Eames' primary function in the extraction community is not as a forger, but as an extractor; Eames leads his own extraction team; Eames and Cobb are not rivals; and forgery is not a highly sought-after skill on its own.
- Military Backgrounds discussion on eames_arthur with quotes and supporting evidence in comments
- i would be your bonaparte by deepsix. "The more I think about this movie, the more I do not buy fanon characterizations of Arthur and Eames like... at all"
- A Quick and Dirty Guide to the British Education System and part two of same by gemnoire
- How to Dress Your Man/Character: An Informal Tutorial Heavy on the PicSpam by hackthis. An information/picspam about men's suits, inspired by Inception fandom's love of men in suits.
- Picspam: Costumes in Inception by bennet_7. A very thorough look at all the costumes worn by the main characters and what their attire tells us about them.
- Dream A Little Bigger, Darling - the Inception Fic Writer's Guide to Firearms, Pt 1 by chn-breathmint (other parts linked in post).
Fanon and Popular Tropes and Themes
- Eames has/gets some of Tom Hardy's characteristics, such as getting tattooed, or drawing on popular and/or amusing appearances or quotes. For example, weatherfront's Arthur/Eames private investigator/art thief fic The Greedyhearts references several well-known Tom Hardy photographs and the accompanying website arthurandeamesstealthings.com utilises this infamous selfpic where Tom is wearing an orange trucker hat, a green t-shirt over his shoulders only and is pouting with a hand down his boxers (warning, probably NSFW!). There's also the cracktastic red velvet cake fic C.O.A.D or Cake On A Dick, which starts off as Tom Hardy RPF and then turns out to be a dream Arthur's having, using embedded links to pics throughout the fic.
- Eames used to be other Tom Hardy roles, usually Handsome Bob in RocknRolla
- Drawing on Tom Hardy's physical transformations and weight gain and loss for film roles such as Stuart: A Life Backwards, Bronson, and Warrior, other characters note these changes in Eames
- The implied backstory is explored and imagined, with Eames previously in the British or American military, intelligence, SAS or Marines. Arthur and Eames have a complex history, which is referred to in the present or illuminated by way of flashbacks.
- Eames is English nobility or comes from a well-off old money family. His family is upper class and may own a mansion or manor house, or be related to the Queen of England.
- Conversely, Eames come from a poor family or grew up on the streets, where he learnt his pickpocketing skills seen in the film.
- Drawing on Eames' suggestions for the Fischer inception job and his skill in forging people in the dreams, he has a background or multiple degrees in psychology.
- Yusuf and Eames are friends or attended boarding school in Britain together. (This is despite Eames paying someone to show them where Yusuf's Mombssa dream den is in canon.)
- Eames is affectionate and calls people, especially Arthur, "darling" or other pet names.
- Eames is flirtatious, sexually promiscuous or touchy-feely. This is particularly apparent in Arthur/Eames fic.
- Influenced by canon Eames misspelling a word on a forged poker chip and saying "I'm sorry, uh, maths was never my strong subject" in a discussion about the way time works in multiple dream levels, he is sometimes characterised as being a bad speller, bad at mathematics, having a learning disability such as dyslexia or being functionally illiterate.[3] Aja's post You're A Smart Man, Mr Eames provides a counter-argument.
- Eames is a bad or sloppy dresser.
- Eames is portrayed as genderqueer, gender-flexible, genderfluid or trans*. This is influenced by him having the ability to forge women as well as men, suggesting he may have a unique perspective on gender.
Fandom resources
Fanworks tagged with Eames (Inception) on the Archive of Our Own
Fanlore
LiveJournal
So far there are no Eames-specific communities on other journaling sites
Tumblr
Resources
References
- ^ IMDb
- ^ See Arthur/Eames
- ^ Bookshop's post A clarification and apology. (accessed November 28, 2013)