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reblog to take a bite out of this styrofoam cup nobody can stop you go ahead and do it
really quick Sam because i watched Fiona's vid on him and i am now a fan o7 love this sprite of his tho its my favoritee he's so sweet
On Arthur's personality and characterisation
So, someone on my dash wondered why the arsehole!Arthur characterisation is so prevalent in Inception fanfic, when they thought Arthur seemed quite even-tempered throughout the movie (he was patient with Ariadne, he said Mal was “lovely” etc.).
And I nodded thoughtfully, wrote up a reply, hit re-blog, then walked off to make some tea. But when I came back, tumblr had frozen. But the post was still open. ‘Goddamn it,’ I thought. ‘I spent quite a bit of time thinking on this trope and writing about it, so I will bloody well see that it’s posted.’ So here it is.
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Arthur is definitely even-tempered. He’s the point man - the details man, the reliable one.
As the point man, he’s probably the one who has to deal with the most people. He may not necessarily deal with the client the most - that seems to be the extractor - or deal with people for the longest periods of time, but, as point man, he needs to know everything that’s going on. To do that, he needs to stay in constant communication with people. He needs to have good people skills.
And we see that - he’s patient when teaching Ariadne; he’s professional and courteous with Saito; he compliments people when they do well (and I do believe he was being genuine with his “Eames, I’m impressed,” even though Eames slapped it back down with a smirk); he tries to calm Cobb down, and he doesn’t get defensive at all when Cobb tears him a new one for not discovering Fischer’s militarisation.
However, as point man, Arthur also has to be exacting. He has high standards because it’s his job to make sure things go smoothly for his team. And, as such, he’ll brook no excuses if people fuck up. He calls Nash an arsehole (all right, asshole) for fucking up the carpet. He pokes holes in everyone’s ideas because this inception job needs to be watertight to be successful. And he gets the shits with Eames because Eames plays around during the planning stages.
In my opinion (stressing that it’s only my opinion, doesn’t have to be everyone else’s), that’s all it is. Eames is being playful, teasing (tipping Arthur’s chair, laughing at him when he’s getting the kick whilst Somnacin testing) and Arthur wants people to be serious at this stage in planning. It doesn’t mean he never has sense of humour. I think it’s quite in-character if he jokes back with Eames (“And I will lead them on a merry chase,” and “Go to sleep, Mr. Eames”, anyone?).
He just won’t do it at that point in the job. Maybe even just that point in that particular job (there were, after all, quite high stakes).
I also think it’d still be in-character for Arthur to have a dickish sense of humour (and maybe that’s just because that’s how I like to write him, because I like writing characters with dickish senses of humour ;D).
But Arthur’s got good people skills, like we established before. So he’ll only express that dickish sort of humour if the person he’s joking with is comfortable with it. If Eames was upset by Arthur snapping at him, or acting like a sarcastic motherfucker, I think Arthur would tone it down, or simply not do it.
Except Eames isn’t upset by it. He pushes back. He pushes Arthur’s buttons just as hard.
So Arthur smirks, or laughs outright, and devotes thirty minutes each day to coming up with new ways to insult Eames’ attire, secure in the knowledge that Eames is spending thirty minutes thinking up new ways to call him an anal-retentive bastard.
(Okay, that last bit is just my head canon)
What Kim Kitsuragi Tells Us About Fandom Ghost
I don't know if this has been said before, but I feel like another reason why Kim Kitsuragi is so wildly popular and beloved is how seamlessly he maps onto the trope of the Fanon Ghost.
Fanon Ghost is a concept that originated on Tumblr, by user wildehack, to describe the phenomenon of fandom elevating certain white male side characters from canon into main characters in fic, using a very specific set of characterization.
(Examples: wildehack focused on Star Wars' Hux's popularity in fic in comparison to characters like Finn/Poe, but others include Q from Craig!Bond verse, Arthur from Inception, Draco Malfoy, etc.)
From wildehack's defining essay:
"... prudish til you get him in bed, whereupon he is The Most Kinky, the charmingly repressed rage, the Love of Research and Order, the way lust/interest/affection is coded into irritation at The Neat and Tidy World being All Roughed Up by the hot mess of the other half of the ship?" "This crowdsourced tight-lipped furious perfectionist with his neat clothes and his scowling defensiveness and his biting sarcasm and his embarrassed desire to have a dude who is both sweaty and emotional take him apart."
Sound familiar?
Well, the terms may be a little different.
Where wildehack uses 'prudish,' 'biting sarcasm,' etc. to describe their fandom's fanon ghost, Disco fans might use 'professional,' 'dry wit,' etc. to describe Kim Kitsuragi.
But, the idea is the same, down to his embarrassing / sweaty / emotional partner. Kim Kitsuragi is Fanon Ghost if fanon ghost weren't a white male side character.
quick detour that'll become relevant later: i feel SO smug about the fact that Kim's characterization is canon to Disco Elysium. You had to make up your own perfect blorbo, but ours came like that! And he's not a white character being used to ignore POC main characters!
wildehack's essay started a conversation on why fandoms gravitate towards "This One Crowdsourced Dude," even when he doesn't exist in canon. And when there are other, often more established, minority main characters to work with.
There are a bunch of responses to this question—the FandomLore article I'm referencing this discussion from has a bunch of the full metas—ranging from exploring why he's often white and what exactly about him appeals to fandom. I think Kim's popularity can be really helpful in sorting my thoughts to these responses.
For instance, there are two general responses as to why the Fandom Ghost is usually a white side character:
Whiteness is considered a a blank slate default, making it easier to write about without fear of misrepresentation/mischaracterization
VS
White men are considered more desirable/more relatable by fandom.
It's probably a mix of the two, but I think a fascinating THIRD take is that these white side characters in canon aren't just blank slates, but also share minor traits that all point to One Trope that causes people to obsess.
certifiedspacetrash postulated that the fandom ghost is actually a reskinning of a much older beloved archetype—the byronic hero: a character notable for being hard to like and hard to know, but usually possessing a rich inner life and a softer side accessible only to a special few. (Sound familiar?)
He theorized that part of the reason we don't see many POC Fandom Ghosts is because mainstream medias don't cast byronic traits onto POC characters.
"I think if Hollywood cast more young, striking actors who happen to be PoC, women etc as villains / byronic heores we would see lots of fanfic of them. But Hollywood is still in some weirdass reaction to being accused of racial stereotyping (which they 100% still do), and almost refuse to cast poc or women as bad guys. If they are, they’re either cast very old; or they’re the mary sue badguys - 100% beautiful, geniuses, incredibly powerful, no flaws whatsoever - and that tends not to inspire a lot of writers."
I find this take fascinating with Disco Elysium in mind because of the way Kim Kitsuragi is the exception that proves the rule.
Kim Kitsuragi is a rare, well-written mixed Asian character with byronic traits. And would you look at that?—Kim Kitsuragi has captured the hearts and minds of basically every Disco Elysium enjoyer ever.
Kim Kitsuragi is notably NOT overshadowed by Jean Vicquemare, who is a white side character with byronic traits that, in an alternate universe, could've been possessed by the Fandom Ghost to overshadow Kim. Jean, in our universe, already has a pretty big fandom in proportion to his screentime.
But, by the grace of moments where Harry can get Kim to "give a smile only you can see," Kim Kitsuragi is the breakout star of Disco Elysium. I find that hopeful, in a time where Asian male characters (outside of Asia, ofc) are often overlooked or boxed in or emasculated.
Arthur through the lens of Jung’s Caregiver archetype
NOTE: This is not the giant Arthur meta I’ve been talking about. That’s still in the works. But an anon requested that I discuss the caregiver aspect of Arthur’s characterisation a little more (for greater context, see this gif set), so I shall.
(Also cross-posted to LJ for the peeps who can’t stand reading long posts on tumblr)
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Inception is an interesting fandom to be in. At its heart, it’s a fandom of possibility. The PASIV creates endless opportunities for AUs. With the exception of Cobb, no character has an explicitly outlined origin story, so fans get to run amok with head canons (and even Cobb doesn’t have that much back story). And the broad characterisations, with their heavy reliance on archetypes, give us a myriad of character interpretations.
But when it comes to Arthur (Arthur, Arthur, Arthur, my love), these interpretations tend to… uh… cluster. ‘Cold’, ‘impassive’, ‘severe’ and ‘condescending’ are descriptors that come to mind. And, to be fair, Arthur certainly exhibits some of these traits – severity, in particular. But it could be argued – and I have argued – that these aren’t his prevailing traits. However, this meta is not about that. This bit of meta is all about Arthur in the context of Jung’s Caregiver archetype.
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