Arthur/Eames

Movie fandoms rarely become major fandoms; pairings of minor or secondary characters rarely become major slash couples.
Arthur/Eames beat the odds twice over. Secondary characters in the 2010 film Inception, their oddly personal conversation (considered by fans to be a sign of unseen backstory) and personal charisma somehow birthed a sudden, major fandom.
== Meta and Discussion ==
* The Eames/Arthur Survival Guide by godofwine - an illustrated guide to all the Eames/Arthur scenes
* Military Backgrounds discussion on eames_arthur with quotes and supporting evidence in comments
* right hand in a trenchcoat by deepsix. Personal analysis of "Arthur and Eames and their interaction in canon"
* 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"
* (2011)
==Controversies==
Crack chibi art by red-rahl
Because of the dominance of Arthur/Eames, some fans feel like they don't belong in Inception fandom if they don't ship it. Others feel those fans should "get over themselves" since if Arthur/Eames hadn't appeared, Inception fandom probably wouldn't be any bigger than your average movie/Yuletide fandom.
With a man of color (Saito) and two women (Ariadne and Mal) as some of the major characters in the movie who interact with the protagonist (Cobb) a heavy amount, Arthur/Eames can easily be seen as just another whitecock ship. 
==Popular Tropes and Themes==
* One meets the other as someone's projection before they meet in real lifecf. jenna_marianne's delicious tag "projections". Accessed 7 November 2010.
* Lots of angst, pining, UST, character death, torture, hurt/comfortcf. inceptionkinmeme's delicious combined tags "Arthur/Eames and .hurt/comfort" (Accessed 19 November 2010)
* Arthur and Eames have to pretend to be a couple for a job
* Suit porninceptionkinkmeme's delicious counts 173 fanworks under the combined tags "clothing" and "Arthur/Eames" on 19 November 2010. A good number of prompts centers around suits. (Accessed 19 November 2010)
* Catboy!Arthurcf. jibrailis' collection in a livejournal entry. A stirring saga of collective artistry (or ARTHUR IS A CATBOY and we likes it), 13 October 2010 (Accessed 12 November 2010)
* Back-histories/Crossovers - they met in the military; they met in competing extraction teams; Arthur is/used to be Tom from (500) Days of Summer/Brendan from Brick/Neil from Mysterious Skin (all Joseph Gordon-Levitt roles); Eames is/was Handsome Bob the gay gangster from RocknRolla (a Tom Hardy role)
* Lots of bantering
* A high percentage of AUseg swing_set13's Epic Inception Arthur/Eames AU Master List (but as of yet not as out-of-bounds wacky as anything SGA produced); from college & high school to lawyers to bakers.
===Sex===
* In porn fics, Arthur is sometimes characterised as cockslut!Arthur, and is often the bottom in penetrative anal sex. This sometimes causes disgruntlement in fans who prefer bottom!Eames, switching or non-penetrative sex, and some bottom!Arthur fans won't read A/E if it has Eames bottoming [needs refs]. The LiveJournal community bottom_eames was created in March 2011 for bottom!Eames fanworks -- "You may have noticed this, but bottom!Eames can be hard to find!". It seems not to be widely known and has only four posts as of 29 October 2011.
* When you have a canon with shared dreaming and a character who can look like anyone, you get Dream Sex
* Size Kink! See page for examples
* Other tropes are Alpha/Beta/Omega, BDSM, underage, rimming...
==Example Fanworks==
===Canon-based===
* Towards Zero by mirabella - Arthur meets a projection of Eames before he meets him in real life.
* Sharp Dressed Man by annundriel - An early example of suit!porn.
* In the Space Between Them by enjambament - Uses meta on dreams and reality reflected in canon.
* Ghost Pressure by imogenedisease - An early example of more serious fanon characterization.
* Kobayashi Maru by hackthis
* Renovations by joosetta - A popular fic demonstrating the fluff trope common in the pairing.
* It's Automatic by weatherfront - An example from an early and prolific writer for the pairing.
* Wherever You Will Be (That's Where I'll Call Home) aka Domesticverse series by gyzym - a popular non-AU tracing the development of Arthur & Eames' relationship
* Presque Vu by rageprufrock - expands the canon universe based on the idea that Arthur & Mal were friends first
===AUs===
* The Inescapable Charm of The Countdown by amazingly_me - a lawyer AU demonstrating the very easy slide from AU to canon.
* I've Got Nothing To Do Today But Smile (The Only Living Boy in New York)‎ by gyzym - A popular coffeeshop AU.
* Mr. and Mr. Eames by jibrailis - one example out of the many humor and fluff-based pieces in the pairing.
* Pagina Uno by pyrimidine - Set in a library.
* Waiting On by thehoyden - Set in a diner.
* Next Big Thing by earlgreytea68 - Really long fic of how Arthur and Eames are stars in HGTV and become judges in a reality show. Is a sequel of another fic but can be read separately.
===Crossovers===
* Requiescat by whiskyrunner - Crossover with Mysterious Skin (Arthur used to be Neil McCormack).
* Left and Leaving by pyrimidine - Crossover with The Time Traveller's Wife.
* Joie de vivre by balphas - Crossover with Good Omens.
* Keep the Car Running by earlgreytea68 - Crossover with Sherlock (Mycroft wants Arthur and Eames to break into Moriarty's mind).
* The Origin of Love by z0mbieshake - Crossover with Mysterious Skin, Warrior and Dark Knight Rises
=== Podfic ===
* Ach, des Knaben Augen by pennyplainknits
==Resources==
* Eames/Arthur LJ Community
* Fuck Yeah Arthur And Eames Tumblr
* Arthur/Eames Daily Fic Recs on Tumblr
* Inception Slash
* Archive of Our Own fics tagged with Arthur/Eames (Inception)
* FanFiction.Net fics with Genre:Romance + Character:Arthur + Character:Eames
* InceptionDaily's Delicious tags for Arthur/Eames
==References==
Category:Slash Pairings
Category:Inception