#eames (inception)

Their postures - Arthur still and formal, Eames slouching and constantly fidgeting. Their outfits - Arthur's coordinated gray suit and tie all done up nicely and Eames with his jacket hanging off the chair, obnoxious watch, and weird mustard colored short sleeved shirt. Arthur diligently taking notes while Eames distractedly plays with his totem, his notes sitting unopened on his knee. The way Eames spins his whole body to talk to harass Arthur while Arthur just turns his head maybe 45 degrees. Plus the actors themselves physically with coloring and build, and different accents. They're situated symmetrically on the screen (same distance from the edge of the screen), same height, same distance from the camera.

Their characters are there to be left brain (logic and order, "lacks imagination") and right brain (emotion and imagination, "not like you") for Cobb.[1][2] Their totems both being so similar (red cheating gambling tokens - but their methods controlling different aspects of the game) are a sign of their connection. In the first third of the film they're in conflict, but in order for Inception to succeed, left and right brain have to come together and work in sync. And so there's a whole-ass montage of them in the final third simultaneously laying explosives to get the kick going on level 2 and level 3, blindly trusting the other to do his job, so they can complete the heist successfully.

The fandom goggles do come in when they're both played by extremely attractive actors who interpreted the tension between the characters LIKE THAT, but I mean, come on. Darling. They're two characters who are each others' equals, opposites and rivals in every way; who have tension but begrudging respect and ultimately trust, work brilliantly alongside each other, and have some kind of unspecified history together. They're two halves of a whole as dictated by the narrative.

How are we not supposed to ship this?

I suppose you could make an argument for Id/Ego/Superego or Ethos/Pathos/Logos, the whole Kirk/Spock/McCoy dynamic. But the movie is about neurological pseudoscience so left/right brain works better imo. Esp given that they actually mention the imagination thing.