SolidMOL

Sherlock fandom

Complete Deletion

“Greg? Is that what you call yourself nowadays?”

“It’s my name, Sherlock!”

“No, it isn’t.”

“His name is Greg, Sherlock.”

“No, John.”

“I give up. Want another pint, John?”

“Ta, Greg.”

“You can get your own, Sherlock.”

“I don’t drink beer, Gavin. If you had paid attention, you would have known that. Just as you would have known that your name – “

“Shut up, Sherlock!”

“Why is he so agitated, John?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Sherlock. Maybe because you can’t remember his name.”

“He is the one who – “

“Fine. Whatever. Let’s just pretend we never had this conversation, shall we?”

“Impossible, John.”

“Why?”

“I never delete any conversation you are partaking in.”

“Now, you’re just taking the piss, Sherlock.”

“Am not.”

“Fine, then. Tell me what I asked you this morning before I left for work.”

“You asked me to buy milk and eggs.”

“Oh, my God!”

“What? You did.”

“I am aware, Sherlock!”

“So?”

“So, why did I come home to a fridge utterly void of milk and eggs?”

“Because I never went out. If memory serves, I did not acquiesce to procure these items.”

“Christ. Hurry up with my pint, Greg, before I strangle this one!”

“You are so morbid, John.”

“Yeah, wonder where that comes from.”

“Certainly not from fraternising with Giles.”

I would love to discuss this.

What do you think was the reason Watson described Holmes here in this manner? It's a bit like in the beginning of SCAN but actually more drastic, especially his description of him as "a brain without a heart"

I have two theories:

1 Watson is trying to make Holmes unattractive to himself so that he can further deny his increasing feelings towards Holmes

2 Watson is trying to put society on a wrong scent maybe after some rumours were making the round as to their spending so much time together. This could explain his exaggeration of Holmes "unemotional character", even though we all know that he is actually quite emotional and eccentric

why is every adaptation so afraid of this scene??

Let’s start here. The funny thing about Sherlock Holmes is that, despite 150 years of scholarship, adaptations, annotations and theorizing, you’ll still meet someone whose Holmes take is somehow even more unhinged than yours (tone indicator : affectionate). There are simply too many flavours of insanity.

Also, ACD wasn’t especially consistent with his own characters, so generations of fans have cheerfully built elaborate theories to explain all the contradictions.

Mary called Watson “James” one time, leading fans to say James was based on his middle name Hamish and Mary was using it as a pet name,

Mrs. Hudson was accidentally called Mrs Turner in one story, so fans decided Mrs. Turner was a neighbor or a temporary cook hired to assist her.

What I’m trying to say is that headcanons have been around for aaaages. Some just more agreed upon than others.

Ok, getting back on track: When I was at university I think we were studying The Blue Carbuncle, I was internetting and stumbled across an article strongly pushing the idea that Watson had accumulated a whole bunch of wives throughout the stories. Mostly casual references and whatnot became clues, and we ended up with a whopping six wives. Through his evidence, he concluded that Watson's final wife was .... Mrs. Hudson. The evidence was... let's call it creative.

(I tracked it down. It's from 2002, and yes, it really exists: Counting Watson's Wives.)

I absolutely loved this bonkers theory (again, tone indicator: affectionate). My favourite part is that the author doesn't merely suggest the possibility. He confidently concludes:

"And on his sixth try, it looks like Watson finally got it right."

Nowadays we'd probably say, "here's my headcanon" "I've got a meta about that" or whatever. This guy looked at the Canon, built a board and connected some red string from of timelines, throwaway references, and whatever Victorian train schedules, and declared: "No, actually. This is what happened. You're welcome."

And honestly? That's what makes it so awesome.

Sherlockians have been doing exactly the same thing for ages, even in the face of so many plot holes and inconsistencies, they will pull things together and glue them into a way that makes sense for them.

Yeah this is an article from 2002 (ish?) but it cites reasoning from old ACD fandom lore throughout the whole thing. It's a nice reminder that tumblr fandom didn't invent elaborate theories, obscure evidence chains, or double down in the face of overwhelming uncertainty. We've always been like this.

Today it is just someone explaining why the secret fourth episode definitely exists, TJLC is real, and how Mary is actually Moran.

whyd you have to say it like this. tingling. what a choice of words. go off king, broadcast your crimes to the entirety of england

(He doesn't have a place with John anymore - it's an end of an era).

Sherlock avoiding John for a month.

Sherlock killing Magnussen (the threat to John's happy marriage. "You chose her".

"Stay far back. Goodbye John. Give my love to Mary".

• father was conservative (or whatever the UK equivalent is) army vet (who would drink and get violent)

- that way "going into the army" would be seen as an honorable / good / celebrated thing in his family.

- also a way to get out of town and leave home as soon as he turned 18. (by that time harry was likely out of the house and he didnt have to feel guilty leaving her)

- john often felt parentified and found himself taking care of harry even though she was the eldest child (roles flipped)

- has a strong moral sense so probably felt a sense of injustice / how their father treated him/ harry

- he didnt go into the army to kill or to fight. he will do those things, but his motivation is to protect the weak and innocent and helpless. because he felt helpless in the past and he wants to protect others from that.

• grew up low-income

- from an unreliable parent, one parent income (his father's army pension)

- addiction issues runs in family (father, harry - likely a grandparent too) . i like to think maybe he had a grandmother he could go visit who was lovely or something.

- mother passed away at some point when he was young

- grew up Catholic but relied on it more after his mother passed. OR his father was extremely religious and was raised very religious the entire time.

(love the idea that john would try to make sure harry went to mass with him)

• played sports (and band) throughout school. likely football because he watches the teams. gives him somewhere to be before / after school that is not home. likes the routine and likely has good friends and could have fun and the training. an outlet for his emotions too.

• he is also super super intelligent. fairly good grades. english and science are his favorite subjects. he loves to read (he knew an oscar wilde quote in S4)

• thrill seeker

- roller coasters/amusement parks/fairs

- rock music

- horror movies

- cliff diving

- excessive sex/porn

grew up in a shit boring ass town with an oppressive home life. where love was equated with violence/ adrenaline.

• i think john has a very interesting relationship with masculinity. his father obviously probably treated harry like shit and was very homophobic. i also think being in very masculine and heteronormative spaces like sports teams and the army was very formative to him. (internalized homophobia).

• I feel like the mischaracterization of sherlock being averse to emotions (cold calculating machine) could more accurately be applied to john.

i think he never learned how to cope with his own emotions (obviously) and struggles with a sense of self ("nothing happens to me", the barren  room, the gun in the dresser drawer in ASIP)

a feeling of emptiness. depersonalization. not feeling solid enough to truly value his own well being. His attraction to "danger and dangerous situations".

he has a strong moral code but that is towards OTHERS and his actions towards OTHERS.

he partly longs for the idea of stability but he soon feels empty from stability because instability is more familiar. he feels more in control when things are unstable.

- i think this is because he believes he failed to protect someone very important once, (perhaps his mother who died, perhaps harry from drinking/their father, perhaps both) OR perhaps someone failed him so badly (his father, family) he vowed to do everything he can to keep that from happening to other people.

Sherlock fandom. TW: suicide thoughts

Just One More Day

John Watson - former army surgeon and captain of the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers - is contemplating how to get the job done. The job the bullet that robbed him of his dreams and career failed in.

He’s at his desk, pen in hand. Around him, crumpled sheets of papers are strewn. Scrapped ideas.

His hand holding the pen is trembling. It doesn’t stop no matter how hard he tries to focus on the blank sheet of paper that’s lying on the surface underneath the insufferable extremity. 

He tosses the pen across the small room and gets up to pour himself two fingers of whisky. Sometimes, the alcohol helps with the tremor.

***

Do you think John is being ungrateful for distrusting his own psychartrist ? I heard some people say that John is ungrateful due to various reasons I don't want to say and I wish to hear your opnion

Hey Lovely!

My answer might not be what people want to hear, but this is just my thoughts on it given that I have my own therapist. Please take what I say with a grain of salt and just MY OPINION.

A lot of therapy IS about trust, and it takes awhile before one can feel comfortable talking with a new person. And sometimes, the therapist you're first assigned doesn't work out. Sometimes it takes a few people before you "click".

It's BBCS canonical that John has trust issues, and given this, being forced to see a therapist when you really don't want to, I can understand John's reticence around Ella when we first see them. I believe John's blog confirmed that at the time of ASiP, he only recently started seeing Ella, probably mandated by his doctors post-traumatic-return-to-civilian-life. John absolutely had no interest in talking to his therapist. And in TRF, the impression I got was that he had NOT been going to see Ella while he spent his time with Sherlock, but given how much he was grieving, I feel like THAT visit was his first SINCE ASiP, which means those trust bonds are NOT THERE.

So when people say he's "ungrateful", I'm viewing it from the perspective of someone who initially didn't WANT to see one, and then reluctantly returned to see her after nearly 2 years because he recognized within himself that if he didn't, he might hurt himself. I don't think they understand, then, that those of us WITH trust issues, that ARE naturally introverted recluses, have a hard time opening up to new people.

YOU HAVE TO WANT THE HELP. John initially did NOT.

So no, I don't think at all he was ungrateful, just distrusting of a situation he was forced to be in, and continue being in. I'm sure over time, if they continued the route of John seeing Ella regularly in the show, begin to open up a bit.

Unfortunately, there's a large chunk of the fandom that is determined for some godforsaken reason to paint John as a monster / horrible person / unworthy of love. Why, I don't know. It's weird. These same people seem to think Moriarty is a saint, so I dunno.

Sorry I'm not much help other than this, but I hope it shows you my perspective anyway. And if you have a different opinion, all good. As I said, this is just MY read of the character presented on the show and as with all of my character-asks I tend to draw from my own personal experiences.