Aka: TheSoupDragon (and Ceceliajupe)

Hey Nonny!

It’s all good, and I totally respect your opinion and how you enjoyed S4! It’s totally okay! I know that there are quite a few who got a lot of of S4, and who genuinely enjoyed it.

Sadly, I am not one of those people, and I’ll try to be as diplomatic a possible in my response, but PLEASE know that I don’t think you’re “terrible” or “stupid” for liking S4 because I DO get passionate sometimes in my responses, and I’m just merely speaking as someone who studied the series very closely for quite a long time before S4 aired, and as someone who knows Day-One-ers (ie., people who watched Sherlock on its DAY ONE AIRDATE) who also are a large majority of the people who did not like S4. This is just me simply stating why I didn’t like it, but it’s different for everyone.

Stating what I DO like: The acting and cinematography of the first two episodes were brilliant for what they had to work with, and I’ve never faulted any of the actors for the flaws of S4. And for TFP, they did the best with what they had to work with.

That’s… pretty much all I really liked about S4.

Now, here’s my problems with S4:

Nothing made a LICK of sense to the narrative that they were telling in Seasons prior. 

This series was always based a bit in reality, and suddenly everything became comic-book rules: X-Men villains, shitty “redemption” arc, destroying favourite characters just for drama, ludicrous physics, explosions that only destroyed one small room in an apt where in previous episodes one explosion destroyed an entire block, etc.

Sherlock was OOC.

Mary was being built up to be a fantastic villain? Ah, nope, here’s the lacklustre twist where tee hee Mary’s just an assassin with a heart of gold that still emotionally abuses Sherlock and John and just won’t fucking stay dead.

And speaking of this, the DVD’s make NO LOGICAL SENSE unless she was planning to kill herself

AND she tries to make her death equatable to Sherlock’s??

Everyone was RIDICULOUSLY out of character in TFP, I’m so sorry: Mycroft is a bumbling coward for the most part, Sherlock disregards John when he gives the Vatican Cameos warning, the Holmes Parents are assholes because Mycroft COULDN’T SOLVE A PROBLEM WHEN HE WAS 12?? ARE YOU SERIOUS???? And that creepy Moriarty / Eurus thing, and LITERALLY they’re implying that EVERYTHING HAPPENED BECAUSE EURUS DIDN’T GET A HUG. Like, I’m so sorry, but that’s lazy writing.

And don’t even get me started on the ridiculousness of the entire character of Eurus. She LITERALLY had X-Men powers, and like… just nothing made sense. Her involvement in the entirety of S4 MADE NO SENSE. Why go back to prison if you can get out?? WHAT IS THE POINT?? AND I repeat: She did all this because she didn’t get a hug. Yes. I’m oversimplifying, but at the base level, that’s what it was, because she wanted Sherlock’s attention. Welcome to the club, kid, stand in line, everyone on the SHOW wants his attention.

The ENTIRE plot of the first 2 seasons got wiped out all because it wasn’t Moriarty who was interested in Sherlock, but Eurus?? What… What about Carl Powers?? Like…. the ENTIRETY of season one and TGG makes no sense now, because of that one 5 minute scene where Eurus “enlists” Moriarty. I… ugh.

The SUDDEN tonal switch from kind-of Sherlock to James Bond, for some fucking reason.

And on that note, how terribly lazy and cheap TFP looks in comparison to the other two episodes. The whole episode looks like it was filmed in a small house with 4 identical rooms.

EVERYTHING that was etablished in 2 episodes prior were COMPLETELY forgotten when Mary was “shot”.

The complete character assassination of one loyal blogger John H Watson in favour of Mary for some fucked up reason, even though AT HIS OWN WEDDING HE COULDN’T STAND BEING AROUND MARY. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe for one damned second that John would EVER forgive Mary for murdering his best friend after seeing what it did to him. That’s not love from her, and that’s NOT John’s character EVER in the ENTIRETY of the series.

And speaking of character assassinations, Molly’s character being devolved to S1E1 Molly, where instead of giving her agency like they were doing with her the ENTIRE series, so much so that Sherlock picked up on her dominance enough to give her a big role in his mind palace in HLV and TAB, only to make her a sad little self-insert Mary Sue pining for the main character, and in turn made Sherlock a TERRIBLE human being for MAKING HER say what she did. It’s gross.

AND speaking of Molly’s character, they’ve been setting up Mollstrade since as early as ASiB, but I guess that plot line got shafted. Look I LOVE Hopkins, and I am ANGRY they didn’t give her more than 3 fucking lines in the entirety of ONE episode after HEAVILY promoting her actress and character, but they essentially reduced her to a piece of ass for Lestrade to chase. AND THAT’S NOT HIS CHARACTER EITHER. EW GROSS.

The constant plot holes being gaped wide open, and the Chekov’s gun moments where they bring up shit but do nothing with it!! 

TD-12? Nope, just a lame reference to a story we like. 

John got shot at the end of TLD with a VERY REAL FUCKING GUN? Nope, it was a dart gun. 

John not suddenly knowing how to be a doctor.

The TGG one I mentioned up above. 

What was in the letter? And who was Anyone??

Moriarty essentially being erased as anything other than a hired thug and had no part whatsoever in Sherlock’s history. 

Eurus… Just all of her character is asinine. 

Everyone in T6T suddenly not knowing John’s the blogger, which is in direct contradiction to literally the entire series. 

The AGRA plotline was ridiculous, in the end.

Baby? What baby? It was only there when convenient.

They dropped whatever plotline they were going to do for Mycroft: He was being set up as either dying, or the villain.

Redbeard. I’m sorry, I disagree with you on that. Mofftiss is trying to tell me that a little boy fell down a well and went missing, and that WASN’T the first place searchers / the police wouldn’t have looked? Sorry, no. And then. AND THEN his parents just… go along with this thing where Sherlock shuts down and they DON’T get him therapy? Yes, I agree the mind is a funny thing, and we can be traumatised into forgetting or dissociating from traumatic events. I GET IT. But… like I don’t believe the Holmes are so heartless as to just never grieve or have memories around about their supposedly dead daughter. It’s another OCC thing for me.

John’s cheating.

Disappearing and reappearing characters, like this scene, and the entirety of the aquarium scene.

Mary and John being terrible parents

OH GOD THIS FUCKING SCENE. That bomb SHOULD HAVE DESTROYED THE ENTIRE BUILDING.

What… who was this girl on the plane? What? Like I know WHO, but if she’s supposed to be Eurus talking to Sherlock, why don’t we see Eurus… talking to Sherlock? I … Ugh.

NORBURY. 

The glass SUPER SECRET GOVERNMENT ROOM THAT NO ONE SHOULD SEE INTO in T6T.

Sloppy camera work that some believe was intentional, but if it wasn’t, jesus c’mon.

The RIDICULOUS amount of 4th Wall Breaking. Like… even the actors didn’t give a shit.

Essentially, everything on this list here and in this blog tag here.

And everything mentioned on these three posts:

T6T: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night 

TLD: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

TFP: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

There’s SO much more I can go into, but please go through my “something’s fucky” tag in that last link.

Notice how probably 90% of that has NOTHING to do with “johnlock not becoming canon” because the Johnlockers get MONSTROUS accusations as to THAT being why we didn’t like S4, even though it was, like critically panned by the GENERAL AUDIENCE who have NO investment in the series other than “I liked it in the past”.

Two of my fave YouTubers have interesting (not perfect, but still good) takes coming at the series as casual viewers:

‘The Day Sherlock Died’ by The Closer Look

‘Sherlock is Garbage, and Here’s Why’ by hbomberguy

So it’s NOT just Johnlockers. I’ve talked to Sher1011ies at 221B con who didn’t like S4 either, because most of them realized how shitty Molly was treated in the last episode. So yeah, a big middle finger to those who think I dislike S4 because of  “no Johnlock”. No, I disliked it because I need my stories to make logical narrative sense. I disliked it because I love John and they ruined his character all for the sake of drama and because Moffat has a “hurting Ben” kink. I disliked it because Mary should NOT have been “redeemed” because she was an abuser. I disliked it because Moriarty was turned into a cartoon villain, even though he was already overused in the series. I disliked it because the core of the show – the FRIENDSHIP of Sherlock and John, and their solving mysteries together – did not exist at all. I disliked it because John got sidelined. I disliked it because TFP was a ridiculous episode that, if you replace ANY of the characters, it wouldn’t make a difference, because it didn’t feel like an episode of Sherlock. I disliked it because everyone was OOC.

Anyway. Sorry. One too many accusations my way over the past 1100+ days LOL.

As for your assessment of TFP, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you. There was no growth and actually it implies something far more sinister: That the Holmes are and were terrible parents that gave no shits about their daughter, their traumatized son, and expected their eldest to essentially be a parent. It implies that Mycroft, at 12 years old, orchestrated the ENTIRE Sherrinford thing… Look I can suspend my disbelief, but there’s limits, and this is one of them. A LITERAL CHILD. Perhaps Uncle Rudy had a hand in it somehow, but then why not shit on Uncle Rudy? Why is Mycroft blamed for it all?

Look, I don’t doubt Sherlock had a traumatic experience regarding “Redbeard”. But then why play into the fact that he was a dog? Why bring another character into the series just to have a gotcha moment? Because Mofftiss wanted a “Shyamalan twist”, that’s why. They threw EVERYTHING away for a twist ending either because they GENUINELY thought it was good, or they got tired of doing Sherlock. ALL of TFP is LITERALLY a really bad plot twist because reasons. TFP makes no sense to the ENTIRE narrative structure of the previous 12 episodes. It erased EVERYTHING from the previous episodes, and coated it with a gross closing by a character no one wanted in the series, and then tried to convince us that it’s a new beginning a “a journey they had to go through” but it SOLVED NOTHING.

Anyway. I have big feels about S4, and the only way I can enjoy it is to watch it subtextually, but even then, I cannot sit through TFP without cringing. 

That said, Lovelies, please do not attack Nonny for enjoying S4! I know you guys won’t, but Nonny came out with an olive branch and they just want to understand why the fandom is passionate about S4′s… whatever it was. We can have a civil discussion about it, and point out – without attacking – why S4 is universally panned. It’s okay to like things no one else does, and Nonny was respectful to me in this ask! 

YouOU FORGOT THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE!!!!

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becauseitiswhatitis added: I think when nonny studies all you offer so kindly in the above post, there is only one conclusion: Season 4 was shit and TFP is trash.

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thereallovebug54 added: YES, YES, and HELL YES to everything said here.

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a-ship-in-every-port said: Thanks for the summary of all the things that made no sense to me in S4.

All of these points are why I cannot believe S4 was real. We were in someone’s head - Sherlock post Reichenbach Fall or John post something (I don’t believe Eurus was real) - but NOT the reality we left in S3.

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keirgreeneyes said: Agree. Thanks so much for this, and your consideration for the op

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ranowa-fanart-dump said: This is a list of like 50 critical, fundamental flaws in six hours of television and I only disagree on like two lmao

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jinxwild19 said: Finally put I to words why I mostly left the fandom but still look back with fond memories for the first two seasons

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wdhawthorne said: Thank you!  Lovely summary of S4 criticism that makes me feel validated. I always wonder when I see asks like this from anonymous users. Mofftiss? Is that you?

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jolieblack said: Thank you for summing up my own problems with S4 so well! And thank you especially for pointing out that S4 makes no sense NO MATTER WHETHER YOU WANTED TO SEE JOHNLOCK BECOME CANON OR NOT.

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notthedogs said: It‘s something I don‘t revisit without a cringe. The final episode was SO wrong I was convinced, seeing it early on the day in the Russian leak, they filmed an entire phony episode. Even after S4 had gone south that far already I could not fathom that the whole thing could end in this magnitude of crap. I laughed my way through it as it was playing, it had to be the most elaborate hoax in tv history. But then it aired for real and made less sense in English. So.

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johannadc added: This was a thing to discover today. Since I just started my rewatch of Sherlock S4 yesterday.

I love that fans care so much, that they pay so much more attention to things than even the show makers do, but I certainly understand that this can be a lot to deal with and respond to.

I’m sticking with the old favorite: Don’t like it? Don’t (re)watch it. And after my Mycroft tagging project is over, I can put S4 back on the shelf and end my head canon with The Abominable Bride, where Mycroft used some old footage of Moriarty to rescue his dear baby brother.

All these details are fascinating, though. Except for the theory that Mycroft was going to die. Don’t care much for that.

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samara-lilly added: It seems I am still not over Sherlock at all and especially S4. I had started watching the whole show from the beginning with a friend of mine who has never seen it before. The last episode we saw so far was Scandal in Belgravia. Then COVID-19 happened, and I doubt we will be able to continue before summer.

Watching S1 and part of S2 after not having watched it for maybe a year or more made me extremely sentimental. And then I stumbled about this post and was again reminded about 2 things.

First thing: I adored this show. I adored the cleverness, the mysteries, the look, the actors, the wonderful setting in modern London, the cinematography - everything! Yes, I immediately was a Johnlock shipper. I was never shy to admit that. But I was also never hoping the show runners would be brave enough to go for it. But that was okay, because this show was so fucking good, I could live with John getting married to Mary. And I liked Mary. I really did. And I secretly hoped for a great story arc for her. I was okay with all this. But then they made Mary pregnant. And from that point on the show runners lost it. Which brings me to the

Second thing: Disappointment. After revealing Mary’s pregnancy it became clear to me: This show would never be about Sherlock again. Because that is not what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. He didn’t write about Mary. He wrote about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. But where would John Watson be, being married and a new father - in the 21st century? He would be with his wife and child! No more murder and mayhem, no more mysteries and crimes. Instead, like we watched, John living the - sorry - boring live he never wanted to live. John Watson was a soldier. A trauma surgeon. Highly trained. Immensly skilled. A perfect shot. Nerves of steel (Sherlock himself deduced this about John in ASIP). And this man was now finding himself in a marriage with a woman he doesn’t know AT ALL and soon to become a father. This all was hard enough to watch. But there was still Sherlock, clever Sherlock, wonderful sociopathic Sherlock (which we never believed, did we?).

The fuckery really began with TAB. I still don’t know why this episode was made. It makes absolutely no sense in the narrative, it’s just fun to watch Sherlock in Victorian attire. I am still waiting for the revelation what Moriarty’s going to do next. Then S4 happened. And I will never get over it.

You summed up everything so perfectly, @inevitably-johnlocked , but it still makes me want to scream in frustration. Yes, I will watch it again with my friend. And try to be strong and not cry my eyes out because this whole season FELT SO ABSOLUTELY FUCKING WRONG! Especially TFP, which made NO SENSE AT ALL.

Just yesterday I talked with my boyfriend about plotholes, bad writing and inconsistencies in film and tv. And I said to him: If you want these things fixed, you have to rely on fanfiction to do so. After S4 I have read a ton of fanfictions trying to fix the biggest fuck-ups. And some of there were so brilliant! And believe me, Mofftiss know about how much they fucked up. They may still try to sell us the story how confident they are about S4 and how proud and that we, the fans, are just some bunch of disappointed fangirls who just didn’t get what they longed for: Sherlock and John kissing. You know what, Mofftiss? You are just too scared to admit how much you fucked this whole thing up. Even Benedict and Martin don’t want to talk about Sherlock anymore. They still would, were they proud of their work. They aren’t. Not after this horror show that was S4.

Sorry, that was a long post and a rant. I am still not over it and will never be. But I still love what Sherlock was in the beginning. I still love the characters like they were in the beginning. That will never change and always make me smile.

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Wowee, thanks all so much for your thoughts on everything. And @meledol84, I was implying all of that when I mentioned about the parents being dicks to Myc, but LOL I guess it didn’t come across that way, but yes, exactly. 

First the story The Adventure Of the Gloria Scott; Holmes meets at University Victor Trevor when Victor’s dog bites him in his ankle one day. Victor and Holmes becomes friends and when the summer break comes they leave the university together for a break at Victor’s family home. 

They have some lovely weeks together before trouble appears in the form of a letter to Trevor Sr. Yes, the father to Victor has a dark history. 

So in ACD Victor wasn’t a child! He didn’t die! And Holmes tells this story to Watson one evening in front of the fireplace! 

Who do you tell about your former friend/lover?

************

Then we have The Adventure of the Three Garridebs, for ones Holmes shows his human side; he’s distraught over Watson being injured by a gunshot wound to his leg. He strikes the man that did that and threatening him that if Watson gets killed he would not leave the room alive!

Watson is very moved by this! 

The third reason, ACD NEVER wrote about Eurus! She is a new character! 

Watson never hit Holmes if not directly ordered by Holmes for a case! 

The grown-up that drugged everyone at the family Christmas lunch???

To me, just that is proof enough that s4 is fake and TFP is the fakest, feverish dream of John’s dying brain (like TAB was drugged to death feverish gay victorian dream for Sherlock).

Sorry if my reply wasn’t clear!

P.S. see that tumblr won’t let me modify my previous reply, i’ll add here the source of the transcript (i’ve already tried several times, so fingers cross)

Source: https://arianedevere.livejournal.com/92287.html

——- the-reading-lemon added: Thank you for so succinctly listing everything wrong with this season and that episode in particular. I watched it in disbelief. I am still in disbelief. I told Moffat to his face I thought it was terrible and he only laughed, not a hint of awareness in his tone or expression. I still haven’t been able to rewatch the show and I’ll never watch S4 again. It’s been years and I’m still heartbroken and hurt and angry. But I guess the twist was more important than the audience

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@tildathings I didn’t really have a problem with the Victor Trevor being a past friend of Sherlock’s as a kid. I liked that he was a John mirror, at the very least. What I had a problem with was the way it was handled, and how ridiculous his “disappearance” ended up being, and I HATED that he was “Redbeard”. Garridebs, though… they LITERALLY DANGLED THEM IN FRONT OF THE FANDOM, because they KNEW – THEY FUCKING KNEW – it was the one story ALL of fandom wanted to see, and they literally dropped the plot off a cliff. 

AND I have no problem with new characters in the series (there was no Molly either in the original stories and she was inevitably given a big part), there’s always someone new introduced each season, if only as a background character. S3 was the presumed “middle” of the series, and Mary always appeared to be a temporary character, because like I said, they were building her up to be a bigger part of the series, which is FINE. What I have problem with Eurus is that her character makes NO SENSE, and WHY and WHO she is supposed to be. Why go back to this prison if you can escape constantly, and WHY NOW are you trying to get Sherlock’s attention if you could escape this WHOLE TIME? It’s beyond pointless. And then her inhuman nature, just topped the cake, and then make her a mysterious sibling of Sherlock’s as a new character when it seemed like even MARY was possibly going to be the Other One (or the Other One being a twin to Sherlock). I don’t know. Eurus COULD have worked as a sibling, but not as this X-Men mastermind having a fit because Sherlock – who didn’t even know she existed – wasn’t paying her any attention. Oy.

@meledol84 OHHHHHHH YES DERP, yes sorry hahahha. Yeah, that was… WEIRD. (and I hope you don’t mind I added the source for you :))

I agree there are problems — but The Lying Detective is also in my top eps of Sherlock and of any TV show. The complaints about Moftiss just wanting to “hurt Ben/Sherlock” — I’m a whumper, the torment made those eps like candy to me 😂

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve made peace with the idea that I will rarely if ever get perfect media, so I find joy in what I can. I am upset the final season was not what it could have been, but I look for the things I did like and focus on them. :)

I was also never that invested in TJLC as an actual thing, so maybe that helped. I ship Johnlock, but I don’t dive into the meta like others might.

All of this to say, I understand why people disliked it, I just have made a conscious choice to not let myself be dragged down by the situation and to find joy where I can. :) Peace to all of you!

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impossibleleaf added: Oh God, wasn’t S4 such a shit storm.

Nothing in S4 makes sense on its own, you understand? Nothing. Even your barely passable sitcom makes more sense than S4. It feels like a bad fanfic made by somebody who somewhere in the middle of the story went ‘fuck it, I don’t care anymore but I’ve got to finish it so here we go.’

In many ways, S4 is our Harry Potter’s My Immortal. So bad you can’t help thinking that this surely had to be made by a troll who knew what they were doing.

Right?

It also doesn’t help that the concept that is E/M/P somehow manages to turn such horror into something actually very interesting.

Take the Final Problem for example. I know it’s said above that it makes no sense but it actually does if you’re buying into E/M/P. It makes actually a bloody lot of sense.

Seriously, I had enough to make an outright Giga Meta in four parts :

Part 1: From the beginning to the explosion,

Part 2: From the explosion to Sherrinford being compromised

Part 3: Eurus and Jim’ tests in Sherrinford;

Part 4: From Musgrave to the end

I made that giga meta one and two years ago and it somehow corrects 90% of the fuckery that was S4.

The blessing/curse of season 4 is that clever people such as @inevitably-johnlocked​ and so many others are clever people and passionate enough they could salvage this mess and made damn good metas to explain the far too many inconsistencies shown.

But Moftiss and co. swear these were just coincidences and that they were stupid enough they couldn’t do their job properly. Also, the disappointed fans became persona non grata because they dared not kissing their feet and ask why we’ve all been lead on.

Queerbaiting at its finest, really. And we weren’t even that mad about no johnlock, it was just easier to call us demented shippers.

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@expectedbehavior​ Cheers Lovely! I appreciate why you liked it, and that’s alright <3 I just have a hard time with John being destroyed as a character for the SAKE of beating the shit out of Sherlock is what I really hate the most.

And like I said, the first two episodes were visually very lovely, but other than that, I can’t enjoy it because of Mary’s “redemption” and John’s character assassination, I just have a hard time. BLEH but ANYWAY. I’m VERY happy that you do enjoy S4. I envy y’all, truly <3

@impossibleleaf For the sake of transparency, I do not PERSONALLY believe / buy into E/M/P theory at all, because I believe it’s no better than TFP in the sense that it is essentially ret-conning the series, it can’t be proven wrong, and with how old all the actors are, it’s just not a feasible thing that can work [here and here for a couple of the posts I wrote about it]. 

BUT this isn’t about that. I agree with you on pretty much everything else, especially about the fanfic thing. Let me clarify: FANFIC IS FANTASTIC, and “bad” fanfic is only considered bad because we ALL have to start somewhere, or people are new to the language. They’re not paid to write, and they’re not given deadlines to meet, and they’re mostly writing for themselves. I love bad fanfics simply because it means they can only get better. 

The PROBLEM is that Mofftiss ARE professional screenwriters and have been for years, and ARE given a commission for this WILDLY popular show, and HAVE three successful series PLUS an Emmy winning Special PRIOR to S4. It SHOULDN’T, by all logical reasoning, be bad. But it is. And either because of something going on behind-the-scenes or because of spite, they CHOSE to make S4 what it is. 

TFP felt like a slap in the face.

Like I, as a fan, was being punished for being one. How DARE you be invested in these characters? Well show you.

Sorry that I initially sent this to the asks page. I realized later than long asks go to the submissions page so that’s why I’m reposting this…

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Okay, so this is going to be long, but I want to share with you a lot of my thoughts on Johnlock, how I came to ship it, why I’m heavily frustrated with parts of the Sherlock fandom as a whole, and why I’m frustrated with the current state of things moving forward.

For context, I started shipping Johnlock in August of 2025. Some people in my life suggested that I watch BBC Sherlock, and despite hearing only negative things about it at the time (I frequently got recommended videos such as “Sherlock is Garbage and Here’s Why” by hbomberguy on YouTube), I decided to watch BBC Sherlock anyway, and guess what…I liked it. I liked it a lot. I was especially enthralled with the chemistry between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. It radiated off the screen, and within the first thirty minutes of “A Study in Pink,” I was shipping them. Just that whole scene with them sitting down at the restaurant, and the “do you have a girlfriend?” “do you have a boyfriend?” conversation, as well as the other characters constantly mistaking the two for a couple solidified this ship as one of my new OTPs.

For some reason, I seem to have this curse attached to me where none of the ships I ship are canon: there is a lot of subtext surrounding them all, but they are never explicitly a couple/in love. I don’t know if that’s because most of the media I’ve seen with canon ships seems to be “bam! Through the power of heterosexuality this man and this woman fall in love at first sight and he always saves her” and it’s superficial. It left such a sour taste in my mouth in regards to romance that I absolutely HATED any mention of romance or shipping until I was fourteen. It was then that I discovered queer readings of some of my favorite pieces of media, and I took a strange interest in them, despite not knowing 100% why. A while later, I discovered a slash ship blog and although I didn’t ship the ship the blog centered on, I really enjoyed reading the meta and it completely flipped my perspective on shipping. For me, shipping was no longer about characters HAVING to get together just because “a male and a female character need to kiss” and now more about deciphering possible subtext and analyzing the deep bond and connection between two characters.

So when I watched “A Study in Pink,” and saw the subtext just screaming through the TV screen, I immediately thought, “Wow, I see why people ship this.” And despite somehow sensing deep down intuitively that it would be queerbaiting (after all, most of the references to Sherlock and John being a couple were one-off jokes), I still clung to hope that it perhaps might be canon. I quickly headed online right after finishing the episode and searched up “johnlock” on my browser (remembering AO3 subreddit posts that mentioned that ship name). I searched up fanart, tumblr posts, the r/Sherlock subreddit. That is when I found your blog. I was searching for possible fanfic recs (because I was craving something where Johnlock actually became canon), and I found a couple of Tumblr blogs (mostly older and abandoned) which had fic recs. I browsed through them, and one night I found your stuff, and I clicked on your meta because I was curious (I think it may have been about subtext in the ACD stories, which I had not read at the time), and I enjoyed the meta so much. I read some of your TJLC meta and I also enjoyed that, and then I became convinced that my worst fears were for nothing, and that by the end of BBC Sherlock, Sherlock and John would get together romantically.

Then, because I like Reddit, I went over to the r/Sherlock subreddit, where I got total whiplash. “I don’t see why people think Sherlock and John should be a couple,” some commented. “ACD didn’t make them gay, so why do people want this?” and “fangirls want to make everything gay.” I know I need to stop letting random people on the internet get to me in such a deep way, but I was just shocked. After all, to me, the gay subtext was blatantly obvious. How could people miss it? I thought. I felt disgusting seeing comments everywhere just deriding “stupid fangirls fetishizing gay relationships.” It felt painful, because I ship characters because I like focusing on their deep emotional intimacy and how it could develop into something romantic. It made me feel like I was not a real Sherlock fan for liking Johnlock. And maybe I’m not. I haven’t read the ACD stories yet, and although I would like to someday, I’m so emotionally distraught by the queerbaiting of BBC Sherlock that I feel I need time to calm down from Johnlock not being made canon in an “official” adaptation before I can enjoy the ACD stories for what they are—mysteries, not a romance.

Then came a terrible turn: when I clicked on the Fanlore page for TJLC because I wanted to learn more about it, discovered to my dismay that Johnlock was not endgame and it was queerbait like I first suspected, and discovered also the toxic history behind TJLC, with some members harassing people who had even a slightly different opinion on Johnlock than them. This made me so angry, as I realized that the modern Sherlock Holmes fandom is stuck in the aftermath of these bad actors’ bad choices. There are people in the Sherlock & Co. fandom who are against the idea of Johnlock becoming canon in their fandom “because BBC Sherlock ruined Johnlock.” This also made me upset, because I don’t think a few bad actors’ decisions should make it so a ship can never become canon in any adaptation.

I ended up finding an episode of a podcast that discussed TJLC and its aftermath, and it seemed promising, asking the question of “who gets to decide if Sherlock Holmes is gay?,” but unfortunately it just seemed to paint the TJLCers as stupid when there was literally queer subtext in the actual show. It was disappointing for me, and maybe it was just because of cognitive dissonance where I wanted so desperately for Johnlock to become canon, but I had already seen r/Sherlock both complain about Johnlock shippers AND completely ban all Johnlock content from the sub (even though they allow Sherlolly, Warstan, and probably some others). Some people have criticized the sub for being homophobic for this reason, but some queer people ON the subreddit say “no, it’s not, it’s just that Johnlock shippers are annoying and I don’t see anything romantic between them.” I have also seen people complaining on other forums about Johnlock by saying “nowadays whenever people see a close male friendship on screen they always assume they’re gay,” and complaining that “modern academia is misinterpreting literature to make it gay when it’s not,” somehow not remembering that queer people have always existed but it was illegal to write about it so it would have to be subtext. Now, maybe it’s a bad idea to bring r/Sherlock drama to Tumblr but it has just negatively affected me. Tumblr, AO3, and the Johnlock subreddit (and occasionally YouTube) are the only places where I feel like I can find other Johnlock shippers, or at least people who don’t completely oppose the notion that there may have been queerbaiting on BBC Sherlock. I certainly think there was. Meanwhile, on r/Sherlock, people say stuff like “Sherlock isn’t queerbaiting, you just don’t have enough examples of positive male friendships,” and like, what? Seriously? How do you miss the subtext? 

I will admit: I do not identify as a TJLCer. I do not believe that Moftiss ever intended to make Sherlock and John romantically interested in each other. I highly suspect that I would’ve been a TJLCer if I had watched this show before season 4 aired, but because I entered the fandom quite late, I don’t see evidence that Moftiss would reveal that Johnlock is canon after the last season aired nine years ago. At the same time, however, I do think they did intentionally put queerbaiting into their show to mislead people. I honestly find that the gay jokes get boring pretty fast. Why put them in when they add nothing to the story? Why the filming and lighting choices, where they make John and Sherlock hold hands while running together, walking while staring into each other’s eyes and smiling? Why have John’s various girlfriends be hardly memorable, and have Sherlock constantly try to push them away and get closer to John? My take is that a John/Sherlock romance on BBC Sherlock would have strengthened the show’s story by tying up a lot of loose threads mentioned above. Besides, I just love the tropes of mutual pining, idiots in love, friends-to-lovers, slow-burn romance, and angst, and Johnlock has it all. I legitimately sometimes cry because it’s not canon, and because people assume that everyone who ships it is just a delusional fangirl.

To be fair, I do disagree with the toxicity of some Johnlock shippers. I am appalled that some people tried to harass Mary’s actor, and that some people tried to get Mark Gatiss out of a gay charity because of the queerbaiting even though he is literally an openly gay man. Even though I’m disappointed that the gay subtext and baiting didn’t end up with John and Sherlock falling in love, trying to get him kicked out of the charity was a shitty move, in my opinion. Those are not acceptable behaviors under any sort of circumstances, and I do not condone any of them. That being said, why don’t we talk about the toxicity of non-Johnlock shippers too? After all, some TJLCers also got harassed, but we don’t talk about it as much.

I also feel bad because a large portion of my favorite ships are M/M pairings, and those are the pairings people often mock as just shipped by “delusional fangirls.” I have not seen the same mocking in regard to Sherlolly, even though I think there’s less subtext around Sherlock and Molly than Sherlock and John. Despite this, Johnlock seems to be the ship that gets more hate. The thing is, I’m fine if people don’t ship Johnlock. I don’t really understand why some people don’t pick up on the subtext, but then again, it’s clear that I didn’t pick up on the Sherlolly subtext either so I’m fine with them shipping whatever they want as long as they aren’t disrespectful. I’ve noticed that there seems to be a stereotype that all M/M shippers are “teen girls who fetishize gay men,” and this notion has somehow bothered and irritated me, probably because first of all they assume all slash fanfiction is explicit (which it’s not) and second of all because they are implying that all the people who write slash are young, which is also really untrue. I know that I shouldn’t let what other people say on the internet affect me, but it still feels hurtful when people imply that their straight ships are more plausible or canon than other people’s gay ships, even if neither are canon. And then people on Sherlockian forums will complain about gay Sherlock Holmes pastiches, saying “just make your own detective who’s gay, you’re being lazy by making it Sherlock Holmes; Sherlock Holmes is not gay; you know the Doyle estate hates it.” But like, I know the Doyle estate hates it but they can’t do anything about it anymore because all the ACD Sherlock Holmes stories are in the public domain now. And yet some people on some of these forums will say, “you know that Sherlock Holmes is in love with Irene Adler,” despite this being a thing that later adaptations ADDED. From what I’ve heard, ACD Sherlock Holmes admired Irene Adler’s intellect but had NO romantic interest in her. People will also say, “you know Sherlock Holmes is asexual; he can’t be gay,” not seeming to understand that ASEXUAL is different from AROMANTIC, and Sherlock Holmes could have romantic feelings for someone without it being sexual. Some people have also said, “but John Watson has a wife named Mary Morstan,” but, like, bisexual people exist. Some people have even argued that “homoerotic Holmes and Watson adaptations are not real Holmes and Watson adaptations; they’ve turned them into different characters,” without saying similar things about adaptations that transport the characters into the modern day, like with BBC Sherlock and Elementary. Like, we’re fine with genderswapping characters, transporting them into the modern day, and making Irene Adler a dominatrix but then we draw the line at Holmes and Watson being lovers? WTF?

People nowadays often make fun of TJLC for making up complex theories that the showrunners were probably not even thinking this deep about when they made the show, but while I agree with this criticism, isn’t that what literary analysis is about? Sifting for hidden meanings and alternative interpretations? Writers often write in meanings they didn’t consciously intend unconsciously. And it did not take me much deep digging to see the romantic subtext behind some of John and Sherlock’s interactions in BBC Sherlock.

I’m worried that unintentionally, the bad actors in the BBC Johnlock community have upheld the status quo of people being against even the idea of Holmes and Watson as lovers by being toxic. Now whenever the idea of “Johnlock” is brought up outside Tumblr, people are shaking their heads going, not this again. And honestly, I can’t blame them, even though I feel the urge to. Although I am craving canon Johnlock content, I understand that people have been hurt by toxic BBC Johnlock shippers. The issue I take with this though is that it seems like people are blaming ALL BBC Johnlock shippers for something a large portion of the community DID NOT DO, seeing the idea of Sherlock and John getting together romantically as a frivolous, naive idea. I’m tired of this. I wish I was part of the fandom back in 2016, so I could conspire, theorize, and talk about Johnlock with people still waiting, still hoping for it to become canon in BBC Sherlock. I respect Moftiss’s decision not to make them canon because it’s their show, but seriously, if not Johnlock, why the camera angles, the effects, the expressions, the gay references, everything? And yet we’re the ones derided as “delusional”? How is that supposed to make sense? Sherlockian societies have long been against people even bringing up the idea of Holmes and Watson being lovers, but why? Are they afraid of people raising legitimate arguments for them being lovers? What’s ironic about all of this is that there is a 1941 essay, “Watson Was a Woman,” by Rex Stoat, arguing that Watson must be a woman because he and Holmes act like an old married couple. The idea of Holmes and Watson as lovers is not new. Why is it being derided now? Is there any way to break this status quo so the Sherlock Holmes fandom as a whole can have this discussion? Because right now, it seems to me that we are at the same place where we have been for the majority of the fandom’s existence—unopen to even just the sliver of possibility that Holmes and Watson could be a couple.

One day, if I still care about this, I’m going to write up a comprehensive piece of meta arguing that Johnlock was indeed queerbait, that Johnlock is completely valid, and talk about the future of Johnlock in the Sherlock Holmes fandom as a whole. I’m not going to promise release dates or anything, but I’m so frustrated about this all that I feel like I need to write something about this.

Anyway, despite all of this, thank you for your blog. It helped me realize that I could both headcanon Sherlock as ace and as in love with John. It gave me meta to read, look over, and think about. It was a spark of light that still flames in my heart, giving me hope for Johnlock, even in a time where actually getting canon Johnlock seems highly unlikely.

Also, in my eyes, Sherlock and John in BBC Sherlock slowly come to understand their feelings for each other. John questions his sexuality, and eventually realizes that although he is not gay, he is also not straight, either. There’s a lot of pining, angst, and misunderstandings, but in the end, there is a happy ending. I know that’s not canon, but it’s how I personally see Johnlock.

(submitted by the-curious-crow-788)

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Hi Lovely!

OKAY first of all, I greatly apologize for the delay in replying to this ask the first time around, and I’m sorry that you felt I had ignored you to send it a second time 💜. I have very limited time in my off hours at least until summer, but I’m between projects right now and I have the spoons to reply, so I’m doing this!! *HUGS* Let me know if you’d rather the Anonymous version be posted and I’ll copy-paste the response from here into that… I chose this one because you go into more detail about your thoughts on this one. I just can’t colour-code my links on submissions so apologies ahead of time. I’m replying to each section as I read it.

So your first experience isn’t unlike mine, except I started watching it because I loved Martin Freeman and I knew he was in it, and my RL friends suggested it to me since I liked Martin in The Hobbit. I got into the series during the S2 to S3 hiatus, just before S3 aired. Fell in love with it. But I’m also a clueless gal who didn’t “see” Johnlock until my own self discovery because I didn’t know I was hella-ace and context clues really went over my head. Basically “I love the chemistry and I don’t know why?” kind of deal, LOL.

I ALSO seem to be cursed with regards to my fave ships, AND I got SO irritated at heteronormative ships because no one was just friends, it seemed (again, before I realized I was ace, I just didn’t understand HOW or WHY people just… saw each other and wanted to fuck, LOL). These days now it’s the frustration of queer ships that have BEAUTIFUL relationship development and then it just doesn’t go beyond that? I got too into learning to read subtext during the S3 Hiatus, and the building blocks for Johnlock were there. I think the first OTP I shipped and it went somewhere was OFMD’s Stede and Blackbeard. Of course that got cancelled, oof. Next one is Aziracrow that was SWAK-canonized, albeit rather tragically, and I remain hopeful for a happy ending for them as well with S3 in a couple weeks.

I agree with you about meta changing my view on characters of any gender getting together; meta really helped with that for me as well. I still do cringe a LOT at ships that just happen with no development whatsoever, but I’ve learned to just ignore it and move on.

Regarding the negativity within fandom spaces, gosh we’ve been dealing with that forever, and honestly I don’t understand why. Ship and Let Ship is a popular fandom motto. But many of those “against” Johnlock fail to realize that the ‘ship has been around for over a century, since the ACD canon days. It’s not a new phenomenon and it’s going to persevere for a century more. Apparently the ACD stories are very queer-coded. I haven’t personally read all of them so I can’t confirm.

[if you want to read some more, I’ve a few posts on this meta here about ACD and if they couldn’t be made explicit]

It just humours me that the idea of fandom being “a bunch of teenagers” is STILL, in this big year of 2026, the prevailing belief about Fandom. LOOOOOOOOOL who the fuck do they think started message boards in the 90s, and write the millions of words of classic fanfics that everyone recs and loves? Oy. Ageism is ridiculous.

Regarding the queerbaiting, yeah, and I can understand how some don’t see it (as I said, I myself didn’t either initially, but I was not against it at all), and it is really, really petty that so many fan spaces and even fan events don’t let Johnlock be a thing? It is unfortunate that a lot of bad actors ruined it for everyone, unfortunately, meanwhile Johnlockers CONSTANTLY were harassed during the heydays from Other Shippers and Johnlockers were basically lambasted for defending themselves and were cheered on for driving Johnlockers away. I tried to stay to the sidelines for all of that. Most of the antis got bored and moved on to Shit on Other Fandom Ships (from my understanding) because yikes on trikes LOL. And I personally never got Sher1011y or Adb10ck, but, as I said, not my ships, Ship and Let Ship and all that is my general feelings about it these days.

And I’m shocked people find my blog on Reddit or Facebook, tbh. I don’t go searching for my blog online. “Blissfully unaware” is better for my mental health.

And regarding the sexualities, YES, that was a huge point of contention during the hey days as well. Meanwhile forgetting that a LOT of the fandom figured out their sexualities here. I dunno. I certainly did [the link there goes into a lot more meta about my thoughts on John and Sherlock’s sexualities so it covers a large chunk of my response to what you’ve written here]. A lot of the reason many of us have issues with S4 is because EVERYONE and everything is so out of character and makes no sense and it has NOTHING to do with the ship itself. But, like you said above, people will jump to the “Johnlockers Ew” conclusion to why we dislike S4. *shrugs* Whatever. I’m too old to care these days. 

Anyway, that all said, I think you should write your meta; people still indulge in them, and I will be happy to help you find anything you need for it (I keep a VERY intricate backlog of all the posts I’ve ever reblogged for the past 10 years)! And thank you SO SO much for your kind words about my blog and what it means to you. I also prefer romances and ships that develop over time, so yeah, Johnlock really did feel like it was going to go the distance. I have hope that one day some adaptation from a Big Name Studio will finally Go There, but for now, I enjoy my fanfiction and Fan-Funded Mini Movies, and enjoying my fandom space here on Tumblr. 

And finally, I agree with your take on BBC Johnlock. Gay-Ace Sherlock and Bi John forever. 💜

Johnlock is the canon they made whether they meant to or not, and whether they followed through or not. (Personally I think they pivoted away from it, out of pique.) It does beggar belief that the homoromantic coding was an accident–film’s a very expensive medium to be careless about–but I don’t mind one way or the other.

k2ntwo said: Right there with you. I had shipped Johnlock well before Moffett got the BBC to green light his version. I also missed the fandom wank that resulted. I’m going to happily go on shipping our two gentlemen in pretty much whatever incarnation they show up in and if anyone wants to sail off on another ship then bon voyage and enjoy yourself.

salmonsown said: Ditto. I shipped Johnlock in the 80s, and have been blissfully uncaring of all the modern bs. And speaking of modern, ACD’s Estate may hate Johnlockers but ACD didn’t give a damn. Can’t remember the quote offhand but slash fic was a thing before K/S (ah, my first love). Humans don’t change 😄

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When I was 18 and told her I would be moving away for university, she started listing off all the household skills I lacked (because she never taught me) and then told me I'd come crawling back to her once I'd realize I can't live on my own.

Thankfully, I had access to the internet and hyperindependence as coping mechanism rather than learned helplessness, so I left anyway and figured it out on my own.

This was part of a larger pattern with her — she also wouldn't let me shower on my own until I was well into puberty and I was very uncomfortable with that.

Don't teach them how to do anything themselves > still expect things to be done > shame them for lacking the skills they weren't taught > do things for them > make them feel guilty and like a burden > hold all the things you've done for them over their heads for the rest of their lives.

They take wild octos every year and put them in a conjoined tank that is separated only by a plexi glass wall full of holes big enough for them to put arms through but small enough that their beaks can’t fit through. Each octopus is given food, healthcare, and enrichment, and the opportunity to get to know each other.

As Valentine’s Day approaches the marine biologists that specialize in octos make assessments of their interactions and judge if the two are compatible for mating or if they are still aggressive toward each other.

If the octopuses have been witnessed being friendly and seem interested, the gate is lifted and they have their day of romance.

But octopuses engage in cannibalism in the wild and any smaller octopus is wary of getting eastern by a larger one… So yeah, if they haven’t been friendly the possibility of cannibalism is very high. And as a program designed to help save the species they aren’t going to risk it. So the octopuses are released (not together) back into the wild and the Aquarium sets about finding a new pair to play match-maker with.

"you made them, just make them do what you want!"

if you're a rabbit, the boss rabbit is the one who gets groomed by its subordinate rabbits.

but if you're a cat... the boss cat is the one that grooms the other cats.

if you're a rabbit, the boss rabbit is the one who gets groomed by its subordinate rabbits.

but if you're a cat... the boss cat is the one that grooms the other cats.