.

when silas is trying to talk sherlock over to his side the natural line of thought is of course that he sees himself in sherlock which is why he's drawn to him over the other kids, and that's obviously what silas literally says, but imo another dimension of silas' favoritism is that sherlock is the most like cordelia out of the holmes siblings and i really don't think you can overlook that in considering what it is about sherlock, specifically, that makes his dad like him so much

so this one is on me for posting on the 90 percent white site but do you seriously not know like. i don't know. the opium wars

in a way it's kind of crazy that moriarty experiences more racism for being irish in the show than xiao wei does for being chinese. and that's including after she's exposed for being not only not a princess but also the killer of several oxford professors

in terms of how likely the holmeses are to actually take moriarty up on his flirting and fuck him i think it goes (in descending order of likeliness): beatrice (canonically has fucked him), sherlock (come on), cordelia (some post-divorce fun), silas (maybe wouldn't necessarily be into it but could be convinced as part of an emotional manipulation and/or extortion scheme. like i do think he would find moriarty to be a useful/entertaining asset if nothing else), and finally mycroft (could be into it but he's like unbelievably repressed).

also! in terms of xiao wei/moriarty parallels i don't think this was necessarily the intention but having mei yi fill the role of xiao wei's sniper-devotee/the only person really on her side is kind of interesting vis a vis moran as moriarty's sharpshooter-mercenary so i do wonder what this show's version of him is going to be like assuming he'll be in there

we don't talk enough about xiao wei's girl best friend liu mei yi who 1) possibly also had at least some of her family or other loved ones killed and 2) followed xiao wei to england on her personal odyssey of revenge and 3) seems to be a practiced sniper and 4) gets stabbed and left behind? in an unfamiliar place where the language isn't her first and no one knows her? in pain on a dirty bed bleeding out like a shot animal? 姑娘 you'll always be famous to me

everyone loves to joke about moriarty flirting with the entire holmes family barring maybe silas but can i say. i think the reason the entire holmes family barring maybe silas likes moriarty so much is because he reminds them of the younger, less evil version of their dad-husband-patriarch

i know diagetically the reason no one identifies xiao wei as not being shou'an immediately is that the one guy who actually knew shou'an was shot and their english escort had poor eyesight and photos are less common + worse quality in the 1870s but at the same time there's like an obvious joke i could make here about racism