Penny’s The Final Problem Write-Up

a-candle-for-sherlock:

sussexbound:

recentlyfolded:

violethuntress:

doctornerdington:

pennypaperbrain:

Warning for 4,600-word-long-ness.

Delayed by a week because I was on my holidays, so some of this covers
familiar ground, but not all of it. If you really don’t want your squee harshed
this post is not for you, but I do have some positive things to say.

Complain for three days then settle down to making the most of it: it is
the way of fandom. Except we may just need three weeks this time. Or long
enough for S4 to settle into place as just part of the Sherlock whole rather
than the dominant feature of the landscape

Quotations are courtesy of ariane devere’s wonderful
transcripts.

Keep reading

So yeah, if anyone ever wondered why I ❤ pennypaperbrain… Read this and be illuminated. Regardless of whether or not you agree with the points she makes, it is a delightful read.

“‘Good luck,’ says Sherlock, and lurches bizarrely out of character by adding ‘boys’, lest we forget that maleness is a vital qualification for being human as opposed to the void incarnate.”

I have been waiting for this and it’s here! Amazing analysis, amazing writing.

There is something deliciously satisfying when all of the smart people you follow are in agreement with something. Because, yeah. I did catch that “boys” silliness and the oddness of it stuck with me even as I’m happily forgetting a lot of details that were in that ep.

Thanks for this:

What Sherlock’s showing here – and this so often is how the show gets to into our hearts, or at least into mine – is a traditionally female quality, in this case primarily a maternal one. How many women absorb monstrous behaviour from one family member while protecting others, in order to keep the family together or in order to try to help that person because no one else can? And how often does it involve the kind of catastrophic destruction of self-esteem that Sherlock seems to have undergone to get him to the point where he doesn’t lash out when he realises that Euros killed his best friend? It’s not healthy but it’s relatable, and relatable primarily to women;

It helped me get a better understanding of why certain things about this season have upset me so deeply.

Read. This.