addignisherlock:

I try at making gifs again :>

Ever since john’s “anyone but you” note plus his previous proclivity to
violence, i had always suspected that it was only a matter of time until
sherlock became his victim. the harsh truth is: THIS is how
martin’s/bbc’s john is like. flawed, violent, angry, imperfect. he’s NOT
the perfect saint that fandom has often very mistakenly characterize
him as in their fics

Not that I ever cared for the perfect saint but the thing is that John is such an OTT repulsive, violent idiot that it’s impossible to believe anyone would want to marry him or have him in their life as a friend. But we’re supposed to believe that both Mary and Sherlock predicted that this was how John would react if she died, and they thought it was okay.

Well, maybe they all deserve each other but I think it’s understandable when people who ship Johnlock don’t want him to be like that. Maybe if you want to read/write non-con and such but for an ordinary romance it’s hardly common to want violence and anger. Not that there aren’t countless fics where Sherlock is afraid of doing/saying something that doesn’t please saint John and he’ll leave. Never knew people found that sort of thing desirable but whatever. Many Johnlockers are weird that way, wanting Sherlock to worship saint John, no matter what. In fact, I believe the perfect John isn’t so much a misinterpretation of canon as it is a desire to have Sherlock worship John. I blame TJLCers, most of whom favoured John and wrote accordingly, and got others to write the same thing too, for which the conspirators of course can’t be blamed.

I don’t really understand this need to say that John’s actions in TLD were in character. So what? I mean, do people honestly believe that kicking Sherlock was good writing? Necessary for the episode? Making Johnlock better in fics? The show more enjoyable? Why did you ship it if you thought the next thing, judging by John’s character, was going to be him trying to kill Sherlock? And most importantly, why didn’t he ever hit and kick all those other characters far more deserving his anger and violence than Sherlock. Like Mary or Mycroft. If you can choose when and who you kick, you are not a predictably violent and angry person. You just choose your victim especially, rationally.

Don’t know if any of you “John’s violent and angry; this was only to expect” people were those who also believed he didn’t forgive Mary for shooting Sherlock and had a plan with Mycroft because he’s such a BAMF and great friend, but in case you are: LOL

meledol84:

elfwreck:

nihilismpastry:

lhugbereth:

eternal-harvest:

misskatieleigh:

sinbadism:

angstprompts:

angstprompts:

softnocturne:

angstprompts:

angstprompts:

Just a heads up, AO3 deleted one of my original works because someone reported it for “not being fanwork” despite original work being a “fandom” with over 35k fics.

“Under Section IV. of the Terms of Service, which you agreed to when opening your account, prompt requests, prompt lists, squee posts, notices about meetups, non–fanwork fiction or nonfiction, fic searches, rec lists, letters to other users, reactions to episodes, blog or Tumblr-appropriate posts, and other ephemeral content (i.e. content meant to be temporary), are not allowed to be uploaded on the Archive of Our Own.”

If you have multiple original works on AO3, you very well could be permanently suspended for violating the terms of service.

Be careful.

I have no fucking clue, especially since they hired people to wrangle the tags, meaning that they’re well aware that original work is an option

IS this true? D: AO3 what the heck?

Here’s the email I got, so yeah, it is true

Can everyone reblog this? AO3 has been dealing with a lot of abuse in their invite system, and if they’re cracking down on other areas like original works, this could affect a lot of writers.

Literally why is this the line they draw? I really do not get it. Heads up, though, I guess

FYI

@cynical-harlequin @bright-elen

Anyone else that has original work up on AO3, make sure you have a copy saved I guess?

Wow, this is ridiculous.

Oh shit :C

@darkcrystaldemon I know your original work is up on your A03.

We had arguments. We had long, detailed, meta-enhanced, ranty screamy arguments about whether “original fiction” belonged on AO3, and if so, what kinds of original fiction. (Most of the arguments are lost.)

The arguments pointed out things like, if you wrote “fanfic” in the world of Jane Eyre, using the names of a couple of characters mentioned in passing or even a couple of characters hypothesized from canon (like, Jane’s grandparents) – there’s no way to tell that apart from original fic. And there was a long history of BL/Yaoi being part of fandom, and that was all original fic.

While Original Fiction was indeed a tag, many people were using it for “fiction set in a canon world but not using canon characters.” Some used it for things like “events in the SPN universe that don’t connect to Sam and Dean.” Some used it for retellings of fairy tales, or new fairy tales. And so on.

At first, the official rule was, “must be fanfic in some way; we’re not checking for not-fanfic works, but we’ll review them if they’re posted.” Eventually, that was relaxed.

The idea was, it’s okay to have fannish original fic, but not non-fannish original fic. And yeah, that’s a blurry-as-hell line, may require reading to figure out, and so on. (Most of the content policy rules are designed to be implemented without the need to interpret much of anything; they’re supposed to be as objective as possible. Like, you can’t sort out “is this non-con explicit porn” by list of keywords, but we can pretty much all agree on what that is. “Is this fannish-style origific or is it mainstream-style origific” is nowhere near as obvious, and I’m very glad I’m not involved in decisions like that.)

TL;DR – some forms of Original Fiction are fanworks. Some aren’t. AO3 doesn’t want to be Wattpad or Fictionpress; it wants to remained focused on fanworks. It really doesn’t want to be another version of nifty.org. (Very NSFW.) It’s got a very broad definition of fanworks – I’m pretty damn sure that both Neighbor Steve and Grandson Todd the Demon tumblr threads would be acceptable – but not every bit of fiction is a fanwork.

If you think your original fic was some form of fanwork, send them a note and discuss it.

@earlgreytea68

BBC Sherlock IS NOT a ‘modernization’ of ACD Sherlock Holmes

yorkiepug:

twocandles:

love-in-mind-palace:

artemisastarte:

bakerstreetcrow:

You know what. I’m mad at ‘the british tv channel that shall not be named’ (but will be named here anyway).

I am. I am absolutely infuriated.

They went through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and saw the gay of the books… they knew how much it kept popping up in different adaptations of the stories (that is NOT a coincidence). They saw the homosexual subtext that existed in Canon enough to put it in the show— then proceeded to make a JOKE out of it! A JOKE. They saw the gay that existed in CANON Sherlock Holmes books, added it to the show, and then proceeded to LAUGH IT OFF (beyond livid over this one).

They also systematically went through each and every character from the canon stories and proceeded to dismantle them into the abuse normalizing problematic characters they are by season 4 (and insanely misogynistic where some are concerned). And they put in -just enough- from canon to go “See these are them! These are the characters from the books” when they AREN’T. They simply ARE NOT.

BBC Sherlock IS NOT reflective of ACD’s Sherlock Holmes Canon Characters.

AT ALL

Any Sherlockian who has read the books can hold them up to the show and show how basically all that televised fanfic version is— is a fanfic. It is NOTHING AT ALL like Canon and that isn’t just because they put it in the modern era. They did NOT ‘modernize” the stories. They made a DIFFERENT AU Modern Fanfic and then used names and references from the books. BBC Sherlock itself has COMPLETELY DIFFERENT story and characters.

COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

You notice that the first two seasons were pretty good. That is because in those seasons there was more in the show that was reflective of what was in the stories— but they kept going further and further into the woods with adding in more of their own original content and writing until season 4 which was basically 99% all their own stories and based around original characters. It is NOT reflective of the past Sherlock Holmes stories AT ALL.

Molly – Original character

Eurus – Original character

Mary Morstan – Original Character

“What’s that?” you say, “No that can’t be true! Mary married John from the books”.

Yes. A character by the name of Mary Morstan married John from the books but you better believe it is not the ‘Assassin who works for the CIA’ that Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss wrote. And even the aspects of Mary that WAS from the books -was not featured or used in the ‘Sherlock’ show-. In fact she was separated that much further from the true Mary Morstan from the books considering that wasn’t even the character’s original name as they took it from someone else.

Everything about the Mary Morstan that Moffat and Gatiss wrote is original content. Thus, -despite- the fact that she has the same name, it is still an original character even if they took a name from the book and slapped it on that original character.

I would argue that taking book names and slapping them on origional characters is a common theme with Mofftiss too. Write a character with a different personality, background and storyline, find a name from the books to use for that character and then slap it on. Nevermind the personality and characterisation of that character is a bare shadow of what the character by the same name in the books has and is like.

(()@*$)(*%@>> IRENE ADLER… see this thread for an entire rant about THAT gutting and character destruction.)

They rely on the fact that most people have never seen or read the books. That way they can lie and allude that ‘oh yeah sure these are the characters from the books, this is basically the story” when, No. NO THEY ARE NOT.

And most people have not read the books and do not realize how MUCH Sherlock and John (especially from season 4) are IN NO WAY AT ALL like Holmes and Watson from the books. Not at ALL. There are HUGE glaring differences. One of them being that Watson is -very- devoted to Holmes, even AFTER the fall, and would kick S4 John’s arse up one way and down the next if he saw him lay even a finger on Sherlock Holmes.

Oh and then there is Sherlock Holmes himself! Sherlock is

deconstructed to be in a victimized role and that is -never pointed out-. It is never said “hay, maybe this is not all entirely his fault and people should be apologizing for their own roles in issue too.” No. He is abused and harangued constantly and yet it is all still painted as his fault and he -accepts- that! He is verbally cast as a selfish unfeeling character, while at the same time we know he is not because in the show Sherlock shows a LOT of feeling for those around him. He is constantly beaten down and everything is blamed on him with absolutely no recognition to the huge amount of effort he puts in for others or how others are also at fault for the issues that happen in the show.

In the the end we are left with a abusive John Watson and a Sherlock Holmes that I half wonder has some version of stockholm syndrome with how he constantly accepts the blame for everything despite some things obviously being the fault of unapologetic and abusive people surrounding him. That is not them. That is NOT the protective healer/guardian Dr. Watson or the thoughtful and curious Sherlock Holmes from the books.

-BBC Sherlock isn’t the books. It just isn’t. It isn’t the stories or the characters. It is NOT ACD’s Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson… and BBC is NOT, in any way shape or form, a ‘modernization’ of the stories. It is just another fanfic in a sea of fanfics, with a new world and characters. It simply happened to be a very popular one for a while.

Moving on…

Beyond all that anger and fury— I love the fanfic and the fandom.

Because reading fanfic that people write, just off of BBC and without the author’s having read the true canon stories… that’s it… that’s them. Somehow despite Mofftiss attempt at systematic gutting of the characters through the seasons, the fandom had clung and kept the original idea that was shown. They took the original understanding of the characters from the books that was reflected in the first few episodes, and kept it. Kept it despite what was done to those characters and how they were twisted in later seasons and I love that.

I could totally see the canon Holmes/Watson characters doing many things that are done through fanfic. I could. Because ignoring S4 Sherlock and John…. the ones from prior seasons that sherlock fans envision are closer. The dynamic reflected in some of the best fanfic out there, that’s them. Thats them from the true canon. That dynamic of caring so much about each other and the sweetness they have towards each other. That is totally Holmes and Watson from the books and it is fantastic.

The fans really are better writers than the two guys who made a televised show and tried to ruin it with the last season (Intentionally or unintentionally).

No matter what those two men do to their one televised fanfic of a show, the fandom has a great grasp of what the characters are like. So many fanfics reflect the dynamic that Holmes and Watson have from the books far better than Mofftiss ever did… I love that even with different characters, and through a different lense, the true dynamic of Holmes and Watson is alive and nothing… NOTHING that BBC ever does to try to backtrack and erase it will ever change that.

Oh and because Sherlock Holmes is a work created by SOMEBODY ELSE that was made years before BBC ever even existed, they have absolutely no legal right or claim on the Sherlock Holmes character -at all- (and they HATE that). Theirs is just a fanfic same as everyone else’s and ANYONE’S writing of Sherlock Holmes is just as legitimate as BBC’s (they know that and can’t stand it. They -wish- they owned Sherlock but they DON’T). As popular as it may have been, theirs is only one adaptation in a sea of HUNDREDS of other adaptations. More came before them and more adaptations other than ‘sherlock’ will be made afterwards too.

Johnlock is ACD Canon.

There is meta and analysis showing where the original Canon characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John watson was written as gay by Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle. The meta is out there. Johnlock is Real.

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are over 130 years old.

The Sherlockian fandom has been around for almost as long.

Johnlocked Sherlockians have existed long before BBC ever did (though it did not used to go by that name). Johnlock is real, the story lives on and one adaptation isn’t going to change that or stop the fandom.

By the way, to find your local Sherlockian sociaty, please check this website: http://www.sherlocktron.com/#Listings_of_Sherlock_Holmes_Societies

SHERLOCKIANS RULE. Especially Johnlocked Sherlockians.

I love everyone in this room.

Thank you.

Standing here clapping. Thank you! Partly that’s why I began writing ACD – because I was so fed up with BBC.

This. All of this.

At this point I feel like this adaption is one of the worst that exists.

They could have put any name on this but no, they had to claim this was a Sherlock Holmes adaptation. It pisses me off that they did it such a disservice and they can f*ck right off when they claim they’re Holmes fanboys.

Go back and read the whole thing!

buried-alive-in-my-mind-palace:

marcespot:

sarahthecoat:

heisjohnlocked:

On tension and humor and intuition

Nobody can say they were just gay jokes taken too far cuz they just ain’t funny. The Battersea scene ain’t funny, not even a little. It’s tense and stays tense afterward. The Angelo’s scene ain’t funny except in an awkward way, and neither is the goodbye on the tarmac or the waterfall scene or the hug or the end of tsot, etc. etc.

All of the iconic Johnlock scenes happen during extremely dramatically tense moments when it doesn’t make sense to make a joke or ironically romanticize them. It’s not about lightening the mood, because it always makes it heavier.

Either it’s 100% romance or it’s a friendship that makes no sense.

If it was supposed to be funny, they would flirt lightly. These boys gaze intensely at one another, like, constantly (if either of them genuinely flirted on purpose, they would both probably pass out from all the honesty). The funny scenes are when they are both so stubborn about not realizing what they are to each other. The miscommunications and fast synchronizations and Sherlock not noticing John’s sarcasm and John barely pretending not to notice Sherlock’s ridiculousness and both of them completely not noticing everyone around them staring.

If it was supposed to define a Super Friendship of Brotherly Love by using romantic tropes, it would have resolution. There is no resolution to their interactions, just ramping tension.

Just look at the Train Car Named Desire scene in TEH. They are brutally honest for a second because John thinks they will die, then they both pull back into Britishness, freaked out. If it was just a Super Friendship, they’d end it more emotionally. Instead, the emotion gets stuffed back in so they don’t confess what they almost confessed.

This is all too obvious, but I felt like I had to get out why it still feels emotionally right to read it the way we did.

YES.

Hear, hear!

100%

love-in-mind-palace:

norburylibrary:

There is a quote that is often used which says much, but the story behind the telegram and how the quote came about is also quite telling.

“You may marry him, murder him, or do anything you like to him”*

*Telegram Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sent to William Gillette.

While this line is often quoted as showing how Sir Arthur did not care about how Sherlock Holmes was portrayed, it should be noted that this quote only came after William Gillette pressed Sir. Arthur on the matter. Initially Arthur Conan Doyle stipulated that Sherlock Holmes should not be portrayed as being romantically interested in a woman. He did not give Sherlock Holmes a female love interests and preferred that it remained so.

“Gillette read Conan Doyle’s script and asked permission to revise it. The author agreed, stipulating only that there be no love interest.”

-via the Shakespeare Festival of Utah University

Keep in mind that at the time that the telegram was written it was inconceivable that Holmes would even have the opportunity to ever marry a man.

The possibility of Holmes having a male love interest is not something that would have -ever- been written about, spoken of, or suggested because of the anti-lgbt culture engrained throughout society at the time. The co-dependant partnership of Holmes and Watson was the closest that could be achieved when it came to M/M ‘Love’ interest.

A male male relationship would NOT be referred to as a ‘love interest’. Dr. Watson could only ever be referred to as Holmes’ ‘partner’ and ‘friend’. Any reference to ‘love interests’ dealt with women by default. Sir Arthur was stating his disapproval of Holmes having a relationship with a woman.

This point is significant as it is further evidence regarding how it is adaptations that try to show Holmes as being straight and interested in a woman that have to bend the stories to do so, not the ones that show Holmes as having other inclinations. It is the -straight- adaptations that are deviating more from the canon stories and have to break canon when they try to push heteronormativity.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written about having a preference that Holmes remained single and alone or living with Dr. John Watson then being romantically interested in a women.

Yes this

tendergingergirl:

This is an excellent response from BS Crow on another Brealey interview, in Radio Times, about the ILY scene controversy.

johnlockiseternal:

monikakrasnorada:

88thparallel:

kellpod:

sherlolo-land:

Just a word to the wise: No Johnlocker that I know of uses the term “shipper goggles.” That’s just a thing you and your Sherl0llian friends do because you can’t ship sherl0lly without altering what you watch. We don’t need to wear “goggles” to see Johnlock cause its blatantly in the show. Just saying’.

And while we’re here:

List of things that don’t make sense that have nothing to do with Johnlock:

((bold=overarching, bigger picture plot holes))

– Why did they reuse the title “The Six Thatchers” that was already on John’s blog without drawing any connections/parallels to it

-Why did no one know John is the author of the blog when in previous seasons everyone knew that. He has his picture on it, it’s famous, and he writes in first person

-Why did Mary lie about AGRA being her initials in HLV if she thought John was going to read the flash drive? (I know that’s s3, but s4 is what showed us what AGRA really was)

– Why did Mary’s death contradict the previous “rules” about getting shot that were established for their universe in HLV

– How is Mary sending the CD’s after her death

– How did she even know ahead of time to make the videos, since jumping in front of a bullet is a spur of the moment thing

– How do they just expect to believe that it’s possible for Sherlock to predict everyone’s every movement down to the last detail two weeks beforehand?

-And if he is able to to that, why didn’t he use that skill in any previous season since it would have been very useful

-What was the whole deal with the girl on the plane and what did that have to do with anything and… why?

– How did they jump out of an exploding second floor window and survive

– And how did items like books/ paper survive the explosions

– How are we just expected to believe that Eurus has these mind controlling powers and could take over a prison like that? And when will they stop using “they’re geniuses” as a get out of jail free card?

– Why did they used Moriarty being alive as the big cliff hanger and have him barely feature

-What was the entire point of TAB proving that Moriarty was alive?

– Why does the timeline of Moriarty and Eurus working together behind the scenes not make any sense if this really has been their ultimate plan

– How did a detective (who is supposedly smart enough to predict everyone’s every move) manage to not notice missing glass

– Why did Sherlock remember Redbeard being “put down” if that was really his repressed memory of Victor

– And why was there a dog bowl

– How did John got out of the well using a rope if his feet were chained

– After everything Eurus has done, how are we to believe everything is just magically fixed with a hug

-Where were the “loads of clues and red herrings” alluding to Eurus besides that one line in HLV

Followers please feel free to continue.

“And when will they stop using “they’re geniuses” as a get out of jail free card?” – god like that one made me go AMEN. I wrote my own below:

John not recognizing Eurus as the same woman he supposedly flirted with

John
is an army doctor, which means he “can break every bone in your
body while naming them” and yet when confronted with bones in a
well all he can say is, ‘small…smaller…big…round…flat…long’…. like, okay, junior, you couldn’t even recognize the grenade in TFP

the letter that John had Molly give to Sherlock

Mycroft, freaking M16, doesn’t tell
John and Sherlock that the grenade [that blows up Baker Street] a motion sensor explosive until the drone
lands between them. And Mycroft is supposed to be the clever one?

John is at the computer working at his blog, but anybody with eyes can easily tell the whole screen is a picture

why is Eurus in none of the family videos

Mary sweetly calling Sherlock and John her “Baker Street Boys” when she killed Sherlock and lied to John her whole marriage, you don’t put a band-aid on an amputated leg, yo

Mary and Sherlock are shot within the same physical region, and yet while Sherlock goes into shock and dies on the table, Mary gets to recite the whole of Macbeth

Mycroft doesn’t hesitate to kill a clown, but refuses to take a gun from Sherlock because he “doesn’t want blood on his hands”

if Eurus is really so horribly evil, how could Sherlock have forgotten her? CAM got under his skin and we’ve all seen the deleted scene. Point is, it’s virtually impossible to forget such “evil” exists

I know this has been mentioned already, but it bothers me – why
did Victor Trevor have a dog bowl if there was no dog?

Martin Freeman was filming a scene where John is riding a camel, where’s that scene?

The plane in TFP that was going down would have crashed within twenty to thirty minutes, but it’s still in the air 90 minutes later

Sherlock not taking “Vatican Cameos” seriously

there must be two years missing from the timeline because in reality, if John and Sherlock survived the blast, they would be in a coma. Mycroft would have died, given the direction he ran

Of course, the final one really gets under my skin because they screwed up badly with it:::

Eurus shooting John with a gun and you see smoke come out of it, but in the next episode, John is completely fine as he says he was shot with a tranquilizer gun? (For idiots out there, smoke doesn’t come out of a tranquilizer).

@unexplored-girl – thought you’d be interested in this

Also, how have I never heard about the camel scene before this?!

This whole post-

I didn’t even read this entire post cause I know exactly what it says. Can I just say… some people are so… fucking dumb? Yeah, the silly skull painting, four different memory sticks, front door on the other side of the house, different ties, John’s fucky blog, the fuckery with the guns, the sister from x-men, people predicting future, some scenes appearing twice but looking different THAT ALL HAS SO MUCH TO DO WITH JOHNLOCK.

Tell me, who is the delusional one.

Film, Lit, & TV References: Sherlock (Updated 8/8/17)

221bloodnun:

A Continuing Work In Progress – Most of this is relevant to S4, but it does go back into the previous seasons.

Related to Gatiss and Mycroft’s Love of Old Films (especially psych thrillers and film noir)

German Expressionism Modernized in Sherlock ( x ) (Includes some meta linked below).

Stay Explains Lighting, Editing, Twins, Flat Emotions, etc ( x ) The Original Meta ( x ) + Stay Review Explains Enough – Including the “Rug Pull” ( x ) (Also linked at bottom of this page)

The Lady From Shanghai & Swimming With Sharks ( x )

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Sherlock S2-S4 ( x )

Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend and John ( x )

Bank Holiday as a Sherlock Intertext ( x ) by @devoursjohnlock

Granada The Devil’s Foot, Sherlock S4 Imagery, and Moriarty or Mortimer ( x )

A Glimpse Into Granada’s Eligible Bachelor ( x ) by @ebaeschnbliah

The Woman in Green (x)

Terror By Night, Trains, and Sherlock ( x )

The Voice of Terror ( x ) by @finalproblem

The House of Fear ( x ) by @welovethebeekeeper

Kingsmen: The Secret Service, AGRA, & Sherlock ( x )

S4 and Casablanca Continues ( x )

Clue Umbrella and Cane ( x ) The Hat ( x )

Sherlock Holmes in New York ( x ) by @ebaeschnbliah

Faith Eurus & Culverton Smith as Keyser Söze from The Usual Suspects ( x )

Mycroft’s Umbrellagun ( x )

Replicating Neues vom wixxer and Norbury Scene ( x )

———————-

Related to Gatiss and John Watson’s Love of Horror & Bond Films

Batman and Sherlock Holmes ( x )

Take the Bloody Shot ( x ) by @devoursjohnlock

The Ring and TFP Part I ( x ) (I only added pieces to wonderful meta by @may-shepard

The Ring and TFP Part II ( x )

S4 Film References in One Video ( x ) by @goodmythicalmail

Horror Europa ( x ) by @isitandwonder

Argento’s Demons in HoB ( x ) by @isitandwonder and Suspiria as TFP ( x )

TRF, TEH, and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans ( x )

John Rug Pull, TFP, and Saw ( x )

The Ring, Inception, Silence of the Lambs, Saw, Orphan, Shutter Island,
Paranormal Activity 2, It, Morgan, Yellowbeard, Skyfall, Spectre,
Sinister, Neues Vom Wixxer ( x ) by @goodmythicalmail

Yellowbeard ( x ) @princess-of-fireflies

Parade Scene from Spectre and Gatiss/Abbington SDCC 2016 ( x )

———————-

Literary References (Not Shakespeare)

S4, Freud, and Vampires ( x )

Goethe and Sherlock ( x ) (mini meta w/S4, Freud, and Vampires)

Why is John a Balloon? Because…Freud ( x )

TFP, The Uncanny, and Freud’s Influence ( x ) by @the-blue-carbuncle

Sherlock and the Thirteenth Tale ( x ) by @wibblywobblybowtie

The Cat & The Hound ( x ) by @tendergingergirl

The Scarlet Thread of Murder and Sherlock S4 ( x )

Garden of Paradise: Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tale ( x )

Entanglement Theory and My Cousin Rachel ( x )

Greek Myth and TLD ( x )

Sherlock’s Vow, Greek Oaths, Water, and Guardian of Ships ( x )

Paintings Used in TAB ( x ) by @sagestreet

———————–

Dr. Who/Torchwood/Sherlock/Dr. Strange Overlaps

Amy’s Choice ( x ) by @goodmythicalmail

Dr. Who and “Losing” Seasons of Sherlock ( x )

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Dr. Who, and Sherlock ( x ) by @isitandwonder @tjlcisthenewsexy and @devoursjohnlock

Knock Knock (Dr. Who) Season 10 & Sherlock Parallels ( x ) by @jenna221b

Torchwood S3 and Johnlock ( x )

Miss Evangelista and TAB Mary Watson ( x )

The Wedding of River Song & Sherlock: TFP ( x )

MHR and Dr. Who “Blink” ( x )

John’s Choice ( x ) by @tjlcisthenewsexy

Torchlock, TLD, Jonto/Johnlock ( x )

Torchwood ARG ( x )

In Case of Villain ( x )

Gaslight(ing), Dr. Who, and Sherlock ( x ) (Related to Mycroft’s love of old films.)

Dr. Who, Snowmen, and TAB ( x ) by @heartofdeduction

Dr. Who Dreamlord, TLD, and the Nyte Inspiration ( x ) (I added on.)

Dr. Who, Pilot Fish, and Sherlock ( x )

Dr. Strange Sherlock ( x )

Dr. Who “Tarmac” Conversation ( x ) by @a-candle-for-sherlock

Moffat 207 to 702 ( x ) (Two pre-existing metas about Moffat reusing these numbers.)

Miscellaneous

Why would Sherlock be close enough to hear John at the cemetery, yet not be visible to a Moriarty accomplice? ( x )

Meta Remaining…(May add to list, later)

AHS: Murder House, The
Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby, The Amityville Horror (1979), The
Shining, Carriers, The Devils, Hammer House versions of Child’s Play (1984) and The Two
Faces of Evil, The Third Man (1949), The Stranger (1946)

Stay-The Naomi Watts Connection (goes with The Ring, Mulholland Drive, and Sleepwalkers metas)

surviving (and maybe even thriving) in the sherlock fandom after s4

may-shepard:

…OR, maybe even kind of sort of learning how to enjoy oneself again while being a johnlocker.

This is a post for people who are on the fence / still turned off by s4 / still struggling with how to frame it for themselves.

In light of the upcoming fic writers’ retreat, in anticipation of (I hope) having a conversation or two about this very topic, and in partial response to comments that my good fandom friends have dropped recently about their struggles with feeling like they don’t want to engage with the show or the fandom after s4, I’ve been thinking about how to continue on as a johnlocker, and why I feel more motivated than ever to find a way to have a relationship with the show (albeit a substantially altered one than before), and what fandom engagement means to me.

It probably doesn’t look like it, because I’ve participated full throttle in all kinds of conversations about the show since s4, but I do get why s4 was entirely offputting for a lot of people. While I strongly suspect that mofftiss are doing something interesting and unusual with s4, that whatever-it-is came at a heavy price: a series that looks like a hot fucking mess and actively does things that one should never do (i.e., constantly throwing into question the reality status of the story one is telling) if one wants to avoid frustrating the shit out of one’s audience.

What’s worse, the series was promoted with a promise of FINALLY answering the question of who Sherlock loves, without delivering on that promise in a way that was in any way definitive (John? Molly? Irene? Chips?) or satisfying (JOHN???). We got a scene that was really close to the kind of thing we’ve always wanted to see, at the end of The Lying Detective, an episode that also brought us an interaction between John and Sherlock that was so awful, it singlehandedly ruined the show for a lot of people.

Even though I love the shit out of talking about the puzzle of s4, I love it because I love how smart everyone in the fandom is, and how much I’ve learned about Doyle, and the many many intertexts the show engages with. I love how stunningly great people here are with teasing complex arguments out of this hot mess.

I don’t love that we got this weird thing to figure out instead of actual story. I don’t love that for some reason a major plot point was John and Sherlock detonating their relationship even more profoundly than they had before. I still think that the more skillful thing to do would have been to make a puzzle for viewers to figure out, but make it actually enjoyable to watch. (Personally, I did enjoy TLD, but I’m a sucker for Nick Hurran’s direction, I thought Ben and Martin performed incredibly, and I have a high tolerance for creepy shit and violence, so.)

SO: WHAT TO DO?

I’ve been thinking about a few of the strategies I’ve put in place / fallen back on for approaching all of this. I don’t know if any of this is helpful but here it is, for what it’s worth.

Acknowledge that the showrunners are human people and human people make good choices and bad choices and questionable choices

Before s4 aired, I wrote about the fact that mofftiss had set up a highwire act with extraordinarily high stakes, as of the end of s3. This meant they could pull off an astounding feat of storytelling, or they could fall. Instead they sort of burned down the circus tent and re-encoded all the elephants…not what any of us were expecting. I mean, surprises in storytelling can be great, but this was like hey everyone, suddenly the show is going to be performed in Esperanto instead of English, have fun with that.

Questionable at best.

To sum up: good choices resulted in the following:

Ben and Martin in s1 and 2 creating this beautiful dynamic together, eyesex and all the subtext and a tragic love story with mistakes and denial and pining and hope. s3, which bumped up the subtext to the point of ridiculousness. And TAB, which doubled down on that subtext EVEN HARDER. The purple shirt of sex and the swishy coat of alone protects me and a stalwart and broken John who is finally strong enough to partner his Sherlock and enough sexual and romantic tension to drown the population of the earth planet and a Mary Morstan who is actually Moran and there’s always two of us and hey did I mention romance yet?

We got all that, and then we got–this s4 thing.

Let me tell you about writers (speaking as one). They shit the bed all the time. They make weird choices. They have strange ideas. They fail to stick the landing. When that happens, it’s their tragedy. It doesn’t have to be yours.

Maybe this story isn’t done yet. I don’t think it is. I’m willing and able to reserve judgement, but this post is for those of you who aren’t, or can’t.

You can still like the parts of the show that you liked before. You weren’t wrong for liking what worked for you before. You would not be wrong now, for still liking those bits. All the shitty choices the showrunners could make, did make, and might still make, do not make you wrong for liking the bits you liked.

You can still like the parts of the show that you liked before.

Need permission for that? Here it is: BECAUSE MAY SHEPARD SAYS SO. I’ll make you a certificate if you want.

Need more specific help? Here’s another idea:

Get selfish. Get really, really selfish.

Remember that you are here for you. You came here, probably, because thinking about John and Sherlock together is something you enjoyed. Back immediately after s4 aired, and I was still stuck firmly in the wtf zone, I had to have a talk with myself about this.

I asked myself what I liked about the show. Why John and Sherlock, together, were so crunchy and beautiful to me. It came down to one thing: the fact that I read the show as a love story.

I’m here for my own entertainment. This is my happy place. This is where I come when my regular writing is stuck or I want to try to hack out a new part of my skill set. I get a lot out of thinking about John and Sherlock, as characters.

I still read the show as a love story, and I will continue to do so.

That means, in light of s4, doing a lot more reading in to the little moments than I used to have to. It means cherry picking a lot harder. It means ignoring vast swaths of what we actually saw onscreen. (The fact that this is the current state of meta too helps a whole heck of a lot.)

Playing the what if game a lot harder than I have previously has become the rule of the day.

What if John and Sherlock are in love? They are. For me, they are, and they always will be. Will they be in canon? Get yourself to a place where this question doesn’t matter, where your personal happiness doesn’t hang on this. We’re several months on after s4. It’s time to give your head a shake and remember that John and Sherlock love each other and will always find their way back to each other, because we say so.

If you don’t believe this, try because May Shepard says so. I’ll say it until you believe it, too: John and Sherlock are in love. The show is a love story.

I will read the show as a love story, regardless of whether it wants me to. Hey show, get ready for some sweet sweet interpretation. I hope you’re in the mood.

Still not convinced? Try this thought experiment:

Put Some Distance Between You and S4

So a few nights back I was chatting with @laughing-at-the-darkness (who is the best, go follow her immediately), and I jokingly said that what we need in this fandom is a reset, like the kind of perspective you can only get ten years after a television show has finished airing.

Try this on for size:

The year is 2027. You’re looking for some good content to watch. You remember hearing, dimly, about the fact that, a while back, BBC made a Sherlock Holmes adaptation with some pretty famous actors.

You read about it a bit first. Ah yes: the adaptation that everyone was raving about, but that did a weird thing in its fourth series. Bearing this in mind, you decide to watch.

You’re charmed by series 1-3, and the one-off Victorian special. You decide to watch s4, bearing in mind what you know about it, that it seemed to go off the rails relative to everything that had come before. You watch, prepared to laugh along at Mary’s bullet tango and the way she just won’t seem to go away and Sherlock has a sister who is also an X-Man? What????

You watch it. You shrug. You carry on thinking that s1-3 and TAB are great, like you were prepared to do.

We know what we know now: that s4 is a difficult part of canon, a stumbling block for a lot of us. If you can accept that, then you can move forward, liking the parts you like, and leaving the parts you don’t.

Moving On

I still personally have some questions about how to deal with s4 as a fic writer. There are so many potential interpretations–how does one go about sorting through the detritus? A lot of people don’t want to / can’t bring themselves to rewatch, so how much can I assume they do and don’t remember about the episodes? But these are mostly logistical issues, and solvable with some rational decision making. (I did start a fic a while back based on TST, but I wasn’t ready to finish it, and I don’t think people wanted that type of fix it in that particular moment.) s4 changed the stakes for a lot of people, so writing fic now is all about writing to a different emotional register, I think. I’m personally having fun with that, while sorting through the implications for the wips I started before s4 aired. I’m hoping we can talk about some of these issues, as writers, and as fans, but that’s a post for another day.

In any case, I’m here, John and Sherlock are in love, and I hope this is helpful in some way. I don’t want anyone to lose the thing that used to give them enjoyment, nor (on a more selfish note) do I want to see people still leaving the fandom if they don’t have to.

darlingtonsubstitution:

I know I’m likely the lone voice in the fandom about this. But for the last time – TBB is far from racist if one familiarizes oneself with the Opium Wars, The Great Game (not the Sherlockian kind), Eight-Nation Alliance, the end of Imperial China, and the history of Modern China the last 105 years – it’s been like a game of falling dominoes except for the pieces are civilian casualties and broken nations and the reverberations from that single point of entry may never end for the people in the region. If one only perceives “orientalism” and has zero curiosity as for why the Asian characters were portrayed the way they did, please at least entertain the notion that maybe, just maybe, a 21st-century Western perspective is not the only one in conjecturing the whole picture.