#The Final Problem

[el-ffej]

That cartoon from the Annotated Sherlock Holmes that you posted last January seems appropriate:

things one must draw in order to cope when one is reading the Final Problem

[unreformedcarrots]

[tremendously-crazy]

I've been thinking a lot about the final problem lately. That was supposed to be the end. Sherlock Holmes was DEAD. He was actually dead. But then he got raised from the dead. I am eternally grateful to crazy Victorians for telling Holmes "nuh uh" when he decided to hurl himself off a waterfall.

[i-dont-talk-for-days-on-end]

I think it's terrible how Victorian readers probably lay in bed, happily thinking about what their blorbo was up to rn, and then in 1893 they opened the Strand Magazine to "The Final Problem" only to discover that Mr Sherlock Holmes had actually already died in 1891. What would you do

[mustfindcreativeusername]

So apparently my grandma somehow never knew anything about Sherlock Holmes until like 9 days ago, when she saw me with "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and asked if she could read it after i was finished. Naturally i offered her the first volume and. Um. Yeah, so, in the span of nine days she read all 4 novels and 18 of the short stories. That's 1,237 pages. I didn't even know she liked reading that much. I'm actually amazed. I mean she's devouring them. And. I dunno, i just never expected to have, for lack of a better word, a fandom in common with my grandma. It's.. Really nice. You know?

And yeah i do think it's fair to say I've turned her into a SH fangirl. Today i told her about some trouble I'm having and that i dunno what to do and she went "Hey, hey. We'll fix it, ok? I'm on it, I'm Sherlock Holmes! *wink*"

Anyway what i wanted to say is that she's halfway through "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and i. Well you might know that it ends with this little story called "The Final Problem". And omg she doesn't knowwww. I feel like history is happening, I don't know of anyone who started that story not knowing how it ends. (I didn't get that far, but I've known about it for like 8+ years)

Anyway. I'm kinda nervous for her. But really curious about her reaction.

(Also excited cause then i get to tell her he's not actually dead)

If she keeps this pace, she'll finish "The Final Problem" this evening.

[allallestodo]

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

2.06 The Final Problem

[sleipnirlokison]

I left Tumblr and anything fandom related almost a decade ago and now I'm back making silly little GIFs for a fandom I think might be dead? Either way, I had fun making this!

Here is the original image, I'm a huge fan of all of the season 4 promo images and I never really appreciated them when they came out because I had already left the fandom by then.

[asoulwithadream]

[watsonsdetective]

This happened to me a few days ago, and now I'm scared.

[ofbakerst]

when watson tells him he has to return to the hotel to console a dying englishwoman, & holmes knows this may be the last time they will see each other, his face softens into the slightest of wistful smiles, like he's seeing all the things he loves about watson, his kindness, bravery, loyalty, trust, and then he just turns to go! like he's already said his own secret little goodbye that watson doesn't know about & now it's time to move on to the next thing

[teaspoonnebula]

Sherlock Holmes undergoes his most terrible ordeal yet: encountering A Fan.

Filmed at the Reichenbach Falls. Yes, all of it.

EDIT: Apparently this particular bit of Granada's Final Problem *wasn't* filmed at the Reichenbach Falls, which means that I clearly have a greater dedication to accuracy.

[murd3rouscrow]

Sherlock Holmes loves John Watson.

That is my main takeaway from the last episode. Whether this love is romantic, platonic or an entirely separate thing altogether. The fact still remains.

Looking at the whole ordeal from Sherlock's perspective reveals something interesting. To Sherlock, John is one of his extremely few friends, his best friend even. Sherlock hasn't had many friends. Sure Mariana is his friend, and once, so was Victor. But none of them have been a friend to him in the way that John has.

No one else had taken the time to dig deep into who he was. No one else had put themselves in genuine danger for him. No one else has followed him into murders, and kidnappings, and all the other horrors he deals with, and stays by side throughout it all. He can count on John to always be there. He can trust John with his fears. He can be vulnerable around him, and believes that John can do the same.

He has, in his own way, fallen in love with him. He has grown attached. He cares about John in a way he hasn't cared for anyone before... He nearly killed for John Watson... He'd very willingly die for him as well...

That's what takes me to The Final Problem. Where, at the threat of John getting hurt, Sherlock would back down. He'd call John, tell him everything, how much he cares. He'd ask, plead, beg, John to forgive for what he's about to do... Then he'd jump. Spending the next few years, still protecting John. And when he has to come back, he'll be afraid. Not of the press, or that he won't be accepted. That John, his John Watson will not forgive him...

After all, there is no universe, where Sherlock doesn't love his Watson.

[i-dont-talk-for-days-on-end]

But imagine you are Dr Watson coming home from Switzerland and suddenly standing in a sitting room that used to be yours, and there is a book he bought and did not bring along and sheet music for a composition you will never hear him play and there are the notes for a case he will never solve and a new summer coat he will never wear and the flowers that Mrs Hudson placed on the table which faded unseen by him and the tobacco that he will never smoke and the concert ticket that expired because when the curtain rose, he stood at the brink of the Reichenbach Falls and you were not there.

[myiliterallyhavenolifegoals]

Sherlock & Co's adaptation of The Final Problem means I'm gonna have to listen to the note that Sherlock leaves John and Mariana before faking his death doesn't it

[blistering-typhoons]

jeremy brett acting moment of all time tbh, the way he clenches his jaw for a split second, gathers up the dressing gown around himself and the brief, sarcastic raising of his eyebrows on 'compliments'

[tremendously-crazy]

Only real ones understand 💯