#acd asks

[ash-clans-destiny]

Mosspaw what happened to Ashclan? Why do you now have to rebuild it?

(the style might look a little different, that’s because i thought i’d try something else)

[moroniccats]

It gets me every time just how PROUD Watson is to be Holmes’ partner. He’s constantly talking about how he knows Holmes better than anyone, and can recognize his mood and mannerisms no matter how subtle. How he’s trusted with information that the public will never know, because HE WAS THERE AT HIS SIDE. How he takes pleasure in just being there, admiring Holmes, and in being as useful to him as possible.

[sword-wielding-sapphic]

Holmes and Watson / Tristan and Isolde

BBC Radio 4's Sherlock Holmes, The Devil's Foot (radio drama transcript) /// Granada's The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Red Circle /// Metafictional Monday: Tristan und Isolde, @teaformrholmes /// Brayton Polka, LIEBESTOD: On Love and Death in Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", p. 246 /// The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Vincent Starrett /// BBC Radio 4's Sherlock Holmes, The Devil's Foot (radio drama transcript)

[chazchaschad]

Hello! I really love your Holmes art! Can you please give some tips of how you draw Holmes and Watson?🥺

Absolutely! Sorry this took a while to answer! Also this is only how I do it!! You don’t have to follow these rules AT ALL!!

Also sorry for my dogshit handwriting if anybody wants to try and translate it please go ahead 😭

[224bbaker]

So, hypothetically speaking, if someone had never been interested in Sherlock Holmes before but wanted to get into it because of Fawx & Stallion... Where should they start?

Oh my GOD, anon, so upset we didn't see this until now because what a great question and also, our show inspiring someone to go check out Sherlock Holmes?? Deeply upsetting for our characters but SO exciting for us!

Hopefully since you sent this you've just dived in to the stories--because, honestly, that's how both of our writers got into them as kids, and also because despite what roughly 40 contradicting scholars will try to tell you, the timeline is nonsense and Watson's continuity doesn't make sense (we have made our own peace with this and addressed it in-universe because we didn't want to go on deep-dives to decide what puns we were allowed to use for the place we're at in the timeline it's fine, we're fine).

However, just a quick sidebar before we jump into The Stories--if you would rather start with an adaptation than the original ACD stories themselves, there are two options we'd recommend as starting points that are pretty true to canon while remaining engaging in and of themselves:

The Granada TV series with Jeremy Brett and David Burke/Edward Hardwicke: It rules, and most of it's on YouTube! Highly recommend their Solitary Cyclist, Speckled Band, Scandal in Bohemia, and Blue Carbuncle (we may be biased towards the early, David-Burke-Watson entries). These actors and sets are what we picture when we read Holmes.

For an audio adaptation, the 1989 Bert Coules radio adaptation, which you can get for a single credit on Audible in full and has basically the whole canon! Incredible dramatization work that preserves the stories and really deepens the character work in a way that we're obsessed with. Big fans!

If you're liking the vibe of these, you'll probably like the stories themselves! In which case, there are also awesome online book clubs like Letters from Watson that have great communities here on Tumblr (just peruse the tag, it's super fun!), and also over on Discord.

SO. If you're still here and looking for our direction on the stories:

If you just want to start with what is/will be relevant to Fawx & Stallion, we recommend:

Our goal is that our audience doesn't NEED to have read any Sherlock Holmes to understand anything in F&S. We'll hopefully lay things out or give context clues. However, we do have little jokes for the fans, and in season 2, some subtext may be a bit clearer, or have a bit more weight, if you've read some of the stories.

A Study In Scarlet: I know, I know I know I know, Holmes fans, the Utah Mormon stuff, I get it, BUT. Holmes and Watson meet in this one, and it's incredible. The first few chapters of them meeting, starting to live together, going from roommates with a mutual fascination to, through Watson's unintentional insult of Holmes's writing and a fateful invitation to a crime scene, actual friends, are electric. It's a crime (pun intended) that we have so few dramatizations of this in the canon era (we're trying to fix that), we love it so so much. Sacrilege, but, wikipedia the stuff in the middle, enjoy the fantastic meet cute that bookends the thing.

Hound of the Baskervilles: Happening during the events of Fawx & Stallion season 1. I don't need to tell you this one is a banger, we all know this. Less Holmes content than you expect, but a GREAT setting, mood, and roster of suspects, and a thrilling, well-paced mystery with some great Watson.

The Final Problem: Occurs right before the events of season 2, and though you again don't need to have read it, some stuff might hit better if you have, particularly in the back half of the season. High recommend. On the same note, The Beryl Coronet is also mentioned a few times, which is the case right before this one.

Ok, with that out of the way, we highly recommend:

The "Jump Around To Whatever Short Story or Novel Sounds Cool" Approach

This is the move, in my opinion. As I've said before, the timelines are nonsense, you CAN try to get into the weeds of continuity as we have and there is delightful madness to that, but would I recommend it as an intro? No. They're short stories! They're serialized! Treat it like a TBS rerun series at 1 AM and just pick one that is on/sounds cool!

Now, if you want our PREFERENCE? There are different genres of Holmes mysteries, different types of mysteries for different preferences, but we're going to recommend one particular sub-genre of Holmes mysteries that we find particularly fun/unique: The "It's Not Necessarily A Crime Yet But the Vibes Are There" Mystery.

We love these. They're the best. Not depressing or gruesome off the bat, usually starting with some whimsy at Baker Street, these stories usually begin with a client coming to Holmes and the following interaction happens

CLIENT: Um, hi. Honestly it's pretty silly that i'm even here. It's probably just a Weird Thing, you probably don't-- HOLMES: No no no please tell me I love Weird Things. CLIENT: Ok. Well. My boss/guardian/brother/[insert-person-who-has-power-over-them] has been doing this Thing where he [insert extremely weird thing that again, is not a Crime, but the vibes are there]. It's kinda weird. HOLMES: Yeah, super fucking weird. CLIENT: I know! But it's not a crime, so I don't know, you're probably not interested, I'm just a [not rich not male not high class not privileged identity] so there's really no point in checking that out-- HOLMES: No girl (gn), we are DEFINITELY checking that shit out there's a crime in there somewhere and we're gonna find it!

And we're off! If this sounds interesting to you (and it SHOULD), check out: The Solitary Cyclist, The Red Headed League, The Copper Beeches, The Greek Interpreter, The Speckled Band, The Stockbroker's Clerk, The Musgrave Ritual, The Resident Patient, and honestly probably some others we're missing because it's REALLY common.

Other fun Holmes bangers:

Holmes overworks himself and Watson takes him to the country to rest, only to solve ANOTHER FUCKING MYSTERY: The Reigate Squires

The Christmas One!: The Blue Carbuncle

The Dancing Men: I don't have a fun little thing for this one it's just a banger and the Granada Adaptation rules!

The One Where Sherlock Holmes does NOT fall in love with Irene Adler but does get completely owned because 1) he thinks women don't get up early, and 2) he wanted to have a sleepover with Watson: A Scandal in Bohemia

There are a ton, and hopefully you'll find one that you like and just jump in!

[haedraulics]

PLS MORE SHERLOCK HOLMES YAOI YOUR ART IS SO SPOT ON

OF COURSEEEE 🫡🫡🫡🫡 holmes yaoi art and fic (very good fic!) is genuinely the adhesive holding me together rn. please have this

[moonlightandpalmtrees]

you know that comic with the birds? “Do you think we’re best friends in other universes too”? I think about that but with all the different Holmes & Watsons

[blistering-typhoons]

1. Favourite canon quote?

2. Favourite canon story/least favourite canon story? (Either question optional)

3. What got you into Sherlock Holmes - the books or an adaptation? If adaptation, which one?

4. Favourite adaptation/least favourite adaptation? (Either question optional)

5. Most niche Sherlock Holmes adaptation you've consumed?

6. Favourite Holmes portrayal?

7. Favourite Watson portrayal?

8. Holmes & Watson or Holmes/Watson? Or both?

9. Do you write/read Sherlock Holmes fanfiction?

10. If you read fanfiction, favourite Sherlock Holmes fanfiction?

11. Headcanon about Holmes? (And do you have any favourites?)

12. Headcanon about Watson? (And do you have any favourites?)

13. What is something you wish more people knew/understood about Sherlock Holmes?

14. Who do you tend to relate to more - Holmes or Watson? Both?

15. Do you draw Sherlock Holmes fanart?

16. Favourite piece of Sherlock Holmes fanart? (Either by yourself or another fanartist)

17. How long have you been into Sherlock Holmes?

18. Favourite piece of Sherlock Holmes related trivia?

19. Favourite Sherlock Holmes supporting/one off character?

20. Favourite Sherlock Holmes villain?

[holmesillustrations]

Left: “We strolled about together.” Resident Patient, Sidney Paget, The Strand Aug/Sep 1893 Characters: Holmes, Watson

Right: “I fell into a brown study.” Cardboard Box, Sidney Paget, The Strand Jan/Feb 1893 Characters: Holmes, Watson

[lowliest-manifestations]

Okay! I'm finally putting together some of my more specific Bending the Willow thoughts and this passage:

"Perhaps it was as Jeremy Brett noted: 'Women want to possess him, while men want to be him.' There is certainly some truth in that statement, but the idea is incomplete. I believe male readers not only identify with Holmes, but also experience, in the same way that D. H. Lawrence identified what he referred to as a 'blood consciousness' between men, a kind of spiritual closeness akin to love."

Is making me the kind of insane that makes me want to write like 17 essays. But in absence of the time needed to actually do that here are some of my main thoughts in a more disorganized fashion:

Overall I've noticed a really wild amount of gender essentialism within Sherlockian communities/ scholarship, and I know that a lot of that can be chalked up to the fact that even modern writings are done mostly by older white men, but I also think there's something about the text itself that encourages this. Sherlock Holmes is pretty fucking victorian about gender (Irene Adler occupies a weird space but I do not believe she is in any way exempt from those attitudes.) and I think sometimes scholars find themselves reflecting the values of a text that they do not want to admit is imperfect.

I think this passage pinpoints exactly how a lot of people gender their expectations of how reader are to interact with Sherlock Holmes and texts like it, and Sherlock Holmes in turn becomes kind of weird for women to interact with. For the most part people want to see themselves somewhere in the text, but women in particular are told that we cannot find ourselves within the main character. Some people may be fine with that, lots of people don't want to relate to Holmes and their enjoyment of the text does not come from seeing themselves in that particular character. Some women also genuinely want to relate to the text by fantasizing about being in a relationship with Holmes, and more power to them, but their feeling is not a default, no matter how hard anybody pretends it is.

The fact is that plenty of women do want to be Holmes, and they face an interesting dilemma if they are trying to hold that while still operating under the framework hinted at in this passage. Instead of projecting onto him directly they must find ways to be close to him, be a reflection of him, be him but a girl (without replacing him! don't worry!). I think that's why there's sooo much fiction out there about secret sisters, female apprentices, wit-matching lovers etc. (I myself would pretend to be Sherlock Holmes' secret daughter as a kid. I bought into this shit!)

This framework is also not particularly normal about men who may not see themselves in Holmes at all and who may, in fact, also be capable of fantasizing about having a relationship with him! Queer men exist! (within this passage in fact.) And I know Stuart Davies did not mean to acknowledge this when he wrote of "a kind of spiritual closeness akin to love." but he does put it somewhat homoerotically in a way that left me reeling a little bit.

I do understand the feeling described by Stuart Davies, even if the way he writes of it makes me laugh a little in its dramatics. I simply do not think it is a feeling exclusive to men... I don't think any feelings are exclusive to any gender. And in the end I think that's the idea that really frustrates me.

Of course this passage is also from 1996, it's a product of its time, I get it. I also know that people have had More expansive/critical/interesting ideas about Sherlock Holmes in relation to gender before and since it was written, and I don't think it reflects what everyone really believes. BUT I do think it hit the nail on the head of a phenomena I have noticed since childhood and affirmed that I wasn't imagining things. While also being. Kind of funny.

[tremendously-crazy]

QUICK! What's your favorite Sherlock Holmes story? I'll go first, if i HAVE TO PICK, my favorite is the adventure of the red headed league or the adventure of the priory school

Reblog so more people can answer!! /nf

[y-a-w-p]

Is this a safe space to say that I highkey hate benedict cumberbatch?

[sword-wielding-sapphic]

every other crime fiction author looked at Sherlock Holmes and said "hmm, he never shows any interest in women and he hates small talk, this must be because he is incredibly psychologically disturbed due to some dark backstory. we should make this the standard for detective characters going forward"

my brother in christ, have you considered that maybe he's just gay and autistic?

[chazchaschad]

Can you draw an Sherlock Holmes?

I love how you draw him :)

Thank you so so much!!!

[clearwingedmaven]

It seems like y'all have a propensity to tie polls on my Tumblr.

So... for the first blog, "Gee Clear, why DO you like The Dancing Men so much?"

The answer is two fold.

On every technicality, it was my first Sherlock Holmes story. But not in the way you think.

When I was in high school, I took an Honors Forensic Science class. We learned quite a lot of everything, from Lecoq to the very first autopsy(Caesar!), to toxicology, and: The Dancing Men cipher.

This was one of the things we'd do, while we worked on learning forensics in class, and on Fridays, there was a time where we learned how to write and decode the Dancing Men cipher, while we watched Forensic Files, or worked to solve one of our final projects: solve the dead body's murder in our classroom. (Mannequin! Not actually a dead body.)

So, already, I associate the story with intensely happy teenage memories.

When I did find the story, through both the book, and Granada Sherlock Holmes, it also provided both an intense fascination into both Human tragedy, and the complex state of Victorian horror.

This is the second story where Holmes failed, in the sense that his client died before he could help. The way his despair is described is intricate and vivid, and it hits home just how much despite his insistence that he is a machine, a man without a heart:

He is not. He has one. And it bleeds openly on the page, for he failed, and his client died.

Again.

And it makes for an exquisite tragedy for all involved, especially with the added despair of Elsie, in her grief, turning the gun on herself.

For horror? There is horror here. I suppose it comes in the form of dramatic irony, that while reading through the story, knowing the cipher and knowing what it means, makes the story not of what will happen, but knowing there is an inevitability of what will happen.

That failure is quite literally written into the story. And something like that, to both a younger, teenage Clear, and an adult Clear now, is chilling.

Of course, the Granada episode is also a lovely adaptation that also drives home the Victorian horror. The scenes of Hilton Cubitt having nightmares from the Dancing Men, Elsie's turmoil, and the final, deadly confrontation, to even Holmes’s eagerness at solving the Cipher are beautifully played out.

So that is why I adore 'The Adventure of the Dancing Men,' laid out in full.

[224bbaker]

Thank you so much for making Sherlock Holmes this little hysterical weird guy, the characterization is on point and we do need less calculated, cold Holmes e more nervous, clueless and stupid ones.

(I teared up a bit in the last episode but I'm being very brave about it)

Oh, @ghostlycollectorchaos, it is our honor. Between @fogtown-sleuth-society and us, I believe we can deliver the cringefail dork Sherlock Holmes (complimentary) the world has been clamoring for all these years.

(You're so brave, detective 🫡)