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365days365movies · 4 years ago

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May 6, 2021: The Martian (2015) (Recap: Part One)

We’re leaving lo-fi sci-fi, people. Kind of.

I mentioned before that films like Her are what I define as “lo-fi sci-fi”, which is a category that I’ve kind of made up. Basically, it’s the science fiction version of low fantasy, meaning it contains science fiction themes contained within an otherwise contemporary setting. In the case of Her, Joaquin Phoenix’s character, along with many others, live in a world and setting basically like ours, but with technology advanced enough to generate AIs (like Siri) that are intelligent enough to actually ascend our reality. Because we live in a society.

You give me Joaquin Phoenix, I’m gonna make a Joker reference; it’s in the contract of my existence. Anyway, that is admittedly kind of broad, right? I mean, that has the capability of crossing over with a BUNCH of sci-fi genres and themes. And, considering that we’ve already seen magic, speculative technology, time travel, monsters, and artificial intelligence, we’ve already touched on quite a bit.

And with science fiction, the sky’s the limit. Literally. So, I think it behooves us to re-examine lo-fi sci-fi a little bit. Specifically, we should note that it can also be defined as an extension of currently existing technologies and possibilities. Writers would call this “speculative sci-fi”, assuming in this case that it’s set within the present or a near and attainable future. Her definitely fits in this category, as does Westworld. But, let’s crossover to another genre by speculating upon another possibility. And it begins with this man. Probably.

Hey, Elon, what’s up? Now, Mr. Musk here is a...controversial figure, for COMPLETELY understandable reasons. Instead of touch upon the man himself, I feel like touching upon one of his recent focuses: space travel. With SpaceX and the various upcoming space trips and journeys that they’re planning, Musk has made it clear that he plans to shoot to the Moon. Again, literally.

In fact, this full plan is to go even further than that, and to fuel potential commercial space flights in the future, which is admittedly very cool. And of course, if you’re going to shoot for the Moon...

Guys...guys, that’s Mars. THAT’S FUCKING MARS

Is that not amazing? We have sound and pictures from FUCKING MARS! THAT’S A DIFFERENT PLANET, GODDAMN IT! It’s cooler than I have the ability to properly express, but it IS goddamn cool. And this means that, easily within my lifetime, we could (and likely will) land on Mars. Which is amazing. God, I really want to see that happen.

And so, landing on Mars is BARELY science fiction, but since we haven’t yet done so...yeah, it’s fictional at the moment. And so, any film about landing on Mars falls within this category. Well...to an extent.

2000′s Mission to Mars, for example, was a Disney-funded film (to my IMMENSE surprise; and it’s based off of an old Disney World ride, WHAT), and a movie that I saw a LOT when I was a kid. I also barely remember it, to be honest. But that film is straight-up science fiction because of, well...aliens. The idea of Martians is, as far as we know it, fictional. And most fiction involving Mars includes these aliens somehow. Whether it’s DC Comics’ entire civilization of Martians, as seen in Justice League, Supergirl, or Young Justice...

...Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s heavily mythologized civilization, as seen in the Barsoom series of novels (and another Disney film)...

...Or one of the best Looney Tunes characters.

Mmm. Yes. Isn’t that lovely?

But, yeah, Mars and aliens go hand-in-hand in our media. So, to properly look at lo-fi science and speculative science fiction in relation to the Red Planet, we’ll need a movie that goes to the planet, and doesn’t touch upon the concept of aliens AT ALL.

Enter...Ridley Scott?

Yeah, the director of Legend, Alien, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner, Gladiator. Also the director of Kingdom of Heaven, Prometheus, Exodus: Gods and Kings, and...ugh, 1492: Conquest of Paradise. I’ve talked about his mixed record before, in my Recap of Legend right here.

In 2014, he was brought on to adapt a book by Andy Weir called The Martian, which is a great book! I’ve listened to the audio book, and I whole-heartedly recommend doing that. And because of that, I am VERY MUCH looking forward to watching this film, especially seeing as it’s often called one of the best science fiction films made during that year, and was critically acclaimed then and now. It got seven Oscar nominations (although it won none of them), amongst other awards. So, enough navel-gazing, huh? The Martian!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

On Acidalia Plantitia, at the landing site of the Ares III mission, a group of scientists are gathering samples. These scientists are commander and geologist Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), pilot Rick Martinez (Michael Pena), systems operator Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara), surgeon Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan), German chemist Alex Vogel (Aksel Hennie), and overly talkative botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon).

The group seems to have a good dynamic, but that dynamic is interrupted by a massive dust storm, which is large enough to cause the entire crew to evacuate. However, in the chaos of the dust storm, Mark is hit by debris and lost in the shuffle. Although Lewis goes back to find him, she can’t get to him before they need to leave, and Mark is believed dead. This is reported (pretty callously) by NASA Director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) to the press soon afterwards.

But of course, that wouldn’t be much of a movie, now would it? Mark’s alive! And Mark’s alone. With his suit damaged, and low on oxygen, he trudges back to headquarters, which is intact and still contains breathable oxygen. He gets inside, and realizes that he’s been stabbed in the abdomen by some debris. He removes it, and stitches up his own wound. Which is...god, it’s fucking BRUTAL just to think about, nevertheless watch.

Once he’s finished, he records a log for the future, if he doesn’t make it. It’s day 19 of the 31-day mission at this point, and Mark’s basically screwed. He needs lasting oxygen, water, and food, and he might need that for 4 years, when the next manned mission can come to the red planet. Additionally, he has absolutely no way to contact NASA, leaving him completely stranded. Another dust storm rolls in that night, and Mark looks over the belongings of his colleagues, packing them up for their eventual return. It’s somber, to say the least. However, Mark affirms that he’s determined not to die on the planet.

After doing the math, Mark should have enough food to last him for about 300 days, especially if he rations it. Until then, he’ll need to figure out how to grow his own food, on a planet where nothing grows. Which is, of course, going to be a difficult feat to accomplish. But Mark Watney’s a botanist with botany powers, and he’s gonna do it.

It’s day 31, and Mark’s brought in dirt from the outside, and uses the bio-waste from the crew’s stay there for a form of compost. After 5 days, mostly full of him watching Happy Days on TV and trying to farm, he realizes that he needs water, both for himself and for the soil. To do that, he goes chemical and decides to use hydrogen-laden rocket fuel, wood from Martinez’s belongings, and good old-fashioned fire to make water! And since hydrogen + oxygen = water, it should work. With a minor side-effect.

So, yeah, he blew himself up. As as he records a video log, the sound mixing makes itself impressively known by subtly and realistically generating a tinnitus sound. It’s VERY well-done, holy shit. Anyway, he makes a stable fire, and the place is soon covered in condensation, moistening the room and the soil successfully.

We get to day 54, and Mark’s planted leftover potatoes from the crew in order to grow them. And while he’s being mourned at a funeral on Earth, and in NASA, he’s seeing the fruits (or shoots) of his efforts.

Back on Earth, Mars Mission Director Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is trying to convince Director Teddy to let him lobby for another Ares mission, despite the risk of bad press for the callousness of the proximity to Watney’s death. Meanwhile, satellite technician Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis) looks down at the Ares III site, and realizes that the site has changed visually, meaning that Mark may actually be alive.

Shocked by this, she tells Kapoor, Teddy, and media director Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig) about this, and they realize the absolute clusterfuck that this whole thing is. They can’t tell the other members of the Ares III crew about it, because it’d devastate them for the 10 months they have to get back to Earth, at the VERY least. They can’t tell the WORLD about this, because they just had a funeral for the guy, and they’d reveal that they left him stranded on Mars accidentally, destroying faith in the Mars Missions Program. And they can’t save Mark, who they’re sure will starve eventually. It’s a mess. And Kapoor also wonders what’s happening to Mark psychologically through all of this.

And yet, they reveal this to the world regardless, causing the clusterfuck reaction that they think it’s going to cause. But Mark’s busy on Mars, figuring out how to get to the site of the next Ares IV mission in 4 years, at the Schiaparelli crater about 50 days travel away. This is a struggle, as his Rover has only so much power and fuel, and he can only get more power by cutting out the heater is risking death by freezing. So, problems. However, he figures out a potential solution: radioactive isotopes! In a move that is, let’s face it, COMPLETELY INSANE, he digs up a radioactive generator from the ship in order to heat the ship.

On Earth, they try to figure out Mark’s moves, as well as how to resupply Ares IV sooner for Mark’s benefit. This is with the director of JPL, Bruce Ng (Benedict Wong), and the flight director of the ship Hermes, Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean), who insists that they tell the Ares II crew. They continue to monitor Mark, and note that he’s been travelling for 17 days in his Rover towards something. Kapoor figures it out, and flies to California.

See, Mark needs a way to contact NASA, and he believes that the way to do so is through Pathfinder, the first probe ever sent to Mars in 1997, lasting for 9 months since landing until they lost contact. Mark digs it up, and the people at JPL in California start their own efforts for contact. And despite communication being extremely rudimentary, initially limited to yes/no questions that use a still-frame camera, it fucking WORKS! WHOO!

To boost this communication hurdle, the two camps figure out a hexadecimal system for communication, allowing them to communicate using a circular table of numbers that represent an alphabet. That allows them to teach Mark to hack into the Rover, allowing it to piggyback off of its broadcast signal and send them messages via keyboard. Nice! Now that communication is reasonably possible, Mark’s able to ask how the crew is handling his death. But upon learning that they haven’t told him. He’s understandably a little goddamn enraged. And so, they FINALLY tell the Ares III crew about this.

The news breaks the crew, even though Mark continues to stress that he’s all right, and that it wasn’t their fault. Meanwhile, Mark’s able to survive for 912 days with his potato plants, and things improve with the help of technicians on Earth. They plan to launch a supply rocket to him in the next year, and things are looking fine! Unless, of course...something goes horribly HORRIBLY wrong.

Well...fuck. Good place to pause for Part Two, then?

#the martian #ridley scott #matt damon #jessica chastain #kristen wiig #jeff daniels #sean bean #michael pena #chiwetel ejiofor #benedict wong #science fiction may #sci-fi may #user365 #365 movie challenge #365 movies 365 days #365 Days 365 Movies #365 movies a year #bookstofilm #whatelsecanwedonow

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thewatsonbeekeepers · 4 years ago

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Chapter 10 – Oh No Love, You’re Not Alone [TLD 2/2]

[A line from Rock’n’Roll Suicide, which titles the previous chapter – listen here! X Possibly Bowie’s best song.]

This chapter aims to break down the infamous hug scene step by step – I couldn’t handle this scene for a long time, Mary and Irene seriously breaking with the otherwise reasonably coherent series, but I have a reading. This reading is complicated in that it relies – like this whole meta series – on every character in the scene being a part of Sherlock. This is obviously sad because it means that our boys don’t come together in one of the only moments of physical affection they’ve been allowed in the last ten years, but bear with it. There are three important symbols we need to know going into this scene: our three main characters. The grounding of this meta series is that, within the EMP, Sherlock is our eyes, the part of his brain that is consciously navigating the subconscious and trying to make sense of it. John represents his heart, normally in antithesis with Mycroft as the brain, but in TLD really taking centre stage himself. To get a handle on Mary, I refer you back to my TST metas [XX]; TLDR, at the end of TST Sherlock stages Mary’s assassination attempt on himself via Norbury, only to replace himself with Mary at the last second because he cannot cope with the implication that it is the loss of him that has made John suicidal. To be colloquial, then, Mary is comphet – which is essentially her function in every Sherlock Holmes adaptation anyway, but you know. Thinking about Mary in terms of comphet is useful particularly in terms of her obsession with Sherlock wearing the hat which dogs the end of this episode, and which for many spoiled this scene the first time around (i.e. me). Wearing the hat is a euphemism in tjlc for masking one’s sexuality, drawing on the Victorian phrase ‘a hat of someone else’s choosing’ X – Sherlock’s throwing off of the hat was so momentous in TAB that many of us were reluctant to see it brought up again. However, this all makes sense.

Before we take this scene from the top, I feel the need to say that someone has brought me tea in a glass, by pure coincidence. I feel this is a good omen.

The scene opens talking about Eurus!Faith, and one of the first possibilities touted is that Sherlock made up a dream woman who gave him all the info he needed. Not subtle – although Eurus has other purposes in the narrative which become very important, she does also kick the narrative along quite nicely here. However, as mentioned in the previous chapter, she’s not the only character who does – think of the random comments that allow Sherlock to piece together ‘everyone’, despite having nothing to do with the case. So what our boys are saying about Eurus!Faith, if we think about it in the context of the episode, instead of just her, points to the artificiality that is casting such a massive shadow right now. John’s ‘magic dream woman’ comment comes straight after Sherlock talking about being able to predict anything – undermining the entire basis of the episode as magic and dreamlike, so we know where we stand. Sherlock is only experiencing all of this semi-lucidly – kind of like TAB – so it’s up to his heart to try to get him to twig it I suppose.

Sherlock then suggests that Eurus!Faith was a hallucination brought on by drugs, in keeping with the theme of the episode, but also with our own themes. Drugs are used to cover up one’s true sexuality, and Eurus up until this point has only been used in her various disguises to veil Sherlock’s desires as heterosexual, so in that sense she is linked to the mirage that drugs can cause. Heart!John’s response is to keep Sherlock off the ‘sweeties’, which is a good sign for us – the more we fixate on the sober region of Sherlock’s brain, the more we’re in the place where he can’t hide from who he is, and his heart is pushing him there.

It seems that comphet!Mary is the one pushing Sherlock to talk to his heart here, which might raise questions, but as we’ll see one of the first things she tells heart!John to do is to ‘make him wear the hat’ – everything she says is fitting in with the paradigm of Sherlock Holmes that the heart cannot cope with and needs to leave behind. Mary also suggests that Sherlock should wear the hat to her as a tribute, because she’s dead. I like to read this as the weird sense that we should be respectful of old classics, as though queering them is somehow disrespectful – this gets thrown up a lot in relation to Sherlock Holmes. One time it really got thrown up though was in the making of TPLoSH – the reason it’s not more explicit is because the Conan Doyle estate didn’t want Wilder to damage ACD’s legacy. The necessity for comphet of the Victorian era is dead and gone, but we still consistently pay tribute to it in our culture.

Sherlock keeps mentioning Culverton’s confessions, which we’ve talked about in the last chapter – but in this world of mirrors, he’s unable to map them onto himself perfectly yet. It’s the same thing as Eurus heterosexualising his interactions – we’re working in a world of mirrors and proxies, because the reality of queerness is so off limits in his mind.

Then we get the text alert. Irene Adler has long been established within the mind palace as a symbol of Sherlock’s sexual desire. So, at the end of this, as Sherlock is about to neglect his heart and let it descend out of Baker Street, we get this sudden cry of sexuality – and the heart turns back. Comphet!Mary, through the hat linked to conventional storytelling metatextually propelling Sherlock’s comphet well into the 21st century, immediately jumps to the conclusion that Sherlock loves Irene Adler. There are several reasons why this is absolutely wrong. Firstly, we are dealing entirely in symbolic people here, so why Irene would suddenly be a real person instead of a metaphor is tonally dubious. Secondly, Irene is a long established metaphor for sexuality anyway. But thirdly, and most importantly – this scene, which revolves around the Irene Adler text alert, is the beating heart of the episode and arguably the entire series. For Irene Adler to be referenced once more in the series, in a minor line, suggests that she is not the actual focus. It’s about what’s going on within Sherlock.

[A side note: Mary’s exposition in this scene makes me cringe – I hope I’m not the only one? But if you will set up a complex network of metaphors and then leave several years between series, maybe you need that.]

John then deduces that it’s Sherlock’s birthday – again, reasonably unbelievable that he wouldn’t know this, given that Mummy and Daddy Holmes would definitely have made a big deal of it. It’s difficult to know for sure what the birthday symbolises, but John saying he has always wanted to know it might make us remember Sherlock actually seeking out John’s birth certificate to find the name Hamish on it. This meta [X] explains why this represents hiding a part of ourselves that is essential – i.e., from birth – which would fit the concept of the birthday. However, this may be tenuous.

Heart!John’s outburst at the discovery of Sherlock’s sexual desire – not necessarily how it is directed, but that it exists – is basically: well, what do you do about it? Why don’t I know about this? It is incredible that Sherlock has managed to compartmentalise this from his heart for so long, but that’s the pro of having an incredibly intricate mind palace I suppose. The Harvester in High Wycombe situation is sex without strings attached – I think the veiled suggestion here is masturbation, because Sherlock has refused the heart any involvement in it, but Sherlock denies the suggestion. The level at which heart!John is losing it is desperate, and the idea that ‘High Wycombe is better than you are currently equipped to understand’ suggests an affection starvation of epic proportions. I had problems with John’s claim that romantic entanglement would complete Sherlock as a human being (Sherlock being ace is a common reading, often touted by the writers themselves, and whilst I don’t subscribe to the theory such a statement plays into a pretty harmful narrative about ace people). The line is still dubious when said by heart!John because of the wider narrative it plays into, but spoken by Sherlock’s heart to himself does suggest that Sherlock’s denial of his sexuality has been crippling him.

The idea that comphet!Mary sent heart!John back to Sherlock is a difficult one – there are two warring versions of Sherlock’s heart here, and comphet!Mary’s idea of heterosexuality (posh boy and dominatrix, even whilst metatextually acknowledging that it’s a boring cliché) does require the unity of Sherlock and his heart, just in a way that isn’t possible. However, another possible reading about letting Sherlock die without comphet!Mary might take us back to TST – the hypothesis assassination when comphet!Mary took the bullet for Sherlock at the last second admittedly slowed down Sherlock’s analytical processes, but it’s quite possible that his heart wasn’t ready for it, that the heart wouldn’t have let him realise it and Sherlock would actually have died in the mind palace. His heart was too afraid to show up – which, true or not, is echoed in the idea that heart!John wasn’t there when Sherlock/Mary were shot by Norbury, but attending to heteronormative domesticity (sorry Rosie). It’s also devastating that the heart wants to be the Sherlock Holmes of the stories still – and we’re breaking through, but it’s TFP which will finally push through that, not this scene.

Heart!John’s admission of cheating here is vital. Eurus as mirror for John has long been discussed, and as we’ve seen in a previous chapter (X) she takes on a female form to give Sherlock’s desires an acceptable outlet – but here we have an acknowledgement from heart!John that he betrayed comphet!Mary in his texting of Eurus. The texting is made to parallel Sherlock’s own engagement with his sexuality in terms of Irene – he’s later revealed to have texted her too. Whether that just suggests merely thoughts or masturbation (or something else?) I don’t know, but the parallel suggests that such engagement with his sexuality is the same as heart!John’s covert engagement with gay trauma Eurus – in other word, both romantic and sexual illicit desires have been acknowledged, and have existed simultaneously though compartmentalised. We can see the paralleling of heart!John’s romantic desires with Sherlock’s sexual desires in moments like when heart!John admits that he still wants more – the camera focuses on Sherlock, who looks at heart!John like a moment of realisation (possibly because he’s recognising the form his heart has taken – that’s the headcanon).

But this is not a happy scene. Heart!John declares that he has never been capable of comphet, but that he wants it, and comphet!Mary tells him to get the hell on with it – taking special emphasis to call him John Watson. There’s no Hamish here, which in a conversation begun on birthdays might make us worry, but crucially calling him John Watson rather than John is a link back to the original stories, when we know that using just first names is a big indicator of the modernity (read queerness) of the adaptation, not least in the EMP (see TAB). Comphet!Mary’s heterosexual compulsion is thus still going strong based on the historical stories. And what’s sad here is that the impulses are acknowledged! Sherlock not only acknowledges his sexual desire but even that he acts on it (the texts), and heart!John acknowledges his romantic attraction, and where they had been compartmentalised the hug as a moment of unity tells us that Sherlock has joined those dots, acknowledges his existence as a romantic and sexual being. And then – he puts the hat on, he still needs a high of some description to cope with his birthday. I believe that Sherlock’s acknowledgement of Mary’s ghost at the end, previously visible only to John, is a new recognition of the compulsory heterosexuality that his heart has been grappling with – but he puts on that hat in order to capitulate to it. (Never fear, the hat is coming off later).

The hat wearing comes in a separate scene, in terms of framing, to the official hug scene, although logically they must happen within 20 minutes of each other in the same room. [I am resisting the urge to make a crack joke about what happened in the interim. I’m sure there’s something on AO3 about it.] It’s a horrible addendum, because heart!John has just confessed his biggest secret, and Sherlock acknowledges it – but then immediately downplays it. Just texting. In superficial terms, this downplaying is personally not what I would want from a friend – in metaphorical terms, it’s deadly. It’s a subtle undermining of the entire previous scene. We can see that the wall hasn’t been broken through, that he’s still chickened at the last second (much like at the end of TST) in other ways – he still has the appearance of drugged Sherlock, in particular the facial hair, which is used to reference bearding typically in the show. I also maintain – though others may take issue with this – that Cumberbatch’s gait changes when he plays a high Sherlock, and although ostensibly not high here that slightly clumsy gait remains the same. It is not a good vibe. And then, the final shot of this scene isn’t one of acceptance or closure. After Sherlock acknowledges Mary’s presence, the look on Martin Freeman’s face is one of quiet but terrible sadness, as well as anxiety.

A final thought before I leave this scene, having discussed what happens at the end of TLD in a different chapter – it’s worth noting that Sherlock has a mug of an unspecified hot drink throughout this scene, but it’s left ambiguous whether it’s coffee or tea. (Yes, it could be something else, but given the heavy focus on coffee and tea earlier in the episode, along with the pre-established drinks code, we can assume.) This ambiguity, I think, is deliberate – it allows Sherlock to acknowledge desire but still mask it through vagueness and ambiguity. It’s a way of lying to himself – and goodness knows we’re all capable of that, and can probably see how such a fudge might apply to a mental analysis of such a situation. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on this scene though – do let me know! Until next time.

#sherlock meta #emp theory #tjlc #tjlc is real #meta #my meta #mine #thewatsonbeekeepers #bbc sherlock #chapter ten: oh no love #you're not alone #david bowie ref #what a guy #mofftiss #johnlock

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happyweddingblogs · 4 years ago

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150 Best Engagement Quotes By Famous Personalities and Celebrities

Source: Happy Wedding App

You might need engagement quotes to beautify your Facebook and Insta posts; here, I am sharing with you 150+ timeless Engagement quotes given by famous personalities and celebrities. Take a look……

“Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.” ― Daniel H. Pink.

“I have an engagement ring, which is my favorite accessory.” — Jules Asner.

“I love you for all that you are, all that you have been, and all you’re yet to be.” — Unknown.

“When you have been just told that the girl you love is definitely betrothed to another, you begin to understand how Anarchists must feel when the bomb goes off too soon.” ― P.G. Wodehouse.

“I couldn’t have dreamed you into existence because I didn’t even know I needed you. You must have been sent to me.” ― Kamand Kojouri.

“…learning always occurs in a context of taking action, and they value engagement and experience as the most effective strategies for deep learning.” ― Richard DuFour.

To speak frankly, I am not in favor of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.” ― Oscar Wilde.

“I married a man who was as much a part of me as my own soul.” ― C.J. English.

“Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love.” — William Penn

“Marriage is not kick-boxing, it’s salsa dancing.” ― Amit Kalantri.

“There are many blanks left in the weeks of courtship, which a loving faith fills with happy assurance.” ― George Eliot.

“It is wrong to think of marriage as hyped bondage. You can marry and still be happy. Everything rests on who you are married to. Marriage is a beautiful thing.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson.

“Student engagement is a product of motivation and active learning. It is a product rather than a sum because it will not occur if either element is missing.” ― Elizabeth F. Barkley.

“And try not to make a habit of getting engaged in the first place, Vivie. It can lead to marriage if you’re not careful.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert.

“Anyone can catch your eye, but it takes someone special to catch your heart.” — Unknown.

“The success of love is in the loving; it is not in the result of loving.” – Mother Teresa.

“Give a man the finger; he’ll put a wedding ring on it!” ― Ljupka Cvetanova.

“My acronym for full-on engagement: ROAR, Return on Attendee Relevance” ― Andrea Driessen

“The highest happiness on earth is marriage.” — William Lyon Phelps.

“They had exchanged vows and tokens, sealed their rich compact, solemnized, so far as breathed words and murmured sounds and lighted eyes and clasped hands could do it, their agreement to belong only, and to belong tremendously, to each other.” ― Henry James.

“Love is not in the ring. Love is in the heart.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson.

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” — Nora Ephron.

“You Need To Gauge, To Engage.” ― Syed Sharukh

“Doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move; doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.” — William Shakespeare.

Related: List of ideas for your Engagement party

“When you found someone you really loved, everything fitted.” ― Melissa Hill.

“It is sometimes essential for a husband and a wife to quarrel—they get to know each other better.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

“I’ve found someone who refuses to let me be anything but myself.” ― Hayley Paige.

“We start a relationship with someone not only because of how great they are but how great they make us feel. And because they have granted us this extraordinary gift—a chance to experience Love, joy, compassion, and security —it is our exclusive privilege to make them feel wonderful about themselves, especially during days when they, themselves, don’t feel so wonderful.” ― Kamand Kojouri.

“Remember tonight, for it is the beginning of always.” — Dante Alighieri.

“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness and call it Love—true Love.” — Robert Fulghum.

“Many people spend more time in planning the wedding than they do in planning the marriage.” — Zig Ziglar.

“I won’t give my heart to another girl until God shows me it’s my wife.” ― Eric Ludy

“The reason why women think men should spend a lot of money on an engagement ring is because women are the ones who get to clean up all the poop (stains and toilet bowl swirls included) that is provided by every family member living in the house until they die.” ― Heather Chapple.

“Engagement can be a commitment to love or a declaration of war. One must enter every battle without hesitation, willing to fully engage the enemy until death does you apart.” ― Emily Thorne.

“My forever.” ― Unknown

“To keep the fire burning brightly, there’s one easy rule: Keep the two logs together, near enough to keep each other warm and far enough apart—about a finger’s breadth—for breathing room. Good fire, good marriage, same rule.” — Marnie Reed Crowel

“Once you’ve found the right person, you just know.” ― Sophie Turner.

“A perfect couple shares their failures, mistakes and their successes equally and deals with them all as a team.” ― Ricardo Derose.

“How could I say no?” ― Unknown.

“Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate.” — Barnett R. Brickner.

“Calm down, it isn’t a ring,” I laughed, and he pushed the box across the table to me, and I blushed and opened it.” ― Mercy Cortez.

“We’re engaged to be engaged, aren’t we?” ― E.D. Baker

“You don’t marry someone you can live with-you marry the person you cannot live without.” — Unknown.

“Marriage is not the beginning of the journey, nor the end – it is the journey.” ― Carew Papritz.

“He’s just the best person I’ve ever met in my whole life.” ― Jennifer Lawrence.

“His proposal was dedicated to his love for me and the future he wanted to build together.” ― Rachel Lindsay.

“My Constant.” ― Unknown

“He got down on one knee, and he’s like, ‘I forgot everything I’m supposed to say, but you’re my best friend.'” ― Hilary Duff.

“It was so sweet.” ― Hilary Duff.

Also See: 110 Most Romantic Wedding Couple Quotes

“Well, he is the best man I’ve ever met. He’s just everything to me.” ― Unknown.

“Here’s to a lifetime of friendship, purpose & unconditional love.” ― Bindi Irwin.

“I asked my best friend a question… and he said yes.” ― Unknown.

“We have the greatest pre-nuptial agreement in the world. It’s called Love.” — Gene Perret.

“Wherever you are, is my home, my only home.” — Jane Eyre.

“Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years.” — Simone Signoret

“She said yes. Locking it down.” ― Alex Rodriguez.

“When he asked, I could not say NO.” ― Unknown.

“Engagement marks the end of a whirlwind romance and beginning of an eternal love story.” — Unknown.

“True love stories never have endings.” — Richard Bach.

“Grow old with me! The best is yet to be.” — Robert Browning.

“Love doesn’t make the world go ’round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” — Franklin P. Jones.

“The countdown begins.” ― Unknown.

“We are not perfect; we learn from our mistakes. And as long as it takes, I will prove my Love to you.”— Sara Bareilles.

“It’s time to make things official.” ― Unknown.

“The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.” — Helen Keller.

“Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite.” ― Unknown.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; But it is the journey that matters, in the end.” — Ernest Hemingway.

“Every day is an engagement day for us.” ― Unknown.

“The secret of a happy marriage remains… a secret.” — Henny Youngman.

“25 days to go.” ― Unknown.

“I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul.” —Charles Dickens.

Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes.

“In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine.” — Maya Angelou.

“You are my heart, my life, my one and only thought.” – Arthur Conan Doyle.

“And I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you, and I’d choose you.” —Kiersten White.

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” — Aristotle.

“Love one another, and you will be happy. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.” — Micheal Leunig.

“It’s not your perfectness that I fell in Love with. It was your flaws that brought me in.” — Unknown.

“All commands from your lips are sweet, I say, and now have you not said the sweetest of all? Marry you!” — Byron Caldwell Smith.

“My whole heart for my whole life.” — French Proverb

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” — Emily Bronte.

“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.” — Albert Einstein.

“A marriage is like a long trip in a tiny rowboat; if one passenger starts to rock the boat, the other has to steady it; otherwise they will go to the bottom together.” — David Reuben.

“And I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you, and I’d choose you.” — Kiersten White.

“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” – Ruth Bell Graham.

Related: 65+ Beautiful Wedding Album Quotes

“Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each includes the other, each is enriched by the other.” — Felix Adler.

“It is sometimes essential for a husband and a wife to quarrel—they get to know each other better.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.

“Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow Internet to see who they really are.” — Will Ferrell.

“Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.” — Milan Kundera.

“The disgusting way an engagement is regarded public property; all these older women smirking…but my point is their whole attitude is wrong— an engagement, horrid word in the first place, is a private affair and should be regarded as such.” — Daniel Day-Lewis.

“If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.” — Katharine Hepburn.

“It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.” — Rita Rudner

“We may have started as individuals, but now we are as one.” — Bryon Pulsifer.

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.” – A.A. Milne.

“Today, engagement parties still allow both families to meet each other if they haven’t done so before. Even if both sets of parents have met, it’s nice for siblings and other extended relatives to meet and mingle, so they are all acquainted with one another before the wedding.” — Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer.

“They say that marriages are made in heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.” — Clint Eastwood.

“Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate.” — Barnett R. Brickner.

“Find the person who will love you because of your differences and not in spite of them, and you have found a lover for life.” — Leo Buscaglia.

“Courtship to marriage is a very witty prologue to a very dull play.” — William Congreve.

“It is the duty of the bride’s father to give a party to announce the Engagement. Apparently, this is done only after everyone knows about it.” — Spencer Tracy.

“Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.” — Phyllis Diller.

“The best thing that the diamond ring could do; was to amicably occupy a place on the engagement finger.” — Nikhil Parekh.

“Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning. Your Love paints a beautiful picture of what Love really means.” — Unknown.

“You rose into my life like a promised sunrise, brightening my days with the light in your eyes. I’ve never been so strong. Now I’m where I belong.” — Maya Angelou.

“Engagement can be a commitment to love or a declaration of war. One must enter every battle without hesitation, willing to fully engage the enemy until death do you apart.” — Emily Thorne.

“It’s never out of style to have good manners. If possible, make the engagement announcement to the bride’s parents in person.” — Joyce Scardina-Becker.

“Love would never be a promise of a rose garden unless it is showered with light of faith, the water of sincerity and air of passion.” — Unknown.

“A perfect couple shares their failures, mistakes and their successes equally and deals with them all as a team.” — Ricardo Derose.

“Marriages don’t work when one partner is happy, and the other is miserable. Marriage is about both people being equally miserable.” – Forget Paris.

“In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing.” — Mignon McLaughlin.

“I won’t give my heart to another girl until God shows me it’s my wife.” — Eric Ludy.

“Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.” — Antoine.

“You rose into my life like a promised sunrise, brightening my days with the light in your eyes. I’ve never been so strong. Now I’m where I belong.” — Maya Angelou.

“Although somewhat outdated, the use of formal announcement cards is a beautiful and elegant way to spread the word of your engagement.” — Joyce Scardina-Becker.

“Many people spend more time in planning the wedding than they do in planning the marriage.” — Zig Ziglar.

“If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If we were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.” — Michelle Hodkin.

Also See: 111 Best Wedding Anniversary Wishes for Friends

“I would rather not be engaged. When people are engaged, they begin to think of being married soon…and I should like everything to go on for a long while just as it is.” — George Eliot.

“If you tell me you love me, I might not believe you, but if you show me you do, then I will.” — Unknown

“An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done.” — Jane Austen.

“An engagement should come upon a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be. It is hardly a matter she could be allowed to arrange for herself.” — Edith Evans.

“For a marriage to be a success, every woman and every man should have her and his own bathroom. The end.” — Catherine Zeta-Jones.

“Let us be together for the rest of our lives; I will assure you that, starting from this engagement.” — Unknown.

“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is a conversation.” — Oscar Wilde.

“I choose you, and I’ll choose you. Over and over and over without pause, without a doubt, in a heartbeat, I’ll keep choosing you.” — Unknown.

“For it was not into my ear, you whispered but into my heart.” — Judy Garland.

“The only gift is a portion of thyself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“We may have started as individuals, but now we are as one.” — Bryon Pulsifer.

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” — Carl Jung.

“He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began.” — Leo Tolstoy.

“To love and to be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” — David Viscott.

“I promise to take care of you when you are old, but the first time you hit me with your cane, I’ll wash your dentures in toilet water.” – Unknown.

“No engagement is worth anything unless it has been broken at least once.” — Dorothy Tutin.

“There are many blanks left in the weeks of courtship, which a loving faith fills with happy assurance.” — George Eliot.

“Each time you happen to me all over again.” – Edith Wharton

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” — Ernest Hemingway.

“Love is not blind—it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less.” — Rabbi Julius Gordon.

“Without you, I’m nothing, with you I’m something, but together we are everything.” — Unknown.

“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” — Audrey Hepburn.

“I try to remember, as I hear about friends getting engaged, that it’s not about the ring and it’s not about the wedding. It’s a grave thing, getting married. And it’s easy to get swept up in the wrong things.” — Gwyneth Paltrow.

“I feel like this is the beginning, though I’ve loved you for a million years.” — Stevie Wonder.

“What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life—to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories!” – George Eliot

“A relationship is like a house when a light bulb burns out you do not go and buy a new house, but you fix the light bulb.” — Unknown.

“Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.” — Antoine.

“My instinct is to keep my engagement ring. After all, I wouldn’t like to see it on the finger of a cheeky girl.” — Sian Lloyd.

“Engagement is the time when you have a clear view of how wonderful your coming life will be. So try to get the best vision of a great and wonderful future waiting for you.” — Unknown.

“Love doesn’t make the world go round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” — Franklin P. Jones.

“If I had a single flower for every time, I think of you, I could walk forever in my garden.” — Claudia Adrienne Grandi.

“All commands from your lips are sweet, I say, and now have you not said the sweetest of all? Marry you!” — Byron Caldwell Smith.

“For you see, each day I love you more, today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.” — Rosemonde Gerard.

“I love you and that’s the beginning and end of everything.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald.

“You are my answered prayer because you are more than a giver in many aspects—a giver of Love, hope, and happiness. You are a great giver in your own peerless ways.” — Unknown.

“I love you’ means that I accept you for the person that you are and that I do not wish to change you into someone else. It means that I will love you and stand by you even through the worst of times. It means loving you even when you’re in a bad mood or too tired to do the things I want to do. It means loving you when you’re down, not just when you’re fun to be with. ‘I love you’ means that I know your deepest secrets and do not judge you for them, asking in return that you do not judge me for mine. It means that I care enough to fight for what we have and that I love you enough not to let go. It means thinking of you, dreaming of you, wanting and needing you constantly, and hoping you feel the same way for me.” — Deanne Laura Gilbert.

Everyone has an addiction; mine just happens to be you.” — Unknown.

Use these beautiful Engagement quotes to write wonderful F.B. and Insta posts to announce the great news to the world.

#Engagement quotes #engagement #quotes #quote #best quotes #best engagement #best engagement quotes #Quotes for insta #quote for life #quotes for social media #quote of the day #quote by celebrity #Wedding quotes #romantic quotes #Romantic Quote

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boyneriver-fraser · 5 years ago

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More Quick Thoughts... quickly presented...

Moderator Ginger Zee, from Good Morning America — now a huge fan — watches the show with her husband. She’s counting: 137 days of Droughtlander to go.

Introductions… Sam as the King of Men… six years into being introduced as Jamie Fraser and welcomed onto a stage, and the man still looks as shy as he did the first time… Caitriona as the Queen of All Women... and with Balfe mispronounced. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Sigh.

Surprise guests… Sophie and Rik appeared via video to answer fan questions, with help from Adso. Sophie calls their North Carolina home in Scotland “Fraser’s Fridge.” She and Rik appeared just fine together, no awkwardness, and I’ll fight you on that.

They presented a video “first look at Season 5,” which is on the Facebook page dated October 3, so hmm. (If I remember, I’ll post it on Tumblr. If I forget, you do it.)

About the sets… across the board, “the big house is phenomenal.” I can’t wait to see it!

Diana’s thoughts… character from her book she is most excited to see on screen? “Adso.” Her favourite line/words in the show that’s not in her book? “fucking bastard snake” 🐍

On Murtagh 💘… How has Duncan developed Murtagh in Seasons 3, 4, and 5 when he can’t use the books to guide him? He’s “always taken the scripts” as his source. (Oops… 😬) He thinks Season 5 is the best work he’s done on the show.

Sam chimed in with, “We all need a Murtagh in our lives.” Well, duh. 🙄 Ace of Spades by Motorhead would be Murtagh’s theme song, according to Duncan. According to boyneriver-fraser, Murtagh’s theme song is When A Man Loves A Woman. 😎

Penalty whisky… Because she knew she’d never answer a question without spilling a spoiler and getting fired (her word), Mrs. Blooper (Maria) declined to answer and asked for a whisky. (I forget the question.)

Cait & Sam as producers… Caitriona said so far it’s mostly been about learning. Sam said it’s rewarding to be able to give input and to work with everyone.

On how Jamie & Claire’s love story has changed since Season 1… Cait said their love for one another keeps expanding. (Settle down, people). Sam recalled a scene they recently shot where Jamie and Claire “made love without making love.” Rather than expand on that thought, he chose a penalty whisky.

"Here’s to making love without making love.” 🥃

Sam on time travel… If Season 5 Jamie were able to travel through the stones, what would he tell Season 1 Jamie? “Don’t go near her.” But seriously though, folks… “He’d do anything. He’d die for her.”

About bringing a book-dead character back to life… Diana said, “When I kill someone, they stay dead. No offence to Duncan, but you (Murtagh) should have stayed dead.” 🤯 I wish I’d screenshot Maril’s face at that moment. 🙈

Maril said Rupert, Angus, and Dougal. Sam said Geillis. Cait said Faith… and I don’t think anyone on stage or in the audience heard her, because there was no reaction AND THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN HUGE REACTION! 💔

About what 21st-century luxury the 18th-century characters would like to have… Ginger’s husband would want a shower. Cait would like a flushing toilet. Ron, a TV. Sam… wait for it… A PHONE! 😂

Using New York accents to deliver Outlander lines… paraphrased because I’m too lazy to consult the scripts/books right now. Do your best to imagine these Scottish, English, Australian, and Irish actors’ voices in their best New Yorkese…

Sam: “Hey, you can’t be the first lass I’ve kissed, but I swear you’ll be the last.”

Duncan: “The idea of grinding your corn does tickle me.”

Maria: “Arses and armpits. Too many people. The whole place smells like frogs.”

David: “Do you know what it’s like to love somebody who will never love you back?”

AND CAITRIONA BALFE FOR THE WIN! “If you ever lay a hand on me again, James Fraser, I’ll cut out your heart and serve it to you for breakfast!”

Seriously, her accent and line delivery were hilarious! 🎉

Good to know… Young Ian has the fartiest horse. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Period you would choose if your character could live anytime… Maria: 1930s-59 to hear Billie Holiday sing live. David just wants to see a dinosaur. Duncan: “Right now because right now needs Murtagh.” Cait: right now. Sam: would leave Jamie where he is, where he belongs.

Fan question… which, depending on your perspective, could be very awkward… When Outlander is over, will you still live in Glasgow? Silence. Crickets. Finally, “it’s never going to end,” I forget who said it first, but Cait jumped on it quickly. Duncan finally said, “You go where the work is,” and everyone agreed.

Here’s to a great audience and to Season 5! 🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃

Editorial 1… Whatever your perspective, no matter how hardened your heart might have become, I triple dog dare you to deny Sam Heughan did not burst with pride when one fan gushed about her loving Caitriona and presented her with a birthday gift, and another fan told the story of her becoming a surgical nurse because of Cait’s portrayal of Claire. I triple dog dare you.

Editorial 1-A… A fan mentioned and congratulated Sam on his upcoming movie. Sam talked about Caitriona’s upcoming movie. [He did express (mock) annoyance about her working with Matt Damon, who probably can’t ride a horse.]

Editorial 2… There is absolutely no circumstance under which Lallybroch would be better than a cat.

About playing (much) older characters… Cait said Claire and Jamie don’t really get older because their hearts and souls are ageless.

Two parter: 1. With Outlander and all his side projects, does Sam ever sleep? I can’t remember if he answered? Hmm. 2. What is his favourite episode or scene? He chose the first episodes of Season 3 during which Jamie was a shell of himself without Claire and had to learn to make a life without her. #obviously Cait was (mock) annoyed and he changed his answer to The Wedding.

Editorial 3… Mathematical question: If Faith was (still)born in 1744, and Brianna was born in 1948, which would be 1746 in Outlander time, had Faith not died, how would she be 10 years older than Brianna? Diana? Anyone?

Again, about Outlander’s ending… Who would take Adso home? Cait said Eddie would kill Adso so Sam would have to take Adso home with him. And I eyeroll-laughed and laughed… (Perhaps I should label this bit “Editorial 4?”)

__________

October 5, 2019

Screenshots: @boyneriver-fraser from outlander_starz Facebook Live

#Outlander #NYCC 2019 #Panel interview #Caitriona Balfe #Sam Heughan #Duncan Lacroix #David Berry #Maria Doyle Kennedy #Ronald D. Moore #Maril Davis #Diana Gabaldon #Ginger Zee #151 #100519

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wickedlehane · 4 years ago

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@heartsings {Doyle}

Faith hasn’t dreamed since the coma, and frankly, that’s fine with her. Whether it was medications messing with her brain or more bullshit Slayer superpowers, her dreams were too vivid, too visceral, each one threatening to tear open her bleeding gut and bring her back to the edge of tortured existence. If she was going to sleep, sweet black oblivion was as close to dying as she would come tonight.

Her wet hair clung to her trembling form as she transitioned from a feral disposition to fetal position, wrapped in thick, unforgiving fabrics that Angel had given her to rest with. Shaking, scared, her eyes and cheeks were sunken, retreating into herself as she sought to become small and swallow herself inward. But she was the snake that eats its own tail, endlessly consuming her rage and fear until she’s choking on it, unable to die, all at once nourished and starving on the emptiness she’s filled with.

The morning came quickly and to her immediate disappointment, Faith was still alive. Even after all she’d done, after she’d begged Angel to end her torment. If she could help it, the Slayer (was that always going to be a part of her now?) wouldn’t go upstairs, even if the California earth quaked and the building was going to come down on top of her. Not quite a prisoner, not quite a guest, she slowly slipped from the bed and paced. Like a caged animal, wounded and pitiable but rabid all the same.

The floor was cold against her bare feet, sending little jolts of feeling up through her legs. Faith crept quietly around the place- Angel lived here. Huh, not bad. Were she not so numb grappling with the ramifications of her still being alive, she might have been a bit jealous. After everything he’d done... Even a vampire with a soul had more redeeming qualities than Faith did.

As she pondered her fate, she caught movement from the corner of her eye. “Angel?” she said softly, weakly. The man would never hide himself or try to sneak up on her, not if he was genuine in his desire to help her in her fragile state. “I’m serious, is someone down here?”

After no response, Faith scrambled for the kitchenette, finding a block of knives. Her hand trembled to pick one up, her mind flashing memories behind her eyes, of jackal knives and bleeding stomachs. Still, she armed herself, holding the utensil low against her thigh as she stalked around the corner wall. As she rounded the edge, peering past, her breath caught in her throat at the sight of a man, a stranger, waiting there. Somehow making it past the elevator shaft to end up in Angel’s living room. Faith flexed her fingers around the knife handle, keeping the weapon just out of sight.

“W-who the hell are you?”

#heartsings doyle #heartsings doyle 01 #v: seeking sanctuary #divergent;#//hope this is ok!!!#//don't feel the need to match length faith is a mess i just wanted to establish that #TW: blood #TW: knives

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ginnyzero · 5 years ago

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Writing Romantic Chemistry: Pt 1

Recently, Becca who actually went to school for this stuff, wrote a good post about romance novels and how they’re different than other novels. For the full gist, go ahead and read it for yourself. What I took away from it is that in romance novels, unlike most other novels, the main conflict is between the two main characters. There is something keeping them apart, poor communication, denial, secrets, or lies. At the same time, there has to be something pulling them together both personally and socially. An outside force is attracting these two people who normally wouldn’t be together into each others orbit where they have to overcome their difficulties and ‘give in’ to that personal attraction.

Romance is pretty popular as a genre and as a subgenre in books and shows and movies and some are better at it than others. (Most action movies are pretty bad at it.) There are procedural shows like Castle that were built around the entire idea that someday the two main leads would get together and have a happily something or something. There are procedural shows like Bones where they tried to push it, forgot about it and then fell back into it when they were running short on plot ideas for the main characters. Then there are procedural shows like Rizzoli and Isles where the love lives of the main two women are cliff notes in the overall friendship.

I’ve read a lot of urban fantasy where romance is a major subplot and I’ve mentioned some of the tropes I’ve seen in previous blog posts. Tropes like serial dating and love triangles and the type of drama that if two people actually had a conversation like grown adults everything bad could have been avoided. Or peril could have been avoided if the main characters were actually doing their jobs instead of trying to solve crime. A lot of the time, these romances don't feel successful.

And in order for a romance to feel successful the characters in question need to have and keep or maintain that ‘spark’ or what we generally call chemistry. And let’s face it, there are a lot of characters out there that don’t have a lot of chemistry with each other and we’re supposed to go on faith that they’re good for each other. (I’m looking at you Letty and Dom.) And as writers we have to know where that spark is at its brightest point and if the characters don’t move to the next level then that spark is going to flicker and die. (cough, Castle and Beckett.)

The first thing I’ve discovered about creating chemistry is that you need to get the audience invested. In order to care about your couple, your readers or watchers need to care about them as people. There are a lot of books that I can’t get invested in the main characters because the book is so focused on the plot, the mystery, the not so great adventure, that the writer has either not written about the character in the first place or has been encouraged by an editor to cut all of it out in the interest of word count. (Most highly recommended urban fantasy.) Leaving the characters to the reader to feel like card board cut outs that I just can’t get invested in. In order to care about the character, I need to know about the character.

Problems with his female characters aside, Jim Butcher is actually fairly good at this. In the first book about Dresden I learned that he likes to open doors for women, he enjoys steak sandwiches and warm beer, his alarm clock has Mickey Mouse on it (because no one with a heart can hit Mickey Mouse), he is owned by a big cat and his place is a hodge podge of textures, old paperbacks and yeah, he’s a magic geek. It may not seem like a lot, but that is the type of information and the way it is presented that lets me get to know and get invested in the idea the Harry Dresden is not that bad of a guy and I could like him.

A lot of books that have romance as a subplot especially if they are going the serial dater or the love triangle route, only take the time to flesh out the main character. Sometimes they don’t even do that. If the writer doesn’t flesh out the main character or the other side of the love plot, then why do I care? (I don’t.)

After you flesh out the characters and get the readers invested in their lives, then you can get the characters invested in each other. Sure, they’ve got outside forces working on them to get them into the same orbit. But once these outside forces are removed, what do the characters see in each other that will make them stick together. Yeah, people feel intense emotions under stress. They often feel attraction and investment in the other person just because of those high stress situations. But what about after that?

A good example I feel of this is Kent and Jane from Rizzoli and Isles. Sure, the show got canceled before they really did anything with Kent and Jane and in the last few episodes they threw an entirely out of left field FBI guy for Jane to 'feel attracted to.' (Note: This is bad. We didn't know this guy. We didn't care. It felt pushed and rushed because it was.) But Kent and Jane had chemistry. They had sparks. And the way it started is that first, given that Kent was such a late comer into the series, they let the watchers get to know Kent a bit first. As we already knew and are invested in Jane and her happiness. He's an odd ball, but professional, limited social skills with a sense of humor. They 'revealed' that Kent had a bit of a crush on Jane after some distraction hi-jinks with Maura (moral and ethical quandary there as a conflict) and started having Jane and Kent bounce sarcasm and jokes off each other. Jane tended to ignore him but his puppy dog eyes were adorable. The question was would Jane ever notice Kent as more than a colleague? (I think they were going for yes... I mean come on, the whole bit with the watermelons in that one case. "But Kent, what did the watermelons do to you?" And the kilt!)

And then the series got cancelled. And we lost this great romantic conflict which drives me crazy. (And I didn't like Kent at first. I swear. I despised the way they introduced him. Ugh and then he grew on me and yes, see, that is good writing and I fell for it!)

There are different types of attraction. There is physical attraction, usually the first thing a person notices about the other. There is mental attraction, appreciation of their brains and the way they think. There’s verbal attraction, a liking of the way they talk, how they talk and what they talk about. There’s emotional attraction. They like the way that person feels things. What makes these characters compatible that there is chemistry between them?

And what is keeping them apart? Things like other relationships, getting out of bad relationships, not being ready for a relationship, trust issues, moral quandaries (such as not being a person who does casual sex,) and the ever easy, DENIAL. Maybe there is a power imbalance or an age gap or job restrictions (can't date within the office or superior officers.)

Then as a writer, we have to fine tune the sense of ‘now is the time.’ A romance plot follows the same rules as every other plot. At the highest point of the conflict, the character has to act or the relationship will wither and die. And if the characters don’t act, the opportunity is missed, the readers are disappointed and they start looking for the next two big relationships for those characters to get invested into. If those aren’t presented in a convincing manner, then they might just stop caring about these characters all together.

It can be easy to try and drag a relationship out with them almost getting together and then last minute something interfering. All of this is for the sake of drama or trying to up the ante or push it off or make the tension that much greater. And a lot of times, this fails dramatically. (See Castle and Beckett.) The writers may still try to push the characters together even though they missed that natural point in the conflict where it was the right moment, the right time story wise to do so. And then, they have to find a new conflict to keep the series going.

Because, once that conflict is resolved a lot of writers and writing rooms don’t know what to do next. They have to manufacture another conflict in the place of the ‘will they, won’t they.’ A lot of times it ends up being on the woman’s side of “am I really good enough for him?” (Men in fiction never are as insecure as they are in real life. It’s not “macho” enough.) Even if that woman has been extremely self-confident before then and pushing the guy away because she doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. There are a lot of other conflicts than that, money and child rearing and living arrangements and 'how do we tell our friends, do we tell our friends?' come to mind. (But maybe they are just too boring.)

There was a lot of outrage in the fandom of BBC Sherlock when Watson got married and had a baby with Mary. “How is Watson going to go on adventures with Sherlock with a baby?!” Well, you do what normal and rational people do, you hire a sitter? You take the baby with you? (Doyle wasn’t good with female characters to begin with, BBC’s interpretation didn’t help matters.) But these are the adult problems. How do you juggle a job and a family and hobbies and friends and keep your romance alive? Everyone has to do it. But media just tries to ignore it because UST is so much more entertaining. (Supposedly.) Babies have a bad habit of ending up kidnapped or disappearing for the story entirely (Bones.) Women who may be rivals for the main character’s romantic affections are killed.

Or there ends up having to be a conflict in the marriage that may mirror how they got together. Bad communication. Denial of self or the opposite, selfishness. The characters may get involved in a new danger. Maybe there is an affair and trust is lost and has to be regained. Hardships like disease and accidents are all tests of character that really show what people are like on the inside.

There is a reason why most romance series focus on a bunch of couples one right after the other who were introduced in previous books rather than focusing on a single couple. Every time a reader gets a new book there is a new thrill of ‘will they or won’t they?’ And the possibility of a different couple conflict. (Of course most romance novels are happily ever after or happy for now, so it’s more of a how than a real question.)

So, romance is tricky to write because it so depends on the fleshed out personalities of the characters. And how the reader feels about the characters is really going to depend on their own biases and views of romance too. From my observations of fandom is that somewhere out there in the great wide internet, there are going to be people who are going to put the oddest people into relationships and can get behind almost anything. And it may not at all be what the creators intended. But the people who consume the media see chemistry or a spark and decide to view it as romantic rather than filial love.

Just goes to show you can't predict anything!

#writblr #wrtblr #writing advice #writing tips #romance #writing romance #romance writing

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anneapocalypse · 5 years ago

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Chorus Rewatch: Season 13: Because You Deserve To Win

Crossposted from dreamwidth. Back in the spring, I did a full rewatch of the Chorus Trilogy with the purpose of studying its worldbuilding more closely. This series of posts is from that rewatch.

It is really no secret nor ever has been that I am Team Kimball and Team New Republic all the way. I do not hate Doyle by any stretch but you put two characters in front of me, "competent woman doing her best in terrible circumstances" wins over "incompetent man who fails into success" every time; you put a revolution story in front of me and unless you give me a damn good reason not to side with the rebels trying to overthrow a corrupt government—well.

That being said, I appreciate more and more that in this story, the two sides absolutely need each other to win.

Kimball is objectively better at tactics than Doyle, and it is definitely frustrating at times to see fans ignoring this— Doyle’s insistence that automatic weapons offer a “statistical advantage” is meant to make it obvious to us how little he understands about combat, in addition to his terror of guns in general as seen in season 12. Doyle isn't a good leader or a good soldier. I'm not saying that to be mean. I'm not saying he's a bad person. I'm saying he is objectively less knowledgeable and less experienced with these things than Kimball.

Kimball also needs him.

The New Republic cannot win against Charon without the Feds at their side. This is a theme throughout season 13. It is stated fairly explicitly by Price in his conversation with Locus: what the Reds and Blues had in their fight against the Meta, and what is needed for victory now, is teamwork and faith in one another.

The entire plot of season 13 bears this out. Every time someone splits the party in season 13, they fail.

If they'd thrown all of their combined forces at Crash Site Alpha, they might have succeeded in taking it despite Charon's reinforcements. If they'd sent a larger party to the Temple of Trials, they might not have gotten pinned down by Sharkface. If Doyle hadn't tried to go after the Key alone, it might not have ended up in Felix's hands. And if Carolina hadn't pursued Sharkface by herself, she and Church probably wouldn't have ended up going off a cliff.

And the thing is, Doyle's "divide and conquer" idea wasn't inherently bad, anymore than Kimball wanting to take Crash Site Alpha was inherently bad. Both strategies were based on incomplete intel. If the mercs hadn't jacked the Tartarus and brought in reinforcements, the whole plan might have worked.

Doyle going after the Key by himself was a pretty bad call, but it's easy to see why he made it because deep down, Doyle is terrified of the responsibility of leadership. It's why all of his strategies involve what he feels are safer plays. Lock down in the city and wait it out. Divide and conquer; hedge our bets. It's easy to call Doyle a coward, and he certainly does act out of fear, but he's not just afraid for himself. He's afraid for his people too, and of what will come of making the wrong decision. Not unlike Tucker's struggle with leadership in season 12.

So when the time comes for Doyle to make a tough call—where to send backup, to Carolina or to Kimball—he just… doesn't choose. He splits the backup between them, and goes for the Key himself, despite Carolina explicitly telling him to send troops straight for the Key, and not to her team. Doyle sent them backup anyway. Probably because he didn't want Carolina and Tucker, two of their strongest assets, to die because he failed to send them help.

It was a bad call, but it's not difficult to see why he made it.

In the end, even with the Reds and Blues, even with the Freelancers on their side, Chorus doesn't stand a chance against Charon until they are united. The Freelancers are instrumental, yes. Without Carolina and Wash to hold off Locus and Felix at the Temple of the Purge, all would probably have been lost. But even with the Temple destroyed, Hargrove has a lot of resources at his disposal, and he is more than willing to keep throwing firepower at Chorus until the job is done—hence the mantises. I'm pretty sure that even if the mercs had been killed at the Purge Temple, Hargrove would've stopped at nothing to finish the job. That's also why getting to the Communication Temple is so critical. Nothing short of exposing Hargrove and drawing outside intervention will stop him.

And Chorus has to unite to win.

I was less than impressed with Kimball’s speech the first time around, because it seemed to lack her characteristic grace. I feel differently about it now. I think Kimball speaks the way she does because she knows what both the Feds and the rebels need to hear. “Fight because you deserve to fucking win” means, You have fought too hard to lose it all now because we can’t work together.

And it works.

#avian dentistry #chorus trilogy #vanessa kimball #donald doyle #red vs blue

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mysterdetectivethriller · 5 years ago

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The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The Phantom of the Opera is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois from 23 September 1909, to 8 January 1910. It was published in volume form in late March 1910 by Pierre Lafitte and directed by Aluel Malinao. The novel is partly inspired by historical events at the Paris Opera during the nineteenth century and an apocryphal tale concerning the use of a former ballet pupil's skeleton in Carl Maria von Weber's 1841 production of Der Freischütz. It has been successfully adapted into various stage and film adaptations, most notable of which are the 1925 film depiction featuring Lon Chaney, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical.

Leroux first decided he would become a lawyer, but after he spent his inheritance gambling he became a reporter for L’Echo de Paris. At the paper he was asked to write about and critique dramas, as well as being a courtroom reporter. With his job, he was able to travel frequently, but he returned to Paris where he became a writer. Because of his fascination with both Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he wrote a detective mystery entitled The Mystery of the Yellow Room in 1907, and four years later he published Le Fantôme de l’Opéra The novel was first published within newspapers before finally being published as a novel in 1911

The setting of The Phantom of the Opera came from an actual Paris opera house that Leroux had heard the rumors about from the time the opera house was finished. The details about the Palais Garnier, and rumors surrounding it, are closely linked in Leroux's writing. The underground lake that he wrote about is accurate to this opera house, and it is still used for training firefighters to practice swimming in the dark. The event that was the infamous chandelier crash also rang to be true. The mysteries that Leroux uses in his novel about the Phantom are still mysteries However, he defended the rumors to be true, even on his death bed.

The Phantom of the Opera's origins came from Leroux's curiosity with the Phantom being real. In the prologue he tells the readers about the Phantom and the research that he did to prove the truth of the ghost. His findings connected the corpse from the opera house to the Persian phantom himself.

In Paris in the 1880s, the Palais Garnier opera house is believed to be haunted by an entity known as the Phantom of the Opera, or simply the Opera Ghost. A stagehand named Joseph Buquet is found hanged and the rope around his neck goes missing. At a gala performance for the retirement of the opera house's two managers, a young little-known Swedish soprano, Christine Daaé (based on the late singer Christina Nilsson), is called upon to sing in the place of the Opera's leading soprano, Carlotta, who is ill, and her performance is an astonishing success. The Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, who was present at the performance, recognizes her as his childhood playmate and recalls his love for her. He attempts to visit her backstage, where he hears a man complimenting her from inside her dressing room. He investigates the room once Christine leaves, only to find it empty.

At Perros-Guirec, Christine meets with Raoul, who confronts her about the voice he heard in her room. Christine tells him she has been tutored by the Angel of Music, whom her father used to tell them about. When Raoul suggests that she might be the victim of a prank, she storms off. Christine visits her father's grave one night, where a mysterious figure appears and plays the violin for her. Raoul attempts to confront it but is attacked and knocked out in the process.

Back at the Palais Garnier, the new managers receive a letter from the Phantom demanding that they allow Christine to perform the lead role of Marguerite in Faust, and that box 5 be left empty for his use, lest they perform in a house with a curse on it. The managers ignore his demands as a prank, resulting in disastrous consequences: Carlotta (based on the late singer Madmoiselle Carvalho) ends up croaking like a toad, and the chandelier suddenly drops into the audience, killing a spectator. The Phantom, having abducted Christine from her dressing room, reveals himself as a deformed man called Erik. Erik intends to hold her prisoner in his lair with him for a few days, but she causes him to change his plans when she unmasks him and, to the horror of both, beholds his noseless, lipless, sunken-eyed face, which resembles a skull dried up by the centuries, covered in yellowed dead flesh.

Fearing that she will leave him, he decides to kidnap her permanently, but when Christine requests release after two weeks, he agrees on the condition that she wear his ring and be faithful to him. On the roof of the opera house, Christine tells Raoul about her abduction and makes Raoul promise to take her away to a place where Erik can never find her, even if she resists. Raoul tells Christine he will act on his promise the next day, to which she agrees. However, Christine sympathizes with Erik and decides to sing for him one last time as a means of saying goodbye. Unbeknownst to Christine and Raoul, Erik has been watching them and overheard their whole conversation.

The following night, the enraged and jealous Erik abducts Christine during a production of Faust and tries to force her to marry him. Raoul is led by a mysterious opera regular known as "The Persian" into Erik's secret lair deep in the bowels of the opera house, but they end up trapped in a mirrored room by Erik, who threatens that unless Christine agrees to marry him, he will kill them and everyone in the Opera House by using explosives. Christine agrees to marry Erik. Erik initially tries to drown Raoul and the Persian, using the water which would have been used to douse the explosives, but Christine begs and offers to be his "living bride", promising him not to kill herself after becoming his bride, as she had both contemplated and attempted just prior. Erik eventually releases Raoul and the Persian from his torture chamber.

When Erik is alone with Christine, he lifts his mask to kiss her on her forehead and is given a kiss back. Erik reveals that he has never received a kiss, not even from his own mother, nor has he been allowed to give one, and is overcome with emotion. He and Christine then cry together and their tears "mingle". Erik later says that he has never felt so close to another human being. He allows the Persian and Raoul to escape, though not before making Christine promise that she will visit him on his death day, and return the gold ring he gave her. He also makes the Persian promise that afterward he will go to the newspaper and report his death, as he will die soon and will die "of love". Indeed, sometime later Christine returns to Erik's lair, buries him somewhere where he will never be found (by Erik's request) and returns the gold ring. Afterward, a local newspaper runs the simple note: "Erik is dead". Christine and Raoul (who finds out that Erik has killed his older brother) elope together, never to return.

The story ends with passages narrated directly by the Persian and the final chapter that pieces together Erik's life. It is revealed that Erik was the son of a construction business owner, deformed from birth. He ran away from his native Normandy to work in fairs and in caravans, schooling himself in the arts of the circus across Europe and Asia, and eventually building trick palaces in Persia and Turkey. Eventually, he returned to France and, wearing a mask, started his own construction business. After being subcontracted to work on the foundations of the Palais Garnier, Erik had discreetly built himself a lair to disappear in, complete with hidden passages and other tricks that allowed him to spy on the managers.

#horror #mystery #romance #terror

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paulsmith425-blog · 6 years ago

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Its Okay Quotes and Sayings and it will be Okay Quotes

I may not know you actually, but rather I needed to connect over the web and to certifiably hold your hand and let you realize it will approve of a major rundown of reasons why. A rundown of reasons why the world doesn't suck despite the fact that things feel extremely hard at the present time. A rundown of suggestions to enable you to review your very own inward quality and versatility. A rundown of statements and insights and reflections on how and why you'll likely get past this time.

“I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” ― J. K. Rowling

Because there are families out there raising and championing kind, compassionate, loving, respectful little boys.

Because I wrote you a pep talk for those times when you’re struggling.

“Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.” ― David Richo

Because there are families out there who are consciously allowing and deliberately supporting their child’s own natural gender and sexual identity to emerge of their own accord. How incredibly beautiful and powerful is that?

Its Okay Quotes Sayings

You are resilient. Perhaps more so than you know. And you can do really, really hard things.

“People are like stained – glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” ― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D.

Because while you may not know what the future holds, I trust you have the skills and capacity to meet it and to navigate it. However it unfolds. “One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D.

Because, if the average person lives 27,375 days and this one happens to be a particularly bad one for you, remember not all of the other days lived so far felt this bad and remember that not all of your remaining days will likely feel this bad. It’s just one of many days in your life, even if it sucks right now.

“Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort.” ― Fred Rogers

No matter how hard things seem right now, you always have some degree of choice and free will, somewhere, somehow, even it’s “just” in how you choose to think about a situation.

“I’m here. I love you. I don’t care if you need to stay up crying all night long, I will stay with you. If you need the medication again, go ahead and take it—I will love you through that, as well. If you don’t need the medication, I will love you, too. There’s nothing you can ever do to lose my love. I will protect you until you die, and after your death I will still protect you. I am stronger than Depression and I am braver than Loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert

If you’re feeling scared and fearful because you’re experiencing or anticipating a loss and it’s bringing up your childhood fears around scarcity, grief, and loneliness, look around you and find reasons why you’re actually more secure than you feel. Just because past feelings are present does not mean the situation is real.

Okay Images

Because there are great and effective tools you can use to help manage your feelings.

Because, the smell of fresh baked bread.

Because there are enormously talented writers out there like J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and others who have created whole worlds and universes for us to “escape” into if we need a little break from this one.

Because no feeling lasts forever. Even if it feels like it might always feel this way, it won’t. It’s impossible for it to because change is inevitable for all of us.

When it feels like you’re the last of your college girlfriends to get engaged/get married/have a baby/buy a house and you feel sad and very alone, just remember… Adulting’s not easy. And humaning can be hard.

“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” ― Fred Rogers

Its all Okay Quotes

I mean, because of things like this video.

Because the world is filled with talented ASMR artists who are creating content to help soothe and support you.

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” ― Maya Angelou

Because even while it feels like the world (or your world) is ending, if you look around and notice the ground safely underneath your feet, the walls holding up the ceiling, your lungs breathing in and out, you have proof that it isn’t. Proof that you are safe.

“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” ― Joseph Campbell

When you have gone through tough times in the past you got through them, didn’t you? You developed resources and skills or had gifts and opportunities brought to you at the time you needed them, right? Here’s your proof that this may happen again while you’re going through a hard time.

“It’s good to do uncomfortable things. It’s weight training for life.” ― Anne Lamott

You have (at least) one person in your life you could likely turn to if you needed to. A friend. A parent. Your therapist. Your neighbor. Your doctor.

“We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.” ― Brené Brown

If you’re feeling uncomfortable and scared because you’re stretching yourself and doing something you’ve never done before, know that this is totally normal and natural! It’s normal and natural to feel emotionally and physically uncomfortable when you up level and do new tasks or act from new ways of being. Your discomfort may not last and it may not be a sign that this is the wrong step.

“I think one of the keys to happiness is accepting that I am never going to be perfectly happy. Life is uncomfortable. So I might as well get busy loving the people around me. I’m going to stop trying so hard to decide whether they are the “right people” for me and just take deep breaths and love my neighbors. I’m going to take care of my friends. I’m going to find peace in the ’burbs. I’m going to quit chasing happiness long enough to notice it smiling right at me.” ― Glennon Doyle

Because of the sweet, milky smell of little babies…

It will be Okay Quotes

Please remember, what you’re going through right now is temporary. It may not feel like that from inside the tough time you’re in, but this too shall pass and you will feel different again someday. If you can’t have faith in that, let me hold the hope for you.

Right now, somewhere in the world, spiritual leaders are praying for you, meditating for you, crafting their work in the world for you.

“It’s funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools – friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty – and said ‘do the best you can with these, they will have to do’. And mostly, against all odds, they do.” ― Anne Lamott

Because, ice cream on a hot summer day.

You guys, there are libraries. Air-conditioned places where we can go to LEARN and to escape and to grow. Where you can find computers and free internet, audio books, dvd’s and thousands upon thousands of worlds waiting for you to explore them.

Because of everyday warriors like Senator Elizabeth Warren who are standing up for us and fighting the good fight.

“This is an important lesson to remember when you’re having a bad day, a bad month, or a shitty year. Things will change: you won’t feel this way forever. And anyway, sometimes the hardest lessons to learn are the ones your soul needs most. I believe you can’t feel real joy unless you’ve felt heartache. You can’t have a sense of victory unless you know what it means to fail. You can’t know what it’s like to feel holy until you know what it’s like to feel really fucking evil. And you can’t be birthed again until you’ve died.” ― Kelly Cutrone

While you cannot go back and change the past, the reality is that you now have choice about what you want to do moving forward. So get clear on what you want now, and do everything you can to go after it.

Because, giggling children, crazy cats, and lists of what’s going right in the world.

You may not understand what’s happening right now, but I invite you to TRUST THE PROCESS.

It may be that your soul needs to be going through this right now for a divine reason that’s just not known to you right now.

#Okay Quotes #Its Okay Quotes #It will be Okay Quotes #Okay Images #Its Okay Quotes Sayings #Its all Okay Quotes

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possiblyimbiassed · 7 years ago

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What happened to Sherlock? Part IV – Heartbreak and coma (2)

This is the second post of the fourth installment of my meta series where I try to use Sherlock’s own methods to find out what’s happened to him in the show; you can read the first one here. This is about my hypothesis #4: At some point in time between TSoT and HLV, Sherlock takes an overdose of drugs and ends up in coma. In the first post I tested a prediction to try to verify the coma part. Here are the remaining four predictions that I’ll test the same way, corresponding to the rest of my hypothesis. Since this post won’t make much sense unless you’ve read the first one, and since this is also a monster-post, I’ll put the whole thing under the cut, except for this picture of a comatose hospitalized Sherlock in TLD:

Disclaimer: If you feel the subject matter upsetting, please don’t read further - take care and stay safe! I also want to state that no matter what happens in S4 - like nurse Cornish said in TLD, I’m fully convinced Sherlock will survive this. He will pull through and solve The Final Problem - staying alive.

Prediction #2: It will be possible to deduce from events in the show that Sherlock might have harmed himself, and even overdosed.

Observations: There are some scenes - mostly in TAB and TLD - which indicate that Sherlock’s state of health might indeed be self-inflicted (at least on the surface). The most obvious ones, in my opinion, are:

1. Sherlock’s OD in the airplane scenes in TAB is treated like a fact, but people aren’t acting accordingly. The case is complete with backstory from Mycroft, Dr Watson saying this cocktail of drugs could kill Sherlock...

...and assassin nurse ‘Mary’ suggesting he should be in hospital. And we know from TBB that John has specialist skills in being “able to recognize and give immediate and appropriate treatment to a wide range of medical and surgical conditions including --- poisoning/overdose” (among other things), because this is explicitly stated in his CV. It’s also obvious in this scene that Sherlock has administered the drugs on himself.

But the obviously logical procedure after his OD - taking Sherlock to hospital to try to restore his body functions and maybe save his life - does not happen; no-one disputes Sherlock’s decision to not receive medical treatment. So here we have a person who might just have tried to take his own life with a potentially lethal dose of drugs, but Dr Watson doesn’t even examine him. It’s glossed over as if nothing serious has happened, and no-one reacts properly to it; Sherlock himself acts as if he’s already miraculously recovered, and the others just let him carry on. This is not realistic, it’s not how an overdosed person possibly could behave. Which indicates that this is all taking place inside Sherlock’s brain; it’s Sherlock who wants to gloss over the serious consequences, even though he feels ashamed. Conclusion: the emphasis at Sherlocks OD as such might mean it’s true, but the timeline might be warped and the reactions following the OD twisted because of Sherlock’s drug-induced state.

2. In S4 there are references to self-harm marks on both Faith’s and Sherlock’s arms. The scenes in TLD where Sherlock talks to Faith about self-harm, deducing that her relationship had ended, that she wasn’t ‘getting any’, that she must have scars of self-harm on her left underarm and that her ‘boyfriend’ didn’t notice, are very telling:

But if ‘Faith’ was actually Euros, what was her purpose of first making Sherlock think she was suicidal and then just disappear? I see it as more likely that this is all about Sherlock processing his own relationship with John. Sherlock might have been sexually frustrated for a long time, because nothing ever happened between them. But at the same time Sherlock wasn’t really in touch with his feelings and basically horrified to ever talk about it with John (greenhouse scene in TAB is testimony). It’s possible that Sherlock had started using again when John had decided to get married (like he did in canon) and had scars of the syringe on his left underarm, but John didn’t notice this, because he wasn’t there. ‘Self-harm’ in this case equals drug use.

3. Nurse Cornish tells John in TLD that Sherlock has ‘made a mess of himself’, when what we actually saw was John assaulting him.

But why would the nurse in charge blame the victim in front of the perpetrator? And why all this glossing over the fact that John Watson attacked and beat up his friend to the point of hospitalizing him? Sounds very much like Sherlock’s guilt to me, like he’s actually processing the consequences of what he’s done to himself (his OD) in his Extended Mind Palace.

It also seems like Sherlock is re-hashing things in his EMP, because we already have a scene from the very first episode, where someone accuses Sherlock of having ‘made a mess’:

4. In TFP we learn that Euros cut herself when she was a kid “to see how my muscles worked”. The parents thought it was a suicide attempt. But little Euros is standing here between them, as if the case was being analyzed in Sherlock’s Mind Palace.

So what if Euros is actually a part of Sherlock himself? If S4 all happens inside Sherlock’s head, this could very well be the case. Which means that Sherlock might have been the one to harm himself as a kid.

5. As I’ve tried to show in this meta, suicide is one of the major themes in this show. It has been referred to or implied so many times, rubbed in so thoroughly, that it’s rather upsetting. This is a very serious topic, and I doubt the show-makers intend to treat it lightly. I’d rather believe they want to catch our attention with it, to contemplate the dire consequences to other people of Sherlock’s OD. Just like I think Sherlock himself does in TLD, when he warns ‘Faith’...

...and throws her gun in the Thames...

...and argues the point:

6. And then there’s ACD canon. Before Holmes ’falls’ with Moriarty in the Reichenbach Fall (The Final Problem) he leaves a note to Watson (= a classic reference to suicide). It’s believed that Doyle’s intention was to let him die and end the story with Watson living an ordinary life with his wife and only nostalgic memories left from his time with Holmes. But the fans protested and insisted for years until ACD ‘resurrected’ Holmes and published new stories. So if ACD almost ‘killed off’ this great character in canon, wouldn’t it be rather canon compliant of Mofftiss to almost do the same thing? One of the canon stories is also named ‘The Dying Detective’, but in BBC Sherlock they’ve changed the name to ‘The Lying Detective’ - maybe in order to not make it too obvious?

7. On a meta level, would there be any reasons for the character of Sherlock Holmes to try to commit suicide? Well, yes; I think there are plenty of hints that there might be. And I believe @tjlcisthenewsexy puts the finger exactly on those reasons in this excellent meta (my bolding): “If a person takes their own life due to depression directly caused by a heterocentric culture and institutionalized homophobia, then is it really suicide? Or is it murder?” I think this issue was raised by Sherlock already in the first episode, albeit in a slightly less obvious way; the victims of the serial killer were persuaded to take their own life when the killer put pressure on them.

Same thing basically happened in TRF, when Moriarty pressured Sherlock to jump. And in HLV when Lord Smallwood committed suicide after CAM (=Media as a villain) put pressure on him with blackmail. But the real culprit isn’t the victim; it’s society’s norms and attitudes that pressure them. The issue of homophobia isn’t of course openly addressed in BBC Sherlock, but I think it’s heavily implied for us to read between the lines.

Prediction #3: There will be abundant references to Sherlock’s drugs use, since this is the proximate cause of his state and therefore constantly on his mind.

Why do we see an IV drip with morphine in HLV? Well, this is the episode where Sherlock gets shot in the chest, so naturally he needs morphine as painkiller… But wait a minute; wouldn’t his brother have informed the hospital staff of the risks of giving Sherlock morphine, seeing as he’s a drug addict? And then there’s Janine’s comment:

Observations: There are several drug-related things in HLV that don’t really make sense.

Firstly, after knowing him for merely a month, Janine seems to be very much aware of Sherlock’s drug dependence. But if she is already this knowledgeable, why did he have to tell her that he had been ‘working’ when he had actually been sleeping in a drug den (and she seemed to buy it)? But if she didn’t know about the drugs, who had suddenly told her now?

Secondly, for some odd reason, Sherlock’s drug use seems to be a far bigger issue than his shot wound. A gun is used three times in HLV (twice on a human). But there’s a whole bunch of different drug use references, most of which have to do with Sherlock: a) Isaac Whitney, b) Sherlock found in a drug den, c) Sherlock’s blood tested for drugs at Barts, d) Mycroft gathering Sherlock’s ‘fans’ to search 221B for drugs, e) “Don’t appall me when I’m high”, f) IV morphine drip, h) Janine’s comment about drugs being Sherlock’s dream, i) CAM ‘reading’ opium and morphine as pressure points for Sherlock, j) Mrs Hudson ‘running a drug cartel’ and k) Sherlock having Billy drug his whole family. So there are far more references to drug use than to Sherlock almost dying from a gun shot, which is glossed over; no-one seems to really care about his shot wound or chest pain until he falls apart. Mrs Hudson doesn’t seem overly worried when she learns Sherlock has escaped from the hospital. John - his doctor friend - even yells at him to shut up, and threatens to kill him, when he’s supposedly already dying for the second time:

And Sherlock himself starts to talk about ‘surgery’ and the murderer calling the ambulance and other pieces of absurd, illogical nonsense to gloss over the shot wound, which is now threatening his life again. While at the same time claiming that his drug abuse is actually real; he only solves crimes as a substitute for being high...

At Christmas in HLV Sherlock’s own parents are fussing more over pregnant ‘Mary’ than over their own shot-wounded son. He’s fresh home from months in hospital but doesn’t even move strangely. In hospital he had only a plaster over the shot wound, no bruising visible. This is not realistic in my opinion; if Sherlock was really shot wounded, he wouldn’t have been able to escape by the hospital window in the first place. How did he manage to bring the wheelchair with him, by the way, complete with attached IV-drip of morphine?

The idea of Sherlock risking his life again; all this mystic, dangerous and elaborated scheme to track down ‘Mary’ and confront her with her crime - and for what? Only to then dismiss the shooting as ‘surgery’ that ‘saved his life’ in order to persuade John to stay with her? It’s just not credible; this is more reminiscent of an action movie (Bond?) derailing into absurdity. I think what all these signs tell us is that Sherlock’s real problem isn’t the supposed shot wound; it’s a drug-related problem.

So, now that we’ve established at least the possibility of Sherlock having OD:d on drugs and ended up in coma as a result, we arrive to the point of determining more precisely when it happened.

Prediction #4: If Sherlock falls into coma, there would be a credibility change/difference between ‘before’ and ‘after’ the OD.

Now this is a hard one, because in BBC Sherlock there’s generally a very subtle line between ‘reality’ and ‘imagination’. There are a series of weird events in the whole show that I find it hard to believe in, and many of them happen before HLV…

Irene’s mystic break-ins into 221B which no-one had noticed (ASiB)

Sherlock being visited by Moriarty at 221B after the trial in TRF, before even John got there

Sherlock having a conversation with Moriarty on the rooftop in TRF (how did Sherlock predict that Jim would have him jump off a rooftop in particular and therefore made his arrangement of faked death based on this?)

Anderson’s sudden metamorphosis into being Sherlock’s fan-club (MHR)

Torture scene in Serbia and Mycroft’s cruel behaviour there (TEH)

Soldiers who don’t feel when they’re being stabbed in the back in TSoT. (This is such a crazy idea, and the given explanation we have is hard to believe)

These things are weird and not very realistic, but at least they might contain a grain of truth somewhere, albeit dramatized. But in HLV and onwards it does get far worse, in my opinion, when people start acting way out of character or doing absurd or outright impossible things. These could be signs that the events from HLV and onwards are fabricated by Sherlock’s brain, rather than representing ‘real’ things that have actually happened.

Out of character As for acting OOC, I think John’s behaviour has some ups and downs in the show, but in HLV he gets abominable to a point of no return; the idea that he would stay together with ‘Mary’ after she shot his best friend is highly unbelievable - pregnancy or not (in fact it’s even less believable that John would find an assassin, who should be in prison and who attempted to kill his friend, fit to raise their child). And the top of the mountain then comes in TLD, when John assaults Sherlock and acts as if it’s all Sherlock’s own fault. No credibility left.

But I’d still say that it’s an even bigger OOC development to have the world’s most famous detective stop solving crimes and start committing them instead.

Because as far as I can see, crime solving ends with TSoT; after that, Sherlock doesn't solve a single crime case that hasn't directly to do with his own private life: • He fails to solve lady Smallwood’s blackmail case, which instead ends with lord Smallwood's suicide.

• He fails to capture CAM, the criminal who caused this; instead he murders him. The famous crime solver is now a criminal instead. • He fails to solve Emilia Ricolettis case in his own mind; the person he thought was guilty turns out to be Moriarty instead - who is supposed to be dead. • He fails to solve the mystery of why Moriarty's ‘Miss me?’ video is on every screen in the country, which was supposedly the reason for bringing him back to London. • He fails to save a single one of the Thatcher busts from destruction and why would he want to do that anyway; he even smashes the last one himself! • He fails to find the stolen Black pearl of the Borgias; instead he finds the AGRA stick from Mary's assassin gang. • In a highly doubtable deduction sequence without any kind of evidence, Sherlock decides that Charlie Wellsborough's death is no crime at all; he just had an unfortunately badly timed “seizure” in an extremely weird situation. • He fails to solve the Norbury case, which would exonerate ‘Mary’ from accusations of treason; instead ‘Mary’ dies in a most incredible and over-dramatized way which is physically impossible. • He tries to prove that Culverton Smith is a serial killer, but the only thing he manages to prove is that Smith can try to kill him, Sherlock, on his own request. Supposedly, Smith 'can't stop confessing' after that, but we never get to see or know any of these confessions. • The rest of the show (TFP) is exclusively about Sherlock's own family problems. The only 'outsider' crime cases he tries to solve - his sister's death threats against Sherrinford's governor with wife and the three Garrideb brothers - are complete failures; they all die. He believes he saves Molly's life by forcing her to confess that she loves him, but Euros tells him there was never any danger. Failure again. This is rather far away from canon, where Holmes kept solving crimes even after retirement, isn’t it?

But in this show, after TSoT, there’s only one thing that the genius detective manages to do right: he saves John Watson from the bottom of a well. By solving a puzzle.

So yes - I think these things show a huge difference in credibility between 'before' and 'after' TSoT; the world's most famous detective has stopped solving crimes! (But what about all the cases that were supposedly solved by Sherlock 'spinning plates' in TST, you might ask? Not to worry, I'll get back to that later ;))

As for HLV, I think this is the episode where things start getting completely out of control for Sherlock, indicating that he is actually no longer conscious. Which would mean he doesn’t experience new events in the show’s reality, but his brain keeps re-hashing memories, combining them in new ways to solve Sherlock’s personal problems. Apart from the OOC arguments explained above, I tried to point out a series of others in this meta, connected to Janine’s character. We haven’t seen much of her, but in HLV she appears to be a person with less than average intelligence, which I think she didn’t in TSoT:

Why would Janine risk her employment to let Sherlock sneak into her boss’ high security office at night when she knew he was there?

Why would Janine believe that Sherlock would propose to her after they had known each other for a month and he had just left her waiting for him the whole night in his flat without knowing where he was?

If Janine and Sherlock haven’t had sex (because of his reluctance), how come she all confidently just gets into the shower with him?

How can Janine miss out on all the mayhem at 221B - a ‘drugs bust’ with several people present, Mycroft being slammed into the wall, Sherlock talking about her boss as a monster, etc.?

Janine just doesn’t behave in a logical manner in HLV. It. Doesn’t. Make.Sense.

Impossible The first outright impossible thing I can spot, is ‘Mary’ getting into CAM’s office faster than Sherlock. Sherlock makes a whole lot of effort explaining to John that the only way to get into CAM’s office is by his private lift, and just how difficult that is.

Anyone who tried to climb up wouldn’t just need the agility of a circus artist like the ‘spider’ in TBB; they would have to climb the façade, break into the flat and knock two people down in basically no time. I think we can safely say that it’s physically impossible to climb a building of 32 floors and manage all that in less than 45 seconds (which is the time it takes for Sherlock and John to go up with the lift after Janine has let Sherlock in).

Some people may want to talk about ‘artistic license’ here, and claim that this is just entertainment, this is just the show makers twisting reality a bit to make their show more exciting. But don’t forget the major weakness of this argument: if we excuse one clearly impossible thing with ‘artistic license’, then we must be prepared to excuse all of them the same way. Which means that the whole rational basis of Sherlock Holmes’ own methods in this show becomes invalid, because then there are no deductions to be made, since nature laws and reality as we know it don’t exist ‘in-show’. Which could very well be the case, as I see it, if nothing in this show is meant to make sense - or if there’s still a coherent plot-line somewhere, but the events we do see are mainly taking place inside Sherlock’s head. But my idea here was still to try to pinpoint a change, a difference in levels of weirdness, between ‘before’ and ‘after’ Sherlock’s presumed OD.

Prediction #5: There will be time- and place-references that coincide with a possible OD directly after TSoT

If Sherlock would take to kill himself, where would it happen, when and how?

Well, I think Sherlock already explains it to Lestrade in this ‘script’ from ASiP published on BBC’s website, where we get this (supposedly) cut out scene:

In other words: Sherlock would kill himself, but in a different time and place, presumably a) after leaving a note and b) after some ‘prior sign’s. And c) he’d do it in a familiar place that means something to him. So, to track down the point in time when Sherlock might have done this, we need to determine a) when he has left some kind of note and b) what ‘prior signs’ that could have preceded this.

Observations

Point in time: As for a), in TAB, after realising that Sherlock has OD:d, we learn that he has made a list of all the drugs that he’s taken; a promise to his brother since years ago. That’s a kind of note – isn’t it? A note that could help saving his life after an overdose.

But there are also hints that TAB isn’t the real time of the OD event:

JOHN: He couldn’t have taken all of that in the last five minutes. MYCROFT: He was high before he got on the plane. MARY: He didn’t seem high. MYCROFT: Nobody deceives like an addict.

But wait; could Sherlock really have overdosed on drugs and after that performed the whole scene at the tarmac? Where he says goodbye to John, jokes with him and makes a whole little coherent speech about the Game and the East Wind? Not very likely for a person who has OD:d if you ask me…

And then there’s also the fact I pointed out in my last meta (X); that Mycroft talks about this OD coming after a ‘week in solitary confinement’ when Sherlock was locked up with his worst enemy - himself. I think this week could well be the time John was on ‘sex holiday’ after the wedding. If the shooting of CAM wasn’t real (which is supported by the easiness with which Sherlock gets away with murder without any kind of lasting consequence), neither has there been any imprisonment. I can rather imagine Sherlock isolating and locking himself in at 221B for a week, trying to alleviate his pain and heartbreak with drugs after John’s wedding.

Regarding the turn of events after a presumed OD which we don’t actually see, @sagestreet has made a whole reconstruction of how the things could possibly have happened in one of the additions to this meta (please scroll down to the subtitle “TIMELINE FOR A POSSIBLE OD-AFTER-THE-WEDDING SCENARIO”.

There’s also a note playing a central role in TLD, and I’ve tried to elaborate on this in these two metas: (X, X). The episode TLD seems to take place long after John’s wedding, when he already has a daughter. But what if this is actually not the case? What if the whole of TLD just represents Sherlock’s brain going through events that actually happened immediately after the wedding? (Or even immediately after his faked suicide, in some cases)?

Geographic place: The whole sequence in TLD about Sherlock isolating himself in 221B, resorting to an intensive drug abuse that is basically killing him, could be showing what really happened with him directly after the wedding. John has (supposedly) abandoned him (honeymoon?) and he’s turning nuts, talking to himself (Billy Wiggins), shooting the walls and playing out a Shakespeare drama all by himself.

221B would also fit with c), ‘a familiar place that means something’ to Sherlock. The events might in fact be showing some kind of reality, perhaps it’s just the time of them that is twisted and misplaced. Which would seem likely, if this is Sherlock processing his distorted memories of those events inside his still drug-addled brain. On the other hand, the prison where he allegedly would have taken the drugs and got high, before meeting up at the tarmac to board the airplane; none of these places would have the slightest personal meaning to Sherlock, would they? So where exactly is he more likely to take an overdose according to the deleted scene manuscript; in prison or in 221B? I think the answer here is clear.

Prior signs: Regarding b), I’ve already talked about the signs of self-harm in TLD that John doesn’t seem to either notice or acknowledge. The drug abuse is one clear sign of self-harm, but there’s also more subtle things, like Sherlock basically abandoning his job (which he was supposedly ‘married to’) to take over John’s wedding planning; something he would normally find mundane and probably despise. He even tells John’s and Mary’s wedding guests in his speech how utterly useless the ‘wedding tradition’ is. So why does Sherlock even do this? John and Mary would be fully capable of planning their own wedding, wouldn’t they? I think it’s a form of self-harm, self-punishment or maybe even self-imposed martyrdom - “a cross I have to bear” as he tells John, referring to his ‘ordinary’ parents.

The ‘delayed backstabbing’ in TSoT also makes for a dramatic metaphor about what happens to Sherlock; if he’s the un-seen murder victim of this wedding, the effect of it doesn’t play out until afterwards, when he’s left to his own gloomy thoughts and feelings of abandonment in 221B. Which would mean the delayed back-stabbing was a prior sign to Sherlock’s later ‘bleed-out’.

It’s also interesting to speculate about exactly when this actual back-stabbing took place. We never get to see the wedding act in TSoT, but we do see the moment when it dawns upon Sherlock that Mary is pregnant. I think Sherlock’s realization of her pregnancy is the last nail in the coffin; that's what ultimately breaks his heart. It’s not until after this moment that Sherlock leaves the party; a marriage can be dissolved, but a child is a child and it will always be John’s responsibility. Which basically means the definite end of their crime-solving life together...

But I think the most important piece of evidence about the time of Sherlock’s possible suicide attempt taking place immediately after John’s wedding is this:

John’s blog stops updating at this point. The blog also took a pause after TRF, but the current gap is definitely the longest. All this time we’ve had John’s blog as a more ‘sober’ account of the events; a ‘second opinion’, if you like, to what I believe the show is: Sherlock’s more colourful and dramatic tale of their life together. Sherlock hacks the blog and posts one last instalment before the blog dies completely. I believe this last post can be seen as Sherlock’s ‘note’, which I’ve tried to explain in these two metas X , X.

But what about the blog cases of S4? In TST we see a lot of cases listed by John’s supposed blogging; so many in fact that John tells Sherlock that he can’t go on ‘spinning plates’. Yes, it sounds promising, but since a) John is typing on a jpg-file (which is technically impossible, unless you convert it to or integrate it in another format),

and b) there are no references on the real blog to these new ‘cases’, I’d say that none of these cases are realistic. Which probably means they are fabricated by Sherlock’s brain - some of them are even rip-offs from old cases, like The Six Thatchers.

Last but not least: on a meta level, is there a certain significance to TSoT as an episode that makes it a good time reference for being the point after which Sherlock passes to a comatose state? This analysis isn’t mainly intended to reflect a meta level of the show, it rather focuses on the textual level. That doesn’t mean, however, that I find the meta level unimportant. There are quite a few tumblr analysts that have expanded on the form and shape of this show; its ‘messages’, arguments and conclusions on a meta level. For example, @garkgatiss has published several very thorough analyses of the overall pattern of BBC Sherlock as a five-act drama. In the latest one, dedicated to analyzing Bond and Hannibal references, @garkgatiss points out this about the symmetry pattern of S3 (my bolding):

“S3 doesn’t follow the same Bond/Hannibal triad structure as S2 and S4, and we shouldn’t expect it to. Nevertheless, we still find Bond and Hannibal in TEH and HLV — TEH ‘revives’ the myth of Sherlock Holmes that was destroyed in TRF when Sherlock returns from being dead and proves he was not a fraud after all, and HLV gives Sherlock the Clarice Starling creation myth, as befits the true hero of the story. TSOT, as the overall midpoint of the show, serves its own distinct function in the story that I plan to cover in full at some point, but not here”.

So, TSoT represents the midpoint of the story. It’s also the point after which, I believe, Sherlock enters his comatose state and resorts to pure speculation about the future. Or, should I rather say, he resorts to modeling the emotionally devastating consequences of his own choices, in a series of worst-case scenarios, which are basically S4, but start already in HLV. Which would mean yet another indication of the story arc being symmetric, with the figurative ‘murder case’ in the middle; Sherlock’s heart breaks when John not only marries ‘Mary Morstan’, but even starts a family with her. Because Sherlock’s discovery in TSoT of ‘Mary’s pregnancy will (in Sherlock’s mind) most certainly mean that John’s days as a companion to Sherlock’s crime solving are counted. A responsible father wouldn’t run around risking his life on a daily basis, would he? So yes - to me TSoT undoubtedly marks a midpoint in this story.

So, to sum it up once again: my belief is that this show is totally happening within Sherlock’s head, from his PoV. But there’s a distinction between what happens before TSoT and after; in the former case Sherlock voluntarily goes through his memories with John, based on reading his blog. In the latter, I think Sherlock’s body is in coma due to an OD, but his mind is racing, thus the extra weirdness.

Summary

In brief, I think Sherlock Holmes has some serious stuff that he needs to deal with, and so has John Watson, even if maybe Sherlock’s issues are the worst. And in S4 Shelock does; he goes from being someone who constantly tries to detach his brain from its inconvenient ‘transport’ of a body, to someone who ultimately allows himself to care deeply and truly. And I believe that’s basically what this show is about: the long and winding road to freedom, the mental journey home to 221B. And on this inner journey, he has to go through hell, which means pain, heartbreak and loss, but also insight and realization. But since this is also the story of a truly brilliant and remarkable human being and his only ’feature of interest’; an extremely competent, brave and loyal person, there’s good hope that they can actually help each other. They just need to overcome their worst adversaries first; their own internalized heteronormativity and homophobia, imposed on them by society.

I think one of the most interesting things with Sherlock’s process is to see that it’s actually his brain that saves him. While Sherlock’s intense emotions lead him to desperate actions that cause a comatose state in his body, his brain still refuses to give up, because it needs to understand. Which - seemingly paradoxically - leads him to seek contact with his own feelings and thereby solve the problem - the final problem. This character development is indeed extraordinary.

Phew! I’m truly grateful for those of you who might have managed to read through these two monster posts. :) The next installment of this meta series - which will hopefully be a bit shorter - will handle Hypothesis #5: Almost everything we see happen in HLV, TAB and S4 is Sherlock ‘running scenarios’ in his mind, based on a mix of his earlier memories and movies he has watched.

Tagging some people who might be interested: @raggedyblue @ebaeschnbliah @sarahthecoat @gosherlocked @fellshish @sagestreet @tendergingergirl @loveismyrevolution @sherlockshadow @darlingtonsubstitution @tjlcisthenewsexy @devoursjohnlock @kateis-cakeis @csi-baker-street-babes @sectoralheterochromiairidum @mrskolesouniverse

#sherlock is in coma #sherlock's od #emp theory #heartbreak and coma

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