#queer holmes

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Why do you think there's so little official LGBT Sherlock content? Even outside BBC Sherlock there's basically nothing, no tv shows or comics or books.

Like yes there's subtext but here's none that have it in plain text

It feels like every big corporation is too afraid to do it and I don't get why, especially after the success of shows with queer leads like heartstopper.

I'd love a book or tv show that was like, the original scripts of Watson's books or something, that turned out to be super queer.

Hey Nonny!

LOL there's "official" BBC Sherlock LGBT content?? Honestly had no idea, never saw any official merch on this side of the pond being explicitly for the community. The show itself, or at least the earlier seasons, felt like it was headed that way, didn't it, though?

And I feel you, I really do. I think before, though, it never blossomed above more than subtext because there was always the looming possible threat from the remaining copyright holders in the UK and the States still having a say in the remaining stories and in turn how Holmes and Watson are portrayed in said stories (even if it was just on 8 or so stories specifically), so no one really wanted to test that I guess. Now that the copyrights expired and Sherlock Holmes the entity and its stories are completely public domain, there really is no excuse anymore.

THAT SAID, I encourage you to check out Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Furtive Festivity, which is a short ACD-canon Holmes and Watson film that's explicitly queer, and it's SUPER CUTE. PLEASE GO SUPPORT IT 💜

I'm hoping that maybe, POSSIBLY the third RDJ Holmes will go that route (Jude Law scoffed at a reporter calling their relationship a bromance, that it is explicitly a romance), but I don't have much faith in the "big corporations" ever doing it like WB or Disney. But who knows, I do hope, in my lifetime, we see an explicitly queer Holmes/Watson film or show produced by a Big Name Company.

BBC Sherlock Could Have Been It, though, and they KNEW IT.

And I think that's what hurts the most about S4 for me. I dunno.

[scientistofdeduction]

I respect Sherlockians who Play the Game (live as though Sherlock Holmes and John Watson were real and treat the canon as true stories), and admire the commitment of those who hold to that no matter what. It’s a fun and very unique experience across all fandoms that I don’t see anywhere else.

But I did see a post about the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R King (which is good fun though not without some stuff that does deserve questioning). In that thread, one of the comments was from David Marcum, who does the MX Publishing’s massive collections of Holmes stories and who is one of the more serious who Play the Game. He linked a post where he talked about how he rationalizes the series with The Game—specifically how can one rationalize a Holmes who is in retirement marrying a young woman in her twenties.

You can read it here

Basically what I find interesting is that Marcum firstly adheres to Holmes’ supposed age in the Game, making him in his very late 60s in most of the Russell years, instead of his early 50s as suits the story (Holmes remarks to Russell that he was often assumed to be older due to Watson’s stories). A woman in her 20s with a man in her 50s will still raise eyebrows, especially as he met her as a teenager, and yet that’s not the same gap as 70 and 20. Likewise Russell has gone through a lot of life experience by the time any romantic moves are made; her and Holmes are on fairly even footing by then. (Do I still approve of the age gap? No, but then again maybe that’s just my personal preference.

But my bigger qualm with Marcum’s rationalizing the Russell thrillers within The Game is how he rationalizes it all. Russell is a woman who is sick in the head after her family’s death, becomes obsessive over Holmes (fairly directly in opposite to the text where she doesn’t care if he’s a neighbor or a myth, and berates him to his face for assuming her intelligence—point in her favor, I might add), and further descends into madness creating a romance between them in her mind, a life well lived with family.

Here’s hoping I’m not the only one who is a little disturbed by this—yes, the way to rationalize an intelligent woman holding her own with Holmes intellectually, romantically, and as a crime solver, is that she’s insane and disturbed and creepy. Yuck.

He notes that he’s on board with Holmes having romance with Irene Adler, which is fairly bonkers to me. I can read stories where they’ve had a romance, in fact, if memory serves, the two had something brief pre-Russell era in that canon. But I do not like the idea that Holmes cannot be romantic with a “fan made” character. An argument can be made that many Dan made characters are Mary Sues, or John Does, for Watson, as many find the good Doctor difficult to write (and I agree, he is, but that doesn’t always warrant a stand in when Watson would’ve suited the same character actions). But it’s strange that when the newcomer is a woman, she’s hated or interrogated so thoroughly, especially when Mary Russell is so strong a presence and definitely holds her own as a unique character and not just a stand in (even if Watson is a bit dim in her stories compared to canon, we can forgive that because he is so loved by everyone in the Russell texts).

Instead, if I were playing The Game, i would submit this (and I plan on writing a fic to challenge Marcum’s own little story):

Russell is the neighbor of semi-retired Holmes and their meeting is unchanged, he begins to tutor her and saves her in his own way, and she him. The events of Beekeepers and O Jerusalem take place fairly close to recorded, save a few alterations.

Holmes in retirement is living with Watson, as a romantic partnership. Russell discovers this early and although taken aback at first, comes around to it quickly. She creates the stories as fabrications to hide their romance, and with permission from H&W, creates the romantic relationship on paper between her and Holmes to disguise what would’ve been illegal and perhaps reputation ruining for the pair.

The three remain their own sort of family and the series progresses as published to continue that fabrication of the truth.

No mentally disturbed Russell, but a Russell who’s still strong and sane and perhaps at times cleverer than Holmes. No creepy stalker behavior by a girl, but the same in canon amazing woman we get to see grow up. Same partnership, just no romance.

I wonder if this solution wouldn’t occur to a canon purist who plays the game— a purist up until the point where they play a game of rationalizing a non-canonical work to fit their version of Holmes. Not saying that to be scathing, just if one is to entertain the possibility of modern pastiche fitting into The Game, it would be fun to be a little more creative.

I wonder if queer H&W doesn’t slot into their version of the game, and so a clever woman protecting that deep love wouldn’t either. But it seems a far better solution to approach the Russell texts under The Game than Marcum’s rationalization. Again, I’d want for some more creativity than his version.

But then, My Holmes, when I finally write him, is queer, and I enjoyed the Russell series, so it wasn’t a difficult solution.

[elainiisms]

*me at the club* so does anyone wanna discuss queer undertones in classic literature?

[somethingintheforest]

Sherlock Holmes is a canonically queer character. He makes it abundantly clear that he has no intrest in women, he is not attracted to them, he has no intrest in marriage. He is queer.

If we take the canon texts at face value, he's aroace. But reading him as gay is also another very valid interpretation, given the time period in which the stories were written. Hell, maybe he's both.

Ultimately, I don't think it matters much. He's queer, and that makes me very very happy.

[contact-guy]

I'm reading about the Victorian Aesthetic movement and I was violently reminded of...

...Sherlock Holmes's 'rose monologue' from The Naval Treaty, HI HELLO CAN ANYONE HEAR ME

[sw33tm0urningl4mb]

Deep/Fun Questions to Ask!

Do you like watching sunsets?

Have you ever started a rumor?

What makes you laugh hard?

What's the last concert you went to?

If you believed in it, what would you be reincarnated to?

What's your current vocal stim?

What shirt are you wearing?

Who or what is on your mind?

What are your favorite pair of shoes?

What would easily win you over if someone gave you it?

What three words describe you?

What's a funny memory you have?

Do you have any drunk stories?

What's one thing you own that you're sure no one else has?

Do you have any superstitions?

What is your guilty pleasure?

What weird thing do you do when you're alone?

What is the worst food you've ever had?

What fictional character would you bring to life if you could?

If you could join a career immediately, what would it be?

What keeps you going during the day?

Current song on repeat?

Funniest inside joke?

What's your favorite piece of jewelry you own?

Favorite niche topic?

What fandom are you currently in?

Most controversial take?

Favorite ship and why?

Do you have any piercings or tattoos, and what are they?

What is your worst & best quality?

[one-sleepy-dragon]

give me holmes and watson in a queerplatonic relationship. give me holmes and watson that never marry and never get married. give me holmes and watson that remain eternal bachelors in the eyes of the world, because they've already found the partner they want to spend their life with. give me holmes and watson sharing soft moments of domesticity. give me holmes playing the violin every night because he knows it helps watson fall asleep. give me watson making holmes breakfast because he knows holmes forgets to eat when he's on a case. give me holmes and watson sharing a quiet night in after a good adventure, sitting by the fire and laughing heartily at their exploits, or putting together a jigsaw puzzle on a sunday afternoon. give me watson yelling at holmes for solving the crossword before him every morning because he wasn't even looking at the newspaper, he's just sitting over there smoking his pipe with that devilish look in his eye. give me holmes and watson sleeping in separate beds but in the same room; watson's side is neat as a pin and holmes' side is an unholy mess. watson begs him to clear it up. holmes knows where everything is and refuses to upset its delicate balance. give me holmes and watson bickering like an old married couple. give me watson helping holmes get dressed for a social event he probably doesn't want to go to, and gently knotting his tie. give me holmes and watson who love each other more than anything in the world, and it would never cross their minds to be physical with each other. they don't need to. they already know they're each other's soulmate.

give me holmes and watson in a queerplatonic relationship.

[beekeeperspicnic]

The Beekeeper's Picnic: A Deeply Professional Power Point

Here's a link to an accessible version of this PowerPoint!

Wishlist on Steam | Itch.io Demo | Discord |

Here's that cast list, by the way!

Sherlock Holmes - James Quinn Dr John Watson - Andrew James Spooner Mycroft Holmes - Richard Rycroft Tilda - Alice Osmanski Sanjay Kumar -Suzie Rai Ruffles the Clown - Felix Trench ‘Professor’ Pippi Ricci - Layla Katib Martha - Ellie Dickinson Mrs Kumar - Shamini Bundell Rose the Flower Seller - Beth Eyre Mrs Whitlock - Alison Skilbeck Harold Stackhurst - Peter Wicks Toby III - Tobias Weatherburn PC Webber - Shogo Miyakita Violet Hunter - Amy Rockson Jerome - Pip Gladwin ‘Killer’ Evans - Giancarlo Herrera

This format shamefully copied from @224bbaker Please go and listen to their amazing podcast <3

[foundgirlpigeon]

Modern queer shows are just like:

Choose route: mlm or wlw

WLW: *beep* cancelled! The nuances that we were building upon that would've started and era of modern philosophy will now never be revealed :)

MLM: uh oh! compulsory divorce arc you are now a child of divorce and trauma :)

[aceredshirt13]

the double-edged sword of old British literature is that there’s a solid chance it’ll feel gay but there’s an equally solid chance it’ll also feel racist

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

(Rogozhin tries to persuade Holmes to marry Madame Petrova)

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) dir. Billy Wilder

[chaos-and-sparkles]

SO I DREW A LIL PRIDE SHERLOCK <3

Based on this post!!

(click for better quality as usual)

Got a lil emotional making this ngl,, I like how it came out

More pride flags under the cut!!

[werrrrrrrrrrrrrrrcat]

the adventure of charles augustus milverton

[rumble-bee-art]

What do you mean role playing, Mobius? We’re simply abiding local wardrobe traditions, everything else is simply a coincidence (including the choice of the hats)

[temporaerthaervaerk]

Queerbaiting sucks... but

I find it so affirming as a person who struggles with their romantic orientatation. I just live for that state of not quite friends/not quite lovers.

Like yes, they are partners, yes, they live and die for eachother, yes, every other relationship they have loses all meaning compared to them. But also no, they haven't kissed, and they don't want to kiss, and yet, somehow, every single word, every single glance, every single touch carries so much meaning and conveys so much love because this amount of platonic love is usually unheard of and they don't want the other to misunderstand. And I just- aaah, it gives me so much hope and reminds me that romantic love isn’t the only type of love worth experiencing and showing on screen/paper.

I do wish it was done intentionally and wasn’t just a product of homophobia and capitalism. Like I really, really hate the reason I get this representation. Like, it also leaves a somewhat sour taste in my mouth, because I can see that if the world was more accepting, it would probably be a romantic relationship.

(I sometimes see people calling queercoding queerbaiting, and just to make it clear, that isn't what i'm talking about)

[contact-guy]

THE VALLEY OF FEAR pt 2 - part 1 here - My headcanon is that the complicated Mr Douglas / Mrs Douglas / Cecil Barker triangle was in fact a messy throuple. Also Holmes eats 4 eggs and there is some ~foreshadowing~

(This is part of the Watsons sketchbook series!)