#so of course moffat isn't going to write a show where the doctor is still hung up on rose

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

How do people still not get that RTD and Moffat are really good friends who love and respect each other and actually enjoy working together? When they're not joking around on Instagram all they ever do is praise each other's work. there's just no resentment or spite in this relationship at all and yet I still see shit like "Moffat created River because he hates Rose and thinks he could do better". No, that's just fan factions projecting their own petty rivalries onto the creators and their work.

[drugsbust]

I hate the john's mind bungalow theory so I'm with you on that, just curious about whether you think The Final Problem is in Sherlock's head instead? because I think there's plenty of evidence that that isn't the case either, and yet it feels like everyone in the Johnlock ship swears by one or the other.

I absolutely think that The Final Problem took place in Sherlock’s head. I think all of series 4 did. I think all of TAB did. I think that everything in HLV after Mary shoots Sherlock did. If this seems far-fetched then I suggest reading up on EMP theory because EMP is literally “the only explantation of all the facts.”

The thing with the “John’s bleeding out” theory is that it’s kind of the definition of Sherlock’s number one warning: don’t “twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” People are craving The Johntent™ (I get that, I do) and they don’t even want to consider the fact that we haven’t seen Real John since the beginning of HLV. But that’s exactly what has happened and what needs to happen. Sherlock must figure out how to “save John Watson” from Mary before we can see any more development in John’s romantic arc. Because as soon as Sherlock does save him, we will get the resolution for both of their romantic arcs.

Remember: The “I love you” scene showed us that Sherlock has to be the one to say “I love you” first, not to Molly (who is a John mirror), but not just to John either. He must first acknowledge it unambiguously to himself, and thus the audience, as well, before we get textual confirmation that John returns his feelings. And yes it will most likely be catalyzed by a Three Garridebs moment with Mary behind the gun. That’s what the scene where Eurus shoots John was: a premonition. That’s why Sherlock talks about intuitions in T6T. That’s why the gun turned out to just be a tranquilizer gun. Because it hasn’t happened… yet. I’m not getting into it anymore right now lol, but just know that Eurus is dark!Sherlock trapped in Sherrinford (an abandoned name/characterization for Sherlock) and her disguises (self-portraits) represent all of Sherlock’s worst fears (The East Wind) specifically about losing John.

And here’s the other thing: EMP theory has been around since January 2016. Right after TAB aired. And the vast majority of TJLC people dismissed it immediately, myself included. But as soon as T6T aired I acknowledged that maybe EMP really was a possibility. And then I actually went and read some meta. And I realized that it’s the only possibility.

Really I’d say that mainly people’s reasoning against EMP is that “they just wouldn’t do that.” No explanation given, of course. Because there is actually no evidence that directly contradicts EMP. Everything points towards it, in fact. Name one fucky thing that has happened in the past five episodes of this show and EMP has an airtight and clever answer. Honestly and genuinely if you really do think you have “plenty of evidence” that says otherwise I’d be totally excited to hear it. (Possibly cause I’m confident that I’ll have an answer for anything you say, but I digress.)

So not only does EMP account for essentially everything, the John theories (”alibi” and “John’s TAB”) account for very little, at least on their own. The theories are actually super attractive and clever but unfortunately fall through when you think about them for more than 30 seconds. Here’s a short list of things I can’t reconcile regarding them:

How would John know about Redbeard or Victor Trevor? 

How would John know that “deep waters” is a motif in Sherlock’s dreams? 

If John is the one dreaming why does he specifically mention in TLD that he hasn’t been sleeping? 

If Sherlock isn’t the one dreaming then why does he specifically mention that he’s been having a recurring dream and why does S4 contain so much blue/water imagery? 

If Eurus really did shoot John, then how does Eurus exist (because she clearly can’t)? 

If it was actually Mary that shot John then why would John need an alibi in the first place, didn’t you say he already killed Mary and that T6T is his fake alibi?

How does Rosie exist (because she also clearly can’t)?

If Mary isn’t drugging Sherlock while he’s still in hospital from HLV then why is there nonstop subtext that she is?

Why is Mr. Blue Skull intermittently glowing (throughout all of S4, not just during scenes relevant to a potential alibi)?

Why is John’s blog no longer updating irl despite the fact we see it is in T6T?

Why is S4 an amalgam of cases that Sherlock has already solved (The Six Thatchers, Cereal Killer, The Yellow Face, The Flight of The Dead, etc)?

Why are Ella’s office and John and Mary’s house, two places we’ve never seen Sherlock go to prior to S4, different from the way we’ve previously seen?

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The only way I can see the John theories being accurate in any capacity is if they’re somehow incorporated into EMP as the-7-percent-solution describes here, but I still subscribe to good ol’ pure EMP over that.

I was initially convinced of EMP by Nattie loudest-subtext-in-tv, aka the creator of the original and most influential TJLC metas ever produced. I figured if T6T made her believe in EMP then I should probably look into it. So I did. And I didn’t look back. I recommend checking out the EMP tags of LSiT, the-7-percent-solution, and tjlcisthenewsexy, as they were the ones whose metas did the most to convince me of EMP. I’m in the middle of writing a couple of long EMP metas, one about what Eurus really is and one about Mary drugging Sherlock, but between my school schedule and the fact more EMP proof surfaces every day who knows when I’m gonna finish them lol.

And if you still think that “Moftiss just wouldn’t do that,” I’m gonna go ahead and assume you haven’t watched the Moffat Era episodes of Doctor Who. Particularly “Amy’s Choice” and “Last Christmas”, the latter of which Moffat wrote himself. Moffat loves the ~dream within a dream~ thing. Unless you think all the Inception airplane references are for nothing… (TAB was set in a different, Victorian world because it was a dream within a dream, not just because Sherlock was high, though that does reinforce the subtext that Sherlock is being drugged. The jump into the Reichenbach Falls was the “kick” that was supposed to wake him up, but it only sent him deeper into the waters of his mind palace. Perhaps because he fell forwards instead of backwards? That line of Molly’s in HLV right before Sherlock enters his mind palace was significant, though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what each direction represents. Did Sherlock “just go the wrong way last time”? Mycroft says he’s in too deep in TAB, implying he’s ventured into a deeper level than he’s ever gone before, the mind palace within his mind palace. As Sherlock says in TLD, “I’m at the bottom of a pit and I’m still falling and I’m never climbing out.”)

So on that note I’ll leave with you with one of my favourite pieces of EMP evidence: John’s new chair when they rebuild 221B at the end of TFP is the same as John’s chair in Sherlock’s Victorian mind palace from TAB. Try and give me a non-EMP explanation for that one lmao.