#the exploits of sherlock holmes

[randomnessoffiction]

[beekeeperspicnic]

What adaptations/pastiche/etc. (if any) have influenced or inspired your writing and development of the game?

Whoops sorry this got long.

Weirdly enough when I think about initial inspirations for the game my mind doesn't immediately go to Sherlock Holmes but to...

...Star Trek: Picard

[IMG, Screenshot from Star Trek Picard. Captain Picard standing in a beautiful vinyard with a stick and a doggie]

Not what Star Trek: Picard actually IS, but what I desperately wanted it to be. See, I really love utopian sci-fi where poverty and hunger and inequality are problems that have been solved, but characters still have to deal with problems of personal purpose and personhood. I love Becky Chambers and Ursula K Le Guin and Ada Palmer.

When Star Trek: Picard was announced I immediately longed to see Captain Picard on Earth in his vineyard, dealing with getting older in a solarpunk utopia. On the Enterprise he had a definite set role in his community - he was the captain. Now he's just a regular member of a post-scarcity agricultural community, being confronted with his own legacy, tackling philosophical conundrums, befriending former enemies, healing from trauma. And y'know... perhaps solving mysteries.

But of course Star Trek Picard wasn't ACTUALLY that.

But I think the desire for that lodged itself in my brain and when I had the idea to do a Sherlock Holmes game, it popped back up like "Hey Picard isn't public domain, but y'know who IS?"

The Granada Lost Beekeeping Footage

In terms of actual Sherlock Holmes media, the INFAMOUS Granada Holmes 'Lost Beekeeping Footage' gets a mention.

This post explains more details, but long story short for the 'Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' series starring Jeremy Brett, footage and photos of a retired Holmes and Watson were taken but never used.

Sadly Jeremy Brett's health declined and the series didn't get to end with that particular Holmes and Watson waltzing off to Sussex together, but it's nice imagining what might have been, and I hope this game can be a little tribute to him and both his Watsons.

I definitely partially pinched Watson's outfit and Holmes' colour scheme from these photos! But my Holmes is wearing his comfy jumper rather than simply... wrapping it around his shoulders?

[IMG Two photos of Jeremy Brett as Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Watson, standing by a beehive. Holmes is in a cream suit and has a beekeeping hat and gloves, Watson wears a blue scarf and trenchcoat.

The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes

Last but not least, The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, written in part by Arthur Conan Doyle's son Adrian. In the official canon we leave Holmes and Watson on a bit of a sad note - they've drifted apart, both drawn along different paths and war looms on the horizon.

But I never think there's any reason to imagine they didn't both make it out the other side of that - and why shouldn't they get their happy ending?

I guess Adrian agreed because he ends his own dabble in his father's creations with Watson living with Holmes, and describes the Sussex home in more detail than is found in the original canon:

My task is done. My notebooks have been replaced in the black tin deedbox where they have been kept in recent years and, for the last time, I have dipped my pen in the inkwell.

Through the window that overlooks the modest lawn of our farmhouse, I can see Sherlock Holmes strolling among his beehives. His hair is quite white, but his long, thin form is as wiry and energetic as ever, and there is a touch of healthy color in his cheeks, placed there by Mother Nature and her clover-laden breezes that carry the scent of the sea amid these gentle Sussex Downs.

Our lives are drawing towards eventide and old faces and old scenes are gone forever. And yet, as I lean back in my chair and close my eyes, for a while the past rises up to obscure the present and I see before me the yellow fogs of Baker Street and I hear once more the voice of the best and wisest man whom I have ever known.

“Come, Watson, the game’s afoot!”

Extract from ‘Exploits of Sherlock Holmes’ by Adrian Conan Doyle, John Dickson Carr

That's the world I'm wanting to bring to life!

I think that's probably the main influences :D

[somethingintheforest]

Shout out to Adrian Conan-Doyle for this. Poor Mary.

[thefisherqueen]

Business is a hard game, and the weak go to the wall. I played the game for all it was worth. I never squealed myself, and I never cared if the other fellow squealed. But she saw it different. I guess she was right. She believed and said that a fortune for one man that was more than he needed should not be built on ten thousand ruined men who were left without the means of life.

Miss Dunbar is a socialist icon

[allsortzofcrap]

i feel like for the rest of my life i will be walking around totally normal and then periodically, i will be absolutely brained with a metaphorical anvil falling off the side of a building that represents the absolute bafflement i have towards modern adaptations of sherlock holmes and their treatment of irene adler. bbc's most recent adaptation in particular.

im so sorry. please repeat. she was stupid u say??? and i'm sorry, IN LOVE with him u say??????

i'm a feminist so i think women are capable of being in love and also of being stupid. they can do anything they put their minds to ofc ❤️. but this is too far even for me.

it's just that i can't understand why you would choose to write a narrative that is more mysoginistic than the source material when the source material was written in 1891.

was it intentional? did they somehow not pick up on the implications? was it random?

i can't fathom it. it keeps me awake.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

I had intended "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" to be the last of those exploits of my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, which I should ever communicate to the public.

"The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes Treasury" - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[agnimybeloved]

rewatched dead patrol after finishing dead boy detectives... dbd ended up growing on me a bit throughout but i felt that it was still painfully mid and i think the original casting and characterization in dead patrol would've been much more enjoyable as a solo series. its sort of a given with them making a cameo in dp as opposed to being in their own show, but i really preferred being introduced to the trio and their dynamic awhile into their relationship. it makes them a lot more believable to me as opposed to all the development they tried to speed through over the course of a few days/weeks in dbd... i also really really really preferred the original casting for the sole reason that they actually look like they could be 16 😭 it really works to the benefit of the characterization as well, not taking them as seriously and making them out to be a bit silly and dramatic and teenager-y, especially with how they're compared to and treated by the older characters. dbd kept harping on them being teenagers but despite that not being visually believable anyways, the characterization of and dynamics between the characters wasn't convincing me about that either. jenny still treated them like peers and girl. i get things in her life are crazy right now but she's a grown woman who's about to drop her entire life and move to another country with a group of teenagers? i also vastly prefer edwin's portrayal and characterization in dead patrol... i mentioned the autistic-coded brunette white boy in fancy clothes is a really burnt out and aggravating character type and i think edwin being a bit more wry and sardonic and excessively goth and ridiculously blonde is so entertaining and charming (judgey harry potter so fucking funny.... cliffff 💖) plus i think an autistic angle could still easily be explored with that characterization (if they were ever interested in doing that beyond bland vague autistic stereotypes in dbd...) edwin also calling out larry on his "compensating for fear with jokes" thing and criticizing adults for that... i just think that was a very unique direction to take that quip and really emphasizes a core part of their story which is being kids and experiencing the world from that almost "anti-adult/adults don't get it" perspective. charles also being kind of lame and awkward despite acting cool and getting obsessed with his america baseball bat violence is way more endearing to me than charles being excessively cool and fashionable in dbd. crystal as well... i like that she's more of a snippy weird annoying teen girl that's still very real and caring rather than chic and cool like her dbd counterpart. i think that's honestly the biggest flaw of the new series... why cant teens look scrawny and sixteen and lame and stupidly dressed anymore 💀 i also totally forgot ruth connell was in dp as well so i'm glad they kept her casting but she was also way cooler in dp than dbd 😭 she's very good omens s2 in dbd and i think her weirder freakier dp characterization would honestly fit in well with the other weird freaky adult characters in dbd so hopefully they lean more into that if they get another season...

[jkl-fff]

Or shoot them, honestly. How many lives do venture, vulture capitalists end with spreadsheets while still technically never committing assault? Do they not havr just as much blood on their hands?

Regardless, those details you draw attention to ... Very compelling, very intriguing ...

CHARLES AUGUSTUS MILVERTON part 4 - death of a blackmailer

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3)

content warnings for: guns, blood, death. which you are *probably* expecting if you know how this story goes in canon, although this version is...not exactly how Watson told it to the Strand.

(This is part of the Watsons sketchbook series)

[tossawary]

One of my personal nitpicks for historical fantasy is a lack of servants, staff, subordinates, and... idk... subjects? Like, their absence is not... a total dealbreaker for me, depending on the situations the characters are in and whether or not I can just assume that other people are there in the background... but so many of the protagonists in historical fantasy stuff are higher-ranking (very often royalty), and/or have busy jobs, and/or have enormous houses that would necessitate having at least part-time staff.

Like, girl, you should have a maid! WHERE is your chaperone?! WHO is driving this carriage?! Where are your footmen? Are you trying to imply that a WEALTHY DUCHESS is taking a CAB?! You know that you probably have tenants, right? Where is your steward?! Where is your lawyer? Your accountant?! (Like, yeah, you're not going to have your lawyer living in your house, but you HAVE one, right???)

Or, man, you're supposed to be a military commander and you don't even have a single secretary?! Where is your SQUIRE?! (In the spirit of historical fiction, I am jumping wildly across time periods with every sentence here.) Man, I know you aren't looking after your own boots. Where are your GUARDS?! Who set up this tent for you?! Who is looking after your horse?! Who is making and carrying the incredibly valuable maps people are recklessly stabbing daggers into?!

SOMEONE has to be scrubbing these floors and delivering the mail and cooking the meals and doing laundry, and they're probably all DIFFERENT people! My dentist has at least three different receptionists and we can't even get ONE for our court wizard here? A sorcerer's apprentice to take notes? Someone like Sherlock Holmes could get away with just having a housekeeper and taking taxis, sure, but your character is supposed to be a KING?! Why is he answering his own front door? He's going to get assassinated. His SERVANTS should have SERVANTS.

Like, yes, I understand that a lot of servants in certain places at certain times were supposed to make their labor invisible, but there have always been servants who still had to interact directly with the masters of the house?! Yeah, there are potentially really messy ethics here, class divisions are bullshit, but I don't think that completely ignoring the reality that humans have ALWAYS been doing work for other humans is better than just including some well-paid and well-treated servants and employees? Because a complete absence of them, especially where logically for the worldbuilding there MUST be servants (and probably exploited servants, or worse, for some particular worldbuilds to work), often makes me think that your main characters just don't care enough to notice the "lower class" people or know their names.

Also, even Frodo Baggins had a gardener and Samwise Gamgee might be the best damn character in the story?! Sam saved the world?! Servants are PEOPLE. Servants are often the funniest and most interesting characters, tbh, with the most to say about a society and its workings (yes, Discworld is a very good book series, highly recommend), and also the joke of some romantic scene being carefully orchestrated by a stage crew of servants frantically diving into bushes to stay out of sight never gets old to me. Teamwork makes the dream work!

I don't want to gatekeep historical fiction, especially not historical fantasy, because the worlds don't necessarily have to conform to our own and may have magic and characters are often in very unique circumstances, but... sometimes I pick up a story and it's like... "Author, please tell me that you know there is a difference between a butler and a valet?!"

[storiedhistories]

@furyisms liked for a starter

"Well, I can see why you asked me to look into this," Vastra said, looking over the notes she'd made from her investigations so far. "It's quite the convoluted cover story." And she was one of the best in the business at getting through to the truth; OF COURSE Alisa had come to her. Vastra might not be part of the military, but she knew quite a few people who were. And she had her own connections outside of that, connections she was perfectly willing and able to exploit when she needed information.

"I don't think you're going to like what I uncovered," she added, meeting the other's eyes. "It's going to throw a bit of a wrench into any plans you've made in this particular sector."

[venussaidso]

ASHWINI CHARACTERS

Yall I asked ChatGPT to give me a list of gifted characters such as Beth Harmon (played by Anya Taylor Joy) and the first 2 examples are characters played by Ashwinis IM CRYINN should I make a post? Obviously I need more data but stillll I'm foaming in the mouthhh.

I'm watching the Chinese drama "Falling Into Your Smile" and the most gifted character in the team of players is played by Xu Kai Ashwini Moon!! He is admired for his quickness and strategic mind.

As I'm watching I'm thinking bro reminds me of Ashwini Sun Song Kang who was in "Forecasting Love & Weather" and his character was set apart from everyone else in the workplace with his activeness and knowledgeable insights so I'm thinking ???? That's when I pulled ChatGPT cause Google ain't shit nowadays.

Ashwini is generally related to the head (Aries, and also the mind due to the connected minds of the Ashwini Kumaras), its related to ultimate speed and an active intelligence (Ashwini Moon Benedict Cumberbatch's characters Sherlock Holmes & also Doctor Strange who was the most skilled, masterful surgeon -- for example).

All these characters, though, have a one-track mind when it comes to ONE thing, and because of Ketu they tend to be unmotivated by worldly things and bad at everything else in their life. Benedict's Sherlock Holmes, for example, has no care for anything else but solving convoluted mysteries; we see his lack of interest of forming human connections or developing relationships and especially acquiring any wealth or fame for that matter. Although, because of him being exceptionally gifted, he unintentionally becomes popular but even that doesn't play into his arrogance. Very similarly to Beth Harmon.

She wasn't particularly excited about gaining recognition which came with being insanely gifted as she was. What drove her was her skill for chess, and everything else in her life was dull or painful. Much like Sherlock, as what drives him is the thrill of suspense.

Them pulling attention makes a lot of sense as Ketu is extremely absorbing of things around them whether intentional or not. Which is why they tend to play golddigging characters or characters that are generally exploitative who are intentional about draining people and things around them. It's not that Ketuvians care for wealth and recognition, it's that this planet type can be so magnetic that they pull such energies although in a rather destructive sense when it's intentional. Claire Nakti described this better in her Ketu Dominant Men video. A character who is talented and relentlessly fixed on one thing is Daniel Plainview, played by Ashwini Moon Daniel Day Lewis, who exploits people that submit to him; extracting resources, draining oils from lands he steals from others etc. using his title and power to further wrong others, perfectly fitting into the negative archetype we've seen in Ketuvians (well, this being the gold digging (or should I say oil-digging, although yes he extracts wealth too)male version of that). But with these other Ketu characters I mentioned in my post, their magnetism due to their personal talents and skills goes either unnoticed by the Ketuvian themselves or generally gets unused (which can go the other way around for exploitative means as Claire explained in-depth).

Ashwinis need something in their life to pour into so that their mind and soul is stimulated, otherwise they may fall into bad vices as their inner beast (primal nature) is hard to manage (much less tame) when they drift through life meaninglessly. They are prone to being unmotivated already. Soon as there's something to get fixed on, it's over for everyone.

I'm not sure who, I believe it was KRS Astrology, who said that Ashwini can have a concentration like no other through the midst of chaos. Ashwini energy is the most intense of the Ketu nakshatras, and it is full of too much potential, but it can only be harnessed through the individual taming it (their inner beast) to find an identity in something, which is interesting as it contrasts the theme of Mula who is able to tame outer beasts as Mula has surpassed that stage (already being one with its inner beast and primal instincts).

[ghostsandmermaids]

Podcasts To Listen To If You Like OFMD

Today is the anniversary of the finale of Our Flag Means Death season 2. One whole year without our favorite pirates :( But if you miss OFMD as much as I do, I have some podcast recommendations I think you'd enjoy!

If you want more queer pirates:

Trice Forgotten

Trice Forgotten is a found-family, pirating adventure. Alestes puts her head down working as a merchant, couriering deliveries and carrying travelers to destinations across the seas. Only, her travelers gradually become permanent crewmates, until she realises her ship has become a floating museum, laboratory, vault of repatriated ‘treasures’ and chef’s kitchen. After spending most of her life with the understanding that nothing changes, no matter how hard you fight, Alestes is faced with a choice: Will she use her new network of allies to build safe harbour and potentially a future for her new community, or will she once again put her head down and drown in her sea of excuses…

Queer neurodivergent pirates of color! Found family! Homoerotic sword fights! What else do you want? (And they even talk about OFMD in one of the Below Decks episodes!)

The Ballad of Anne & Mary

It's 1721, and London is abuzz with news of notorious pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, currently languishing in Newgate Prison. It’s the perfect time for debt-ridden journalist Nathaniel Mist to exploit the public appetite and ghost-write a sensational (and hopefully best-selling) history of pirates. But as the balladeers and gossips on the streets of London build myths around the blood-thirsty, perverse lady pirates, Mist is forced to reckon with the real Bonny & Read… Featuring musical sensation Christina Bianco, actress and comedian Sooz Kempner, Hamilton star Karl Queensborough, drag legend Le Gateau Chocolat, and more.

If you can't get enough of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, listen to this podcast musical about them!

If you want more queer comedies:

Welcome To Night Vale

Welcome To Night Vale is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events. Turn on your radio and hide.

Okay, it's a horror comedy and can be creepy at times, but it's also one of the few shows that have made me laugh as much as OFMD.

Starship Q Star

When a space agency sends the “first all woman and non-binary crew” on a blatant PR mission to Mars, they inadvertently end up the last six humans in the universe. Lead by Co-Captains (and exes) Aurelia and Sim, Starship Q Star follows this madcap crew on their quest across the galaxy in search of a new home… which is basically one hilarious mishap after the other.

I suppose if you found the absolutely two perfect ex-girlfriends and sent them to Mars, then they could potentially… co-captain?

If you want more queer historical comedies:

Fawx & Stallion

London, 1889. When the residents of 221B Baker Street leave town for the weekend to solve one of their most famous cases, no one is left to clear a poor housekeeper’s name of a crime she didn’t commit. Well, no one except for their neighbors at 224B…

Tonally, this is probably the closest to OFMD. I started this podcast yesterday and fell in love with it immediately. If you like OFMD and Sherlock Holmes, please check out Fawx & Stallion!

The Kingmaker Histories

On the 19th of February, 1911, in the Valorian Socialist Republic, an assistant tailor named Colette Geise experienced a migraine that ruined her life. This is a historical account of what happened next. THE KINGMAKER HISTORIES is a steampunk weird fiction podcast about being gay and doing crime, brought to you by the freaks who brought you Less Is Morgue.

Alternate history + magic + comedy + queerness. Do I need to say more?

If you want more (queer) rom-coms:

Me and AU

When Kate “ACunningPlan” Cunningham sparks up an online friendship with a fellow fanfiction writer it seems like the perfect distraction from a summer stuck in her hometown of Kamloops, B.C., not to mention the coming terrors of her final year of university and the Real Adult Future beyond. (Seriously, please don’t mention them.) After all, Hella--Enchanted is funny, smart and writes canon-divergent werewolf fic like no one else. She’s everything a fandom could ask for. But… what if she’s everything Kate could ask for, too?

Me and AU is not only an adorable sapphic rom-com, but also a love letter to fandom! Go listen to this, it's so cute!

Life With LEO(h)

A sci-fi(ish) romantic comedy podcast starring a repressed lawyer, a criminal client, a pesky sister and her fiance, an infuriatingly sexy coworker, and an android in the mood for love. Jeanine Bell​ is a robotics intelligence lawyer whose laser focus on her career has come at the expense of her romantic and social lives. After successfully keeping AI genius Penelope Lane out of prison, Jeanine receives the gift of LEO(h),​ an android with Synthetic Sentience. LEO(h) is Loving, Empathetic, Optimistic, and (only sorta) helpful. He's programmed to love Jeanine. He’s also very, very illegal.

I'm only two episodes in and already so invested in this story! Jeanine and LEO(h) are absolutely adorable.

(Note: as far as I know, the main romance isn't queer, but there are other queer characters in the show.)

If you want more queer found families:

Hello From The Hallowoods

Darker than your dreams, and farther North than you remember, there is a forest where life and death meet… Come walk between the black pines! In this award-winning queer fiction podcast, a cosmic narrator follows the increasingly connected residents of the forest at the end of the world. It's a bittersweet story that explores queer identity, horror genre tropes, and finding hope in humanity's last moments.

Did I only add HFTH to the list because it's my all-time favorite podcast and I want more people to listen to it? Maybe. But I also genuinely think that if you like OFMD, you are going to love some of these characters. Check out my fandom manifesto if you want to learn more!

Starfall

Starfall is a fantasy audio drama about the adventures of the Carouvel Traveling Acting Troupe - a theatre troupe that uses magical items to create illusions for their shows as they move around the Falstenian Empire. The story begins as the troupe is joined by Leona, a young warrior with a mysterious past and even more mysterious powers. With their new guardian in tow, the troupe traverses the continent, encountering the dangers of humans, fae, and greater forces alike, all while still trying to put on a good show.

Remember Stede's fuckery play in S1E6? Now you can listen to a fantasy theatre troupe put on magical plays! How cool is that?

If you want more of the cast:

Kisses in the Dark

Against the bright lights of Blackpool, a supernatural killer is at work and a dark and dangerous love affair begins… A sinister, disturbingly romantic seven part podcast drama written by Marty Ross (BBC’s Catch My Breath & Ghost Zone and Audible’s The Darkwater Bride) and starring Con O’Neill (Chernobyl, The Batman) and Rhiannon Clements. A contemporary Gothic horror tale set against a background of life on the narrow edge between Pleasure Beach and wild cold sea, between secret desire and a deadly evil. Also starring, Kyle Rowe, Pamela Mayoss, Steven Gidwaney, Patrick Price & Ryan Clayton.

Con O'Neill plays one of the main characters!

What Will Be Here?

In What Will Be Here?, five friends send a rocket to space with a collection of recordings on it that document the world’s decline, the stories they want to tell, and their efforts in building this rocket to get their message to the stars. They wonder what their world will have become by the time their message is listened to. At its core, this show is about living and creating when things feel pointless. It's a story that came out of the pandemic, and the landscape in which this story was written and produced greatly influenced how it turned out. What Will Be Here? is set on earth 200 years in the future, where large-scale crises are fully normalized. But despite the bleak backdrop, this story is one of hope - of overcoming challenges, of making things that might be temporary, but also things that might be launched into space and continue on forever.

Vico Ortiz plays one of the main characters!

Dungeon Masters

Dungeon Masters takes a behind-the-curtain look into the world of Dungeons & Dragons, told through the lenses of the creator of the game, Gary Gygax, played by Wil Wheaton and of private investigator, William Dear, played by Jon Hamm, a swashbuckling tough guy in 1979. Gygax guides the audience through this incredible true story as our Dungeon Master, as we follow Dear on his quest to find Dallas Egbert, a Michigan State student, who supposedly disappeared in the steam tunnels under his university while enacting a real-life version of D&D. What Dear encounters on this journey and ultimately discovers, defies all expectations, and changes the culture as we know it.

Kristian Nairn plays one of the main characters!

The Diaries of Netovicius the Vampire

Neto is an artist first, an immortal vampire second, but for now he's being kicked out of his Beacon Hill apartment in Boston Mass. That's where we begin, but more than a year into this audio-series I can't believe the journey Neto, and me, the creator have been on. But that's a longer story than I can get into here. For now, I hope there is something in this audio-series for you. It's about vampires, but ultimately it's about recovery, from trauma, from alcoholism, even from cults. It asks: Does time really heal all wounds? Featuring VAs known for Valorant, Diablo IV & Overwatch

Written and performed by Hugo Pierre Martin!

The Cryptid Factor

Three best buddies - Rhys Darby, Dan Schreiber, and Leon 'Buttons' Kirkbeck bring you The Cryptid Factor - a podcast dedicated to all things weird that are yet to be defined by science. Since 2008 they have passionately (and often awkwardly) been discussing 'cryptids' and monsters like Yeti, Chupacabra, Bigfoot and Nessie - as well as weird news of the world, UFO's, Time travellers, robots and space stuff. Though they take these pseudosciences as seriously as they can, they struggle to take themselves seriously at all. Hosted by comedian and actor Rhys Darby, star of top rating podcast 'No Such Thing as a Fish' Dan Schreiber - and Pulling it all together is their best friend, 'Buttons'. If anything goes wrong, it is probably his fault.

Rhys Darby is one of the hosts!

Date My Abuelita, First!

From Executive Producer Wilmer Valderrama comes a dating show that proves abuelita knows best! Host Vico Ortiz alongside our resident abuelita, Liliana are ready to meet their match! Three single contestants will compete for a date with one lucky guest. Through speed-dating rounds, hilarious games, wildly silly and genuinely heartfelt introspections, and grandmotherly love, one contestant will either be a step closer to love or be sent back to the apps. Abuelita holds all the cupid power, so let the chispas fly!

Vico Ortiz is one of the hosts!

[qaymaw]

I wrote a list of the crimes commited by important characters in Moriarty the Patriot. This is only the anime so characters exclussive to the manga won't appear, nor will crimes commited in arcs exclussive to the manga.

This is an extremley long list, also may contain spoilers if you haven't watched the anime/read the manga, however they shouldn't be to bad.

William James Moriarty 30 crimes

Intimidation

Bribing

Death threats

Threats of violence

Kidnapping

Accessory to murder

Impersonation/Identity theft

Inciting violence/murder/genocide

Arson

First-degree murder

Manipulation/Brainwashing

Contract killing/assassination

Coercion

Framing

Assisted suicide¹

Suicide baiting¹

Mass murder

Genocide

Destruction of property

Domestic terrorism²

Conspiracy to overthrow the system/nobility

Conspiracy to commit murder/genocide

Manipulation of political affairs

Attempted suicide¹

Evading arrest

Obstruction of justice

Treason

Breaking and entering

Organised crime²

Illegal possesion of a firearm³

Albert James Moriarty 21 crimes

Leaking government secrets

Organised crime²

Accesory to murder

Assault with the intent to kill/assault with a deadly weapon

First-degree murder

Arson

Manipulation/Brainwashing

Contract killing/assassination

Coercion

Framing

Assisted Suicide¹

Suicide Baiting¹

Mass murder

Genocide

Destruction of property

Domestic Terrorism²

Conspiracy to overthrow the system/nobility

Conspiracy to commit murder/genocide

Treason

Patricide

Matricide

Fratricide

Louis James Moriarty 21 crimes

Intimidation

Death threats

Threats of violence

Accessory to murder

Arson

First-degree murder

Manipulation/Brainwashing

Contract killing/assassination

Coercion

Framing

Assisted suicide¹

Suicide baiting¹

Mass murder

Genocide

Destruction of property

Domestic terrorism²

Conspiracy to overthrow the system/nobility

Conspiracy to commit murder/genocide

Organised crime²

Treason

Breaking and entering

James Bonde 18 crimes

Theft

High treason

Impersonation of royalty/Identity theft

Arson

Evading the police/goverment

Destruction of property

Extortion

Exploitation

Blackmail

Domestic terrorism²

Conspiracy to overthrow the system/nobility

Assault

Conspiracy to commit mureder/genocide

Infiltration

Organised crime²

Treason

Contract killing/Assassination

Accessory to murder

Illegal possession of firearms³

Sebastian Moran 15 crimes

First-degree murder

Contract killing/Assassination

Assisted suicide¹

Suicide baiting¹

Mass murder

Genocide

Accessory to murder

Domestic terrorism²

Conspiracy to overthrow the system/nobility

Assault

Conspircay to commit murder/genocide

Gambling

Organised crime²

Treason

Breaking and entering

Illegal possession of firearms³

Fred Porlock 15 crimes

Impersonation

Accesory to murder

Contract killing/Assassination

First-degree murder

Suicide baiting¹

Assisted suicide¹

Mass murder

Genocide

Domestic terrorism²

Conspiracy to overthrow the system/nobility

Conspiracy to commit murder/genocide

Organised crime²

Treason

Breaking and entering

Desercration of a corpse

Jack Renfield (AKA Jack the Ripper) 11 crimes

Hiring a contract killer/Assassin

Desercration of a corpse

Assault

Impersonation

Evading the police

Accessory to murder

Domestic terrorism²

Conspiracy to overthrow the system/nobility

Conspiracy to commit murder/genocide

Organised crime²

Treason

Von Herder 8 crimes

Accesory to murder

Domestic terrorism²

Conspiracy to overthrow the system/nobility

Conspiracy to commit murder/genocide

Illegal weapons dealing/creating/inventing

Organised crime²

Treason

Illegal possession of firearms³

Zack Paterson 8 crimes

Accesory to murder

Conspiracy to overthrow the system/nobility

Conspiracy to commit murder/genocide

Eavesdropping

Infaltration

Domestic terrorism²

Treason

Organised crime²

Sherlock Holmes 6 crimes

Breaking and entering

Destruction of property

Attempted suicide¹

Second-degree murder

Illegal possesion of firearms³

Arson

Mycroft Holmes 3 crimes

Accessory to murder

Affiliation with a terrorist organisation

Leaking government secrets

Notes

¹Suicide Act 1961. This act removed suicide as a crime in England and Wales, meaning those who survived a suicide attempt could not be prosecuted. Family members of those who did not survive could no longer be prosecuted either. However, under Suicide Act 1961, Section 2, it remains a crime for a third party to encourage or assist in the suicide of another.

²Terrorism or Organised Crime (or both)

Definitions:

Terrorism: The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

Organised crime: Criminal activities that are planned and controlled by powerful groups and carried out on a large scale.

The motive of organised crime is often, but not always, financial.

The Moriarty Plan is a force of violence with the intention of political change. This violence is commited against their home country meaning this is domestic terrorism. They have no wish for financial gain, however, because they are commiting crimes that are planned and controlled, this is also organised crime. Those directly involved in The Moriarty Plan and its execution are therefore guilty of both terrorism and organised crime.

³The Gun License Act 1870. This act meant that anyone may still purchase a gun, however a license was required to have one off your personal property for any reason. This means that James Bonde and Sebatian Moran are both guilty of illegal possession of a firearm as they are both legally dead and therefore cannot have a gun license. However, Sherlock, William and Von Herder are never disclosed to have a gun license but this does not mean they do not have one as they would be perfectly elligable to get one. If they do all own a gun license, this takes Sherlock's crimes down to 5, William's crimes down to 29 and Von Herder's crimes down to 7.

[olderthannetfic]

the reason bbc sherlock was called queerbaiting was all the jokes in canon they made about the characters being gay. i would personally consider that queerbaiting even if i never thought it was an intentional false promise, because it felt like an intentional bid for queer/shipper attention, or at least exploitation of the existance of the queer headcanons for the source material. and later they were literally baiting in the troll sense by mocking fans. or perhaps i just spent too many years reading this tjlc blog i accidentally followed??? house md had a similar sort of "theyre basically queer but not" thing going but the tone was more oblivious to the idea that actual gay people might be watching. my point is, in my experience, "queerbaiting" doesnt literally mean the producers were definitely trying to get gay money, its more of an exploitative representation thing.

--

LOL.

Dude, that's every show that finds its m/m shippers annoying. Mistaken-for-gay jokes where the "funny" part is "Ha ha, that would never happen" are all over media.

This isn't exploitative representation if you look at it from outside the echo chamber of tjlc land: It is bog standard homophobic jokes that shows for cishet dudes make all the time.

Yes, one of the creators of Sherlock is gay, but this type of humor is so standard that I cannot read it on Sherlock as anything but the usual where the presumed audience of the joke is mostly cishet dudes. I really do not think it makes sense to read it as a bid for queer and/or shipper attention.

Look at how S1 of Sherlock relates to Holmesiana: there's a gag about the nature of Watson's wound. Later, we get Schrodinger's Irene who may or may not be dead. There are tons of these blatant references to older Holmes fandom that were instantly recognizable.

Given that, I would expect a joke aimed more squarely at Holmes/Watson headcanons to make at least some reference to Watson Was a Woman.

I'm sure they were aware of past speculation, but I don't think they were engaging with it all that deeply. The jokes just seemed like the usual Hardy Har Har My Lead Would Never Be Gay stuff.

The problem with TJLC analysis was that it always made me think the blogger's first experience with Holmes—and possibly with any media at all—was BBC Sherlock.

[preservationofnormalcy]

Ok, so I’m writing a novel involving paranormal investigation (no relation to you, takes place in a fictional town) and I’m on my third draft when the main character shows up behind me, grabs and turns me around to tell me of the “inaccuracies to his case”. Now I wrote them down and how I should change them. And when I looked up from my notepad, he was gone.

I want to continue, and most of these I feel like I can implement within the story, but what exactly happened? And if this becomes a series, will he continue to pop up, or was it one of those “one in a blue moon scenarios”?

And what do I do if it isn’t?

Hey Norm...

Hmm? Didn't you do a PSA about this exact subject in the nineties?

Oh, uh, sure. When I first started. Around '99. It's waaay outdated, now, you know, with the internet and everything, it's better to not even look it up. I don't think it was even digitized, really. I have no idea what happened to it.

Oh, Norm, don't worry! If there's one person who knows your filing system better than you, it's me! Let's see...H for Holmes, S for Sherlock...cross reference to P for Parafictional, 90s...HERE WE GO! "Dear Watson: That's Not Holmes, That's A Lure!"

Oh good, they put it on a disc so that a tech savvy person could find it, uh, twenty five years later. I wouldn't play it, I can't guarantee--

<An old, color degraded video begins playing. It's clearly shot on VHS, with a minimal budget, and had degraded somewhat before being transferred to digital. A man stands in a small, cinderblock room in front of a backdrop depicting a victorian study. He is wearing a tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows and a pair of smart slacks. A deerstalker hat sits conspicuously on a stack of actual books, Sherlock Holmes novels. The man himself looks sort of like what you'd get if you focus-group-tested the only type of man Don Bluth knew how to draw, and has curtain bangs with frosted tips. The whole ensemble has the energy of a store-brand Milo Thatch. As he speaks, his eyes don't leave a fixed point behind the camera.>

So. You have encountered an entity from a fictional property. You're excited - maybe you wanted to talk to your favorite book character. Or. Maybe you are a writer and you are excited to talk to your protagonist. But...is that entity real?

<There's an extremely awkward camera change, and the man looks to it, his eyes following a point again.>

....or a lure?

<He leans back and there is a too-long pause before he continues.>

When encountering a parafictional manifestation, remember the three S's.

<The visuals change to a grainy blue background, white text appearing as the man's voiceover continues.>

Solidity: are you are this entity is physical and not all in your head?

Subjective: if it's real, are other people seeing the same thing?

Sentience: is this entity sentient, or merely approximating sentience? Is it answering questions like a sentient entity, or like how it would be expected to answer?

<It cuts back to the man, standing behind the chair with his hands on the back. There is a too-long pause again.>

If...uh.

If this entity doesn't pass any of these easy-to-remember checks, that's a red flag. Any number of malicious extranormal entities can exploit the human capacity for creativity in order to feed on our psychic energy, creating a non-sentient construct we call a "Chinese Room" in order to keep YOU from asking questions.

Remember next time you see Darth Vader, Spider-man, or Tarzan - are you so incredibly lucky to experience such a rare phenomena as true parafictional manifestation?

<He awkwardly puts a pipe in his mouth and blows a few bubbles.>

Or are you being lured?

<The video ends.>

....god, my hair.

[scotianostra]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was first published on October 31st 1892.

Wikipedia gives a different date, just another one of those posts!

First appearing separately in the Strand Magazine, Doyle received 30 guineas for each of the 12 stories, they were published together in 1892 in a volume that rapidly became one of the most popular Sherlock Holmes collections. Showcasing Arthur Conan Doyle’s inimitable genius for mystery and storytelling, these tales are proof that the famous detective remains one of the greatest crime fighters ever created.

From his Baker Street apartment, Sherlock Holmes wields his powers of deduction in pursuit of justice and truth, venturing out into foggy Victorian London accompanied by his faithful sidekick Dr Watson. This classic collection of Holmes tales includes many of the detective’s most-loved exploits: Holmes is confronted by a venomous snake in ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’, mystified by a missing thumb in ‘The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb’ and beguiled by a beautiful opera singer in ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’.

The initial print run of the book was for 10,000 copies in the United Kingdom, and a further 4,500 copies in the United States, which were published by Harper Brothers the following day.

As of 2017 The collected Holmes titles have now sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. The pic is my own from earlier this year.