#when you have to make johnlock canon because no one else does it

[consult-sherlockholmes]

Before the election results are officially in, I have to make a confession. Something that I should have done a long time ago.

John, I lov-

[ogsherlockholmes]

Did Holmes live alone to keep bees after retirement? 😢

Also, what did he mean by "There's an East Wind coming, Watson."?

(P.S.- I've just finished reading'The War Service of Sherlock Holmes and I've got a few questions.)

Hello! My inbox has been glitching lately, so sorry if you asked me this a while ago, I promise, I haven't been ignoring you.

So, it is generally implied that Holmes lived alone during retirement. He was tired of the detective work and wanted to further his studies in nature (and bees, of course), so moved to the countryside. That's the general consensus on what happened, which is sad to think he was all alone.

HOWEVER

I don't believe for one second that Watson would have stayed in the city without him. The canon does state that Watson visited at times, but it also said that his orphaned wife went to visit her parents, so we can't really believe everything. On the topic of wives, it's up for debate how many there were and if there were any at all. I won't get into it now, but I'll simply say: the canon is inaccurate because we're not supposed to put our full faith in it.

So, maybe ACD told us that Watson and Sherlock lived apart, but why would we believe that? Even when Watson was 'married', he was basically living in Baker Street with Sherlock, so there's no real argument to say he didn't also move to the countryside.

To sum it up, yes, canon says Sherlock was alone. But, we don't have to believe that.

To answer your second question, I admit I had to search up what The War Service of Sherlock Holmes is, but Google told me it was just the final story, His Last Bow, which I do know.

To refresh myself and anyone reading, this is the 'east wind' extract.

“There’s an east wind coming, Watson.” “I think not, Holmes. It is very warm.” “Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There’s an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it’s God’s own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared."

Explicitly, Sherlock is referencing World War One, in which (and I'm not going to go into detail, because I know far too much about both World Wars) Germany and England fought against each other. Germany is to the East of England, so the 'east wind' is the German invasion the English were expecting.

However, there is a lot more to the 'east wind' metaphor.

When ACD was growing up in the god-fearing Victorian England, there was a lot of religious imagery involved in stories. In the Bible, the east wind was used as a metaphor for the destruction of the wicked by God. In a way, ACD is implying that the Germans will destroy England, or that they want to. It isn't the best inference, as this also means ACD thought the English were the wicked and the Germans were sent by God, and I don't think English censorship would let him publish that.

To look at it on a surface level, we can just say that ACD was talking about solely the war, nothing else. Sherlock is talking about how some may die in the war, some will survive, and a new land will be born, the same as any British propaganda. To be like me and overthink things far too much, there's a more interesting side to it.

If we are viewing this as a Johnlock reading, it has nothing to do with WWI. In this reading, anything ACD states in the canon is not generally taken as the truth (like Sherlock living alone when he retired), and could imply something else about Sherlock and Watson's relationship. This may not be true, but it's nicer to think of it this way, since it makes more sense and is generally more enjoyable.

Sherlock says to Watson 'You are the one fixed point in a changing age.' This changing age could just be the war, but it might be about homosexuality becoming legalised. WOAH I know big jump, what am I talking about, crazy, yes, but.

If the 'east wind' references God destroying the evil, and God is generally used as a symbol against homosexuality (which is NOT true, since homosexuality and Christianity have nothing to do with each other), and Sherlock and Watson were two gay men living in a homophobic world, does it not make a bit of sense that Sherlock could be talking about this?

It's very difficult to explain, and I'm sure I'm not the only person to say this before (if you know who did, please tell me so I can give credit), but I'm going to rewrite the speech before as what I think Sherlock is trying to say (quick warning, the dialogue is badly written and cringy, but I don't know how else to explain it).

"They might criminalise homosexuality more severely, Watson."

"I don't think so, it's been easy to hide so far."

"Watson, you've always been the same, you'll never change who you are even when the world is trying to make you. The world is still going to change, unlike any change before. It will be difficult, and some of us may give up before change happens, or be hurt in some other way. But, that's what they're saying God wants, and that a new country will be made."

When Sherlock talks about the new land, he's not stating if it will be more excepting or more homophobic, but he obviously wants it to be more excepting (everyone does). Also, when he says "in the sunshine when the storm has cleared." he is leaning towards homophobia being reduced (homophobia is the storm, which will clear).

So, that's my very out there and quite extreme reading on the 'east wind' metaphor. The first one is what most people believe, but the Johnlock reading is (in my opinion) plausible as well.

Thank you for asking, and I hope I haven't rambled on for too long!

[spiceberrie]

7, 8, 11, 16, EIGHTEEN, 19, 23. yes we have discussed many of these before. yes i listed like 20% of the questions

so dark-sided that i'm shielding both of us like WE KNOW WHAT WE THINK.... whatever!

7 - what character hockey player did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

technically they ARE characters in ficdom i just hate them outside of it too. i think ... maybe ... i soured on matthew tkachuk for a bit there because i can't stand when men are infantilized to that point. unsufferable. also zegras. just coddling and cognitive dissonance so in a way i have whoregate/zegras whole... season closing week to thank for some things.

8 - common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

i don't think i have controversial opinions like . mars and sasha themselves always (75% ish) agree with me so it's like if anything i'm with the common folk. maybe. there isn't much difference between sc87 and cm97 i think when you put in context very very different narratives + cmd coming later means everything he does can't stand in isolation. but still. sc87 is only as interesting as what you make of him.

11 - number of fandom-related words you've filtered

i can't even remember. jack hughes x r/eader nhl im/agines hockey player im/agines hockey player x re/ader. i don't really know LOL ted lasso ateez mattdrai 2919 drarry bts imagine bts s/cenarios bts ships destiel exo sc/enarios johnlock reddie richie sf9 stony taevin the rookie tkasaitil tokyo revengers twd imag/ine twd fanf/iction... honestly i don't even hate most of these anymore i just got sick and tired of it clogging up the searches LOL

16 - you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

well 🙂. for all my hating i do understand the mattdrai hype i just don't understand common characterizations or i do understand them and i hate them anyway. i like mattdrai kinda so let's think about something else. i don't understand people who are still widowing over ty smith let it gooooooooooo. or ty jost. or tyson barrie. sensing a pattern

tropes that i hate are too many i can't even think of one. at one point i tried to mute "gay panic" and "confident gay" @ ao3 my tolerance is too low

18 - it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

my underrated flop poor meow meow underdog understated fave connor mcdavid.... LOL but really and truly: mattias ekholm has such good interviews and i enjoy the way he speaks. there's a new story to be written ruled

19 - you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

also connor mcdavid. AND our problematic prosecuted fave brady tkachuk. i actually have enjoyed some mattdrai fics that are the magnum ops of the entire fandom fandom it's just that when it's bad it's bad lmao. i actually like sc87 and 8771/8728. i've been starting to enjoy mceichel too. honestly trevor zegras can be fun when he doesn't mean to be fun. the leafs minch cinematic universe are enjoyable when it's MINCHHHHHHHHH hours. and mars sold me on 1997 <3

23 - ship you've unwillingly come around to

this is where the previously mentioned 1997 comes around. i just don't get dylan strome on a personality level. pisces men astound me. i came around to 2919 at first and then i went back to my hater stance. mceichel because it's connor. 1634 because of minch and eversincewefellapart fic. 8771 after i read... i don't even remember what it was... and 8728 after mars also sold it to me and i love CLAUDE GIROUX now.

this was so fun thank yew

[merlinoutofcontext]

wait so why do you think merlin isn’t queerbaiting? this isn’t meant to be rude im just curious

hey! happy to answer, and i didn’t perceive your question as rude at all btw. here are my thoughts, i’m sorry they’re so long but i also don’t think this is a topic that can be summarized in a few sentences, so...

i don’t really know how else to say that it isn’t queerbaiting by just stating that it isn’t. there is very little evidence in the actual show to even claim that the show was at any point queerbaiting. but to be fair, i also think it’s important to note the term “queerbaiting” doesn’t even have an “official” definition so it can mean very different things to different people. this is the definition that i am working with.

“When an author/director/etc. gives hints, and clever twists to paint a character as possibly being queer, to satisfy queer audiences, but never outright says they are so they can keep their heterosexual audience.”

bbc merlin is a family show. and i don’t mean “family show” in the way that it is usually insinuated - as in it’s supposed to be “clean” and “nice” and “appealing” to a family audience, so therefore any queercoded message is bad and not appropriate. what i mean is that it’s a tv show that was expected to be approachable by families of all ages, at any point throughout the series, so that they can understand what’s happening. whether or not you watched the episode that aired the previous week has absolutely no bearing on the next episode. merlin only started having multi-episode arcs in series 3. and it’s this reason why i think so many ppl are dissatisfied with the show, bc it wasn’t meant to be this deep narrative. they didn't have enough time to write in full fledged storylines. but i digress.

i’m going to be using other tumblr obsessed tv show and ship as examples here. 

i will admit that my original post was sparked by some of the stuff surrounding supernatural that’s happened, but i’m not really going to speak to it much. i do think the internet may have went a bit overboard, and i don’t want to sit here and claim spn was queerbaiting its audience because i actually do think thats kind of a subjective thing. but in my opinion, the fact that they waited until their final season, and what appears to be a characters last episode, to make the ship that has been a large driving force of their remaining audience for the past 12 years, canon, does sit a little weird with me. anyway.

lets use another ship as an example that is literally, unequivocally queerbaiting. i don’t care about your opinion here, this show queerbaited the hell out of its audience for 7 literal years. johnlock.

multiple times throughout the show the relationship between john and sherlock is hinted at through the language of the show, by characters in the show, etc. more often than not, the concept of a relationship between them is framed as a joke. additionally, bbc’s sherlock kept the sexuality of their main character (coincidentally the titular character) ambiguous, while also managing to make fun of their audience of shippers for even thinking that johnlock could be a possibility. 

never once in bbc’s merlin is the concept of arthur and merlin being close to one another, or connected by fate/destiny/magic (which is often seen as being coded for sexuality) as a bad thing. not in the text of the show, not by the creators of the show, not by the actors in the show. in fact, even in the last episode, merlin’s devotion to arthur is only ever framed as a positive:

“Some men are born to plow fields, some live to be great physicians, others to be great kings. Me, I was born to serve you Arthur and I’m proud of that. And I wouldn’t change a thing.”

similarly, sometime after this arthur tells merlin to never change. in my opinion, a distinct aspect of a queerbaiting show is when the show places hints in the language used by the characters to say that a character might a) be queer in some way or b) have a relationship with someone of the same gender as them. but then when the fandom talks about this towards the actors, or the creators of the show, it’s immediately pushed away by creators and seen as a negative thing. or it’s completely ridiculous that the fandom would even think of such at thing.

people will argue that merlin’s devotion to arthur, and their relationship in general is what makes it queerbaiting. that by the sheer existence of some longwinded eye contact, or statements of friendship and devotion to each other that the show was queerbaiting its audience. but the difference is that merlin’s devotion to arthur and subsequently arthur’s devotion to merlin was never framed as a joke for the audience, or as a negative thing. it was written as something we are supposed to celebrate about merlin.

this show was never written with the intention for merlin and arthur to be together. it’s a retelling of arthurian myth with a bit of a twist in it. merlin and arthur are meant to be the main characters, but a romantic relationship was never on the table. 

characters do remark on merlin’s loyalty to arthur, but it’s always in a questioning way, a why is this man so loyal to the king? what is the big reason? and, yeah, the Big Reason is his magic and their shared destiny. and yes it’s a valid interpretation that magic/destiny = sexuality, and merlin = gay (used as an umbrella term here). but that doesn’t mean it’s queerbaiting. it’s just subtext.

and subtext =/= queerbaiting.

[inthememetime]

Do they text? Gandalf + The Company (and bonus Dís & Tauriel)

Thorin: Yes, but only when he's in a happy or normal mood. When upset, he calls or it's complete silence. He prefers texting to calling in general.

Dwalin: No. In fact, every time someone texts him, he just calls them or physically goes out to find them and talk face to face.

Oin: Yes, he does. He didn't when texting first came out, but due to his hearing loss, he finds it really useful.

Gloin: He is in 5 group chats right now, and spamming all of them with pictures of his children's sporting events, family vacations, and baby pictures.

Bifur: Not really. He uses a Nokia flip phone from the 90s. When he does text, he amazes literally everyone by how fast he can do it on that little thing.

Bofur: Yes, but there are so many autocorrect mistakes that nobody can understand him half the time.

Bombur: He thinks texting is too impersonal, and prefers to call or meet face to face. He will happily make an exception for sending pictures of food.

Balin: Yes. Especially when dealing with work, because he's a fan of CYA, and texts are, legally speaking, written and can be used in a court of law. Everyone is always surprised due to his age.

Dori: V e r y s l o w l y. W I t h l o t s o f e r e r s. C a n y o u j u s t c a l l m e ?

Ori: Yes! He loves to text because he's a little quiet and shy over the phone or face to face.

Nori: No, and he doesn't for the same reason Balin does. The only times he texts are answering texts from Ori or when he needs an alibi.

Fíli: All the time. To friends, family, pretty girls, pretty boys, pretty people in general. He's also the main one Thorin calls over to translate Bofur's autocorrects. He also texts people back to back one word by word until they respond if he feels like being a jerk.

Kíli: Yes, and outside of family, it tends to be strange conversations. Fíli is pretty sure dinosaurs are code for something in his and Tauriel's convos, but he is a paleontology major and she's a biology major, so maybe not? And why is he talking about ships and cannons so much? Thorin does not ask him to translate txt spch because once, Kíli told him LOL meant Lots of Love, and then he got a lot of angry calls from relatives when his grandfather finally kicked the bucket passed away.

(Dinosaurs are not code, but ice cream flavors are! He doesn't even eat ice cream, he's lactose intolerant.)

Tauriel: Pretty much exclusively to Dís, Kíli, Fíli, or Legolas. And she is a Forensic Pathology major, thank you very much Fíli! 50% of her convos are school or fic and fanart related with Kíli, the other half is for everyone else. She likes to send him pictures of half completed fanart and make him guess what it will be.

Bilbo: Usually, yeah. He's bad about getting distracted and forgetting he had a text though thanks to ADHD, so it's best to call him if you need something ASAP.

Gandalf: This man has to keep up with so many people. He's in 12 group chats, regrets all of them, and yet still asks for gossip.

Dís: Yes. She is also the only one who does understand Kíli's texts about ships and canons. They have a long running bet on how many Destiel, Johnlock, Tasertricks, and Matt/Foggy references they can make before anyone picks up on it.

This is also the reason Kíli has two AO3 accounts. He posts the cute, family friendly ones on the account his mom know about, and his...less family friendly ones on the other.

[bookdork1]

If you don’t want to answer, I am okay with that but why are posts saying that SPN fandom is having their own Johnlock conspiracy?

Hey! I don’t mind answering, but just a quick disclaimer, I wasn’t around for the Johnlock Conspiracy. I watched Sherlock and was aware how unhappy people in the fandom were with the last series, but I didn’t actually witness TJLC unfold in real time and only read about all its events in a masterpost a couple of years after the fact. So I can’t really say for certain how closely what’s going on in the spn fandom right now really correlates to TJLC. 

That being said, the reason people are saying the SPN fandom is in the midst of its own TJLC is because we are extremely suspect that the finale we received was not the finale as it was originally intended. Yet while TJLC was largely driven by pure fan spec, there is already like some actual proof that the CW/WB screwed us over and is in the midst of trying to gaslight unhappy fans into accepting the ending that we got. Below are a list of some of the finer points that have come out or been brought up in the days since the finale aired, some with links to excellent posts that explains each point individually:

1.) The CW/WB pushing the narrative that they couldn’t get Misha back to film because of Covid, despite the fact that we have literal proof that Misha was in Vancouver, quarantining, at the same time as Jensen and Jared.

2.) The weird way in which four separate montages and dean’s overly drawn out death scene are used to fill time in the finale coupled with the fact that there are scenes that are just *missing* (either edited out or just weren’t filmed) from 15x20: 

3.) Misha saying Cas was supposed to have a different ending (this was said separately from what he later said about the Jimmy Novak thing, which is a whole separate spec). It's obvious he can’t speak freely about any of it without having to risk professional repercussions and we can assume that’s true for everyone part of the cast and crew.

4.) Jared being the only main cast (or crew) member to say *anything* positive about the finale episode when everyone else is free from ass kissing while he has a new show set to air in January. He cannot currently make enemies with the network, so his silence would be too deafening, while the others’ is more subtle. I don’t have a direct link to this because I didn’t save/reblog any of it, but his post on twitter and stuff from his interview today is out there. 

5.) Jensen doing ADR work for 15x18 after they had already wrapped filming on the final two episodes. This particular part of the finalegate hasn’t been proven, but it is suspect as hell —edit: we know Jensen did ADR, that’s not what isn’t proven, what’s up for debate is whether or not he dubbed over an (affirmative) verbal response from dean to the love confession—

6.) The market research that went into Destiel. While this particular post doesn’t have strict relevance to what’s going on in the finale, it does indicate that people behind the scenes have been pushing for a long time to get destiel canonized and on the air. There was intent to end the queerbaiting and that intent made it very far up the foodchain, but it obviously still lost out in the end.

7.) The part of this that is most centered on fan instinct is one section of the fandom’s insistence that the bad finale should not be laid squarely at the feet of Dabb and the writers. This piece of the puzzle comes down to simple critical thinking skills, because one look at the carefully crafted four season arc of the show under Dabb’s tenure speaks to why 15x20 is not only ooc for Sam and Dean but also for the writers who helped them grow so much in four seasons. Dabb isn’t D&D, he didn’t just forget what changed in the show while he was in charge, a lot of which was about expanding Sam and Dean’s found family and allowing them to grow away from each other and their toxic codependency. That’s why it makes no sense for Dabb to then give us a brothers-only (and 20 seconds of Bobby!) finale. 

BONUS.) Samantha Ferris saying she and Chad Tyler Lindbergh were never invited back for the final episode of Supernatural. While this one doesn’t have direct bearing on the rest of what I’ve said, it is really weird that they weren’t going to be around for Dean’s heavenly surprise party when it was literally set to occur in Ellen’s roadhouse. I really don’t think Jenny the vampire would have showed up without covid, but why would Ellen and Jo and Ash not be around even in a better world where everything would have filmed on schedule and aired back in May? Its just *weird* that characters that are still beloved would have been shafted like this. 

I *think* I hit all the highlights of #spnfinalegate, I’m honestly no expert, but this has been what I’ve observed going on in the last few days

**edit** other people are tackling this question so much better, so here’s links to those posts as well: 

this one is more a general gathering of off things and sources

and this one is like an overall amazing explanation PLEASE READ THIS ONE

[vulpesmellifera]

Author Interview Tag Game

I was tagged by @discordantwords. Thanks so much for tagging me!

Name: Vulpesmellifera

Fandoms: BBC Sherlock, Hannibal, The Witcher, and Good Omens

Where you post: AO3

Most popular multi-chapter fic: Taking Flight (Mystrade), though I think that’s because it is 51 chapters long, and that gets you a lot of hits. When it comes to kudos or bookmarks, it’s Hand Me Your Armour (Mystrade). 

Favourite story you’ve written so far: WHYYYYYY is this a question? Jeez. Okay, I suppose I really, really love the fic I’m currently posting, The Ghost in the Graphite (Mystrade). It has romance, mystery, and ghosts. But I also love Written in Skin (Mystrade). I wasn’t a fan of it when I first posted it, but the reader response allowed me to see it at other angles, and I grew to love it. It has surprised me. 

Fic you were nervous to post: My very first fic, To Capture Light (Mystrade), was nerve-wracking to post. I had nothing to worry about, because the Mystrade fandom is amazingly kind and warm. And any time I post a fic for a new pairing, so I was very nervous before posting Haunted (Johnlock), The Slippery Dark (The Witcher), and The Thing in the House (Hannigram), which I haven’t finished posting yet. (Okay, so I wrote two other Hannigrams before The Thing in the House, but they were both very short, and I figured would get very little attention.)

How you choose your titles: The titles normally rise up in my brain with the birth of the fic. Sometimes they change. They’re usually based on the overarching theme of the fic. “Haunted” refers to more than actual ghosts, “The Thing the House” is very Bluebeard-esque, “Hand Me Your Armour” is about letting your guard down and being vulnerable with another person. 

Do you outline: Yes. I made the mistake of not really outlining the first fic I ever wrote, the never-been-posted “A Field of Stars.” It’s 200,000 words of a lot of meandering, and I could never bring myself to edit it and post it. Sometimes I think about that Greg or that Mycroft, and an ache of longing prickles between my ribs. But I promise you, it’s a mess. I’ve outlined every story since then and oh boy, does that make it easier for me. 

Complete: I have 32 completed works, but that includes like five drabbles.

In progress: The Thing in the House and The Ghost in the Graphite are being posted. The Killing Principle (Johnlock) and The Pull of You (Johnlock) are being edited.  And The Skin-Eater’s Bible (Hannigram) is being written. 

Coming soon/not yet started: I’ve got six fics chasing their tails in my mind. One is a Johnlock AU with a forbidden forest, another is a Johnlock canon-divergence after the morgue scene, the third is a Mystrade English Murder Village, the fourth is a Hannigram AU with Will as a horror writer, the fifth is a Mystrade continuation of Craquelure, and the sixth is a Sherlock and Hannibal crossover. I wish I could just write fic all day. Not sure what order I’ll end up writing these. 

Do you accept prompts: I’m open to prompts, but I don’t always get to them. I have about five unfinished WIPs that are prompts from other people, but I write them basically when I have a little time to add to them. 

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: The Johnlock AU with the forbidden forest has some scenes that I CANNOT WAIT to write. 

Upcoming story you are most excited about: I am excited about posting The Killing Principle...it’s a Johnlock AU with serial killers and assassins, and a Johnlock pairing that are super sweet together until the shit hits the fan. I think people will like it.

Tagging: @hippocrates460, @mottlemoth , @lavenderandvanilla , @merindab , @oneblueumbrella, @meansgirlwrites and absolutely anyone else who sees this and wants to play along!

[kajaono]

Open letter to Sarah Z

I genuinely believe that you, Sarah, are a really clever human. How else would you be able to get 700.000+ people to watch YT videos that are longer then an hour in a time where most do not even have the patience to read simple newspaper articles? You know how to polarize people, for sure

Nevertheless here you seem to forget that you are talk about real human beings. You promise to treat us with repsect but your tweets tell another story.

Allready know you comments are full of people calling us dumb (And the video is not even released yet)

Comments like that have allready forced Rebs to take down her videos, because you are not the first nor the last person to make a video about TJLC and creating an influx of trolls and harassment.

You are working with this material for long, were even an ex-fan(?), but many of your viewers will be new to TJLC. Instead of knowing TJLC and all the nuance for years, they will encounter if for 1 to 2 hours. And no matter how respctful your video will be, they will laugh at us. Because they know better. They know how the show ended, we didn’t. Not when we wrote the metas. And most importantly: We are not responsible for how the show ended.

If Johnlock would be canon by now, what video could you make instead?

Another comment came up in your answeres and I know many people will think like that. Maybe even you:

Which is of course wrong. You know why many of us do not use our real names. Because tumblr is one of the few places in the internet noone is paying attention to. That is completly LGBTQ positive. Many people come here to figure out their sexuality or live their sexuality out in the open, because where they come from they are not allowed to do so. TJLC was such a place. I figured out I am bisexual of TJLC. Many people found friends, romantic partners, published Thesis and started with writing, drawing and video editing. Even In a hearbeat is by ex-Johnlockers. We created a safe place with TJLC. A safe place that many left once the show was over. But our posts are still there, for everyone to find. And you, Sarah, decided to dig them out again, present them to your viewers who will also come here and laugh at us. And you know they do.

Some parts of the internet are on tumblr, without real names for a reason. because we want to stay in anonymity. It is free to everyone to enter, but if you want to shit on it, don’t act surprised and as the victim when we fight back,

Let us go back to: Respect, okay? You wrote you will be respectful, but how do you call selling merch with OUR slogans? IF you would be repsctful you would point out people to real TJLC merch. Yes, you retweet Char’s posts, but only to make fun of it, knowing your followers will see. Who attacked Char because they lost their job due to the pandemic. Great fucking job Sarah!

Respect.... Respect would to invite us into your show. Let US talk. Yeah, you might be an ex-fan, but i know way to sure how bitter ex fan can be. Let US, who we are still here in the TJLC fandom, tell our story. Do not talk of us, but WITH us.

Johnlock is even longer around then the Spirk fandom. What next? mocking spirks for hoping that it will be canon soon? Creating content  years after the show ended? We are not here for your entertainment Sarah.

WE are real human beings, who deserve some respect. Our content might be out there for everyone else to read, but that is not an inventation to laugh at us, harrass us. We deserve the same repsct as a straight ship that became canon in the end. Even more talking in mind that we are queer beings, who created our own safe space and you want to throw 100.000s of trolls on us.

Respect does not mean that we have to justify us even BEFORE the video is even released

And at least, what goal do you follow with that video? Educate people? Do you really think people died unhappy because they didn’t knew what TJLC is/was? Definitly not. It is for your own profit and amusment. Never forget that.

Signed,

Kaja

[thesharondefenseleague]

Yesss thank you for bringing up the Sam Bucky queerbaiting like the moment they ended up on top of each other?

They knew absolutely what they were doing how it could be seen and that there was an audience out there that would love that indication that they were appealing to with that content. But of course its just to get their money and views and they never intend to follow through on that indication and loose their homophobic fans.

So ya absolute queer bait. Steve and Bucky never had moments like that. Ya they had dramatic maybe slightly cheesy heartfelt dialogue but thats not the same thing.

I so often see SteveBucky on the same list as Destiel or Johnlock for like examples of queerbaited couples and it seems like fans just see queerbaiting as any duo that could have had romantic potential that they liked and wasn't made canon. And like i get it you feel strongly for your otp.

But don't call it queerbaiting when its not. Especially next to those more insidious queerbaiting examples. That makes people think its a shipping thing rather than a minipulative marketing tactic that is often at the expense of minority group that craves representation.

There is that joke about straight girls being the ones who ship these gay ships and get salty about not seeing their favs make out. But there are alot of lgbt people who ( no suprise) gravitate towards these non straight ships too.

So many times ive seen teen girls get shit on for shipping gay ships calling it them fetishizing gay men just for having gay ships and later see that they were actually either not straight or not girls or both. They were just struggling with their sexuality not ready to come out and gravitated towards reprentations of things that were less heteronormative but wasn't associated exclusively with gay people.

And while im sure there were straight people out there who really wanted their gay otp to be canon its the young lgbt people who gonna get screwed over the most by this queerbaiting. They were young and hopeful and thought this mainstream thing they loved was validating them when it was really just leading them on for views. This isnt exclusive to lgbt people either.

Ive seen this happen with black characters too where the promise of them being important and relevant is used to draw in a black people get them watching to drive up viewership and then sideline them ( like say in Star Wars).

Its one thing if you want to put in representation and arent allowed to so you imply as much as possible. You see that often with childrens television for example. But this is almost the opposite of that. Its more insidious and often despite purposely baiting in show they will gaslight in interviews and say fans are reading too much into it. And sometimes there will later be evidence that baiting was discussed in the writers room.

Its all a huge dick move that people are complaining about and putting in say Stucky ,which didnt do that, on the same queerbaiting list of Johnlock or Destiel, which did, kinda makes that level of queerbaiting into just fan favorite gay ships that didn't become canon and people are salty.

Yeah, one of those ships is not like the others. There are a few video essays online about how queerbaiting was used to get fans while the creators simultaneously (for J/L, we all know what happened on 5 November) denied it would be canon. Steve and Bucky on the other hand haven’t been given the J/L treatment. Queerbaiting has to be on the J/L levels of insidious or the Betty and Veronica kissing in the trailer and going right into nowhere levels of baiting for views.

But Sam and Bucky. Is this why we don’t see Sam paired with anyone? Is Sam closeted?? Seriously, let’s run with this. What if Sam is closeted, because it’s hard enough to be a black man who is in the army, then a superhero who is an extremely public figure (because forget secret identities), who is then Captain America and probably the most famous person in the world, and here’s this guy who he wants to be friends with and also kind of prove his worth to, and he’s fun to mess around with, but fuck he’s kind of cute, with that face he makes when he’s messed with, and then you roll around in a field like that...

I would like to point out that in these past few years, we have collectively grown out of a time where m/m ships had a lot of fetishization in fandom. I don’t think we realize it, but I remember how much there used to be (and especially trans fetishization, I haven’t seen that in years when that used to be a huge thing). It’s nice that now we can see these characters as more human and less thing to get off to. And it does have a lot to do with LGBTQ+ fans given more of a voice in fandom. That being said, you can’t just say Steve and Bucky are queerbaited. The writers and directors have never once used that idea to sell you on their films. Their actors have never once played it up for the camera to mess with their fans. The only character that has that is Peggy. (Someone else remembers those being a thing with Agent Carter, right??) And in a time where Marvel is going to have canon queer relationships on-screen, we need to show support of them and stand for the characters who risk having their identities erased, especially when teams like the Young Avengers come around.

But also there is a lot of subtext to support that Sam could have a coming out narrative that I don’t think will ever happen, but would be a plot twist conclusion to the #givecapaboyfriend movement from way back. I mean, Sam has deliberately not been given a romantic story. This could be why. (But don’t hold out for it. Oh god, what if Sam and Bucky are the queerbaited ship??? Another plot twist.)

~Mod R

[marta-bee]

More Mary Thoughts

@wizardlysherlok replied to this post on AGRA/Agra parallels in Doyle-cannon and BBC-canon:

it feels like if AGRA was empty of full, it wouldn’t be right for john neither way: if it was full, it would the the great betrayal and also the “she wasn’t supposed to be like that”, the wife who lied immensely to her husband and(for god sakes) shot his bf. If it was empty it wouldn’t work either because it was boring and the same life john was trying to scape because it was making him unhappy...conclusion : Mary does not work for john in every way 

Ooh, a chance to talk about Mary generally! I’ve apparently got just enough codeine still in my system, and it’s close enough to the witching hour, that this seems like a fun topic rather than the don’t-poke-the-bear dread that usually falls on me when I speak her name in this fandom. Here’s hoping I don’t regret this come tomorrow.

Even in Doyle canon, I never particularly liked Mary’s story, which is meant as a judgment on Doyle and not some fictional woman. She’s clearly introduced because Watson --being a romantic-- needs a romantic partner, and for a whole host of historical reasons Doyle felt like it needed to be a woman. Any woman would do, apparently. And even without getting into issues of whether this is akin to queerbaiting, it also just makes for a very boring character IMO. Mary is the equivalent of a Bond girl : more saintly than sex-appeal, perhaps, but who only really exists as an object the male characters get to react against. There’s precious little of Mary specifically that makes any difference to SIGN.

I do like some of the grace notes Doyle gives her in later stories. I think there’s a reference in one of the stories that she had a reputation for being both kind and clever and women from her neighborhood came to her to help them solve their little problems, a sort of more everyday vision of Sherlock Holmes. But at least in SIGN she’s a walking trope and frustratingly little more. 

I think the Granada series was wise to leave her out almost entirely. (She only appears in the movie version of SIGN, and there is only a client.) She just would have been a distraction to the story they were trying to tell. In the RDJ/Jude Law movies she’s actually brilliantly done, somehow challenging and supporting their relationship at the same time. She’s also witty and daring and would not seem at all out of place in a Jane Austen novel with all that witty back-and-foth, and all three of them have this great chemistry. If ever there was an adaptation that screamed both Johnlock and Johnlockary (and of course Warstan), it’s this one.

Goodness, we need more fanfic about Kelly Reilly’s Mary. I need to write her again. She’s brilliant.

Which brings us to the BBC. I’m going to be very brave and say my biggest problem with her isn’t that she wedged herself into John’s and Sherlock’s relationship and somehow came away with the right to dictate its terms, even posthumously. It’s not even that she lied to her husband and manipulated him, endangering him and their child in the process; or that she shot Sherlock, or was an assassin who apparently went mercenary. All of that could be really interesting if done well! And really, I can think of storylines that would actually justify quite a lot of that. Even shooting, even killing Sherlock, even not being apologetic about it after the fact- I could write a story where that character made sense as a romantic opposite to John. I actually got about 10,000 words into one attempt, though I never finished or published it because the fandom was pretty toxic to anyone interested in a more shades-of-grey ersion of Mary at the time.

No, what really drives me up the wall with BBC’s version of Mary is they don’t really settle on any one version of her. Actually in each of the five episodes she appears in, there’s this radically different version of who she are and what motivates her: supportive friend; bride; sociopath assassin; government agent; martyr. The most sympathetic take on that I can give is that Sherlock himself is trying to figure her out and can’t make sense of her so keeps trying one mold after another. But whatever the intent, the effect is that Mary’s just ridiculously muddled for me, and I never really connected to her because I didn’t understand her. I’m not sure the show-runners did either. Seeing what Moffat in particular did with women characters in Doctor Who makes me think he genuinely struggles to find them interesting if they aren’t really... extra, for lack of a better word. John and Sherlock, being men, had their BAMF moments but also a psychology that actually made sense along somewhat normal terms; Mary had to be a super-sekrit assassin, and a rogue that was targeted by a media mogul, and the hero who saved Holmes and then did it again from beyond the grave. All of which would have been fine if it actually came from a coherent characterization. But BBC’s Mary was all BAMF and stunning reveals and little to no coherence that made that make sense, so her character never really developed any kind of a reality for me. My brain couldn’t make sense of her, so my heart never latched on either. In the end I was just left confused and frustrated

Even all these years later! I still don’t know what to make of her, and that’s just bad writing. I would love to have a Mary who lied from start to finish with John “Trust Issues” Watson, or who shot Sherlock to the chest where it somehow made sense. That could be fascinating. It’s not what we got, though; at least it’s not what I was able to get out of the show.

Here’s another thing that would be fascinating, and I’d really love to see in some adaptation; even this one, though I don’t think we’ll get it. Mary Morstan in 1895 makes some sort of sense even with a suspiciously close friendship between Holmes and Watson, because male friendships operated in a very different realm than heterosexual marriages did. There were different kinds of intimacies in that time, I think. But when you bring the characters into the modern world, it eems like a super-close friendship like Holmes and Watson seem to have, one that seem to emotionally resemble marriage even if there’s no physical/sexual component, would be a challenge to what any self-respecting modern woman would tolerate from her husband. I don’t mean because it makes John gay, and of course married people can have friends, but there’s something about John and Sherlock that in the modern world strays damned close to emotional infidelity. 

I mean, how can you have that without either weakening the relationship between John and Sherlock, or making Mary cuckolded in some sense? Now throw into the mix in this particular adaptation, even before Mary, John and Sherlock had a ... unique relationship. John would date and have sex (or not), Sherlock would be stuck in seemingly perpetual celibacy, but if Sherlock dared to date (and I think this would be true for a man as well as a woman) John goes into a disbelieving jealous rage. This strikes me as not normal male friendship, though it’s not romantic or sexual either. It’s queerplatonic af on Sherlock’s side, increasingly stretching the bounds of what can be called “platonic”, and for John, it’s kind of a monodirectional monogamy in at least an emotional sense. I mean, the man went and got married, but we all saw his reaction when Sherlock dared to (seemingly) date someone else.

Now throw a modern woman into that mix, trying to marry and start a family with one half of a duo in that truly fucked-up dynamic. Imagine what it would be like for her to exist in that world. You can imagine polyamory of some variety, or jealousy, or a very altered view from what the mainstream imagnes are the expectations of married life, or whatever spin you like to put on it. 

I guarantee you -- if done well -- it would be fascinating. And I’d very much like to see it. Or read it, or something. If you want to make that woman as much of a danger junkie as John, as much of a skilled, professional killer, wehther on the government’s payroll or a disillusioned former agent who refused to follow orders and was forced to “branch out” or even just a true psychopath who was utterly self-motivated and ruthless but still wanted to protect John or at least what John represented to her? 

Well, that could be fascinating, too. Even more so. There’s just one catch: you’ve got to actually tell the story. They never seemed to get around to that, and I think I’m still more than a bit bitter.

..... And apparently I’m rambling. Thanks for allowing me to talk about her a bit. I’ll shut up now. :-)

[fanishjuli]

i wouldn’t mind getting those johnlock fic recs now..... 👉👈

ok, ok that's great, look- idk what you like, idk what you tend to prefer, but! these are some of my favourite fics ever:

Notes On A Love Story by A_Candle_For_Sherlock (@a-candle-for-sherlock ), (G, 4k w, ACD Holmes) "Watson finds a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray in Holmes' room. Or: what happens when a queer novel upends Baker Street." - this is a canon acd Holmes fic, it's an absolutely lovely story, written in beautiful Victorian style, obviously related to Oscar Wilde and his story-- no spoilers tho! but even if you're not a big fan of Victorian fics or whatever, give this a try, it's a beautiful story and A-Candle-For-Sherlock writes Victorian Holmes like noone else does, really, give this a try

A Case for Domestic Propinquity by SilentAuror (@silentauroriamthereal ), (E, 32k w, post s4 fix it) "As Sherlock and John renovate Baker Street with Rosie underfoot, Sherlock can't help but wondering how he could possibly convince John to just stay indefinitely..." - a friends to lovers fic very domestic

Without Words by allonsys_girl, (E, 12k w, h/c) "John and Sherlock have been together for six months and Sherlock still hasn't said "I love you". Then John gets hurt, and Sherlock expresses how much John really means to him." - super romantic and sweet

Two Years As Your Interpreter by prettyvk (@prettyvk ), (E, 42k w, teenlock, AU) "John isn’t scared of Sherlock or of the adults around them. But he is scared of this Message. He is scared he’ll be there, in two years, right next to Sherlock, watching and unable to do a damn thing when he dies. Because the true Message was, “Don’t expect to make a career out of this interpreter thing. I’ll die in two years.” - a really f-ing beautiful story with teenlock and some supernatural/fantastic elements to it that even if you aren't a fan of AUs is so worth the read

More Things Than Are Dreamt Of (s) by 1electricpirate, (M-E, 38k w, HP AU) "In which John is (reluctantly) a wizard, Mycroft is (apparently) omniscient, and Sherlock is (surprisingly) oblivious." - the best fucking harry potter au I've ever read in my life, it's honestly so good and it's really funny and just a great story overall, even if you've never seen hp, even if you don't like hp, give this series a chance.

The Lost Special: Family Matters (As Do Relationships) by ShirleyCarlton (@shirleycarlton ), (M, 144k w, post s4 fix it) "Sherrinford is not really the name of some high security prison. That was just a figment of John’s frantic coma dream. And Eurus is not actually Sherlock’s sister. That’s just something random she said to John before shooting him. Sherlock and John were never actually estranged. That was just their act to cover up what really happened to Mary – or Rosamund Moran, as her real name has turned out to be. Sherlock does have a secret sibling, though, and his name is Sherrinford.

After finally eliminating Moran – though in a rather dramatically different way than they had envisioned – and exposing the truth about Eurus, John encourages Sherlock to delve into his past and to find out whether the reasons to keep Sherrinford away from Sherlock were the right ones, and to discover what really happened in 1981. Along the way, Sherlock and John gradually, finally, stop keeping each other at a distance, and eventually become a proper family of their own." - the perfect fix it, 144k words over 40 chapters, it's a beautiful story and it literally clears out every single inconsistency that's been on this show no matter how small it is, it's honestly amazing, I think everyone that's ever watched Sherlock should read this, it blew my mind and I've been reccing it in every chance I get ever since lmao

other than that I'm going to shamelessly rec myself, it's just short (1-4k mostly) fluff, that's all I can write lmao

and other than that, these are a bunch of people who often rec fics and are amazing; @alexxphoenix42 or @alexxsficrecs , @inevitably-johnlocked , @swissmissficrecs , @johnlockfanficrec , @sarahthecoat , @strangelock221b (mostly sherlolly tho) annnddd I'm missing someone but I can't remember rn, but there's a lot of amazing people who rec amazing fics

if you want anything specific feel free to ask me! (or any of these guys ☝️ who do the same thing but better) and you can find every other fic I've ever recced on my #fic rec tag (I'm not sure that's gonna work on mobile), and there's a ton of reblogs of other people's recs as well so you could check them out too

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi Steph! What are your and you readers' favorite Johnlock visiting the Holmes parents fics? I'm talking about canon Holmeses - the ones we see in the show :)

Hi Nonny!! 

Ah, I’ve only got a few, but I’m sure everyone would love to add their own!

VISITING THE HOLMESES

Engaged by lifeonmars (NR, 3,146 w. || Marriage Proposal, Fluff, Holmes Family, Song Fic) – Sherlock did not believe in marriage, but he wanted to be married. He found this something of a surprise. Part 2 of Damage

Christmas at Holmes Cottage by johnlockedstarkid (G, 4,295 w., 7 Ch. || Christmas, Fake Relationship, Love Confessions, Holmes Family, Pining, Kisses, Fluff, Allusions to Mystrade) – Sherlock doesn’t want to have to deal with his mother’s wishes for him to find a partner when he goes to visit them for Christmas, so asks John to pose as his boyfriend. Little does he know he’s not the only one who wishes that the relationship could be real.

The Only Available Transportation by blueink3 (T, 5,379 w., 1 Ch. || Post S4, Fluff and Angst, Insecure Sherlock, Caring John, Parentlock, Sherlock’s Birthday, Family, Misunderstandings) – It’s possibly the desperation that’s seeped into his voice despite his best intentions, or perhaps it’s just a mother’s intuition, but she knows that whatever he’s calling about is Serious, hangover be damned. “What’s happened?” she asks, tone soft and as comforting as a hot cup of tea on a cold winter’s night. “Mummy,” he begins, voice catching. “I think John may be moving out.”

Maybe This Christmas by feverishsea (T, 6,021 w., 1 Ch. || Matchmaker Anthea, Anthea POV, Slight Mystrade, Holmes Family) – Anthea has given up her life, her own desires, even her name in service of something greater than herself. But that doesn’t mean she can’t see when someone else wants something – even if she doesn’t happen to care overmuch for that person. And it doesn’t mean she isn’t willing to help.

that thing you like by misspamela (E, 7,165 w., 1 Ch. || Holmes Family, Fake Relationship, Friends to Lovers) – “Happy Christmas, etc. etc.” Sherlock and John go to the Holmes’ for Christmas, and everyone thinks they’re together.

Merlot by Itsallfine (E, 14,844 w., 17 Ch. || Christmas, Pining Sherlock, Wine, Slow Burn, First Kiss / Time, Love Confessions, Wine, Holmes Family) – Sherlock and John work toward becoming something more as they prepare to host the Holmes parents at 221B for the holidays. Part of 25 Days of Fic-Mas 2015.

Never-Ending Cycle by orphan_account (T, 17,211 w., 1 Ch. || Christmas, Est. Rel., Proposal, Fluff) – Or, four times Sherlock Holmes attempted to propose to John Watson, and the Christmas Party at which he finally did. Sherlock thinks he’s a miserable failure, John is confused, Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade provide some unsatisfactory advice, and Mummy is, as always, the solution. All in a lovely, fluffy holiday theme.

Winter’s Delights by Kate_Lear (E, 21,173 w., 1 Ch. || Holmes Family, Christmas, Fake Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Bed Sharing, Domestics) – Sherlock takes John home for Christmas to meet the extended Holmes family. Part 1 of Winter’s Delights

echoes through time by chellefic (E, 21,619 w. || First Time, Romance, ACD & BBC, Epistolary) – Mummy sends a trunk from the Holmes cottage in Sussex to 221B. Its contents alter the way John and Sherlock see themselves and one another.

Ghost Stories by SwissMiss (M, 22,256 w., 1 Ch. || Pining, Holmes Family, Christmas, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Bed Sharing, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, First Time) – Sherlock’s parents think he and John are a couple. They might be onto something.

Hitting the Water at Sixty Miles an Hour by what_alchemy (E, 30,568 w., 5 Ch. || Fake Rel., Roadtrips, Slow Burn, Mummy Holmes) – “You love your mother, Sherlock?” John watched the muscles in Sherlock’s jaw jump. He nodded in one sharp jerk. “Then we’re going to her party and making her happy.” John let out a resigned sigh. “As a ruddy couple, you bastard.”

An Acquired Taste by kinklock (E, 31,059 w., 4 Ch. || Vampires AU || Vampire Sherlock, Misunderstandings, Bat!Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Humour, Magical Realism, Fluff and Angst, Blood Drinking, Holmes Family, Slow Burn) – At Montague Street when Sherlock was forced to sate his body’s needs, he was at least able to wander about the flat as much as he pleased. At Baker Street, it was mini-bags in a mini-fridge and bedroom confinement.

Spare Change by Ermerness (E, 51,966 w., 14 Ch. || Rich Holmeses AU || First Kiss / Time, Holmes Family, Virgin Sherlock, Anal, First Meetings, Bossy Bottomlock) – The Holmes family is one of the richest and most powerful in England. Sherlock spends his time flying around the world on the family’s private jet drinking a lot and shopping at expensive boutiques as a way of trying to alleviate his endless boredom. His mother decides it’s time he settles down with someone powerful, wealthy and well connected. John Watson happens to be none of those things.

John Watson’s Twelve Days of Christmas by earlgreytea68 (M, 53,464 w., 14 Ch. || Christmas, Holmes Family, Fake Relationship, Alternate First Meeting, Falling in Love, Fluff and Angst, Hardcore Pining) – It’s the holiday season. John Watson needs money. Sherlock Holmes needs something else.

The Wedding Garments by cwb (E, 105,390 w., 36 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Alternate Future AU || Alternate First Meeting, Dating / Arranged Marriages, Romance, First Kiss/Time, Heavy Petting, Cuddles, POV Sherlock, Virgin Sherlock, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn / Falling in Love / Dev. Rel., Nervous/Anxious Sherlock, Jealous/Cranky, Hiking, Vacation Homes / Honeymoon, Sherlock’s Family, Horny John/Sherlock, Patient John, Massages, Hand Jobs, Assassination Plots, Hand Jobs / Oral Sex, Case Fic, Emotional Love Making, Bath Time Fun) – This is the story of a young consulting detective who wants nothing to do with marriage and an army doctor who wants to find true love. It’s 2020 post-Brexit England and the British government is encouraging arranged marriages. Candidates meet through state-run agencies and date in hopes of finding love (and tax benefits). Sherlock doesn’t need or want a spouse, at least not until John Watson shows up. Hesitant to give in to his more carnal urges because of the way they derail his mind, how will Sherlock progress toward the more intimate aspects of a relationship? The answer lies in a very special wedding gift.

MARKED FOR LATER

(I haven’t read any of these, but I’ve tagged them as “Holmes Family” so I presume that they play a part in their lives)

Pillow Replacement by Atisenia (T, 4,754 w., 1 Ch. || Fluff, Humour, Domestic Fluff, Misunderstandings, Visiting the Holmeses) – They're visiting Sherlock's parents and Sherlock is acting very domestic. Is he only pretending for his parents' sake?

All I Want For Christmas by Mssmithlove (E, 19,508 w., 1 Ch. || Unilock, Mystrade, Christmas, Holmes Family, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Pining) – Taking Sherlock’s platonic university flatmate home with him for Christmas can be a tricky business. Especially when he wishes their relationship wasn’t platonic at all. Part 18 of Happiness Awaits

Sherlock Holmes & The Mysterious Ex by Gatergirl79 (M, 27,942 w. || Family, Romance, Holmes Family) – Sherlock and John are forced to spend Christmas with Sherlock’s family. An unsettling idea especially when John will have to play ‘Boyfriend’ thanks to Mycroft. But why exactly does Sherlock want to avoid a family party?

Sacré Coeur by Mamaorion (M, 95,235 w., 27 Ch. || S4 Fix It Rewrite, First Kiss, UST / RST, Eventual Happy Ending, Coming Out, Holmes Family, Marriage Proposal, Husbands, Healing, Evil Mary, Beekeeping, Caretaker Sherlock, Mind Palace, Alzheimer’s Disease, Protective / Big Brother Mycroft, TD-12) – In this s4 fixit, John must piece together the gaps in his altered memory if he and Sherlock are to face the terror that has plagued Sherlock since childhood. As they untangle the web, seven years of hidden love ignite.

October to Hogmanay by snorklepie (E, 127,318 w., 25 Ch. || Post HLV Fix-It, Awkward First Times, Hurt/Comfort, Sherlock is a Mess, Shameless Smut, Sherlock’s Past, Scotland, Poison, Holmes Family, Kilts, Dancing, Angst) – John stared at Sherlock’s profile against the cab window and exhaled slowly. After a long moment, he reached out and touched Sherlock’s long fingers where they were fiddling with the button on his coat. The tall man didn’t look around again, but his fingers slowly unfurled before curling deliberately around John’s hand. Part 2 of Scotland

The Lost Special: Family Matters (As Do Relationships) by ShirleyCarlton  (M, 144,688 w., 40 Ch. || S4 Fix It Fic, Unreliable Narrator, John’s Mind Bungalow, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending) – Sherrinford is not really the name of some high security prison. That was just a figment of John’s frantic coma dream. And Eurus is not actually Sherlock’s sister. That’s just something random she said to John before shooting him. Sherlock and John were never actually estranged. That was just their act to cover up what really happened to Mary – or Rosamund Moran, as her real name has turned out to be. Sherlock does have a secret sibling, though, and his name is Sherrinford. After finally eliminating Moran – though in a rather dramatically different way than they had envisioned – and exposing the truth about Eurus, John encourages Sherlock to delve into his past and to find out whether the reasons to keep Sherrinford away from Sherlock were the right ones, and to discover what really happened in 1981. Along the way, Sherlock and John gradually, finally, stop keeping each other at a distance, and eventually become a proper family of their own.

The Edinburgh Problem by snorklepie(E, 152,095 w., 39 Ch. || Post-HLV/S3 Fix It, Pre-Slash/Bromance to Romance, Travelling, Humour, First Kiss/Time, Holmes Family, Sherlock’s Big Feelings, Hurt/Comfort, Family Secrets, Case Fic, Slow Burn, Flashbacks, Attempted Sexual Assault, Jealousy, Implied Rape/Non-Con) – After he separates from Mary, John returns to Baker Street. Following a request for help from Sherlock’s cousin Violet, the detective and his blogger take a trip to Edinburgh. John discovers more about the Holmes family and Sherlock than he bargained for, but tries not to run screaming. Part 1 of the Scotland series

[lizthirose]

Ok but supernatural is like super homophobic. (And so is the actor confessing lol). Liek. He literally gets sent to hell right after confessing. The show literally just said “if you are gay you will go to hell”

Hi there Nonni!

Well. This is an interesting point; one, however, I can’t agree with. See, here’s the thing. I get why people think Supernatural is “super homophobic”. I know many think so, that much becomes clear if you spend enough time on Tumblr, which is by the way one of the reasons I have been absent for so long from here.

Because here is the other thing: I don’t see it that way. I recognize there are certain issues, but having grown up the way I have, I have a different view on things. I don’t negate what many feel Supernatural is and does, and that it is sometimes, oftentimes, problematic for them. It’s just not how I see it.

Around seven years ago I received an anon regarding the Johnlock ship. Here I discussed whether popular media and the audience are ready to see such a canon ship between its two main (male) characters. A lot has happened since then; nevertheless it is still not an easy thing to realize on screen. We may be openminded here on Tumblr, and many others out there have since followed. But our society, and I’m talking about earth’s whole population, is still far from accepting homosexuality, or LGBTQ+ in general, as “normal”. If you want to blame anyone for that - don’t blame the people, or the writers. Blame the teachings especially of church(es) that have always and still condemn anything other than the heteronormative. Back in 2014 I said you don’t change the world overnight, and not even in a decade or two. But when I think back, I believe we have already come a long way, and we’ll soldier on, all of us who know that love is love, and who want everyone live their life the way they feel is best for them.

But back to Supernatural. 

No matter what they do on the show, the cast and crew are well aware that there are probably millions of Destiel shippers in the whole world. We are what, 90-95% of the fandom? Okay, maybe a little less, but we certainly are the majority, that I am sure of.

I think we can also agree that the cast and crew, and mostly the writers, are also aware that this show is ending. 

So there is this one thing that has been going around in my head since a few hours earlier (though being in Europe, it was the middle of the night and I decided to first get some sleep instead of writing something about it):

What if they stopped caring? 

Up until now, when there were still episodes and seasons to come, they had to tread carefully. Supernatural may have a strong and massive fanbase around the world, but ratings are still decided in the US. And viewership there does not only consist of fans/shippers. Up until now they had to consider all viewers, what they could gain and what they could lose because of their writing decisions. It’s a fine line between enthralling someone and putting them off.

If they make Destiel truly canon by the end of the last episode, if they let Dean say it back, if they do even more (I’m not gonna say it out loud, I’m afraid I could jinx it ^^), there may be a small percentage of SPN fans who won’t be happy. Maybe. But most of us, of them, will rejoice, and a part of those who don’t ship Destiel will probably be indifferent to it, or be happy for the rest of us. Furthermore, the general audience and their opinion won’t matter anymore.

There are no more episodes. There is no drop in viewership to be feared. It’s a done deal. Show over. So why not do it? For TWELVE YEARS they have dropped hint after hint after hint. Some call it baiting. I call it regular ship tease you see on so many shows. Chuck knows I had to endure it so often, and some didn’t manage to give closure to shippers (of popular ships that had been teased for years as well, but couldn’t become canon for different reasons during the run of the show). And here I am talking about heterosexual ships. 

So long story short, and to answer your question - a part of me really believes that they will give us closure. Let’s look at it this way: Cas has to sacrifice himself to make Dean realize that he loves him too. And not only realize, but also admit it. He has heard it now. Maybe he suspected it before, but hearing it makes it real. It’s out there. 

Look at how Dean wasn’t even able to accept Sam’s call, despite their dire situation, despite Dean maybe had to know that something was up, that Sam needed help. But Dean couldn’t. One can argue it was because he didn’t know how to tell Sam Cas is gone, but let’s be real: We’ve seen Dean devastated before when he thought Cas was dead, seen him keep Cas’ coat in the Impala and so on. This time, he was incapable of doing anything. Their world is literally on the verge of ending, and all he could do was sit there.

While Cas’ speech and confession had me sobbing, seeing Dean sitting there as if paralyzed completely broke me. He hasn’t just lost his best friend; he has lost the one he loves. I believe a dam has been broken. I don’t know what they will make of it, but seriously -- Cas said the three magic words, something I never expected to hear, so all bets are off now. 

In all honesty though -- for me it will already be enough if they bring Cas back and reunite him with Dean. Everything else is a cherry on top.

I have another thing for you, another perspective: 

You say the writers made him openly gay and then sent him to hell as a result and punishment.

I say: they could have chosen anything as his true happiness. They could have come up with whatever. We all have known for a long time that Cas finding/recognizing his true happiness will send him back to the Empty; he was always on borrowed time, because it was clear that they would make use of that plot device. 

So whatever they had chosen, it was only about Cas’ happiness. Could have been anything. But it isn’t. No, they decided to make Dean his happiness. The things he has learned thanks to Dean; the love he feels. 

The Empty didn’t know what it would be. There was never a condition on what his happiness had to be about. 

But the writers decided that there is only ONE thing that can be Cas’ real, true happiness. They gave us this. They could have found something else and we would be none the wiser, except that maybe we complained that it wasn’t Dean. 

The writers have made a decision. They decided to finally make it canon. 

[zacharyleigh316]

Let’s Not Skip the Good Parts

A quarantine johnlock ficlet | 2,261 words 

This Johnlock ficlet is inspired by the sherlockchallenge on tumblr. This is technically supposed to be for April’s prompt “skip” but I wasn’t able to write it until now.

In which John creates a little game to make quarantine a bit more bearable for the both of them, and he realizes that things aren’t as bad as they first appear. The lesson to be learned here, is that you can’t just skip to end; you might end up missing the good parts. (Though Sherlock would like to think he already knows how everything is going to go.)

Tags: Canon Divergence - The Reichenbach Fall, Post-Reichenbach, this takes place during the virus, Sherlock and John are quarantined together...

Read on Ao3

It started like any other thing would.

Not necessarily out of the blue, but out of necessity perhaps, as most things do, after all, when the world is plagued by fear, and you’re being asked to stay inside your homes in order to keep yourself and your loved ones safe from disease.

No one ever said it was going to be easy, and there’s a few things in life that would even see to making sure that it wasn’t, thing that make it all the more difficult to endure, and oh how unfathomable right?

John supposes he would’ve liked a warning, but he was never that lucky. He couldn’t really complain when he too was stuck inside like everyone else, and not out there with all the other licensed medical professionals risking their lives for the greater good. It certainly didn’t stop the guilty voice in his head saying it ‘could be worse’, because that was a given. He’s survived hot desert sand, bullet wounds to the shoulder; blood on his hands, the blood of friends, comrades, strangers, that could never be fully washed away, as if it was under his skin, a part of him. However it was certainly easy to forget all that when you were in quarantine with a madman.

Ah yes, there it was. He hated the word, disliked when people said it, but he was, for all intents and purposes, trapped. Trapped in the flat with one Sherlock Holmes.

But John wasn’t anything if not resourceful. So yes, it was most definitely born out of necessity...this little game. There would be a time, long long ago, where even the mere thought of it would’ve driven him mad, just like his detective. In fact it did, whenever a spoiler past those bowed lips, pursed in petulance at being force to sit still, and watch something as mundane and boring as television. But now? Oh now not even John could deny that things have changed.

Because now, both he and Sherlock were together in quarantine for however long—much to his own chagrin—and his companion was always the restless sort. Being in one place for an indefinite amount of time really was the worst of news, for both of them.

You see, John had to do something, anything, and so he did.

“John.”

“Yes, Sherlock?” John sighed, folding up the paper he was reading neatly on his lap.

“Quarantine.”

John raised a brow, his eyes landing on Sherlock’s back, the detective standing over by the window, looking longingly out at the streets below.

“I know, Sherlock. Believe me, I’m aware.”

“This is inconvenient.”

John let out a snort, ignoring the icy glare Sherlock sent his way. “You’re telling me,” he muttered, attention flicking back towards his paper.

“I’m serious John. We’re stuck inside the flat with nowhere to go. Do you really think crime will just stop? I have to be out there.” Sherlock turned back toward the window, and huffed, making John roll his eyes.

“This is serious too Sherlock. You traipsing all over London looking for trouble isn’t going to help anyone, and you’ll probably catch the virus whilst you’re at it.”

“But-“

“No buts Sherlock. I might be a doctor, but I’m not qualified to care for you, if you get COVID-19. And what if you’re high risk? What if I am? Think about Mrs. Hudson. You wouldn’t want to give her the virus would you?”

“Of course not! John why would you even propose such a thing?” Sherlock looked at him in surprise, sounding appalled at even the thought of their lovely landlady getting sick.

“Exactly. The city can wait for its consulting detective for a few more months.”

“Months? John, I don’t know if I can last that long.”

“Don’t be dramatic. We’ve been through tougher, longer situations.”

John’s lips flattened out in a thin line at the grim reminder of the two years he spent without Sherlock, and if the emotions flickering rapidly across Sherlock’s face was any indication, he’d gather Sherlock knew exactly what came to mind just then.

Yeah it might be hard, but they’ve waited for longer; it wouldn’t even come close to...we’ll, that. I could never.

John cleared his throat, meeting Sherlock’s apologetic gaze. “The death count may be receding Sherlock, but it’s still out there devastating the nation. Just be grateful our government is doing something...I mean, look at America.”

Sherlock snorted, his face scrunching up in disgust. “I don’t want to be grateful to Mycroft for anything. In fact, John, let’s go out and give COVID-19 to my brother.”

“No, absolutely not.” John deadpanned, “that’s a terrible idea and you know it. Besides, he’s not that bad.”

The detective pouted, and stomped his way over to the sofa, dramatically draping his body over the length of it. He tossed his arm across his face, the toes on his bare feet twitching. John sighed, tossing the paper he had no chance of finishing onto the coffee table; Sherlock was getting antsy.

Just yesterday he was stomping around the living room, screeching his violin, and shouting out lyrics to songs that John didn’t know. The day before that he counted, or, at least, tried to count, and very loudly, might he add, each and every speckle on the ceiling. And the day before that , it was the spaces in the asphalt. John doesn’t even want to get into every other day so far, and it’s only by the very thin thread he’s tethered Sherlock to, that he’s got him straying away from experiments. (Lest he create another virus.)

“Sherlock, would you like to play a game?”

He saw Sherlock perk up, toes curling curiously as he peeked out from under his arm.

“A game?”

“Yes,” John smirked, quite please with his own genius, “a game.”

“What...what kind of game?” He raised a brow skeptically, multicolored eyes flitting about John’s face, deducting, searching for some kind of tell, a giveaway.

John glanced around quickly, his own eyes falling upon the remote, which rested amongst the clutter on the coffee table.

“Well, we can watch the television.”

Sherlock deflated. “The television? Seriously John? What kind of game-“

“I wasn’t finished,” he interrupted, feigning seriousness, “do you want to play or not? Because we don’t have too, and I’ll stop.” He baited.

“No! Tell me John. What does this game have to do with the television?”

“Alright. I’ll tell you. But you’ve got to promise-“

“Yes.”

“You didn’t even hear what I had to say!”

“I don’t care John, just spit it out.”

John glared, and crossed his arms. “Fine. You have to watch whatever I choose to put on the television: movie, tv show, anything.”

“But?”

“But, I’ll let you guess the ending. Then we can skip ahead and see if you were right.”

“Okay...and if I’m right, John? What then?”

“If you’re right...I owe you a favor. After the quarantine ends, though, and only then. Unless it’s something that can be done inside I suppose. With minimal damage.”

“Hmm, then if I’m wrong, I’m guessing you get the favor? Sounds very risky John, for you at least. I don’t usually get things wrong.”

“There’s a possibility. You’re not perfect.” John raised a brow, his expression a challenge.

He knew he had Sherlock in his clutches already, but it certainly didn’t do any harm to get in a little tease.

“If you don’t like the favor idea,” John continued, “we can always change the prize. We’ve got time.”

“Alright then. John Watson, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

“Yeah? Good doing business with you then, Sherlock Holmes.”

Sherlock grinned, and John’s shoulders sagged in relief. It would hopefully be enough to hold the detective off for a while, and if it allowed John to get some sleep—he could always do with some peace and quiet—then all the more better for it, right?

“The game is on.”

And that’s how it started.

Soon enough, John and Sherlock were playing their little game almost every day, and as to be expected, each time they did, they found Sherlock was usually right. It went without saying that whenever the detective was seen getting antsy, John would simply turn on the telly, pick something to watch, and leave Sherlock to predict the ending. As promised, John would then skip to the end, to see if his assumptions were correct. They were.

And sure, John was having all of his favorite shows and movies spoiled, but after a while, he found that it really hadn’t spoiled his mood as much as he thought it ought to. In fact, he was having fun. It wasn’t really a surprise once he thought about it, seeing as he always knew his flatmate was brilliant; saw it with his own eyes almost every day for the ten plus years they’ve known each other. It was always a pleasure to see Sherlock deduce, to come to a conclusion faster than any normal human would, to witness the utter, sheer brain power of a Holmes.

John smiled to himself and shook his head, lifting his thumb off the fast forward button. Sherlock did it once again.

“I don’t know how you do it Sherlock.”

“You do. In fact, I think you’ve done this all on purpose.”

“Oh?” John raised a brow, his amused expression directed toward his friend.

“Yes, ‘oh’. Surely you must know, especially by now, that I will always be able to figure out the ending? They’re simple story arcs, John, and simple story arcs follow even simpler patterns, because they’re set down a given path. A beginning, middle, and end; the rising action, climax, falling action, and your denouement. No matter how different the content, a story is a story, and they’re all the same . You can’t possibly be ignorant to this fact, John, being as dull as you are. You love films and television shows after all. Even twist endings foreshadow that the story is set to head in a different direction, that you can expect the unexpected, which makes it become expected.”

“Thanks?”

“What I’m trying to say is, John,” Sherlock steeples his fingers underneath his chin, “why do you continue to play this game, with the knowledge you could never win? At this point, I have a lot of favors against you, that is, if we continue to go with the original plan.”

John shrugged, “I have a lot of favors to do for you then.”

“Yes, but why? You said I could ask anything of you, as long as it didn’t cause much damage.”

“Sherlock, it’s just a game. I made it up on the spot to keep you occupied because I knew how much the quarantine was affecting you, negatively. I’m actually doing myself a favor too, because by you keeping busy, I’m able to keep my own sanity.”

“Hmm, that’s it? You’ll really want me to cash in all these favors I’ve won eventually?” Sherlock raised his brow, hands falling neatly into his lap.

“Why not? I already follow you wherever you go. I make tea and food for you, clean up after you. Do almost everything you ask, as it is, Sherlock.” John rolled his eyes.

“I suppose. Very well.”

“Besides, even if I get the endings spoiled for me, and well, we skip almost all the good parts—everything really—I get to spend time with you. We get to watch television together, like everybody else, just a bit unconventionally.”

“In that case, I’d like to use a favor now.”

Sherlock leaned in and captured John’s lips with his own, a large hand coming up to gently cup his cheek. When Sherlock pulled away, John chuckled, a large smile blooming on his face.

“You silly, gorgeous, stupidly brilliant man...” he said a bit breathless, shaking his head fondly.

“You didn’t need to use a favor for that.”

“Perhaps not, John, but if we continue to play this ridiculous game, I figured I should start using them before you’re forever indebted to me.”

John snorted, “okay. Sure.”

Sherlock smiled, which made John smile all over again, and they both leaned back in for another kiss, this one much less chaste than the first. Sherlock swiped his tongue across John’s lips, and he parted them, allowing the detective to deepen the kiss. John made a pleased sound, and Sherlock hummed back, both sounds being quickly absorbed by each other’s mouths. When they pulled away this time, it was for air.

They knocked their foreheads together, and John closed his eyes, his smiling returning to his face.

“Was that another favor?”

“Depends.”

“On?”

“If you can accurately guess how this,” Sherlock gestures between them, looking smug, “is going to end.”

John laughed, eyes crinkling at the corners, the little crows feet smiles of their own.

“That so? And what? We’re going to skip to end and see if I was right?”

“Oh John, you and I both know that that’s not only impossible, but also highly implausible. I’m not entirely inclined to skip any of this.”

“You’re insufferable.” He teased, his cobalt eyes sparkling in the dim light.

“But y-yeah,” John wet his lips, “I don’t really want to either.”

And it started like any other thing would...

(John would also like to note that, things do have the ability to change. Quarantine with Sherlock isn’t as bad as he thought. Sherlock would like to say he told you so. Of course he expected it to always end this way. John owed him another favor.)

[kob131]

 https://rwbyconversations.tumblr.com/post/626550438587678720/the-scarlet-letter-lets-talk-about-rwbys-male

Can’t even say I stan RT since I helped in developing your own break in RT’s abusive business practices.

So let’s start with a blunt statement: RWBY’s male LGBT representation has not been good. If the series’ handling of female LGBT rep is good (which… well there’s worse shows) and the general standard for how you write LGBT characters in a show like this, its handling of male rep has been… how not to. And Before the Dawn kinda solidified the idea in my head that the show’s handling of its male LGBT cast just isn’t good enough, either by the standards of when RWBY began in 2013, or today in 2020 when compatively massive steps have been taken over the past decade to show a more diverse list of characters… or at least a more diverse list of female characters.

So how do you make good male LGBT representation? If we’re talking about how something is done badly, you’d think some ground rules would be established. ... Yeah, he never does that.

It’s big romance is (unless the writers are very stupid) going to be between Blake and Yang, their first out character was Ilia, Coco got sent to the Book Dimension where she confirmed “I use my sunglasses to perv on women without their knowledge” which uh… yeah you can definitely tell RWBY is written by men… and Volume 6 had Saph and Terra being a good example of an LGBT couple without any real drama. In the last three years alone, the show has drastically increased its lesbian and bisexual characters, alongside even including its first out trans character in May Marigold (albeit only revealed on Twitter). In general, these depictions of sexuality have been pretty OK. Would have liked it if Ilia wasn’t immediately written out of the show after Volume 5 as it made her feel a bit more disposable than intended but whatever, subject for another day.

A. What examples do we have of Bumbleby being canon? One or two animation things and voice actors? Cool, when’s White Knight becoming canon.

B. I’ve heard Barbara say similar shit. Acting like that’s a male thing is fucking sexist.

C. I’m sorry but by every single standard of LGBT writing I’ve heard-wouldn’t they be considered tokens and flat caricatures? Since they’re so irrelevant and have so little character? They’re barely even characters INCLUDING their kid. 

Sorry but considering how there’s no ground rules made for what is good LGBT rep- I can only go off what others have said. And so many, OVERWHLEMINGLY MANY, people have said Saphron and Terra aren’t good. 

D. Okay the Illa thing is yet another example of why ground rules need to be set. Saphron and Terra BOTH are written out in Volume 6 so wouldn’t they get chewed out too? What makes Illa getting written out different or more disposable?

RWBY’s male rep though is a bit spottier. There’s the plant bois in Volume 5’s premiere, we nearly had Pilot Boi until some last-minute revisions, and… Scarlet.

Look about the same as the female LGBT audience to me. Why is this so bad?

“Why Scarlet’s a bad launchpad for male LGBT rep”

I don’t like Scarlet or how his sexuality has been handled. Scarlet’s homosexuality wasn’t revealed in the show, or by the writers, or even in anything that’s actually canon. He’s confirmed gay in his sole of dialogue in a non-canon fan anthology, where the manga’s Twitter team had to say that Miles suggested the idea and approved of it.

In short, Scarlet is Dumbledore’d, where his sexuality is revealed in out-of-show material and in a way that doesn’t make it supremely obvious (Miles himself never commented to confirm this so this news was limited in how far it could spread. I’m genuinely curious how many people still don’t know Scarlet’s gay), and Scarlet himself is a nothing character who was written out of the show after Volume 3 and only reappeared in Before The Dawn, half a decade after he vanished. Compared to Ilia, as this came out after Ilia’s entire arc in Volume 5, it’s not a great starting point for mlm rep. But things would have been forgiven if it had gotten better, if the show did have more male LGBT characters introduced, even just on the Saphron/Terra level of just being around for a few episodes before leaving. Then it would have been a misfire but then we could all say “Things got better.”

Why should I care?

See, part of the job of a critic is to make the problems understandable to the audience. I emphasized ground rules because it gives the reader a base level understanding of what constitutes as good in this case. Why should I think Scarlet is bad when Saphron and Terra are on the same level and you said they were at least acceptable?

It… didn’t. Which is why when Before the Dawn released in 2020, a full two years after Scarlet was first confirmed gay, while the franchise had more than doubled its wlw rep, Scarlet remained the one male character in the entire franchise who had a name and liked men. I remember vividly a fake leak for After The Fall which claimed Yatsuhashi would come out to Velvet and admit to having a crush on Fox. And I remember as well how many people were disappointed when it was said to be false, because it would have been nice for Yatsuhashi’s character, especially after the fleshing out he gets in the CFVY books. If Yatsu had come out as gay in the books I’d like his writing enough to say he’s a good case for rep, albeit with the caveat of “This is all in side material.” But in reality, the leak was fake and Coco was confirmed gay instead.

I remember the same leak. Yatsuhashi also disappeared at the same time and even if he was fleshed out-he’s still irrelevant to the show so wouldn’t he be bad? And if it’s about having fleshed out characters, why did Illa whose a fully realized character get shaded while effective background characters praised?

Unfortunately, Before the Dawn proceeded to ruin Scarlet and made me at times feel genuinely uncomfortable as a queer man! Let’s talk about that.

And people said the same about Saphron and Terra and people get backlash for praising them over other lesbian characters.

I hate Before the Dawn. It’s… bad. I read it while on a vacation and the only solace I had about the entire thing was that I’d bought an M&M chocolate bar. The bar was finished before the book. That bummed me out. It’s not a very well written book, the prose is very Early 2010s YA Writer, none of the characters are memorable and there’s various Fun Incidents like “NGDO using children as bait for Grimm,” and “Neptune’s hydrophpobia being used as a threat to torture him and the scene is played for comedy.”

A. NDGO is repeatedly shown to be massive assholes in the book.

And B. I can’t really find anything wrong there. In one of my favorite shows, Justice League Unlimited, criminals get threatened with actual torture and even death and it’s treated as a joke. Yeah the context is different in that the victim are criminals but both the villains and Neptune get over it so quickly I see no real problem here. Especially since Jaune’s own low self worth was a joke up to Volume 5.

Theo was cool. I can’t wait to see him as written by good writers, he should be a highlight of the Vacuo arc.

Don’t go blaming E.C. Myers for this- Miles and Kerry helped. You’d have to call them shit writers too.

I had two hopes for Before the Dawn- “Don’t be bad,” and “Let Scarlet and Sage be well written.” I’d liked how After The Fall had handled some of its characters (barring, y'know, Coco perving on women), especially Fox and Yatsu who were surprising in how much I liked them. I was looking forward to seeing Myers give Sage and Scarlet similar treatment- two relatively nothing characters meant he’d have a blank slate to write them however he wanted, he could give them unique personalties and if nothing else it could be cool to see their Semblances.

You know how frustrating it is to see people blame Miles and Kerry for shit that Monty had a hand in and may have even been responsible for?

Yeah well we finally found the flipped version-

Miles and Kerry worked with Myers on the book. Just as Monty is just as much at fault as Miles and Kerry, they’re just as much at fault as Myers.

And then I read the book. (Sage fans I am so sorry for you, you got baited harder than Johnlock fans)

I thought we were talking about male LGBT rep.

Scarlet’s a giant dickhead in the book. It’s his sole character trait and his inner monologues go on, and on, and on about how much he hates Sun, how he revels in mocking him. Most of his dialogue is sarcastic put-downs about Sun and how lame he is, and Sun is never properly allowed to defend himself or point out how going with Blake meant he was able to help save Haven Academy.

You mean like how character criticized Yang for being so reckless even though she was trying to save Blake?

It shouldn’t matter what the intent or results are- Sun and Yang still did bad things and affected the people around them. They should be criticized, especially Sun here since A. He’s still doing it in the book, B. He hasn’t had any real flaws in the show which means his dynamics and interaction are limited and C. This addresses what people bitched at him about in Volumes 4 and 5 thus robbing them of the excuse to chew him out anymore.

(hey remember when Sun in Volume 6 expressly says to Blake “I was a bad leader for ditching Neptune and the others, and I need to work on that” only for Before the Dawn to have him staunchly refuse to accept that he let the team down? I don’t think Myers did but I do)

Remember how characters in RWBY don’t always learn their lesson, especially when it’s related to mental issues like...say....losing their parents and trying to run from their problems?

Also remember how MILES AND KERRY ALSO HELPED WRITE THAT BOOK?

Scarlet being a ratty bitch would be one thing if, again, the franchise had done more rep. He’d still be a badly written character, but it wouldn’t sting as much. But because Scarlet is still the only expressly confirmed male LGBT character in canon (the book teases that Nolan is gay but there’s never confirmation either way beyond him smiling at Scarlet), it means that he has to represent that entire ideal. So when the one gay man in Remnant is being an asshole and a snide loser, that means that by extension, this is how the franchise sees gay men. And that fucking sucks! I wanted to come out of Before The Dawn singing its praises, I wanted to like the book, but it was a massive letdown, especially coming off of the other big 2020 RWBY controversy involving gay characters.

Fun fact: LGBT people can be assholes. 

In fact, Scarlet would be the ONLY LGBT character to be snide in the show. Kind of makes him unique in that regard. ...If he was an asshole in canon. When in canon, he’s portrayed as hurt and bitter over Sun’s repeated irresponsibility and doing what anyone would do in his situation.

So honestly, he’s pretty fucking human which I would praised BEYOND being LGBT.

Yeah. We’re doing this.

Remember, you choose to do all this.

Clover and Fair Game: Technically not queerbaiting. BUT:

But nothing. Once again, without any ground rules for what you constitute as ‘queerbaiting’- I only have myself to rely on. And just about every serious definition says Queerbaiting is baiting LGBT rep or pairings to get people to watch the show.

Issue? Not only was Fair Game not used to promote the show, there are other LGBT characters in RWBY. You can’t be queerbaited anymore than a straight person can be ‘straightbaited’ (We’ll be getting into SO MUCH MORE than this later...).

Let’s pre-empt this: Clover wasn’t queerbaiting, and Fair Game, while cool and I dig it, kudos to them for becoming one of the top 5 RWBY pairings on AO3 in one year that’s fucking impressive (I say with mild malice as an IronQrow main), never had a chance. The writing never seriously boosted it barring one interaction which was flirty (them talking in the lobby of the Schnee Manor), and everything else was out of show boosting through the social media teams and CRWBY hyping it themselves by saying they liked it. If you wanna blame people, blame the animators who went off-script with stuff like Kim Newman adding the wink as a deliberate nod to the Volume 4 waitress, or the social media team deliberately using the same policies for Fair Game as they do for Renora and Bumblebee.

So nothing I should give a shit about since marketing teams often work detached from the actual product and are notoriously CUTTHROAT.

It wasn’t Eddy’s fault that things escalated, and he himself has said that in retrospect, he should have warned people that this never had a shot.

But I can’t blame the Fair Game fanbase. Because Fair Game took off like wildfire. It came right as the fanbase began seriously asking for more male rep, Qrow’s pretty hot, and the Clover wink came right after the Great IronQrow Reawakening of November 9th, 2019. The rocket was primed, and they rode it to the moon. Finally, to these people, after seven years RWBY seemed to be doing something with mlm rep in show. People started getting into RWBY just for Clover and Qrow’s interactions. And if heroes were boring, Watts and Tyrian also had a fantastic dynamic that made Nuts and Volts one of the more popular villain ships overnight. Things seemed to be turning around! RWBY was remembering that gay men existed! You could hear the choir sing!

... You JUST said that show didn’t bolster the ship aside from one interaction (one that pales to the shit I use to say in private to fuck with people). It was obviously NOT meant to be a serious component of the show. If people got into a show for something it was never meant to stick to- it’s their own fault for when that part falls away.

… And for those people, that meant that episode 12 hit like Truck-Kun.

People got pissed. People were horrified. And it didn’t help that some members of CRWBY had said in the build-up that episode 12 would have some shots that made them nauseous (probably the Tyrian thumb thing) Out of context, it looked to these fans like CRWBY were basically laughing at their suffering, like they were saying “Lol, you thought you had a chance, get fucked, I hope your vomit burns on the way up.”

Yeah, Fair Game was never gonna be canon, and I think some people ran too far with it. But in the wider context of how desperate RWBY’s mlm community had gotten for basic crumbs of content? I can see why they’d run with what they had. The writers aren’t at fault for what happened, but CRWBY didn’t help matters. And that desperate mix of what felt like official backing from the crew, jokes about how cute the ship was, and the hope that finally the show would have onscreen rep? I can see why people ran with it.

Ah huh ah huh ah huh-

Now do that for the first three Volumes of the show with a bigger fan favorite, more build up and kill one half of it off at the end of the show’s big dark turn while the creators are even MORE unsympathetic.

Sorry but when compared to Arkos, this looks fucking minscule. And you invoked the Arkos comparison due to the numerous parallels. And just like with the Arkos fans, I’ll disregard this without a second thought.

‘But Mlm are STARVED for content-’

Then go somewhere else. I’ve been saying this to your Wlw AND Straight counterparts for years. You are not entitled to have ‘a meal’. The show didn’t advertise in universe around rep- That is not the point. This is like saying you hate nachoes because it dares to have chips instead of more toppings.

So why is the show more lackluster in depicting mlm characters?

I don’t think you ever answered that the question ‘is the show’s mlm lackluster?’ because you spent a third of this post talking about something you basically admit doesn’t count.

Money. Let’s be honest, most RWBY fans don’t care if the show doesn’t have good male rep. I’m willing to bet some of you reading this won’t care and just dismiss it as not being that big a problem.

I dismiss all the romance related shit as not being that big of a problem, so what?

I don’t think the writers care if the show doesn’t have good mlm rep because they’re not poaching that market. They’re after what they see as a bigger, more lucrative market, which in this case is female LGBT rep. That gets people buying games, watching shows, raising awareness and boosting awareness of your property, which means you make more money. In short: Two women kissing hits more markets and generates more attention than two men.

I’d believe that if not for the fact that there is barely any lesbian merch for RWBY, which would be the key way to cash in on that market and squeeze them for as much money as possible. In fact, there’s barely ANY shipping merch from Rooster Teeth. Rather unusual if they’re trying to cash in on a market.

‘Well what’s YOUR explanation?’

Easy: Misandry and moving goalposts.

Guys notoriously get shat on in the fandom more than women. Jaune is STILL being called a spotlight stealing MAry Sue and numerous people are siding against Ironwood because he’s a man. So making good male LGBT rep would just be inviting more pipe bombs in the mail.

And a large amount of people like to claim RWBY has yet to give GOOD female LGBT rep, constantly raising the bar to get what they want. And considering they make up the original hatedom in the show- they naturally hold more power.

Tl;Dr- You fucked yourselves out of good male rep by having male characters having any focus whatsoever be a death sentence.

Am I saying that Miles, Monty and Kerry deliberately sat down seven years ago and said “We’re not doing gay men because it won’t generate enough ad revenue and traffic to be worth the loss in revenue from homophobes?” No, that’s silly. But I’m saying that it’s less important for them, and it shows in the things that are small and add up. Things like Miles not verifying Scarlet’s sexuality or retweeting the manga account’s confirmation to spread the message (compared to how he enthusiastically confirmed Ilia being a lesbian himself during the Reddit AMA). It shows in how Pilot Boi would have been the first mlm character only to die in his second full episode until M&K were told about the Bury Your Gays trope. It shows in how Shannon believes that Ozma is “megaqueer” and Miles jokingly laughs it off instead of confirming it, leaving it to just be Shannon’s headcanon. It shows in how actor shipping is compared between the mlm and wlw ships, where Arryn and Barbara’s frequent pushes for Bumblebee are seen as “official confirmation that it’s endgame” while Michael and Kerry saying they enjoy Seamonkeys is treated as “well it would be cute if they did it, but they’re never going to.”

The whole point of AMA is answer questions, one of which was ‘is Illa a lesbian’ among SEVERAL others.

Yeah and Illa gets called a psycho lesbian. 

Yeah and no other voice actor headcanon has been accepted. In fact, Kara pushes for White Knight and the writers don’t even so much as acknowledge that unlike Shannon. Also I dunno what ‘megaqueer’ means but his only on screen relationship was straight so that’s probably why it wasn’t confirmed.

Not the creators, don’t care.

I’m not gonna say anything like “CRWBY are gonna have Qrow end up with a woman like Robyn out of spite against the bad apples of the Fair Game crowd.” I’m not gonna say that I don’t think CRWBY cares about male representation in the series. It is, however, definitely a low priority for them, and because that leads to gaffes like Scarlet’s writing in Before The Dawn being offensive in his depiction, it only makes the contrast between the sexes all the more painfully apparent.

Again, the female side ain’t much better. Fuck, the straight side isn’t much better. This was never a focus of the show.

I’m kinda tired of waiting for Rooster Teeth to show that they do care about mlm. I’m kinda tired of RWBY’s male rep being written like it came from a 1993 time capsule where I have to enhance the screen to see a guy holding a sign of Sun’s abs or be content with the only onscreen rep still being the plant bois in Volume 5. I’m tired of how often the crew dances around answering basic questions about sexuality (and age, and birthdays, and heights, and so on) by treating it as a spoiler question, as if just wanting to know what way people swing would ever be a spoiler. I’m just… tired of all this. When the best mlm rep in Rooster Teeth’s history remains the two dads in Camp Camp who show up in a few episodes, that should say something really bad about your company and your biases (To say nothing of the recent Red vs Blue seasons and their blatant queerbaiting for Grif and Simmons and the whole can of worms that is Donut).

And their best rep in wlw according to some people is a psycho lesbian. 

This is all just personal opinion that is next to useless without the basis needed for clear understanding. I don’t know what you would consider good male LGBT rep aside from a squeaky clean good guy...and many would decry that as condescending and unrealistic.

What can they do except ignore EVERYONE and just do whatever they feel like?

P.S. Someone’s representation is NOT their view on LGBT people. Especially since, as I have said, the reception of said rep can be outright contradictory.

I’d like to not feel like I’m borderline unwelcome because I’d like to see two men in this show kiss, and that the sole thing that represents people like me in this show is some British twat who complains about sand.

Oh fuck off. I’m also apart of a minority group (autists) and yet you don’t see me winging about how unwelcome I feel because there’s no autistic characters. I relate to characters like Ruby not because they have shallow autistic traits but because I constantly struggle with the same ideological dilemma Ruby does: the struggle to keep doing good in an uncaring, cruel world. THAT is what you should find relatable and welcome. Not something like sexuality.

I’d just like to feel like my sexuality isn’t a joke to Rooster Teeth (or at the very least, be like Donut and have it be a funny one). But at this point after the last few years? I feel like a very uncomfortable punchline to them. And it just sucks.

Cool-Welcome to club. You know, since EVERY sexuality has been used a punchline by Rooster Teeth.

Your sexuality should be the LAST thing that you use to find being welcome, especially with a god damn company. And you have no one to blame for your feelings but yourself here. 

Your post is damn near useless and I don’t even know how honest that RT stuff is considering Miles and Kerry get away while E.C. Myers gets blamed for stuff you don’t like.

[yeah-oh-shit]

Sherlock S5/Dracula Meta

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. I’ve never written any fan theories or meta before (although I have so many), so please bear with me. I know my theory is going to sound a little out there, but I here it is: I think BBC Dracula is actually Sherlock S5, or else that it is somehow going to lead directly into it without warning. 

Warning: this is going to be a long piece. I’m going to break this down as follows, because there are many different pieces of evidence to examine: 

TFP, the story and the episode

Gothic Horror, HOB, Dracula

Vision, Timing, 20/20

The Final Problem

The first one is a fan theory I read probably 6-9 months ago that sadly I can’t find anymore (if you know who this person is, please please comment so I can give credit!). Basically this person was talking about how the naming of the episodes typically has some tie to what occurs in the original story by that same name, but how TFP has nothing AT ALL to do with the original story. In the original story, Sherlock goes face to face with Moriarty, and we are all lead to believe that both he and Moriarty die over the Richenbach falls. In all reality, ACD had meant to kill off Sherlock in this story, and stopped writing Sherlock Holmes stories for ten years before bringing him back in “The Empty House,” due to the public outrage and demand for more stories. So, the logic follows that maybe the one thing that they have in common is that they are both pitted as the end to Sherlock Holmes (in the story, he is dead; in the show we are given [force fed] an ending, it's made to seem like the final piece). The author of this theory also pointed out the show runners in this way are comparing ending the series with TFP (no canon Johnlock) to ending the show with Sherlock dead. We are left with a straight-washed version of John and Sherlock, with Mary’s voice controlling the narrative and that narrative being: It Doesn’t Matter Who You Are. The chemistry between John and Sherlock has been more or less completely lost throughout S4, and so we are left with this empty, dead-feeling version of them that doesn’t feel true to the characters we know and love. Even casuals thought S4 sucked.. this is why. They metaphorically killed them/killed the show.

Before S4 aired, Mofftiss had said that if they pulled off what they had planned, it would be the biggest thing in television. Well, what we got in TFP doesn’t really fit that at all, does it? What could they be referring to: A secret sister? Not really that epic. Even if we find out that most of S4 didn’t take place (either EMP theory or some other way of explaining it) that isn’t really a new trope. The audience discovering that they have actually been seeing things that are inside the main character’s head the entire time has been done over and over (Sixth Sense, A Beautiful Mind come to mind off hand). So what could this huge, history making move be? The argument that the meta I read previously made was that the show will come back (from the dead) unexpectedly, with no warning. That it will be a revival and in that revival, we will get canon Johnlock. I can’t remember if OP explicitly theorized that Dracula is actually Sherlock S5, but I think so. 

Now, I was with this theory from the beginning.. there is just something that feels possible to me, despite the fact that it sounds far fetched. Dracula seems like a weird, random thing to do when Sherlock, Moftiss’s mutual obsession, isn’t finished. (Also creating an escape room to keep up hype is odd if the show is over, but I digress.) I just don’t believe Moftiss’s constant claims that they couldn’t get everyone together to film S5 because of schedules, that they wanted to take a break, that they don’t know if they will do more (when Moffatt has talked about wanting a 5 season arc before, not to mention John Yorke). And then there’s the fact that we know they have filmed scenes that we have never seen (Niagara Falls anyone?). All this evidence that S5 is definitely coming, combined with the fact that we haven’t heard anything about it but have heard about Dracula, sort of fell into place for me. Despite me being willing to buy into it, this theory still seemed a little far fetched. But wait, there’s more!

Victorian Gothic Literature, HOB, Dracula

A lot of people have been talking about how gay Dracula is going to be, and citing evidence of the connections between Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde (Dracula was written directly after his trial and Dracula is read as having characteristics of Wilde) as evidence. This, along with the extremely homoerotic last clip of the trailer, certain parts of the text that read as queer coded (I haven’t read Dracula, so I don’t know much but have seen some things floating around that seem v gay to me), and what we know about queer coding in Victorian gothic literature in general, all make a convincing argument. Gatiss actually recently confirmed (more or less) that Dracula will be bisexual in the upcoming series. And while I’m all about gay vampires (I am a huge vampire fan, seriously I love Vampire Diaries and True Blood and was one of “those girls” during the middle school Twilight craze), there is something about Dracula being Moftiss’s first cannon gay show that feels both disappointing and incongruous.

I want to bring up the All Ghost Stories are Gay Stories meta by heimishtheidealhusband. Now, this meta was written in 2015, in anticipation of TAB. Its great and you should definitely check it out if you haven’t/don’t remember it. The part I am most interested in is actually the reading of HOB, which I will get to in a bit. The takeaways from the first bit of the meta are that monsters and ghosts (to a different extent) are representations of queer desire in Victorian gothic literature. I’m summarizing drastically here, but as queer desire was obviously unacceptable in Victorian times, writers would obfuscate it by creating an “other,” a monster or ghost, that represented the queer or “inverted” desire and also demonstrated the fear and horror that society had for homosexuality. So the monster becomes the representation of homosexuality (homosexual acts or desires) that is pursuing the protagonists. Oftentimes, the protagonists were originally obsessed with the monsters or the concept of them, before actually confronting them, but are terrified and frightened when it actually occurs (think Dr. Jeckyll or Frankenstein). This meta also specifically talks about Dracula and vampires as the most queerly coded of the Victorian monsters: “Think about your vampire tropes: Dracula sneaks into your bedroom at night, lusting after your bodily fluids. The victim, meanwhile, is paralyzed with fear, but also excitement. (Oh hi phobic enchantment, I see you there!) The tension mounts until there’s a climactic penetration of fangs into flesh. And lots of sucking. Then think about the fact that the one doing the penetrating and the one being penetrated can be - and often are - both male.” 

This all seems to bode great for our queer reading of the new BBC Dracula, yay! Vampires are clearly queer coded, and making it explicit makes sense and seems like a no-brainer. But I think it’s important to point out the ways in which this is also potentially (and likely) problematic. In Victorian times, there weren’t really many other options for portraying homosexuality. This is part of what makes what these writers did so brilliant - they were unable to show these desires as normal and healthy, because it was too dangerous and society didn’t see them that way (hence the use of the word “inverts” for homosexuals). Using the horror genre allowed them much more freedom to explore homosexuality, identity, and societal reactions to it, but also obfuscated the difference between reactions to homosexuality and the thing itself. In some of the stories, like Frankenstein, the monsters are actually misunderstood. Frankenstein’s monster only turns evil after experiencing society’s horrified reaction to it. However, in a modern context, I wonder about the message it sends to remake a Victorian story in a modern time and make the monster queer.

To flush this out a bit, I think it would be helpful to take a look at how Moftiss (and particularly Mark Gatiss) have played with this Victorian monster trope already, in Sherlock. Which brings us to HOB. heimishistheidealhusband points out that ACD’s original story “The Hound of the Baskervilles” would definitely fit into the scope of Victorian gothic literature, and their meta “All Ghost Stories are Gay Stories” does a particularly good job of breaking this episode down with the lens of Victorian gothic literature and queer coding. I am going to quote this reading here, and also also want to touch on the reading of this episode by Rebekah of TJLC Explained.

Here is what heimishtheidealhusband has to say about this episode: “Here’s why BBC Sherlock’s treatment of Hound is particularly beautiful. The creature – the hound – is our queer monster. In ACD’s Hound, the hound was indeed physically altered – he was painted in phosphorous to give him a hellish, glowing appearance. And the hound was actually the one to do the killing. In BBC’s Hound, there’s “the hound” – the monster that everyone is afraid of which is actually imaginary, and “the dog” – the real thing that actually exists. In other words, in this version, the “queer creature” in the horror story has been de-monstered. Homospectrality is being flipped on his head – rather than separating the man from the queer, they’re separating the queer from the monster. Because the dog isn’t inherently evil, it’s just the poison in the air that everyone is breathing that makes them fear it, and see a monster instead of an innocent dog. So in this treatment, if the dog/hound represents queerness, heteronormativity becomes a poisonous element in the air we all breathe.” 

This is why it is so important that Hounds is plural (as opposed to the original story “The Hound of the Baskervilles”). They are emphasizing the differentiation between the two dogs, the differentiation between the monster and the queer. Rebakah of TJLC Explained also points out that despite all the conspiracy theories, there is actually no monster inside Baskerville, but rather a rabbit that glows “like a fairy,” (let’s all take a moment to remember the skipping dance and sing-song voice Ben does in this scene, in case it wasn’t obviously queerly coded enough). It’s hard to imagine a less-threatening animal than a glowing bunny. 

Mark Gatiss has been very open about his love for horror and the gothic. He has studied the gothic writer M.R. James, and was involved with the BBC documentary about James that explored his “repressed sexuality.” He clearly loves and respects the genre, and is familiar with queer readings of Victorian gothic lit. In HOB, he chose to engage with the genre in a modern context, and to separate the monster from the queer. In doing so, he points out the inaccuracy and harm that coupling queerness with monstrosity generates. With this in mind, the choice to make Dracula feels like a step backwards, especially when you bear in mind that Gatiss has actually said that he isn’t really interested in gothic horror anymore. In an interview with Shadows at the Door in 2017, Gatiss stated: “I used to think nothing could exist without waistcoats and bubbling test tubes and now I’m actually more interested in modern horror; the gothic but in a modern context. I don’t think it has to be about the old and obviously I still love it but it doesn’t have to be about candelabra and castles. You can get the same feeling from modern methods, and in a way that is more frightening.”

All this isn’t to say that gothic horror or vampire stories isn’t still interesting and worthwhile as a concept, or that a canonically queer Dracula wouldn’t/couldn’t be badass. (I for one would love a Vampire Diaries remake wherein Damon’s character is a woman, but I’m off topic..). It doesn’t even mean that there can’t still be something complex or provoking in this representation for a modern audience. But it also feels dangerously close to repeating the queer coded (or even plainly queer) villain that we have all seen a hundred times from horror films and Disney movies. At best, still doesn’t seem particularly new or exciting, and at worst it could reinforce frankly problematic and dangerous stereotypes.

I am now going to analyze the actual trailer for BBC Dracula that was released a few weeks ago, because it is going to help me to illustrate this point. One thing that struck me most when watching it was just how horrific it really is. The 45 second long trailer includes: a fly that crawls into an eye, a bloody fingernail being ripped off, a blood covered hand, something that appears to be being birthed, a scary, old-looking Dracula with a bloody tongue, and bloody flesh that is being carved. There are at least 3 instances of mouths: the fangs at the very beginning, the mouth with bloody tongue, and the frame after the gunshot of a mouth that looks desiccated like a zombie, that only flashes for a split second. All in all, it’s not only scary, it’s quite disgusting. The three bloody or otherwise monstrous mouths that we see relate most strongly to the covert sexual tones of Victorian gothic literature (and also remind me of Moriarty’s oral fixation in TAB). These are some of the most disturbing of the images. While the intro fangs are pretty mild, the clip of Dracula’s frightening face and bloody tongue (which is followed immediately by the bloody flesh being carved) and the decayed mouth are both quite gruesome. If we apply the metaphors that we know from Sherlock, they are making some pretty damning connections. The mouths in-and-of-themselves could be read in a sexual way, but then there is the added fact that the decayed mouth appears directly after a gunshot, which we know has been tied to dicks/gay sex in Sherlock (and generally). The bloody flesh being carved on a table also recalls the food/sex metaphor in Sherlock, specifically reminding me of how disgusting the meal scene is in John’s wedding to Mary. Food and eating can be really disgusting, and this trailer makes a point to show us that. When we connect this back to the sex metaphor again, and give it a queer lens, we are once again being metaphorically told that queer sex is disgusting and horrific. 

Whether or not Moftiss are purposefully making these metaphorical statements, they definitely went out of their way to make this variation of Dracula particularly scary, horrifying, and gruesome. It’s always possible that they are just hyping up the goriness in order to get audiences excited. It’s also possible that they are highlighting the disgustingness of Dracula’s monstrosity as a means of engaging with the public perception of homosexuality or that they will complicate the narrative in some other way. But even if we give them the benefit of the doubt here and assume they aren’t trying to paint queerness in a bad light, this highlighting of the disgusting nature of Dracula’s monstrosity doesn’t seem to push forward any kind of unique, modern narrative. We have seen this, this is exactly what Victorian gothic literature is all about. They needed to explore homosexuality through its repression, to make it monstrous, because they lived in a time when there were few alternative ways to explore it (except for maybe the example of our sweet “bohemian” boys - check out this meta from artemisastarte to learn more about bohemianism and queerness in Sherlock Holmes). But in our modern day, is this really that exciting? Is this the kind of queer representation we want and deserve in 2019 (soon to be 2020)? To me, the answer is no, especially in light of the incredible and complex work they have done in Sherlock toward building a queer love story that is normalized, and completely removed from any conflation with monstrosity. 

The fact that Dracula is tied so heavily to Sherlock makes this distinction even greater. Gatiss said that they got the idea for Dracula from a still image of Benedict Cumberbatch on the set of Sherlock with his collar up. Supposedly it reminded them of Dracula and the BBC asked them if they wanted to make it. In an interview, when asked about Dracula in relationship to Sherlock, Gatiss called it a “stablemate” of Sherlock Holmes. I’m not really sure how we are supposed to take this, and he doesn’t explain at all (of course), but that would mean that they are in some way similar or connected. I think he doesn’t just mean that they both come from him and Moffatt, as that is rather obvious and was acknowledged in the question itself. Both shows are not only created by Moftiss, but written in the same format, produced by Sue Virtue, and shot at Hartwood Studios. They also really emphasize the connection to Sherlock in the trailer (which isn’t surprising because advertising), and also in the new Netflix description, which states only: “From the makers of ‘Sherlock,’ Claes Bang stars as Dracula in this brand-new miniseries inspired by Bram Stoker’s classic novel.” There isn’t even a background image, only a weird gray distortion on a black background.

Furthermore, there are also elements from Sherlock that point to Dracula, either directly or indirectly. In S4, when John is supposedly texting “E.” He asks “Night Owl?” and the response he gets is “Vampire.” It feels odd and out of place to mention vampires in this offhand way, as we have never really seen anything like this on the show. To be fair, a lot of S4 feels this way, but I believe that it is actually chock-full of symbolic meaning and that almost everything that we see that feels wrong or untrue to the show has a deeper meaning. What, then, is the purpose that this plays? Additionally, in the escape room (Spoiler alert for The Game is Now), there is a television in the first room (Molly’s lab) that is playing what is set to look like British news. In the newsreel at the bottom, they included the announcement that Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffatt are making BBC’s Dracula. Once again, this feels a little throwaway, or could be explained away as advertising (although the escape room is so fast-paced that having any time at all to look at the television, let alone read it, when it wasn’t explicitly part of the puzzles would seem rare). Once again, there is a subliminal connection made between these two shows that I would argue is purposeful. 

The decision to make a gothic show that so completely plays on this horror trope, and then to tie it both explicitly and implicitly to the show that they have already done, which has a very different messaging around the gothic as it relates to conceptions of homosexuality, seems odd. In and of itself, a Gothic exploration of queerness is possible, but feels limited by its very nature. Gothic horror through a queer lens is about queerness and otherness being equated to and embodied by monstrosity. Dracula’s trailer seems to clearly be playing up this monstrousness. I want to reiterate that I don’t think making something like Dracula gay couldn’t be cool or interesting for what it is, or that there isn’t a way to engage with the gothic without it being problematic. But in comparison to what they are doing with Sherlock, it feels unimpressive. And in light of HOB, Dracula seems to go directly against the argument that Gatiss makes so beautifully, that queerness is harmless and very distinct from monstrosity, despite what the fog of homophobia might depict. To build up this narrative in Sherlock, then cut into the middle of it with something that is explicitly connected to it but symbolically making an opposite assertion feels counter-intuitive.

Vision, Timing, 20/20

Even with all this evidence, I don’t know that I would really believe they would go through the trouble to do all of this if not for the timing. Dracula is set to come out “soon,” but people have been speculating for this winter. That would make it the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020. Now I’m going to explain a little bit about my reading of HLV, which happens to coincide nicely with The Game is Now, and ultimately this theory as a whole. 

Something that caught my eye in HLV is how much glass there is in its first scene. We open on a shot of CAM’s glasses sitting on the table. We are below them, looking up through glass (although we see later that the table is actually wood). Next we get a shot of lady Elizabeth Smallwood, reflected through glass so as to show her in double (which is particularly interesting given that she is repeatedly called Lady Alicia Smallwood, both by CAM in the text that flashes on the screen during his analysis of her later this episode, and in the S4 scene where she leaves Mycroft her card). Next we see the entire interviewing committee through glass walls (it continues but you get the picture). We are introduced to the concept of lenses, looking through them, and at times the distorted image created by them. 

CAM owns a newspaper, and he controls people through rumors: it doesn’t matter what the truth is, it matters what people believe (what they see). (This sounds a lot like Mary in S4 to me). So we are introduced again (after TRF) to the concept of fact vs. fiction, truth vs. lie, and this time with the addition of lenses. What lens you view something through matters, has a bearing on how you read something, how clearly you see it (sounds kind of like the fog in HOB). By the end of HLV, we have been removed from the narrative enough, we can’t see completely clearly. We don’t know what has happened during the time between John and Sherlock’s confrontation with Mary and the scene at Christmas. We don’t see if Sherlock and John are on the same page or what Sherlock is planning. 

This episode leads into TAB, followed by S4 fuckiness. In S4, there are many things that feel “off” but one of the biggest is that John and Sherlock are distant the entire time. In the beginning we get the indication that John is missing Sherlock, but then we see Sherlock acting as if he is closer to Mary than John, inviting her on cases in his place. She gets inserted between them completely, becomes part of the gang. After Mary’s “death” John blames Sherlock (in a feat of logic that is truly baffling) and we have them at their most distant in TLD. And then, they come back together again in TFP, but the warmth and closeness is missing.

This season makes it clear that Moftiss were writing in all the little things that made their dynamic romantic and their chemistry so clear. They were able to take that out, and they did so with intention. It is if we are seeing the show through a lens: through the lens of straight-washing, the lens or perspective that Mary (John’s wife, the symbol of a straight John Watson, a platonic John and Sherlock) narrates for us so thoroughly at the end of the series. (Also side note, this straight-washed version of the show also fits into the 5 part John Yorke structure with part 4 being the height of the antithesis or the “worst part” - I learned about York from garkgatiss’s meta). The heart of the show is John and Sherlock’s dynamic. This dynamic is clearly intimate and romantic and has been in every iteration of Sherlock Holmes since the original stories, despite never being explicitly canon. S4 really follows through on Moriarty’s promise. The heart of Sherlock Holmes is gone, missing, burned out. 

Then we have the escape room [mild spoilers]. The entrance is Doyle’s Opticians; its filled with glasses. (Side note there was definitely a wall displaying glasses that were arranged by color to look like a rainbow). Once again we have the theme of lenses. Being in an optometry office, it’s interesting because the focus is obviously on correct vision. 20/20 vision. Vision is “right” when it’s 2020. (This wasn’t my realization, but someone else went to the escape room as well and wrote about it). So now, we have this idea of being able to see correctly tied to the number 2020. To the YEAR 2020. This is also interesting because one of the signs in Doyle’s Opticians read “You were told but you didn’t listen: coming soon.” Just another indication that we will be getting more (Sherlock) soon. 

Now, finally, we come to what I see as some of the most convincing evidence about Sherlock S5 coming in 2020. It has to do with copyright laws. 

In England, all of ACD’s stories are in the public domain. However, in the US, this isn’t so. US Copyright laws are different from the UK, so the last of the stories won’t actually enter the public domain until 2023. American copyright duration is 95 years from the date of publication. This is important because the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate is extremely protective of how Sherlock Holmes is portrayed in the media. It turns out that despite the fact that most of the stories are already in the public domain, BBC, CBS, and Warner Brothers have all gotten licenses from the Estate in order to make their shows/films. In 2014, the ACD Estate lost a lawsuit in which they were trying to argue that the characters are “complex” and that any use of the character (at all) was still valid under copyright laws (as not every story had entered the public domain) and therefore in need of a license from them. While some of the later stories are still under copyright, they lost the lawsuit and it was ruled that the character (as written in the earlier stories) is in the public domain. They sued Miramax for its production Mr. Holmes, which portrays an elderly Holmes, arguing that it drew from the later stories and therefore violated copyright. Miramax ended up settling to avoid litigation. The Estate is known for being litigious and basically doing its best to stay gatekeeper, hoard ownership, and generally extort money out of anyone who creates anything having to do with Sherlock Holmes. While the BBC has paid them for licenses before, I’m not sure how this clearly conservative group would feel about making Johnlock canon. Even if its not legally in their power to prevent it from happening, it doesn’t sound like that has stopped them in the past from suing basically anyone that has tried to create Sherlock Holmes material without their consent, and if that material in any way seems to come from the later stories, then they might have a case. 

Which brings us to the Three Garridebs. Moftiss have said in the past that this is one of their favorite stories due to it being the story where Holmes shows his depth of feeling for Watson. As stated by Watson himself, “It was worth a wound–it was worth many wounds–to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask” Generally speaking, the fandom has posited that a Johnlock reveal may happen in a “Three Garridebs” moment. And do you happen to know the story that directly precedes the Three Garridebs? The Sussex Vampire. A story in which Holmes investigates a supposed vampire only to discover a loving mother who is attempting to save her infant child by sucking poison out from his wound. Kind of sounds familiar huh? A perceived monster, who is in fact nothing dangerous at all. Who in this case is the exact opposite of monstrous, is actually loving and gentle (like the real dog that is tellingly tied to sentiment, or Bluebell the glowing rabbit).

Both the Sussex Vampire and the Three Garridebs are part of The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, the last collection of stories. They were both published in 1924, meaning that both their copyrights run out in 2019. It will really only be possible for Moftiss to use material from the Three Garridebs for a queer storyline starting in 2020. And if we assume that this is their plan all along, that they have even potentially set it up in S4 (looking at you John Watson getting shot by “Eurus”), they have HAD TO WAIT until now. But they won’t need to wait any longer, starting in January. 

Oh and by the way, here is an interview Martin gave recently in which he tells a story about how he had to literally give up the Hobbit because he was CONTRACTED to Sherlock S2 and they wouldn’t move filming on that. (Thankfully Peter Jackson moved filming around for him, so we still have him as Bilbo). So I would imagine that if S2 was contracted, and they were planning on making a 5 series show all along, that they are probably contracted for all of it. Which means all those claims that its just too difficult to get everyone together for filming are just another means of throwing us off the trail. 

If they have been waiting for this copyright to expire, but also unable to tell us that that is why they are waiting, it also makes sense why they have stretched it out so much. It's even possible that they didn’t realize how horrible the ACD Estate was going to be when they first started filming, and had to adjust/drag it out so that they could finally do what they want to do, what they have been planning for from the beginning.

So there you have it: the ending of The Final Problem, an analysis of HOB, Dracula, and Victorian gothic lit, and finally the symbolism of lenses, correct vision, and copyright issues all leading up to 2020. I think S5 of Sherlock is coming. I’ve been feeling it, sensing something for the last few months. I think we can all feel it. And it might just be sooner than we thought.

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Thank you so much to my love @canonicallybisexualjohnwatson who co-developed this theory with me, edited this, helped me with the links, and was also the one to introduce me to Sherlock/TJLC, subsequently changing my life. i love you b.