#why do I wait til the tags to do my actual self-analysis?

[bigskydreaming]

Please someone show me even just one panel of Dick dressed as a fashion disaster in his civilian persona. It doesn’t exist. He’s never ever ever been characterized that way in canon, people just make fun of his costumes in-universe, because the same characters who get defensive and territorial about their backgrounds can’t extend him the basic courtesy of recognizing that he designed them for sentimental reasons, with zero interest in adhering to the fashion standards of the very same elitist pricks he grew up with in Gotham while they all looked down on him for his circus origins.

LOL sorry to sound like a broken record but the fashion jokes are really not funny when his costumes are literally all they’re based on, and to me they’re an example of this implicit understanding in fandom and in canon where fans and writers and characters make a big deal about classism and the prejudices of the Gotham upper class with various characters - until they exempt themselves from that to giggle about the exact same things those characters mock Dick for in canon - his circus origins.

sfhafhlkfalhs I know its not that big a deal all things considered, even fandom related, but its like nails on a chalkboard to me, because it demonstrates such a basic flaw in half the meta or discussions raised in this fandom. “Its bad to be derisive or unsympathetic about the origins of this Batkid or that Batkid or that one.....except its okay when the jokes are ones I think are funny and I mean its not like people are really ever from the circus in real life, so when you think about it, Dick’s origins don’t really count as ‘real’ and there’s no reason for him to ever be sentimental about them or for other characters to give a shit when he is.” 

[bernhardina]

HOW SEASON 4 CONFIRMED JOHNLOCK FOR THE LAST TIME

I am new to this community and have no real experience of meta-analysis but if I may, I am just going to write a short explanation for how I see series 4 and how I think it blatantly confirms TJLC by basically ignoring everything series 1 to 3 built up.

I firmly believe Mofftiss always meant for Johnlock to happen. There is way too much evidence for this and remember, intuitions are not to be ignored. Everything up ’til T6T is building towards Johnlock, but then something changed. What we have seen in S4 is basically how Mark and Steven faked this shows own death, by abruptly making it over the top heterosexual.

But why did they do it? And how is this evidence for TJLC?

I think Mark and Steven were forced to change the homosexual ending into a heterosexual one, not because they wanted it, but because others did. I don’t know who, it could have been the BBC/producers, for whatever stupid reason. But I remain convinced this is the case and it actually explains this whole season.

I am not trying to blame others than Mark and Steven, they still could have done so much better even with no Johnlock, but I think they became angry for having to change their scripts and make it hetero and therefor left clues on a sub-textual level, trying to explain to us how and why it all went wrong.

 THE SIX THATCHERS

1.       The forced hetero-ending explains why John and Sherlock are not talking in The Six Thatchers. It is possible this episode originally had a build up for a love confession, teased in the ‘Well, I like you’ scene. But the fact that John and Sherlock are not even speaking to each other indicates that Mark didn’t want to use queerbating now that he knew it had to end hetero. So basically, he just kept the characters from speaking to each other, trying to ignore the Abominable Bride ever happened.

2.       This explains the clues for unreliable narrator. Including all the fish, contradictions, implying Sherlock is making things up, John writing his fake-blog, Sherlock using fake-twitter, etc. Beneath what we see is a real episode, but turned into something that it is not and this is Marks way of trying to make us understand that this isn’t own vision.

3.       It explains the beginning, showing doctored footage and Sherlock stating ‘This is not what happened’, and Mycrofts ‘It is now’, taking Sherlocks phone[heart] from him abruptly.

4.       This explains Charlie in the car-scene. We all got that Charlie was gay and he was going to surprise someone, but then something went wrong and the surprise never happened. Well, there you go. Johnlock was the surprise, but something (?) went wrong.

5.       This explains characters being out of character for large parts of the episode. I can’t remember who, but some of you here on tumblr thought the scene with Norbury was something else. Norbury acted like Mary and Mary acted more like John. The whole John’s alibi theory was born. Well, this could actually be the case. This could be what they originally intended. For whatever reason, they decided to make Mary a hero, perhaps as they were going over the top with the hetero-thing, but it is possible John shot Mary in the first version of the script.

 THE LYING DETECTIVE

1.       This one also has some clues, the ‘you have been played for an ad campaign’ statement could indicate that BBC wanted to make the show hetero to not lose viewers. The ‘We always saw it coming, but it was fun’ comment could actually be another go at explaining what will now be seen as queerbating in season 1-3. I think this is Steven trying to tell us ‘we knew we might not be able to go through with Johnlock, but we always had hope, we always wrote it that way, and it was fun’.

2.       There are actually some nice Johnlock-moments in this episode which I think comes from the original script and Steven didn’t want to get rid of them even with the forced hetero-ending. Moments like Sherlock speaking about the one feature of interest, Johns obvious jealousy over Faith and Irene, and his ‘it will be gone before you know it, before you know it’ statement, which could also be the writers telling themselves they should have done Johnlock while there still was a chance, because for some reason, that chance has gone.

3.       Also this explains Mycroft not being gay. It is meant to feel wrong.

 THE FINAL PROBLEM

Oh boy, if there is one episode that confirms Johnlock it is this one! And not because of that cheesy ending with Mary-voice over (that was hetero-normativity speaking, not Mary). When I first watched this episode, I was convinced it was a fake and that we would get to see the real one soon enough. Well, I am still convinced it is a fake episode, or rather the hetero-ending someone else wanted, because from where I stand it is obvious that Mark and Steven didn’t want to write it. This is not a real last episode. Everything is over the top. Nothing that happened previously matters. Everything is random and unexplained. They have written it like a comedy, like a parody on the straight John-Sherlock-relationship. Give the people what they want-sort of thing. Sherlock forced to say ‘I love you’ to Molly (a mockery of heterosexuality applied to a gay man). The Garridebs hanging. It’s like they didn’t care anymore.

 GAY OR TRASH: BUT WHY?

Why would they do this? Well, the only explanation is that they wrote this ending against their own will. They wrote it as a fuck-you, not to us but to hetero-normativity. Is this what you wanted?-sort of thing. Mary going ‘It doesn’t matter who you really are’ is not something they themselves believe, but a mockery of the people who decided Sherlock should stay in the closet. They wrote this episode as shit. That’s why they had John stating ‘It is what it is’ at the end. And I can understand why they did what they did: Because if they couldn’t make their version, then why bother at all?

Honestly, I think what they did is disrespectful to the fans, Johnlockers or not. Mark and Steven didn’t have to do Johnlock, but they should have written three meaningful episodes anyway. We did not deserve what we got, what we waited three years for.

But I felt I had to write this, because I am noticing many people on my dash going “It was queerbating all along!” and “Why did they make all those choices in season 1, 2 and 3?” and “I was so sure we got it right” and I just want to say: You did get it right. Johnlock was always intended to happen. The writers wanted to follow through with it. But something went wrong. It was the final problem. Hetero-normativity got in the way, somehow, and they wrote this mess as a revenge on the casuals who forced them to do it, and faking the shows own death.

Of course, I cannot be sure. But this is the only thing that makes sense to me right now. We might not get to know the truth for years, but we know what we have: Another failed attempt to let Sherlock Holmes show his true self. I am so sorry for all of you, and I’m guessing the writers are more than sorry, but they must pretend TJLC was a lie. And it breaks my heart!

I wrote this to make it clear that I am still convinced TJLC was a real thing up ‘til series 4. Mark and Steven wrote three wonderful seasons based on it. Without Johnlock, it couldn’t have been what it was. So, you were always right. All of you. It just didn’t end with a well-deserved confirmation. Hopefully, one day the writers will get to confirm what their intentions were, and we can finally have closure.

I don’t have any friends, so I’m just going to name-drop some people that I like. I’m sorry if you don’t want to be tagged, it won’t happen again <3

 @loveinthemindpalace 

@inevitably-johnlocked

@pearlrebs

@johnnlocked

@teapotsubtext

@johnlock-is-almost-canon

@opttoremember

@totheverybestoftimes

@bbcshermit

@skulls-and-tea

@the-7-percent-solution