Is the BBC Sherlock/Johnlock community here still active?
@avathffs asked: Has any new madness of note gone on the last few years?
If you don’t mind, I’ll answer here.
I left Tumblr in 2017, when Sherlock fandom was full of pain and broken dreams, and came back just a month ago.
Here’s what I’ve noticed in 2023:
- Johnlock isn’t wild anymore. It became more mature(?).
- There are still a lot of new artworks, gifs, and fanfiction. Btw, highly recommend @meetinginsamarra to look for your ideal Johnlock fanfic.
- The fandom wounds got in 2017 haven’t healed yet. I’d say some fans are still mad while others are sad. That’s why most of creative stuff is focused on Series 1-3 + TAB. Series 4 is often ignored.
- There are two broad opinions towards Johnlock: 1) S4 shows real events, relationships between Sherlock and John are deteriorated, and the ending is a clear queerbating; 2) S4 doesn’t show real events (an unreliable storyteller), we don’t know the real state of Sherlock and John relationships, and the ending looks suspicious.
- There is a lot of great meta written for the past six year! I’m still in the process of reading it. I’ll make up a list of my favorite meta and share it in the nearest time.
- When you say Johnlock isn't wild anymore, does that mean no more Tunalock type things hahaha I remember when that filled my dash, truly a wild time.
- I will definitely check @meetinginsamarra out and search out other active users - my feed is dead.
- I understand people are still hurt. As ridiculous as it sounds, my own wounds after s4 have been so sore I had to step away almost immediately after the last episode ended. Be part of history LOL. Lord...
- ... but saying that, I've now read the extended mind palace metas (mostly from @loudest-subtext-in-tv) with less hurt emotions and I can see the fuckery of s4 and I am willing to give watching it a go again with that view. I actually just finished watching s1e1 for the first time in years and honestly I still get the same emotions I used to have. Johnlock is truly a love through the ages for me. But if that EMP train of thought is correct then they've left it far too long. S5 should have been announced directly after and aired close to s4 before perhaps losing momentum/memory with the more casual watchers and to perhaps calm the hurt/baited watchers. Such an odd note to leave it on, to never expose that the entire seasons was EMP? Ahhh I'm going to twist myself in circles.
- Would love to get stuck in with all the metas I have missed! And get stuck in with writing fic again (and rp if that community is still active somewhere after the demise of Omegle). I've noticed I consume the internet more than I create the internet these days, if that makes sense. I miss creating and I miss the inspiration I got from the show and the community. Thank you so much for your thoughtful response, I really appreciate it! =)
I'm so glad old fans rejoins Sherlock fandom. It means this community never dies.❤
- Hahaha I haven’t seen any Otter/Hedgehog arts recently! I’m not talking about Tunalock...
- Unfortunately, there are a lot of great blogs dedicated to BBC Sherlock / Johnlock that aren’t active anymore. So painful! (My dash is alive thanks to @a-victorian-girl who is extremely active on Tumblr.)
- Oh, I feel you! Tbh, now my wounds are healing because of meta. I believe in meta so much that I'm ready to rewatch S4 during my winter holidays!
- I’m in love with EMP theories! Even if they’re wrong (to prove it we need S5, yes, Mofftiss?), they’re beautiful on its own. My imagination runs wild every time I read EMP theories. (Btw, I love meta posts by @garkgatiss. Highly recommend!) I suppose Mofftiss want to repeat history. ACD Sherlock’s fans waited for 8 years to bring back Holmes. Instead of killing the main character, Mofftiss have "killed" the whole show. (It’s just my theory.) After 2025 we'll see.
- I miss creating and I miss the inspiration I got from the show and the community. SAME! But I don’t like writing things, I prefer making edits in Photoshop. :D
Thank you so much for taggin' me, @pressurepoint221!! 🫂
I landed here at the beginning of this year (2023), thanks to Pinterest (where I saw thousands of screenshots of Sherlock meta from Tumblr, lol)
Idk how it was here in 2017, but I've been told a lot about that time. So sad.... Unfortunately there are still haters of that past fandom, but there are still many talented people (writers, retouchers, illustrators) who continue posting beautiful fanarts and fanfics about Sherlock. We even have Sabri (@sabsi221b), who is now recording Sherlock podfics!! 🩷
I get it that a smaller fandom looks like one heading toward extinction. But it isn't. I'm thrilled with all the activity and creativity in this community (the Johnlock corner of the Sherlock fandom) and can honestly not keep up.
Every chapter of the fics I post on AO3 contains a fic rec or two, a habit I got from the inimitable @quesarasara, and I reblog like a madwoman on tumblr.
I'd also suggest following @helloliriels who puts out a fandom newsletter on tumblr; @cupidford @inevitably-johnlocked @my-johnlockficrecs @7-percent @calaisreno @discordantwords @thegildedbee @blogstandbygo who are all generous fic reccers
@safedistancefrombeingsmart for great gifsets
@bluebellofbakerstreet @ceruleanmindpalace @justanobsessedpan @petite-madame @willietheplaidjacket fanart
oi I've been summoned to dinner, damn that man from Porlock, more another time