The fact that people actually expect the writers to talk about johnlock becomming canon seriously boggles my mind. “Don’t spoil the surprise” is basically rule #1 in the How to Write Romance handbook. Like, seriously, there’s not a book or movie summary in existance that says “Alex likes Pat and Pat likes Alex but they don’t know they like each other, will they get together? Yeah, obviously.” Because then you set the book down and walk away like wtf ‘the actors and writers deny it’ is not a valid argument against johnlock becomming canon seriously “keep them in suspense” is like basic writing part 1.

And also, “TJLC is celebrating keeping queer people closeted” is just so ??? Let’s take a moment to realize that not outright talking about it is actually extremely normal and is treating johnlock like every other heterosexual couple known to mankind. Like, when Moulder and Scully finally got together, that was pretty big, right? Exciting for the fans? Imagine how pissed they would’ve been if the writers were like “yeah it’s gonna happen” right from season one. It takes the fun out of things. What I’m seeing is not a celebration of being closeted, but a normal, natural progession of a romantic arc.

Not just for romances, but mysteries too, the entanglement and twisting of those genre conventions being a big part of Sherlock. (I mean, all stories, really; you never want to give away the ending. But especially romances and mysteries.) But that might be a subject of an upcoming meta, in which case I could not possibly speak upon it…

When people still insist that Sherlock is a sociopath I get vehemently angry and I WILL refute that claim until my voice goes hoarse

It really frustrates me too. Sherlock /calling himself/ a sociopath isn’t the same thing as him being one. It’s the equivalent of my friend who is kind of emotionally fucked after a string of really awful relationships wherein she was screwed over each time calling herself a “Heartless Bitch” and going on about how she’d now rather “be manipulative than be manipulated”. I know she doesn’t mean it. She knows she doesn’t mean it. It’s what she says because she’s terrified of being hurt again. It’s puffing. It’s bravado.  It’s a defense mechanism. It’s Sherlock, in a way, following the Tyrion “Wear it like armor and it can never be used to hurt you” advice. Except it’s not him owning what or who he actually is. He’s taking what people assume him to be and wearing /that/ like armor. I get that people don’t like the use of “Sociopath” repeatedly as a “running gag” but it’s not a gag. It’s an indicator of when Sherlock’s feeling vulnerable and /the point/ is that its an inaccurate ‘diagnosis’.

Exactly. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Sherlock wishes he could turn off emotions, but he can’t; in fact, he feels SO MUCH that it’s debilitating. The sociopath label was his way of keeping people at arm’s length. Notice that the only time (I think) we heard him call himself that in series 3 was right before he killed Magnussen, and right after he looked at John with so much pain in his eyes that it makes me cry to this day. He was trying to wrap himself in the “armor” again to be what John needed him to be in that moment. He had to retreat back into his shell in order to carry out the act that is obviously completely against his nature.

I feel the need to point out that Sherlock being/claiming to be a high functioning sociopath is unique to the BBC series.  To start, there’s no such thing as a high functioning sociopath.  Second, you’ll never catch Canon Sherlock, Millerlock, or Downeylock calling themselves sociopaths.

steven moffat be like “yeah she was a freelance assassin with a past that would make john (who was in the army and saw people killed every day) stop loving her ALSO REMEMBER THAT GUY WHO EMPLOYED ASSASSINS? yeah he’s back”

also “gone a bit freelance now, bad girl!” was intended as much to tease the audience as sherlock & john and there is no way that isn’t going to come up and there’s no way it’s going to make mary more sympathetic

Secrets

I am officially more excited about this secret meta I’m currently working on than I was about Softly, Softly. Like, I don’t think it will interest as many people as Softly, Softly, but the people it does interest will be like, soooo interested. Especially writers. I’m having a blast just organizing it.

I can’t give an estimate of when it’ll be done — it just keeps growing and growing, and requires even more cites, and more varied cites, than Softly, Softly did. I’m also totally not sorry about making you guys wait. It’s fun, yeah? We’re all having fun here? No? Just me? Oh well!

the cabbie threatens to kill sherlock > john kills him

the golem tries to kill sherlock > john says ‘let him go or i will kill you’

moriarty threatens sherlock’s life > john is ready to sacrifice his own life to save sherlock

irene lies to sherlock about her death > john says he won’t help her and will tell sherlock she’s alive

a man insults sherlock > john punches him in the nose

mary shoots sherlock in the chest > ?????? you really think john will be okay with that?

for Clem

destroy the idea that tjlc would be “a big reveal”

Honestly there is no point in me speaking to you unless you fully understand that at its most broken down and basic tjlc is the idea that we should read the show exactly as it appears before us without…

Sherlock and women vs Sherlock and John

nobody wants to talk about how "expect the unexpected" is also a quote from Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband tho

i suddenly want to talk about this

John arguing about the semantic difference and its implications between “previous” and “ex” but people don’t think he knows what he’s doing when he says “not gay” instead of “straight”