Breaking the Unbreakable Rule 

(Sherlock Meta by Ivy Blossom)

There’s this trick they teach you about character-building: give your character a core, defining characteristic. Then, against all logic, create a single exception to that unbreakable rule. That one exception will underscore the trait by showing that it has limits, and it won’t feel like an inconsistency. Instead it will reveal something even more critically important about the character: what turns their universe upside down. What’s most important to them.

Sherlock’s defining characteristic is his carefully-constructed brilliance, which comes at the cost of his emotional life. He never lets his emotions get ahead of him. His decisions are always based on cold, rational thought, not affection for another human being. He barely ever demonstrates that he even has any emotions, except when he very nearly bursts into tears for love of John Watson. Except when he irrationally sacrifices his own life to give John a chance at happiness. The exception to Sherlock’s core characteristic that proves the rule is John.

John’s defining characteristic is his exceptional bravery and pathological desire for danger. He loves being on the edge, and there’s nothing that rattles him. Nerves of steel, you might say. The only risk John won’t take is to  admit that he is in love with Sherlock. His life would be easier if he would just admit it. He’ll shoot a man to protect Sherlock, he’ll gladly sacrifice his life to give Sherlock a chance to escape, but he won’t be honest about what he wants. The man who is afraid of nothing is too skittish about that. He’ll dance around it, he’ll go halfway towards admitting it, but he won’t say it. And he’ll shut doors in Sherlock’s face to make it clear that he won’t go there.

If tension is the fuel that propels a story forward, these are the tensions that keep these characters in motion.