Irene has been completely discounted

 (Sherlock meta by elenarider)

It’s not that people dislike her, and they’re certainly not upset with her for breaking up their ship — if anything, most people are like, “AAAAH I LOVE HER, SHE SHIPS JOHNLOCK YAY!” — but it’s like she’s been completely discounted. Because practically everyone ships Sherlock and John. And it’s not that I don’t ship Johnlock. Because I do. I don’t think that they ever have or ever will have sex or get married to each other (not that it doesn’t make me grin madly when they do in fic), but they are, as I’ve said before, soulmates, and the love between them, platonic though it may be, is undeniably strong. But there’s no room in almost anybody’s head to think that Sherlock could possibly ever be attracted to anyone else. Like it or not, there is attraction between Sherlock and Irene, for their minds if not for their bodies.

It’s rather obvious that Irene loved Sherlock, since that was the entire point toward the end. I hate it that some people say that she’s weak and that her portrayal is sexist because of it though. Firstly, they say that she’s sexualized, but that’s part of modernizing the scandal. It’s hardly enough these days for her to just have one photograph of her standing with a male monarch. And yes, she showed up naked and she uses sex to get what she wants, but I don’t see how either of those are sexist. If anything, they’re empowering to women, especially since she’s not the typical ideal of beauty but is still so comfortable with herself. And there are male characters in the media that sleep around to get what they want, and they’re not called sluts for it, but that’s another story entirely. To get back on track, people also say that because she feels more deeply than Sherlock, it’s reinforcing the stereotype that women are more emotional than men. I don’t think that’s true at all. After all, Sherlock felt something too. It’s less defined, but it was definitely there. He was a little heartbroken when he thought she was dead. He definitely wasn’t getting over her death very quickly anyway. Even Mycroft could tell: “the promise of love, the pain of loss, etc.” He knew that Sherlock had developed feelings for Irene and that she used them. However, in the end, she ends up losing because of her own feelings. But is that really such a bad thing, to be able to feel sentiment? Moffat says in the commentary that the intention was for the viewer to start that scene hating Irene, but end it hating Sherlock because he really was cruel to her there. Obviously, she’d started it, but his revenge was still absolutely brutal. And it’s extremely hypocritical to say that Irene is weaker than Sherlock for loving him, but then say that Sherlock is stronger than Moriarty despite, or because of, his love for John. Plus, a recurring theme for Sherlock throughout all the episodes is for him to become almost mechanical and lash out when he’s at a low point, like a man cornered. When he was afraid at Baskerville, we got him telling John that he doesn’t have friends. When he was about to fake his death at Bart’s, he said that alone protects him. And here, he cuts down Irene. Sherlock’s “power” or “strength” in this situation is not that he doesn’t feel, but that he can act like he doesn’t feel, that he can turn it off when he chooses. Because, once again, he does feel something for Irene. Even after the excitement of the game, there was still that feeling between them. She texted him her last goodbyes before she thought she was going to die, and he went all the way to Karachi to save her life and help her escape for good. And then he asks, he pleads, for her camera phone from John to keep as a reminder of her. And I like to think that, tucked away with it in some drawer, is a hand-written violin piece titled, “The Woman”. Because Mycroft was right in the end: Irene is, to Sherlock, one of a kind, the one woman who matters. That’s not a discredit to Molly Hooper because Molly is a very, very good friend that Sherlock recognized in the end, but only Irene did he ever see as a woman.