Mycroft and mummy Holmes

 (Sherlock meta by enigmaticpenguinofdeath)

Anonymous: Non tblr user who follows you anyway. I need to get something off my chest. I can't be the only one who's angry with Mummy Holmes, right? I mean, I get that she was upset Mycroft had lied about Eurus being dead, but,come on! You're the one who a) raised a psycopath who murdered your son's best friend, then tried to kill HIM by setting the house of fire, and b) raised junkie Sherlock, who Mycroft takes care of while you're comfortably living in the countryside. And you dare to call him "limited"!?

enigmaticpenguinofdeath: Hey Anon - yeah I must say my estimation of Mrs Holmes has rather gone down a bit with TFP.

It has to be said that if you’ve got a five year old super genius who doesn’t seem to understand pain/empathy in the slightest and is able to kill another child - that has to be a fairly difficult thing to cope with. They can’t be completely oblivious because you hear them discussing “we can’t make her do anything”, and were apparently getting their kids professional assessments.

And Sherlock and Mycroft do seem fond of their parents, to a degree. Mycroft has a photo of them in his house, he took them to see Les Mis (horror!). Sherlock had them visit and natter away in TEH, and we hear that the boys told them the truth about Sherlock faking his death - so they didn’t want to worry them. But you can be fond of and even love people who are quite shitty to you; plenty of people with abusive parents could vouch for that.

Back in HLV the Mycroft & Mummy bickering seemed to be jokey family banter - about his name and leaving work stuff lying around. Mycroft was being a Christmas grouch so that’s understandable really. But by the time we get to the “you should have done better” and “he’s very limited” comments - those were harsh. Yes she’s obviously emotional, and the taking his hand in the scene at the end suggests some thawing, but it’s fueled a suspicion that Mycroft has always had the shitty end of the stick when it comes to their parents’ view of them.

As with my gifset yesterday - Mycroft repeatedly takes the blame for anything and everythng to do with Sherlock as well as himself. That’s a habit I say he picked up in childhood - he’s the oldest, he’s supposed to be the responsible one. Calling Sherlock the grown up? Hmm, not something I quite buy.

Mycroft's reaction to the director dying

 (Sherlock meta by enigmaticpenguinofdeath)

Anonymous: I don't think Mycroft's reaction to the director dying was too far off. "But he was fine in Serbia!" I'd say that's because he had control in that situation. Probably had everything planned down to the letter, and they got in and out without anyone dying. "But he didn't freak when Sherlock shot Magnussen!" He wasn't the one that pulled the trigger. And he did seem affected by it. "But he was willing to shoot the clown!" A clown that he assumed was threatening to kill him with a sword. Anonymous

enigmaticpenguinofdeath: I don’t disagree with you, Anon! His differing levels of response to gore etc might be a case of wobbly character consistency or it might equally be a case of, as you say, the context of the encounter. I think most meta/thoughts I’ve come across on the subject acknowledges that.

If he was super-dooper squeamish I doubt he’d have been so unconcerned at seeing “Irene”‘s bashed-up corpse at the morgue, or hanging out on a plane of corpses for dramatic entrance purposes, or indeed witnessing his brother being tortured. But as you point out, control of the situation might be a factor. And he knew the governor personally, as well as probably feeling responsible for what just happened.

I think it’s best that everyone mentally prepares themselves to stab/shoot a killer clown, just in case the epidemic from last year comes back.

The scene with Mycroft and the gun

 (Sherlock meta by dragonsbain and enigmaticpenguinofdeath)

dragonsbain: The scene with the gun. I've seen every possible variation on the Mycroft does not have the stomach to kill someone joke. I was having a hard time believing Mycroft has never killed someone. Being affiliated with MI-6 and all. Until I really looked at his face. He is horrified. Why is he horrified? Eurus has killed. Sherlock has killed. If he kills as well, what would he become? I'm sure that's what he was thinking. What do you think?

I think the gun scene shall forever be a topic of debate! Because there’s no right or wrong answer, it’s all just how you see the character and speculative justifications. The short answer is just the writers wanted to have John presented with a need to shoot an innocent(ish) person and refuse; to mirror the choices in the different games and bring it back around to being all about him (as ever) Sherlock needed to pick who did it, and this way we got to develop Sherlock & Mycroft’s relationship some more in the process. Sherlock assumes Mycroft should be able to take care of the problem - and that he would do it to spare the more overtly emotional about such things John from having to do it. But Mycroft lets him down, and a bit more faith in Big Brother solving his problems gets chipped away.

I’m pretty sure Mycroft has killed, or caused deaths anyway - certainly indirectly, and certainly on his say-so. That’s what his job would involve, making the sorts of decisions that lead to terror cells being snuffed out, and prioritising one need over others, finite resources and all. He used to use AGRA and they didn’t go around tickling hostage takers to release prisoners. There are many logical reasons why someone could be content to take a life in one situation and not another. That’s exactly what John did - he shot the cabbie, and refused to shoot the governor. Who’s to say Mycroft hasn’t killed when the need arose, but equally refused to kill an innocent man in cold blood, under duress, when flooded with guilt for causing the whole situation and in the midst of the worst family reunion since that time Mummy kept telling him off and got potatoes on his v important laptop, Sherlock drugged him then shot someone in the face.

And after all Mycroft would have shot that clown in self defence if the gun still had bullets in it. That clown totally deserved it too.

Their only real adult conversation

 (Sherlock meta by brassholio and enigmaticpenguinofdeath)

brassholio: I can't help but feel sad watching TLD again knowing that this is really the only time that Sherlock has had a decent adult conversation with his little sister. That aside, I feel horrible for Mycroft after TFP. He's basically been pressured with keeping his family safe (not just his siblings but his mum and dad) since he was a teenager. He's done his best to spare the family grief, yet when it actually comes to light they seem to blame him for everything. Poor bloke.

enigmaticpenguinofdeath: The Sherlock-”Faith” scenes in retrospect can all mean so much more; I definitely need to have a rewatch of that. I saw a comment about the scars on her arm he deduced were there - so that was from her childhood experiments? And what she said about him being nicer than anyone; when she’s only really spoken to professionals (and Jim, and Mycroft?) as an adult. Lots of layers to unpick there.

Mycroft’s being cruel to be kind ishoos came back to bite him in a big way. And I want to roll around in all the feels that induces.