Blaming Mycroft, blaming the parents...

(Sherlock meta by bbcsassdeadass, anarfea, mollymatterrs, 

introspectivenavelgazer, strawberrypatty and nctanthcaarchive)

bbcsassdeadass: 

This. This made me so angry because she’s blaming him again. She is blaming a poor kid that tried to make everything better for his God damn family and all he gets is this response. Like do you think about what age he was when shit started? When Euros killed Redbeard and he had to comfort and change his brother’s memory. Can you imagine how guilty he felt? Do you think about how stressed this man is about everything and the fact that he is raising your God damn children and makes sure that Euros gets what she wants? Where were you when Sherlock was using drugs? Why aren’t you making a list? Where were you when he searched for his little brother? Do you think about the fact that he is always wearing that gun-sword-umbrella because he is always in a defensive mood because when he took the job he knew the risks it involved? So no lady, he shouldn’t have "done better". You should’ve raised your children. You should’ve done better. You should’ve thought about the brother that raised your other children when you weren’t there.

anarfea:

And this is why Mycroft has a file …..

mollymatterrs:

I feel inclined to remind people that Mycroft continued what their Uncle Rudy had started, that it’s implied Eurus was taken away from the family against their wishes, that Mycroft explicitly told his parents that Eurus was dead, burned in a fire, that Mummy Holmes didn’t have the resources Mycroft has had, and she was just moments earlier told that all of that was a lie and her daughter had actually been alive for years, kept as a prisoner.

She’s mother, who has just learned her daughter’s been locked away and grown up without her in a remote island prison. How do you think she’d react?

“I’m so sorry Mycroft, that you purposely took on this burden and didn’t involve us, didn’t allow us to make the choice when it came to our own child.”

This is a broken family, for lots of reasons, and I am so angry that people are shafting the parents to bolster Mycroft. They made mistakes, Uncle Rudy made mistakes but, hell, let the men suffer concequences too. 

introspectivenavelgazer:

It’s more interesting that he messed up by not telling his parents. Like his attempt to protect backfired SPECTACULARLY.

strawberrypatty:

I feel the need to also mention: Mycroft encouraging Sherlock’s memory suppression is NOT a good thing. Sherlock has had childhood trauma that had impacted his ability to form relationships and most likely contributed to his drug abuse. Repressing that doesn’t make it go away, it just buries it. Mycroft has good intentions, but he does do things he shouldn’t. Sherlock should’ve been able to heal from his problems. Eurus should’ve had human interaction other than solving things for the government.

We know very little about the Holmes family dynamic, but we do know there are three children who from a very young age thought they were smarter than their parents. Uncle Rudy (who I’m guessing is very much like the Holmes children) also thought he was smarter. People made decisions for Mr and Mrs Holmes about the way their children should’ve been raised.

nctanthcaarchive:

[...] This is not okay. As an older sibling myself I can empathize with Mycroft so much. This is not fair to him in the slightest. Also his Uncle is the one that helped him with Eurus. Why is darling Uncle Rudy not in trouble as well?

Mycroft has done everything in his power, practically his whole life, to protect his family. No one, NO ONE, is more dedicated to watching out for them than Mycroft Holmes. So don’t you dare tell him that he could have done better. You are the parent. You could have done better.

I do realize she didn’t know her daughter was alive but even for Sherlock it doesn’t seem as if she has done much to help him since he moved out. She just expects Mycroft to do everything. I understand the fact that parents have to let their children make their own life choices. But you can’t decide that and then decide that it is your other child’s fault for not interfering with his sibling’s downward spiral.

Does Sherlock love Irene? 

(Sherlock meta by mollymatterrs)

Q: [...] Do you honestly believe that [Sherlock] felt love for Irene Adler? Moffat himself said that the episode was about "Sherlock /and/ love, not Sherlock /in/ love". Do you equate the sexual implications and mental manipulations (complete lack of trust) between Sherlock and Irene to "love"? Lust, I can understand. But I'd like to know why you think he felt love, and in a "large dose" too. Is being attracted equal to feeling love?


A: [...] First off, I’ll answer this plainly: I don’t ship Sherlock/Irene. I do not think Sherlock loved Irene, and I don’t think Irene loved Sherlock. They found one another intriguing, and they were both attracted to one another, but it wasn’t anything deeper than that.

So, with that in mind, do I equate the sexual implications and mental manipulations between Sherlock and Irene as “love”?

Evidently not.

[...] Sherlock—up until ASiB—had gone through much of his adult life in a very machine-like way. Indeed, [...] You cannot deny that Irene had a major effect on Sherlock. To be honest though, that was the whole point wasn’t it? Irene’s sexual confidence was a vehicle for Sherlock to realize that he isn’t the robot he has tried to be. [...]

Take the first time we meet Sherlock in ASiP. He is oblivious to everything except the case he’s currently working on and his experiment. Molly distracts him with her invitation to coffee, but he doesn’t register the subtext behind it, and as such, he continues on his merry way.

In my opinion, Sherlock meeting Irene in Series 2 was a catalyst. Irene, whilst being similar to him in terms of intellect and the way in which they both use emotions for their own gain, is vastly different in other ways. The most prominent is that she is sexually confident and isn’t afraid to show emotion; unlike Sherlock who prefers to lock it all away, deeming it distracting. (Example: His “don’t make people into heroes” speech from The Great Game.)

As such, it’s always struck me as quite odd that Sherlock only wanted Irene’s phone at the end of the case. That phone—whilst being a callback to the canon of Doyle’s books—is also the symbol of who Irene is; that’s a fact that is made plain throughout the episode. Sherlock even says, “This is your heart”. So why, when he’s of the belief that she is dead, does he request the phone? It is, as he said, her heart. Does that mean that Sherlock wants Irene’s heart?

My thoughts? Not really. It’s like I said [before]. Sherlock recognizes that meeting Irene has had a great effect on him: in a way, it changed his outlook on love, sex and relationships. But you’re right. How can Irene’s encounters with Sherlock possibly be considered as “large doses”?

I guess what I [mean] by “large doses” is the fact that Sherlock’s—for want of a better term—‘awakening’ comes at the hands of a woman who is overly sexual and doesn’t apologize for it. Just look at the sequence where Sherlock and Irene ‘prepare’ themselves for battle. When the camera focuses on Sherlock, it’s logical. But when the camera focuses on Irene, the focus is on her femininity. One could make an argument that this is over-sexualising a female character on television yet again, but the way I see it is that we are actually being shown just how out of his depth Sherlock is. He is wading into a territory he doesn’t fully understand (yet). This is emphasized with Irene’s nude scene, where Sherlock fails to deduce her because she is so upfront (“There. Now we’ve both been defrocked”). Sherlock’s deductive skills rely on seeking out hidden information. By putting everything out there—literally and figuratively—Irene gains the advantage. She continues this throughout until the very end where her explicit nature becomes her undoing (“I am SHERlocked”). Unlike the game played between Sherlock and Moriarty, the games and the mental manipulations played by Irene aren’t to do with the mind—they’re to do with the physical. (“He did know where to look.”)

As such, and for a man like Sherlock who was previously ignorant about such things, I’m pretty sure that his attraction to Irene could be considered a “large dose” of previously unknown emotion.

The experience he has with Irene continues to be built on in another “large dose” of emotion with HoB; this time though, it’s fear. Now Sherlock—within what I can only assume is a matter of months—has experienced the pain and europhia that comes with experiencing such large doses of two potent emotions such as attraction and fear. For a man who has basically been a walking computer for much of his life, that’s a lot to take in. So he of course reverts to type to prove that he is… working properly, let’s say.

But that still doesn’t answer the question of why he asked for the phone—could it be that he doesn’t want it as a souvenir his triumph over Irene? Could it perhaps be that he wants it a way to remind him that emotions aren’t as restrictive as he previously believed?

And by realizing that, he is able to open up to people he might not have before. People like… Molly Hooper. When we first meet Molly, she’s the archetypal girl-with-a-crush type, but throughout the events of Series 2, that changes and she eventually becomes the woman who can deduce the great Sherlock Holmes. (“You look sad… when you think he can’t see you.”)

Now, I’ll say this [...]: I ship Sherlolly. [...]

That’s why I appreciate the character of Irene Adler and the effect she had on Sherlock. His encounters with her were a stepping stone for his humanity to come through. Couple that with the events of HoB, and the result is a man who, in a moment of emotional turmoil, went to a woman he trusted: Molly. He bared himself to her, and told her that he was afraid, that he doubted himself. (“Molly, I think I’m going to die. […] If I wasn’t everything that you think I am—everything that I think I am…”) In that scene, Sherlock shows real fear and worry. But what does Molly do? She still wants to help him, no questions asked. Some people might call her a doormat for doing so, some might call her naive. I personally believe it shows an almighty amount of strength.

[...] Although Sherlock didn’t love Irene, he was attracted to her, and because of that, she did (inadvertently) start him on the journey to becoming human enough to love others—both platonically and/or romantically.

Is Irene Adler the only woman Sherlock will ever have romantic feelings for?

 (Sherlock meta by mollymatterrs)

Q:  [...] It is kind of obvious from season 2 that there may never be any romantic interest for Sherlock other than Irene Adler. In [ASiB] Sherlock ends the episode by saying ’ The Woman’ and then ‘THE Woman’ stressing on the ‘THE’ the second time. Do you think he is suggesting that she is the only woman he will ever have romantic feelings for?

A: Good question. [...] I think the end scene in ASiB can be interpreted in two ways. The first is that Sherlock has decided that he has experienced enough of love and relationships and has now filed the information away in his mind palace. (The brief reappearance of Irene in Sherlock’s mind palace during TSoT supports this theory.) The second however, is the interpretation I hold. When Sherlock refers to Irene as “The Woman”, I don’t believe he’s saying “this is the only woman I will ever have feelings for.” I actually think that’s his way of compartmentalizing her. Irene, with all of her feminine wiles and mystique and flirtatious nature, showed him that you can be clever and brilliant without sacrificing your capacity for either love or sexuality. I know he uses her tendency for sentiment to win one over on her in the end, but he did infiltrate a terrorist group to spare her from execution. What is that if not sentiment?

In my mind, Irene is “The Woman” in that she woke Sherlock up to the fact that you can indeed have the best of both worlds. (Which is a complete antithesis to Mycroft’s attitude which–as we were shown in series 3–he drove into Sherlock from a relatively young age.) Irene was, in essence, Sherlock’s first love. And you never forget your first love.

But that doesn’t mean they’ll always be your last too.

What Molly thought during that “love of your life” moment in TEH

 (Sherlock meta by mollymatterrs)

Is it just me who reads that “love of your life” moment in TEH completely differently to other Sherlollians? I mean, not in a bad way, I’m not saying anyone’s wrong, but I just don’t think it’s Sherlock realising Molly’s the love of his life, as I’ve seen some people claim. I actually think it’s the reverse. Look at this gif of the moment in question: Sherlock’s facial expression is pretty much him going “WTF?” because he’s still an idiot who can’t understand that, yes, ordinary human people can form relationships online and become heartbroken when said relationships are broken off. (Or perhaps he deduced what was wrong as soon as the client walked into the room, and was just giving a look to Molly of “I can’t believe I have to sit here and listen to this when it’s pretty damn clear it was her stepfather who is sitting right next to her.”)

What’s important though, to me, in that scene is the look on Molly’s face.

Wide eyes, noticeably quick, heavy breathing? That is not the look of an engaged, in love woman. It’s the look of a woman who has managed to convince herself that safe and domesticated (Tom) is what she wants. It’s the look of a woman who has just been hit with the realisation that Tom is not what she wants. What she wants is a self-declared sociopath who can break up a marriage with the simple use of seven words: Weight loss, hair dye, Botox; affair. Lawyer. before he easily skips onto the next case.

It’s the look of a woman who after two years is realising that she’s still in love—with the supposedly ‘wrong man’. The man who isn’t nice, isn’t soft, isn’t gentle nor domesticated. And, if I might give an educated guess as to what Molly’s thinking in that scene, I’d probably boil it down to one word:

Fuck. 

Because, I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, finding out I’m in love with another man when I’m engaged to be married, well… that would be a tad inconvenient.