i mean there are a THOUSAND different parallels to sherlock actually representing sholto (the uniform,“into battle”, always secluded, repressed emotions, john’s obsession with them both, unsociable, “neither of us were the first”, ex-commander) and later in the exact same episode which is supposed to be about some straight wedding the entire plot has completely given up on, sherlock himself realizes that sholto is suffering from a delayed-action stabbing which is later followed with a fuck ton of “we wouldn’t do that to john watson” re-establishing parallels between sherlock and sholto, RIGHT AFTER sherlock’s long-winded speech in which he declares that john is more interesting than the same work he claimed to be married to in a scene which coincidentally involved “girlfriends are not my area”, “no (i don’t have a boyfriend)” and john licking his lips, a confession he would not have previously admitted to until this one speech where sholto realizes he’s dying when it’s ***too late*** until john watson saves him, and there are more desperate attempts to demonstrate the parallels to sherlock’s inner monologue which at this point basically consists of “i just realized at the end of my speech the same way SHOLTO realized at the end of my speech that i am in love with john watson and it’s too late because he’s getting married and now i am dying inside and i need john watson to save me the same way he saved SHOLTO a man i have been paralleled to from the beginning” and you watch all of this in a plot supposedly revolving around john and mary’s wedding which you see 0.02% of besides the gay speech and the gay interactions and the gay dancing and the bisexual lighting and the gay music and the fake balloon baby
and still
“Sherlock faces his biggest challenge of all – delivering a best man’s speech on John’s wedding day! But all isn’t quite as it seems. Mortal danger stalks the reception – and someone might not make it to the happy couple’s first dance. Sherlock must thank the bridesmaids, solve the case and stop a killer!”
loudest-subtext-in-television:
One of the many reasons Johnlock is so important and why I simply MUST believe in tjlc:
Tagged some of my personal favorite Johnlockers.
(This article talks about the homophobia generation gap that makes it more difficult for older people to come out.)
This is a really important point and why recent criticisms of TJLC have literally made me nauseated: there are real, actual people (not just celebrities) who are older and deal with a LOT more internalized oppression, and it is NOT the case that you could authentically represent these people while making it obvious to everyone that they’re gay: in real life, it is not obvious to everyone that these people are gay. When every gay story on television is obvious to everyone from the start, it alienates queer people who can’t relate to that.
The BBC report identified a need for late-in-life coming out stories, and stories about people who are not obviously gay, and for good reason: not only do queer people who have already come out late in life deserve to have their story represented, but there are closeted people who aren’t getting any younger who NEED to see a story that shows them a happy way out of the closet. Understand this is NOT hyperbole: the clock is ticking on these people having a chance for a happy life. A story about someone who doesn’t seem to be in the closet very long (in terms of a show) or doesn’t seem to have truly, truly struggled with their orientation does not resonate with those people. They don’t see themselves in that character, and they do not feel that they could take the actions that character takes: they only perceive that it’s not as difficult for that character as it is for them, and they feel more alone. To them, the gay community is behind glass and they can’t see a way to the other side. Fast and obvious representation is not representation for these people.
John Watson, on the other hand, will resonate with a ton of those people, precisely because he says he’s “not gay” and he seems straight to most people. If that VERY AUTHENTIC, VERY NUANCED portrayal gives even a handful of people the courage to come out of the closet and quit living their lives in quiet misery, that is nothing but GOOD. To suggest otherwise is APPALLING.
So when people twist themselves in knots trying to find some way to say that canonical Johnlock would be regressive, it actually makes me sick: if they had their way, only a very narrow spectrum of queer experience would be allowable “representation” (if you could even call it that), and older closeted people — the people who, in real life, deny being gay and most people assume to be straight — wouldn’t deserve representation because, well, someone just doesn’t like it for nitpicky ideological reasons. This is exactly the same marginalizing bullshit I pointed out in the queerbaiting section of the Softly, Softly meta: it’s saying that you only deserve representation if you’re queer enough, and queer in the right ways, and those goalposts move depending on whomever has decreed himself the arbiter of appropriate queerness. If your life experience falls outside their standards, well, fuck you I guess! That’s what you get for not being gay enough! That’s what you get for not being out enough, soon enough!
Meanwhile, actual queer people are killing themselves or otherwise dying closeted. And if someone doesn’t realize that those people wouldn’t identify with the queer characters currently on TV; if someone can’t understand that queerness on television is almost always depicted as too easy or too straightforward for these people and alienates them; if people don’t realize that the only alternate these people can currently relate to are utterly tragic depictions; if someone seriously thinks John and Sherlock’s relationship isn’t gay in the right way, on the right timetable (i.e. someone’s own personal timetable); then there is literally nothing we can say to convince them, because they’re lacking in basic empathy and logic. They genuinely would rather that the world conform to their personal quirks and demands than see actual queer representation on television — and they genuinely think that queerbaiting (what the show will amount to if TJLC isn’t true) is somehow better. So they wring their hands on the internet and attack the people who want their stories represented, or else care about seeing those stories represented. Alright.
To put it bluntly: it’s fucked up and disgusting, and the reason why I finally went on an ignore spree today. Before today, I had never ignored anyone unless they had sent me multiple harassing messages. But throwing entire subsets of the queer population under the bus, demanding that we neglect their representation in favor of the same tired kind of queer representation that has been alienating those people, all in the name of some arbitrary standard of purity that changes from person to person, makes me genuinely fucking livid. It also makes me livid that people are continually trying to mindfuck queer people into thinking that implicit representation is enough, and that they’re somehow oppressing themselves by wanting explicit representation. I have zero respect for that. Zero. I cannot respect anyone who makes that argument with a straight face, and they’re too far-gone to be productively engaged with. They can stay in their hateful lane and run their mouths and roll around in their Jenga tower of flimsy pseudointellectual constructs, meanwhile the majority of the queer population (as evidenced by the BBC research on what the majority of LGB audiences want) will be perfectly happy when Johnlock becomes canon, and actual human beings will feel less alone in the world.
It’s that simple. If Johnlock becomes canon, then actual human beings maybe won’t kill themselves or die closeted. That’s worth all the haters in the world — and thankfully, there aren’t that many haters: there’s just a handful who lack the self-restraint to keep from stirring shit every other day. Seriously: if Johnlock becomes canon there will be more happiness in the world, full stop; no one’s life is going to be worse if Johnlock becomes canon, Jesus fucking Christ. The only negativity we’re going to hear on that day is these people bleating their same tired bullshit. So I’m done with it, they’re on ignore.
For perspective, I still get literally half a dozen or so messages per day from people who are newly convinced of TJLC based on meta: a single day of that already outnumbers the hate blogs. I have heard from literally thousands of people who are happy as fuck that Johnlock could become canon, hundreds of whom have expressed to me how much it would mean to them personally because they’re queer and it hasn’t been easy for them. A handful of people who have elected to lose the thread of reality and wander off into a mirror maze of confused semantics based on clumsily-skimmed Tumblr posts are nothing, absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Everyone can make their own decision about whether they want to engage with people who have literally set themselves up so they cannot be pleased by anything and have proven they don’t actually understand what TJLC is, but if anyone wants the comfort of hearing it said: it is a completely rational and acceptable decision to put them on ignore and focus on the positive.
—
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Pretty much the only reasons why I ever doubt TJLC are that A) it’s not over until it’s over, and even the most likely, most well-informed prediction in the history of predictions is still a prediction, that’s just a fact, and B) most TV shows or movies don’t throw a bunch of blatantly romantic tropes at you and then purposefully neglect to point them out. Honestly, the level of hand-holding that we’re all used to in our entertainment is just not happening here, and that’s jarring. But the things that we’ve come to expect shows to hold our hands and walk us through are still present in Sherlock, it’s just that no one is walking us through them. It’s like being in a museum which is a jumble of rooms, and all of the art is still there just like you’d expect it to be, but there are no explanatory plaques and there aren’t even any signs to help you find your way to the next gallery or to the exit, you have to figure it all out for yourself, and you’re looking at a painting that you’re pretty sure is a Rembrandt because it looks like every other Rembrandt you’ve ever seen and you have no reason to doubt that it’s a Rembrandt, therefore you deduce that it must be a Rembrandt, but it’s still troubling to you that you don’t know for sure because the little plaque that would tell you in no uncertain terms that this was painted by Rembrandt just isn’t there, like it has been in every other museum you’ve ever been to in your entire life. And to make matters worse there’s a person standing behind you going “Uhhh, listen, I know the colors are dark and there are Dutch people in it, but I really don’t think that’s a Rembrandt, it could literally be by anyone.”
My favorite thing in the whole world is the degree of confidence I feel in my belief that the restaurant scene in the unaired pilot was reconfigured, and Angelo recast, in order to make it less obvious that they were doing the date scene from goddamn Lady and the Tramp.
IT’S THE SAME
GODDAMN
CANDLE
How do you imagine the Johnlock scene? You know, the moment Sherlock and John might kiss on screen. How do you imagine it and in what circumstances?
They will be in 221B, of course, and I’ve always interpreted the “Punch me in the face” scene to be a template for the kiss (“it’s usually just subtext”). (They are “Two streets away, but this will do” when that scene occurs, aka two seasons away.) Sherlock will initiate (“Oh, for God’s sakes”) but won’t commit, as in he might kiss John first but then back off. but once John has been kissed by Sherlock he isn’t going to leave it at one quick peck. (Sherlock saying “Thank you. That was – that was …” and being cut off by more kisses). and then the strength of John’s kissing will eventually cause them to topple to the ground …… [ looks into the distance ]
Vastra talks about how she wears a veil to be able to judge the quality of people’s hearts. Whether or not they see her “difference” or not. About seeing peoples real hearts behind the veil.
Vastra, who is Sherlock.
Vastra, who is gay and in love with Jenny.
Sherlock talks about hating Magnussen because he preys on and exposes people who are different.
Sherlock, who is currently veiled.
Sherlock, who is gay and in love with John.
