This Is A Bit Of A Long Story. But Here We Go: I Have A Quite Long Series Of Fics (which Still Keeps

This is a bit of a long story. But here we go: I have a quite long series of fics (which still keeps growing) on AO3, Loki-centric, with LokiOFC called Nightingale (the name of my OFC): http://archiveofourown.org/series/41005  Thus far eight fics follow what I call the main timeline, the rest are separate AUs. One of them had Skye as one of the main characters, and the pairing was Skyeward. And I had this huge idea for their romance, but it didn’t quite fit with the fic as I was writing it, so in the end I put very little of that in the fic, called “Secret Warriors” (it’s #17). Then I met BloodlessAgain, and she had an amazing Skyeward video to Selena Gomez’s “Ghost of You”, I loved it and couldn’t help but ask if she was willing to take a request. So I explained to her about Secret Warriors, and the Skyeward story that was never fully written. After some talking, she gave me this (the video you see above). I fell in love with it immediately, so much I finally went ahead and wrote Skye’s and Grant’s story; it’s obviously AU from the series, but considering how that’s gone, that’s probably a good thing.  So... I hope you’ll like the video, might consider reading my fics, and I definitely recommend you check BloodlessAgain’s videos on youtube. She’s awesome! 

While many people think fanfiction is about inserting sex into texts (like Tolkien’s) where it doesn’t belong, Brancher sees it differently: “I was desperate to read about sex that included great friendship; I was repurposing Tolkien’s text in order to do that. It wasn’t that friendship needed to be sexualized, it was that erotica needed to be … friendship-ized.” Many fanfiction writers write about sex in conjunction with beloved texts and characters not because they think those texts are incomplete, but because they’re looking for stories where sex is profound and meaningful. This is part of what makes fan fiction different from pornography: unlike pornography, fanfic features characters we already care deeply about, and who tend to already have long-standing and complex relationships with each other. It’s a genre of sexual subjectification: the very opposite of objectification. It’s benefits with friendship.

Francesca Coppa, “Introduction to The Dwarf’s Tale,”

The Fanfiction Reader

(via

francescacoppa

)

❤️

(via king-nayame)

I totally agree with this. 

I love this! Go Johnlock!

I totally had to do this manip *need a deep breath*  WELCOME JOHNLOCK !!!!

~ Just the two of us against the rest of the world ~

#Sherlock  #Johnlock  #John #BenedictCumberbatch #MartinFreeman

This is absolutely awesome. I’d noticed some similarities, but could have never imagined it went this far. This is amazing and I agree 100%

Parallels: The Lying Detective and His Last Vow

I was going to have some pretentious introduction, but the simple truth is that TLD clearly and repeatedly mirrors HLV. Over. And over. And over again. I counted eighteen independent parallels between the episodes, and I’m sure there’s more I missed.

Coincidence? The universe is rarely so lazy.

Why should I care?

TLD advances John’s emotional growth to where Sherlock was at the end of HLV. Then, and only then, can we get a mutual love confession.

By the end of HLV and certainly by the end of TAB, Sherlock admits, accepts, and embraces that he is in love with John. He hit rock bottom in Season 3 and TAB: going on drugs, almost dying, and getting lost in his own drug-addled mind. But through that journey, he realized that a) emotions are not a bad thing, b) he loves John, and c) John loves or at least cares about him. Now, all John needs to do is say the word, and they’ll ride off into the sunset together.

But John? John is still lagging behind. He struggles with self-loathing, guilt, and resentment. He simultaneously wishes Sherlock would love him, and hates himself for not loving Mary more. Seriously, read this this this and this. John hates himself in this episode for his flaws, yet wishes that someone would see his flaws and love him anyways. John may admit that he loves Sherlock, but it still causes him nothing but pain and self-hatred.

That is why we need to see John drink, and hallucinate, and beat Sherlock up, and cry. He needs to go to hell and back, like Sherlock did. Both the audience and John need to admit to and accept John’s flaws. Only then he can embrace his love for Sherlock.

Could there be more behind the HLV/TLD parallels? Of course. I discuss ramifications for alibi theory and EMP theory at the end. But minimally, the episode parallels serve to show how John undergoes the same emotional growth that Sherlock had reached by the start of the season.

Chronological Parallels

Without further ado, let’s examine the 18 parallels. Some of them just reinforce the episodes’ connection, but others underscore the advancement of Sherlock’s, John’s, and the Johnlock arcs.

1. Eurus-as-therapist looks suspiciously like Magnussen:

(x)

Graying hair, rimless oval glasses, foreign accent.

2. Sherlock is back on drugs because he feels John has abandoned him. John finds him:

a) without meaning to b) in a suburb c) after a woman approaches him for help d) whom he originally thought was Sherlock.

(x)

Sherlock has gone from using drugs to try to get over John to accepting that he needs John, period. In HLV, Sherlock is at least sort-of pretending that he’s getting high for a case. In TLD, he doesn’t even try. He’s high because he’s sad that John is angry at him. This isn’t subtext, it’s text.

3. John is angry and, because Sherlock is on drugs, wants Molly to examine him.

(x)

4. The villain is a creepy, well-known businessman shown making a woman uncomfortable.

(x)

My instinct is that Magnussen, the one who can find out information about people, is creepy!Sherlock and Culverton, the short blond one, is creepy!John.

Magnussen is an amoral businessman. He cares about nothing. This is the extreme version of S1 Sherlock that Sherlock overcomes.

Culverton is a compulsive killer. He cannot stop himself from hurting people. This is the extreme version of John that we see in the morgue scene: angry, frustrated, hurting the man he loves.

5. Sherlock truly hates this businessman—almost irrationally.

TLD:

SHERLOCK: This is the most dangerous, the most despicable human being that I have ever encountered….This monster must be ended.

HLV:

SHERLOCK: I’ve dealt with murderers, psychopaths, terrorists, serial killers. None of them can turn my stomach like Charles Augustus Magnussen. (x)

Why? Because they exploit the truth in order to hurt people. See #16.

6. Both episodes feature a similar-looking morgue.

Discussed by @gosherlocked here.

7. Sherlock or a Sherlock mirror (Billy) threatens someone with a knife.

8. John attacks and knocks down this person.

(x)

The drug den scene foreshadows John at his very worst. In HLV, John tries to tamp down to his addiction to danger and action and Sherlock, but it comes out anyways. In TLD, he tries to tamp down his frustration, guilt over loveing Sherlock and not loving Mary enough, and self-hatred, but it comes out anyways–with far worse results. Worse, he now also he hates himself for hitting Sherlock.

This is John’s darkest moment. His emotional state cannot get any worse, just as Sherlock could not go any further into the depths of his mind palace. The only way out, of course, is through love.

9. In both cases, Sherlock/Billy does not blame John, and Mary is tangentially involved:

TLD:

Sherlock: No. It’s OK. Let him do what he wants. He’s entitled. I killed his wife.

HLV:

BILL: Yeah. Somebody ’it me. MARY: Huh? (Bill turns his head to look at John.) BILL: Eh, just some guy. (x)

10. The villain visits Sherlock in the hospital and gets creepily close, both physically and psychologically:

Compare the Magnussen deleted scene (fair warning: disgusting)

11. Someone messes with Sherlock’s drip in the hospital (Janine/Culverton).

12. Sherlock almost dies—he even flatlines in both cases.

13. A villain says an interesting line:

(x)

14. Because of John, Sherlock survives:

(x)

In HLV, Sherlock’s love for John saves him, and he recovers from the closest to death he has ever been.

In TLD, John also begins to recover from his darkest moment by literally saving Sherlock. He’s not done healing, but he’s starting to.

15. Mentioning “The East Wind”

I mean, duh.

16. The villain’s exploitation of truth

Magnussen exploits the truth to control people. Culverton corrupts truth itself, using TS-12. I talked more about the importance of truth in Season 4 here.

17. Honorable mentions to:

Using the same numbers for the number of years Culverton’s employees had worked and the number of pounds John gained after the wedding

Culverton: “I like to make people into things. Then I can own them.” Magnussen: “Of course it isn’t blackmail. This is … ownership.” (x)

The only two episodes in which Wiggins appears are HLV and TLD.

18. An interrupted, aborted love confession at the end:

(x)

In HLV, Sherlock has accepted that he loves John, but not yet embraced it: he knows he’s in love, but he’s still scared of the final confession. To take that leap of faith, he’ll have to wait until the TAB waterfall scene. Instead, he cracks a joke to make John happy.

In TLD, John is the one who interrupts. And Sherlock lets him, because he knows that John needs to get this out in order to accept himself.

Then, John is brave. He admits to his flaws and self-hatred. He takes the risk of crying for the first time on the show. He breaks through the habit of repression, and he is stronger for it.

But Sherlock grows here as well. When once he would have mocked sentiment and weakness, he realizes the importance of accepting and supporting John in his show of emotion.

So what does Sherlock do? Sherlock accepts John, flaws and all.

All that’s left is for John to embrace his feelings for Sherlock and take the final step: a love confession.

Conclusions

We’ve seen how the similarities between HLV and TLD reinforce the theme of John admitting to and accepting his flaws and his love for Sherlock.

But could there be additional reasons behind these parallels? Of course.

EMP Theory would easily explain the similarities between HLV and TLD, if the episode takes place entirely in Sherlock’s head and he is still in a coma after Magnussen shot him. Unfortunately, this also means that none of John’s impressive character development actually occurred.

Unreliable narrator or corrupted memory theory could work if most of the episode (except the scenes with Sherlock walking around London) is from John’s POV. The idea of his memories having been corrupted by TD-12 was heavily foreshadowed (why else mention that drug?). It would explain some shaky parts, such as why John hit Sherlock so hard (he imagines his actions as worse than they were) while still keeping John’s character development. However, without further explanation, it would be a bit strange for John’s brain to reuse the events of HLV.

John’s alibi theory could work if Sherlock is retelling what happened. It would explain the similarities with HLV, which is also from Sherlock’s POV. However, it wouldn’t explain why we see so many events from John’s perspective. Also, why would Sherlock need to cover up events after the TST aquarium scene?

(If anyone has ideas on how these theories match the parallels, let me know!)

Whatever theories the parallels support, one thing is certain: TLD set up John’s emotional arc to match Sherlock’s at the end of HLV. Both John and Sherlock admit and accept that they love each other. In TFP, they’ll both embrace this, and make history.

Let the Johnlock begin.

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Legit Johnlock Scenes

Is that vibrato or is your hand shaking?

(vía https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMXPXKSfjT8) 

This is the Opening to my series: Menel, made by the lovely Skye Coulson! Thank you so much!