Dr Watson - Tumblr Posts

A Guide to the Sherlock Holmes Canon

Compiled for BBC Sherlock fans who wish to branch out into the original stories by ACD.

A Study in Scarlet - Holmes and Watson move in together. Shade is thrown at the Mormons.

The Sign of Four - Mary Morstan comes along. Racism.

The Hound of the Baskervilles - The most beloved of the canon. Demon hound stalks Devon aristocrats.

The Valley of Fear - Freemasons have man killed.

A Scandal in Bohemia - Holmes is beaten by the woman.

The Red Headed League - Red headed shop owner is tricked by bank robbers.

A Case of Identity - Step father poses as young man to keep young lady's money.

The Boscombe Valley Mystery - Dying Australian kills another Australian, is let off.

The Five Orange Pips - The one about the KKK.

The Man with the Twisted Lip - Gentleman becomes beggar, is accused of own murder.

The Blue Carbuncle - Precious gem found in crop of Christmas goose.

The Speckled Band - Deadly snake trained using milk and whistle.

The Engineer's Thumb - Criminals try to crush man in hydraulic press.

The Noble Bachelor - Rich man loses wife on wedding day.

The Beryl Coronet - Banker loses part of very expensive coronet.

The Copper Beeches - Governess made to cut hair and wear electric blue dress by creepy employers.

Silver Blaze - Horse commits murder.

The Cardboard Box - Woman receives ears in the post.

The Yellow Face - Man is surprisingly not racist.

The Stock-Broker's Clerk - Man replaced by criminal at job he hasn't started yet.

The 'Gloria Scott' - Holmes's first case. Man has been lying to son for whole life.

The Musgrave Ritual - Butler solves puzzle that has remained mystery to generations of aristocrats.

The Reigate Squires - Holmes pretends to faint, scares Watson half to death.

The Crooked Man - Crippled man returns from India to surprise of man who betrayed him. Also there's a mongoose.

The Resident Patient - Ex-criminal sets up doctor in practice.

The Greek Interpreter - Watson meets Mycroft. Two Greek men get beaten up.

The Naval Treaty - Important state document stolen.

The Final Problem - Persued by Moriarty, Holmes and Watson flee to Europe. Holmes disappears, assumed dead.

The Empty House - 3 years later, Holmes returns. Watson faints.

The Norwood Builder - Man fakes own death to get revenge on ex.

The Dancing Men - Woman is terrorised by coded messages.

The Solitary Cyclist - Woman is followed by strange man on bicycle.

The Priory School - Child kidnapped by his own family.

Black Peter - Drunk man killed by harpoon.

Charles Augustus Milverton - Blackmailer killed by victim.

The Six Napoleons - Scotland Yarders are really proud of Holmes.

The Three Students - Student cheats on exam.

The Golden Pince-Nez - Woman kills man by mistake.

The Missing Three Quarter - Rugby player goes missing.

The Abbey Grange - Holmes lets killer go because of love.

The Second Stain - Woman told she doesn't understand politics.

Wisteria Lodge - Man dies trying to kill Spanish tyrant.

The Red Circle - Italian couple flee from gangster.

The Bruce Partington Plans - Submarine plans stolen.

The Dying Detective - Holmes pretends to be dying of a tropical disease.

The Devil's Foot - Holmes and Watson poison themselves and hallucinate.

His Last Bow - Holmes's final case.

The Illustrious Client - Holmes beaten up on the orders of an Austrian. Watson gets very angry.

The Blanched Soldier - Man's boyfriend does not have leprosy.

The Mazarin Stone - Diamond stolen, disguises worn.

The Three Gables - Woman steals story written by man she had beaten nearly to death.

The Sussex Vampire - Man thinks wife is vampire.

The Three Garridebs - 'It was worth a wound'.

The Problem of Thor Bridge - Governess framed for murder.

The Creeping Man - Monkey serum as viagra.

The Lion's Mane - Jellyfish kills man.

The Vieled Lodger - Woman savaged by lion, hides face for rest of life.

Shoscombe Old Place - Dog provides the answer.

The Retired Colourman - Man is terrible husband.

Ok, so I suspect this has been done before, but any thoughts about ACD Watson and Rugby? Intellectual conversation is welcome, but I go weak at the knees for headcanon and all other sorts of sweet things.

now who is this fellow supposed to be? clearly not frosty...

As someone who wholeheartedly subscribes to the “book! Watson is an unreliable narrator” theory my ideal Watson is actually a blend of David Burke and Edward Harwicke’s Watson’s in the Granada series and Jude Law’s witty, snarky, combat proficient Watson in the Downey movies (even if I do dislike Downey’s version of Sherlock, Jude Law’s Watson amuses me greatly). Basically, I like the thought that Watson waters himself down quite heavily in his writings and everyone who actually knows him is like “you’re never this polite to me” or “didn’t you stab this guy in the leg?” and in Sherlock’s case: “you never fainted when I came back from the dead you punched me and broke my nose”

Sherlock Holmes (2009) dir. Guy Ritchie

Imagine you're introduced to another person who's just as much in search for an apartment as you are.

You were introduced to them by a mutual acquaintance. He came to London after taking part in a war and, though your knowledge on how the mind works is close to useless, you're well aware that soldiers hate suddenty.

Unfortunately, everything about you is a suddenty.

It's only fair to warn him how little your association would last, then, and so you start by listing out your flaws. You've been told about them many times now, from previous tenants unfortunate enough to have you as a flatmate, so it's easy to parrot them. Your tobacco smells too strong, your experiments take too much space and takes Science to no place it hasn't been before, you talk too much or you talk too little. He should expect the noise of sorrowful violin strings at ungodly hours. All in all, you're really unpleasant.

It's strange, though. The man not only stays in the room filled with the smell of nauseous chemicals, he's sharing his own shortcomings too. Though none of them are as bad as yours, he seems as if he wants to give it a try. Maybe it'll work for a couple of months, then, before everything falls apart.

You really want to keep that flat, so you decide you'll try to be more regular in your habits, at least while the war is still fresh inside of your flatmate's mind. Your schedule changes enough for you to rarely ever see him. It'd be better that way; last time you saw the other half of your rent regularly, the rational choice of leaving the full rent in your hands was felt like a betrayal.

The only time in which you can not avoid seeing him is during those days in which your chest feels heavy throughout the whole day and you can barely hold your violin without tossing it. During those days, whenever the two of you are forced to be in the same room, he doesn't need to ask if you're alright, he can see that you're not. Sometimes, he takes the opportunity to ask about your knowledge on a specific domain; answering the questions helps with distracting from the endless feeling of dread.

You could simply tell him what you do for a living, or create opportunities for him to ask a direct question. The second option would get him talking more, though.

Eventually he does ask you. Angrily, exasperated, but he does ask you. Luckily, you get a job not long after it to prove it to him. He'll probably leave you the moment his curiosity over this whodunnit dies.

But he doesn't.

Overtime, he doesn't find your method as mysterious, but instead of leaving the second that element is gone, he starts to use it himself. He's getting more confident in it, too, and each day he gets more deductions right.

He's not the one who leaves. It's you, once your body became too frail for adventure.

He's now leaving a train he took to Sussex, just to see you.

Hello, my dear. How have you been?

I always find it hilarious when more recent adaptations of Sherlock Holmes makes Holmes the dreamy heartthrob/attractive one (not that he’s not a total catch) because my dudes, Watson is right there. He is literally like a Victorian wet dream, he is everything that classic Victorian period would find appealing- adventurous, fought for his country, learned, has groomed facial hair (legit that was like the equivalent of being 6’ tall today), polite. He’s got just enough “melancholy” (depression) and rakishness (gambling) to still be a gentleman but like a bad boy gentleman. A real Romantic (both romance how we think of it today and like Romanticism) archetype. If anyone is the heartthrob here, it is Watson.

I don't know why, but these three men just make my gender. Honestly, just looking at them gives me the biggest slap in the face of gender envy.

Chubby Watson is the best Watson. I take no criticism on this.

I could not get over chubby watson

I can't decide if I want to squeeze him enthusiastically like a dog toy, or put him under a microscope for intense observation.

Ok you can get a little Watson. As a treat.

[ID: a digital drawing of Watson in his nightgown with a red smoking jacket on top. He's lighting his pipe. /End ID]

Shout out to John Hamish Watson!!!!!!! (he would give me the rudest and most insulting description in his published accounts if we ever actually met)

Sherlock laying on John because he's a cat humanized

Dr. Watson is just as important of a character as Sherlock Holmes. You cannot get rid of or replace him. He is the narrator. The stories are about Holmes, but it's through WATSON that we have them in the first place. He's not "just" the sidekick. He is the main character.

Hear me out... Sherlock Holmes adaptation that takes place in the 1920s. Sherlock Holmes getting to wear, and absolutely slay a flapper dress. John Watson getting to take his detective out on a lovely little drive in their new Bently.

I know we all like to laugh at Watson for taking such pains to conceal dates and people and events but being obviously obvious about his love for Holmes but like. hear me out. what if he’s not. what if it’s on purpose

Ok, so. Watson is an intelligent man. He is not stupid. He would not read his drafts and not notice the obvious romanticism. I think a lot of evidence supports the idea that he’s doing it on purpose. I mean, he even defends himself when Holmes accuses him of romanticising the stories by saying that the romance was there and he’s just reporting it the way it was. The interesting question is just, why? Why not be more careful?

Here’s what I think: uhm. so. multiple things.

1. Imagine writing stories about the person you love above anything else in the world. The person who seems to you so incredible and unbelievable and wonderful that you’re in awe they even exist and even more that they have chosen you. How do you write about them without that bleeding through. Holmes isn’t just a person that appears in the stories, the stories are completely about him and his personality. Of course Watson notices that the way he sees Holmes is evident in the loving descriptions. But what, really, can he do? Change or omit parts of Holmes’ personality? Make up a Holmes character for his stories? Invent a Holmes who he is not in love with and who does not inspire the same feelings of awe and admiration? He might as well just write a different story. The whole point of these stories is that they’re about Holmes. Or alternatively, could he somehow describe every one of Holmes’ personality traits rationally and without emotion? No, he couldn’t. “Fascinating” and “wonderful” are just traits that describe Holmes to him. He never says that he loves Holmes. We can only infer it from those descriptions. How is he supposed to describe Holmes if he can’t use them?

2. In extension of that: Watson’s perspective is essential to the stories. He is the only one who understands Holmes. He is the only one who can tell us about the kindness and compassion and the silliness and the deep care for humans and the devotion to justice because he’s the only one who gets to see everything. Taking any other perspective would probably result in a much worse portrayal. Knowing that Holmes is by every standard very neurodivergent and queer and generally just absolutely not “normal”, that portrayal probably wouldn’t be kind and it would miss all of those key features of his character that Watson understands. So Watson can not take another perspective that isn’t his own, not just because he’s too in love but because it would just not work.

3. Perhaps most importantly: Here’s what is actually my main point. What if… Imagine this. You’re a normal Victorian person. You have the normal views of the time. You read the Sherlock Holmes stories. You read them because the cases are interesting and Holmes is a curious personality but, unconsciously, you also absorb everything else that’s in the stories. The deep bond between these two men. The love. The fact that they would do anything for each other. The way that Holmes is someone who is so strange and abnormal by your standards but who is still deeply loved and who deeply loves and who is kind and funny and a good person. And maybe you don’t realise it but in some way, it influences you nonetheless. Perhaps the next time you meet a person who acts “weird” or “abnormal”, they remind you of Holmes and you have to smile. Maybe the next time people mention the unspeakable sin of love between two men, something doesn’t sit quite right with you. Maybe, just maybe, you begin to think.

I think Watson knows this. I think this is why he writes. Of course he also wants to tell everyone how amazing his husband is, but mostly, he really wants to live in a world where he is actually able to tell everyone that that’s his husband. And this is his part. Maybe only 5% of readers really begin to change their minds about what is “abnormal” and what is acceptable. Maybe it’s only a dozen people. Maybe it’s one person. It all matters. Change doesn’t come suddenly. Change comes when many people change their minds. And here is something he can do. Of course it’s obvious. Not obvious enough to be censored, that would defeat the purpose, but obvious enough to make his point. Of course it’s dangerous. It’s a balancing act but it’s worth it. Even if just one person changes their mind, it’s worth it.

They say that people usually take on a little niche interest, or subtle personality trait, or similar quirks to their comfort characters that they grew up reading/watching.... Well, thank you, John Hamish Watson for giving me a life-long obsession with knitted jumpers, and a stubborn tendency to "hunt and peck" when I write!

I think people forget Watson’s purpose in the stories isn’t only to ask questions so that the case is revealed to the audience naturally. Watson’s purpose is also to ask questions in a way that reveals the case to Holmes. He’s not integral to Holmes’s work just to stroke his ego with the stories. He has weaved his way into Holmes’s mind so thoroughly that Holmes is at his best when Watson is able to lead the march.

Watson is Holmes' favourite hyperfixation, and most certainly vice versa...By that I also mean that they are deeply in love.

Holmes will be like “I only remember things that are functionally or practically important to my work and forget everything that isn’t” then go out of his way to memorise all of Watson’s habits and routines

Happy Birthday to one of my biggest comfort characters :)

Happy birthday to our favourite Boswell, Dr. John Watson, who was born on the 7th of August, 1852! 🎉 He would now be 172.