Sherlock Holmes - Tumblr Posts
elementary may have been copaganda but they were really onto something with their version of holmes he's autistic. he's a sub. he's canonically into bondage. he's a recovering addict. he keeps bees. he's tattooed AND hairy. his posture is insane. he texts in a near-undecipherable string of abbreviations and acronyms. he's the most irritating man in new york city. he's even aromantic
Elementary!Sherlock is superior because when he was angry and had to make several phone calls he dug out a rotary phone from his storage closet to be able to hang up on people with more emphasis
maybe this is a hypocritical standpoint for someone who hates 90% of adaptations but it's really funny to me when holmesians accuse each other of "ignoring canon" because you literally have to ignore some bits of canon to make any sort of consistent timeline or characterization. remember, doyle's opinion was that the less time he had to spend thinking about holmes the better. he ignores his own canon, so why can't we?
John likes to talk… a lot
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“I was at Holmes’s elbow, and I glanced for an instant at his face. It was pale and exultant, his eyes shining brightly in the moonlight. But suddenly they started forward in a rigid, fixed stare, and his lips parted in amazement”
i'm just curious bc i'm watching How to Train Your Dragon and i always forget how happy and calm it makes me feel. i mean, i did name my cat after Toothless the dragon. but i also love Lion King, that's my Disney comfort movie. and my Ghibli comfort movie is Spirited Away. watching any of these when i'm in a foul mood or my anxiety is high always helps 🥰 but i watch them just for fun too, not only when i'm in a mood. what about you?
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.
This was so fucking funny.
Sherlock Holmes is truly the character of all time: he's victorian, he's a drug addict, an amateur boxer, he's autistic, he's in a codependent relationship with his best friend (that he is also in love with), he loves to dress up, he refuses to learn that the earth revolves around the sun, he has a keen sense of justice that lives outside of the law, he faked his own death, he's a reformed misogynist, he will throw himself to the ground to look at a clue, he does chemistry in his living room, he's messy, he plays the violin. No wonder everyone in the world is obsessed with him.
This is what the inside of my ears look like every Tuesday :)))
Thinking of creating a master post of Sherlock Holmes adaptations (with links!) if that’s a thing anyone would be interested in??
EDIT: Here ya go. No links unfortunately cause tumblr sucks
Sherlock Holmes Adaptations
Been a Sherlock Holmes master fan since I was 9 so have a list of Sherlock Holmes adaptations. The list will be split into adaptations and then more...inspired by Holmes. This list is by no means exhaustive, just ones I personally know/like. If you want an exhustive list of adaptations look here(source @sholmeses1881 on Youtube). (my aim had been to link to where you can watch these but apparently tumblr posts with 🏴☠️links get taken down.)
First - A link to the Original Sherlock Holmes stories
Films
Sherlock Holmes (dir. Guy Ritchie, SH - Robert Downey Jr.)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (dir. Guy Ritchie), SH - Robert Downey Jr.)
Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes series (link to the wiki - there's tons of these)
Young Sherlock Holmes (dir. Barry Levinson, SH - Nicolas Rowe)
Peter Cushing's The Hound of the Baskervilles
Mr Holmes (dir. Bill Condon, SH - Ian McKellen)
TV
BBC's Sherlock (Modern, SH - Benedict Cumberbatch)
Elementary (Modern, SH - Johnny Lee Miller.) (IN this one John is Joan played by Lucy Lui)
Sherlock Holmes (Original, SH - Jeremy Brett)
Miss Sherlock (Japanese, Modern, SH- Yūko Takeuchi)
Young Sherlock (Not out yet but I have high hopes - loved the books as a kid)
Books
Anthony Horowitz's House of Silk & Moriarty (first official books)
Anthony Lane's Young Sherlock
James Lovegrove's Sherlock Holmes books (Sherlock Holmes + supernatural)
Podcast
Sherlock & Co. (Modern)
Other media (Holmes Adjacent/inspired)
Enola Holmes (book series/films) (Sherlock Holmes' younger sister)
Psych (tv show) (This isn't technically Holmes but oh man it so is)
The Murder of Mr Ma (Book. Take Sherlock Holmes, set it in the 1920s and make the characters Chinese immigrants. It is PHENOMENAL)
The Great Mouse Detective (They're mice idk what to tell you.)
House MD. (They're Doctors. This show is batty n i love it)
Without A Clue. (This is a farcical film where Holmes is actually an idiot. I love it)
Also accepting suggestions of any you feel I have missed!
Okay okay okay so the big thing that puts me off the Sherlock and co patreon is that the episodes come out all at once and like??? What do I listen to in between the episodes??? Can I cope with weeks with no new eps??? (patreons pls advise)
I love how it's easy to read Joan as on the aromantic spectrum, or of some other sort of non-normative romantic attraction type.
She gets with a great guy, whom she clearly likes and cares for and enjoys having sex with...but she doesn't love him, not romantically. She "doesn't feel what [she's] supposed to". Sherlock points out that romantic love doesn't work according to a checklist, which Joan seems to finally realize (as though she's spent years trying to adhere to a checklist when in romantic relationships).
Joan finally realizes that she doesn't want what she's "supposed" to want. That the way attraction and love work for her isn't how it works for "normal" people. Joan is finally realizing that she herself isn't "normal" (in more than one way).
Joan Watson learns to stop trying to shove herself into a societally acceptable box, and eventually accept and embrace her preferred, non-normative relationship wants and needs.
Good for her.
Marianna is 100% of the reason that the podcast boys have a functioning business
sherlock holmes wouldn't have a functioning freelance business if he were living in modern times; he'd be on fiverr advertising his services like, "i will solve any problem that is challenging (murder is preferred)," and taking payment based on how interesting the case was. ($200/h, rounded up to the nearest hour for the uninteresting ones. practically pennies for something that's actually challenging.)
One thing I adore about Sherlock and co is that John is actually useful.
He provides information that Sherlock wouldn't have been able to find without him, how John tries to help Sherlock socially, John's speeches there have been pieces of dialogue from John that are just pure poetry.
John is a very good character because he's always doing something that will never be boring even when he's being an arse it's never boring or insufferable and that's why I think Sherlock and co appeals to me.
As well as the character dynamics within Sherlock and co with how John, Sherlock and Mariana seem to balance each other out and work well together with Mariana having this sort of resilience to her like in the lions mane where she resolved an argument and brought a man (I seriously can't remember his name for the life of me) down from a heightened state and was able to get Information for the case that they would've never got if Mariana and John left like John insisted them to.
Also Sherlock being able to take the clues, the information to bring the case together, duduce what the others can't and solve the case with the help from John and Mariana.
It really works well as a dynamic for a trio as each character is similar so they work well together but also as individuals so it's entertaining to listen to.
Okay, bear with me
Laurie R King, author of a looooong and ongoing series of books inspired by Sherlock Holmes, once said that she had to convince the Doyle estate that her books were not going to be bodice-rippers (my words not hers). They were very concerned about the reputation and vibes of Sherlock and wanted to ensure she would honor ACD and the original Sherlock appropriately (she does imo).
Now, let's talk about the TV show Elementary, specifically the pilot. It immediately sets the stage that Holmes and Watson - who is a woman this time - are meeting for the first time. With Watson being a woman, you could easily see people assuming this show is going to be about them falling in love. Most shows with a male + female leads do, after all.
Then, the first thing Sherlock Holmes says to Joan Watson is a couple sentences about being in love/love at first sight: "Do you believe in love at first sight? I know what you're thinking: the world is a cynical place, and I must be a cynical man, thinking a woman like you would fall for a line like that. Thing is, it isn't a line, so, please... hear me when I say this. I have never loved anyone as I do you right now, in this moment."
And Joan is shocked and confused. Understandably!
Then Sherlock hits play on the remote in his hand, and the TV starts playing right as a character says the EXACT speech he just gave. He gives a "nailed it" and finally introduces himself like normal.
It's funny AND sets a tone for his eccentricities, but I don't think that's why they did it. I think that scene went exactly like that to announce right out of the gate that this would not be a love story, there would be no sexual tension, Watson being female changes NOTHING.
And it didn't. And it was perfect. Not usually wholesome or beautiful, but perfect.
I don't really have a point here, just had to connect those two points after re-watching the pilot last night
One of the major ways Elementary stands out from other Holmes adaptations to me is how they wrote Watson. Like it would've been so easy to write her like any other Watson, brilliant, yes, undoubtedly, but forever attached to Sherlock. Watson is there because Sherlock wills it so, because Sherlock needs a rock and because Sherlock Holmes is a man forever in need of a partner. Usually.
But they broke that. They said this is Dr Joan Watson, and she is incandescent and ruthless. She's a surgeon and there's an episode where Sherlock says surgeons have a healthy dose of god complex and you think sure buddy and then Joan threatens Moriarty in the middle of a restaurant and you go, huh. She learns to pick pockets and watches out of boredom. She changed careers over and over again till she found the one that fit. She became a detective and could and would absolutely kill a man and vouch for someone killing a man because it's Sherlock and she loves him very much. She's a partner, in the very literal sense. She kept track of murders as a teenager. She enchanted the most dangerous woman on the planet and EARNED her protection. She's a cancer survivor. She threatens gangs and online hacker conglomerates in free time. She's a mother. She's half of two people who love each other very much. She moved across oceans for him and she would do it again.