Victorian Husbands - Tumblr Posts

This is my favourite Sherlock Holmes story in every adaptation, and I still get giddy everytime the letters back and forth come up, because it's really just Holmes and Watson getting an excuse to send eachother love letters like the sappy old men they are.

Rewatched Granada Hound of the Baskervilles yesterday and Sir Henry knows what’s what.

I imagine them both doing this often, because it's no secret that they're a little obsessed with the other, and having collections of photos/letters from one another.

Fellas is it gay to send your flatmate a picture of yourself for him to cherish, with a caption saying you miss him?

And is it gay to then track down the flatmate who says he misses you, send him a photograph in return, and show up where he is?

Sherlock Holmes is one of the most romantic characters in literary history he takes Watson on dates to the theater and figures out which music is Watson’s favorite and plays it for him on his violin and takes him on walks by the sea and through the park and holds his hand when he’s scared…and still adaptations be like “hmmmmm cold and mean and distant hates everyone and tolerates Watson sometimes” Like sorry that you don’t understand love. Where is the adaptation that exaggerates his compassion and romanticism and affectionate nature instead of exaggerating the same boring “cold and pretty rude man who thinks emotions are stupid” thing that’s been done a million times??? Here’s a Hot Take: making something cynical is not the same as making it deep!!! Let Sherlock Holmes be gentle!!! Let him be gay!!!

"But there can be no grave for Sherlock Holmes or Doctor Watson... Shall they not always live in Baker Street? Are they not there this moment, as one writes? Outside, the hansoms rattle through the rain, and Moriarty plans his latest devilry. Within, the sea-coal flames upon the hearth and Holmes and Watson take their well-won ease... So they still live for all that love them well; in a romantic chamber of the heart, in a nostalgic country of the mind, where it is always 1895."

-Vincent Starrett, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

In The Man with the Twisted Lip, Holmes brings Watson to the St. Claire's home to spend the night. This wasn't planned, they meet in he opium den by chance and Watson joins Holmes in his adventure impromptu.

When they go to sleep, Watson is wearing a night shirt under his over coat, while Holmes is wearing his casual robe over his normal day clothes (ok cause he didn't actually sleep that night).

The only one who knew he was spending the night someplace else was Holmes, he's the only one who could have prepared.

Holmes let Watson wear his night shirt to bed <3

*watson enters sitting room occupied by holmes and client*

watson: oh i'm so sorry for intruding. i'll just leave--

holmes: *JUMPS OVER SETTEE* *PULLS WATSON INSIDE* *SLAMS DOOR* *PUSHES WATSON INTO ARMCHAIR*

holmes: this is my friend and soulmate, dr watson

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.

Behold! One of my favourite moments from Granada's Sherlock Holmes series. Holmes' little dance to show Watson how the Dancing Men code works is always so precious to watch.

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.

granada holmes and watson are so married. holmes bought watson’s favourite cigars as a welcome home present. watson sits beside holmes rapt as he de-disguises himself and tells him about his day. watson reads his paper as holmes conducts his experiments. watson tries to get holmes to eat supper with him. do you see how they are husbands??

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

This. I think about this constantly.

just thinking about holmes' inability to be chill around watson in private, and how much that means to watson when he comes inside from a world where sherlock holmes is the unfeeling machine, a world he helped to create, and is greeted by a smile that holds all the love you could fit into the stretch of a mouth

It's getting to be that time where I have to write another Sherlock Holmes story...

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Since Watson is canonically an unreliable narrator, anything could have plausibly happened behind the closed doors of 221B. He doesn't tell us readers everything. Any sort of twist could have happened during a case that he couldn't write for the public... Like all those times he kissed Sherlock Holmes.

That feeling when I see the sun rising outside my window and I realise that I've once again spent the entire night reading Johnlock fanfiction and/or the original Sherlock Holmes stories once again.

Absolutely obsessed with the headcanon that Watson sings like an angel and Holmes can't sing for his life.

Does anyone else just occasionally miss the Victorian intimacy of calling someone by their first name?

Sherlock "I'm married to my work and also this one man who found his way into my life" Holmes

So, I've been a bit of a historical kick again in doing research for a Johnlock fanfic I'm considering writing...And I now can't stop thinking of Watson secretly working as a Resurrectionist. Honestly, I'm just imagining he and Holmes meeting in a graveyard by accident one night because Holmes is investigating a case and Watson is illegally digging up a corpse, and it's the most adorably awkward thing.