XistentialAngst's Blog, page 110
July 19, 2016
Hello. I just re-watched the pilot episode, and I could be absolutely wrong, but I think there is Anteros (the Greek god of requited love) in it, when the title shows. Subtext? I can't help it, I'm 'clueing for looks' all over the show, because you spoiled
…Jesus Christ.
You guys. Uh, yeah. This is true.
For reference, here’s Anteros, the Greek god of requited love… the wiki picture is this exact statue. That’s REQUITED love. REQUITED. Anteros is specifically the avenger of unrequited love.
#JohnlockIsCanon
SINCE THE PILOT. WHAT HAVE I BEEN SAYING? WHAT HAVE I BEEN SAYING?
Bless you, anon. Bless you.
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July 18, 2016
July 17, 2016
Thought we all needed a reminder of post series 3 Moffat comment
‘We’ve had certain aspects of what we’re going to do [in the next seasons] mapped out for quite a long while. (The return of Moriarty) is not a last-minute whim. You’d have painted yourself into the most ludicrous corner. No, no, there’s been… it was discussed ages ago.
The ‘Moriarty Plan’ is known by a few others, but a lot else of the next two series is just me and Mark.’
(Empire Online podcast interview, January 2014 [x])
Oh, I can’t wait for these secret plans to finally reach the screen!
Irene Adler & Mary Morstan
I find this connection between Irene and Mary quite meaningful. On the surface, these two characters share some characteristics, but they are in fact two formidable opposites.
Irene & Mary: two similar charactersTo this day, Irene and Mary are the only women who managed to avoid Sherlock’s powers of deduction. Actually, in both cases, Sherlock realizes he’s facing a disguise, but fails to fully understand the person in front of him. Sherlock recognizes both characters as clever.
Irene and Mary both beat Sherlock, following the same steps: 1) fool his powers of deduction, 2) shooting him (Irene drugs him, Mary fires a gun at him). After hurting Sherlock, the two women are self-satisfied and gloat.
Irene is a very sensual and seductive woman, sure of herself, her intelligence and assets. She is a woman of power, she likes to be free and doing exactly what she wants. She doesn’t actively choose/defend a side: she follows people she’s interested in (Moriarty, then Sherlock).
Mary possesses most of these characteristics. She is a woman of power, using her job (assassin) and seduction/playfulness to dominate people. She sure likes having an ascendant on people (we see it through her relationship with John and Sherlock throughout series 3). She shows herself as being very self-confident too, borderline (!) arrogant, like Irene. She is very sure of her skills, especially when she shows Sherlock (and John, oops) her gun-aiming skills.
It is also interesting to note how Mary’s character is associated with mischief, playfulness and wickedness. Similarly, Irene says it herself: she likes to misbehave.
Irene associated with Moriarty to play a nice trick to the Holmes brothers. However, she commited herself far too much into the play and ended up falling in love with Sherlock.
Mary is clearly associated with Moriarty in the show, even if we don’t know explicitly about their relationship or where she stands now. Most likely, Moriarty’s plan was to put Mary on John’s path after a traumatic event and make him fall in love with her (like he put Irene on Sherlock’s path after a traumatic event - the pool - to make him fall in love with her). However, I believe Mary definitively fell in love with John (in a selfish way) and it screws up Jim’s plan.
Irene looks a lot like Sherlock and shares his best assets and weapons/tricks (brilliant mind, faking her death, riding crop). Like him, she uses her powerful brain to do something that she likes (dominating people vs him helping people).
Mary looks a bit like John and shares his best assets/weapons/tricks (witty, feeling responsible of other human beings, medical knowledge, gun skills, posing as an inoffensive person while being a dangerous alpha). However, she uses her skills in a wicked/”dark” way (she is destructive while John tries to help people and do good).
On the surface, Irene and Mary seem to be very similar characters.
Irene and Mary: a study in oppositionIt is interesting to note that, when we look at their character’s arcs, Irene and Mary follow two very different paths.
Irene’s arcIndeed, at first, Irene appears as a threat, a dangerous force working against Sherlock. She drugs him, hits him with a riding crop, taunts him, is sexually aggressive… If we’re attentive, we can see subtle clues of her real intentions behind the cold mask.
However, as time passes, her character takes a softer tone and she becomes an ally. Her presence helps Johnlock, and she actively tries to make both boys realize their feelings for each other and stop them from hiding their sexual orientation and impulses.
Irene protects Sherlock and his secret (his sexuality and love for John) and, in the end, isn’t shown as a bad character.
Sherlock obviously likes and respect her, as a person. He recognizes Irene is on his side and has helped him tremendously. He is ready to help her if needed in return.
Mary’s arc
Interestingly, Mary takes the exact opposite path.She is introduced as an ally (of John, Sherlock and their relationship), a person willing to help Sherlock. Sherlock respects her as a person, he respects her relationship with John. If we look close enough though, we can see clues of her real intentions.
However, we end up discovering Mary’s true nature: a dangerous force working against Sherlock. She hurts him with words and uses violence against him. In the end, the show clearly associates her with words like wicked and bad (from one of the most disgusting characters, aka Magnussen!).
I don’t think John likes Mary very much after discovering she shot Sherlock, and he clearly disrespects the fact that she is an assassin. He also knows Mary isn’t good for him and actively threatens Sherlock; he most likely is planning to destroy her as soon as he sees the opportunity.Mary and Irene have opposite roles regarding the reationship between John & Sherlock.
Irene seeks to push the boys together and make them understand their own feelings. She makes John face his true sexual desires and forces him out of his straight fake persona. She protects Sherlock’s heart.
Mary actively tries to keep John and Sherlock apart and positions herself as the center of a love triangle. She forces John and Sherlock to repress their feelings and attraction for each other, forces John back in his straight fake persona. She hurts Sherlock’s heart.While appearing as an obstacle, Irene greatly helps John and Sherlock’s relationship, whereas Mary, while playing cool and posing as the link between the two forces them apart.
I see another symbolic opposition between Mary and Irene. Irene is a brunette who likes to misbehave, she is very free in her sexuality. She technically makes people pay to have sexual favors from her. Mary is the image of the luminous blond bride with child. We could see Mary as a twisted representation of a Madonna (/Virgin Mary) (and there is a direct reference to “Madonna” in TSOT, the episode where Mary marries and Sherlock discovers her pregnancy ; plus, Mary’s a dark mirror for John and John wears the bristol with “Madonna” written by Sherlock) and Irene as a twisted representation of a whore.
The Madonna and the whore is the classic dichotomy between two schematic representations of women. We can thus see a great symbolic opposition between Mary and Irene.
Also, funnily enough, the Madonna-whore complex is namely the inability to maintain sexual arousal within a committed, loving relationship. OH MY GOD, JOHN! Tbh, it really looks like an accurate description of Mary and John’s marriage to me, but I could be wrong (or not).
Speculation related to this opposition: Mary’s endIn the end, Irene almost gets killed but is saved by Sherlock. After that, she leaves and hides (most likely in the US?). However, we’ve seen Irene and Mary are shown as two opposites, both from a symbolic point of view and from Johnlock’s narrative arc.
Therefore, I believe Mary’s end will happen the exact opposite from Irene’s almost-death.
See, Irene was on her knees threatened by a man standing behind her (btw, the man behind her was Sherlock, a traitor to the group). She chooses to send a message to Sherlock before accepting her fate… But: big twist! We hear Sherlock’s characteristic ringtone and Irene is saved at the last minute.
Knowing Mary, the opposite works quite well. It is easy to picture Mary standing in front of a kneeling man, threatening him (as we discovered her assassin identity as she was threatening a kneeling Magnussen at gunpoint).
Most likely, by the well-known laws of opposition, the threatened man would be Sherlock (another possibility is John, but less likely). Mary, the standing woman, is a traitor. Two possibilities: the kneeling man or Mary send a message to their beloved (John). Following the message: big twist! We hear a ringtone. The kneeling man is saved at the last minute and the recipient of the message kills the people threatening them.
To me, it makes more sense to have Sherlock as the kneeling man. Indeed, if Mary is to be killed, it must be John’s choice, and it’s his turn to take a dramatic action to save Sherlock.
Hence => Mary threatening a kneeling Sherlock at gunpoint (most likely gloating), one of them sends a message to John Watson. As Mary is ready to kill Sherlock, we hear the ringtone. BIG REVEAL, John was there the whole time (like Sherlock was there for the whole “I’m not gay/Well I am, look at us both” discussion between John & Irene). Sherlock opens in eyes and realizes John (the man he loves) is here. Then,we have a shot of John’s face as he speaks shortly to one of them (likely Sherlock? … But the two work: Sherlock speaks to a woman he doesn’t love but who loves him before killing the threatening people; so John could speak to the woman who loves him but whom he doesn’t love, aka Mary) before killing (most likely shooting) Mary.
A dramatic end for an amazing opponent.
Added remarks
I can’t wait to see Janine’s arc, as she seems to be another strong woman working with Moriarty most likely to hurt Sherlock.
This opposition between Mary and Irene strenghtens my belief that we’ll see Irene come back in the show.
Great meta.
July 16, 2016
thesetison:
Setlock Recap, 7.14.16
We got another interview with Toby Jones where he talked about...
Setlock Recap, 7.14.16
We got another interview with Toby Jones where he talked about being offered his role and the appeal of the show.
Richard Crehan’s fisherman character was revealed to be named Ben.
Benjamin Caron gave us a Prisma pic of yesterday’s boat scene.
Nerd HQ listed a Sherlock panel as one of their Conversations for a Cause during the SDCC weekend. The panel will feature Mark, Steven, Sue, and Amanda and will be held at 1 PM PST on Sunday, July 24.
Claire Pritchard and Mark Gatiss both told us that they were off to a night shoot.
Danny Hargreaves (special effects) later mentioned that he was around for the night shoot as well. We didn’t find a definitive location, but multiple sightings put Martin in the Cardiff Bay area in the afternoon/evening, so perhaps filming was somewhere around there. Benjamin Caron gave us Prisma pics of himself and what appears to be a light of some sort (perhaps on the water?), and Claire gave us a sunrise photo after they wrapped. Nic Pringle also gave us a picture that may or may not have been taken at the location/base that morning, but so far none of these have helped us pin down a location for sure. Bro signs were spotted pointing to Ty Gwyn on Lisvane Road early the next morning, so it’s possible they were left out from a night shoot there, but it’s probably more likely they were just up already for Friday’s filming.
Setlock Recap, 7.15.16
BBC One gave us our first promo pic for series 4, and it features Sherlock with the bloodhound from filming for episode 1 at Trinity Church Square in London.
Arwel gave us a picture of his shoes and pretended not to know what we were talking about when we mentioned Ty Gwyn.
The filming signs were still up at Ty Gwyn later in the day and security was present. (It’s also worth noting that the signs are for location 1, implying there should have also been a location 2, but no one seems to have found it.) Benjamin Caron later posted a pic from their night shoot–a match for the front of the main house at Ty Gwyn–confirming that they were indeed filming there. Claire again let us know that they wrapped early the next morning.
Supporting actor Neal Barry was revealed to be playing a character named Ray, but we don’t know for which episode.
rhodanum:
wetwareproblem:
betsypaige22:
reggiephelps:
phoenixwrites:
crimsoncat21:
I was...
I was talking to an American friend today, who is a huge Bernie supporter. He won’t be voting for Hilary. He’s voting for some third party candidate. (Because fuck Hilary!) I was told I couldn’t understand because I’m not American. Oh, sweet child.
Sit down dearest, I’m going to teach you a thing.
In 2011 Canada had an election. The majority of us were tired of our conservative PM. He didn’t have enough support to win another term. There was absolutely no way this was going to happen. Except it did. Do you know how it did? We split the vote. I’m not going to bore you with details and Canadian politics. Basically, there were three parties. And the conservative PM got re-elected with only 39.62% of the vote. Because the other 60.38% was split between two other parties.
Fast forward to the 2015 election. Many of us voted outside of our political parties to make damn sure that didn’t happen a second time. Let me repeat that for you. I voted OUTSIDE of my political party for the good of my country. It was physically painful for me to do it. But it worked. We got rid of our conservative PM who was destroying our great nation, and we got Justin Trudeau. Who, honestly, luckily, is a damn delight.
Canada literally JUST went through this. We suffered four years of absolutely horrible leadership because our vote was split three ways. So don’t tell me I can’t understand because I’m not an American. And please, for the love of everything good in this world, don’t throw a temper tantrum because you can’t vote for Bernie. Suck it up. Be a grown up and don’t throw your vote away. I’m all for voting third party and supporting the little guy. But not this year. Not just because you didn’t get your way. You aren’t five.
Originally posted by yourreactiongifs
Thank you. Don’t let Trump come close.
I have a feeling that Bernie supporters are going to protest by not voting, which is almost as bad as voting for a nobody candidate…,
Another Canadian seconding this. I held my nose and ovted Liberal, because the alternative was four more years of active destruction. Trudeau has huge faults, but he’s better than Harper - and the same is true of Hillary and Drumpf. Vote third party. In droves. Build it up to the point where third parties are actually viable threats in the US. But do it when literally everything isn’t at stake.
Any time I see US Americans going ‘I’m voting Green!’, ‘I’m not voting at all!’, I want to fucking HOWL.
Let me tell you a story of Romania in the Year of Our Lord 2000. This presidential cycle is seared into my memory, for one particular reason.
We. Were. Fucked.
Our choices for future president had been whittled down to Corneliu Vadim Tudor, an ultra-nationalist, far-right poet and senator, a personage much in the vein of Trump as far as sheer bigotry is concerned…. and Ion Iliescu, former Communist Party official, former president and a man whom many of us still consider guilty of crimes against humanity for the fact that he called down thousands of miners upon anti-Communist, pro-Western protesters shortly after the 1989 Revolution:
He, along with other figures in the leading FSN, was allegedly responsible for calling the Jiu Valley miners to Bucharest on 28 January and 14 June 1990 to end the protests of the citizens gathered in University Square, Bucharest, protests aimed against the ex-communist leaders of Romania (like himself). (source)
The Romanian miners of Jiu Valley were called by the newly elected power to Bucharest to end the riots that broke up on 13 June 1990. As President Ion Iliescu put it, the miners were called to save the “besieged democratic regime” and restore order and democracy in Bucharest. The government trucked in thousands of miners from the Jiu Valley to Bucharest to confront the demonstrators. The rest of Romania and the world watched the government television broadcasts of miners brutally grappling with students and other protesters.
The official figures say that during the third Mineriad, seven people were killed and more than a thousand were wounded. The opposition newspaper România Liberă claimed that on 29 June 1990 over 40 bodies were buried in a common grave in Străulești, near Bucharest. Conspiracy theories and rumors circulated as to the origins and development of the mineriad, with some believing that both the Romanian Presidency and Secret Service had a hand in it. Later parliamentary inquiries into the potential role of the Secret Service contributed to the widespread public mistrust of the post-Ceaușescu intelligence service.
Government inquiries would show that the miners had indeed been “joined by vigilantes who were later credibly identified as former officers of the Securitate”, and that for two days, the miners had been aided and abetted by the former Securitate members in their violent confrontation with the protesters and other targets. (source)
As for Corneliu Vadim Tudor….
In 1991, [Corneliu Vadim Tudor] founded the Greater Romania Party, the platform of which Time magazine described as “a crude mixture of anti-Semitism, racism and nostalgia for the good old days of communism”. Some statements and articles by Tudor and his colleagues can be described as ultra-nationalist, anti-Hungarian, anti-Roma, and homophobic. (source)
Tudor’s and his party’s change from national communism to ultranationalism took place after 1996. In 1999, Dan Corneliu Hudici, a former reporter at România Mare, claimed there was a “secret blacklist” of dozens of politicians (including then-president Emil Constantinescu), journalists, and businessmen to be arrested if Tudor’s party came to power.
On 18 October 2012, while speaking on the talk show Romania la Raport, Tudor said that “in Romania there was never a Holocaust … I will deny it till I die because I love my people.“ (source)
These two fine gentlemen were our two options for president in 2000. I was too young too vote then, so all I could do was watch on with a sense of muffled, resigned horror. And my people, foolish though we can be, limited through we can be, ridiculously racist through we can be, painfully homophobic through we can be, decided that out of the two, the former autocrat and presumed mass-murderer was still a better option than the goddamn fascist – so Iliescu got the vote with an overwhelming majority.
Even people who loathed him with every fiber of their being grit their teeth and voted for the old bastard, because at this point most of us would have voted for a steaming turd, rather than Vadim! We couldn’t unleash someone like Vadim upon our partners, we still had access to the European Union to fight for – so we were pragmatic about the whole thing and went with Iliescu instead, even those among us who believed he should end up in jail for the rest of his life.
And then I see US Americans going on and on about how they’ll vote for no one other than Bernie, they’ll never vote for Hillary, not in a million years… People, if your complete lack of political pragmatism and your ‘ideological purity at all costs’ bullshit unleashes Trump upon your country and the rest of the world, you will have no one to blame but yourselves.
Nota Bene: since this is Tumblr, I feel I need to specify this. In Eastern Europe, ‘anti-Communist’ as a political position is so widespread that it tells you almost nothing about the rest of the person’s politics. They could well be social-democrats like me. They could be centrists. They could be right-wing. So i don’t want to hear any ‘oh they were probably just a bunch of fascists, they deserved it’ in regards to the protesters injured and killed during the Mineriads. I’ve already had people on here laugh at / dismiss my father’s torture at the hands of NKVD and my great-grandfather’s murder in the Aiud gulag, so I put nothing past some. Understand that we came with deep scars out of what were totalitarian regimes, we’re never going to look at them as Americans do.
July 15, 2016
classics rec list
A list of fandom classics compiled for @wineinanopenwound (side note: holy hell, I’m sorry that this took so long. Thank you for your patience!) Most of these are multi-chapter fics.
Another side note: a good way to find popular fics is to filter works on AO3 by kudos!
Nature and Nurture by earlgreytea68: I would be remiss if I didn’t include the fandom classic. In this wonderful fic, Sherlock and John raise an infant clone of Sherlock. [Parentlock, Post-Reichenbach]
Performance in a Leading Role by Mad_Lori: An AU in which John and Sherlock are actors playing the leads in a romance and fall in love. [AU]
Saving Sherlock Holmes by earlgreytea68: This is an AU in which John and Sherlock are at school together. So sweet, and I love Mycroft in this fic. [AU, Teenlock]
Midnight Blue Serenity by BeautifulFiction: This is a fantastic case fic in which Sherlock and John go undercover in a club. [Case Fic, UST]
The Edinburgh Problem by snorklepie: This is another brilliant case fic involving fantastic original characters, shady art students, and plenty of other wonderful surprises. [Case Fic, Post-Season 3, Fix-It]
The Moonlight and the Frost by CaitlinFairchild: This is THE post-season 3 fic, in my opinion, and every bit worth the read. John rebuilds his life after Mary. [Post-Season 3, Case Fic, Fix-It]
State of Flux by Atiki: Another brilliant post-season 3 fic, very soft and tender. [Post-Season 3, Fix-It]
The Least of All Possible Mistakes by rageprufrock: A brilliant fic in which Lestrade is a woman, told from her point of view. One of my favorites. [Lestrade POV, Mystrade]
The Last Drop by Phyona: A great fic in which John and Sherlock go to a pub and play drinking games. I love the sequel as well. [UST]
Two Two One Bravo Baker by abundantlyqueer: An AU in which Sherlock meets John while on a case in Afghanistan. [AU, War Story, Case Fic, Thriller]
The Paradox Series by wordstrings: A brilliant series–somewhat twisted, but brilliant and fascinating. Examines a codependent relationship between John and Sherlock. [Season 1+2, Sociopathy, Codependency, Series]
A River Without Banks by Chryse: One of my all-time favorites, Sherlock relives multiple versions of his life. So, so brilliant. [Post-Season 3, Fix-It, Case Fic, AU-ish]
Mise en Place by azriona: A chef AU, alternatively known as “the one where Sherlock is Gordon Ramsey.” [AU]
And if you say the word, I could stay with you by CaitlinFairchild: A wonderful proposal story, so very lovely. [Established Relationship, Proposal]
The Frost is All Over by Chryse: A Dickensian tale in which Sherlock is an earl’s son and John is a commoner and they grow up together. [AU]
The Gilded Cage by BeautifulFiction: This is the classic Omegaverse fic. Simply brilliant worldbuilding. [AU, Omegaverse, Case Fic]
All the Best and Brightest Creatures by wordstrings: A fantastic AU in which Sherlock sent Moriarty to prison as a child. A work in progress, but simply incredible. [AU, Case Fic, Love at First Sight]
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