XistentialAngst's Blog, page 212
September 19, 2015
mathildalocks:
just-sort-of-happened:
We see John’s empty...
We see John’s empty chair, out of focus. It has a union jack pillow symbolic of the UK on it. It is a chair with status in their home, it is the heart chair, it is red and rounded and the man Sherlock shares his life with sits there. As Moriarty will say in TRF, ‘the man with the key is king’. In ASiB, after John askes Mrs Hudson if Sherlock’s ever had a boyfriend, girlfriend, he decides that he doesn’t know and throws his keys up in the air. He is the man with the keys. John is king. He is the King of Sherlock’s heart. To really drive this home we have Sherlock’s phone (symbolic of his heart) first in focus in the foreground and secondly pointing at John’s chair and later at John, himself.
Then there is Moriarty trying to get to a precious chair and a crown. This is a King’s red chair and a King’s crown, his septre, representing John’s erection is also there.
Before breaking the glass, Moriarty writes, ‘Get Sherlock’, on it. He, very meaningfully, adds a happy face to the, ‘o’, in, ‘Sherlock’. This is the cypher Sherlock put on the wall of their flat after spending a night rejected, jealous, waiting for John to come home from Sarah’s. Moriarty is going to, ‘get Sherlock’, and he’s going to destroy the happy face (symbol of his love for John) in the process.
But, how? It’s not possible to break through this tempered glass and dethrone John. Except with a diamond. A round cut diamond just like the ones on the ring that he will propose to Mary with. In the background, the bokeh is not circular but hexagonal. On the show, I believe, that circles represent feelings and here because the diamond may not represent true feelings, the bokeh is not circular but a different shape.
Moriarty will take something precious, something that should be a symbol of love and stick it to the glass with something common and covered in saliva, something that he’s been chewing: a piece of gum. Could the love represented by this diamond be real when it’s embedded in such a crass substance, something that might stick to the bottom of one’s shoe causing an incredible upset? No. The gum debases the ring’s beauty. This contrast may be showing us that Mary’s role in John’s life is not real.
Notice Moriarty’s extremely pronounced grimance/fake smile as he places the diamond in the gum. To me, this signifies false niceness, falsehood, this is Moriarty inserting Mary into John’s life. This is symbolic of her, with a friendly, smiling façade.
This is the only way that Moriarty can, ‘get Sherlock’, with this diamond. In order to truly get between John and Sherlock he must put Mary in their way. Notice that he literally, ‘waltzes’, up to break the glass. This is more foreshadowing that the wedding is Moriarty’s plan to take John away from Sherlock. The waltz occurs right before the glass breaks, in TSoT, the waltz occurs right before Sherlock realises he has lost John on the dance floor.
Once Mary has married John, he has successfully taken John off his chair at Baker St: it literally disappears from the flat after he marries her. After that Moriarty can sit in it. This is the total metaphor for Moriarty as romantic false lead, trying to usurp the place of the romantic lead. It’s only after Sherlock has removed the chair (even though he returns it) that Moriarty comes back. This symbolism is like a beacon to Moriarty. It’s as if somewhere out there Moriarty just knows that his plan to dethrone John has fully worked. In fact, by the end of HLV, as the chair returns, the plan is starting to fail: Sherlock is realising who was really, ‘the king’, of his heart and he must begin to fight for his love, not just for John’s survival.
Back in TRF John will get a call on Sherlock’s phone (heart) and bring it to him. They will both go and watch the video of Moriarty breaking the glass, again. But, this time the POV is different: it includes an unconscious security guard. In TGG, Sherlock dons the disguise of security guard to break into the gallery and talk to Ms Wenceslas. This security guard could be representative of Sherlock, unconscious, not there. While Sherlock is not watching, aka away being, ‘dead’, Moriarty will set up a situation where Mary can come between John and Sherlock.
After watching this scene together, John and Sherlock will then dress for court, putting the finishing touches on their suits together in their living room. We will see them share a meaningful look while looking in the mirror. This image of them inside this piece of glass with the happy face behind them represents their bond: their love on a piece of glass that will soon be broken by Moriarty.
Yes, this as well!!
How could we forget to link this meta by talented just-sort-of-happened It is such a fantastic reading of so many frames. And I love the idea of John as Sherlock’s king. “This is the total metaphor for Moriarty as romantic false lead, trying to usurp the place of the romantic lead. It’s only after Sherlock has removed the chair (even though he returns it) that Moriarty comes back.”
Do you think “ Are you the current king of England” line has something to do with this reading, just-sort-of-happened?
I love the fandom when different people at different times rediscover the same things.
September 18, 2015
mathildalocks:
bbcthree:
hudders-and-hiddles:
New idea: let’s see bbcthree‘s 10 favorite moments...
[Podfic] Eight Inches that Changed Everything
read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/1P8vHPx
Lestrade tells John about something he’d once discovered in Sherlock’s flat during a drug bust. That little bit of knowledge rocks John’s world.
Words: 18, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Series: Part 21 of The Overdue Advent
Fandoms: Sherlock (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: M/M
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Greg Lestrade
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Additional Tags: Anal Sex, Dildos, First Time, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Alley Sex, Podfic, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 45-60 Minutes
read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/1P8vHPx
Cool! Go listen! I’m looking forward to hearing it tonight. :-)
Thanks, consulting_smartass.
September 9, 2015
loudest-subtext-in-television:
bug-catcher-in-viridian-forest:
...
loudest-subtext-in-television:
bug-catcher-in-viridian-forest:
When we first see Mary Morstan, this is how she is dressed. Black hat, blue scarf, long coat.
Remind you of anyone?
The costumers and writers could have chosen any color scheme. They could have picked a hat that did not remind the show’s audience of Sherlock’s dark hair. They could have chosen a scarf that does not resemble that of Sherlock. But they didn’t. They chose this.
Mary is John’s attempt to replace Sherlock. John, when he finds Mary, wants someone to be to him as Sherlock was. This includes a romantic attachment–he is desperate to love someone again.
He cannot, however, replace Sherlock Holmes. Not in a whirlwind and forced romance, not in an engagement, not in any new aspect of his life.
Sherlock Holmes lives means John Watson lives.
CRAP I NEVER NOTICED THIS
Also Mary’s coat is grey and the scarf is a lighter shade of blue (I think?) which comes off as a washed-out version or a pale imitation of Sherlock’s look.
Special points for that comment, commandertabbycat!
But can you imagine if we get flashbacks and discover that Mary actually had dark hair when they met.
this is one of the most blatant things that I think of when people say the show isn’t gay, or it’s just a joke
like look at Mary, look at her. plus look at how many parallels between her personality and Sherlock’s they cram into the literal TEXT of the show, much less everywhere else. John got himself a Sherlock replacement to have sex with, like.
BUT PEOPLE THINK THIS ISN’T INTENDED TO BE ACTUALLY GAY
elieaston:
New Post has been published on...
New Post has been published on http://elieaston.com/audio-book-city/
Audio Book City
I’ve had a spate of new audio books out this summer with more coming soon! I thought I’d say a little bit about them.
“The Mating of Michael” audio book is narrated by Michael Stellman, who also read my audio book “A Prairie Dog’s Love Song”. It’s a wonderful listen. I like the youthfulness of his voice and the way he conveys emotion.
“The Lion and the Crow”, read by Scott Richard Ehredt, is really a treat! I just finished listening to it myself on my morning walks. Scott has a mature, rich British voice that gives the story heaps of gravitas. He made the writing sound so wonderful! And I love all his character voices. Do try it!
COMING SOON
“Unwrapping Hank” audio, performed by Jason Frazier, should hopefully be out by early October. It’s sounding awesome.
I hope to have Matthew Shaw read “How to Walk Like a Man” (the sequel to “How to Howl at the Moon”) and have that one out by early December too.
Listening to audio books has really helped me rack up the miles on my Fitbit. (Or does my Fitbit help me get through more audio books?) Hope you’ve enjoyed some good ones lately too!
Eli
Some of my m/m romance audio books!
September 3, 2015
miadifferent:
glassofteajlc:
Benedict talking about Sherlock is wrong and should not be...
Benedict talking about Sherlock is wrong and should not be allowed
What disturbs me the most is, that he not only displays a different reading of his character (which makes me uncomfortable), but that he judges him. And by judging Sherlock, he also judges everyone who can relate to Sherlock and his behaviour.
So he’s different. Why would he mind? Why would anyone mind?
Is there a new interview? Anyone have a link?
September 1, 2015
Baker Street Knife
Why Mary Stands There
In the Baker St confrontation Mary immediately goes to stand next to the mantel. Why? Because there’s an open knife there. She is ready for a fight and is not just armed with a gun but is also aware of this other weapon in the flat. By standing to the left of the knife, she can easily grab it with her right hand and she can also prevent John and Sherlock from grabbing it to use against her.
Things that occur earlier in this episode enforce this idea. Bill pulls a knife on John and John takes it from him, even asking if the knife is, ‘a clue’. Here, with Mary, it most certainly is,
Only slightly earlier we get the idea of making do with whatever weapon you can find, here,
(*cough* pay no attention to the fact that Mary seems to be mocking his wang, here…)
Then, at Baker St, itself, we will have Magnussen’s henchman reveal that John has multiple weapons,
(*ahem* pay no attention to the fact that Sherlock looks impressed as crap by John’s, ‘wang’, here, in stark contrast to Mary’s reaction…)
And soon after, Sherlock will mock him for it,
Except, there’s a clause,
Now, that we know, ‘how the night’, went, we must wonder, is John armed during the Baker St confrontation?
In this nifty visual, we see Mary in relation to the knife and to John: she is a threat to him, but she’s looking away. Maybe she doesn’t want to have to hurt him?
Ditto, here, with Sherlock, except she looks right at him in a penetrating way. Maybe Sherlock she doesn’t mind hurting so much. I mean, she did just shoot him,
With bonus: as Sherlock sits down, we see a sliver of Mary’s arm and the knife is seen as being right in his back. She stabbed him in the back once and she would/will do it again,
Now, for poetic flare, let us harken to the sweet, sweet past of ASiP and see that this is a knife that Sherlock put here, on the mantel, the first time John walked into Baker St,
This is the knife he puts there because he’s, ‘straightening up’, for John. He is trying to make his flat more appealing while also using a suggestive idiom for cleaning up. Sherlock will do whatever it takes to have John in his life, including hiding his feelings and appearing straight.
This is the same knife that Mary will put in his back. She is using his love of John against him. She knows that he has a blindspot for her because he loves John and she has, up to this point, exploited this to her advantage, nearly killing him.
great meta! I never noticed the knife.
wedding proposal to mary: john begins, does generally poor job tbh, never see him actually ask
best man proposal to sherlock: "the big question", really fucking emotional moment, sherlock is lost for words (for the first time ever?)
wedding vows: um... :/
sherlock: "I've never made a vow in my life and after tonight I never will again" do best man's usually make vows?????
sherlock and john: sat with each other at the centre of the table, the whole episode is about their lives together
mary: "always partly or entirely excluded"
sherlock: love declaration to john "love you most in all this world"
john: love declaration directly to sherlock "the two people i love and care about most in the world", but never see an 'I love you' directly to mary his wife
sherlock: throws flowers to janine like bride would a bouquet
mary, the actual bride: was she even there?
The ‘you are so dead right now’ look. Hot!
The ‘you are so dead right now’ look. Hot!
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