XistentialAngst's Blog, page 89
August 13, 2016
monikakrasnorada:
sherlock-little-weed:
bug-catcher-in-viridian...
bug-catcher-in-viridian-forest:
I was looking at the screenshot from @fandeadgloves‘s meta, and that next to Sholto is the human bi flag.
Being manhandled by Jonathan Small…
Seriously!!!!!! Omg, put this pic on my tombstone as the most perfect moment of my life.
August 12, 2016
conversationswithbenedict:
imtooticky:
obotligtnyfiken:
Straig...
Straight ahead or two steps forward, two steps back?
Linear and non-linear narrative in BBC’s SherlockI was probably not the only one to be blown away by the complex narrative in season 3 of Sherlock. It has been nagging me for a long time, so of course I had to visualise it.
What started as an experiment, turned into a monster that would not let me go. In the end, I just had to finish it, so here you go. (If someone ever tells you that they intend to make 224 frames by hand, please tell them to go learn animation properly. I do know that I ought to!)
This is what you need to know when watching the animation:
The size of the jumps do not match time passed in the show’s universe.
The jumps are placed roughly at the point in time in the episode where they take place. Since legibility takes precedence, complex episodes do not align well.
Jumps forwards in time are only noted when they are very large and obvious in the storytelling (weeks or months) or when they are part of a non-linear narrative.Considering the recent discussion about the order of events in A Scandal in Belgravia and The Hounds of Baskerville, I should also point out that each episode has a line of its own. I did consider letting the dots jump to the right line when there are flashbacks to earlier episodes, but that would have turned this regular monster into a flaming balrog that would have burnt me to crisp. So each line refers only to that episode and flashbacks to earlier episodes are simply put to the left of the events that actually take place in the episode. I hope that made sense … :-)
In case I make corrections, updated versions can be found here: http://obotligtnyfiken.se/sherlock/straight-ahead-or-two-steps-forward-two-steps-back/
Tagging a few people who might be interested below the cut.
@isitandwonder @the-7-percent-solution @ilovesubtext @sussexbound-main @miadifferent @imtooticky @thebisonwitheadphones @hudders-and-hiddles @inevitably-johnlocked @multifandom-madnesss @girlofthemirror @jenna221b
This is BEAUTIFUL! Watching TSoT and HLV is so visually pleasing! Well done, well done! :D
abso-fucking-lutely BRILLIANT.
This is really interesting for a couple of reasons.
1. It’s no wonder we find HLV so confusing and there are questions about what’s real and what isn’t real. Though, to be fair, TSoT is even more complex and yet I don’t doubt all of that is real. But still… besides the obvious weirdness in the text, which so many have pointed out (people acting OOC, the big missing time gap), just the structure of it is very different from most other episodes.
2. Why do they need to move to such complex narratives in TSoT and HLV? And I imagine TAB is pretty complex as well. Why did they suddenly change their episode M.O. so drastically? Are thy trying to tell us something in a very sly, round-about way? Or are they getting creative in a new way because…?
3. It’s no wonder a lot of the casual audience didn’t know what to make of S3 and there was talk of jumping the shark.
I have a feeling S4 will be quite complex as well.
mollydobby:
Parallels and Speculation - River and Twelve in...
Parallels and Speculation - River and Twelve in Doctor Who S09 Christmas Special (The Husbands of River Song) versus John and Sherlock in Sherlock ~ Past, Present, and Future
In The Husbands of River Song, we learn that what River thinks of as the Doctor’s view of her and love are not necessarily what is actually the case. The unreliable narrator strikes again.
River thinks that the Doctor is simply too extraordinary to commit to something as mundane as love. She loves the Doctor, but what use is loving a monolith which ignores her?
(Also, this scene has shades of incredulous John in the ASiP 221b drug sweep scene, as well as indignant John with Irene at the power plant in ASiB.)
Meanwhile, it is common knowledge among enemies of The Doctor that “When
this woman is in danger, the Doctor will always come.”
Oh, that reminds me of John and Sherlock.
Sherlock is willing to fake death (TRF) and kill Magnussen (HLV) to save John from harm. The mere threat to John’s life is enough to spur Sherlock to action (ASiB) and bring him back from the brink of death (HLV). And yet -
John simply thinks that Sherlock doesn’t feel things that way, that Sherlock doesn’t follow him everywhere (but we know that’s not the case).
Not that Sherlock has been helping matters. In the unaired pilot, Sherlock tells John at Angelo’s that “No. You (John) need to eat. I need to think. The brain’s what counts. Everything else is transport.” This line of dialogue disappears from A Study in Pink, but in both versions retain this line: “You may as well eat. We might have a long wait.”
However, things may be changing.
Twelve was rather aghast at how nonchalantly River was about stealing the TARDIS. She says “he’ll never know it was gone”, while Twelve assures her “he’ll notice now.”
River: I can take it, do whatever I want for as long as I
like, and pop it back a second later, he’ll never know it was
gone.
The Doctor: Yes, he will.
River: How?
The Doctor: He’ll just know.
River: Well, he’s never noticed before.
The Doctor: Maybe… he’ll notice now.
TARDIS is used … for TRANSPORT. Sherlock apparently thinks that the brain is what counts, and everything else is transport. And he has been know to not notice when John disappears.
From John’s standpoint, Sherlock certainly did not seem to have laid claim to John. So far.
And John is dealing with his feelings about Sherlock just fine, just like River with Twelve. (NOT.)
But maybe … Sherlock’ll notice now. After all, we’ve learnt in both Sherlock (HoB, S02E02) and Doctor Who that the body’s got a mind of its own, and can certainly betray the head. Oh!
And further out in the warm waters of Speculation Cove:
We have another test run at The Three Garridebs, where River and Twelve fight with each other to see who will save the day because they are just as precious to one another:
The Doctor: Get back in the TARDIS! This is my job!
River:
This is my job!
The Doctor: I’ve been doing it longer.
River: I do it better.
The Doctor: River, not one person on this ship, not one living thing, is worth you.
River: Or you.
Heartwarming, non? And let’s hope that Johnlock in full bloom will come sooner than Christmas Day in 4 years’ time:
The Doctor: Excuse me, um, I’d like a table on the balcony
with a view of the towers.
Receptionist: I’m sorry, sir, the first available
slot I have is Christmas Day in four years’ time.
The Doctor: Not a problem.
So, thanks for reading. (Part 1 - The Diary is here, Part 2 - The Unrecognized Face is here, Part 3 - Moriarty is here) I thought this was going to be it, but some odds and ends sort of … happened.
Part of my Sherlock is not the Doctor but … series
Tagging @jenna221b , @storm-nightie, @bug-catcher-in-viridian-forest,@coolerontheinside,@waitingforgarridebs, @longsnowsmoon5 , @miyuzaki-1, @artfulkindoforder, @inevitably-johnlocked, @thechristmasrapture, @twocandles, @cupidford and @heimishtheidealhusband
Do you think the fact Sherlock chooses to shake John's hand is particularly significant? Like maybe he was trying to tell John "I'm actually high as a kite right now."
Nonny, it’s because if he’s going to die, he wants to ensure John is one of the last people he will touch. Given what we know now about the scene (ie. planning to overdose and die before he landed), this makes it even sadder. He needed to feel his skin against his own, and he needed to know what it was like.
Plus:
It was the closest to a kiss he was going to get from John at that moment.
He never intended to make it to his mission alive, and John was the memory he wanted to die with.
The Hiker and The Backfire Deduction~ ASiB
Out of all the techniques used in BBC Sherlock, I think my favorite is the use of mirrors. The Hiker and The Backfire are among one of the most complicated, and lSiT breaks it down beautifully in this.
myc1ara asked: Hello! I absolutely love your M-theory! I thought it was brilliant! I have an observation that I would like your opinion on: in ASiB, the same music plays when Mycroft receives the text from Moriarty in the scene that the driver sees the hiker killed just after he shows up in 221B. What do you make of that?
I planned to cover this in the S&S entry for A Scandal in Belgravia, but I’ll do it now…
It’s EXTREME heartbreak music. And because it’s so extreme, it’s used sparingly: we only ever hear it three times, iirc:
1. the hiker deduction (this is the big thing)
2. Mycroft being devastated by Moriarty’s text
3. Sherlock’s epiphany that it’s about to be “too late” when he drops his champagne glass before toasting John’s marriage.
So what about that hiker, eh? What could that possibly do with heartbreak? Well, we know it’s got something to do with something important because a lot of time is spent on it and it has NO relevance to the plot of ASiB.
It’s actually my favorite subtext in the show, because it’s a tricky one: it’s BEAUTIFULLY constructed and terribly clever. The hiker and the client who sees the hiker are both mirrors for John, but separate parts of him. I’ll set up why each is a mirror, and then explain what’s going on in the scene.
Then for the hell of it, I’ll tell you John’s other mirror in the episode, because it’s a quick one. This is pretty long (pictures and videos, too), so here’s a cut:
First, keep this in mind: I’ve said over and over that the pool scene is where John realizes he’s undeniably in love with Sherlock. (If you don’t believe me now, see how you feel at the end of this.) Before that point John may have suspected, may have told himself it was just a crush, whatever. But he was willing to give his life at the pool, and that changed things for both John and Sherlock. On the surface, you’d think they left the pool and never thought about it again, but that’s the exact opposite of reality. The entirety of A Scandal in Belgravia is both of them wrestling with what they think are hopeless feelings for the other.
Second, John’s blog tells us exactly what he did after the pool debacle: took a trip to New Zealand with Sarah, which is good, right? We learned in The Great Game John hadn’t had sex with her yet, and there was no point during the episode he could have done so, so hey, nice going, John, must have gotten laid! …Except, huh, they broke up there. They went all the way to New Zealand together… and broke up there. What could have happened?
In the comments, Sherlock says John didn’t tell him he broke up with her. John didn’t want to talk about whatever precipitated it, apparently.
Oh well, guess it’s just a mystery!
So let’s meet the client.
First thing is he dresses like John:
And we get this odd shot with John sitting behind him, literally in the background of the guy’s story. We almost always see John and Sherlock looking at the clients together, but this time it’s intentionally framed this way.
This is an awesome meta. I completely buy it, bow to the greatness of the writerly subtext, and count it a major johnlock proof!
isitandwonder:
obotligtnyfiken:
The Abominable Bride is...
The Abominable Bride is driving me mad. I keep leaving it out of my infographics since there is no way of knowing if anything in that episode is real. There have been many discussions about this since the episode aired, so I decided to break down what the options are.
Option 1: Nothing in The Abominable Bride is real, except the flashbacks in the beginning. This reading was, to my knowledge, introduced by @skulls-and-tea in this post and is based mainly on the fact that Mycroft’s clothes, especially his tie and scarf, are not exactly the same as when we last saw Mycroft on the tarmac in His Last Vow. This is supported by the mindboggling fact that mind palace scenes in previous episodes have been inverted when it comes to clothes, decor, furniture etc. (as has been shown in this discussion ) This interpretation has come to be known as #tie hell and is also a part of the so called Extended Mind Palace (#emp) and Extended Dream Time (#edt).
Option 2: If the entire episode is a morphine dream as Sherlock lies wounded in hospital after being shot by Mary in His Last Vow, the scene where he wakes up in a hospital bed could be partly real. The room would be real, but Sherlock’s clothes, his lack of injury and the conversation with Mycroft should still be part of his dream. I have lost track of who has discussed this where, but @isitandwonder mentions it in this post
Option 3: All the Victorian scenes are a dream. The first and last airplane scenes are real, but the modern scenes where Sherlock wakes up on a bed and then goes to dig up Emilia Ricolettis grave are a dream. There have been discussions of several dream levels, similar to the film Inception.
Option 4: It is possible to imagine that the scenes where Sherlock wakes up on a bed and goes to dig up the grave are real as well up until the skeleton moves. It makes no narrative sense, though, since they are still in the airplane in the next modern scene. So no, let’s ignore option 4.
Option 5: Mark Gatiss has joked that The Abominable Bride opens up for the interpretation that the entire show is the drug induced imaginings of a 19th century detective. So that is the fifth option, I suppose, but several scenes in the Victorian world must be dreams as well, at least the ones where Moriarty appears.
I think I have covered all possibilities, but please let me know if
you’ve thought of something that I have missed. I am also hopelessly
lost as to who has made which point where, so please chip in if you want
to link to relevant meta.
Tagging the people involved in the discussion I mentioned for Option 1: @skulls-and-tea, @adlerforpresident, @johnlockhell221b, @recentlyfolded, @lynneyginnyjoan, @asherlockstudy, @isitandwonder and @tjlcisthenewsexy (and a few more that I can’t tag)
This brings some order to the chaos. Thanks @obotligtnyfiken! I’ll opt for 1 or 2…
Wonderful infographic and discussion of what’s real or not in TAB.
isitandwonder:
tjlcisthenewsexy:
isitandwonder:
stillgosherlocked:
asherlockstudy:
skulls-and-te...
Mycroft wearing two different ties between HLV’s tarmac scene and “five minutes later” in the TAB plane scene: the trifling detail I can already tell will haunt me for the rest of 2016.
Tie Hell 2k16
Oh hell. Because yeah, I’m going to be thinking about this now. Is there a reason? Did they just fuck up? Does it mean something? Did Mycroft swiftly take off his tie and use it to strange someone then need a new one? Why is his tie different? Everything means something and nothing is on accident so WHY.
*screaming*
It’s cool, they just painstakingly preserve everyone else’s clothes for a couple years and link very detailed outfits to specific points in episode timelines and they already knew they’d be picking up again at the tarmac scene and it’s not like Mycroft is super picky about his clothes anyhow and I mean it’s cool he probably just changed his tie in the car to celebrate Moriarty’s return or Mark Gatiss decided to steal the original, I’m completely fine
is it possible that it’s the lighting?
All from HLV:
From TAB:
Definitely not the lighting.
tie hell: day 2
day 3
They probably did this just to fuck with us. This is revenge for having figured out too much before TAB aired.
isn’t stamford wearing the same tie here in the special like he did in asip? if wardrobe can keep the same tie after 5 years.. there’s no bloody way that mycroft wearing a different tie AND scarf is accidental. @skulls-and-tea
#tiehell2k16 is still on
Tie Hell: Day 5
Oh fuck me. *lays head on cool, cool desk and weeps*
Ok. Here is my somewhat crack theory and I ::Gollum voice:: hates it. This is based on the premise that I *think* @wellthengameover posited in one of their meta’s, that Sherlock makes small changes, switches, inversions, whatever, in his Mind Palace, so that he can distinguish it from Reality.
From the Inception script (x)
COBB: Because building dreams out of your own memories is the surest way to lose your grip on what’s real and what’s a dream.
So.
TEH (Reality) Mycroft’s desk: lamp on left, red phone on right
HLV (Mind Palace) Mycroft’s desk*inverted: lamp on right, red phone on left
HLV (Reality) Mycroft’s tie: Blue tie, pink polka dots
TAB (Mind Palace*my theory), Mycroft’s tie*inverted: Pink tie, blue polka dots
TL;DR - I think TAB takes place entirely in Sherlock’s Mind Palace, even the first and second plane scenes, because Mycroft’s tie has inverted colors from the one he wears in TEH.
Thank you for your time, I’ll show myself out.
tie hell just got a LOT more hellish
I don’t know what percent of TAB is a lie (or a mind palace if you prefer) but I’m fairly sure none of the modern scenes are real.
Thanks for bringing this back again. Brilliant stuff. @ebaeschnbliah
@tjlcisthenewsexy How it started…
@isitandwonder above there’s a comparison of Mycroft’s office in TEH (definitely reality) and HLV mind palace (definitely not reality). So we know that the black lamp is on the left in reality and on the right in mind palace. So did anyone notice this shot from the bolt-holes sequence when Lestrade is there
Lamp on RIGHT - therefore this is mind palace. Like… did he just redecorate? Because now I’m really confused. Sorry if this has all been talked about. I wasn’t paying attention before. Okay but also, if the black lamp and the red phone are the “tell”, then you can also see both of them reflected in the mirror on the right of the screen, as if to say “here’s what it normally should look like”. Like, that mirror was precisely tilted to show just those two things. Send help.
@tjlcisthenewsexy Oh.My.God! TPTB are really fucking with our minds, aren’t they? I just… I can’t…
@stillgosherlocked @ebaeschnbliah
Reblogging this because it’s just that kind of mind-fuckery day.
ravenmorganleigh:
isitandwonder:
watsonyourbed:
Bloody Mary...
Bloody Mary hmm
Source: What does history say
Mary I. wasn’t actually that bad but got slandered by her successors. Her Spanish marriage was unpopular and she burned 280 protestant ‘herretics’ at the stake (for she wanted to restore Catholicism) but on the other hand she implemented, among other things, a fiscal reform that allowed for half-sister’s Elizabeth I. successful reign.
It’s interesting though that John Knox, a protestant theologian, criticised her in his book
First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558). TAB - anyone?
Well, I’ve always found it interesting that, in HLV, the building Mary passes on her way to Leinster Gardens is the Henry VIII hotel. It’s right next door!
I also thought it was …well… weirdly poetic that Mary I suffered from pseudocyesis, otherwise known as false pregnancy, phantom pregnancy, or hysterical pregnancy.
Innnnnteresting.
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