XistentialAngst's Blog, page 98

A flair for the dramatic

monikakrasnorada:

tjlcisthenewsexy:

xistentialangst:

monikakrasnorada:

Thank god you’re above all that, Sherlock.

I know most of those that are believers in EMP / EDT, or are coming around to at least entertain the notion, subscribe to the idea that it begins with Sherlock’s collapse after the Watson Domestic™. For me, though, since I first realised that this could potentially be what is going on back in January, it felt and seemed to make more sense to me that Sherlock just never regains consciousness after Mary shoots him. 

The photos above kind of solidify that for me. Yes, Sherlock does indeed have a flair for the dramatic (just look at that swishy coat) but to think he could manage- even with Wiggins help, a man Sherlock didn’t even know the name of on the day he was shot, but has him in his backpocket now, after days in hospital to manage to help Sherlock get this over-the-top confrontation staged? 

To Spider-Man out a hospital window (dramatic)

A ‘ fiancée’ that, under normal circumstances would have been heartbroken at their beloved’s bedside, but suddenly, inexplicably knows the jig is up (dramatic, and whoa, way to toot your own horn there, Sherl)

I’ve gone over a few other things that I find odd in this post and there are other tidbits in my tag . This post was meant to draw attention to the first two photos I posted here. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Sherlock (or Wiggins) set up a projector in the building across the way to try to rein Mary’s impulse to kill him again. What I find really hard to accept, or even understand, is why in the world would the words that look to be “TOP SECRET” be projected on the wall behind Lady Smallwood at MI6 or wherever they may be? Is that standard practice, to call attenion- to DRAMATICALLY call attention- to the secrecy of what they are discussing. Isn’t that the opposite of secrecy and the height of drama?

Pure reason toppled by sheer melodrama: your life in a nutshell.

And absolutely something that you could expect from the mind that goes all Victorian in a drug-fueled haze to solve a multi-layered age old question: You or me?

Because this is what Sherlock is wondering and asking his mind palace to sort out for him. Which will John choose when the truth finally comes out: Mary or Sherlock?

@tjlcisthenewsexy @may-shepard @ebaeschnbliah @isitandwonder @sherlock-little-weed @xistentialangst @stillgosherlocked 

Hmmm. It’s possible. These are certainly OTT dramatic things, though not necessarily any more so than other things in the show (like, Sherlock’s brother kidnapping John, a glow in the dark bunny who vanishes etc). 

One argument against the dream starting when Sherlock was first shot: the reveal of Mary to John, and the confrontation in 221b, sets up the “John’s choice” scenario. Sherlock reveals to John what Mary really is. And then just before he collapses he urges John to forgive and trust Mary.

Let’s assume this happened for real, and then after that it’s a dream. It’s a great transition/lead-in to “what does John choose”. Sherlock told John to forgive Mary, so he can imagine that happening. Also, that’s where the big time jump occurs. We see nothing from that collapse at 221b until Christmas day, other than one very dream-like scene with Magnussen and Sherlock in a gown and IV in Speedys. That’s also where John starts acting OOC, from Christmas day on. He is not OOC during the Mary reveal or subsequent domestic in 221b. I’d say he’s very much IN character. And given the way Sherlock subsequently has trouble giving John realistic reactions, it seems unlikely he invented that angry John.

If the dream started earlier, when Sherlock was first shot, then we have a new host of problems. How does John then find out about Mary? What does he think/do once he finds out? That’s a huge story point to skip over. Yes, we got an ‘imagined’ version of it, but if that wasn’t the real scene, then we still ‘missed it’. What would John say, once Sherlock eventually wakes up, ‘yeah I figured that out and gave her the boot’ or whatever. That would be weird not to have seen that moment. I suppose we could flash back to it but… yeah.

To me, that option doesn’t hang together well.

Yeah i can’t imagine there being a second scene that reveals Mary to John. If John didn’t know about Mary before Sherlock was unconscious for months, then John couldn’t have progressed at all, planned anything, made any decisions. He would just be back at home with his lying wife. I like the idea that it almost killed Sherlock to stage the reveal, because John’s life depended on him knowing. Sherlock knew he might die by leaving hospital in that condition, but all that mattered to him was that John knew, and could make an informed decision for himself and his life, if Sherlock did indeed die. And Mary had already threatened Sherlock again while he was still lying half conscious in bed. As far as Sherlock knew, Mary might walk back in at any second and kill him. He knew he had to get out and tell John asap, even if he died doing it. Hence why he dragged his dying arse out of there. Pulling the blinds up and leaving the window open was probably a dramatic touch he thought of at the last second. He probably just walked out the door, and texted his homeless network to do everything for him. Remember, we’re supposed to believe that his homeless network almost single handedly staged his fake death. I’m sure they could handle setting up a projector, moving John’s chair back, and buying some Clair de lune.

I agree that the Janine hospital scene is suspiciously weird. We did see Sherlock turn up his morphine in that scene, possibly a clue that it’s morphine dream. As for Janine somehow knowing the engagement was fake, I think it’s fairly clear that she faked the entire relationship, knew also that Sherlock was faking it, knew what Sherlock was planning, and took the opportunity to play him right back, and get something out of it for herself. So as is, the Janine scene fits, even though it smells fishy.

I cannot disgree with a single point or word, @xistentialangst and @tjlcisthenewsexy. It’s just, putting everything  together, nothing makes sense to me after Sherlock is shot.

Just let me add this:

Mycroft’s office in TEH:

@stillgosherlocked had pointed out the differences we can note in Mycroft’s office and his ‘mind palace’ office. In Sherlock’s mind palace, the objects on the desk are different just enough to make you wonder if you’re imagining things. Here, you can see the glass globe on a stand in the above picture just to Sherlock’s right.

Mycroft’s office in Sherlock’s Mind Palace in TEH:

The globe is now much smaller and not on a stand.

Mycroft’s office in HLV after Sherlock is shot(?):

It’s the same! Why would Greg be in Sherlock’s mind palace when Sherlock isn’t in his mind palace yet?

@ebaeschnbliah @may-shepard

Do you have a link to the full meta on Mycroft’s office IRL vs MP? I’d have to look at the details. If it’s just the globe, it is on the same side of the desk as IRL. As for the size, the camera angle and lens affect the size in a big way. That one shot where the globe is very large was taken from basically right in front of the globe. I can’t be certain there’s no change in the globe, but that’s not enough evidence for me, by itself, unless there’s more in the office to back it up.

A flair for the dramatic

monikakrasnorada:

Thank god you’re above all that, Sherlock.

I know most of those that are believers in EMP / EDT, or are coming around to at least entertain the notion, subscribe to the idea that it begins with Sherlock’s collapse after the Watson Domestic™. For me, though, since I first realised that this could potentially be what is going on back in January, it felt and seemed to make more sense to me that Sherlock just never regains consciousness after Mary shoots him. 

The photos above kind of solidify that for me. Yes, Sherlock does indeed have a flair for the dramatic (just look at that swishy coat) but to think he could manage- even with Wiggins help, a man Sherlock didn’t even know the name of on the day he was shot, but has him in his backpocket now, after days in hospital to manage to help Sherlock get this over-the-top confrontation staged? 

To Spider-Man out a hospital window (dramatic)

A ‘ fiancée’ that, under normal circumstances would have been heartbroken at their beloved’s bedside, but suddenly, inexplicably knows the jig is up (dramatic, and whoa, way to toot your own horn there, Sherl)

I’ve gone over a few other things that I find odd in this post and there are other tidbits in my tag . This post was meant to draw attention to the first two photos I posted here. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Sherlock (or Wiggins) set up a projector in the building across the way to try to rein Mary’s impulse to kill him again. What I find really hard to accept, or even understand, is why in the world would the words that look to be “TOP SECRET” be projected on the wall behind Lady Smallwood at MI6 or wherever they may be? Is that standard practice, to call attenion- to DRAMATICALLY call attention- to the secrecy of what they are discussing. Isn’t that the opposite of secrecy and the height of drama?

Pure reason toppled by sheer melodrama: your life in a nutshell.

And absolutely something that you could expect from the mind that goes all Victorian in a drug-fueled haze to solve a multi-layered age old question: You or me?

Because this is what Sherlock is wondering and asking his mind palace to sort out for him. Which will John choose when the truth finally comes out: Mary or Sherlock?

@tjlcisthenewsexy @may-shepard @ebaeschnbliah @isitandwonder @sherlock-little-weed @xistentialangst @stillgosherlocked 

Hmmm. It’s possible. These are certainly OTT dramatic things, though not necessarily any more so than other things in the show (like, Sherlock’s brother kidnapping John, a glow in the dark bunny who vanishes etc). 

One argument against the dream starting when Sherlock was first shot: the reveal of Mary to John, and the confrontation in 221b, sets up the “John’s choice” scenario. Sherlock reveals to John what Mary really is. And then just before he collapses he urges John to forgive and trust Mary.

Let’s assume this happened for real, and then after that it’s a dream. It’s a great transition/lead-in to “what does John choose”. Sherlock told John to forgive Mary, so he can imagine that happening. Also, that’s where the big time jump occurs. We see nothing from that collapse at 221b until Christmas day, other than one very dream-like scene with Magnussen and Sherlock in a gown and IV in Speedys. That’s also where John starts acting OOC, from Christmas day on. He is not OOC during the Mary reveal or subsequent domestic in 221b. I’d say he’s very much IN character. And given the way Sherlock subsequently has trouble giving John realistic reactions, it seems unlikely he invented that angry John.

If the dream started earlier, when Sherlock was first shot, then we have a new host of problems. How does John then find out about Mary? What does he think/do once he finds out? That’s a huge story point to skip over. Yes, we got an ‘imagined’ version of it, but if that wasn’t the real scene, then we still ‘missed it’. What would John say, once Sherlock eventually wakes up, ‘yeah I figured that out and gave her the boot’ or whatever. That would be weird not to have seen that moment. I suppose we could flash back to it but… yeah.

To me, that option doesn’t hang together well.

Photo

Sherlock's Mary-shaped blindspot

just-sort-of-happened:

HLV

sherlock and John are in Magnussen’s office.  Sherlock, through his vast knowledge of perfumes and his keen sense of smell, surmises that there’s someone there wearing, ‘Claire-de-la-Lune’.  but, when John, rightfully points out, ‘Mary wears it’, he retorts, “No, not Mary, somebody else”.

This shows us he has a blindspot when it comes to Mary.  He wants, so badly, to believe that John married someone nice who will make him happy that he’s never thought to question her identity.  

Here we see that despite his keen sense of smell, his preconceived notions will render his other senses null and void.

Let me explain.

This has always bothered me,

Why show Sherlock doing this?  Well, to show that John and Molly are both in love with him.  To show that John is with someone who turns out to be the wrong person.  Molly with Jim from IT and John with Mary.  But, also: to drive home the point that Sherlock sees people’s bodies very accurately.  He can tell if you slept on a lilo or a sofa the night before,

He can tell your measurements after seeing you naked for a few seconds,

*

So, when we see this,

Mary’s agile and youthful posture struck me right away.  Once you know it’s her, her demeanour here is in sharp contrast to her “Mary Watson” persona.  She looks lean and angular.  Her head and neck posture very upright.

*

At the beginning of HLV, Magnussen drives home this,

Lady Smallwood is in her 60s.  (The actress, herself, was 63 during the filming of HLV).

With age, our necks tend to develop a more hunched over gesture.  Even if one is fit and agile, there’s something about one’s posture that will, in general, tend to convey being in your 60s.  Here we see Lady Smallwood does not appear to be especially agile or athletic.  It’s impossible to picture her dressed as ‘AGRA’ and imagine that she would look especially similar to how Mary looks here.

So, why does Sherlock still conclude it’s her?  Against all the evidence of his very keen eyes?

Because he’s already decided that it cannot be Mary.  Nonetheless, couldn’t he have still seen that this is a younger person?  I think, in theory, yes.  But, to show just how blindsided Sherlock is, he must walk in here (no)guns-ablazing and he must get this very very wrong.

Makes me feel better that his crappy weight comments to Molly and John have an added purpose.

Sherlock has always been concerned that, ‘sentiment’, would cloud his judgement but here we see that it’s his unexamined emotions about Mary in relation to John that (nearly) causes him his life. 

If he had properly faced his feelings, he would have been free to think more objectively about Mary.  But, the way he perceives her is made up almost entirely of a fantasy: that she’ll be good for John, since he can’t have him.  

Shirking sentiment, here, nearly costs him his life and allows John to marry this very dangerous unknown quantity known as, ‘Mary’.

John chose Sherlock, not Mary

cinnkegan:

There has been a ton of meta concerning the domestic in HLV, so I am very sorry if this meta already exists. In case you have written or know any meta that is basically the same as what follows, please leave me a PM and I’ll reblog it as well!

It’s not a secret that in His Last Vow some things were established in the very first minutes: John’s “addiction”, not being suited for domestic life, missing Sherlock and Sherlock’s drug usage fluctuating after not talking to John for one month. Consequently, we can assume that John is not very happy with his marriage. And after finding out that Mary has been lying to him from the very beginning, we get the ‘little domestic’ and the cinematography in this scene is brilliant - it tells us exactly who John truly forgives and sides with, whether consciously or subconsciously.

I was talking to my best friend about how this scene was shot and how Mary behaves throughout this scene (result of our discussion: cold, distant, very weird for someone who was lying to her husband the entire time and is not reacting to it in any sympathetic way, no apology).

Many have pointed out the same: there’s no reason for Sherlock to stand at the door. He can barely stand. He’s in pain. He should sit - but he’s purposefully placed there to make John the axis between Sherlock and Mary. This is enforced through over the shoulder shots exclusively to John - whenever he turns to Mary or Sherlock, it’s his little blur of him we are seeing. If we see John, it might be from Sherlock’s perspective but there’s nothing that’d server as a ‘shoulder’. This framing, the way our characters are placed, it’s basically implying this question: John - who do you side with? Mary or Sherlock? Of course, he sides with Sherlock: “Your way. Always your way.” 

It’s not just what John says though. It’s also how this entire scene is constructed. What really caught my best friend’s attention was this:

At first, I was only looking at Mary’s face and I think that’s where a lot of people will look at first but my best friend pointed to the mirror. She said: “Look, John is turning away from her. Literally turning away from her.” 

You could argue that the mirror has always been there - it’s hard to avoid it. So the mirroring could be a very subtle thing, coincidence maybe (we know what we say about that) BUT in the next moment, the camera literally only frames the mirror.

This is not a close-up. This is the entire screencap. The camera only has the mirror in focus - leaving Mary in a blur, barely visible and only then the camera slowly pivots to Mary, focus is on her now. You can still see MirrorJohn turning his back on her.  And since my best friend and I are not native English speakers, we realized very late that the phrase “turning one’s back on someone” literally means leaving someone.  It’s also funny how you don’t see John really facing Mary anymore while he is the axis between Sherlock and Mary - once John actually talks to her, after agreeing with Sherlock, we do see the mirror and Mary but John isn’t even in the frame anymore.

We can interpret this scene in many ways - a decision in this moment, to go along with what Sherlock says, to turn his back on Mary (conscious or subconsciously). But we can also interpret this to foreshadow what might really have happened throughout these months until Christmas, which are still a mystery to us, who he truly forgives and who he truly chooses in the future - and it is definitely not Mary. John chose Sherlock. 

Interesting point about the mirror and the framing of the scene. It’s pretty clear in this scene that John sides with Sherlock. It’s in the text – Mary you sit here because you’re a client, that’s what you are now. And we (Sherlock and I) will decide what to do with you.

This is one reason why the Christmas forgiveness scene comes as such a shock, because John is SO angry and done in the domestic scene. The forgiveness could not be real, though. Either via the EMP theory or John purposefully plotting against Mary and only faking forgiveness.

thesetison:(x)

thesetison:

(x)

hudders-and-hiddles:The very first door Sherlock opens in his mind palace after Mycroft tells him...

hudders-and-hiddles:

The very first door Sherlock opens in his mind palace after Mycroft tells him to find something to calm himself down, the very first door has Mary behind it, in her wedding dress, shooting at him. That is absolutely 100% the entrance to the John wing of his mind palace. He tried to find John first, and when he couldn’t, he went looking for Redbeard instead.

Yes. I just rewatched HLV last night and thought the same thing.

the-headcanon-angel:guys do you remember how they set up james sholto as sherlock’s mirror in the...

the-headcanon-angel:

guys do you remember how they set up james sholto as sherlock’s mirror in the episode of john’s wedding and had a knife planted in his insides right from the start so that he could be literally dying internally for every second of it while maintaining a composed façade so that john wouldn’t see it until the very end?

d’you reckon they were trying to tell us something?

[x]

the-7-percent-solution:monikakrasnorada:darlingtonsubstitutio...

the-7-percent-solution:

monikakrasnorada:

darlingtonsubstitution:

monikakrasnorada:

the-7-percent-solution:

monikakrasnorada:

thesetison:

(x)

I REALLY hope this is a ‘special’ friend of Sherlock’s. #MakeJohnJellybean2016

I want this man, whoever he is, to be involved in a case and for John to see Sherlock fumble over his own words after this man flirts with him. Like Irene flirting with John and Sherlock fumbling, this time this man is GAY and HOT for Sherlock and Sherlock’s all blinking eyes and gurgling syllables.

“Sherlock, mate, what the hell?”

“I’m a man, John. I’m not free from the basic impulses of my transport.”

“What?!”

“For God’s sake, John, I’m not BLIND.”

Yes, @the-7-percent-solution, yes!! That’s all I need. That’s all I want.

With all the maritime scenes in recent setlock… what if Leonard turns out to be a sailor 

EMP - Just Might Be

xistentialangst:

tjlcisthenewsexy:

xistentialangst:

Since TAB aired there have been discussions about what was real and what was not real. And then I saw mentions of another meta theory that possibly more than TAB might be a dream state. (EMP = Extended Mind Palace or extended dream state)

My initial reaction to this was ‘nah’. Mainly because I felt like you can get away with the ‘just kidding, it was only a dream’ thing only so long before it just becomes a joke. I thought the some of the plane scenes and the final plane-leaving scene in TAB were real. Clearly, there is one scene in there (the scene where suddenly Sherlock wakes up in a bed and then later is attacked by a skeleton in a grave) which can’t be real, but I though probably the other ‘current day’ scenes were.

However, I’ve just been sort of blow away by the John’s Choice meta by tjlcisthenewsexy. Definitely go read the whole thing, but basically the idea is that everything in HLV from the scene in 221B where John and Sherlock confront Mary, and Sherlock collapses and the ambulance comes, is a dream or a series of dreams.

Keep reading

Omg, thank you so much for this incredible summary of my meta and EMP in general….it was really interesting to read your perspective and I’m so glad it rang true for you. I literally only just started watching DW and my mind was blown when I found this stuff. I agree with basically everything you said here, especially BC’s very interesting comment at sdcc about shooting Magnussen being a “failure”, and I really hadn’t considered that aspect of it; that not only does John choose Mary in the modern dream, but Sherlock makes an enormous mistake (expecting everything to be clever) and that he has to resort to murder. He truly fails in every respect. I totally agree that Moftiss have always played with reality in this show and this is not that different, and I’m absolutely confident that if this is what they’ve set up, then it’s going to be awesome, *especially* if it fixes all those issues with HLV that you mention that SO many of us are feeling confused and unsatisfied about.

Thank you so much for writing this!

I’m glad you liked it. Thank you for your John’s Choice meta.

I just watched HLV again. They certainly don’t broadcast this possibility in HLV. There’s not a lot of dream-weirdness in it, even when I was really looking for it, not until TAB. At this point I could see EITHER it being EMP or John having a secret plan to take out Mary, but the later doesn’t explain the lack-of-real-overdose or some of the visual glitches (like Mycroft’s tie). Nor does it justify them skipping all the months between the shooting and Christmas–unless they flash back to those during S4. But yes, I think EMP is a real possibility. I wouldn’t have seen it myself.

They’re so tricksy it’s hard to be 100% sure of anything, but I can definitely see  EMP, especially with the John-baby-Mary-dog sequence from E1. Since the baby vanishes after that it sure seems to be a mind projection only.

I did have another thought –

WHAT IF this is all reverse psychology? What if part of getting the general audience to accept johnlock is showing how HORRIBLE it would all be if John in fact stayed with Mary?  So Sherlock dreams that John goes back to Mary and basically they are both ruined by it and it’s awful and the audience is all pissed off, and then ‘surprise’, no, that was all a dream. And then when johnlock happens, everyone can be relieved instead of upset at the gay.

If you think about it, S3 pissed off a lot of people. Some just didn’t like the emphasis on relationships (like TS03), but also many hated the ending of HLV. So perhaps that was the master plan. People are supposed to hate it.

If this is the case, I have a feeling we’re not done yet with the dream because the boys aren’t at the bottom of the barrel yet. It would likely have to lead to Sherlock being an addict again and one or both of them dying. So maybe ‘the dream’ does carry on a ways in S4. Ugh. Dark indeed. Sherlock looks pretty damn rough in E2, so perhaps that’s still in the ‘John chooses Mary’ dream? If you think about it, all that nurses/medical imagery from E2 could be because Sherlock is actually in a hospital/coma and is still dreaming.  Like in Dr. Who, maybe he has the die in his dream to wake up.

God, I’m freaking myself out now.

It reminds me an old comedy sketch, I don’t recall from what, where a girl brings home this guy she wants to marry. And he’s like a gorilla or an alien or something like that. And the parents are horrified. And then the girl is like ‘surprise, here’s my real boyfriend’ and he’s merely a different race than her. And then the parents are all relieved because at least he’s human. OK, I’ll have to go figure out what that was… something from the 70′s probably. Anyway, that’s the general idea.

XA