John misinterprets BBC Sherlock too

welovethebeekeeper:

delurkingdetective:

@hobbitbilbo just made a beautiful perfect gifset and I am very excited because it’s one of the most metafictional scenes in the show:

I cannot tell if John is watching the exact same footage we see in The Empty Hearse but it’s close enough. John is literally watching BBC Sherlock here. 

And John misinterprets it.  One can’t blame him for focusing in on “Magnussen tried to kill me” rather than “Sherlock saved me”, but it’s the latter that’s most important in the long run, both to the show and to John. This moment right here is everything that’s painful about the show and especially this series: the way that everybody but John sees “how [Sherlock] cares about John Watson”.

And why does John, our symbolic Fan, misinterpret Sherlock?  Trust issues. Trust issues stemming from a homophobic culture in which queer love is used against the people who feel it – which is exactly what Magnussen’s doing to John and Sherlock in this scene.

Edited to add: @redpeacoat3 makes a nice catch that in one of the gifs, John turns to stare at Sherlock, not Magnussen:

So perhaps John’s making multiple readings of the text, but the positive reading focused on Sherlock’s feelings for John is being obscured - both literally and figuratively - by Magnussen.

Magnussen literally UNVEILS John and Sherlock in the above gif. CAM states very clearly where John and Sherlock’s priorities lie; Sherlock’s is John Watson and John’s is Mary. We know that John’s ‘repressed’ priority is Sherlock, that fact leaks out of John in dreams, actions [running to be with Sherlock whenever he can] and his preoccupation with Sherlock even when not in his presence [the scene at the start of HLV with the neighbour] Now CAM knows this too, but he also recognises John’s need to conform and that is embodied in the marital role with Mary. John is prioritising the ‘norm’ over Sherlock. As are the viewers with het relationships versus queer ones. Hundred’s of fans left the fandom after HLV, it felt wrong, almost a betrayal; why would John prioritise Mary?. It was painful. The TRUST ISSUES are ours. Right from the beginning the writers gave us this prediction; we will have trust issues as to where this show, and the rhetoric surrounding it, was headed. It would be a dichotomy of public relations versus product, text versus subtext. Just as John struggles with his trust of Sherlock and everything that entails, many fans struggle with their trust of this show. The bonfire metaphor, seen in TEH and then here in HLV, shows both Sherlock and John engulfed in flames, they are burning for each other. It’s so obvious yet invisible, the trust issues get in the way of seeing clearly what is right in front of our eyes. Great post @delurkingdetective, got my juices flowing as always.