Redbeard was the other brother. At a young age, Sherlock was responsible for his death. This is the root of his trauma.

deedeerange:

xistentialangst:

:

Okay, the first part of this is pretty widely accepted, or at least frequently discussed. The level of Sherlock’s dysfunction is way too severe to be triggered by the death of a childhood pet, no matter how attached Sherlock may have been.

But, a sibling. Specifically, a brother, for reasons that will soon be clear.

Let’s go back to the wedding, and the first mention of Redbeard.

“Don’t get involved,” Mycroft says. “Do you remember…Redbeard?”

“I’m not a child,” Sherlock snaps.

Whatever transpired with Redbeard and Sherlock happened at a very young age.

Then in HLV, several key exchanges take place.

When Sherlock is shot, he seeks refuge in his mind palace…specifically, looking for something to comfort him, in order to not go into shock. 

Mary blocks his path to John.

So he goes looking for…Redbeard. A stereotypical, picture-perfect red Irish setter. The thought of a dog, all love and loyalty and soft fur, comforts Sherlock in a time of great trauma. 

(“I know a mind palace,” says Mycroft in TAB. “I know what it can and cannot do.”–Paraphrased, sorry , I’m in a shitty Denny’s in Woodbridge VA and I’m exhausted. Remember this, it is important.)

Later in HLV, Mummy Holmes says, “If I find out who put a bullet in my boy, I shall turn monstrous.” 

And after Sherlock shoots Magnussen, he drops the gun and puts up his hands…and we see him, through Mycroft’s eyes, as a sobbing child of perhaps twelve.

“Oh, Sherlock,” he says. 

“What have you done?”

I humbly submit that this image of Sherlock as a child is telling us that this is somewhere that both of them have been before, emotionally. That what we see, through Mycroft’s eyes– his brother as a devastated, sobbing child– has happened before.

So what am I saying here?

I believe Sherlock caused his sibling’s death, almost certainly inadvertently, through some sort of accident or misadventure or cleverness gone terribly wrong. 

Mycroft is the only one who knows. 

Mycroft covered it up, somehow took responsibility for what happened. 

Their parents do not know, because if Mummy were to find out, she would turn monstrous against Sherlock. This is why “Mycroft has a file. I have a list.”

This tragedy, compounded with guilt and secrecy and lies. largely why such a (seemingly nice) family is so clearly estranged from their very messed up youngest son.

Importantly, Sherlock likely doesn’t consciously recognize the truth of his trauma. I wonder if Mycroft somehow planted the idea of Redbeard as a post-hypnotic suggestion, a desperate attempt to try and alleviate a young Sherlock’s devastating anguish. 

This is what “upset Mummy.” This is why Sherlock is both dependent upon and horrendously, hatefully resentful of Mycroft. This is why Sherlock has a longstanding, still-raging drug habit and lives in a more or less constant state of suicidal ideation.

This is why Sherlock hates himself, and believes he is both incapable and unworthy of love. This is why Sherlock believes he has to be alone.

I wonder If this is the leverage, the family history Moriarty (Mary) has on Sherlock, the information that Mycroft is trying desperately to keep hidden because he fears it would destroy a desperately fragile Sherlock.

“I was just a kid,” he says in The Great Game. That line always struck me as a bit odd, a bit defensive, a bit fearful.

He was just a kid.

But in Mycroft’s blind, heedless, unconditional love and protection of Sherlock, he has made everything so, so, so,much worse. It’s the lies that destroy us, in the end, and this huge lie at the center of both of their lives is the wellspring of all their misery.

To paraphrase David Foster Wallace, the truth will set them free, but not until it is finished with them.

And Sherlock is finally ready to be free. With John at his side, he has set his feet on the path of freedom and self-forgiveness. 

But I suspect, in the end, the price to be paid will be terrible for the Holmes Brothers.

My heart is breaking for both of them.

(Additional observaions, theories, gifsets are absolutely, positively more than welcome. Like I said, I’m stuck in a crappy diner and exhausted. But I really truly feel there is something to this.)

Very interesting theory. It would certainly explain why Redbeard is such a big deal, and it would make sense that they have some twists left in the Redbeard story (of course they do).

“You may however, rest assured that there are no ghosts in this world…save those we make for ourselves”

ALSO! Lord Carmichael is a mirror for Sherlock. After Lord Carmichael refuses to cooperate with Sherlock and Sherlock and John are leaving. Sherlock says “
















Hard
to say what he’ll do. Guilt is eating away at his soul. Something in his past.
The orange pips were a reminder.” This may be the secret guilt in Sherlock’s past.

He goes on to say: “We all have a past. Ghosts, shadows that
defines our every sunny day.” Then he says that Carmichael fears something “worse than death" he fears he’s
to be “dragged to hell by the corpse of the late mrs. Rigoletti”. So does
Sherlock fear ‘worse than death’, he fears ‘being dragged to hell’ – possibly emotional pain, if he were to let someone close again? Or possible he fears the emotional pain threatened by the bride (i.e. Mary).