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The Psyche Behind The Character


JessieBlackwood

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I can't help seeing a parallel to TRF here. The ultimate sacrifice S made us believe he makes. To give his life for his friends.

 

In TRF Molly says "you look sad when he's not watching", which to me is a hint that the only moments we can see Sherlock's true face are those when there is nobody to see him. Afterwards - we can assume that all what happened on Bart's roof was playing a game, to fool Moriarty, the sniper, John... and us. BTW that's why I so curious about "the truth" about what really happened, because I want to know how much of what I have seen was cheating. And how risky the jump really was. 

 

And as he looks at the Appledore "room" he is alone for a second, and his face says it all IMO. Initially I felt that S was beaten by CAM and the shot was just loosing (which seems to be BC take on this too). Now I can also imagine that S might have seen this as a possibility but hoped it wouldn't be necessary. Because he might seen himself as the most expendable, but he still made his friends suffer - again - by leaving them, either by being shot by the special forces or getting this job in East Europe that would prove lethal in six months.

 

That's why the scene in the airfield is so heart wrenching. Just imagine you will never see him again... Ouch.

 

And then Sherlock, for a first time in the series, makes a joke with the clear intention to make John smile (and is not making fun of him). How sweet is this?

 

Sorry, have to go and get me some kleenex. thmoved.gif

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I can't help seeing a parallel to TRF here. The ultimate sacrifice S made us believe he makes. To give his life for his friends.

 

In TRF Molly says "you look sad when he's not watching", which to me is a hint that the only moments we can see Sherlock's true face are those when there is nobody to see him. Afterwards - we can assume that all what happened on Bart's roof was playing a game, to fool Moriarty, the sniper, John... and us. BTW that's why I so curious about "the truth" about what really happened, because I want to know how much of what I have seen was cheating. And how risky the jump really was. 

 

And as he looks at the Appledore "room" he is alone for a second, and his face says it all IMO. Initially I felt that S was beaten by CAM and the shot was just loosing (which seems to be BC take on this too). Now I can also imagine that S might have seen this as a possibility but hoped it wouldn't be necessary. Because he might seen himself as the most expendable, but he still made his friends suffer - again - by leaving them, either by being shot by the special forces or getting this job in East Europe that would prove lethal in six months.

 

That's why the scene in the airfield is so heart wrenching. Just imagine you will never see him again... Ouch.

 

And then Sherlock, for a first time in the series, makes a joke with the clear intention to make John smile (and is not making fun of him). How sweet is this?

 

Sorry, have to go and get me some kleenex. thmoved.gif

 

 

I never thought of it that way before.  It makes so much sense.  And the feels...so understand the need for kleenex.

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Read a fic today about speculation that Jim Moriarty is what would emerge from a boy with abusive father but no older brother to make his childhood less miserable. My thought is, how about 'the older brother', who watch over him and ease his pains as a child? Because the first offspring tends to be the experimental child, the one most pressured to be a 'perfect' manifestation of the parents' expectations.

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  • 1 year later...

Just felt like quoting this from an interview I am sure we have all read by now because what the creators say here about Sherlock Holmes being "on the mountaintop" just exactly describes how I have always understood the character since I got to know him as a teenager:

 

What is immutable about Sherlock Holmes? He favors reason over emotion, but actually underneath that, there is a lot of emotion going on. You can’t suddenly make him ordinary because he would hate that. He’s not suddenly going to be somebody else. I don’t know that he precisely softens. He becomes more human and more adept at fitting in with a lot of people, but he remains separate from the human race because he finds that a better place to observe that from. He stays on the mountain top because there, he can see clearly. 

MARK GATISS: That’s what makes characters interesting. If Sherlock had started out being a straightforward man, we wouldn’t be talking about him now. If he became one, that would be interesting. But you have to give him somewhere to go, as Doyle did. The rather rarified, strange young man that Dr. Watson meets, right at the beginning, is not the same man who counts John Watson as his only friend. He can do things much better now, but he can never become one of us. Otherwise, he’s not Sherlock Holmes. 

MOFFAT: He can be wise and funny. He wasn’t, at the beginning. But later on, he’s got a bantering relationship with loads of people. He’s got a wisdom that he didn’t have in the early stage. But he stays on the mountain top, and he will die up there. He’s not going to change that.

 

:lol: In one of my rare attempts at fan fiction, I actually wrote a scene where Shelock stands on Bart's rooftop looking down on London and John muses that this is how he perceives the world and how he can maintain his unique perspective. I must admit I am feeling just a tad proud of myself right now. Then I remember that Moffat has also stated in the past that Sherlock will end up in a cottage with Janine. :wtf:

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Maybe the cottage is on a mountain top. Well, on top of a down in Sussex, at any rate. :smile:

I just keep thinking how lonely it must be up there, especially for someone like Sherlock who appears to crave companionship. Not that he would ever admit that to himself ....

I suspect Sherlock will be a more remote figure in S4 than he was in S3. His little experiment in "sentiment" backfired spectacularly, and he'll respond by drawing back into himself. Just a guess. (And John, clueless as ever, won't even notice... :cry: )

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I just keep thinking how lonely it must be up there, especially for someone like Sherlock who appears to crave companionship. Not that he would ever admit that to himself ....

 

Well, that's the tragedy of Sherlock Holmes in a nutshell. To be what he is, he has to sacrifice part of his humanity and accept that he will always be, to an extent at least, alone. I think so far, Sherlock has done a really good job of showing how "getting involved" makes him more human and perhaps makes his life richer and fuller, but also endangers him and shakes the very foundation of the self that he has made.

 

This is why I cannot imagine him in a romantic relationship beyond a standing affair or a casual "friends with benefit" setup.

 

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I suspect Sherlock will be a more remote figure in S4 than he was in S3. His little experiment in "sentiment" backfired spectacularly, and he'll respond by drawing back into himself. Just a guess. (And John, clueless as ever, won't even notice... :cry: )

 

On the other hand, maybe John knows Sherlock well enough to be aware that there's no point in trying to draw him out.  Either he wouldn't even notice, or he'd resent it and crawl in deeper.  Maybe John figures he'll come out when he's good and ready.

 

Personally, I wouldn't call John exactly "clueless" in S3 either.  Blindsided, yes -- but who would have expected all that?  Even Sherlock was taken off guard.  And after the big reveal, mightn't John be feeling just a bit odd-man-out, next to Mary and Sherlock's mutual admiration society?  He's not Sherlock's keeper, nor his father.  He's not in charge of him.  He cares about him, but that doesn't mean sacrificing any semblance of a personal life in order to devote himself to Sherlock (especially since Sherlock tends to ignore or reject advice regarding what's good for him).  Or did you mean something else?

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I assume you mean John attempting to calm the obviously distraught Sherlock by reasoning with him. Admittedly that wouldn't be a good approach with most people, but Sherlock is Mr. Logic, right? So John's attempting to speak to him in his own language. Sherlock responds to John's show of concern by lashing out at him. John gives up in disgust and stomps out.

 

Admitted, he's human, and the last straw kinda gets to him. But how does that translate to clueless (or heartless, as some have said)?

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OK, I can believe he doesn't always read people well, especially when they're not acting like he's used to seeing them. That could explain his difficulty in dealing with Sherlock in that scene (though I do wonder whether Sherlock was even *willing* to be dealt with, and if not, well John isn't omnipotent). But I still don't see how that makes him "clueless." He's generally been able to handle Sherlock pretty well in the past, but this time, Sherlock wasn't acting like Sherlock. Failure to be omniscient can hardly be termed clueless.

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Okay, first, I was being a little bit facetious. I don't actually think John is clueless.

Or rather, I didn't think he was in the first two seasons. In S3, it seems to me he shifted a bit; he seemed to almost blindly assume that Sherlock always has things in control, that he really is as indestructible as Sherlock himself seems to think he is. I might attribute that at least a bit to the hurt John felt after learning of Sherlock's deception in TRF ... almost as if he's decided "okay, Sherlock's made it clear he can do fine without me, so I'm not going to worry about him anymore." But I'm not sure Moftiss would think that way, so maybe not.

Of course, allowing oneself to be deceived by Sherlock is not quite the same thing as actually being clueless, but as I said ... I was a bit tongue in cheek. But that's what I was referring to ... John expecting Sherlock to know how to defuse a bomb. Expecting him to know things like Sholto's room number. And mostly failing to realize that Sherlock was in over his head on the Magnussen case. Whether that's because he simply trusted Sherlock, or has given up trying to figure out what his friend is up to, or was too emotionally compromised himself to think clearly .... dunno. All three, maybe.

Having said that, I do think John has often been shown being as puzzled by Sherlock as the rest of us. He seems to think Sherlock might feel something for Irene, but he tells Mycroft "he doesn't feel things that way." He completely missed the amount of duress Sherlock was under in Hounds. It was Molly, not John, who knew something was off in TRF. It was Mary, not John, who knew Sherlock was dreading the wedding. So what does that make John? I'm tempted to say "a man", but that's a bit sexist. :D Trusting? Gullible? Maybe. But definitely not unwise; he still calls Sherlock out when he goes too far (proposing to Janine, e.g.)

And after that "why must you be alone" conversation in TAB (even if it was just Sherlock conversing with himself) I don't think we can say that John wouldn't at least try to draw Sherlock out if he thought something was bothering him. On the contrary, from that scene I extrapolate that John tries to draw Sherlock out rather more often than Sherlock would like. :smile:
 

Craving for companionship... I don't know. I see it more as craving for audience. A genius needs witnesses, otherwise it's... non-existent.

 

Yah, that's a good point. Still ... if an audience is all he wants, he's got Scotland Yard. I think he pretends an audience is all he wants, but I'm not convinced it's true. I think that's why Mycroft said he'd be seeing more of him after the wedding; he knows Sherlock likes company.

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  • 6 months later...

Resurrecting this thread. After incorporating the season 4's materials, what we think about the psyche behind the characters? Let's speculate because we are Sherlockians and speculating is what we do. Let's try to interpret the characters' action through each of us' frames of mind and let others see what came out of it.

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Good idea. Drat, I have to get ready for class. But just re-reading my comment up there, I see I guessed wrong about Sherlock in S4! He's not more remote at all. I doubt if I predicted anything correctly.

 

Will try to get back to this later.

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