Irene Adler on "Sherlock"

[T.o.b.y]

"(...)He can read women if he’s not attracted to them or involved with them, and he knows that he’ll get very confused if he’s starting to feel something for someone. So to embroil himself where he might be enslaved through adoration or sexual desire or any kind of power or chemistry to do with love is too big a risk for him, for what he wants to achieve. That doesn’t make him gay, and it doesn’t make him asexual; it means, you know, he’s purposely abstaining for the sake of his craft. Not something I do.”

 

This sounds like an elaborate version of the old Holmes quote from "The Sign of the Four": "I should never marry myself lest I bias my judgement."

 

 

[Boton]

Oh, that quote made my day.  Not only do I agree with him, but it is a perfectly well-though-out, canon-based reasoning behind his character's actions and motivations.

 

And then the little disclaimer:  Not me by the way.  I can pursue my craft and still have all the sex.  You betcha.  

[sfmpco]

Oh, that quote made my day.  Not only do I agree with him, but it is a perfectly well-though-out, canon-based reasoning behind his character's actions and motivations.

 

And then the little disclaimer:  Not me by the way.  I can pursue my craft and still have all the sex.  You betcha.  

 

Yes, gotta love that disclaimer.  Because sometimes when he's talking about Sherlock he can move into first person, like in his ElleUK interview talking about how Sherlock would have sex.... that totally cracked me up that he then corrected himself and went into third person... but not after he'd already made half the female fandom faint.

[Boton]

 

Oh, that quote made my day.  Not only do I agree with him, but it is a perfectly well-though-out, canon-based reasoning behind his character's actions and motivations.

 

And then the little disclaimer:  Not me by the way.  I can pursue my craft and still have all the sex.  You betcha.  

 

Yes, gotta love that disclaimer.  Because sometimes when he's talking about Sherlock he can move into first person, like in his ElleUK interview talking about how Sherlock would have sex.... that totally cracked me up that he then corrected himself and went into third person... but not after he'd already made half the female fandom faint.

 

 

I know, right?  It's like BC does so much background research on his characters and spends so much time inhabiting their head space that self and character merge a little bit for him while he's working.  Then he gets all anxious that people are conflating him and his characters!  

[sfmpco]

 

 

Oh, that quote made my day.  Not only do I agree with him, but it is a perfectly well-though-out, canon-based reasoning behind his character's actions and motivations.

 

And then the little disclaimer:  Not me by the way.  I can pursue my craft and still have all the sex.  You betcha.  

 

Yes, gotta love that disclaimer.  Because sometimes when he's talking about Sherlock he can move into first person, like in his ElleUK interview talking about how Sherlock would have sex.... that totally cracked me up that he then corrected himself and went into third person... but not after he'd already made half the female fandom faint.

 

 

I know, right?  It's like BC does so much background research on his characters and spends so much time inhabiting their head space that self and character merge a little bit for him while he's working.  Then he gets all anxious that people are conflating him and his characters!  

 

 

I think Cosmo got it right in their take on it:

 

http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/entertainment/news/a30860/15-step-guide-benedict-cumberbatch-sex-description/?utm_content=bufferb41da&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[Tunguska]

Ooh, Irene Adler, I really like her. Smart, gorgeous, and very confident in her sexuality. THE woman and if the writers ever want to write Sherlock into a (heterosexual lol) relationship, it should be her (not that I think they will do that!)

[Arcadia]

I think Cosmo got it right in their take on it:

 

http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/entertainment/news/a30860/15-step-guide-benedict-cumberbatch-sex-description/?utm_content=bufferb41da&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

All those gifs almost crashed my browser but the headline was a scream...

[Carol the Dabbler]

I don't even ship Sherlock with anybody -- and I'm off to take a cold shower!

 

[sittything]

I really like Irene Adler.  She's beautiful, polished, intelligent, she's a lot like Sherlock, although maybe ever so slightly less on the side of the angels.  They'd make a beautiful couple...

 

 

But I think they'd drag each other down a deep, dark hole.  Or maybe I'm just afraid she'd drag Sherlock into a deep, dark hole.   She's not the type of person who would help "ground" him.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Agreed sitty

[sfmpco]

I really like Irene Adler.  She's beautiful, polished, intelligent, she's a lot like Sherlock, although maybe ever so slightly less on the side of the angels.  They'd make a beautiful couple...

 

 

But I think they'd drag each other down a deep, dark hole.  Or maybe I'm just afraid she'd drag Sherlock into a deep, dark hole.   She's not the type of person who would help "ground" him.

 

Definitely she's far too damaged to ground him properly, and personally, I wouldn't trust her farther than I could throw her.

[Tunguska]

Oh I completely agree with you. Forget about John, SHE's the one that will make him worse than ever! But I think their mutual attraction is comoletely believable and I find it hard to imagine I would feel the same way about any other woman with Sherlock. Overall, I'd rather not see Sherlock in any relationship at all though

[sfmpco]

I don't mind if he's in a relationship as long as it's presented believably.  But he would have so many walls to let down to enter that territory.  Strangely, it is only the women who can get him to let his guard down completely.  Molly and Mary the most - then Irene, his mother, Mrs. Hudson.  He allows himself to be vulnerable with Molly, childlike trusting with Mary (who sees right through him as do Molly and Irene).  Mrs. Hudson doesn't seem to know him that well despite their connection, and well his mother.... mothers know things that he'd rather not let on about, and he keeps her quiet generally. 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Pretty good analysis on a Sherlock and women. There are definitely levels to who Sherlock lets in his life and how far they are let in. Not that he is always able to keep those people at the level he wants them at despite his best efforts.

[sittything]

I always find it funny that for a high-functioning sociopath Sherlock has quite a number of pressure points in the form of people.  lol

[Schlauer Fuchs]

I always find it funny that for a high-functioning sociopath Sherlock has quite a number of pressure points in the form of people.  lol

 

Agreed.   except I don't think Sherlock is a high-functionning sociopath, that's only how he likes to see himself. He thinks it's the highest level of professionalism you can achieve (and the closest he'll ever get to being like his big brother).

 

[Boton]

 

Definitely she's far too damaged to ground him properly, and personally, I wouldn't trust her farther than I could throw her.

 

 

Although, she might enjoy that....

[Redbeard]

I don't care for Irene, I know a lot of people do, but I just don't like her.  I also think it is a shame they had to make her a dominatrix, I mean this is Sherlock Holmes not some R rated movie.  But I can be a prude like that.  And in addition to that I didn't find one redeeming quality about her.   While in some ways she embodies the same positive qualities (smart, competent, efficient, bold, whatever else) and also some of the negative qualities as Sherlock does (cold, rude, arrogant, selfish, whatever) I think Sherlock is grounded in a deep warmth and humanity (hidden under all these layers, but still definitely there), whereas I do not get that from her.  At all. 

 

Then again I don't care for Mary either, as I find her cold and hard too.  Is it that Moftiss can just write more well-rounded men?  or is it just my interpretation that is skewed somehow.  I don't know, but the more I think of it, I would love to see Mary and Irene go to battle against each other lol.  There would be a bloodbath, literal and psychological. 

 

Hmm, would Mary and Irene become friends or despise each other? 

[sittything]

I think I've always interpreted Irene as being a very broken individual who's probably had a rough life, so I've always felt kinda bad for her.  While she shares many qualities with Sherlock, both good and bad, she also doesn't have a support network of friends and family like Sherlock does (that we see).   I guess I kind of see her as this lost soul that Sherlock could be if he didn't have the people in his life that he does (John, Molly, Mrs. Hudson, Lestrade, maybe even Mycroft).   Or like she's Mary without John.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I don't care for Irene, I know a lot of people do, but I just don't like her.  I also think it is a shame they had to make her a dominatrix, I mean this is Sherlock Holmes not some R rated movie.  But I can be a prude like that.  And in addition to that I didn't find one redeeming quality about her.   While in some ways she embodies the same positive qualities (smart, competent, efficient, bold, whatever else) and also some of the negative qualities as Sherlock does (cold, rude, arrogant, selfish, whatever) I think Sherlock is grounded in a deep warmth and humanity (hidden under all these layers, but still definitely there), whereas I do not get that from her.  At all. 

 

Then again I don't care for Mary either, as I find her cold and hard too....

 

This is interesting.  I fully agree with your assessment of Irene.  But even though I don't think that I know enough about Mary yet to be sure, I don't sense her as being cold and hard.  She can be dismayingly pragmatic, but so can Sherlock.

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I'm not necessarily opposed to Irene as a dominatrix. My issue is couldn't they have filmed it differently so that my 12 year son could watch all of the episodes with me not just the other 8 and still get the point across. How they did her in the TSOT mind palace was brilliant. I don't have to tell my son to look away.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I agree.  While they were reasonably careful not to "show anything," and while the scene was undeniably funny, I think this is another case of Moftiss letting their cleverness run away with their common sense.

 

[Boton]

I kind of disagree about how Irene was shown.  I understand the desire to keep things family-friendly, but Moftiss had to find some way of recreating the shock that Victorian audiences would have had about the kind of woman who fascinates and beats Sherlock Holmes.  She was a "well-known adverturess," an opera singer, and a woman who apparently owned or rented her own house in a fairly sketchy neighborhood and went out unescorted every afternoon.  She was in no way a proper lady.  And since we don't really have proper ladies any more (mores the pity...), we have to have an Irene Adler who is comparatively as risque.

[sfmpco]

I was absolutely tickled at the way they got away with it.  Of course, the newspapers were all condemning it the next day while hypocritically showing the nude photos.  LOL  More publicity for the show!

 

Of course, this was n ot the only cheat.  My fav cheat comes from TEH with the "FFF" + "Cough" bit.  Hysterical.  They got away with that one too. Terribly clever, and I don't care for the F-word at all.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yes -- they even got that on American broadcast television.

 

I think the general rule for television censorship is that as long as an innocuous interpretation is possible, it's OK.  That clearly applies here.  Heck, I didn't get it the first time!