Why Love Sherlock?With all the recent posts about who really loves Sherlock, and what ship makes sen
Why Love Sherlock?With all the recent posts about who really loves Sherlock, and what ship makes sense, I’ve been thinking of the main character himself. Besides the point that he is the central character, why does everyone want him in their ship?Going back to the original template for the character, we were told he was meant to be “Byronesque”. It’s in the official guide, and even Benedict’s own mother questioned her son as being handsome enough for the role. She also said Benedict changes when he is playing Sherlock “I do get affected by it. There’s a sense of being impatient. My mum says I’m much curter with her when I’m filming Sherlock” and “She sees a lot of me in Sherlock,” Cumberbatch said, “which both makes her laugh and is slightly embarrassing. I suppose it’s my rushing around, my impatience.” ( x ) Claire Pritchard-Jones:“All Steven and Mark said to me was Byronesque. [She refers to Lord Byron] They wanted him to look like a poet. […] he was a creature of the night, so he [Mark] wanted his complexion very pale.” Benedict’s rough time schedule didn’t make it easy for Claire. And for each new series she had to deal with what previous productions had left over. Moreover, Benedict’s hair had grown again for each new series to get the length everyone loves with Sherlock. ( x ) Because, of course Benedict is always fighting the curls. In the pilot, we get the rooftop scene (complete with the gothic moon), and this close-up. We also get John’s fascinated response. Which he either looks around to make sure no one else sees him appreciating before succumbing to it or he looks around to see if anyone is sharing in it with him. You decide.For the actual series, this was scaled back though, and the scene where Sherlock conversationally explains to Lestrade to put a blackout on the information revealed is removed, with the series version having Sherlock just making fun of NSY and dashing out to find the suitcase. Sherlock is portrayed as being more abrasive, and in both versions, John is left behind. In the pilot version, John delays in going to meet back up with Sherlock at 221B, but when he finally gets into the cab to do so the driver asks if he’s in a hurry, and comments about how John looks “a bit wired”. John gets defensive about it, even as he rocks back and forth in need of the fix. TRF RooftopSherlock: No, stay exactly where you are. Don’t move.John: Alright.Sherlock: Keep your eyes fixed on me. Please, will you do this for me?TSoTSherlock: It’s always you. John Watson, you keep me right. *Sherlock paradigm shift where he ignores Mycroft’s method that involves solving a puzzle, and uses John’s human attitude to save a life, so now the guests have TARGET written on them*T6TLestrade: Yeah; and this one to a Doctor Barnicot in Holborn. Three in total. God knows who’d wanna do something like this.John: Yeah, well some people have that complex, don’t they – an idée fixe. *pointed look at Sherlock* They obsess over one thing and they can’t let it go.Everyone gives up after three, but Sherlock is more concerned with why the culprit is only breaking the busts, not all images of Thatcher. His Last Bow Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There’s an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it’s God’s own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.John’s blog:TRFJohn: Um… Mmm, right, you… You told me once… that you weren’t a hero. Umm, there were times I didn’t even think you were human but let me tell you this, you were, uh, the best man and the most human… human being that I’ve ever known and no one will ever convince me that you told me a lie. That so… there. *pause* I was… I was so alone. And I owe you so much. *starts to leave, but then turns to add* Oh, please, there’s just one more thing, right? One more thing. One more miracle, Sherlock, for me. Don’t… be… dead. Would you, just for me, just stop it? Stop this. Right, but how far does the Sherlock being based on a Byron template, actually go?Byron might have been physically handsome, but he wasn’t a very nice person at all. ‘LORD BYRON, the poet who scandalised England with his hellraising exploits, was actually a psychopath, according to new research by a leading psychiatrist.George Gordon, the sixth Baron Byron, was famed throughout Europe for the dramatic personal style of his poetry and his biting satires. He also became notorious for his dissolute way of life, propelled by drink and drugs, which led to a broken marriage, claims that he slept with hundreds of women - and debts equivalent to at least £600,000 today.Literary scholars have argued that Byron was a tortured genius, struck down with regular bouts of depression. Now, a detailed study of his behaviour has led to a less romantic diagnosis: that the poet exhibited so-called anti-social personality disorder - the technical term for a psychopath.Professor Michael Fitzgerald, a psychiatrist at the Beside Health Centre in Dublin, reached his conclusion after examining accounts of Byron’s life. Born in 1788, the poet had an unstable upbringing - seen as a key factor in the development of psychopathy.The abandoned son of John "Mad Jack” Byron, a wastrel who fled to France to avoid debts, Byron was raised by his emotionally volatile mother Catherine Gordon, and appears to have been denied emotional warmth at a critical stage in his development. As a child, he showed symptoms of emerging psychopathy: habitual lying, a callous disregard for others, truanting and random acts of cruelty - including sticking pins into his mother as she prayed in chapel.‘ ( x )Hmm, who does this sound like? Molly’s blog:By TSoT, she seemed to have been doing a good job of moving on, aware that Sherlock wasn’t good for her. Which begs the question of what exactly was happening in TFP, and is it healthy to continue carrying a flame for someone that years earlier you said you know you should tell “to stop…but don’t”? For that matter, is she still carrying a flame or was it just having an old wound reopened that caused her to delay answering the phone, and then act as she did? As for Irene, we don’t have much to go on, other than being told she became emotionally invested during ASiB and she still texts Sherlock by TLD. From her side the dynamic might have shifted, but we have nothing to go on. Sherlock does develop over the course of time, and we see he isn’t the psychopath that Anderson and Donovan harp on for two seasons, but it doesn’t mean he’s easier to love. Get along with perhaps, depending on which character you are, but not necessarily love. He’s still demanding, rude, arrogant, and prone to being exasperated when he comes across the intellectual shortcomings of others. He does not seem emotionally drawn to people like him though, perhaps aware that he needs a balance. I saw someone mention yesterday that every other character in the show is a plot device for Sherlock, because he is the main character. It’s a show actually named after him. But, is this true? We know John was given a larger role than Watson had in canon, and Molly was originally only supposed to be in one episode, but her role was also expanded. So, then it becomes a matter of contemplating what those characters do regarding Sherlock with the amount of time they are given. In S4, they both seemed to have regressed until the last possible moment, and then had growth about themselves. Open to debate how much that internal growth involved their understanding of their love for Sherlock. -- source link