#“how much lore can I make up about Moriarty without excusing his actions” challenge

[affectionatecorpse]

It's now about 17 minutes until 3am and insomnia is playing up so instead of, y'know, ACTUALLY trying to sleep, I'm just gonna tiredly ramble again. Hooray!

So anyway I really really wish we'd gotten to see more of Moriarty's personality OUTSIDE of giant evil plans. I understand why they couldn't really do that because- run time- but at the same time, we actually barely know anything about Moriarty as a character. There's two outlets that show us more of his non master plan related personality, and that's the museum scene, and the credits.

You can tell from general reactions that the big bridge plan was NOT a normal thing for Moriarty to do. It was completely new. He left no clues, he gave no time limit, and it really felt more like a grand finale to his game with Sherlock, rather than another day. Like he truly was planning to end their entire streak right there that night. You can even see it in his attitude towards the game in the beginning and end. In the beginning, he's clearly enjoying it, just playing around and having fun with his mass murder attempts. He literally says "you enjoy our little game as much as I do", so he obviously finds it fun. But in the end, the way he says "it's just OVER. And you lose" doesn't sound like fun. It doesn't sound like he's hesitant to put a stop to it whatsoever. He sounds almost impatient to finish it quickly.

But if he really enjoyed it, what changed his attitude so suddenly?

You know what I think the reason for his sudden decision to stop playing completely out of the blue was?

He got scared by his brush with death.

In the recording of him nearly getting crushed by the skeleton, he looked absolutely TERRIFIED. Heavy breathing, eyes darting around, and blatantly unsure how to feel until he saw his phone and got snapped out of his little trance. This wasn't just another day, another loss. He actually could've DIED. He actually got INJURED. And it clearly scared him to know he could've been killed by a GNOME of all things, just on a random day.

Going off my previous post about how desperate he is for attention, possibly due to his naturally lonely design of just being a truck decoration, I wouldn't be surprised if that made him afraid of people forgetting him. Those things usually go together. What if he actually lost? And Sherlock just moved on with his life? What if Sherlock forgot about him and got a new rival? What if no one ever thought about him ever again?

And after such an experience, he did something BIG. Something absolutely no one could forget. A grand finale to his game with Sherlock, ensuring Sherlock wouldn't kill him in the end, and doing an act of mass genocide and destruction so horrific, absolutely no one could possibly forget it. It's the perfect plan, after all.

He's also SO much more angry than normal upon losing this time. When he got found out by Sherlock and Watson in the museum, he really didn't care. He was just happy to see them, and happy that they'd get to fight. He didn't care that they freed the gnomes, he just wanted to play. But when they freed the gnomes from the bridge, he is OUTRAGED. He actually shrieks in reaction, and it's clearly not an act, because you can hear the absolute rage and impatience in his voice, that definitely was not there earlier.

I went on a tangent- but also! In the credits, you really can see what his feelings about the game were before the big plan. It shows him having fun messing with Sherlock, running him about rampant, tricking him at every corner, messing with both him and the cats, just for the fun of it. It shows his more silly and goofy side, and how much he actually did enjoy playing the game while it lasted. I love Credits Moriarty, he's such a little mischievous goober and it's so entertaining to watch asgjkdghd--

If you wanna get extra autistic (which I'm gonna do somehow), you could even see his attitude shift in the post credits scene! It starts with him having a great time, running up and making a mockery of Sherlock, and laughing. Then the magnifying glass falls on him, crushes him, and his tone goes incredibly quiet and serious as he just says "I hate you, Sherlock". Like- isn't that EXACTLY what happened in the film? It was all fun and games until he got crushed by something, then he suddenly turned serious and petty?

I'm sorry I know I'm looking WAYYYYY too much into this silly little kid's film but I'm autistic as fudge and there's literally no content, what do you want me to do here?? STARVE??? Please! Also it's now 2 minutes past 3am--