#Meta RandomTheory

[shervival21st-blog]

Making sense of the Nonsense: A Johnlock ( conspiracy ) meta

“Truth is rarely pure and never simple”                                                                                                                           ---Oscar Wilde

“Truth is a metaphor, willed into existence”                                                                                                                     ---Nietzsche

First of all can conspiracy be possible after all these shit happened? Of course,why not, especially when there is a fair chance that another episode may pop up someday sooner, then it’s obviously possible.

A Modern Nightmare:

One fine morning Gregor Samsa woke up and found that he had transformed into a despicable vermin overnight [source]. Sherlock season 4 is exactly the same thing, came out in a crisis time of human civilization and proved to be a modern nightmare. 

The whole series is full of inconsistencies and it is unlikely that 3 different directors will repeat the inconsistent things over and over, unless it is deliberate. It’s impossible to address all the inconsistencies in one meta ( I have an exam soon :( ). But let’s start from TST.

The infamous skull hell:

The skull hell is one of the most infamous inconsistencies in S4. The skull continued to glow and un-glow throughout the series.

 Does it have a possible explanation? Well then, it basically has. It may refer to a Hitchcockian shot. The milk scene from the movie Suspicion: 

“Suspicion” tells the story of a woman who suspects her husband is trying to kill her. There’s one scene in the film that really jumped out.

That’s the scene where Joan Fontaine’s character is in bed, fearing the worse and her husband, played by Cary Grant, brings her a glass of milk. The camera follows Cary Grant coming up the stairs and as he continues something strange stands out about the glass of milk. It’s bright and bold in the frame. Is he trying to poison her? That’s certainly what we thought when we first it.

That was Hitchcock’s intention, actually. He put a light in the glass to highlight it in the shot to get the audience to wonder what was going to happen next. It’s a simple, but ingenious, technique.

Read more:

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/the-10-most-ingenious-techniques-used-by-alfred-hitchcock/#ixzz4WEQh2rpe

Ostalgie:

In TST, when Sherlock went to hacking genius ( is he Russian?) Craig for some help Craig tells him about “ostalgie” 

CRAIG’S HOUSE. Craig is sitting at his computer typing while Sherlock stands behind him. CRAIG: Have you heard of that thing, in Germany? SHERLOCK: You’re going to have to be more specific, Craig. CRAIG: ‘Ostalgie.’ People who miss the old days under the Communists. People are weird, aren’t they? SHERLOCK: Mm. (He narrows his eyes momentarily.) CRAIG: According to this, there’s quite a market for Cold War memorabilia – Thatcher, Reagan, Stalin. (He smiles.) Time’s a great leveller, innit? Thatcher’s like – I dunno – Napoleon now.

Then When Mary was wandering from one place to another to escape her consequences, we got a Thatcher era ( cold-war communism era/pre-1991 )  flight check of some sort, why it is? Ostalgie? Mark Gatiss hates conservatives, but is does not necessarily mean he is inclined to left. I don’t know. Anybody?

USSR, East Germany, West Germany, Quebec do not exist anymore.

Mary’s weird-ass redemption wank:

Mary was predicted to be dead by the end of Season 4, but so sooner in TST? And with a redemption wank saved for her? To save Sherlock in a physically impossible way? A sacrifice?

The whole Aquarium-scene is superficial and so wrong. There are so many theories floating around, One is the alibi theory:  John actually shot Mary, and Sherlock lied to Ella to hide John’s deed. Not impossible.

Read more on my Fragmented Perception meta and here is another beautiful theory by @shawleyleres Dreaming, Memory and Tidal Waves

OK lets move towards TLD

Apparently TLD is a better episode than the other two episodes of this particular season. But that does not mean this is devoid of weird facts. But when TST has seemingly trivial ones, the facts are bigger. I am not going to elaborate, but just discuss some points.

1. Faith Smith and her note, who actually took down the note? Culverton confessed that his own daughter wrote it and he provided Sherlock with that note. Is he reliable?

2. Was Eurus actually with Sherlock when she came disguised as Faith Smith?Or it’s a mere delusion?

3. Culverton did not seem to be that grand a villain like Moriarty or Magnussen. Of course he was nasty, but... also what's the point of secret doors and was he really judged or got pardon by bribing the authority.

4. Ghost Mary as John’s subconscious (seriously WTF) 

5. And many more...

TFP then.

Before going to TFP aka The Fake/Fucky Problem lets discuss some salient features of Eurus Holmes:

The psychiatrist/Faith avatar:

Umm  a visual parallel first.

oops. Arkham/Azkaban/Shutter Island/Sherrinford?, uhh. Eurus even disguised as a therapist as Harley.

The gunshot wank:

Well look at the picture, first is from the first scene of TLD, and last is Eurus’s hand. Spot the difference, Eurus’s hand is sleeveless but the hand in the first picture is  blue/black sleeved? Why is the difference, is the first hand is of John, before killing Mary? is it Sherlock’s hand?

Back to TFP, or the worst episode ever. It’s like the Limbo phase of the nightmare. Sherlock  always alludes to many movies, books, comics, TV series and makes many references to other media besides the original canon. In TST they went for Appointment in Samarra  by William Somerset Maugham [an unhappily married gay doctor/veteran/spy/storyteller], made a reference to Macbeth [ i.e. “By the pricking of my thumb”], In TLD we got references of George Orwell’s 1984 frequently[”Big brother is watching you” etc] and also a whole big dialogue from Henry V [ Shakespeare was gay or at least bisexual ]. They alluded to V for Vendetta,in TRF, and in TAB referred to Inception and a rather unknown but a radical intellectual movie La Haine [ full meta here ]. So they preferred rather intellectual/cult movies or stories/novels/dramas to make allusions.

But TFP seems more like a disjointed montage of horror movies/psychological thriller. No ACD, but a mix-up of Saw, The Shining, The Ring, Suicide Squad, Shutter Island, Exorcist, Silence of the Lamb and many other horror movies, directly adapted scenes from them and combined them with bad CGI effect.

I am not going to rant but TFP brought back some unpleasant childhood memories which were deeply buried in my id before.[ ”Books are well written or badly written, that is all”---Wilde, again]

So yes a psychological analysis is possible. @shawleyleres, @the-7-percent-solution, @jenna221b, @marcespot and many others have already started analyzing, I had to fight with my emotions after this cursed episode ( literally episode no. 13) and  after that I came to realize that this episode is FAKE.

So many points, so many parallels, this is our deepest limbo, or is it Sherlock’s, is it John’s?

First of all lets see which predictions made before or after the release of S4 apparently came true:

1. Sherlock has a secret sibling.

2. Sherrinford is a prison where Eurus is institutionalized.

3. There will be a game which will not end.

4, Sherlock will have to choose between Mycroft & John.

5. Mycroft’s umbrella is a secret weapon ( a crack theory )

But it was never predicted that this episode would turn out to be so bad and out of context.

An analysis:

Eurus gave a puzzle in her childhood which would supposed to be solve the redbeard problem, but it turns out that it was actually about a little girl lost!!!

Sherlock can’t sense there is no glass before Eurus’s cell!!!Sherlock ignoring Vatican Camios!!!

The whole Molly Hooper thing and she is talking to a lock screen!!!

3 Garridebs dangling!!!

The infamous snake-mating dance between Harley Quinn & Joker and Joker giving up his life happily to play posthumously!!!

 Background music:“I need a gangsta, to love me betta, than all the others do”!!!

John chained in a well and getting rescued with a rope!!!

Who was chained in the bottom of hell-fire and got out without any effort and made a palace as if chains did not exist? SATAN [Paradise Lost, Book I, same inconsistency]

[Laughs out Loud]. FAKE

Only explanation, NIGHTMARE

If it is Sherlock’s Nightmare:

This theory goes like this:

Eurus is Sherlock’s anima, he is in EMP, and probably in the tarmac hell still. Victor Trevor is John’s mirror, a childhood John. Sherlock somehow was indirectly responsible for Victor’s sad demise. He constructed a parallel universe, and disguised his memories in the shapes of complex metaphors. Especially when Sherlock was talking to Eurus at the end, comforting her, it sounded like he was telling this to himself: 

We're going to crash! I'm going to die! Argh! [HE GASPS FOR BREATH] I think it's time you told me your real name. I'm not allowed to tell my name to strangers. But I'm not a stranger, am I? I'm your brother. I'm here, Eurus. You're playing with me, Sherlock. We're playing the game. The game, yes, I get it now. The song was never a set of directions. I'm in the plane. I'm going to crash. And you're going to save me. Look how brilliant you are. Your mind has created the perfect metaphor. You're high above us, all alone in the sky, and you understand everything except how to land. Now, I'm just an idiot, but I'm on the ground. I can bring you home. No. No, no. It's too late now. No, it's not, it's not too late. Every time I close my eyes, I'm on the plane. I'm lost, lost in the sky and... no-one can hear me. Open your eyes. I'm here. You're not lost anymore. [SHE SOBS] Now, you... you just, you just went the wrong way last time, that's all. This time, get it right. Tell me how to save my friend. Argh! Eurus, help me save John Watson.

Well I am now referring to @shawleyleres‘s metas: X X X

By the way was Benedict referring to this whole Eurus-Sherlock conversation as a monologue? IDK. This theory does not convince me of John’s meeting with Eurus twice.

So, yes now move to another::

If it is John’s Nightmare:

According to this theory, John was having a nightmare after he was shot by Eurus; this theory explains the Bond air thing, the spinning John, the underestimated cowardice Mycroft, all the horror movie melange, the drone, dangling Garridebs( John’s actually in the Garridebs situation himself ), the  Victor-Trevor-as-John’s-mirror thing, the rope rescue,the fear of Adl0ck and Sher1o11y, the cheesy cuts at the end of the episode, but for me this theory does not explain the whole Sherlock-Eurus interaction at all.

On defense of this theory I can give you the excellent video meta by @marcespot and this meta

Ok, now let me tell you what do I think:

Can a shared nightmare be possible?

I really don’t think so, but really re watching TFP more and more makes us to think of TAB. @marcespot‘s theory seems quite convincing to me, also this post made by our senpai @inevitably-johnlocked but I really think Sherlock’s anima is Eurus. But I never think Sherlock’s still in tarmac hell, because many reasons...one of them is Porlock. I rather believe that TST is full of real, unreal, surreal, dream sequences, memories i.e. fragmented perceptions. I think TLD serves the purpose of both a third person narrative and the characters’ perspectives, but TLD have a semi-Senecan ghost device, a disguised psychiatrist/therapist, only Sherlock can see someone aka disguised Faith Smith and many other weird fact. One of which is the background TV-video of Culverton’s hospital which showed us jumping sheep, according to @tigressthetiger which signifies falling asleep:

Look even the dialogue is fitting.

Well I am not talking about a shared dream, but what if TFP is the mixture of both Sherlock & John’s two different dreams? Unlikely but umm. I don’t know how to pull off this kind of complex thing. Maybe S4 was really bad-writing ( except it is not )

Well then, when I rewatched TFP, it seemed to me John’s horror-dream, only John’s horror dream until this scene:

From the above scene it seemed to me the dream of nobody other than Sherlock.

The melodrama, the metaphors, all the signs make me convinced it’s Sherlock’s dream. Or self-conversation?

The whole nursery rhyme thing  recited by Eurus does not bring any solution to Red-beard’s murder case. Just because Eurus is evil? Why just why? No explanation. Also the only alive girl in Bond air, whose mirror was she?

Eurus served as both Sherlock’s and somehow John’s mirror, while Victor is clearly John’s childhood:

P.C. @jarlie86art

From John’s rescue by the rope it again seemed to be John’s nightmare ( Argh! background Mary’s voice-over, cheesy cuts, a platonic parentlock WTF)

Also what’s the point of the whole Musgrave false graves, the moor, children playing... a direct callback of a disturbing novel by Emily Bronte : Wuthering Heights, also of Bronte sisters’ childhood and disturbing/haunting memories.

CONFUSING!!!! because unlike TAB, TFP is not still confirmed as a dream by the writers. Also when in John’s perspective the horror movies are of mostly male point of views, Sherlock’s POV finds reference from Victorian/Gothic horror novels which are from female point of view!!! ( “Sherlock is actually a girl’s name”, “ East wind was basically me”, Sherlock has a demonic anima archetype etc) 

On author’s sublimity and ‘Insane wish fulfillment’:  

First of all TAB was a gay fever dream with powerful women characters and a male villain (i.e. Moriarty). TFP was exact opposite, queerbaiting, disturbing, misogynist, and a psycho female villain: Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way Eurus Holmes.  

Why this 180 degree turn? TAB had some of the excellent-most editing in TV history, TFP has none, we can even see the green screen in the graphics.

My intellect does not want to agree with the idea that TFP was simply bad writing, and the crew were smoking weeds all the time. It could be said if there were no previous seasons, especially if there was no TAB.

So, why did Mofftiss do so, Just to fuck up with us? Just to prove us wrong, since TAB was predicted by TJLC accurately? Or just to fake the show’s death? The actual Richenberg redux? I have no answer of these questions, umm perhaps I have. Why they have called TFP as insane wish-fulfillment? 

They have transformed all their childhood traumas, disturbing memories into one episode.

According to Freud and other psychologists sublimation is one of the highest coping mechanisms, authors tend to use literature as a vehicle of fulfilling unfulfilled wishes, desires and transform their traumas into arts.

I don’t know if you agree or disagree with this statement. But this is not the most impossible thing. Johnlock is not yet confirmed. The series can really comeback if and only if TFP is a confirmed, otherwise we are more intelligent than Mofftiss. #Give-Us-a-4th-Episode-Soonish

TL;DR: To quote @shawleyleres , S4 is not fake, 100% real in Sherlock’s or John’s Mind. 

Instead of having a specific cliffhanger, TFP itself is a massive cliffhanger 

Long live conspiracy,and long live TJLC

Transcript courtesy: http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/

I promise to elaborate the points I mentioned in another metas.

Tags under cut:

  @love-in-mind-palace     @shawleyleres @isitandwonder @tigressthetiger@loveinthemindpalace  @hudders-and-hiddles @waitedforgarridebs @ifyouarelookingforqueerbaiting @amaranthinelover @separating-my-porn-and-tjlc @artisticpanda23 @lijahlover @heimishtheidealhusband @astudyinqueerbaiting @atikiology @johnlockshire @bbcatemysoul @bbcromance @tjlcer @johnlockishell @grumpyjohn @graceebooks @jon-lox @heimishtheidealhusband @just-sort-of-happened @depth-of-loyalty-and-love @deducingbbcsherlock

@shag-me-senseless-watson    @wssh-watson @watsonshoneybee @sussexbound @vanetti @jenna221b @the-7-percent-solution @teapotsubtext@roadswewalk @isitandwonder

@inevitably-johnlocked      @loudest-subtext-in-tv @wellthengameover @skulls-and-tea

@marcespot          @johnnlocked   @multifandom-madnesss @joolabee  @ebaeschnbliah @ervagworld @escaroles @bimartin @green-violin-bow @glittersparkledust @yorkiepug

[shervival21st-blog]

Fragmented Perceptions and The Stream of Consciousness of an Unreliable Narrator: A Johnlock Meta

I laughed my ass out when a reputed British newspaper was disappointed at TST. But believe me it’s the most brilliant episode written by Gatiss so far.

So yes coming to the main point; I was extremely fascinated by the idea of EMP which was born out as a reaction of TAB. I do not completely agree with this theory, rather I read all the episodes from TRF as fragmentation of perceptions. So, here we go:

When modernism prevailed back in 20th century, a favorite trope of the writers was Fragmentation, fragmentation of Time, Space, Points of Views. Modernism also used used the theme of blending the memories of different times, real or implanted. Let me explain it a bit, it was William James whose philosophy influenced the so called Stream of Consciousness technique, but the concepts of time in French philosopher Henri Bergson’s Time and Free Will, I think really has something to do with the narratives of TST and also with TAB and HLV. According to this theory of Bergson there are two kinds of time:

1. Clock time, or the atomic or biological time shown by a clock at a particular moment.

2. Real time or Lived time; the actual time where an individual lives mentally at a certain point.

According to this theory, you can live in a different time (real/unreal/past/present/future) mentally while being in the certain clock time. In TAB, we can see how a 5-minute-duration can become a grand duration spanning different times in Sherlock’s perspective/mind-palace.

Oh yes, fragmentation of perception. What can it actually mean?

Let me announce: This is the way all things are going on in Sherlock. In James Joyce’s Ulysses, or in T.S.Eliot’s The Waste Land .and in many novels by Virginia Woolf, we get this concept.

The trope of fragmentation is hugely related to The Stream of Consciousness as well as the trope of Unreliable Narrator. In this perspective we get to see mainly one protagonist’s ( here Sherlock’s ) PoV, this perspectives are not seen by outer world. But in reality we DO interpret our sensations to weird perceptions. In TST or in TAB this is going on with Sherlock’s narrative.

 When an author tries to employ these tropes what exactly he wants to do?

While building these perspectives; many memories( real or implanted or distorted), are fused together which confuses a casual reader. Many stories, folk tales, legends ( The Samarra Story in TST ), dialogues and references from popular movies and books( 007 ), classical, biblical or mythological references ( temptation & guilt), contemporary events, historical events, nostalgia are alluded again and again.

Sometimes the stream of consciousness crosses its limit to transit into the level of subconscious mind( I promise you another meta in this particular case, but there are plenty of beautiful metas regarding this), which reproduces myths,histories and visions. This levels of consciousness tend to employ complex symbols, remember TAB and the recurring dreams in TST.

Moreover, the most disturbing thing about fragmented verses are they are not the stream of consciousness of the seemingly unreliable narrator. The main protagonist’s POV is continuously disrupted by the points of views of different characters and even of the author(s). This disruption of narrative by the author has a name: sublimity.

Yes, the authors do employ their own philosophy or ideas in their narratives even in the Stream of Consciousness or Fragmentation techniques but more complexly than in a linear or propagandist narratives. Mark Gatiss has reasons to employ (i.e. Johnlock :) ).

 The Love Song of J, Alfred Prufrock (see this brilliant catch by @jenna221b) had this technique implied. But I think The Waste Land has more parallels with the narrative of Sherlock. I will really try to write a meta about it after I become confirmed in TLD. But here I can tell one thing: Waste Land has a chapter called “”Death by Water”’. Got it?

So yes in Gatiss’s defence, I want to say, TST is by no means a bad writing, but it may be a bad read for casuals.

The post-structuralist theory of reading offers us a concept that in, the highest forms of arts language( in this case, Scenes) does not reach the level of conclusion. TST is a fragmented narrative where everything is not a dream, but dreams happen to occur. The main protagonist Sherlock continues to lie, he mixes his imagination with reality, employs many symbols ( many of them remain unsolved ), probably prepares an alibi for a man he loves to get him rid of his wife’s murder charge. This fragmented narrative is often getting disrupted by John’s PoV, external observations, epistolary themes and the many layers of lies of Mary as well as Mark as the writer’s remarks. 

The newspapers just did not get this form of arts, because they are not accustomed to. Very few attempts were made like this in television history. The authors were telling a story, a story about TWO MEN IN LOVE. They are ambitious, they are intellectuals, moreover they are true artists. So they dare to employ some complex tropes of narratives, not restricting themselves in the same, tedious, monotonous and known plot-points, in other words, linear narratives. They are going to bring revolution, not only making a history,

Yes the authors also employed Staccatos. They are deliberately distracting the linear flow of constructive narratives. 

Before concluding, I might say that there are so many inconsistencies in  the narrative, which are being discussed by this wonderful TJLC community. I’ll like to write something of them also. I have a theory regarding Mary’s death scene. G.M.Hopkins, a queer( but sadly repressed :( ) poet of Victorian England wrote some really complex but excellent poetry of whom he said; they might not make sense when reading linearly but after some readings the meaning will explode to the readers. So this is exactly what’s going to happen in TFP, the meaning is going to be exploded to us as well as to the casual viewers, because all road leads to Johnlock.  

LOVE CONQUERS ALL.

The picture is: The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali.

tags under cut:

some nice people really influenced me:

@love-in-mind-palace @shag-me-senseless-watson @loudest-subtext-in-tv @cupidford @inevitably-johnlocked

@skulls-and-tea @sussexbound @anotherwellkeptsecret @toxicsemicolon

@57-circlesofhell

@captain-liddy @loveinthemindpalace @quietlyprim @jenna221b @waitingforgarridebs @watsonshoneybee @studyinpink @shawleyleres

@bbcromance @ivyblossom @ebaeschnbliah @johnnlocked @joolabee 

@atikiology @grumpyjohn @wellthengameover @welovethebeekeeper

@deducingbbcsherlock @ervagworld @hudders-and-hiddles @heimishtheidealhusband @the-7-percent-solution @teapotsubtext @separating-my-porn-and-tjlc

[shervival21st-blog]

Well, as this is being my first post in Tumblr, I am apologizing first if there is any mistake. I am here to share my thoughts.

1.       Many of the users are making Mary the next villain. I agree and also disagree. I think:

Though Mary seems to be in the side of demons, she is not Morierty or working for Morierty. She is a different 3rd league. I mean she is working for some secret organization in Eastern Europe who are the rivals of Morierty (I think this is the cause why he had to fake his death not for some sexual obsession with Sherlock, well this will be explained by me later. btw he’s a criminal mastermind). I am expecting Mary to be confused with Morierty till the end of season 4 aka 3G, I also expect her to shoot John but no, John will not be shot by her, Rather by some unknown assassin. Mary will escape and there will be a hint of Andrew as Morierty’s coming back after the end credit. Throughout the S4 I would like Sherlock to revolve around his mind palace to discover the real identity of her, and the Redbeard (Yes she should be confused to be Redbeard too). Meanwhile he will miss some dangerous criminal progressions. John will try to work alone (umm with Mycroft of course). But he will again be jealous of Sherlock that he is dating with his wife. Another possibility is while giving birth of their daughter Mary will be shot leaving her daughter who is or is not John’s. But I don’t want these kind of things to be present.

  Ps. This is my first post so please be patient with me. I am younger than you and I am from India(not the conservative part of this country). I would be too glad if you like this post. Further comments and thoughts are welcome.

Ps2. I can’t really assume what they are going to do with the baby.

Ps3. I really need to give my own Mycroft theory after the completation of S4 ep2 shooting.

Tagging @jenna221b @ebaeschnbliah @inevitably-johnlocked @ebaeschnbliah @waitingforgarridebs @bug-catcher-in-viridian-forest @mollydobby

 @tykobrian @consultingpurplepants @thepineapplering