#also honestly these are just my gut reactions i haven't actually properly thought about it SORRY

[horriblesupper]

ok hear me out - im purposefully asking u this so u can disprove me and lay my mind to lovely johnlock rest, but i just dont get why john would tell sherlock to go for someone else (irene) if he wanted to get in dem pants??? like, as far as john knows, irene is gay and sherlock is relatively indifferent, so why push it?? why not say 'hey sherly look here i am come at me let's get canon' yknow.

hoo boy okay so im probs not the best person to ask since this is something that i feel would benefit from proper meta and shit BUT THIS IS WHAT I THINK

john is still really fucking jealous of irene like it’s almost a blinding jealousy like john my dude chill the fuck out......... so i think he talks about irene because he’s still jealous and convinced sherlock has a Thing for her because he ignores her texts (which he doesn’t do to john, so john must think she’s special?? weird logic you got going on there john me dude)

i also feel like john deflects talking about his own feelings by using irene, and also kind of as a Final Confirmation as to whether or not sherlock is into her?? which sherlock confirms Once And For All that he isn’t

which ties into my next point - you gotta remember john generally Finds It Difficult, This Sort of Stuff, and is quite emotionally blocked-up; he is also presumably still grieving (if mary did indeed die), so Feelings are generally a tough subject to tackle head-on - thus the deflection and talking about irene!! i also feel like john maybe wanted to kind of protect himself from heartbreak if sherlock rejected him there and then bc he thinks sherlock was in love with irene, so for him that would be a logical explanation for being rejected also he’s in a really Vulnerable Place emotionally and i honestly think sherlock being like “nah” in that moment would literally Destroy Him so logically he’d wanna avoid that so he goes about it in a less direct way aka “do you still text her” or w/e

so yea this Final Confirmation is like a huge sigh of relief for johnno and maybe also a glimmer of hope that he does have a chance!!!! with sherlock!!!!!!! that they can use this Really Emotionally Charged moment and start actually fUCKING TALKING ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS WHO THE FUCK KNOWS!!!!!!! anyway it’s 1am and i literally do not have any properly coherent thoughts on this so uh yeah!!!! i am sure this is not what u wanted but here ya go anyway!!!

ALSO WATCH SOME TJLC EXPLAINED VIDS ON YOUTUBE @quietlyprim IS VASTLY MORE ELOQUENT AND PROBABLY HAS MUCH BETTER THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS THAN I DO!!