#it's acd holmes and I'm thrilled about it

[may-shepard]

Hey I completed nanowrimo! according to the site, this was my 10th win which I think is a big deal? Giving myself a gold star on this one!

[victorianpining]

Hi Rebekah! I really enjoyed getting to watch your retrospective, and I'm happy you found a way to enjoy the game again. I wanted to reach out to you because I loved seeing how you moved on, and I thought it might be helpful to share my different experience of moving on, not so much for you (you seem to have found what works for you- which is great!) but for anyone who follows you who might have more of my temperament. I'm sorry for the long ask you don't have to publish it or engage with it if you don't have the time!!

If BBC Dracula was the game changer for you, watching Granada Holmes (1984-1994) was the thing that changed how I saw Johnlock and how I could engage with the text. After hearing lots of good things... how Watson never marries Mary Morstan... how Jeremy Brett (Sherlock Holmes was a queer man... Jeremy Brett saying "if it cheers the gays up I'm thrilled" in regards to the question if Sherlock and John were a couple... I decided to give it a watch. Honestly after a few episodes it quickly became my favorite Sherlock Holmes adaptation, and Jeremy Brett and David Burke have become my favorite Holmes and Watson actors (which was a bittersweet realization honestly, I couldn't imagine telling my 15 year old self that Benedict and Martin would not longer be my favorite).

What I found in the stories was a Sherlock and John who were happy with one another. Two men who shared their lives quite overtly. I won't go into all the details but while they may have been keeping secrets from the audience, I never got the impression they were hiding things from eachother. It's easy to read into it that they know they're both in love with eachother. The conflict of the show is in the mysteries, not their unspoken feelings

Sherlock and John and their electric, immediate connection was what attracted me to BBC Sherlock, but then that love brings both of them a lot of unresolved suffering. Furthermore, almost all of the Holmes stories where some element of homoerotic subtext is present (Private Life, Mr. Holmes, the RDJ movies, even the canon) pairs it with unresolved suffering between Sherlock and John. The relationship got me hooked, but then never delivered. It's stressful to me, and there's no payoff.

To put it dramatically, Granada Holmes made me realize I didn't have to live like this. Not to enjoy the Johnlock dynamic. I didn't realize there was so much air to breathe. It made me realize that I didn't actually want to play an elaborate game with Steven and Mark, I just wanted to enjoy a love story about two men who Understand eachother and were happy together despite being in a repressive era. While I still enjoy the first 10 episodes of BBC Sherlock, Granada Holmes has given me more of what I actually wanted out of the stories than BBC Sherlock ever did. I won't be entirely content until I get a canon queer Holmes adaption... but until then I'm as happy with Johnlock as I can be, because I figured out what I actually wanted from the story and how to find it.

TL;DR

If people miss the romance of BBC Sherlock through a Johnlock lens and just don't want to get back into the game, I can't recommend looking around at other Sherlock adaptations enough, particularly Granada Holmes. You might find what you need elsewhere.

Post script to my too long ask: for good canon ACD Johnlock I cannot recommend Katie Forsythe's entire fanfiction canon enough.

For closure I especially would recommend the two-parter Sign of Change and Cauldron: A Love Letter. This story does what no other Holmes adaptation has ever managed to do. It brings up the two canon events that (if they actually happened) must have wrecked the John and Sherlock relationship the most: John's marriage and Sherlock's fall. It ties them together, breaks your heart completely, and then *this is key* ultimately has John and Sherlock walk the difficult path to reconciliation and happiness again. I don't think a good Series Five of BBC Sherlock could fix me as much as these two fics have honestly.

Once again. Thank you. TJLC Explained was good times, and honestly if I had the chance to tell myself pre-2017 that I was getting my hopes up for nothing and BBC Sherlock would one day not even be my favorite Holmes adaptation anymore I wouldn't. The journey and excitement though misplaced was just so special and fun I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I hope I'll be seeing more projects of yours, Sherlock based or not!

Passing along the message 💛