#liveblogging sherlock holmes

[no-side-us]

Letters From Watson Liveblog - Oct. 4

Charles Augustus Milverton, Part 2 of 3

Watson immediately jumping to congratulate Holmes on his engagement is funny, especially because I feel he should know Holmes better than that.

Speaking of, I do think Holmes is a bit in the wrong for basically leading this girl on for information. Admittedly, it lasts for only a few days, but I imagine after the case ends she'll be pretty upset by a broken engagement and relationship.

First, I love that Watson takes only a second to think about burgling Milverton and accepts that it is okay to do. Second, I love that he is already planning on going with Holmes before either asking or being asked.

Holmes says this like he doesn't confess his criminal aspirations to Watson almost every other story. I think early on even Watson knew that he would have made a highly efficient criminal.

I don't know why fiancee is written in all caps, but it makes it seem like Holmes is shouting it, as if to really emphasize to Watson that he is engaged.

It's nice to see Watson having fun on the burglary and really getting into it with all this talk of chivalry and adventure. It makes me feel like he would probably be into Robin Hood and the like.

Describing the safe as a dragon also tells me that Watson was probably also into stories of knights. Maybe he's a fan of King Arthur stories as well.

How will they get out of this one? Find out in the next letter.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

[neverquiteeden]

ok but the contrast between "my formaer friend and companion", whom watson has not seen in months, and "I am lost without my boswell"

just. giove me a minute. give me a minute

[jay-wasreblogging]

Okay but Watson refusing to stop giving Sherlock compliments!?

[yb-cringe]

fit and pac are just unironically in total support of one another entirely. i think one of them could do literally anything and they’d be like ok sounds good i mean you’re right maybe thats just what needed to happen. every day that passes i just get more in awe of how strong their mutual trust is.

[sygneth]

Btw I still haven't finished the game, so no spoilers please, but I got to the point where Mycroft appears in person and... ah my heart. I love canon!Mycroft and I am usually... sceptic towards interpretations of him as a cold, calculative mastermind because this is the opposite of how I read him in the books (plus, I love that in the books Holmes brothers have a good, warm relationship), but this case. This is different.

The character building??? So damn good. I haven't yet discovered all of the memories from the past (but I have my theories of course), and I can already see, that what happened, fucked them both up. At first I didn't like Mycroft here, but the more I learn, the more I start to understand his behaviour and get more sympathetic towards him, too. I'm not saying what he was and is doing is right, but I see where it comes from. He genuinely cares, and thinks he has to do what he's doing. At the same time I fully understand Sherlock's attitude towards Mycroft. Not to mention how much I love how Sherlock's whole way of being changes around Mycroft? Suddenly he starts to act up like a rebel teenager (can't blame him though) and totally looses his cool?? This, this is some top tier character writing there. Because this is what I would expect to happen when a teenage boy gets to be a head of the family, and deal with horrors of supporting your close ones even though he's basically still a kid. Plus I cannot stress enough how well it goes with the times the game is set in??

There are a lot of thoughts in my head and I can't express them well, but I hope you get what I mean. I just love the writing of Holmes' brothers relationship in this because it feels so... true.

[theriseofthesea]

It’s entertaining to me that Holmes yet again is like you romanticize and sensationalize what I do rather than instructing the reader in scientific exercise, Watson!

And Watson’s response is fantastic.

Well then, why don’t you write them yourself!

You’re right Watson and you should say it.

[shehersholmes]

Watson: ugly dog

Holmes: hi doggy :) who's a good boy who can do no wrong?

[gregorovitch-adler]

John is flirting.

[lyxthen]

Big asexual mood

[mariana-oconnor]

The Five Orange Pips pt 3

It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the great city.

I mourn the loss of the storm descriptions, but this is still lovely.

I also have 'I can see clearly now the rain has gone' playing in my head.

As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a chill to my heart. "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late."

Once again Watson reading the paper is important. Does Holmes just miss out on major events when Watson isn't here? Does he turn up to meetings only to find the person he was meeting with is dead? Does he have other people read the newspapers for him? Does he... do it himself? *shudder*

This is a really tragic story, even allowing for the fact that Elias Openshaw was a tremendous dick and his death was the opposite of a tragedy. Holmes and Watson's inability to save anyone is just... This isn't something you would see in modern detective fiction, except in very extreme examples. I'm not convinced that any of the Openshaws were exactly good people (hanging out with racist former terrorists will do that) but there is still tragedy in this. They all died. The last two for no reason. It's such senseless death. Holmes was too late. Everything was just too late. Even if they weren't good people, their deaths are just... so pointless.

In real life, I don't tend to think anyone deserves death. In fiction, a satisfying death is... well, satisfying. These offer no satisfaction or pathos or purpose. So yeah, tragic.

"Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and a splash in the water.

I love how they record the name of the officer in the paper. It's more like an incident report than a news story. Good old Police-Constable Cook. I hope he got a nice cup of tea and a biscuit.

It proved to be that of a young gentleman whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham.

If this were a modern mystery it absolutely would not be John Openshaw. That's a terrible way to identify a body. I know there's no DNA and no fingerprinting, and also his entire family has been murdered by racist terrorists, but still. Sometimes I have letters to other people in my pockets. Sometimes I have loyalty cards etc. belonging to other people in my pockets because I am borrowing them. But I am not my father... I kind of want it to not be him. He's faked his own death and is living in Tahiti and the person in the river is the guy who tried to kill him. Good for John.

The body exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident

Vengeful ghost. Vengeful ghost!

calling the attention of the authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages.

Well, at least some good has come of this adventure. I'm all for improving health and safety.

"No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may take the flies, but not before."

Police-Constable Cook has had enough excitement for one day. Best if he gets some rest.

But now shit's personal. They made him angry.

All day I was engaged in my professional work

I mean, I know Watson has a day job, but it's strangely jarring to have this 'we failed' revelation and then Watson goes off and listens to people cough for 8 hours or something. 😂🤣😂

"I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "What do you mean?" He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "S. H. for J. 0."

Sherlock is petty af and I am here for it.

"I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers and files of the old papers, following the future career of every vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in '83."

I also appreciate that Holmes is shown here doing the tedious legwork. It's not all sudden sparks of inspiration and instant feats of deduction. Sometimes you have to go down to a room full of records and read until your eyes bleed.

We did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a shattered stern-post of the boat was seen swinging in the trough of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is all which we shall ever know of the fate of the Lone Star.

Another set of criminals lost at sea. Not sure why that happened this time when they could have been caught another way, but... I guess they... got their comeuppance? ACD really liked 'storms blow everybody dies' endings, I guess.

Return of the 'equinoctial gales' though! Glad they got a callback after being such main characters throughout. Does that count as foreshadowing?

[stararise]

so i decided to subscribe to letters from watson lol

did not expect the afghanistan / jezail bullet to come up that quickly. also ouch that injury sounds so painful

ah so that's where the battle of maiwand is from

i double take at every "sherlock holmes". it looks wrong to me now that i'm used to herlock sholmes

how is sherlock allowed to just do whatever he wants in the laboratory???

had a visceral reaction to the spelling of hemorrhage lmao

i know it's the victorian era but PLEASE put some PPE on

[no-side-us]

Letters From Watson Liveblog - Apr. 23

The Boscombe Valley Mystery, Part 2 of 3

First "rat-faced," then "bulldog features," and now "ferret-like." I can't wait to see what animal Watson will use to describe Lestrade next.

The use of a "women's intuition" as an explanation gets funnier the more simple and obvious the action is. Last time, it was used to describe a woman being able to recognize her own brother, something men would obviously be unable to do.

Here, Miss Turner is already familiar with Lestrade, and since she probably knows he called for Sherlock, she's probably read about him and would have some knowledge of his appearance.

This is a funny line if you remember that in the first letter young McCarthy was going rabbit hunting. That's why he had a gun with him.

Sherlock Holmes giving a young, distressed woman hopes is an established motif throughout these stories, so take that Lestrade.

Poor Watson, but this is what you get for comparing Lestrade to an animal in almost every case he's involved in.

Look at that, Watson using his medical expertise to help in the case. Although he's only doing so because he has nothing else better to do, it's nice to see him apply his skillset to solving the mystery instead of just observing Sherlock's.

Is this the British equivalent of getting blackout drunk and waking up married in Las Vegas? If so, I like to think getting "into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol" was as common a trope back then as it kind of is today.

There's a whole other British drama occurring in the background of this case. McCarthy gets married young and foolhardy, meaning he can't marry the woman he actually loves, only for it to turn out that his wife isn't his wife at all and was already married, so he can marry the woman he loves, but her father doesn't like him and doesn't want the marriage to happen.

And also his dad is dead and he's in jail.

Throw in some classism and period-accurate clothing, and you've got yourself a series on the BBC.

Damn, looks like Charles McCarthy isn't the only one getting killed tonight.

This reads less like Sherlock investigating the scene of the crime and more like he's turning into a werewolf. Has that ever been done before? Sherlock as a werewolf? Adaptations have made him a mouse, sent him to the future, be into women, but I don't think there's one where he's a werewolf, which is a shame considering how well it fits here.

Turning back to human, you mean.

So he was killed with a stone.

Now that I think about it, considering that the elder Turner and McCarthy came back to England from Australia, that the killing blow was to the back of the head, and the lack of any other weapon at the scene of the crime, you know what would have been a cool murder weapon?

A boomerang.

Or you could do your job and catch a murderer. The information Sherlock gave was so specific I can't imagine Lestrade would have that difficult a time catching the guilty party.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

[tinyplanetss]

delightful!! i am obsessed w this whole dynamic, it's so enjoyable to hear from both of their characters in this way

[jay-wasreblogging]

Sherlock basically when he tells everyone to stop egging him on to give his deductions:

[sygneth]

Sherlock who only learned how to play the violin as an adult man??? I am in love with this idea, headcanon immediately accepted

[theriseofthesea]

When we descended I followed Holmes into the stable yard, where he opened the door of a loose-box and led out a squat, lop-eared, white-and-tan dog, something between a beagle and a foxhound.

“Let me introduce you to Pompey,” said he.

OH MY GOSH!! Two stories that include dogs in a row!!