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lazer-screwdriver · 3 months

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Ur a genius— take THIS moffat

(Rory and the Doctor talk around an unspecified thing for 1.2k words. Working title: Rory and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day)

The console room of the TARDIS was dark and quiet.

Not the kind of dark and quiet it sometimes was, when things got very bad and things went pitch black and silent as the grave, but a normal good intentional dark and quiet. The kind that made you think of after hours and nighttime, though the TARDIS didn't have any windows and - for all Rory knew - it could've been high noon outside. Like part of the ship, the Doctor leaned over the console in the center, repetitively fiddling with a set of switches as though he was trying to make something happen and failing.

"Oh good, you're here, I was worried I'd have to go exploring through the TARDIS to find your bedroom or something. Do you ever sleep?"

The Doctor looked up and blinked at him, visibly surprised at Rory being here at all, much less addressing him. "Sometimes, why?" He checked his watch "I thought you and Amy had gone to bed.....do you need me to check under your bed for monsters." He straightened up and grinned, apparently excited for the potential duty.

Rory ignored him. "Amy's asleep. I want to talk to you"

"No monsters then? Good, there shouldn't be any on the TARDIS. Not anymore- if there were we'd have an even bigger problem than your horrendous socks."

Rory continued to ignore him. "Doctor, in the caves, when I was…....dying...what was that."

The Doctor's smile dropped off his face, turning back to his switches. "What was what?" His voice was still lighthearted, the perfect tone to brush things off, and Rory would not have it.

"You know what.”

"Oh that." The Doctor watched him out of the corner of his eye as he stalked closer, leaning on a panel of the console next to the Doctor's. "Telepathic link."

"Yeah I'd got that much, thanks. Rory snapped. Rest and food and a shower had all been beneficial but he was still far too sore to be talked down to at the moment. "Doctor, l've been contacted telepathically before, you know I have. That wasn't that. So what was that."

"It- It's hard to explain." The Doctor swept a hand through his hair agitatedly, apparently given up on avoiding the topic. Rory gave him a withering stare and he blanched, putting hands up in surrender "I'm not being difficult! You don't have a word for it, humans aren't a telepathic species, there's no equivalent. Like explaining marriage to a sea slug - not that you're a sea slug, you're more like a funny little cuttlefish - ahaha cuddle fish do you see what I did there-“

"It's a time lord thing" Rory cut him off before he could start assigning sea creatures to himself and Amy too, somehow more confused than when he'd started. "Like marriage."

"No! Kind of. Not really. It's not strictly monogamous or romantic or-or sexual it’s just-“ The Doctor wrung his hands, seemingly unable to look Rory in the eye. "Well, intimate. Like pillow talk, sharing secrets. Just more intense.

Rory nearly snorted. *Yeah, I gathered."

"It's not something l've done for a very long time. Not since...not since becoming the last." Messed-up hair flopped over his face as he bent over a different set of knobs and buttons this time. Confusing and overwhelming ending up sad - Rory could practically hear the quip about how he should be used to his sex life being like this.

“…not even with River?" Rory could see the Doctors ears turning pink as he bent further down over the console, murmuring nonsense about power fluctuations to himself and pointedly not answering.

“Well.” He sighed “I suppose I'm flattered.”

"You should be." The blush spread over his cheekbones.

"It was good." The random vaguely mechanical noises and flurry of busywork movements taking up space in the corner of Rory's eye stopped dead. He could feel the Doctor's eyes burning into the side of his head but refused to look over. The man’s gobsmacked, flustered expression was clear enough in his mind's eye, he didn't need the real version to rob him of his momentum.

I mean-" Rory scrubbed his hands over his face, regretting starting this conversation at all. "I know how you get about blaming yourself for things that aren't your fault, and I just wanted to say-" He could barely get the words out, like trying to cram into too-tight pants. "I mean obviously the circumstances weren't ideal but I-" God this was embarrassing. "I enjoyed it. You didn't assault me, or anything."

The silence dragged itself out - the Doctor frozen still and staring intently enough that Rory had to fight the urge to look over his shoulder for a weeping angel. His toothpicks-and-string confidence wavered under the assault, forcing him to instead steal a glance at the other man to convince himself he wasn't about to have a trapdoor pulled out from under him. "I'm glad I didn't die." He finished lamely.

"You dragged yourself out of the arms of your loving wife to tell me not to feel bad about sticking my fingers into your funny little brain?!" The Doctor exploded back to life with his usual commotion, rigid silence shattering back into the standard vaguely-exasperated silliness.

All the tension went out of Rory with it, letting himself breathe properly as his head tipped back in relief. He hadn't reached airlock levels of offense just yet. "Shut up, Doctor, I'm being serious."

"Of course you are." He buzzed around the control room as through he'd never stopped, clearly gearing himself up to start rambling. "That's Rory, always serious, always so sincere, don't you get tired of it? I suppose the girls must like it otherwise you would never have managed to get A-"

The Doctor cut himself off, stopping dead in his tracks for the second time as something clicked in him. He crept back into Rory's line of sight and glanced up through his eyelashes at him, a surprisingly effective imitation of a dog that'd chewed through someone's shoes, shoulders up by his ears and hands hovering over the console. "Are you going to tell Amy?" Rory nearly laughed at the sharp return to the subject, imagining how that conversation would go.

"God I hope not, but probably." He sighed. He was just awful at keeping secrets from her, even if the actual conversations were always mortifying. The last time he'd had to do something like it he'd burst into tears and she'd had to swear up and down that she forgave him before he could calm down enough to tell her what it even was. They'd only been 12, but still. "Ohh I'm never going to hear the end of it." The Doctor giggled helplessly at Rory's lamenting, making him break out into matching weak laughter. Thank god, a high note to end on.

"Speaking of- I'd better get back to her before she comes looking and we both get it. Goodnight, Doctor." Rory pushed himself off the console as the Doctor gave him a two-finger salute and a smile, already dreaming of his soft bed and softer wife a few rooms away.

"Goodnight, Rory" Just loud enough to be heard over Rory's socked footsteps on the glass and metal. "And-" he could practically hear the fidgeting. "Thank you.”

The way his voice shook kept Rory from turning around, instead flashing a thumbs up over his head and letting himself wander into the TARDIS back to his bed, more than content to be done with the night.

#I can’t be bothered to mess with the html I put in for when this goes up on ao3 #use ur imagination for the italics #zap.txt #eleven #rory williams #the unspecified this is (deeply unsurprisingly) nsfw. yayyyy sex pollen yayy

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possiblyimbiassed · 3 years

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The lying liars who lie

Years and years late to the party, I’ve finally gotten my hands on all the DVDs of BBC Sherlock, and I thought it would be fun to watch the extra material carefully, one piece after another, and also listen to at least some of the show makers’ commentary of the episodes. But at this point, after S4 where DVDs seemed to be a constant lying device in general, I tend to look at them with a bit more suspicious eyes...

I still love the show of course, but now that I’ve taken this deep dive into all the special features, I find them a truly hard thing to try to wrap my head around. Even this long after the fact, I’m amazed by the amount of shameless, self-congratulatory BS in the DVDs, where the people involved can’t have enough of complimenting each other and their show, while they skillfully avoid to discuss anything actually meaningful about the plot line. ;) For example, Moffat claims in the S2 DVD that “In fact, you’ll never see a more obsessively authentic version of Sherlock Holmes than this one”. But if we follow their light-hearted commentary, which basically takes the show at face value, I’d call that not just hyperbole, but an outright lie. If you want to see the ‘authentic’ stories from ACD’s work in this show, you’ll definitely need to go much deeper into the subtext and meta levels - neither of which are mentioned on these DVDs of course. Here’s my own (rather subjective) ‘review’ of the whole thing, trying to pinpoint why I view most of the commentary of the show from its own makers as an advanced art of deception.

(My musings under the cut)

Series 1 - a wealth of extra material

First of all - as many of you probably knew already - the whole of the Unaired Pilot is added to the DVD of S1. In the extra material about the making of the series, they (Sue Vertue, Mofftiss and others) talk about what things they changed between the Pilot and ASiP, claiming that many changes were necessary improvements once they knew that they had a whole series and a lot more time at their disposal.

Which I can perfectly understand and agree with in general. But I think what’s missing in their discussions is more interesting than what’s actually there (”Mind the gap” ;) ). Things that I would expect from the show makers when they go to the trouble of comparing the pilot version with the aired product. There’s not a word, for example, about the fact that they added both Mycroft and Moriarty to the story in ASiP - two characters who later turn out to play major roles and appear in almost every other episode until the end of TFP. Or about the choice that one of the screenwriters would play Mycroft.

Neither do they discuss why they chose to relocate the place where Sherlock was challenged by the cabbie from 221B to Roland Kerr’s School of Further Education. Instead they focus on the details, like for example the new design of the interior of 221B.

Not to mention the fact that almost every scene in the Pilot is mirrored in ASiP (as pointed out long ago by @kateis-cakeis X), but at Angelo’s in the Pilot Sherlock follows the events with the cabbie while looking in an actual mirror. I even noticed that in the Pilot the cabbie is offering Sherlock dark-coloured bottles with the pills in them, while in ASiP those bottles are transparent, as if the cabbie is offering Sherlock to play Black or White in the chess game that he is simulating. What’s with all these mirrors, though? Not a word on the DVD... ;)

Now, even though these rather remarkable choices are neglected together with a great bunch of minor ones, I still think that the most interesting fact about all this is that they actually included the whole pilot version within this DVD, which is sold by the franchise. Why even do this, when it raises far more questions than it answers? The only logical reason I can come up with is that they’re laying out a track of little hints that anyone with a deep enough interest in the show to actually buy the DVDs can try to follow. And it seems to me that lying by omission is one of the first steps in the long line of cryptic and misleading author comments on this show. But at the same time, they clearly want the fans to have access to it all, even the abandoned version.

Moving on to Series 2, time for bigger lies

In the extra material of this DVD Benedict himself describes how his character "faces one of his deadliest enemies in the shape of Love, and it comes in the form of Irene Adler, who is this extraordinary dominatrix [insert here a bunch of superlatives regarding Adler]...”. And then we see how Adler whips Sherlock with a riding crop (without any kind of consent, I have to add) while he’s lying on the floor, and we have Lara Pulver telling us how it was to have a go at Benedict on set. So Holmes whips dead bodies and Adler whips living; seems like a match made in hell! :))

Gatiss claims, grinning with his whole face, that “they’re clearly, absolutely made for each other”. OK, so I think we can see Sherlock being intellectually impressed by Adler, and even trying to protect her from Mycroft, and we can see John acting jealously. We can also see her being dressed and styled as a perfect, female mirror of Sherlock. But I’m still at a loss what all this has to do with love on Sherlock’s part? Especially since he’s not even responding in any fashion to her various attempts at seducing him.

And there’s more: Paul McGuigan, the director of ASiB, claims that the scene where Sherlock has a conversation with Adler inside his Mind Palace about the crime case with the car that backfires "is a part of a kind of love story, if you like...” No, I don’t. Maybe it’s just me, but if their aim really was to convey to their audience a love story between Sherlock and The Woman, I think they failed miserably. All I see is a guy ’mansplaining’ to a clever woman how to use her brain, while she’s trying to flirt with him by expressing her admiration (to no avail, though) and make deductions at the same time. Nothing new under the sun, really. John did the same thing repeatedly in ASiP (without making own deductions) and got far more attention from Sherlock, but I’ve never heard any of the show makers call that ”a love story”. But by ’lie-splaining’ the scene with Irene to the audience, they try to manipulate us all to see it as such...

In all the direct commentary of this episode, where Steven, Mark, Sue, Benedict and Lara are present, I get the impression that every time they even touch on the relationship between Sherlock and John, they hurry to add the term “friendship” or “man love” or similar words in case they forgot them at first, avoiding even the tiniest possibility that there could be anything more going on between them. They even explain that when Irene calls them “a couple” she does not mean anything romantic. This whole approach feels almost paranoic in the midst of all the laid-back jokes and light-hearted talk about the filming. It’s as if a sort of restrictive, heteronormative filter or blanket is being constantly applied, to teach the audience the ‘no homo’ lesson of it all. And the more I listen to this, the more tiresome it becomes.

In the commentary Moffat does reveal an interesting detail, though: that the ‘Flight of the Dead’ in ASiB was inspired by a cut out scene in the Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. To me this is just one more reason to question the ‘authentic’ quality of this scene, as opposed to possibly taking place in Sherlock’s Mind Palace. But I digress...

Listening to the commentary in general, it’s like it’s aimed to distract the attention from what’s going on at the screen rather than highlight it and try to explain their intentions. They do mention that Irene didn’t actually ‘beat’ Sherlock in the end of ASiB, but there’s no explanation of this obvious deviation from canon, where Adler does indeed fool Holmes, taking advantage of his prejudices.

The rest of the extra material of S2 is mostly about technical stuff, special effects and such, and also about filming techniques and Benedict’s delivery of fast deductions. But the part I really do love is the one where Andrew Scott talks about how much he enjoyed playing the scene where Moriarty dances before breaking into the Crown Jewels. That’s one of my favorite scenes of he whole show. :) Also, the takeaway message from this DVD is Moffat’s words at the end:

“These are still the formative years of Sherlock Holmes, and the most important thing about this series is not that it’s updated; it’s the fact that those two men are still young and they’re still at the beginning of what they don’t yet know is gonna be a lifelong partnership”.

And then comes Series 3...

...and its extra material, with the most blatant attempts at deception so far, I believe. At this point Sherlock is called a “psychopath” by both the show’s characters, John’s blog, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as if it were true, which is a big deviation from ACD canon. That simply doesn’t happen there; while Holmes is sometimes described as eccentric, no one in the books is ever claiming that Sherlock Holmes has some kind of mental illness leaning towards cruelty and egotism - not even his enemies say this about him. In the show, however, they begin in ASiP with making him torture a dying man for information (something that is not included in the Pilot). And in S3, where they avoid discussing the reason why they turned Mary Morstan into a ruthless assassin, this major shift is glossed over by the fact that in the same episode (HLV) they also turn Sherlock into a murderer, who cold-bloodedly blows the brains out of a blackmailer for threatening to make said assassin’s crimes public.

But without ever getting into the “why” of it all, the cast and crew seem overly happy and smiling describing these rather morbid choices as something positive; “fantastic”, "fresh and new” and "amazing” are their choice of words. Benedict claims that Mary, who has literally shot and almost killed Sherlock in HLV, is now "a new best friend of Sherlock’s”. Amanda claims that Mary “is protecting John” when she shoots Sherlock in the chest. Now they’re both psychopaths, and poor little John is forced to stomach them both because he’s addicted to danger. In Amanda’s words, Mary also “kind of gets in between the two of them, but she wants them to be together as well”. Which is a load of BS considering that Mary tries to kill the protagonist of the story.

Lars Mikkelsen thinks it’s “such a good script” because “you’re mislead as an audience”. But he never gets the chance to expand on what the misleading actually contains, because then Mofftiss cut in to express how much they love playing with “what ifs”. As if this whole mega-budget project of a show were just a big experimental playground without any actual story to tell.

Benedict repeats his line from HLV that Magnussen “preys on people who are different” and Moffat also says he “exploits people who are different”. Which is really confusing, considering what we can see Magnussen actually do in the show. Lady Smallwood and John Garvie are two well-established, powerful governmental politicians whom Magnussen blackmails by finding their respective pressure points. In Garvie’s case his pressure point seems to be alcohol problems in his past, but according to media he’s later arrested on charges of corruption. Lady Smallwood is blackmailed on the basis of her husband having sent compromising letters to a minor many years ago, in spite of later claiming that he thought she was older and stopped when he found out the truth. And then Magnussen is blackmailing an assassin who recently threatened to execute him but shot Sherlock Holmes instead, in order to try to get at Sherlock’s brother Mycroft, another powerful governmental figure.

But what does media seeking out dirt on certain people in power and their families have to do with “people who are different”? Despicable as the method may be, isn’t this unfortunately how political power play usually works in our society? Or are TPTB somehow a repressed minority group now? Unless this whole “people who are different” accusation is actually about something entirely different, something that none of the show makers even cares to mention... ;)

In these DVDs, none of the involved persons is ever discussing the change of roles with regards to canon, though, or the (lack of) logics in this turn of events, or even a hint about the narrative motivation behind them. It’s all about the great Drama, the extraordinary visual effects and the aim to endlessly “surprise the audience”. Which is fine by me to a certain extent, but when this is all that’s being said, it feels extremely superficial, as if the audience is merely seen as a bunch of consumers that have to be triggered more and more by horror, special effects and cliff hangers to be able to appreciate the show. (“Warm paste” indeed, like Gatiss has later criticized some viewers of wanting...) While the "why”; the idea behind this surrealistic adaptation, made by self-proclaimed fanboys of ACD, is not even touched upon. Around this, the silence is total and therefore totally confusing.

Maybe I shouldn’t even go into Series 4...

...but why not, since I’ve already started? :)

First of all, there’s a lot of extra material on this DVD and I particularly love the parts about the music and composing and Arwel Wyn Jones’ work with the design and build-up of John’s and Mary’s flat and the interior of 221B. Those bits are truly enjoyable. What I could live without, though, is the leading commentary that kind of instructs us, the audience, how we should interpret the show.

Benedict is on it again on this DVD, telling us that in TST they picked up where they left off in S3 and “It’s a very happy unit of three people that then become four.” Why does he feel the need to make this statement, considering how S3 ended? Actually, if there’s anything I totally fail to see in S4, it’s happiness. The banter between the three of them may seem entertaining for a while, but who could have a relaxed, warm relationship with someone who tried and almost succeeded to kill you less than a year ago? Without any sign of remorse? Now there’s a dark tone of discomfort and mean jokes that feels forced and not even a bit happy to me.

But Martin tells us how excited John and Mary are about starting a family and Amanda mentions how much they’re looking forward to the baby. Again and again it’s repeated, as though trying to rub it in: “they’re in a good place, they’re a loving, married couple”. Yeah, right - a child that (judging by TSoT) wasn’t at all planned and now with an assassin for a mother... Twice we see the new parents complain that their daughter has the mark of Satan on her forehead and debate which horror movie she’s from. The clichéd hypocrisy of it all is sickening, and I’m willing to bet that it’s really meant to be. ;)

But Gatiss chimes in, deciding for us all that the christening of Rosie is “a funny scene” and “they’re enjoying each other, enjoying being on adventures as a three”.

An interesting detail is that Gatiss also tells us that the working name of this episode was “The Adventure of the Melting power Ranger”. So this little blue guy was that important? :) And - even more interesting - is when he says: “Cake is now the code for violent death”. So how should we interpret Sherlock, John and Molly going out to have cake in TLD then, on Sherlock’s (supposed) birthday?

These might be jokes, though, but when they tell us that Sue cries every time she sees Mary’s death I strongly believe they must be joking. How could anyone feel truly moved by this overly sentimental long monologue where far more efforts are put into reacting to Mary’s speech than saving her life? And John’s mooing like a cow, is that also moving? :)

One thing Martin says about TLD that actually disgusts me is regarding the morgue scene where John assaults Sherlock and Sherlock lets it happen: “From there, really, their relationship can only sort of rebuild, that’s the absolute worst it can get”. As if outright physical abuse would be something that makes you want to rebuild a relationship? Wow - just wow... How far can they go with this crap?

Anyway, when we finally arrive at the absurdity of TFP and Sherlock’s ‘secret sister’, everything is of course discussed as if she actually does exist on the given premises, and everything she does is ‘real’, no matter how impossible it would be in real life. The abandonment of any attempt to have the story line make logical sense is skillfully covered up by more distraction with fascinating technicalities of the film making process. This is where Gatiss makes his now almost classic statement that after Sherlock and John jump out of the window at 221B when a grenade explodes there, it’s just “Boop! And they’re fine.”

Of course there’s no serious attempt at explaining this logically. Except perhaps Gatiss claiming that they both landed on Speedy’s awning - whatever good that would do to them, since the awning is leaning downwards, but never mind... But we never even saw that happen, did we? A great deal of time is then dedicated to show all the precautions to have Martin and Ben jumping safely at low level onto a madras supported by empty cardboard boxes.

Sian Brooke did say something interesting about Sherrinford, however, that got me thinking. She said that Eurus “wants revenge for the years and years that she has been held captive” there, isolated, and that in TFP the Holmes children are now “lab rats” and “it’s an experiment”. On a meta level, I think we can indeed see this episode - and maybe the whole show - as a kind of experiment, but maybe we, the audience, are also lab rats? Since Sherrinford is slightly shaped like a film camera (not commented in the extra material, of course), it leads my thought to all the adaptations through the years and years where Holmes and Watson have not been allowed to be together. A whole century when Sherlock Holmes has been held captive, restricted by the very same sort of heteronormative filter that all this extra material imposes; it’s like Sherrinford, isn’t it? Which gives all the more meaning to Moriarty’s arrival to the island, accompanied by Freddy Mercury’s “I want to break free”...

I think I’ll let the final words in this little exposé come from Mark Gatiss in The Writers’ Chat (my bolding):

“Moriarty is a fascinating thing in that in our sea of ongoing lies, one thing we’ve genuinely been completely consistent about is telling people he’s dead. But no-one believes it! And it’s a rather brilliant thing.” Again - self-congratulatory statements. But instead of providing some actual evidence of the death of this character, who has kept popping up in almost every episode since his supposed demise, they think that the more a confirmed liar repeats something, the truer it gets? And the more we’re supposed to believe them? Well, all we can do is wait and see. :)

Tagging some people who might be interested:

@raggedyblue @ebaeschnbliah @sarahthecoat @gosherlocked @lukessense @sagestreet @thepersianslipper

My earlier meta on a similar topic (X)

#bbc sherlock dvds #Deception in BBC Sherlock

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toxophilitis · 3 years

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The Preacher’s Hot Family

CHAPTER TWO

The next day was Saturday and Tammy was sitting on her front steps, unable to think about anything except what she'd seen in her mother's bedroom the day before. As she stared across the street at Blane Moffat's house, the girl's panties became soaked with the hot juices that were dripping from her pussy. Unable to get the memory of the man's big cock out of her mind, she suddenly noticed Bill Moore and Tony Marlow walking down the street with their baseball bat and gloves. They were two of Tammy's friends who lived just around the corner.

"Hi, Tammy," grinned Bill as they walked up to where she was sitting on the steps.

"Hello," she smiled, her big tits pushing out against the front of her sweater.

"What are you doing?" asked Tony.

"Nothin'."

"Do you have time to jack us off?" whispered Bill, thinking this would be more fun than baseball.

"Sure," she giggled. "As long as you finger-fuck me."

"Where will we go?" asked Tony.

"My folks are gone," she said. "So no one could see us out in my back yard."

Five minutes later, they were in the back yard and the two horny teens were standing bare-assed naked in front of Tammy, their stiff cocks standing out.

"We can't stay too long," panted Tony. "We have to go to baseball practice."

"I'll hurry," Tammy giggled, pulling her sweater off as her big full tits spilled out in front of the teens' excited eyes.

She pulled her jeans down over her slim hips, and then wriggled out of her juice-soaked panties. She was completely naked, and a thin milky stream of hot cunt juice was dribbling down the flesh of her inner thighs.

Tony began unconsciously rubbing his stiff prick as he stared at the slippery juices oozing out from between her passion-swollen cuntlips. He could hardly wait to screw his finger around in her hot pussy.

"Who's first?" she giggled.

"Me!" they both shouted in unison. "Who was first last time?" she asked. "I was," grinned Tony. "Okay," Tammy said. "Then I'll do Bill first."

Bill quickly spread himself out on the grass. His hard prick was pointing straight up in the air. Kneeling beside him, Tammy wrapped her soft fingers around his boner, the thrill of feeling his hard cock sending a sudden spurt of pussy juice out of her dripping pussy.

Sliding the foreskin up and down over his quivering cockhead, she could vividly see her mother's lips sucking on Blane Moffat's big hard prick. Without even thinking, she lowered her head and flicked the tip of her tongue across Bill's swollen prick-knob.

"Jesus!" he panted. "What the fuck are you doin'?"

"Licking your cock," she giggled. "Jeez," the young man said. "I never heard of anyone doin' that to a guy's pisser."

"Lots of people do it," Tammy said. "I can even jack you off with my mouth."

"You can?"

"Sure," grinned the girl, her pussy itching with excitement. "D'ya want me to jack you off with my mouth?"

"How can you do that?" he asked, completely confused by what the girl was saying and doing.

"I can make you squirt jizz by sucking on your prick," she explained. "And it even feels better."

"No shit?" he gasped, having never heard of a blow-job.

"No shit," Tammy giggled. "Wanta try it?"

"Hell, yes," he grinned, thinking it might be fun.

Moving down between his legs, she lowered her mouth toward his stiff prick.

"Tony," she said to the other teen, "why don't you finger-fuck my pussy while I suck Bill off?"

"Okay," he said, kneeling behind her upturned ass and thrusting his middle finger deeply into the hot, mushy flesh of her horny cunt.

"Mmmmmmmmm, that feels good," she whispered. "Now finger-fuck me good."

Leaning over and brushing her softly parted lips over the head of Bill's cock, she was thrilled by the pungent male aroma and the taste of his prick. Happy that his prick was a strange but good flavor, she began swirling her hot wet tongue all over the sensitive surface of his cockhead. Seeing the excited expression on Bill's face, she gave him a naughty smile and began running her tongue up and down the entire length of his tasty cock.

"Jeez, Tammy!" gasped the teen. "I've never felt anything so fuckin' good in my life."

She could feel his body jerking and his prick swelling and throbbing as she continued teasing her wet tongue around the base of his cockknob. Then, slowly lowering her lips, she took all of his spit-soaked cockhead into her hot mouth. She could hear him whimpering with joy as her soft lips closed over his swollen prick. Tightening her lips around the base of his cock, she kept his cock securely inside her hotly sucking mouth. Now she knew why her mom had enjoyed sucking Blane off so much. There was something about the texture and taste of a prick that was just out of this world.

Sucking excitedly on his cock, the horny girl could hardly wait to find out what his cum would taste like. If the flavor was anything like that of his prick, she knew she would love his jism.

"Oh, shit!" gasped Bill, staring down at his stiff fucker buried in the girl's hot sucking mouth.

"D'ya like it?" she giggled, momentarily removing her mouth from his prick.

"God, yes!" he panted. "But I'm gonna shoot off in a minute."

"That's what I want you to do," she said. "Give me a nice big mouthful of jizz!"

"Do you really want me to shoot my gooey jizz into your mouth?"

"Sure," she laughed. "Why do you think. I'm suckin' your cock?"

"Okay," he grinned. "If that's what you want."

Once more lowering her mouth down over his prick, she could feel Tony's finger fucking in and out of her tingling cunt slit at an ever increasing speed. The quiet morning air was broken only by the wet slurping sound of her lips sucking noisily on his prick and the squishing of Tony's finger fucking in and out of her hotly dripping cunt.

Feeling his throbbing cock sliding back and forth over her tongue, Tammy hoped she was doing it right. She knew how disappointed he would be if she couldn't bring him off in her mouth. Bobbing her head up and down, she was taking his prick deeper and deeper until she could feel his smooth cocktip nudging at the back of her throat. Every time she raised up, her lips sucked and pulled on his sensitive cockshaft, making his cock tingle with excitement.

"Suck, Tammy, suck!" he cried out, almost out of his mind with the intense ecstasy of her wildly sucking mouth working on his cock. Frantically grasping at her tousled blonde hair, he began pumping her head up and down over his quivering prickshaft.

"Suck it, Tammy! Suck it!" he moaned, his lurching hips driving his cock in and out of her mouth. His breath was coming in short hot gasps, and his fingers were curled in her hair, pushing her mouth down tighter over his jerking fuck-rod.

"Suck, for shit's sake, suck!" he shouted, almost out of his mind from the wild rapture. "I'm almost there! Oh, shit, almost there!"

Tammy was as wildly aroused as he was. Tony's finger-fucking was bringing her closer and closer to a climax as she continued sucking on Bill's hot boner.

"Ooooooooh, shiiiiiiit!" cried Bill, grasping her head again and slamming her mouth down over his cum-spurting cockhead. "I'm shootin'! I'm shootin'!"

For the first time in her life, the girl felt hot jizz splattering at the back of her throat. His cum was thick, slippery and stringy, but so good. She sucked and swallowed frantically as spurt after spurt of the delicious cock cream shot out of his jerking prick. Her mouth was still filling up with his cum when the thrilling friction of Tony's finger-fucking brought her to a wild orgasm.

When the intense climax finally ended, she collapsed on Bill's limp body, his soft dripping prick still in her mouth.

"Shit," panted the teen. "That was really neat. How did my jizz taste?"

"I love it," she grinned, licking the milky film of cum from her slippery lips.

"Is it my turn now?" asked Tony, pulling his juice-soaked finger from the wet hotness of her tight pussy.

"It sure is," she grinned.

The girl had really enjoyed the way he had finger-fucked her. But after seeing her mother with Blane, Tammy knew she needed something more than a finger in her cunt.

"Tony," she said excitedly, "have you ever fucked a girl?"

"God, no."

"Would you like to fuck me?" Tammy asked.

"Gee, I dunno." He hesitated. "I wouldn't know... how to do it."

"Me either," she giggled, thinking about Blane's big cock in her mother's pussy. "But we sure as hell can try."

"Do you think I should?" Tony asked Bill. "Hell, yes," grinned Bill, excitedly licking his lips. "I sure would if I had a hard-on."

"Come on," whispered Tammy, rolling onto her back as she lewdly opened her legs for him. "It'll be fun."

Staring down between her widely spread legs, Tony could see her open cuntlips dripping with pussy juices. Her slippery cunt looked so inviting that he could hardly wait to stick his cock in it.

"Okay," he grinned, dropping to his knees between her legs.

"Oh, Tony," she panted, taking his stiff boner in her hand. "I can't believe we're really gonna fuck."

The girl's trembling fingers guided his throbbing cock toward her dripping cunt slit. She shuddered with excitement when she felt his hard prick against the juicy opening of her slippery cunt.

Bracing his hands on the lawn, Tony eased his hips forward, forcing the head of his cock up between her hot juicy cuntlips.

"Ooooooh, Tony," she whimpered, feeling his prick fucking into her tight pussy. She hadn't expected his prick to feel so big and hard in her pussy, and she grasped him tightly in her arms to keep him from fucking in any deeper.

"Don't move," she whispered. "Just hold still for a minute."

Grasping him tightly in her arms, Tammy was hoping the awful pain would go away. When her tense body began to relax, the girl could feel the discomfort slowly fading. Carefully raising her hips, she grasped his taut asscheeks and slowly pulled his cock a bit deeper into her virginal fuck-hole. As his cock slowly worked up through her tight hot cuntal passage, the initial pain of his penetration seemed to disappear completely, leaving her with a delightful feeling of fullness.

"Oh, Tony," she whispered when her cunt had taken the full length of his throbbing prick. "I think we're gonna like this."

Feeling the soft hotness of her juicy pussy squeezing his hard fuck-tool, the teen remained perfectly still, luxuriating in the hot depths of her fuck-hole. With his prick in a girl's pussy for the first time in his life, the feel of her moist hot cunt flesh squeezing around his boner felt fantastic to the teen. The entire length of his cock was tingling wildly. Tony had often fantasized about fucking when he jacked off, but in his wildest imagination, he had never dreamed that a cunt could feel so fucking good.

The teen thought he would blow his mind when Tammy began rotating her ass beneath him while her cuntlips squeezed and sucked on to base of his deeply buried cockshaft. Unable to control himself, the teen began fucking his stiff cock in and out of the girl's tight cunt slit.

"Mmmmmmm," she whimpered, wrapping her legs around his waist. "This feels so good. Jesus, I love to fuck."

Pounding his brand new hard-on, Bill was excitedly watching his friend as he fucked his cock in and out of Tammy's slippery pussy. The expressions on their lust-distorted faces told him how much they were enjoying the fucking. Their naked bodies were writhing hotly together as his friend's hard cock fucked in and out of the squealing girl's juicy pussy. The nipples of Tammy's big tits were rubbing against Tony's bare chest. Bill began beating his meat even harder as he watched the expression on Tammy's face. Her eyes were rolled back, her soft moist lips parted, and she was moaning passionately as her head flopped from side to side. Bill could hardly wait for his buddy to finish fucking so he could ram his own hard cock up Tammy's pussy.

Clinging tightly to each other, the teens were fucking up a storm as Tony drove his virile prick in and out of her squeezing, milking cunt slit at an increasing tempo. This being the first time that either of the girls had ever experienced such intense pleasure, they were both squealing with joy. His balls were slapping against the juice-smeared cheeks of her bare ass as his hard prick drove into her tight fuck-hole.

"Oh, Tony!" she squealed as she fucked back at him for all she was worth. "We're really fuckin', honey! We're really fuckin'!"

"I know! I know!" he gasped, fucking his cock harder and deeper into her hot juicy pussy. "I've never felt anything so shittin' good in my life!"

"It's so good!" she sobbed. "Just keep fuckin' me forever!"

On and on they fucked, neither of them able to comprehend the intense rapture they were feeling. The ecstasy was so overwhelming that they couldn't fully understand what was happening to them. With every fuck-thrust of his prick, this newfound ecstasy was building.

"Oh, shit! Oh, fuck!" she shrieked as his driving cock slowly turned her writhing body into a mass of molten lust. "I can't believe it! I can't believe it can be so fuckin' good!"

"You better believe it," he gasped. "We really are fuckin'."

"I know! I know!" she squealed, writhing her frothy cunt slit up tighter around the base of his plunging prick. The top ridge of his hard cock was rubbing against her tingling clit, sending sparks of ecstasy to every nerve in her body. The wild fucking was almost more than she could stand, yet she wanted more and more fucking.

Bill was still stroking his hard-on as he watched his friend's stiff fucker zipping in and out between Tammy's slippery pussylips. He could see that the aroused blonde was almost out of her mind as she squealed, thrashed and bucked under Tony. God, how Bill wished it was his own cock fucking in and out of her cunt. The entire length of his friend's boner was coated with the juices that were flowing out of Tammy's cock-squeezing pussy. Bill could see the girl's hot juicy cuntlips sucking and grasping at the sensitive flesh of his friend's prick, and he could vicariously feel her cuntlips squeezing against his own tingling cock.

"Fuck, Tony, fuck!" shrieked Tammy, the intense ecstasy building up in her steaming loins. "Fuck harder, Tony! Don't ever stop!"

Unaware of what he was doing, the inexperienced teen raised his hips a bit, and his cock set up a friction against her clit that was unbelievable. His cock was sawing deliciously against her hard clit, almost blowing the girl's mind.

"Oh, God!" she screamed. "Oh, my God! Eeeeeeegggggghhh!"

"Does it hurt? Should I stop?" Tony asked.

"No! No! Don't stop!" she squealed. "Just keep fuckin'!"

Tony was enjoying his first piece of ass. In his wildest dreams, he had never imagined that fucking could feel this fantastic.

"Fuck, Tony, fuck!" whimpered Tammy, clutching him tighter in her arms. "Fuck me good, Tony! Fuck it to me!"

The unbelievable pleasure was so intense that Tammy felt as if her body might explode. She was so carried away by her wild passions that she didn't even realize the shrill screams she was hearing were coming from her own throat.

Suddenly, she felt Tony's hot jizz gushing up into her belly. The strange feel of his hot cum spewing out against the slippery walls of her cunt triggered her very first cock-induced climax.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" she shrieked, her legs waving crazily in the air. "I'm coming! Oh, God! Oh, God! I'm coming all over your beautiful cock! Ooooooooh, I'm coming! Coming!"

Clutching him tightly in her arms, she was floating on a cloud of ecstasy as his prick continued pumping her pussy full of jizz.

"Oh, Tony," she whimpered, covering his mouth with her hot open lips as she passionately sucked on his tongue. "That was so fuckin' good!"

Unable to stand it any longer, Bill pulled his friend off the girl's naked body.

"Hi," Tammy giggled when she saw Bill crawling up between her legs. "Are you gonna fuck me, too?"

"You bet I am!" he panted, guiding his throbbing cock toward her cum-drenched pussy.

"That's good," she giggled. "I want you to just fuck the shit out of me."

Placing the head of his cock against her cum-soaked cunt, Bill lunged forward, driving the length of his fuck-tool deep into her scalding pussy.

"Ooooooh. Bill!" she moaned when he began fucking his hard cock in and out. "I think fucking's the neatest thing in the whole world."

When the teens had finally gone and Tammy lay exhausted on the back lawn, she glanced up and saw her Uncle Will staring at her through the kitchen window. He was her father's oldest brother who lived only a few blocks away and often dropped in unannounced.

As Tammy hurriedly put her clothes back on, her uncle walked out into the yard where she was.

"That was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," the man said with perspiration standing out on his bald head. "And you're the daughter of a fine preacher!"

"I'm sorry," she whispered, tears of shame welling up in her eyes. "But please don't tell my father."

"I don't know what I'm going to do," he said, turning to leave. "I'm going to think it over tonight and I want you to come over to my house right after church tomorrow. By then I'll have made up my mind what to do about it."

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ot3-watch · 3 years

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Episode 1: The Nigerian Job Rewatch

Nate is so far beyond done at this point it’s hilarious. “I want to hire you” “FUCK OFF MAN I’M BUSY DRINKING MYSELF TO AN EARLY GRAVE”

“I need you to steal them back…” WTF DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN VICTOR? WHAT, DID YOU THINK THE BEST INSURANCE INVESTIGATOR WASN’T GOING TO FIGURE OUT YOU WERE GOING TO DOUBLE CROSS HIM? He’s so stupid I can’t.

“Parker is insane.” No. She just has a little trouble. Don’t DO THIS to her Nate.

“They work alone,” not for looong.

And… there it is! IYS. The most overused villains and this coming from a doctor who fan who sat through the daleks coming back EVERY SINGLE SEASON after being destroyed

Why do they all sound so weird? Like the dialogue does NOT sound normal

How tf did Eliot win in that scene tho? We see how long it takes him to fight later on like I just do not get it. ANd the tea isn’t even scathed? How? Everyone talks about The Big Bang Job’s shootout scene as being super unrealistic, but honestly, it barely registers compared to this one.

“You’re precisely why I work alone.” Yeah, because you’re at risk of falling in love otherwise Mr. Heart Eyes.

I’m remembering how much I did NOT like Parker in the beginning and I don’t like that. I love Parker but early Parker was eh.

PARKER YOU CAN’T JUST THROW THE GLASS. THAT’S EVIDENCE PARKER. YOU COULD KILL SOMEONE PARKER. SOMEONE’S GOING TO KNOW PARKER.

You expect me to believe that Parker is a world class thief who wouldn’t think to count the haircuts? They keep making everyone else look dumber to make Nate look smarter which makes NO SENSE because honestly, it makes it hard to believe that the other three survived on their own without Nate to guide them. WHICH THEY DID! AND THEY WERE THE BEST IN THE WORLD AT WHAT THEY DID. WTF

“That’s what I do.” AKA THE MOMENT ALEC HARDISON BECOMES AN ELIOT STAN

JENNY 8675309????

“I know you children don’t play well with others” He’s already a dad i can’t.

If they knew about this plan and had the materials to pull it off, why did no one think of it?

ALSO HOW TF DO THEY GET THE MAKE UP ON SO QUICKLY IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE

How did the burn scam even work? Like i get it, make him uncomfortable so he won’t ask questions but like… they thought no one was in the building? The elevators were shut down? Why did he not question it? How stupid????

The black king/white knight metaphor was honestly the worst part of the first episode like it bothers me so much and I cannot effectively come close to explaining why

Where does Nate live? Why is his place so fancy? HE’S UNEMPLOYED RIGHT NOW AND BANKRUPTED HIMSELF TRYING TO HELP SAM. “It’s a hotel,” my sister says. IN WHAT WORLD DOES THAT LOOK LIKE A HOTEL ROOM? ANd that doesn’t explain how he affords a hotel room that nice.

….Why didn’t Eliot just disarm Hardison? We know he can. I don’t get it.

If you knew the place was gonna blow, why didn’t you run Nate? WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS NATE

Eliot’s already putting himself in danger to help Hardison up. YOUR HONOR THEY’RE IN LOVE. THEY’VE KNOWN EACH OTHER LESS THAN 24 HOURS AND THEY’RE IN LOVE.

“Do you trust me?” NO. NO NATE. NO I FUCKING DON’T.

I feel like passing that phone through the grate should not have worked.

YEAH HARDISON. MUG IT FOR THE CAMERA

Eliot’s accent I LOVE HIM “Can you hold, son?” FOREVER FOR YOU.

How are the state police so fucking stupid i can’t

They literally… they just dumb everyone down to make Nate look smarter and it SUCKS

Ah, the first Hardison safe house.

“You won’t get within 100 yards” HE’S ELIOT FUCKING SPENCER I BET YOU ANYTHING HE CAN

“He didn’t pay us… I take that personally.” I-- Parker if you’re dead you can’t make more money. Parker? It’s important to me that you know this, Parker.

The websites they’re looking at are so obviously fake.

Nate? Nate it’s just a picture. DUbenich can’t hear you, Nate.

“He used my son” I cannot explain how much overexposure has made me NOT CARE ABOUT FUCKING SAM

“What the hecks a Sophie” That, Eliot. That’s a Sophie.

Honestly? My favorite character introduction in this episode.

WHY DO THEY ALL TALK SO WEIRD IN THIS EPISODE? THEIR VOICES ARE SO OFF WHAT THE FUCK?

“I’m a citizen now. Honest.” YEAH FUCKING RIGHT IN WHAT WORLD

Eliot with the snacks, he’s always bringing food to his fam it’s amazing

“That’s an odd thing for you to know” “That’s an odd place for you to be” ...why am i reading a sexy sort of tension in there???

And Nate’s SMILING at it

Ok but how does Nate know about plane schematics?

Sophie’s accent… none of them are that accurate but this one felt especially weird

Eliot playing the IT tech is everything

Also the reference to the IT Crowd by Parker is *chef’s kiss*

HE’S SO CUTE THOUGH

I’m just a simp for Eliot Spencer okay?

“I know you’re manipulating me, Anna.” Yeah but you’re still gonna fall for it, aren’t you? You stupid, stupid man.

Eliot’s so sweet though. He’s just trying to make friends.

Like really though, he’s so standoffish and stoic, but the second he has the chance, he tries to bond and he’s so gregarious. Like, it makes so much sense that he has so many friends all over he place.

“Eliot, we’re not friends,” STOP BEING AN ASSHOLE NATE. I HATE YOU NATE. HE’S JUST TRYING TO BE YOUR FRIEND NATE.

Hardison gliding by in the wheelie chair… he’s such a goof and a mood and i love him.

...Hardison… Hardison you can hack anything… Hardison why didn’t you put them in the building directory? IT’S A DIGITAL DIRECTORY YOU COULD HAVE DONE IT THIS WAS SO UNNECESSARY

Nate, EVERYONE CAN SEE YOU!! hoW DOES HE NOT GET ARRESTED???

THERE”S A COP CAR RIGHT THERE HOW THE FUCK DID THAT WORK

...is there anyone Sophie doesn’t have sexual chemistry with in this episode? Like, seriously, i think it’s just Hardison. She and Nate are obvious, and she and Eliot have that moment, and then… did they not put them in the directory just to have Parker and Sophie make heart eyes at each other for a few seconds?

HOW DID ANYONE WATCH THIS SHOW AND EVER THINK SOPHIE AND PARKER WERE STRAIGHT THO

Dubenich sounds like Wallace Shawn and looks like Stephen Moffat and I HATE HIM. Wallace Shawn is great, and i love him but DUBENICH CAN DIE

This looks like such a boring party why would anyone want to be there. THERE’S DAY DRINKING FOR GOODNESS SAKE EWWW WHY (okay maybe i just hate alcohol. I hate it more in professional settings.)

“Sir, I can take your underpants.” OKAY HIGGINS. WEIRD FLEX BUT OKAY.

Parker and Hardison look so smug walking out of the building i love it.

...why don’t you want the money Nate? YOU COULD GET A LOT MORE MONEY NATE. TAKE THE GODDAMNED MONEY NATE

And today on “I Will Never Understand the Way the Stock Market Works…” Like i get the basic idea but like… how do you make money if it’s gonna fall that much? HOw.. how does this work?

NO THAT IS NOT AN INVITATION TO EXPLAIN ECONOMICS TO ME I DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE STOCK MARKET

“Somebody kiss this man so I don’t have to” you will. One day, Eliot, you will.

So, fun fact. Supposedly, their score was $32,761,349.05 each. Which doesn’t really seem like a lot of money to me? Like, at least definitely not enough for Nate to do with it what he does? Like, maybe I just have a really difficult time fathoming that much money? Like, don’t get me wrong, I’d love just a taste of that but like, also? It really seems like not so much? … And further on “This blogger does not understand budgeting.”

ELIOT JUST ADMIT YOU WANT PART OF A TEAM

WHY DOES SOPHIE SOUND SO WEIRD??? WHAT THE FUCK

Okay, also, i have a question. These people, at the end, this is their first client, right? So why does it look like they haven’t seen each other since they took down Dubenich in the homecoming job? WHAT?

The SUITS THO

OKAY FINAL THOUGHTS: 6/10. Not the best Leverage episode, and certainly not the best character episode. There were a LOT of kinks to work out. Things got sorted too well. And I REALLY HATE NATE THIS EARLY ON. I’ve also never loved the “this guy is an asshole but he’s smarter than everyone else and really good at what he does so it’s fine” trope that you see in so many shows like Leverage. And they really really dumb people down early on to make him seem smarter. But like… there’s a reason I kept watching, you know? Also... I remember why it took me a while to warm up to Parker and Sophie. LIke, they’re badass but I still took a while and I remember why.

#leverage #leverage ot3 #leverage rewatch #eliot spencer #alec hardison #parker #nathan ford #sophie devereaux #pilot episode #the nigerian job

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anncanta · 3 years

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‘Dracula’ and ‘Doctor Who’. Blood is testimony

Stephen Moffat is often accused of using similar plots, repeating the same plot lines, and returning to a number of his favorite ideas.

Moffat really develops a certain set of specific, quite recognizable topics, and in his different scripts, he one way or another tells similar stories.

But with his recurring motives and ideas, as, indeed, with another stuff, not everything is so simple.

First, the outstanding authors are most often accompanied by craving for certain narratives and archetypal forms, as well as cross-cutting themes. Some of this authors create ‘frames’ for these ideas in the form of multivolume novels or novel cycles, others devote wreaths of sonnets and collections of stories to their favorite topic, and others choose whole genres for reflection on issues that are important to them. I think that none of those reading this article will have any difficulties with examples.

Secondly, there are not so many really interesting stories.

And thirdly, repetitions can be different. Like any feature, it can exist on its own, or it can – if the author has a large-scale talent – become another way to tell a story like no one else do.

In Stephen Moffat's case, we are dealing with a very unique situation where the author's stories are literally read through one another.

I will make a separate reservation: I am not talking about postmodern ‘intertextuality’ – a vile definition for references and quotations that have existed in literature since the emergence of storytelling and are news only for postmodernists themselves – but about a peculiar use of certain plots and motives.

If you want, you can find a huge number of such things in Moffat's scripts. The viewers who have been closely following his work since the period when he became the showrunner of Doctor Who will immediately name a dozen of them. But I would like to dwell on one example – the newest one for today.

When the TV series Dracula by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss was released on BBC and Netflix in 2020, some viewers noted the similarity of its style, and in some places, the plot outline, with Doctor Who, and directly called the main character of the film, Agatha Van Helsing, the female version of the Doctor.

The first is obvious, and the second is quite understandable in light of the two years earlier release (absolutely disastrous, in my opinion) of the eleventh and twelfth seasons of Doctor Who.

But the beauty of both Moffat's game and the whole story is that there`s not Agatha who is the Doctor here.

Yes, by all appearances, it is this brave, interested in science, well acquainted with evil, fighting against it and even – partly – traveling through time, the heroine who seems most suitable for the role of the Doctor in the new setting. There was a calculation for this: Moffat, during his time as the showrunner of the series, who, it seems, tried all the plot possibilities except this one, and who left on the eve of the epochal transformation of the character, it would seem, had to offer the audience his version of the female Doctor. Well, he did: on the surface. As if he said: ‘Here is a heroine with such qualities. This is how you imagine her, isn`t it? Well, get it.’

And inside this shell, as inside the unfortunate Jonathan Harker (Moffat, as a true Briton, uses materialized metaphors and often literally shows what he means), there is another story.

In order to understand it, you need to take a close look at Dracula and – at Doctor Who written by Moffat.

With Dracula everything is simple. As soon as you start looking for the main character of this film who: a) lives for several centuries; b) collects human stories; c) travels in time; d) always has one or more people next to him – you instantly find him. And if you've watched an entire episode and a half and still don't understand anything, in the middle of the second one you will hear a direct quote.

'The sophistication of a gentleman, Agatha, is always a veneer.'

'Even a gentleman like Mr. Balaur?'

'Mr. Who?'

But that's just one detail.

A deeper level opens if you try to read Dracula through Doctor Who itself.

In the Christmas special Twice upon a time, which ends the last season, written by Stephen Moffat, the plot is centered on the Doctor's encounter with strange creatures, as if made of glass, which are living vaults of memory. The episode itself is full of layered ideas and references. But for us now only one dimension is important.

At the very end of the special, the Doctor addresses the glass creatures with an ardent speech – one of those that he loves so much.

‘You're just memories, held in glass. Do you know how many of you I could fill? I would shatter you. My testimony would shatter all of you. A life this long, do you understand what it is? It's a battlefield. And it's empty. Because everyone else has fallen.’

Does this remind you of anything?

It seems to me that this is a literal description of what is happening with Dracula.

What he says throughout the film, and what Agatha did not understand even at the end, because in order to understand this, you had to live his life.

And in order to understand this whole context, you need to understand that the Doctor was never a good guy. He always said this to everyone but no one believed him.

No one believed the stories of the horror before which entire civilizations tremble, about a creature that destroyed its entire species in order to stop the most destructive war in history, about the person who does not need weapons so that the captains of warships flocked from the most distant corners of the Universe, after listening to him for a couple of minutes, ran away without looking back.

The Doctor was never a good guy, but just as important, he always knew it. For the Doctor of Russell T. Davis, this position looks like a fact with which neither the character himself nor the people around him and aliens are very inclined to interact. I guess it’s a matter of Davis’ very outlook on the story and perhaps his own worldview.

But the Doctor of Moffat is a hero who lives with this knowledge and with the impossibility of passing this knowledge on to others.

Because the Doctor is always the one they are waiting for, the one they go to for advice, the one with whom they travel around the Universe, the one who opens the door to the magical world, the one they hope for.

He is never the one who sits on the roof of the TARDIS, surrounded by the loneliness of the starry sky. Not someone who lives longer than any human being, not someone who knows what it means to make monstrous decisions in circumstances that most of us cannot imagine.

And the one in whom there is so much testimony that it is able to break the vessel that they will try to fill with.

In Dracula, all these details, motives, and meanings are repeated sequentially.

The most obvious is ‘blood is testimony’. This is not self-quotation, as it might seem, but a literal proposal of the author to look in a certain direction.

The blood in Dracula is not only memory. It's also a way to watch. And to see a bright and diverse world, which otherwise would have become boring long ago.

In the fifth season of Doctor Who, there is a moment when Eleventh says to Amy Pond, ‘You don't understand. I have the whole Universe in my backyard. I'm used to it. I don’t notice it. But when you appear, I look with your eyes. And it becomes a miracle again.’*

In this sense, the ‘brides’ and everyone that Dracula ate are in some way his companions. If you remember what a great sense of guilt towards most of his companions the Doctor felt and how some of them ended up, the comparison turns out to be not so poor.

Dracula, like the Doctor, has companions with whom he has a very special relationship that he cannot explain to himself. He travels through time and space, discovering one day that all human experience is stored and cataloged somewhere in his head, and there is nothing new.

And – as is often the case in Moffat's stories – here one character completes and harmoniously implements a theme started by another.

If the Doctor, being who he is, and fully aware of this, tormented by endless insatiable loneliness and memories of life as an empty battlefield, invariably continues the path that seems to him more and more meaningless, then Dracula decided to end the life like that.

And all this, the whole story, is organized as a transition, as a movement forward and backward in time, which unites and brings to life what is dissolved, inherent, basically exists, and ‘spilled’ in blood. The blood here is also the same as the space in the Doctor Who, it is the Universe, which belongs to everyone and flows inside everyone, and inside which everyone exists, and which determines everyone. In order for blood to become an individuality, it takes time, a specific moment at which each specific individuality comes to the surface. So, for example, the return of Agatha takes place. There must be something she wants to come back for. Like the TARDIS, blood is always within us and speaks through us. In the case of Dracula and Agatha, this is their bond, their love for each other. Even if this love is unaware, – sometimes the TARDIS acts on her own and travels wherever she wants, forcing the Doctor and his companions to act in the circumstances she suggests.

And all this, this whole context, the whole story, with all its dimensions and additional meanings, became possible only due to the fact that Stephen Moffat, the author of both series, is not afraid to describe ambiguous heroes, to reflect out loud on their adventures, and – sometimes – to repeat.

* The words of Eleventh quoted from memory.

#dracula 2020 #bbc dracula #count dracula #agatha van helsing #doctor who #moffat

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vanhelsingenthusiast · 4 years

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Boring Draculas

Ok this is gonna be a rant so just buckle up.

Is it just me or are there so many Draculas that are just,,,,,,boring? Like, not the adaptation as a whole, but just the Dracula himself. The 2020 Netflix adaptation comes to mind.

Idk how to explain it other than some Draculas just aren’t interesting. Sometimes he’s not creepy enough (I do love me some creepy Dracula), sometimes he’s just very one-dimensional. Idk. I think some writers just give him fangs and some quippy one liners and think that’s enough to make him interesting and,,,,,it’s not??

And it low-key sucks because Dracula is such an interesting character in the book. He’s creepy, he’s eccentric, he’s intelligent (even if he acts like a dumbass most of the time), he’s powerful. Like in the book we do get a good chunk of back story for him, but it’s also fairly vague and there’s a lot to work with and build upon. We get some of his personality, some of what makes him tick, but there’s still so much to build upon and work with that reducing him to this quippy antihero is just,,,,,,,so boring!!!

In the book he didn’t even have that many one-liners. A lot of his lines were monologues. Where’s my nerdy Drac who is obsessed with family history and will infodump to anyone about it within earshot? Where’s the Drac who loves to learn and wants to consume all the information he can about any given topic?

Where’s my creepy Drac who will give you a dead rat as a present and think it’s acceptable? Where’s my Drac who has, like, a necklace of human teeth or something? Or human body parts in a jar on the mantle of his fireplace.

Where’s my genuinely scary/evil Drac who has so little regard for human life he can’t even understand why murder might be bad? Where’s my Drac who watches you with unblinking eyes as you move around the room?

Where’s my Drac who isn’t super “sexy” and is actually scary to look at? With teeth that are a little too sharp, eyes that are a little too big, and not the right color. Hair that falls the wrong way, skin that seems almost translucent in the light.

WHERE’S MY DRACULA WHO’S ACTUALLY GAY/BI/PAN/ANYTHING NOT STR8 AND NOT “BI-HOMICIDAL” OR WHATEVER THE FUCK? Like the whole story was written in response to Stoker’s own internalized homophobia and how traumatizing the Wilde trials were for him, so can someone actually incorporate LGBTQ+ themes into the story in a way that isn’t incredibly homophobic? (I’m looking at you, D*cre Stoker, St*ven Moffat, and M*rk Gatiss).

Like. Why are all Dracs just reduced to sexy antiheros? He has so much potential and adaptors really just said “What if he was a sexy str8 man who sometimes drank blood?”

Anyways. I just needed to rant and I didn’t wanna annoy my gf.

#dracula #count dracula #rant #idk #like dont get me wrong i do love seeing lots of different dracs #but sometimes hes just boring af!!!!#give him something!!!!!!#tw homophobia mention #tw dacre stoker mention #tw mark gatiss mention #tw steven moffat warning #also i should say i do like stories that make him less evil than the book did #some of yall did this man dirty and im upset #bram stokers dracula

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ebaeschnbliah · 5 years

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When a tyre lever isn’t a tyre lever

________________________________________________________________

MARY: What is that?! JOHN: It’s a tyre lever. MARY: Why? JOHN: ’Cause there were loads of smackheads in there, and one of them might need help with a tyre.

That’s really an interesting little scene. One character asks explicitly for the name of a certain thing, another character answers that question and even mentions the usage of said thing. ‘Easy-peasy’ one might say. There’s a small problem though …. that tyre lever isn’t a tyre lever at all. What John, the cyclist, calls a tyre lever, is actually a lug wrench.

TBC below the cut …

A lug wrench is the name for a type of socket wrench used to loosen and tighten lug nuts on automobile wheels. Lug wrenches may be L-shaped, or X-shaped. The form commonly found in car trunks is an L-shaped metal rod with a socket wrench on the bent end and a prying tip on the other end. (X) (Video: How to use a lug wrench)

Nowadays (since the shift to tubeless tires for automobiles in the late 1950s) tyre levers are generally bicycle tools. They are used for those tires which have a separate inner tube. They can have a hooked C-shape cut into one end of the iron so that it may be hooked on a bicycle spoke to hold it in place (X) (Video: How to use a tyre lever)

Interesting, isn’t it? Dialogue and visuals don’t fit together at all. Neither shape, size nor usage are similar. A tyre lever is mostly used with bicycles, a lug wrench with cars. English isn’t my native language, that’s why I haven’t noticed this sooner. I simply trusted John’s (the storytellers) words and assumed ‘tyre lever’ is the english word for what is called ‘Radmutternschlüssel’ in german language. @gosherlocked came up with the idea to take a look into the german version of HLV to see how the translation had been handled here. A really good idea!

The german synchro uses the term ‘Schraubenschlüssel’ (wrench) for the thing John shoves into his trousers. That’s not correct but near the mark, because a wrench is used for the same purpose as a lug wrench … to loosen or tighten nuts. The correct term ‘Radmutternschlüssel’ would have been too long and therefore not fitting for the corresponding lip movements of the actor.

The german subtitles on the other hand, use the term ‘Montiereisen’ which is indeed a tyre lever.

Audio and subtitles of the UK original use both the term ‘tyre lever’.

This discrepancy regarding the german version most likely happened because synchro works with visuals and audio, while subtitles simply translate the script. Two different departments and both got it more or less right …. but both departments haven’t noticed the ‘mistake’ created through the interplay of visuals and audio in the original scene.

It’s hard to believe that someone from the set-department would put a lug wrench into the car, when the script requires a tyre lever. And why would the writers, or anyone else, assume that the much smaller tyre lever (length of a pencil) is a suitable weapon for protection? John is a cyclist who rides to work every day with his bike. Shouldn’t it be obvious that he knows a tool used for changing bicycle tyres or tubes? Mary is, allegedly, a superagent. Wouldn’t any frist-class spy be able to distinguish a tyre lever from a lug wrench? Are spys never faced with the problem of a flat tyre? Why does she have to ask for the name of the thing John shoves into his trousers?

On the other hand, the correct name of that object could indeed be of no importance at all, if it serves as a metaphor for John’s penis. In this case a lug wrech is definitely much more impressing than the considerable smaller tyre lever. I somehow doubt that anyone would find a tyre lever ‘a tiny bit sexy’. :)

Drugs, blades and beatings

The tyre lever which is actually a lug wrench, plays a noticable role in HLV, even if it never gets used as weapon.

John enters a drug house in search for a junkie. He gets attacked by junkie ‘Bill’ with a blade. He disarms and beats the junkie.

Sherlock is high on drugs. He gets beaten two times at two different occasion by doctor Molly Hooper who acts as a mirror for John.

Similar scenes resurface episodes later, in TLD when Sherlock, the junkie ‘William’, is high on drugs. He wields a blade and attacks a man who acts as a mirror for John. Sherlock gets disarmed and beaten severely by John ‘are you really a doctor’ Watson.

The other beating

During the torture scene in the Serbian dungeon (TEH), an object is used to beat Sherlock, which resembles very much the lug wrench from HLV, though it’s most likely a water pipe. As mentioned in this old post, it would have been easy to choose a club or something else for this purpose instead of that lug wrench-like object. It’s also interesting to take a closer look at the special light effect on the second pic below …. it’s green and eye-shaped, with Sherlock’s bent head representing a pupil.

Recently I rewatched the TAB Post Mortem Interview and one particular point caught my attention. Steven Moffat explains what acutally happens inside the crypt when Sherlock meets the women who call themselves ‘sisters’:

“That’s not what happens in the scene. Even within the dream, he (Sherlock) is explaining it to dr Watson, not to the women present. And in fact he is only talking to himself. He is the only real person there. This is Sherlock Holmes beating himself up for how he’s treated the women in his life.” (listen at 33.39)

I wouldn’t be surprised if this statement applies to all the other beating scenes of Sherlock BBC as well, and maybe even to the whole story. Who are the women in Sherlock’s life? What is it they represent? I always assumed it can only be emotions (x). The secret cult of the ‘sisters’, founded by Emelia Ricoletti, the ghost-bride, whose graveston displays the words ‘beloved sister’ …. the sister who had been turned into a ghost story … Eurus. Sherlock tortured by his own emotions.

The ‘key’ in his hand

While tortured in the Serbian dungeon Sherlock holds the key to his chains in his own hand, crowned by a rainbow flair.

It is known that the creators of Sherlock BBC love to play with the meaning and double meaning of words. Like: nuns/sisters, beach/beech, heart/hart, dear/deer, game (play/hunting prey), crown jewels (royal insignias/male genitals), birds (feathery birds/young women) … and many more. Maybe it is a word-play like this, which is responsible for the strange confusion of tyre lever and lug wrench, in combination with another german language connection.

John calls the object he shoves into his jeans a tyre lever … Montiereisen or Reifenheber in german language. (more tyre lever examples)

But that object is undoubtly a lug wrench … Radmutternschlüssel (left) in german language … Schraubenschlüssel (right) is the word used by the german synchro.

The most interesting thing is this: as far as I know, no one in every days life, calls a lug wrench really ‘Radmutternschlüssel’. That’s simply a much too long word for comfortable usage. Almost anyone who asks for that thing (except in driving school or for explanatory reasons) will cut it short and say: ‘Reich mir bitte den Schlüssel’ … ‘Please, pass me the key’. The english translation for the german word ‘Schlüssel’ is … ‘key’. The object that ‘eternal friend’ John carries round in his trousers, is a KEY (hiding in plain sight).

Due to its usage, the tyre lever has its merrits too, though. This tool is used to pry the edge of a tyre away from the rim of the wheel it has been mounted on, in order to reach the tube that sits inside, for mending or changing. A tyre is the outer part of a wheel, it surrounnds the rim and protects (covers) the tube, a ring-shaped balloon, inside.

Based on this:

In TEH - the KEY to free Sherlock from his chains, lies in his own hands, arched by a rainbow flaire, while he gets beaten with an object that strongly resembles a lug wrench but is most likely a water pipe..

In HLV - John says that he takes a tyre lever with him inside the drug house (the chemistry of love-house) because ‘someone might need help with a tyre’ (a COVER). A tyre lever is a tool to pry away the protective outer cover to get to the balloon inside. The object inside John’s trousers though, isn’t a tyre lever at all but a lug wrench … a KEY.

I leave you to your own deductions. Thanks @callie-ariane for the scripts.

October, 2019

#when a tyre lever isn't a tyre lever #tyre lever #lug wrench #hlv #teh #sherlock bbc #metaphorical reading #german language #hidden keys

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elizadoolittlethings · 5 years

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MG - The Man Behind The Genius

(via Get Ready to Love Mark Gatiss)

“Can we just sit here and watch this Spider-Man cartoon?” Mark Gatiss smiles slyly but it’s not clear if he’s completely kidding. We’re sitting on a couch in The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York where a small retro-TV is playing an appropriately retro episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. “I love cartoons,” Gatiss tells me. “Did you ever see the old Star Trek cartoon? It’s brilliant. It’s basically like season four.”

The guy sitting next to me might look like Mycroft Holmes, but he barely sounds like him at all. This guy is softer, more childlike, more down to talk about whatever, so long as those things are James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, superheroes, Star Trek… In short, if you meet Mark Gatiss, you want to be best friends with him instantly.

For the uninitiated: Mark Gatiss is the co-creator (with Steven Moffat) of Sherlock. He’s also an actor IN Sherlock as Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s snippy, brilliant older brother. He’s written for Doctor Who numerous times, including last season’s “Robots of Sherwood,” as well as the classic Dickens 2005 episode “The Unquiet Dead.” He’s got a recurring role on Game of Thrones as Tycho Nestoris of the Iron Bank, but has roots in the famous British comedy The League of Gentlemen. In short: he’s done some things that are beyond impressive.

Our chat is talking place two hours ahead of The Museum of the Moving Image’s special screening of the Doctor Who episode “Sleep No More,” which is the one Mark wrote for this season. And yes, I can call him Mark, because he told me to. Glancing over at my open-notebook, full of my chicken-scratch questions, he spies the word “Gatiss,” at the top of the page complete with a frantic double underline. “Don’t say ‘Moffat’ or ‘Gatiss,’” he coos. “Say ‘Mark.’”

To say Mark Gatiss is disarming would be an understatement similar to saying Sherlock Holmes is smart. It’s not that Mark is disarming, it’s like you and he have been exchanging dog-eared paperbacks for years and this conversation about the animated Star Trek from the 70s is old hat. After we talk about how great the writing is on that cartoon Trek, I ask him if he’d ever want to write for Star Trek.

“The new series?!!“I love Star Trek, so yeah, I wouldn’t say no. Simon Pegg’s writing the new one [Star Trek Beyond]. So yeah. You never know!”

Is there anything else—any other established universe—Mark Gatiss would like to write for other than Star Trek?

“Nooo…No. I want to do something new. But it’s so hard to get it off the ground. I’ve said this many times, and it’s absolutely true. That there is a reason why people revisit brands that are so familiar; it’s because they’re so familiar! And it’s getting harder and harder to try and convince people to take a punt at something new. So, that is absolutely vital. Otherwise, there’s no blood in it—and I say this knowing that I’m associated with two of the biggest reboots in history—and people will always revisit Sherlock Holmes. And I think that now that Doctor Who has really returned after its absence, Doctor Who is imperishable. It will probably stop again one day and then come back again, because that’s what it does. Like anything. But, I would love to do something that people look back on fondly, because it was a brand new thing. But it’s terribly difficult—A. to think of it! B. To get it off the ground. What is the new thing! Sherlock Holmes himself said there is nothing new under the sun!”

What if Steven Moffat left Doctor Who? Would Mark still write for Doctor Who?

“Of course I’d still write for Doctor Who! If they’d have me! It’s a continuing honor and thrill! I would say that unlike Russell [Davies] saying ‘that’s me, done,’ I think that if Steven were to leave, he’d still come back after a few years and do another one. Because he loves it. I mean, Russell loves it too! But, I think Russell saw it as his take on it and that was it. Which is a very grown-up way of moving on. But I can’t resist the urge.”

When you’re hanging with Mark Gatiss, who wants to be a grown up anyway?

Would Mark want to be the showrunner of Doctor Who if Steven Moffat left?

“The truth is I know how incredibly demanding it is. And one of things that makes it very difficult to see is the sort of casual attacks Steven has had to put up with over the past few years. It’s incredibly hard work and they care so much. It’s a 24 hour job. And when people say ‘why can’t you make more episodes!?’ I mean, the episode we’re watching tonight: I was sent the final effect shot the day before I left for New York. That episode is just complete and it’s on this Saturday. There are so many things to consider. But to answer your question, I know how hugely demanding [showrunning] is, but also how hugely rewarding it would be. It’s a huge, life-changing decision. I’m an actor and a writer. I couldn’t act if I did it. Because I wouldn’t have time. The only thing I could act in would possibly be Doctor Who. WAIT A MINUTE! I’ll DO IT!”

At this, Mark begins giggling like a madman, throwing his head back and repeating “I’ll do it! This will effect my whole life? HA HA HA HA! I’LL DO IT!!”

The comedian, the sketch-comedy writer version of Mark Gatiss has emerged! Fittingly, we switch our conversation to the importance of humor in his writing. How and why is he just so damn funny? Is Doctor Who and Sherlock nothing without humor?

“Humor is fundamental. I couldn’t agree with you more. There’s a fundamental misunderstanding of why we love these shows. Essentially from slightly humorless people who thinks it needs to be po-faced all the time. The man who created the Daleks—Terry Nation—was Tony Hancok’s writer. He was a very, very funny man who could also write great science fiction. That’s what Russell is. That’s what Steven is. What I am. Lots of people. Humor is bound-up in the DNA of [Doctor Who]. ‘Robots of Sherwood,’ for instance, is a straightforward romp. But, you should no more criticize a show for being too funny—what’s wrong with too funny, anyway? You hear that a lot. Someone says ‘it’s too funny.’ WHAT? Too funny? Would your prefer it was moderately funny? I’d go for much too funny any day. That doesn’t mean you’re messing with the format, that you’re spoiling it. And if you look back at the history of the show, that’s what it’s always been at its best. It doesn’t get much grimmer than “Genesis of the Daleks.” But of course there’s humor. Of course there is. It might be pitch black, but it’s there. And sometimes the level is pitched one way and sometimes the other. But to me, it’s absolutely quintessential to Doctor Who, it’s a fun show.”

Though I would have loved to talk to Mark for hours only about Sherlock Holmes and his favorite stories and which movies are his personally, secret preferences, I decide that since we’re already best friends, we’ve had that conversation in some alternate world. Instead, I’m interested in continuity. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle flippantly didn’t care about continuity. Does Mark Gatiss care about continuity?

“Because we live in such an overly-examined age, in which everything is easily consumed and spat-out, everything has taken on a ludicrous level of importance. If Conan Doyle hadn’t had his famously lax attitude toward continuity, we wouldn’t be able to have the fun we have. From speculating on the strange fact that Professor Moriarty and his brother have the same Christian name, that Watson’s war-wound moves about, that Mary calls John “James”! I’m sure people did write to [Doyle] and complain, because there were always fans! But the thing is, it’s fine. My attitude is this: get it right if you can because if you’re perversely getting it wrong, it looks careless. But. Absolutely frankly: if someone came up with an idea for Doctor Who that flatly contradicted something that happened in 1967, fuck it. Of course fuck it! Someone once said to me ‘six months ago is ancient history,’ in terms of television. That’s true, because you’re talking about the general audience and not the fan audience. AND if you flatly contradicted something that happened in 1967, the fans would find a way of explaining it. I remember—in talking about Star Trek—someone telling me that reason William Shatner has so much eye shadow on in “Journey to Babel”—more than ever—is because Star Fleet officers are allowed to wear a certain amount of make-up during formal ceremonies! WHAT?!! I mean you don’t have to explain it! The Master was a snake at one point!”

Looking smooth, and talking smooth are something Mark Gatiss knows how to do, and that’s partially because he’s a big Bond fan. Could secret government mastermind Mycroft exist in the Bond universe?

“He does exist in the Bond universe! We made an explicit reference. In ‘His Last Vow,’ I say ‘As my esteemed colleague is fond of pointing out, what the country needs sometimes is a blunt instrument. Which is M! From the books! And of course I’d love to write a Bond film. It’s the one that’s eluded me. Me and Steven we both wanted to do Bond. I did From Russian With Love on radio!”

As our time comes creeping up on us, and the Spider-Man cartoon winds down, I ask Mark if there’s a world for a gay Bond? What about a straight Sherlock? The last one gets a guttural laugh from him, and we launch into the territory of diversity among established characters and fandoms.

“The point is to me, none of these things should be done because anyone feels pressure to tick a box. A show like Doctor Who has brilliantly celebrated gay people, incidentally, which to me is proper progress. But I think personally, there should absolutely be a female Doctor, a black Doctor, an Asian Doctor, but it’s because someone comes along who is absolutely indisputably the person for the job. With James Bond, it’s a literary antecedent. If you were for reasons of box-ticking made James Bond gay, that’s not James Bond. By all means have a gay spy! I’ve written about one myself! [Mark’s Lucifer Box novels] If you want to do a gay British Spy, adapt my books! That’s my advice. Do a franchise based on my books!”

Will Mark Gatiss fulfill his dreams of creating the next “new” thing that we will all love and obsess over? What is the future for our beloved Doctor Who/Sherlock writer? In addition to a film, more Doctor Who and the three new Sherlocks, that is. What is Mark’s secret project he hasn’t talked about yet?

At this he narrows his eyes, pats my leg and says with a Mycroft twinkle and almost a sneer:

“Can’t talk about it.”

Mark’s Doctor Who episode “Sleep No More” airs this Saturday.

#MG #mark gatiss #interview #all things MG

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one-thousand-splendid-stars · 5 years

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How would Johnlockers react if Sherlock and John were forced to say “I love you” instead?

Not to rehash an old argument, but I’ve wanted to write an analysis like this for a long time, but never did cause I didn’t wanna start drama. But the recent TFP anniversary got me thinking about it again, and I think even though it’s been a few years, it still needs to be said. Because gifs of the ily scene, coffin smashing, and TFP montage still pass my dash on occasion. And there’s always, always some overconfident shippers in the notes talking about how the “i love you," was undeniably genuine, and that if it had happened between Sherlock and John, then we would’ve declared our ship canon too, so we should stop being “salty” that he said it to Molly instead.

I know we’ve all said we’d absolutely hate for that scene to have been with John. But seeing those comments over and over often made me genuinely wonder what I would’ve thought if that had happened. What we would’ve thought as a fandom, given how much we tend to read into everything. So out of curiosity, I really, truly did my best to imagine that scene happening the exact same way, but with John.

And here’s how I think I would’ve reacted to the ily, if John was in Molly’s place.

First, John’s confession.

If John said he couldn’t say I love you to Sherlock because “it’s always been true,” then yes, that would be significant to us johnlockers. As unfortunate as the circumstances are, it would still be a solid, irrefutable confirmation not only of John’s love for Sherlock, but of his bisexuality. So yes, that would’ve been pretty awesome to have.

But I think if Sherlock had just heard for the first time that John truly loved him, and his only reaction was “ok say it anyway,” I’d be like whaaa? I would’ve expected to see Sherlock’s world visibly shaken in that moment. So his somewhat dull reaction right there would’ve made my heart sink just a little. It didn’t matter to him that John loved him. (Though of course, that reaction was understandable with Molly since he already knew she had feelings for him).

Next comes Sherlock’s first attempt at saying it.

Yeah, that really pathetic one. If I saw Sherlock say “I love you” like that to John, I instantly would’ve doubted everything I thought was between them. Hearing him say it like that, as though cringing internally and wishing he’d rather be anywhere else, would’ve killed me inside. That certainly doesn’t look like someone who’s going to suddenly realize the words are true two seconds later. That jump from utter disgust/confusion to “omg wait, I actually meant it” makes zero sense.

Next, the second ILY

The clock is ticking down, and Sherlock has to say it like he means it or else his friend is going to get blown up. So he repeats it more convincingly to get a response.

That’s what I thought when watching the scene for the first time. And it’s still what I’d think if it was John. Even if I really, really wanted it to be true, that doesn’t make it so. Though, it’s possible to headcanon that the second ILY was genuine, or to make it fanon. But as far as arguing for actual canon, pretty much everything that comes afterwards negates that possibility.

They hang up the phone

If Sherlock’s “I love you” was genuine, then right here I’d expect him to take a private moment to evaluate what the fuck just happened - a deeply private, intensely emotional moment. He just learned that John loves him back. I’d expect his life [with John] to “flash before his eyes.” That’s a HUGE moment.

But that’s not what happened. In the episode, Sherlock snaps out of the act he put on and very quickly bounces back to reality. His only emotion is relief that he saved Molly’s life. It’s strikingly similar to his reaction to saving the child in TGG: Meaning the countdown was intense, but the second it’s over, it’s over. The “moment” is over. If that had been his reaction to saying “I love you” to John, I honestly would’ve been crushed.

At this point, I’d be feeling pretty let down. I’d be wondering, “Is that it? Was that the johnlock we were all hoping and waiting for?” But I’d think, hope, that there’s probably more to come.

Next comes the reveal that there were no bombs. And Sherlock smashes the coffin.

This scene would honestly baffle me. I’d think maybe he’s angry with himself for wasting so much time. Maybe he’s angry with John choosing Mary. But then again - why feel those things NOW as opposed to immediately after the phone call, immediately after learning that their love is mutual. Why is he only angry now after learning there were no bombs? Why did that trigger a reaction in him, but the actual phone call didn’t?

If the love is mutual, there’s no reason to be that furious. Because even if John was hurt in that moment, Sherlock still knows they can talk afterwards and be together very soon. So why smash the coffin? Why does saying “i love you” to him feel like torture or a vivisection? It wouldn’t make sense with a johnlock reading of the scene.

Perhaps then, it was just his pent up frustration at being manipulated and toyed with by Eurus. Perhaps seeing the coffin made him angry because fake-threatening John’s life was a joke to her. Then sure, that would warrant a good coffin smashing - whether it’s John or Molly in question.

The coffin smashing makes sense with Molly, i.e. a non-shippy reading of the scene. His first reaction to the phone call was relief that he saved her, just like the child in TGG. But after learning there was no threat and he just lied to her in the worst way, “destroyed her” for absolutely NO reason? After everything Molly has done for him, and how much he’s grown to appreciate and treat her kinder? Damn right he should be pissed.

Then the scene is brushed aside, the plot moves on, and we never see any follow through.

This would leave me furious. Why open a Pandora’s box by having your two leads say they love each other under the threat of death, and then never follow up on it? What terrible, terrible writing!

After that scene, I’d be left eagerly waiting for Sherlock to get home and explain that it was all Eurus’s doing, but he truly does love him. In fact, I’d be desperate for it. Because without that talk, there’s not much of a case for canon Johnlock. All we’d have so far is Sherlock barely caring that John loves him, struggling to say “i love you” properly before he dies, snapping right back into action afterwards, and then only showing emotion when he learns it was all a trick. So yeah, I’d be on the edge of my seat hoping that something more would come of that scene.

And if ALL we got in terms of follow through was a split second of John smiling in a happy ending montage. I’d. Be. Pissed.

Especially if Moffat came out later and said John probably went out for a shag and they went back to normal. It only means the scene was written for shits and giggles like “ooh wouldn’t it be so hilarious to write a completely pointless and disposable scene where they were forced to say they love each other hehehe.” They never gave a second’s thought to what that would do to their relationship, or to John. It’s so insignificant they basically forgot about it, and felt it didn’t even deserve a resolution. Their relationship didn’t deserve a resolution.

It would probably destroy any hope I had that Johnlock would become canon... if THAT was Sherlock’s reaction to John saying “it’s always been true.” If it was THAT hard for him to say it first, even after knowing John returns his feelings. If ALL he cared about after the phone call was that he saved John’s life, as if nothing else of significance just happened. If there was NO resolution except a split second showing that they’re at least still friends. If not a SINGLE cast/crew quote confirmed that yes, Johnlock is now canon.

If that’s how carelessly the writers treat a situation where Sherlock and John say “i love you,” then they care very little about this relationship.

SO... in conclusion. I never, ever, ever would’ve wanted Sherlock and John’s first “I love you’s” to go like that.

So to everyone who thinks Johnlockers are only salty that John wasn’t in Molly’s place during that scene: Please understand that Johnlockers would never declare our ship canon based on a scene like that. Our standards for “canon” are a bit higher.

To everyone who doesn’t buy our pity for Molly: Know that it’s completely genuine. We’d hate for our fave to go through what she did, so we certainly don’t wish it on her, especially given her history with Sherlock.

TFP didn’t make any ship canon. And I’ll prove it by asking one simple question. Let’s turn the tables a bit:

To everyone who thinks TFP confirmed Sherl0lly: You claim that we’d declare Johnlock canon if the roles were reversed . . . but if we did, would you agree with us? Would YOU think Johnlock was canon if the ILY had happened between them instead?

I don’t believe so. But I’d love to be proven wrong.

#bbc sherlock #sherlock #The Final Problem #molly hooper #sherlock s4 #john watson #ily scene #steven moffat #mark gatiss #sherlock tfp #sherlock season 4 #fandom discourse #ship discourse

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plounce · 5 years

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hugely nerdy and self indulgent cr2/doctor who crossover widomauk rambling, as promised. under the cut you will find: caleb the time/space travelling atoner, nott & jester & fjord & beau the companions, molly the jack harkness/river song figure, and as always: ludicrous romantic tension.

caleb is the doctor because it’s the most obvious choice and sometimes the most obvious choice is the most suitable, and also the easiest. repentant, keeping other people around for their utility and how they keep him human, kind of a pushy know-it-all weirdo bastard, etc. the whole doctor deal. destroyed his whole planet! but probably for less noble reasons. oh caleb you bastard etc. is currently trying to gather the tools and knowledge from across space-time to “fix” his mistake.

nott, jester, fjord, and beau are his companions. nott was his first companion, because she's what really opened him up to the idea of having someone with him, someone that can keep him in line and human, and that it's good to have a friend instead of being alone.

after nott leaves (probably doesn’t die? just. Has To Leave for some reason, she’s okay) caleb is despondent and HERE COMES JESTER! GAP YEAR! and also on the run, but that’s less important. she’s an alien! jester and fjord’s tenures overlap slightly, and then jester leaves to go back to her mom. later on caleb abandons fjord back home after fjord almost Awakens a very bad being to obtain Great Power and caleb is like yeah... this dude should not be around me and the power i have, i’m bad enough already, two of us hopping through spacetime is. not a great combo for all life in the universe

he’s not looking to have another companion after that but look who it is! beau. and beau doesn’t want to be there and caleb doesn’t want her there but she’s STUCK in the tardis for some scifi reason and ZANY ADVENTURES AND ETHICAL CONUNDRUMS ENSUE and she’s the best companion (she’s caleb’s donna). they fight so much and caleb appreciates it. beau like... realizes that she has power in her life! she can affect change! she’s meaningful and can achieve great good! and she turns out really cool and good. hell yeah beau i love her

molly is a sort of jack harkness/river song figure, except better because i’m not steven moffat. jumping around spacetime with a vortex manipulator to have fun and see everything and indulge in all the luxuries the universe has to offer, popping in and out of caleb’s timeline in haphazard, shuffled order. it’s always sort of ambiguous if they’re in a romance or not? because they’re trying to avoid unstable paradoxes and oversharing information, but there’s lingering looks and dropped hints. they eventually start keeping little timeline journals to figure out when the other is. (if you know penumbra, throw in a dash of peter nureyev as well.)

when caleb first meets molly, molly’s known him for a good long while at that point. nott’s with him at that point, and when he meets her molly's face lights up and he goes "so THIS is nott the brave! i've heard so much about you! mostly good things." because in molly’s timeline, this is the first time he’s met the famous nott! up until then, from his perspective, nott had left the tardis. and nott is like ........who? the fuck? are you? and caleb is also like........ ah fuck this is weird. ok. ok

molly travels with them for a month or so, and then bids them adieu and flounces off to live his own life. “it’s what we do,” he explains to nott and caleb. “i live my life, and you live your life, but it’s always so good to see you.”

right before he leaves, he pauses and considers caleb, a hand tapping his chin and a smirk curling up his mouth. then he leans in and drops a peck on caleb's lips. "you told me i do that when i first leave," molly says, winking. caleb isn't quite sure if molly is telling the truth, or if he's just making up an excuse as to why he kissed him, but he's bright red and he can't really react or even process it. because he’d noticed molly was pretty - how could one not - but he’s never even considered having romantic relationships, what with the weight on his shoulders, but - but???????

then molly says, "i'll be seeing you later, mister caleb." and he walks into the packed spaceport they’re in, and caleb is standing there stunned, and then nott returns with two cups of coffee, and she looks at caleb's face & posture and the last flicker of riotous color disappearing into so many people, and she goes, "what just happened?! what did he do?! do you want me to follow him?! make him pay?!" and caleb absently reaches up to his mouth, then curls his hand into a fist at the last moment. "no... no, nott. let's go back to the tardis, ja?"

the next time caleb sees molly, it’s a month after that. so caleb has known him for two months. but molly says he’s known caleb for a long, long time, and looks at him so sweetly and caringly for a moment that caleb has to look away. molly asks how long caleb’s known him, and caleb says “two months.” and molly goes “oh!” and seems to consciously put whatever feelings he has in a little box in his head, and acts very normally and courteously towards him, seems to purposefully distance himself from him. there’s still some lingering looks and unconscious touches that he can’t seem to help, and everyone knows what’s going on, but caleb just does his best to ignore it and everyone else doesn’t acknowledge it. it’s a weird, kind of awkward situation.

“i don’t want to make caleb uncomfortable,” he tells nott at some point. “the poor man has enough stress in his life already. i just try to bring some laughter and light into his life when i see him.” caleb and molly almost have a talk about some things, but they get interrupted with no small amount of Dramatic Irony, and then...

that adventure closes with molly dying to save caleb and nott’s lives. stands in front of the evil alien of the week, scifi weapons flashing even as he’s near death, listing to one side but still spitting out curses and quips, just enough time for the safety of an airlock door to close in front of caleb and nott. and when that door opens, the room is empty except for a huge sword plunged through molly’s chest and into the floor, and molly is already cold. his coat is in tatters and his eyes are still open. there were no goodbyes.

they push his body out to drift in space, free and untethered. they take his coat and hang it up in the closet of the room molly stayed in for that first month, because molly loved that coat and they can’t just... let it freeze in the vacuum of space.

caleb is tempted to save the little journal that molly said he kept their timelines straight in, is tempted to read it and learn and know and have control over that so he can stop it from happening so molly doesn’t die for him or get involved with him - but nott stops his hand and says third rule: no unstable paradoxes. and caleb nods, and huffs out a weak laugh at the callback to his crash-course time travelling guide, and leaves the little book in molly’s pant pocket.

the next time he sees him he's shocked - he stands stock still as molly lopes up to him, and molly goes "mister caleb! so excited to see you, hello darling! lovely as always to run into you. let's compare notes, shall we? line ourselves up?" and caleb stops - stutters backward - and then walks away, heedless of molly's confused, unknowing "caleb? caleb, what's wrong?" and he goes back to the tardis and tells nott they have to go somewhere else. they can't stay in this time and location. they have to leave. caleb can't let molly interact with him again. he can't. he's too dangerous. not after he got molly killed, and nott barely escaping with her life.

so time goes on, and nott helps caleb continue on, and one night as they float through an asteroid belt she quietly says, "it's okay to be sad about him. even though you know he's kind of okay, right now and before and after. everyone dies, caleb." and caleb doesn't say anything, just fiddling with the console.

"did you love him?" nott ventures.

caleb sighs. "nott, i barely knew him. we'd only met twice."

nott shifts uncomfortably where she's perched among the columns. "well, it seems like you probably will, judging by how he was, yknow, looking at you and touching you. hugging you and all that. yeah. and, yknow. you should let yourself have that. because you're going to. or something like that. whatever, time travel is weird."

and caleb weakly chuckles, then sighs, and slumps against the controls, and stands there for a long, long moment. then he says, "we should get some sleep. i'll take you to one of the best vineyards in the six nearest galaxies tomorrow, i promise you."

the next time caleb sees molly isn't for a long time, and caleb despairs that he wasted his last look at molly with running away from him even though he knows that’s not how their timeline works, but it goes to the back of his mind as he continues learning and having adventures and gathering the knowledge and the tools he needs for what he wants to do.

nott leaves, and jester arrives. and then one day they’re in a packed, crowded market square on a trade planet, and jester is calling caleb over to a little stall by a tent and there, sitting at the counter and fanning cards in front of jester’s eager eyes, is molly.

caleb is so relieved to see him, to apologize for how he acted before and to see a dead man walking and to apologize (even though he can’t say why - but he remembers molly commenting you’re always saying sorry to me for things i have no idea about and you always refuse to tell me! it’s kind of cute. a little tic you have.), but molly doesn't recognize him. molly is chattering away with jester, schmoozing, trying to get her to come to fletching and moondrop’s space-travelling carnival of curiosities, and jester is tugging on caleb's arm saying pleeeease please can we go caleb pleeeeeeaaase it sounds soooo fun!

molly winks, glitter drawn in swirls on his face, and caleb notices he doesn't have his coat or all of his tattoos and scars yet, and there’s no spark of recognition in his eyes. "caleb, is it?" molly says, and caleb's breath catches in his throat. "i'm sure at least one part of our collection can put a smile on that handsome face of yours."

blah blah blah it continues on. there’s an adventure, gustav gives molly his vortex manipulator after the carnival gets shut down and molly travels with caleb and jester for a bit while he figures out how to fix it. then he does, and strikes out on his own. and then things weave on from there, and caleb is always afraid that this is the last time in his timeline that he’ll see molly, and he’s tightroping between wanting to savor it and wanting to push him away and wanting to deny that there’s anything there.

hm... i imagine yasha is like. from a planet that is kind of. daleky? caduceus is a cool alien with a fixed-point shop and stuff. angel. i’ll add more to this post if i ever think of anything. yeehaw!

#chirps #robcr #critical role #widomauk

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thecaffeinebookwarrior · 7 years

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Tips For Writing Time Travel: An Illustrated Guide.

@jjpivotz asked:

“What is a good way that I could write time travelling without it being cliche?”

Ooh, I love questions like this! They’re so much fun, and on a somewhat self-indulgent level, they really get me thinking on the tropes themselves.

So without further ado, here are my personal thoughts on writing about time travel:

1. Embrace the fact that it’s not gonna make total sense.

This goes for a lot of creative fiction. When I was writing my urban fantasy novel, for example, I used a lot of traditional mythological figures whose duties and depictions (i.e. one humanoid being reaping the dead despite the fact that over a hundred thousand people die a day, billion-year-old entities who still look and behave like teenagers, figures from religions whose world views wildly conflict interacting with each other, etc.) weren’t compatible with what we currently know about the laws of physics.

And the sooner I resolved not to even attempt to explain it, the sooner my novel improved.

The wonderful thing about fiction is that it doesn’t have to imitate reality as we know it; the laws of the physical universe need not apply. And as long as the characters in your universe accept that, so will the reader.

I’ve had around twenty beta readers look at my book, and not one of them has poked holes in my casual disregard for the conventionally accepted rules of physical reality. The suspension of disbelief is an amazing thing.

As for how to best apply this to time travel, take Back to the Future, for example. This is one of the best time travel series ever made, but if you really look at what’s going on, you’ll come to find that none of it really makes any sense at all.

First of all, Marty McFly is a popular high school student whose best friend is an eccentric nuclear physicist. Conventional wisdom (and just about every fiction writing book or advice blog I’ve ever read) would dictate that this is a pretty heavy plot-point and warrants some explanation. But the narrative never questions it, and as such neither does the vast majority of its audience.

It is in this exact manner that Back to the Future handles its heaviest of all plotpoints, the act of time travel, which is the main driving force behind its entire plot.

How does it explain Doc Brown’s ability to time travel? Well, he invented the Flux Capacitor, of course. What is a Flux Capacitor, you ask? How does it work, exactly? Well, fucked if I know. All I know is that the narrative treats it like it’s a real thing, and by default, so do I.

The same could be said for the magically changing family portrait, the fact that the characters can’t interact with their past or future selves without universal destruction, flying cars, and the fact that the McFlys’ future children inexplicably look exactly like them. None of it makes any sense. And it’s fucking magical.

Another of my favorite examples of this is pre-Moffat Doctor Who. The science is campy, occasionally straight-up ridiculous, and unabashedly nonsensical, yet paves the way for some truly great and thought provoking storylines and commentary.

Bottom line is, I don’t know how to time travel. I’m guessing you don’t either, otherwise you probably wouldn’t be asking me for advice on how to write it. Accept it. Embrace it. Don’t be bashful about it -- trust me, time travelers are probably a minority in your readership, so they won’t judge you.

So as to what would be a good means of writing time travel, the short answer is: any way you want. For obvious reasons, I’d stay away from old cars, police boxes, and phone booths, but with the power of the suspension of disbelief, virtually nothing is off the table: a pair of magic sneakers, a refrigerator, a closet, a treehouse -oh, crap, that one’s been done before. But you get the picture. You can be as creative as you want to be about it. Don’t be afraid to step outside the police box, so to speak.

Trust in the magic of the suspension of disbelief, and don’t overthink things. Your story and readers will thank you.

As for how to avoid other cliches, that brings me to my next point:

2. Look at the tried and true tropes of time traveling. Now subvert them.

This might just be me and my adoration of irony talking, but since you specifically asked how to avoid cliche I’m going to indulge myself here.

Do the exact opposite of what people expect from narratives about time travel. You know the old trope: the protagonist steps on a bug, and comes back to the present to find the world being ruled by gorillas.

I’m not telling you not to include drastic consequences for time travel, because there would probably be quite a few (at least if you believe in the chaos theory, which states every action has a universal reaction.)

But you could toy around with the idea that fate isn’t something that can ultimately be altered at all, and that all the protagonist accomplishes is solidifying (or even triggering) a pre-existing outcome.

My knee-jerk suggestion, as someone who takes fiendish glee in incorporating humor into my writing, would be to make the protagonist have some Forrest Gump-type encounters that unwittingly trigger huge, history-defining event, but it can also be significantly more tragic than that: maybe the protagonist goes back in time to save his father from a hit-and-run car accident, for example, and then accidentally kills him. Or perhaps he realizes that his father was a bad man (beat his mother, planned on killing someone, etc.) and makes a moral decision to kill him (which is also a great way to ask philosophical questions. More on that later.)

I don’t know what kind of time travel your writing or what your style of writing is, but these are things I’d personally just love to play around with.

Or maybe time travel does change things, but it’s not even close to what the protagonist expected: maybe his words of wisdom to his newly married mother about true love and the meaning of life and whatnot unexpectedly lead her to realize that she’s deeply unhappy in her current marriage, and he returns to the present to find her divorced (lesbian stepmom optional.)

Maybe absolutely nothing at all changes, but he realizes that he’s responsible for some famous Mandela Effect, like the Bearenstein/Bearenstain discrepancy.

Bottom line is, don’t be afraid to do the unexpected. But conversely, don’t be afraid to use tried and true tropes, either: regardless of how overdone they may seem to be, they can almost always be rejuvenated when interjected with a thought-provoking plot.

Which brings me to my final point:

3. Make sure it has something to say.

Science fiction, especially the speculative variety, tends to be best when it begins by asking a question, for which it will later provide an answer. Take, for example, Planet of the Apes. The pervasive question of the movie is whether or not humanity is inherently self-destructive, which it ultimately answers with its famed final plot twist that humanity has long since destroyed itself.

Rod Serling (who was incidentally responsible for the original Planet of the Apes, by the way) did this remarkably well: almost every episode of the Twilight Zone packed a massive philosophical punch due to the fact that they followed this simplistic formula. The episode would begin with the presentation of a question, big or small (frequently by the charismatic Serling himself) and by the end of the episode, that question would be answered.

I’m not going to go in to detail here, as it would spoil the magic of uncovering the plot twists for the first time, but Serling used his speculation to tackle the narrow-mindedness of beauty standards in Eye of the Beholder, the dangers of fascism in Obsolete Man, the communist paranoia of the time period with the Monsters are Due on Maple Street, and countless more.

I would recommend watching the original Twilight Zone for almost anyone looking to write speculative fiction such as time travel.

Even if your work isn’t compatible with this specific formula of Question => Debate => Answer (which some work isn’t) it will still need to have some kind of underlying statement to it, or no matter how clever the science fiction is or how original the time travel is, it will fall flat.

This is why Twilight Zone, Planet of the Apes, Back to the Future, and (pre-Moffat, as I always feel inclined to stress -- he does literally the opposite of almost everything I recommend here) Doctor Who still remain widely enjoyed today, despite the fact that many of their tropes have been used many, many times since they original aired.

So for time travel, remember that it is a means, not an end. You could write the most cliched type of time travel story imaginable, and your audience will still feel fulfilled by it if your message is heartfelt, thought-provoking, and/or poignant.

Maybe you want to use time travel to make a statement about your belief in the existence of fate, or lack thereof. In this case, using the Sterling Approach, you would have your story begin with the question of whether or not humans can alter or change destiny, allow the narrative/characters to argue the question back and forth for a while, and then ultimately disclose what you believe the answer to be.

Or maybe you want to use time travel to explore or subvert the treachery of history and how it is taught, and show how the true narrative can be explored, purposefully or otherwise, by the victors.

Maybe you want to show that there’s no clear answer, or maybe no answer at all, a la the cheerful nihilism of Douglas Adams novels.

Either way, figure out what you want your message to be long before you put pen to paper, and then use time travel, like any other creative trope, as a means to an end to answer it. Your story will thank you for it.

(I hope this helps!)

#writing #writing tips #writing advice #time travel #science fiction #back to the future #doctor who #planet of the apes #the twilight zone #rod serling #ask the author

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i-am-adlocked · 7 years

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@tea-and-a-gay-detective I have to clarify something:

Irene IS a part of the LGBT community, but she is not a lesbian. She’s more likely bisexual...

“She recently ended a marriage of a prominent novelist by having an affair with both participants separately.”

Irene, a woman, said to Sherlock, a man: “I would have you right here on this desk until you beg for mercy twice.”

I mean, she had said countless of times that she wanted to fuck Sherlock Holmes. “DINNER” = “SEX” and the scene above wasn’t a subtle meaning.

JOHN: “And you know the record keeper?” IRENE: “I know what he likes, and I needed to disappear.”

IRENE: “There was a man, an MOD official and I knew what he liked.”

There was a whole scene that showed that she was in love with Sherlock: Her pulse was elevated, her pupils had dilated.

She points out to John that she is gay, but “look at us both.” She was indicating that though she identifies as a lesbian, she’s trying to make a point to John that she actually is in love with Sherlock Holmes. That even though they could say shit like John is not gay and she tells she is gay, there is no doubt that both of them care about Sherlock. That’s the point of the whole Battersea scene.

Both of them are coming to terms with how Sherlock means to them.

The difference is: Sherlock and John are depicted as friends. As you said, Sherlock and Irene aren’t friends... So why do both John and Irene come to terms that they both care about Sherlock? John cares about his friend, Sherlock. Irene cares about Sherlock... because she loves him.

Being in love with the main character doesn’t make a character weak. In fact, it made her stronger. She used her own love and his attraction to make him look like a fool. She managed to trick him. She was the one that managed to crawl through Sherlock’s skin and wrap him around her finger.

I’m betting he knew that when he had a flashback of Mycroft... and he retaliated by observing her pulse and eyes.

We are not forcing a ship. The writers themselves want them together.

Moffat actually said that they both smile once a day when they think about each other. Martin Freeman said that they have a massive chemistry. Mark Gatiss said that they are absolutely made for each other.

I am not forcing them. We found their chemistry. Have you seen these:

If someone looks at you like that... do you think you mean each other as just acquaintances?!

LOOK AT THESE TWO ^^ YOU DONT FEEL ANYTHING FROM THAT SCENE?! THE COLOURING IS WARM AND FIERY... THEY ARE LEANING TOWARDS EACH OTHER?! (I’m not angry at you, I’m just filled with Adlock feels).

Irene is looking at his lips, and in flirting language, that means: Kiss me. Sherlock, for him, is looking at her eyes. He is an observer and what is he doing while she’s looking at him so attractively? He watches her.

Sherlock had already seen her eyes dilate. He had already calculated her pulse. What does he need to look at her for? Why is his lips parted? HIS LIPS ARE PARTED!!!

Sherlock’s jaw dropped when he first saw Irene. Not because she was naked. Not because she was a woman. But because she shookt his mind because he was not used to such bold acts. Irene actually used her naked body not because she thought Sherlock would fall for her by showing how sexy she is... It’s because she knows Sherlock would be uncomfortable... and that’s how she won the first battle...

Sherlock kept thinking of Irene in his mind. His mind is his heart. His mind is the most precious thing to him. His intelligence. His thought process. He relies so much with his mind and his senses... and who the fuck interrupts him without his consent? Who the hell appeared but wasn’t actually present in real life? And what does that person do to him in his mind (WHICH HE CONTROLS FOR HIMSELF)?

Irene... stroking his cheeks. You can’t tell us we are forcing this. You can’t tell us Sherlock did not feel anything for Irene.

Irene wasn’t a damsel in distress. She didn’t ask for help. She was not in distress. She accepted her fate. She didn’t shy away from it. She wasn’t sobbing that she didn’t deserve it. She kept her back straight and just a few tears falling (cos who the fuck won’t cry at their own execution?) She was ready for her execution. She kneeled there, waiting to be beheaded. She didn’t expect Sherlock to be there.

As Steven Moffat said, “And that smiles that says ‘Got him. So totally got him.’ You know I love that moment, I think, when she smiles... SHE WINS.”

Irene won because she still got to Sherlock. She once said “I like to know people will be on my side exactly when I need them to be.” But at that point, she was phone-less and she thought she was alone. But she didn’t know she had already won when Sherlock deciphered her phone.

By deciphering her phone’s password, Sherlock had freed her from the limitations and dependency on an inanimate object.

He took the time to keep track of her and save her miles away from London... Remember what he said earlier in the episode? He won’t leave the house for anything under a seven? He took the time to help fake her death...

And when she least expect it, Sherlock shows up at a time she had thought that all is lost. She didn’t expect that her strength, that the fact that she managed to get through to Sherlock, would save her in the end.

By falling in love, and Sherlock feeling something for Irene, she won. Because having Sherlock Holmes by her side is an asset. She is not the weaker character. They are equals.

The show ended with both of them losing (Sherlock was exposed with his attraction to Irene, Irene lost her life by risking her phone), and both of them winning (Sherlock managed to decode her phone, Irene managed to make Sherlock save her).

The show ended with both of them becoming equals. There was no dominant and there was no submissive. THEY ARE EQUALS.

AND THAT IS WHY WE SHIP THEM.

@musical-chick-13 @sorrowsflower @marvelfangirlavengersgirl @mouseymodesty @themissadventurer @elinorx @mood-adlock @deby45

Guys, I know you have my backs. Can you like... explain more?

#Adlock #RTLA #Sherlock #BBC Sherlock #STOP SAYING IRENE IS GAY #IRENE IS BI #OR IRENE DOESNT LIKE BEING LABELLED #Why do people assume we know Irene the least?!?!!#My sister ships gay ships #but even she knows ADLOCK had more chemistry #and potential #UGHGHGH

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marrowskies · 7 years

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that post i promise is here

and it’s long

imo you can see moffat's failings even in the episodes he's hailed for. like okay so one of the things is that in empty child everybody lives, but the everybody lives thing gets twisted as the show continued under him because... well... he's the doctor! everybody lives!

EVERYBODY.

LIVES.

EVERY. BODY.

THE time lords? his entire race dead to separate it from the original show in a definable story driven way that elaborates on an aspect that the doctor always had? terrible decisions he's had to make for the sake of good, even though he dislikes making horrible decisions that kill people????????????????????????? WHICH MAKES THE DECISION REALLY BAD???????????????????????????????????? AND DIFFICULT?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

fuck that shit the doctor is awesome! everybody lives!

"JUST THIS ONCE?"

HOW ABOUT JUST THIS EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME EVEN IN RETROSPECT BECAUSE FUCK YOU. I WANT THE DOCTOR TO BE AN INFALLIBLE MESSIANIC PIECE OF SHITTY WRITING but not in like an interesting but flawed way that RTD always tried to do even if he didn't always succeed but at least messianic bullshit was presented as a FUCKING FLAW and not just another DOCTOR IS AWESOME HIS FLAW IS JUST THAT HE IS TOO AWESOME ALL THE TIME

LIKE okay so I've seen that post going around that's like HAHA LOL NUWHO FANS DON'T KNOW THAT THE DOCTOR WAS ALWAYS MORALLY AMBIGUOUS BECAUSE IN THE FIRST EPISODE HE NEARLY KILLED THAT ONE GUY WITH A ROCK BECA-FUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKK OFFFF

that scene is so poorly indicative of what the doctor's character would become that it's been post-explained TWICE in TWO DIFFERENT FORMATS OF THE SHOW. YES the doctor can be morally ambiguous YES he has done horrible things and HE WILL GO ON TO DO HORRIBLE THINGS EVEN IN CLASSIC!WHO - but that is typically, for the rest of the show's existence, brought up as a THING HE'S GOTTA DEAL WITH, not some bullshit as "but he knows best" fuckery. the way that the Eight Doctors deals with it isn't half bad, actually, considering he basically confronts his younger self as a cocky "i know best" kind of idiot who hasn't had the 7 lifetimes to understand that it's not the right thing to do (especially when by now we understand that he's been living on an entire planet of "snarf snarf we're the best and lower lifeforms are primitive and pointless" assholes)

this argument also bothered me because OF COURSE nu!who fans would think this! there are lines all over the series indicating how awesomely badass the doctor is, how wonderful, how amazing, how just so fantastically remarkably brilliant and good he is to the point that MOFFAT RETROACTIVELY REWROTE THE FOUNDATION OF THE REBIRTH OF DOCTOR WHO ON THE SIMPLE INSISTENCE THAT THE DOCTOR WOULD NOT DO A BAD THING. of COURSE there are people confused about the mixed messages the show is giving them! is he an infallibly good awesome messiah? IS he MAYBE perhaps SOMETIMES BAD? oh, let me just HINT AT THAT A FEW TIMES but OVERALL NAH! HE GOOD! good is always a real, quantifiable thing that you are, and difficult decisions are... never difficult! because there's always a good one!

moffat's ALWAYS been like this! even in empty child i will argue! even in blink!

blink and empty child are often bandied about imo as "when moffat was good" and the video makes a point about how moffat is good in small doses, but empty child and blink are recycled so constantly that you realize that moffat's shit stank from the beginning much in the way that s4 sherlock reflects how sherlock has always been shit. empty child's premise worked because it was out of context with moffat's overall writing - how everyone ALWAYS lives, how women are ALWAYS WRITTEN through his perspective.

blink is so caught up in its obsession in being a cool thing for cool people that it shits on its own premise eventually. that becomes more clear when moffat brings it back constantly. but it's still pretty evident in that episode alone

"you can't look away from the angels because that's when they move"

"well we've figured it out! so we'll keep an eye on them now!!!!"

"well you can't because they can turn lights off for no reason!"

"what? why?"

"because FUCK YOU IS WHY also there would be no tension going into this final scene if i didn't make some bullshit up to make your solution pointless but anyway let me also ruin this two seasons from now by letting you see US MOVE"

blink's premise is fucked just mildly enough that we can ignore it and then because moffat has been squeezed of what creative juice he had left and then fucked it up some more, but more flashily! with budget! and guns!

god and his stupid fucking "crying is happy for sad people" just fuck entirely off moffat, yes? keep the preteen "i'm sad because i'm emotional and deep" shit to your 40 year old journal you keep up to date on how misunderstood and genius you are.

i haven't even gotten to the fact that sherlock isn't even sad or validated when moriarty dies. he isn't like well that fuckhead who was fucking with me is dead but at least crime is over. the video doesn't even go into a core aspect of sherlock holmes which is that he solves crimes because he wants crimes solved. that he maybe solves this stuff in particular because he cares about people and dislikes bad things because he’s a person, even if he does morally ambiguous things for the sake of a mystery. one of holmes’ enduring traits is supposed to be THAT HE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT PEOPLE. that he wants murder to have justice, that he wants a thief to be caught, and if he didn’t want those fucking things he wouldn’t solve crimes, he’d be fuckin mycroft. THAT’S BASICALLY LITERALLY THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT OF MYCROFT AS A CHARACTER, TO SHOW WHAT SHERLOCK WOULD BE IF HE WAS AN MISANTHROPIC PIECE OF INCONSIDERATE SHIT, holing himself up in an intellectual elite club full of uncaring shits who work in underground politics i mean i know that gets sort of elaborated on later on but CHRIST sherlock!sherlock would fit right fucking in at diogenes, except it wouldn’t be silent because he’d constantly need people to tell him how fucking smart he is all the fucking time

i'm so sick of this character on a fundamental level because moffat isn't the only one who does this - yes he's the one who has unfortunately laid waste to my current enjoyment of two of my favorite stories - and for those of you who counter often with "well you don't have to watch it" - you're right. I don't. and i've honestly never given Sherlock the time of day past its bullshit Orientalist episode, but as a fan of Holmes it is literally impossible to say that name without people pouncing in with how awesome Sherlock is. it's impossible to talk about Doctor Who without someone talking about the more recent season. DO YOU SEE? DO YOU SEE HOW UNAVOIDABLE.

Moffat as a writer has always capitalized on a particular archetype, the misanthropic genius. the misanthropy can be on a scale, but the genius part is paramount. the misanthropy adds a mystery to the character - because he doesn't LIKE people, his inner machinations lay undetect, but this can be done through various means. sometimes it's just done through being so sheer genius that they cannot be understood, like sherlock-archetypes almost always are, or they're so WACKY that they cannot be understood. whatever the case is, they're sometimes unlikeable, and are paired with people who don't UNDERSTAND them, but *understand* that they are so brilliant that they cannot be understood and therefore put up with whatever shit bullshittery they might be going through. (usually they're queerbaited because that character tends to be male)

here are some examples i can think off the top of my head: kingkiller chronicles, big bang theory, pure genius, dirk gently as written by douchebag mcfuckface Max Landis, frankenstein as written by douchebag mcfuckface Max Landis, most main male characters in stuff written by douchebag mcfuckface Max Landis, stargate atlantis (shared by mckay and shepard), basically every single adaptation of Holmes that didn't understand the fucking point (including house), arguably Elementary too tho that's actually dealt with in the show as a real tangible character flaw, Ender's Game, honestly as much as I love LeGuin - Wizard at Earthsea, and Catcher in the Rye to be honest, and... and... god what was that show about the guy who takes a FUCKING PILL TO BE SMART? (looked it up: Limitless), Will in Hannibal, APB WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT WAS?, HONESTLY JAKE FROM BROOKLYN 99 ALSO TOES THE LINE FOR ME especially in the early seasons but Jake is a NICE. BOY. AND christ the list goes ON and it NEVER ENDS WE ARE STILL WRITING THIS STUPID FUCKING CHARACTER.

this. shitty. character. a deep, philosophical, genius so beyond our normal human being's conception that they don't have to be nice to be liked. they just have to be smart. beyond smart. amazingly, stunningly, inconceivably smart. so smart that even their bad thing is a good thing. even their bad decisions turn out to be good ones, and their flaw is some manufactured bullshit like drugs! (House) or unfairly poor! (Kingkiller) or possibly autistic! (bbt). none of these aren't real, actual that real people have to deal with, of course, but they're USED in these cases to artificially insert a character "flaw." (and being an addict or poor or autistic isn't a fucking flaw! fucking stop it!!!!) the ultimate male wish-fulfillment character. don't require physical attractiveness or humor or charm or kindness or money. just smarts. then the women will love you!

this character has been around for so fucking long in media i feel like we've been tricked into thinking it's a good character. it's in so many well known classic things because shitheads like moffat and joss whedon and max landis and patrick rothfuss have been around forever, perpetuating their own bullshit since forever and i'm fucking sick of it. it's the writing equivalent of a white guy with acoustic guitar. a lazy, self-serving piece of writing that only serves to help the writer put his head up his own ass in an attempt to outwit himself with the most uninteresting archetype that exists. this is worse to me than the DREADED Mary Sue, because Mary Sues don't tend to be FUCKING ASSHOLES that people LOVE ANYWAY. They're just blank slates for people and that's FINE. everyone needs that at some point in their life! DO WE NEED MORE WHITE GUYS BEING AMAZING GENIUSES BUT WACKY ASSHOLES BUT SO GENIUS THAT EVERYONE LOVES THEM???? DO WE? DO WE NEED TO PERPETUATE THIS EXHAUSTING PERCEPTION THAT BEING RIGHT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEING KIND????????

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

#moffat hate #burning burning hate

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msclaritea · 7 years

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...quotes from cast/crew of Sherlock

"We had some fun times when we were filming in Belgium. I was desperately trying to put on weight, so there was a lot of [eating] rubbish food and drinking alcohol without worrying about it. With Sherlock, it’s lots of seeds, juices, swimming and running, but on this I was doing lots of beer, wine, chips and the most f*cking amazing proper steaks and goulashes. I still didn’t put on enough, though. But for Star Trek, I went up about three suit sizes."

—Benedict Cumberbatch

"Little Martin? Can you imagine that? He wouldn’t be allowed anyway, he’s got to be the grumpy Hobbit. He’d be down on the ground looking all cool and mod-like with his shades, listening to some ska going, “Yeah that looked like fun, you tw*t.” Whereas I’m there jumping around like Tigger."

—Benedict Cumberbatch , on skydiving in New Zealand

"Yeah, sometimes you want to go, “I actually do mind having a photo taken because it’s one o’clock in the morning and I’m off my face.”

—Benedict Cumberbatch

‘Someone will always hate what I say. There’s always going to be somebody spitting blood about my wooden-faced, toffee-named, crappy acting.

—Benedict Cumberbatch

‘There were bean bags, but it wasn’t like, “Hey guys, let’s hang out and talk about sexuality” when I was five.’

—Benedict Cumberbatch , on his home life as a child

‘I remember watching Star Trek, but I wasn’t obsessive about it. There were other programmes I’d always tell my mum I wanted to watch. Mainly Knight Rider, The A-Team, occasionally Buck Rogers and, funnily enough for a child, Baywatch. Good old Pammy!’

—Benedict Cumberbatch

‘I’m trying to look after my Sherlock jawline, otherwise I’d have loved the cake.'

—Benedict Cumberbatch, on the apology cake he was offered by a Twitter stalker

'I struggle to learn by rote. I’ve had meltdowns on set. Which is embarrassing and shameful.’

—Benedict Cumberbatch

“I’m not very geeky. I’m quite homespun. I would say I’m more modern rustic than gadget-orientated. I like woollen things and log fires and whiskey…”

—Benedict Cumberbatch

I was on the Tube in London and this teenage girl eyed me up and said: “Alright, Mr Sex?”. It threw me. The daft thing was that she was quoting a line in the show but I’d forgotten it because it had been a while since filming,’ … ‘I just thought I was looking particularly hot that day. Well, it’s better than being called Mr F***wit…

-Andrew Scott

“Benedict has his own gravity, both as an actor and a human being. He pulls you in and you are powerless to escape. I never knew whether to cry out in fear or weep in his arms.”

-Damon Lindleof

“I know people are touched by it, because they write to me and send me pictures– often of me having sex with Benedict Cumberbatch…”

-Martin Freeman

"I can’t stop traffic on Fifth Avenue, not unless I walk in front of an oncoming cab."

-Benedict Cumberbatch

"Do I like being thought of as attractive? I don't know anyone on Earth who doesn't, but I do find it funny. It's new to me, and I'm sure I'll get used to it and find a way of dealing with it, but at the moment it is quite odd. I look in a mirror and I see all the faults I've lived with for 35 years, and yet people go kind of nuts for certain things about me. It's not me being humble. I just think it's weird. I dislike the size and shape of my head. I've been likened to Sid the sloth from Ice Age… I have a long face, retroussé nose and have been known to be quite camp… I know I don't fit into some archetype. I'm comfortable with it. People have a hindrance if they are extraordinarily beautiful. It can be a problem. You are not given the challenges and then, when you are, all eyes are on you to see if you can pull anything off other than being beautiful to look at."

--Benedict Cumberbatch

“If I were the [producer], I’d be frightened of the dynamic of male friendship that you’d lose,” he confesses to TVLine, “because that is obviously the bedrock of the books as well. [Now] there might be sexual tension between Joan [Watson] and Sherlock, which is [a different dynamic than you'd have] between the two men. So, that’s a new thing to explore.”

--Benedict Cumberbatch (on CBS' Elementary)

Mycroft’s popularity doesn’t surprise me at all. He is, after all, incredibly beautiful, clever and well-dressed. And beautiful. Did I mention that?

--Mark Gatiss

And yes, please vote for us in the YouTube thing. Cos if we lose we’ll be too upset to make any more. And I’ll axe Doctor Who as well. And shoot Santa Claus and some puppies.

--Steven Moffat

Sue: Sherlock to me feels like a Great Dane, you know, those dogs where the legs are too big.

Benedict: Yes! Yes. Except, more like a meercat, or a hybrid between a meercat and a Great Dane. A Great Dane on speed. A Great Dane that's just had a bowl of coffee.

Sue: What would John be?

Benedict: He's a big dog. He's sort of angular; there's something more predatory about him. A kind of creature of the night. Not the most sociable. Not a cat, but something very independent. Removed.

(On Appropriate Sherlock and Watson Spirit Animals)

"Is John a hedgehog? I haven't seen the hedgehog. When did that happen? Is it due to Martin's hair? Because if it is, I'll be really happy about that. "

--Benedict Cumberbatch On the Otter and Hedgehog Internet Memes

"It cuts me up and I can’t control myself from making funny sounds as I dive into my hands and eat my fist."

--Benedict Cumberbatch, on War Horse

"Pull the hair on my head the wrong way, and I would be on my knees begging for mercy. I have very sensitive follicles."

-Benedict Cumberbatch

"It’s always definitely a love story. I don’t see why that means that sex has to be involved. What a weirdly sexualized world we live in where you insist they much be having sex as well. Why would they? John isn’t wired that way, whatever Sherlock is. But I think that whole scene, when Irene Adler has to say she’s mostly gay, she has had relationships with men as well, it’s not what it’s about. Sherlock Holmes is indifferent to sex. So is Irene. She uses sex to get what she wants, and John Watson happily has a string of girlfriends. Sex is not really the issue among any of these people. Love is. Infatuation is. I think John Watson is infatuated with and fascinated by Sherlock Holmes. I think Sherlock Holmes absolutley relies completely and utterly on John Watson and is devoted to him."

--Steven Moffat

"He knows how to be charming, he knows how to play all the games we play in every social interaction, and yet he withdrawals from them. Purely, it’s an athlete thing. He’s reserving what he needs for when he needs it. That’s a huge difference between him and me. I kind of spend myself too easily I’m far more [makes a “putting it all out there” motion] “bleh,” and there it all is, heart and sleeve. But he’s incredibly controlled and that’s sort of what’s remarkable about him.

--Benedict Cumberbatch on Sherlock

"And I think, you know, the other thing I really enjoy is he is achievable. He is somebody that we could all be — not that we necessarily want to follow the personal traits, but these abilities. He doesn’t fly through space or have a sonic screwdriver, he’s somebody who has actually … Who has sonic screwdrivers?"

--Benedict Cumberbatch on Sherlock

"One minute he’s not quite so handsome. Then the next minute he’s gorgeous. What is that term? Jolie laide. It’s French for ugly-handsome."

— Una Stubbs on Benedict Cumberbatch’s looks

"I've gone up two suit sizes. The character I'm playing, he's strong, I can say that much. I've changed my physique a bit, so that requires eating like a foie gras goose, well beyond your appetite. Providing I don't feel too ill, I then work out two hours a day with a phenomenal trainer. It's the LA way."

--Benedict Cumberbatch

"There is weird fan fiction out there — weird. They write stories and do manga cartoons of what they think you get up to behind closed doors. Some of it’s funny. Some of it’s full-on sex. Get Martin to show you some. "

--Benedict Cumberbatch

“Benedict is a kind of magnificent, exotic animal as an actor. He doesn’t look like a normal person. He rarely plays normal people. He plays sort of exceptional people.”

- Steven Moffat

"Believe me: during my first years on stage and in front of the camera I often felt like nothing more than a moving piece of furniture. I still always gave the best of me."

--Benedict Cumberbatch

"And some idiot locked us out of our hotel room - who turned out to be Benedict."

--Steven Moffat, The Hounds of Baskerville commentary

"Everyone’s been asking us if we’re going any further with the relationship between John and Sherlock, and I’m thinking, well, why not? I really don’t see the problem with it, and Mark (Gatiss) has already asked us if it would be an issue if we were to kiss on screen. Of course he was joking, but I wouldn’t mind at all."

— Martin Freeman

“He found the part that he could make live uniquely, that he could inhabit, that could make him a leading man. He is never going to be a conventional leading man, he’s not going to be James Bond. But he is going to be the sexiest Sherlock Holmes there has ever been.”

--Steven Moffat on Benedict Cumberbatch, London Evening Standard Interview

Of course I’d like to live a few months a year in Hollywood, then I’d at least get a bit of sunshine. (laughs) But surrendering completely to the American way of life? No fucking way!

--Benedict Cumberbatch

“I try to get them to write ‘Sir Benedict’ on it. Occasionally they oblige.”

--Benedict Cumberbatch (about his polystyrene cup of coffee)

"A militant one. Dungarees, moustache, all men are rapists, you know the drill... Seriously, though, I'd like every man who doesn't call himself a feminist to explain to the women in his life why he doesn't believe in equality for women. I think Page 3, Nuts and Zoo are bullshit. I don't wax my pubic hair off. I don't think working in a titty bar getting fivers shoved up your bum is empowering. And I'm bored of pictures of women in their smalls on buses with fuck-me mouths."

--Louise Brealey (on what kind of feminist she is)

"We just were looking for someone with the most awesome name in history. That was the casting call. We asked for someone with the most awesome name in history, ever, and Benedict Cumberbatch showed up, so we were like, “You’re cast!”"

--J.J. Abrams (on casting BC in the new Star Trek movie)

"One day we were in the make-up trailer and someone was brushing out Benedict’s stunt double’s wig - and we decided to put Martin in it. We put Sherlock’s coat on him and stood him on top of one of the make-up chairs so he looked tall and took the photo from low down. And when Benedict came in we got the make-up assistant to ask him to autograph the photograph. She handed it over - and this is how Benedict’s mind works - and he went “I don’t remember wearing my coat with that colour scarf"

--Lara Pulver

"Martin said a few things but they were harmless. They were both supportive and by the end of it I wouldn't move on to the next line until Benedict had stared at my boobs!"

--Lara Pulver, on being naked in Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia

"But it doesn't matter how many times you say that [they're not gay], an entire forest of dirty fiction has arisen as a result. And long may it continue, I don't know what it's about. . ."

--Mark Gatiss

"I'm very aware of it, God, I'm aware of it because people come and talk about it every time we do any kind of event but I suppose the history of it is going way back. I think it started with Kirk and Spock. Anything like that has a kind of slash element and it's an interesting thing because you've brought up the idea of heterosexual men get off on the notion of lesbians but the flip side is just as powerful, particularly I think for girls of a certain age. The idea of two sexy men getting it on is a really powerful aphrodisiac."

--Mark Gatiss

"I was the boy that turned a girlfriend into the most celebrated lesbian on television. I got so much stick for that. "

--Benedict Cumberbatch on his role in "Tipping the Velvet"

As an actor, you can do weight loss, weight gain, put on silly noses, crazy accents, move like a dragon, inviting people to look at the fireworks and admire how different you’re being. But with acting like that, it’s all about look-at-me, when what you should be doing is helping the audience care about the person they’re watching.

— Benedict Cumberbatch - Radio Times Interview 2011

"He is alarming, strange, possibly psychopathic, but perfectly happy. He clearly adores John, he's not got some deep emotional problems with connecting to people, he just can't be arsed. He'd rather be out solving crimes."

--Steven Moffat on Sherlock, Total Film Dec. 2011

"John is a little bit more in control. There’s an understanding and a balance there, now that they’ve been at it for about nine months. Sherlock is kept in check by him, and he funcitons better with him."

--Benedict Cumberbatch

"I guess like any friendship, marriage, or whatever it is familiarity breeds more contempt, and more love. They’re just more settled with each other now."

--Martin Freeman

“I remember very clearly someone saying, ‘Don’t shake hands with the cactus,’ and I thought, ‘Well, why not? What could possibly go wrong?’ Shaking hands is a friendly gesture.” --Benedict Cumberbatch, on his schoolboy days

“This is amazing, thank you. It makes up for a blog I accidentally read last night that described me as “horse-faced, arse-named, wooden and untalented.” I can dispute the last two because you have honoured me with this [Actor of The Year Award], but the first two? Yeah: I am horse-faced and arse-named, but there you go - it’s what I was born with.”

--Benedict Cumberbatch

The story of Sherlock Holmes, on the surface, is about deduction, but in reality, it's about the best of two men who save each other--a lost, washed-up war hero and a man who could end up committing murders instead of solving them. They come together. They become this perfect unit. They become the best friendship ever, and they become heroes.

--Steven Moffat

“I’m aware of the power of looks. I’ve wanted to play roles that have gone to much better-looking people and you just think ‘Oh well, that’s the pin up guy’s… an actor like my friend James Mcavoy, who’s gorgeous on screen. I’m not that. But at least I don’t have to worry about taking precious care of my face because it’s my commodity. That’s a great freedom. I’m not afraid of being heinous for the sake of a part”

-- Benedict Cumberbatch

"I’m always keen to use my body in my work, so I’m looking forward to the motion capture for Smaug. Both Gollum and King Kong were primates, whereas I’m playing a serpent, so it’ll be interesting - I’ll have to tie my legs together, possibly, or else they’ll be kind of splayed out to the side as a reptile’s should be." --Benedict Cumberbatch, on playing Smaug in The Hobbit

'Seriously, WHAT kind of a man meets John Watson - sober, clean-living, ex-military - and instantly thinks of Sherlock Holmes - insane young genius who likes to beat corpses - and says, "Oh, I know just who you must meet.."? This guy's dinner parties must be legendary!'

--Jude Law, on Mike Stamford

"Benedict is bumbly, sweet, affable; the nicest man you've met."

--Mark Gatiss

I am very flattered. I have also become a verb as in I have cumberbatched the UK audience apparently. Who knows, by the end of the year I might become a swear word too! It’s crazy and fun and very flattering.

--Benedict Cumberbatch

At that minute Martin walked in and I just had a thunderbolt. It dawned on me: "Oh, God it’s him!" We flirted with each other all day and when I went home he texted me, saying "You left and I wasn’t done flirting with you. That’s a bit rude", which I thought was really smooth.

--Amanda Abbington on how she met Martin Freeman

He’s extraordinary. During auditions, the minute he stepped into the room I said to the producers, I don’t know if you want my opinion, but I want to work with him, because he makes my game better. I honestly felt myself get better as an actor playing scenes opposite him — he has brilliant level of humanity. We all know how funny he can be from his work of “The Office,” but he can also play so much pathos — it’s an unsung talent of his that’s often clouded by his “Office” fame.

--Benedict Cumberbatch on Martin Freeman

"Only one death threat, two demands for my immediate resignation, and two for my suicide. IT'S A HIT!!"

--Steven Moffatt on the mid series finale of Doctor Who series 6"He is a little bit old fashioned so you’ve got some of the old ideas of him coming from another era but he’s also a modern young man and, you know, to be honest he’s a brilliant actor, very good looking, dashing and he’s what Sherlock Holmes ought to be."

"It is a double act, and he’s my wingman and he’s just phenomenal, and he’s a joy to work with. In no small way, he keeps me afloat and happy during the day as well. And he’s just a brilliant presence to be around. He’s just a scream. And we adore each other. In a very *platonic*, non… you know, way."—Benedict Cumberbatch on Martin Freeman at the 2011 BAFTAs

"Obviously it’s Sherlock’s show but there’s far more parity than I think there often is in that relationship. I know [creators] Steven [Moffat] and Mark [Gatiss] primarily wanted the show to be about that relationship as much if not more than anything else. [It’s about the relationship] and how it develops and how it changes and the things that wind each other up, the things that they genuinely sort of love about each other as well. It’s the gayest story in the history of television… People certainly run with that which I’m quite happy with! But we all saw it as a love story. Not just a love story, but those two people who do love each other - a slightly dysfunctional relationship sometimes, but a relationship that works. They get results."

---Martin Freeman

“I ate healthily, but there was no snacking, no drinking, no bread, no sugar, no smoking. Afterwards I had a pork belly roast.”

--Benedict Cumberbatch, on fillming Third Star

“I made the mistake of calling in Benedict to solve a crime. He was absolutely hopeless!”

--Mark Gatiss

"Hitler. I’d tell him his paintings were great and to stay off the politics and get laid. Alive… The mother of my children and I’d ask them to take a deep breath and if they fancied a drink."

--Benedict Cumberbatch, when asked "If you could meet anyone in the world dead or alive who would it be and what would you say to them?"

"Finally on my way to see my little brother in 'Fronkensteen' at the National. He was always a grower not a show-er."

--Mark Gatiss on Twitter

“Don’t you think my life is confusing enough? And listen, if John Simm could hear you, you would not live another hour. He came up to me after the press [junket] for the End of Time where he’d been saying ‘I think now that David has left as The Doctor, I would have to leave as The Master’ but then he pulled me aside and said ‘I didn’t mean that! And look at me, I’m fit! I’m OK!’ So Benedict has to wait in line probably. But how confusing would it be? All four cheekbones at once! I tell you, I stood between [Matt Smith and Benedict] in a photograph once. It’s a really good way to look extra ugly.”

--Steven Moffat

“I always seem to be cast as slightly wan, ethereal, troubled intellectuals or physically ambivalent bad lovers. But I’m here to tell you I’m quite the opposite in real life. In fact I’m a fucking fantastic lover.”

---Benedict Cumberbatch

“My new agent said, ‘Why aren’t you using your family name? It’s a real attention-grabber.’ I worried, ‘How much is it going to cost to put my name in lights?’ But then I decided that’s not my problem.”

--Benedict Cumberbatch

"I hate this distinction of me being some f***ing academic who has just managed to escape the allure of some postgraduate course, and Miller as this mad f***ing wild child with dyed hair from Trainspotting. We have different working methods but ever so slightly – we block on the same lines. We’ve got the same sense of humour and think much the same about what’s good and bad."

--Benedict Cumberbatch

"It's tough, our bodies are all in pain. It’s fascinating, sort of crippling ourselves doing this. I’ve spent time in X-ray today; I’ve got my hips coming out of joint, my wrist are developing into ankles, 'cause of work I do at the beginning. We’ve had all sorts of injuries, back problems and neck problems. It’s a hard show to do, but it’s also been wonderful. Thank God I like Johnny Lee Miller."--Benedict Cumberbatch

"I imagine Holmes probably got pneumonia on a couple of occasions in Victorian London. I got flu and kept braving through it while green stuff was coming out of me. I was told, ‘You’ve got man flu, have a couple of paracetamol’, but when I soaked the bed sheets with sweat three nights running in the middle of winter, I knew there was something really wrong with me. It’s not nice having liquid on your lung and it takes a long time to recover - the irritating thing is that I was so disciplined and living a very healthy existence… I’d swim a lot, do yoga and eat healthily. I was really annoyed with myself for getting flu in the first place and I did myself a bit of damage by not acknowledging that I needed a rest."

--Benedict Cumberbatch

“I always think of the Doctor, bizarrely, as the more human one. Because he’s sort of like, in my mind, an angel who aspires to be human. Whereas Sherlock Holmes is a human being who aspires to be a god.”

--Steven Moffat

“Sherlock and Watson are a love story”

-Martin Freeman

”Sherlock and Watson meet at the right point in their lives, when they need each other the most. It’s a love story. Sherlock is upset because nobody can see the world the way he does. Watson misses the adrenalin and the constant life or death situations,”

--Martin Freeman

"I had a superb audition with Martin, and I immediately knew that he was my primary choice. He was definitely the person that I immediately sparked off and raised my game for. He’s an adorable man and blissfully, ridiculously funny and entertaining. He’s a great support and companion in real life as well. We have tremendous fun doing the show."

--Benedict Cumberbatch when asked how it was to work with Martin Freeman as Watson

Steven Moffat: Oddly enough, the thing [our kids] really enjoyed were the deductions. They were very, very hard to write.

Mark Gatiss: That’s why Conan Doyle stopped bothering.

SM: Or they become rubbish. ‘How did you know I was on the train?’ ‘I saw your train ticket!’

MG: ‘I was sitting next to you on the train!’

"Benedict (Cumberbatch, who is playing Sherlock) looks amazing. He's still got a Sherlockian silhouette, with a large overcoat, but in a classic cut. Watson dresses with an urban elegance, a touch of old school dashing, giving a feeling of both the military and medical profession. I suppose it's something they have in common as well. They're a bit metrosexual."

--Martin Freeman

Sherlock in Real Life (we can't blame it all on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

.@youngqueenwerewolf you are right. I would say, first off, bless Martin Freeman and his little Johnlock heart. I had never seen a lot of these quotes. So, he pretty much put it out there, that he wouldn't mind kissing Ben. Ben just casually letting people know that if they want to see naked pictures of the two of them, just ask Martin. And Gatiss...I don't know what to say or think of that man, except he certainly is incredibly condescending about females. I don't get a queer man behaving so disgusted over the thought of a queer Holmes.

#so many questions #seriously why

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tardisgirlepic · 7 years

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Ch. 1: “World Enough and Time” Analysis Doctor Who S10.11: Important metaphors & Don’t Believe Everything You See

All links below go to my AO3 analyses. For Tumblr, check out my Meta Archive.

Catching Up with Metaphors & Supporting Information

This is a really short chapter. I want to get this out to give you, if you are inclined, a chance to either read or reread some chapters from my pre-Season 10 document, Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who. They lay out what is happening in this finale.

If you haven’t read my post analysis of TRODM, starting in Chapter 14 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who, I suggest, if you have time, you read it to further shed light on what is happening. I’ll translate “World Enough and Time” to show you how we saw this coming. However, the many details are in those chapters.

If you have read those chapters, it’s good to refresh memories. It was for me. There’s so much to think about in order to pull all these concepts together. These chapters have a much more in-depth look at the supporting metaphors and information. I’ll do my best to give you the most important points, in case you don’t have time to read those chapters.

If you only have time for 2 chapters from that document, you should read Chapter 15, which sets up most of the metaphors you’ll need and Chapter 17. It examines “Heaven Sent,” which is very important to “World Enough and Time, and while it’s not a full analysis, it comes close. I’ll be heavily referencing that chapter.

Because I had to set up the foundation of the complicated meaning behind TRODM, it took quite a few chapters. Here’s the really quick outline, in case you want to go back and see how the subtext has foreshadowed all of this.

Sadly, since this was my first time doing a meta, I didn’t break out TRODM from my pre-Season 10 document Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who. For those of you who haven’t read it, I did a TRODM pre-airing analysis starting in Chapter 9. The Post-airing analysis starts in Chapter 14.

Post-airing analysis of TRODM:

Chapter 14:

· Shows the major reveal in dialogue that the Doctor was battling himself, along with foreshadowing for it where I give examples that go all the way back to the 9th Doctor. (Skip this for now if you haven’t read it.)

Chapter 15:

· Talks about several metaphors, including Black Holes, Earth, Brains, the Eye of Harmony, and the Boat metaphor. I also gave a quick look at the Library metaphor, which I’ve never fully posted because I never finished it. However, I have talked about parts of it throughout Season 10.

Chapter 16:

· Talks about Black Holes being metaphorical beasts. We examined “The Beast Below” and the Star Whale metaphor, which is a type of Boat metaphor.

· There’s an important promise in the episode that I highlighted because this all was going to get really dark, which it has. And it will get worse. What we need to keep in mind is that there is a greater love behind all of this, which will heal everyone in the end, at least in many ways. The Doctor is the Star Whale, so not everything may go back to the way it was before starting, at least not in the story, which I’ll explain. However, it does mean people will wake up, and the Star Whale will no longer be tortured and enslaved. We are seeing this play out with Bill (a face of the Doctor), and we’ll examine this more in a bit.

· Gives examples of the Black Hole and the Eye of Harmony from “The Impossible Planet” & “The Satan Pit.” Exploitation and slavery were themes. They actually tie into a concept in TRODM.

· Shows how Vikings, love, poison, and a curse are involved.

· Compares “The Satan Pit” to TRODM

· Talks about “Planet of the Ood” and slavery, along with what the Beast really is

· Talks about why I believed we were headed for the coming apocalypse in an alternate universe.

Chapter 17:

· Talks about how “Heaven Sent” is so much more than it appears. The episode was already very complicated, so the details of what was really happening have to be left to subtext. I tie in many episodes in this chapter, and this chapter is the main one playing out right now in “World Enough and Time.”

· Examines the prison, energy source (Mr. Razor in “World Enough and Time” mentions solar panels), building an army (which is where the plague comes in), the Door/Doughnut metaphor, how this connects to “The Unquiet Dead,” the invisible monster and “Vincent and the Doctor,” a quick look at the gender change, pods and the plague tying in multiple episodes, what pods and drawings tell us about the Library.

Chapter 18:

· Talks about exploiting children, along with the significance of the age of 8, which comes up again in “World Enough and Time.” Also, it talks about the Master’s madness and Rassilon’s part in this. This madness shows up in the Library, “The Empty Child,” as well as the 2-part story “Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood.” Additionally, I examine why the Time Lord Academy was more than it appeared and how turning oneself human was a problem.

· Shows how “A Town Called Mercy” and its minisode prequel are really important. And I show how that also connects to “Face the Raven.” I wanted to make that point in “The Eaters of Light” analysis, but I ran out of time.

· Talks about how the Doctor’s Mother, the Legend of the Blue Box, and “A Town Called Mercy” are tied together. I didn’t get to reiterate this point either in “The Eaters of Light” analysis.

· Examines how we are turning back time and rescuing children. I also talk about how much more pain and misery is in the subtext. “World Enough and Time” is giving us a small taste in canon of what has been in the subtext for a long time.

· Looks at how Danny Pink’s “heavenly” experience foreshadows the rescue and why the Doctor doesn’t need to regenerate.

Chapter 19:

· Talks about the Doctor’s Mother and her rescue plan, along with what Rassilon and the Master wanted, Wilfred and the Doctor taking up arms.

· Examines what it means when the Doctor shoots the general and what the subtext suggests about the War Doctor and Master.

· Talks about what looking at the Eye of Harmony, the Black Hole, means and who Prisoner Zero is. We examined the Doctor’s potential blindness before TRODM aired. We’ll take a look at it from another point of view in the “World Enough and Time” analysis.

· Examines the Architect from “Time Heist” and relates it to the meaning of the poems in “The Beast Below.” I also link this to the Doctor’s mother. Here’s where I first talk about the Horse metaphor, as well as the Vault in relation to the Library.

TRODM is extremely important to the subtext story, even though it doesn’t look like it on the surface.

I believe that Moffat and DW will make history with the reveal of what really has been happening to the Doctor in this upcoming last episode of Season 10 or the Christmas Special.

He’s pulling the rug out…

Things Are Not as They Appear & the Library Metaphor

It’s the standard mantra: don’t believe what you see. There are several problems that show this, but here are a few:

They Are in the Library Metaphor

When we see the end of the ship close to the Black Hole metaphor, we get some important information.

In the image below, the Black Hole (red arrow) is on the right while the ship on the left has several important symbols. This ship’s end is cylindrical, showing us a container circle encompassing various markings. There are 4 white lines around the outside of the center white circle, and I’ve marked one (white arrow). These 4 represent the compass directions which pertain to the Library metaphor. There are 8 darker lines, and I’ve marked one (yellow arrow). This is a djinni symbol. It’s a trap for djinn, symbolized with a container circle. This is a prison ship.

Please note that when I took this image, the compass points had rotated. The ship is spinning, which provides artificial gravity.

The Doctor on Ice

At the beginning of the episode, the Doctor (with OMG really long hair for him!) stumbles out of the TARDIS, falls to his knees, and starts to regenerate. That he screams, “Nooooo!” is a big red flag. In a bit, we’ll examine what this suggests. Also, we’ll examine the OMG hair and how it supports the Samson & Delilah hypothesis, along with what additional information this all suggests.

The Ship’s Width Doesn’t Match

The ship is reaaaaallllly long. Nardole gives us the dimensions, but there is a problem:

NARDOLE: Oh, it's a big one. Ship reads as four hundred miles long

[Tardis]

NARDOLE [OC]: And a hundred miles wide.

DOCTOR: It's big, even for a colony ship.

There is no way the width of the ship is ¼ of the length. The width is tiny in comparison.

The Next Chapters

I’ve got a lot to cover, but here are a few things. More insight on the Doctor’s OMG really long hair. How the title fits in, the meaning of the Doctor using “Doctor Who” as his title, the Fish metaphor (finally!) and what they have to do with the Library metaphor and Hospitals. The Master and lots of mirror explanations, tying in “Face the Raven,” “Heaven Sent,” “Hell Bent,” “Journey into Terror,” “Oxygen,” and much more.