It will be a serpent. With the foot of a bear.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!
Ok, now that that's out of the way -
Went to see Sherlock Holmes tonight. I has thoughts about it, but I will cut them because they will probably be rambly and involve slightly dated remembrances of the novels/short stories and many of them will be shallow.
That cut pretty much tells you all you need to know about where this is heading. But I'll start with the whole rewriting of canon thing, because that was pretty big.
For me, it seems like they kind of got the personalities backwards. When I read the canon, I mostly felt that Holmes was just Holmes and Watson was the one always following him around and looking up at him in adoration, begging to be loved and appreciated by him. And don't get me wrong, half the movie was Watson following Holmes around, but Holmes was so damn moody about the Mary thing that it was really him who was moping about Watson all the time, trying to get him to come back. It was an odd characterization for me: a bit too clingy on Holmes' part, and not sappy enough on Watson's. The way I see them is basically how this one ONTDer put it: "Go away Watson, I have to take drugs now. Oh by the way I once loved a woman and it was very bad so I can never love again. Can you get me some stuff while you're out? You are a bit dim so I will write it down for you."
Not that Holmes didn't love Watson, of course - he did, and very much so. He just never put it out there as much as Watson would have liked, so I always kind of pictured Watson hanging around, wagging his metaphorical tail desperately as he helped Holmes out again, and then getting absolutely nothing for it but a few "my dear Watson"s every so often. I mean, Holmes was such a bitch to him in Hound of the Baskervilles and when he ~came back from the dead~, but Watson stuck it out.
Which leads me on to my next bit, namely that it seems to me that the writers saw how House had updated the Holmes-Watson dynamic and kind of reverse engineered those characters into Holmes and Watson again. Except Wilson's a bit more call-House-on-his-BS than Watson ever was for Holmes, and House is super fucking clingy. (Again, not saying that Holmes wasn't clingy - I'm speaking in terms of relative magnitude here.) So Holmes and Watson became House and Wilson, who became this new!Holmes and new!Watson, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it.
Then there are the other things, like Watson and Mary NOT meeting through a case that Holmes accepted, and the physical prowess that both Holmes and Watson displayed (I mean, bum leg from the war wut?), and stuff along those general lines, but overall I suppose I believed it well enough.
And now, because I am shallow, I'm going to have to talk about the slash some. Because HOLY MOTHER OF HELL, I WAS DROWNING IN THE SUBTEXT AND IT WAS DELICIOUS. And pretty. Really, really pretty. I think Jude Law is one of those odd people that can possibly look better with facial hair (see: Rowan Atkinson (no, really: Rowan Atkinson)), and RDJ is such a hot bitch regardless, so that was fun. And they got all close to each other all the time, and were generally catty and married, and then there was that moment when they were on the verge of a beautiful manhug and Guy Ritchie refused to show it to us (that asshole). And all the way through it, you can just tell that they care for each other very, very much.
So yes, I ship it. I ship it like mad. But only - I repeat, ONLY - in the movie.
Let me explain: reading the books, I really do get the whole Holmes-as-asexual thing, devoted as I normally am to the slash. I'm not sure what it is, but aside from "the woman" (and A Scandal in Bohemia in general), there's no mention of him ever having those kinds of feelings for anyone. I see why people do ship Holmes/Watson, but I don't actually see it, if that makes any sense. (I'm the same way with House/Wilson, incidentally.) It's kind of like...yes, they care about each quite deeply, but Watson has way too much of a hero worship-thing going for that relationship to ever be healthy, and Holmes just doesn't seem to care enough to even have those emotions for Watson. If I let myself consider the possibility that Watson was in love with Holmes (which I can kind of see, sometimes), then I just imagine Holmes as the guy who knows that their friend has this huge crush on them and does nothing about it - they just use it to their advantage, all the while feigning ignorance of the whole situation. This leads me right back to the unhealthy relationship thing, and again I feel that Holmes really can't be bothered with relationships and sex anyway, so it becomes a moot point to me.
In the movie, however, well...Holmes is this pouty, jealous, desperately-trying-to-hold-on-to-Watson basket case, constantly trying to stake his claim and remind Watson that "Holmes" always always always means "Holmes and Watson" because that's the way it is and always will be, damn it! He's actually, legitimately hurt by Watson's (pending) engagement, and keeps goading Watson alternately into squabbles and investigations in a last-ditch attempt to keep him around. Watson, on the other hand, loves Holmes. Loves him to the point of being infuriated with him. He knows very well that what they have is slightly twisted (he flat-out calls himself a masochist at one point), but he knows just as well that Holmes needs him (and only him), and he just can't bring himself to pull away and completely put Mary first. He's very conflicted, because he thinks he knows what he wants (Mary, marriage, lace doilies, etc.), but then Holmes will do something to remind him of what he's leaving (the holding onto his money, the deductions, the attempted theft of clothes, the shared history, etc.), and then he's not so sure anymore.
And that moment on the bed, when they're just sitting side-by-side, carefully not looking at each other while Holmes tries to say how happy he is that Watson's alive, both knowing full well that he was right by Watson's side in the hospital just to try and stay close? OH MY GOD. Beautiful. Just lovely and touching and god, why is Ritchie such an asshole? Is a hug too much to ask for?! Sheesh.
So anyway, to wrap this all up, I fucking ship it in this weird, slight AU of canon that the movie presents, and I have no problems with this whatsoever.
In summary: the movie is plenty entertaining, I have thoughts about the way canon was rewritten, and Holmes/Watson is very pretty (but I only ship it in the movie). The slash goggles bit was just a diversion, although I will admit to being annoyed by Irene a fair amount, simply because the plucky girl who's clearly the guy's perfect match and yet always a step ahead has become a hated trope of mine. That, and the fact that all het is ruined for me forever. But mostly the first one.
And would you look at that, not once in this post have I mentioned YGO! Er, scratch that now. The point is that I haven't watched any GX or kept going on the True Ending of P4 because my mom has successfully drawn me into the world of MMOs, and they really are as addicting as people say. Right now, I'm a level 13 assassin named Kiaba (there's your YGO reference!), and I must say, I'm a damned good one. The character only exists to create armor for this other character, but I'm happy to do the required leveling to get there. And hey, it's Aion, so at least it's not WoW? Idk, I know it's not much better, but I'm trying to maintain some sense of pride, here.
BBC America is apparently on top of the game, as part one of The End of Time is set to air tomorrow, saving me the bother of downloading it tonight. We're going to watch it together, because apparently my mother has been awakened to some vague interest in New Who, and I'm trying to indoctrinate her as best I can. To bring this thing full circle, she got me two Classic Who serials for Christmas (one Baker and one McCoy), so I'm very excited about that. (Classic Who is a bitch to find online, you see.)
And now that I've said my piece about Sherlock Holmes and D-dubs and Christmas and all that, I think I'm going to go to bed now. I've only got one more full day at home, and I want to be rested enough to enjoy it. Good night!
Ok, now that that's out of the way -
Went to see Sherlock Holmes tonight. I has thoughts about it, but I will cut them because they will probably be rambly and involve slightly dated remembrances of the novels/short stories and many of them will be shallow.
That cut pretty much tells you all you need to know about where this is heading. But I'll start with the whole rewriting of canon thing, because that was pretty big.
For me, it seems like they kind of got the personalities backwards. When I read the canon, I mostly felt that Holmes was just Holmes and Watson was the one always following him around and looking up at him in adoration, begging to be loved and appreciated by him. And don't get me wrong, half the movie was Watson following Holmes around, but Holmes was so damn moody about the Mary thing that it was really him who was moping about Watson all the time, trying to get him to come back. It was an odd characterization for me: a bit too clingy on Holmes' part, and not sappy enough on Watson's. The way I see them is basically how this one ONTDer put it: "Go away Watson, I have to take drugs now. Oh by the way I once loved a woman and it was very bad so I can never love again. Can you get me some stuff while you're out? You are a bit dim so I will write it down for you."
Not that Holmes didn't love Watson, of course - he did, and very much so. He just never put it out there as much as Watson would have liked, so I always kind of pictured Watson hanging around, wagging his metaphorical tail desperately as he helped Holmes out again, and then getting absolutely nothing for it but a few "my dear Watson"s every so often. I mean, Holmes was such a bitch to him in Hound of the Baskervilles and when he ~came back from the dead~, but Watson stuck it out.
Which leads me on to my next bit, namely that it seems to me that the writers saw how House had updated the Holmes-Watson dynamic and kind of reverse engineered those characters into Holmes and Watson again. Except Wilson's a bit more call-House-on-his-BS than Watson ever was for Holmes, and House is super fucking clingy. (Again, not saying that Holmes wasn't clingy - I'm speaking in terms of relative magnitude here.) So Holmes and Watson became House and Wilson, who became this new!Holmes and new!Watson, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it.
Then there are the other things, like Watson and Mary NOT meeting through a case that Holmes accepted, and the physical prowess that both Holmes and Watson displayed (I mean, bum leg from the war wut?), and stuff along those general lines, but overall I suppose I believed it well enough.
And now, because I am shallow, I'm going to have to talk about the slash some. Because HOLY MOTHER OF HELL, I WAS DROWNING IN THE SUBTEXT AND IT WAS DELICIOUS. And pretty. Really, really pretty. I think Jude Law is one of those odd people that can possibly look better with facial hair (see: Rowan Atkinson (no, really: Rowan Atkinson)), and RDJ is such a hot bitch regardless, so that was fun. And they got all close to each other all the time, and were generally catty and married, and then there was that moment when they were on the verge of a beautiful manhug and Guy Ritchie refused to show it to us (that asshole). And all the way through it, you can just tell that they care for each other very, very much.
So yes, I ship it. I ship it like mad. But only - I repeat, ONLY - in the movie.
Let me explain: reading the books, I really do get the whole Holmes-as-asexual thing, devoted as I normally am to the slash. I'm not sure what it is, but aside from "the woman" (and A Scandal in Bohemia in general), there's no mention of him ever having those kinds of feelings for anyone. I see why people do ship Holmes/Watson, but I don't actually see it, if that makes any sense. (I'm the same way with House/Wilson, incidentally.) It's kind of like...yes, they care about each quite deeply, but Watson has way too much of a hero worship-thing going for that relationship to ever be healthy, and Holmes just doesn't seem to care enough to even have those emotions for Watson. If I let myself consider the possibility that Watson was in love with Holmes (which I can kind of see, sometimes), then I just imagine Holmes as the guy who knows that their friend has this huge crush on them and does nothing about it - they just use it to their advantage, all the while feigning ignorance of the whole situation. This leads me right back to the unhealthy relationship thing, and again I feel that Holmes really can't be bothered with relationships and sex anyway, so it becomes a moot point to me.
In the movie, however, well...Holmes is this pouty, jealous, desperately-trying-to-hold-on-to-Watson basket case, constantly trying to stake his claim and remind Watson that "Holmes" always always always means "Holmes and Watson" because that's the way it is and always will be, damn it! He's actually, legitimately hurt by Watson's (pending) engagement, and keeps goading Watson alternately into squabbles and investigations in a last-ditch attempt to keep him around. Watson, on the other hand, loves Holmes. Loves him to the point of being infuriated with him. He knows very well that what they have is slightly twisted (he flat-out calls himself a masochist at one point), but he knows just as well that Holmes needs him (and only him), and he just can't bring himself to pull away and completely put Mary first. He's very conflicted, because he thinks he knows what he wants (Mary, marriage, lace doilies, etc.), but then Holmes will do something to remind him of what he's leaving (the holding onto his money, the deductions, the attempted theft of clothes, the shared history, etc.), and then he's not so sure anymore.
And that moment on the bed, when they're just sitting side-by-side, carefully not looking at each other while Holmes tries to say how happy he is that Watson's alive, both knowing full well that he was right by Watson's side in the hospital just to try and stay close? OH MY GOD. Beautiful. Just lovely and touching and god, why is Ritchie such an asshole? Is a hug too much to ask for?! Sheesh.
So anyway, to wrap this all up, I fucking ship it in this weird, slight AU of canon that the movie presents, and I have no problems with this whatsoever.
In summary: the movie is plenty entertaining, I have thoughts about the way canon was rewritten, and Holmes/Watson is very pretty (but I only ship it in the movie). The slash goggles bit was just a diversion, although I will admit to being annoyed by Irene a fair amount, simply because the plucky girl who's clearly the guy's perfect match and yet always a step ahead has become a hated trope of mine. That, and the fact that all het is ruined for me forever. But mostly the first one.
And would you look at that, not once in this post have I mentioned YGO! Er, scratch that now. The point is that I haven't watched any GX or kept going on the True Ending of P4 because my mom has successfully drawn me into the world of MMOs, and they really are as addicting as people say. Right now, I'm a level 13 assassin named Kiaba (there's your YGO reference!), and I must say, I'm a damned good one. The character only exists to create armor for this other character, but I'm happy to do the required leveling to get there. And hey, it's Aion, so at least it's not WoW? Idk, I know it's not much better, but I'm trying to maintain some sense of pride, here.
BBC America is apparently on top of the game, as part one of The End of Time is set to air tomorrow, saving me the bother of downloading it tonight. We're going to watch it together, because apparently my mother has been awakened to some vague interest in New Who, and I'm trying to indoctrinate her as best I can. To bring this thing full circle, she got me two Classic Who serials for Christmas (one Baker and one McCoy), so I'm very excited about that. (Classic Who is a bitch to find online, you see.)
And now that I've said my piece about Sherlock Holmes and D-dubs and Christmas and all that, I think I'm going to go to bed now. I've only got one more full day at home, and I want to be rested enough to enjoy it. Good night!