grim-dark:

sherlock holmes is a bully

he is an asshole

he is someone tremendously great who has never had to learn to give a shit about other human beings, who has learned that they are essentially lesser beings, who has learned that they don’t matter and that no one will stop him if he throws them aside like toys

he is an asshole

and he has always been too smart and too tremendous for anyone to control him

even watson; watson is usually written as a foil, someone just as in awe of sherlock as everyone else, but who ultimately — and grudgingly, from sherlock’s end — earns his respect as a companion and as a human.

if they are throwing that aside to, instead, have a watson who says “fuck you, sit down,” because she is not going to put up with that shit, to tolerate the abuse of the people around her because a little boy thinks she’s special, to assert her own dominion over her surroundings because she is as strong as he is — that is fantastic and one of the most interesting retellings of holmes since scully.

I really do hope there are a lot more of those, “Holmes, STOP, this is not how you treat people” moments. Because Miller’s Holmes seems like he might actually get to the point where he could be somewhat taught that people are, you know, people, not just puzzles.

Miller’s Holmes seems, at least to me, less…malicious…than Cumberbatch’s, which makes me think there is some hope for Joan Watson to educate him in the ways of regular people. The scene about the choking seemed more like someone who legit has no clue that what they’re doing is creepy and disturbing and scary and Not A Good Way to Go About It. Sherlock’s scene with, say, Molly at the Christmas thingum in “A Scandal in Belgravia,” however, is so full of “I’m better than you, you ridiculous, stupid female” that I wanted to beat Sherlock to death with his violin.