[ SECRET POST #2797 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2797 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 085 secrets from Secret Submission Post #400.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[insanenoodlyguy]

You can like him as both a main character and a supporting one dummy.

[(Anonymous)]

Sure. But as a sixty-year old guy in love with a 20 year old girl, and who dismisses Watson as nothing but an extra set of hands?

[(Anonymous)]

Don't forget, he met her when she was like, TWELVE, and he was in his 50s and later it comes out that he KNEW EVEN THEN it was meant to beeeeee... which the author clearly intends as romantic but just feels creepy as all get out. I think that's what bothers me the most, the fact that the author is totally blind that portraying Holmes as the kind of man who'd perv on a pre-teen orphan is gross.

[recessional]

Sixteen, not twelve.

[(Anonymous)]

I realize it's not the most reliable source, but Wikipedia says 15. Seeing that Holmes is over 50, it's still... eeerrrghhh, no.

[(Anonymous)]

what kind of published fanfic....

[(Anonymous)]

Different strokes and all, but it's valid to enjoy different interpretations of characters, in this case Holmes in a mentoring role, as he was in the earlier books. Wastson was getting on and retired.
(I always had the impression that King's characters were riffing Rathbone and Bruce. So yeah, Watson would be pretty much out of the game by then.)

Also, I had no idea the series had grown by that many books. Mercy!

[(Anonymous)]

I also had no idea there were that many. I kind of liked the first one, but I never had the urge to read another. I think I thought there were three!

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I agree. But in this case, OP has a point because not only is Holmes a supporting character, but he (and Watson) get their characterisation badly mangled. Also, Holmes is a borderline pedophile.

[(Anonymous)]

Er, Mary's 14 when they meet, and "the dance", as it were, doesn't really start until Mary's at Oxford. And last I knew, they weren't accepting children into Oxford.

The books have their massive flaws, but Holmes being a pedophile isn't one of them.

[(Anonymous)]

Except that later in the series, Holmes admit he had feelings from the first time he saw her, when she was very much underage. You're right though, pedophile is inaccurate. I guess "ephebophile" is more appropriate, though the power imbalance would be dodgy even if Mary had been legal. Not only is there a 30+ year age gap, but she's extremely vulnerable and completely lacking in the support of family (her aunt is hostile to her situation) or friends.

[(Anonymous)]

He also mistook her for a BOY. So how accurate that admission was, and how much of it was Holmes trying to be romantic is up for debate.

[(Anonymous)]

Holmes 'trying to be romantic'? That's your problem, right there.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't understand your reasoning. Why would it be romantic for Holmes to say, "I thought you were a 15 year old boy and I loved you from the first time we met"?

And yeah, like the other anon said, Holmes being romantic and Holmes falling in love with a teenage boy OR girl is wildly OOC.

[(Anonymous)]

Context. If I recall the scene in question, he'd just been pulled from the Thames after an explosion and was in the process of proposing marriage, it's less strange than it sounds. Also, they shook hands to seal the deal.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay. I'm still not sure how Holmes falling in love with a teenager (boy or girl) is romantic. If you're saying we shouldn't take what he says at face value, that still prompts us to ask why he'd say that. "Romantic" doesn't really make sense.