[ SECRET POST #5708 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5708 ⌋

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


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 58 secrets from Secret Submission Post #817 .
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

12. https://i.imgur.com/Uyjs53i.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

I think people write it because they want to improve on the show.

[feotakahari]

Couldn’t you just do Modern AU Sherlock Holmes, though? Why tie it up this specific reimagining?

[(Anonymous)]

I suppose because a lot of people got very invested in it, particularly at the beginning, and then it severely let them down. They love it, but they more love the fandom fun they had around it, and what they wish it could have been.

[(Anonymous)]

For me it's because I still like that specific version of the characters. The cast, the aesthetics, the backstories and all of that. I mean, yeah, the ending was dumb but it wasn't bad enough to put me off the aspects of the show I still like.

I like original ACD Holmes, the Ritchie movies, and Elementary too.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not, though. Johnlock is currently the 73rd most active pairing on AO3, and no other Sherlock pairings even break the top 100. The Sherlock fandom's popularity actually experienced an uncommonly precipitous drop off. (In 2017 Johnlock was the 6th most active pairing on AO3.)

The only way it's still highly ranked is if you go by the "all time" stats, which don't reflect its current level of relevance at all.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for pointing out the thing that had been bugging me abput JohnLock for a while but I hadn't been able to put my finger on! I kinda hate the show but I enjoy the fic and ship, but it just doesn't seem to have had the same staying power as other (and I'll show my age here) 'slash juggernaut' fandoms. For instance, I'm still seeing a decent amount of Supernatural fic crop up when I search now, but the Sherlick fandom seems dry as a desert.

[(Anonymous)]

Absolutely! I'm in the same boat. Johnlock was my main OTP for quite a few years, despite the fact that I hated everything after S2, and even started to like the first two seasons less in hindsight.

The thing about Sherlock, I think, is that it left people feeling disillusioned in a way that proved hard to overcome for a lot of people. Not because Johnlock didn't become canon; most of us knew that wasn't going to happen. It was more that...I think Moffat has one strong suit as a writer/creator, and that's selling the sizzle (but not the steak). He's really, really good at selling the sizzle. So you get something like A Study In Pink, which bursts onto the scene with so much vigor, and leaves you with such a sense of energized potential. But then over time, you realize that, when Moffat's at the helm, there's nothing but sizzle. There's no steak and there never was. And I think that leaves people feeling a lot more disenchanted and betrayed than if he'd merely botched the execution. At the risk of mixing too many metaphors: fans can and will make the best of a badly built house, but they can't make the best of a castle made of sand, and that's what canon Sherlock turned out to be. A mirage, a fluke. The biggest problem with Moffat's approach to writing, IMO, is that even the parts that were thrilling at first blush, lose their impact and feel like a cheap hoax once you know there's nothing behind them.

[(Anonymous)]

This is totally all true. I don't think Sherlock was totally a castle made out of sand though. I think it's a badly built house that still has some, shall we say, features of interest. The Great Game and The Hounds of Baskerville are still really good episodes/stories that stand on their own pretty well despite later trainwrecks. For the people who can manage to not loathe Mary (I like her, but WOW the hate), The Six Thatchers is also a pretty well-written episode with its themes of chickens coming home to roost.

I got disillusioned in the first ep of S3 when it became clear they weren't going to seriously address the emotional fallout of Sherlock's fake death, and they weren't even going to try to tell a compelling story of how he did it (Many fanfic writers of the time did a much better job of both those things). So I started taking the show a lot seriously then and lowered my expectations accordingly. I still watched it but I was mainly in the fandom for the fic. Because goddamn, there were so many writers who were so good. Anything I didn't like in the show, there was a strong chance there'd be a fic that would address that well and present a different scenario.

[(Anonymous)]

This is totally all true. I don't think Sherlock was totally a castle made out of sand though. I think it's a badly built house that still has some, shall we say, features of interest. The Great Game and The Hounds of Baskerville are still really good episodes/stories that stand on their own pretty well

See, the problem for me is that most of what was "good" about the early episodes was, IMO, actually just fans reading much more into the story than was actually there. The writers fluked into some really interesting dynamics early on, but then they left it all to rot on the vine in favor of the obnoxious, hacky, "clever" shit they'd had in mind from the start. I could've forgiven them if it was a matter of them trying their best to live up to the potential they'd built for themselves and it not being good enough, but in my opinion, the problem was that most of what was good about the show was fluke. In my opinion, most of what was good about the show wasn't good because of TPTB's intentions; it was good in spite of TPTB's intentions.

Moffat is the only TV writer I routinely refer to as a hack, because my problem with his stuff is not that I think he's a weak writer--it's that I think his narrative sensibilities are shallow, self-satisfied, and cheap.

Bit that's just my opinion. At the end of the day, most of us can agree that the show got real bad. The finer points of exactly why and how we think it got bad vary from person to person, and I think that's perfectly natural.

[(Anonymous)]

Considering how huge AO3 is, 73rd is still pretty high for a show that ended half a decade ago.

[(Anonymous)]

Not really. Pretty much all the other slash juggernaughts grom that time have faired far, far better.

[(Anonymous)]

They also mostly released content more recently, no? Like for instance Sherlock ended 2017, Endgame came out 2019, Supernatural ended in 2020.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm doing my part to keep it up there because I still love writing fic for it! Not sorry at all.

[(Anonymous)]

Would you happen to have any recs for Johnlock fics written in the last couple of years that you've particularly enjoyed? If you wanted to sneak one of yours into the mix three-card-monte style I certainly wouldn't mind. ;)

I read Johnlock voraciously from 2012 to 2019, but then I moved on, and now every time I feel a fragile little swell of interest to read some Johnlock fic, I end up not knowing how to find anything good that I haven't already read.

I should actually look into whether there's a way to sort by kudos while also sorting by date posted. Because if there is, that is a hack I need to know about asap.

[(Anonymous)]

STUNNING recent fanart by kittykika78 (each chapter is an artwork): https://archiveofourown.org/works/39471219/chapters/98788833

Loving Out Loud by Strange_johnlock. Sherlock is a banshee. https://archiveofourown.org/works/38062069

Haunted by Vulpesmellifera. A ghost story that isn't really a ghost story, it's about trauma and forgiveness (and John and Sherlock together raising Rosie) https://archiveofourown.org/works/21162524/chapters/50369450

Take Me to Church by CarmillaCarmine. Hot priest!John/blasphemer!Sherlock kink. https://archiveofourown.org/works/34513480/chapters/85903027

Urine For a Treat by Vulgarweed. Watersports kink fic that's really about intimacy. Part of a long AU series set in Appalachia in the 1970s but this is a standalone PWP. https://archiveofourown.org/works/32402029/chapters/80335159

Winter to Spring by Standbygo. A rogue nuclear bomb devastates London. Sherlock has Rosie and doesn't know if John is alive. https://archiveofourown.org/works/32844028/chapters/81501571

Whirlwind by DiscordantWords. Storm chaser AU! https://archiveofourown.org/works/33037003/chapters/82003513

Ride On by Silvergirl. Sherlock leaves London for years after John can't forgive him for faking his death. (He's in Ireland. Playing fiddle in a trad Irish band!) https://archiveofourown.org/works/31145867/chapters/76962161

A Case of Identity (Selfish, Private, and Easily Bored) by Iwantthatcoat. Beautifully written relationship/coming-out fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35105557/chapters/87450904

Apotheosis by Callie4180. A crossover/fusion with the world of The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, in which great world cities choose an individual person to become its avatar. Sherlock becomes London. (You don't have to have read the book to understand this, I think, but the book is great!) https://archiveofourown.org/works/38270698/chapters/95625253

[(Anonymous)]

Oh wow, thank you so much! I know this must've taken you more than a hot second to compile, and I really appreciate it! I will definitely check some of these out. I definitely remember liking DiscordantWords' stuff back in the day, and I remember a couple other names on that list, too. *rubs hands together*

That's some great art by kittykika. I especially like the second one, A Tight Hug. :)

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

My pleasure! It wasn't that big a deal, just went through my AO3 history and bookmarks! Yeah, a lot of writers have been there for years and years and are still around. The worst of the wankers flounced off long ago so it's a smaller fandom now and a much friendlier one, I think.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

LMFAO at this thread turning into recs for just the thing the OP hates. (Go you, enjoy whatever you enjoy!)

[(Anonymous)]

It's the Fandom Secrets way!

[(Anonymous)]

Fair.