[ SECRET POST #2475 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2475 ⌋

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

01.


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02. [repeat]


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03.
[Supernatural, Watchmen]


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04.
[a case of exploding mangoes (2008 novel)]


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05.
[Brothers in Arms]


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06.
[Agents of SHIELD ]


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07.
[Transformers: IDW Generation One]


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08.
[Sarah Michelle Gellar]


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09.
[Young Guns 2]




















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 057 secrets from Secret Submission Post #354.
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

Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

I'd just like to make a thread here for people who have not read Arthur Conan Doyle's canonical stories but are vaguely familiar with it through osmosis, or have watched one of the 573 bazillion adaptations, or have read some of the stories but not all of them, and are wondering what little elements of general Sherlock Holmes fandom are canonically from the stories and which are just headcanons and theories and trends. Because Sherlock Holmes fandom has A LOT of random fanon.

So, anyone with questions can post questions, and anyone who knows the answer can post answers. :)

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

Does Sherlock Holmes actually fight in the novels or at least know how to fight?

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

He does know how to fight. In fact he is a master of bartitsu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartitsu

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

Sherlock Holmes is strong enough to bend a metal poker back into shape in in canon. From wiki:

In several stories, Holmes is described or demonstrated as having above-average physical strength. As an example, in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Dr. Roylott, 6 feet tall and wide as a doorframe, demonstrates his strength by bending a fire poker in half. After the Doctor leaves, Holmes said, "laughing, 'I am not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was not much more feeble than his own.' As he spoke he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, straightened it out again." In "The Yellow Face", Watson comments of Holmes, that "Few men were capable of greater muscular effort."

as for fighting (again, from wiki);

In "The Adventure of the Empty House", Holmes recounts to Watson how he used martial arts to overcome Professor Moriarty and fling his adversary to his death down the Reichenbach Falls. He states, "I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me". The name "baritsu" appears to be a reference to the real-life martial art of Bartitsu, which combined jujitsu with boxing and cane fencing.

:)

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[intrigueing]

He was an accomplished boxer, in Watson's exact description, and as far as actions go, he gets a guy who threatened him in a bar sent home in a cart, wiped the floor with a boxer who he later befriends, knows martial arts that allowed him to chuck Moriarty off a cliff, and has at various times hit someone with a pistol-butt or riding crop in an effective manner that shows that he knows what he's doing. Alas, most of it is described in third-person rather than shown in action :(

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

I think he fights somebody in "The Solitary Cyclist" and then, of course, he fights Moriarty in "The Final Problem."

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

OK, I'm not sure if fanfic tropes fall into this, but here goes:

There's this persistent trend in fanfiction of Watson being the person to break Holmes' cocaine habit. Is this explicitly canon, or did Holmes just kinda stop using cocaine in the stories and people assumed it was Watson's doing?

(I've only read The Hound of the Baskervilles, btw).

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

This is explicitly canon.

From The Adventure Of The Missing Three-Quarter:

Things had indeed been very slow with us, and I had learned to dread such periods of inaction, for I knew by experience that my companion's brain was so abnormally active that it was dangerous to leave it without material upon which to work. For years I had gradually weaned him from that drug mania which had threatened once to check his remarkable career. Now I knew that under ordinary conditions he no longer craved for this artificial stimulus, but I was well aware that the fiend was not dead, but sleeping; and I have known that the sleep was a light one and the waking near when in periods of idleness I have seen the drawn look upon Holmes's ascetic face, and the brooding of his deep-set and inscrutable eyes. Therefore I blessed this Mr. Overton, whoever he might be, since he had come with his enigmatic message to break that dangerous calm which brought more peril to my friend than all the storms of his tempestuous life.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

Did Watson (in the stories) really write Holmes's adventures due to his grief over Holmes's "death"/as a posthumous tribute to him? I've seen this mentioned explicitly in a couple of fics, and the 2011 movie seems to imply it as well. I was wondering how much basis this had in canon.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

That has no basis in canon at all, as far as I'm aware. Maybe some of them he wrote after he thought Holmes had died at Reichenbach, but most of them he wrote because he thought Holmes was cool and thought people would be interested in them. And in fact, Holmes reads and comments on them at various times. So no, it's not as a posthumous tribute to Holmes.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[intrigueing]

It's never really discussed. Fans (strongly supported by ACD's in-character introductions and Watson's explanations for why he didn't publish a case that happened ages ago for so long) generally assume that the dates that ACD's stories were published directly coincide with the dates that Watson's stories were published, and, IRL, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes were all first written and published during July 1891-December 1893, i.e., during the period when Watson, in the stories, thought Holmes was dead. On the other hand, A Study in Scarlet was written in 1887 and The Sign of Four was written in 1890, before Holmes "died". So it's very, very, very easy to view the Adventures/Memoirs as something of a tribute and/or motivated by grief, but he never says so AFAIK.

On the other hand, Watson says The Final Problem was written explicitly in order to refute Moriarty's brother's claims that Professor Moriarty was innocent. But usually, he only gives reasons for why he declined to publish certain cases for so long, not for why he wrote them.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

Nope. "The Final Solution" is a bit of a tribute, I suppose, but the adventures were clearly written while Holmes was alive, as he occasionally complains or rags Watson about them. Holmes' general complaint is that Watson romanticizes the cases somewhat, or chooses to write specific cases because Watson thinks they're interesting or a good story. Holmes thinks he ought to choose cases based on showcasing a particular deductive technique.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[kaijinscendre]

Is there actually a dog that is the pet of Holmes or Watson? Generally portrayed as a bulldog named Gladstone.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[dreemyweird]

IIRC, no. Neither of them had a pet.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[intrigueing]

In A Study in Scarlet, Watson mentions he keeps a bull pup. However, said dog never makes an appearance and it's a matter of scholarly dispute whether Watson meant he had an actual dog, or whether he was using slang for "has a hot temper".

Yup, Sherlock Holmes fandom has always been nutzoid :D

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

There was a reference to a Bull pup in A study in Scarlet

""I keep a bull pup," I said, "and I object to rows because my nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am extremely lazy."

Although I read somewhere that this might have been a reference to a weapon as opposed to a pet dog. Can't remember where though.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

In "A Study in Scarlet" there's an old, dying terrier, but I think that belonged to Mrs. Hudson because Holmes mentions she wanted Watson to put it out of its misery. They bring it in to test the poison polls that Jefferson Hope was using.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

Was Holmes jealous of Watson's wife in the books? (For that matter, how prominent was she in the books?)

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

The deerstalker hat: I know that it's not how he usually dresses, no confusion about that, I've heard it refuted several times.

But I've heard it refuted variably with the explanation that a) he never ever wears a deerstalker hat in any form ever, b) he only wears it in when he's in the country, and c) it only appears in the illustrations, never the text.

Which of these is it?

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

*cough* This is from a Sherlock BBC fic, so I have no idea if it has any credence whatsoever, but the nickname John "Three Continents" Watson, in reference to sexual experience? No connection to canon at all, a connection but not what the fic meant, or exactly what the fic meant?

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

Was it later explained in canon that the confusion between whether Watson was shot in the leg or shoulder was due to the fact that he was shot twice? Or is that just the fanon explanation for the inconsistency? (like, is the leg and/or shoulder wound's location brought up more than once?)

All the fics set in the canon 'verse or Granada 'verse or 2009 'verse have him with two separate wounds.

I've only read about 1/4 of the stories so I can't tell.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

Um, how did Holmes die? I mean, die for reals? Did Doyle ever say anything about it?

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, this is not a newbie question, more a "did someone more obsessive than me ever figure this out" question, but has anyone ever come up with a good answer for when "Charles Augustus Milverton" was set?

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

I keep reading fans (mostly Sherlock fans, FWIW) insisting that Holmes always treated Watson like crap in the books. This seems like a rather subjective complaint, because one fan's abuse is another fan's humanizing flaws, but I'm feeling a little cautious about it because I'm not exactly frothing to read anything about a smart person feeling he has license to treat less-smart people like crap just because he's smart.

Re: Sherlock Holmes canon vs fanon

[(Anonymous)]

This is more a history question than anything, but how ahead of the times was ACD/Watson's admonishment of Holmes's cocaine use? Like, would readers back then be totally shocked at a story that put forth the idea of cocaine being a bad thing, or was there already public controversy over the healthiness or lack thereof of cocaine, or what?