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⌈ Secret Post #2524 ⌋

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

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Notes:

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Why do I have a sudden urge to put a "lurky threesome Holmes" tag on this art?.. It looks like Holmes is photobombing Watson and Mary's romantic picture out of spite.

As to the actual secret: inorite. Even the best of canon Holmes/Watson shippers regularly throw in some line (or even a whole paragraph) about how Watson did not really love Mary or how their relationship was just convenient for Watson to cover his love for Holmes. I'm not joking, I've seen it in otherwise good fics by good authors. It's RAGE and instant backbutton for me, not only because I hate Mary bashing, but also because I consider it a sign of cheesy, bad writing (the way I see it, a story may be good in every other regard, but this particular line/paragraph is cheesy, bad writing. And then it diminishes the value of the rest of the work for me).

I don't.* Although "Watson simply made Mary and the other wives up" is IMO permissible on the 'unreliable narrator' basis.

OTOH of course I may not qualify as among "the best of canon Holmes/Watson shippers", heh. But I've seen plenty of others who don't do this, and I cheer them on. You can love more than one person. Simples.

* maybe-sort-of in the first thing I ever wrote, but determinedly never since

Edited 2013-11-30 21:04 (UTC)

Yes, that'd be fine with me.

I'm not all that much into romance, so I may be missing out on some really fine examples. But I've seen a few people who do not do that at all; and in my books, you are a pretty good writer. So, it is not an omnipresent tendency. I suppose it simply upsets me a lot.

You can love more than one person. Simples.

Exactly. Bisexual (or otherwise-straight-but/otherwise-gay-but) Watson who has loved Mary and now loves Holmes=well done.

Bisexual (or otherwise-straight-but/otherwise-gay-but) Watson who has loved Mary and now loves Holmes=well done..

Bisexual Watson every time for me.

Fuck yes. To all of this. Just on principle, in any fandom, I tend to side-eye the "oh, I wasn't REALLY in love with her" trope really hard because it's so fucking childish. For one: really? You do realize that it's possible to love more than one person? And it's possible to love one person, love them genuinely, and then fall in love with someone else after that person dies? Like, you know this, right? For another: it's just not cool. The whole "omg yes I had all these relationships BUT I WAS IN LOVE WITH YOU THE WHOLE TIME" thing makes me go okay, so, you were actually obsessed with this other guy during all your past relationships? So, why exactly am I supposed to believe you're srs bsns in love THIS time any more than you were the last five times you said you were in love with other people? That's not romantic. It's usually pathetic for anyone over 25.

I dunno. I may be oversensitive to this because it used to occur so damn frequently in oldschool Kirk/Spock from Star Trek TOS -- people making a big point of saying "oh noes Kirk totally did NOT love Edith Keeler. And he totally did not even love Miramee even though he had amnesia at the time. Also, he wasn't actually even friends with Gary Mitchell, even though that pairing is non-canon." And other bullshit.

+1

I think childish/immature is the right way to describe why this trope rubs me so wrong in general. Especially because if you want to achieve the same "my OTP is the best, most special love" effect, IMO it's a lot more realistic (and less creepy of the character) for them to be like, "Yes, I loved X, but my love for you is different/stronger/more full of lust/more likely to last the rest of my life/whatever else applies." Because every love IS different, and, depending on the situation a lot of shippers will probably agree that the OTP love is the most soul-matey or whatever else. And that's fine. That happens. People find the one person they love THE MOST, or want to spend their life with for whatever other reason. But that doesn't mean all their past loves are invalid.