A single persone being the government is already hardly realistic
I you are realistic : there's no way Magnussen's murder circumstances stay hidden with so many witnesses/  nobody can avoid a trial for a murder even a famous and powerful person/ there's high security wings in jails/
but realistic is boring.

RavenMorganLeigh wrote:

I found myself wondering---and this is a serious question: do most people who have a very Pro-Mary stance have a dislike of Sherlock to begin with? I really am just curious. I'd love to have honest answers on this...

I also wonder about people's feelings about John? Don't we care that he's married to a woman he doesn't even know? You want to talk about betrayal-- why is this okay? Even if you don't like Sherlock, what about John and his feelings, his pain? Doesn't he matter at all? Or, is Mary's dream of the suburbian house, husband and baby the only thing that's important? YIKES.

I'd say that not disliking Mary is a not matter of  liking or disliking Sherlock or John. It's IMO,  accepting the show as it is so far.
Mary is a balanced character in the show, she has not, so far,  been shown as a villain even if she has dark sides. But, as far as we know ( i.e: at the end of His last vow), she loves Watson and Watson loves her, they are rebuilding a marriage after a major crisis. And Holmes acknowledged she missed her kill-shot on purpose and called the ambulance to save his life.
Maybe there will be twists in S4, and things will be revealed that wil change everything... but that's the point we're at right now.
Every like and dislike I hear about her are based on assumptions ( which is not a bad thing, but assumptions can be made in different directions), or on moral judgement  and I don't feel comfortable with viewers who set themselves as judges of a fictionnal character.
 

I really think  the show tells us Mycroft doesn't care at all about Watson.  He barely keeps an eye on him during the hiatus, doesn't attend the wedding.

Sherlock : " Moriarty is back, the game is on"
John " I don't care, Mary just died from a fierce devastating flu and used her last breath to confess the baby is not mine"
Sherlock : " Ok, then, let's go to bed, I'm gonna comfort you and we'll chase Moriarty tomorow"

You're right, this is gooooooood TV!

Whisky wrote:

Also, it would be hard to believe any other death that would ever happen on the show is really final. For example Mary's.
 

So far, Mary is still alive, and we have no indication, in the show, she's bound to die. So, you speculate we could doubt about something you speculate might happen

Whisky wrote:

I actually like it that Mycroft's actions have this aura of usefulness. Even if I don't know if his actions are truly effective because we are seldom told. 

We have several hints that Mycroft take care of  "real problems" and he mostly considers Sherlock like a man-child : the line about elections in Korea, the scene in Buckingham Palace, the line about Sherlock having the brain to be a philosopher and choosing to be a detective...

You think Moriarty's Brother is behind the broadcast? In a way, it would suit the canon, as Colonel Moriarty published a letter to defend the memory of his brother.

SusiGo wrote:

So do I. But I suspect that they will not show us an idyllic marriage where John solves cases with Sherlock while Mary looks after the baby. Or even worse, with Mrs Hudson looking after the baby while we get a crime-solving trio. 
 

 It may be impossible in the long run, but, if S4 takes place just after the end of S3, with Mary close to due date, we absolutely can imagine she'll stay away from the Moriarty case.

If Magnussen wanted Mycroft compromised directly through Mary, then he had all the informations he needs before entrapping Sherlock in Appledore. Moreover, Mycroft is not, according to what we know, a public person ( he is the british governement undercover, but he's a civil servant ocupying a minor place in the public eyes) so it's doubtful that Magnussen can use newspapers against him. I think magnussen needs to trap Sherlock to have a direct and private access to Mycroft ( by threatening him of revealing Sherlock's been caught giving/selling confidential informations)

That's not how I understood it. Magnussen wants to have Mycroft under his thumb and certainly hope he will by entrapping Sherlock ( I guess Magnussen didn't really want the laptop, as he seems to know that being caught with the laptop would be compromising for him). But Mary being way to reach Mycroft doesn't mean she compromises Mycroft.

I didn't read the M theory, But it assumes that Moriarty is alive and acting in the shadow since his death? And that Mycroft knows it?