I too come from the HP fandom (cheers Vhanja) and ship a het pairing there.

But long before HP I was very much into Star Trek and Stargate.

I don't go looking for slash ships. With Star Trek, I kept asking friends who shipped Kirk/Spock about their reasoning because I saw less than nothing there. So Johnlock hit me like a brick some years later and I couldn't unsee it anymore. Like Schmiezi says, they are soulmates for me regardless of their gender.

Stargate SG1 is a good example of the show where the creators used tons of romantic tropes for a het ship that never could have sailed due to the US Airforce regs. Sam and Jack couldn't become a couple until one of them retired from the service. Meanwhile they were married and whatnot in mirror universes and the looks of longing were innumerable. Even if Moftiss tell the truth when they say they don't want Sherlock and John to end up as a romantic couple, they are definitely NOT innocent of using romantic tropes to tickle viewers.

Edit to add:
Amatonormativity is not a bad thing in my eyes. While I don't need a romantic ending to find a story satisfying, love is something that's been moving this world around for countless centuries. Famous storytellers and bards kept warning us about the dangers of romance, wars have been fought and lost over tender feelings. In my eyes, love, jealousy and rejection add spice to every drama. It's a fool-proof recipe for a moving story *shrugs*

Last edited by ewige (May 25, 2017 1:53 pm)

Generally I can't abide romance...but I would be much more interested in a gay pairing than a straight one.
But I prefer love in its broader forms: familial bonds, close friendships, flat mates, colleagues...that kind of thing.

Just because it's less of  norm, I suppose.
Maybe not so much now with soap operas and things, but I don't watch those...

Well I just get a bit bored with the boy meet girl thing.
What I've always liked about Sherlock is that we don't see any sex(hate sex scenes) and there's also little soppy romance.

Yeah, usually romantic movies bore me to tears, because they follow the same recipe. Boy meets girl, boy flirts with girl, boy and girl have a great time. A misunderstanding happens, girl leaves boy (usually that way) and sad music plays while they sadly stare out of their rainy window. Girl decides to leave for good, and boy catches her (often by the airport or something) and they get back together for the last five minutes of the movie.

It's been done to death.

For me the strength in that loving friendship is that it doesn't follow a predictable pattern.
They have been through hell together and yet their bond remains strong.

Oh, I ship them too! But only in my head, as it (sadly) wasn't done in the show. Same with a lot of the HP ships (and my HP ship). Most of them weren't done because we thought it would happen, but because we liked the idea in our own head.

Schmiezi wrote:

Vhanja wrote:

Yeah, usually romantic movies bore me to tears, because they follow the same recipe. Boy meets girl, boy flirts with girl, boy and girl have a great time. A misunderstanding happens, girl leaves boy (usually that way) and sad music plays while they sadly stare out of their rainy window. Girl decides to leave for good, and boy catches her (often by the airport or something) and they get back together for the last five minutes of the movie.

It's been done to death.

I feel the same. Haven't watched a romantic film for years.

Still, something about shipping Sherlock and John touches my heart. Even though you could say that their story arch follow pretty much what you have described, Vhanja. Just without the happy ending yet.

You both just made me think ... and I don't know if it's true, but I wonder if part of the attraction of Johnlock is because it's not shown?   Maybe even especially for those of us who don't normally like romances - we like it in our imaginations rather than being shown explicitly (and by "explicitly" I mean "clearly, no room for doubt" rather than explicit sex scenes!), perhaps in a way that doesn't resonate with us? 

I don't seek out romances either, so I'm curious about this. 
 

Oh yes, Janeway and Chakotay! I went online after watching "Resolutions" on TV and saw words like "ship" and "UST" for the very first time! Janeway and Chakotay intoduced me to this whole shippers business. I awe them so much, lol

Liberty wrote:

... I wonder if part of the attraction of Johnlock is because it's not shown?   Maybe even especially for those of us who don't normally like romances - we like it in our imaginations rather than being shown explicitly (and by "explicitly" I mean "clearly, no room for doubt" rather than explicit sex scenes!), perhaps in a way that doesn't resonate with us? 

I don't seek out romances either, so I'm curious about this. 
 

I feel the same. I prefer the unspoken (while it's not "not shown" in my opinion; one could say it's not "unspoken" either, but I mean confessions in romantic context) love between John and Sherlock so I sort of feared the resolution in the last ep. Now I actually had my cake and ate it too, clever Moftiss!
 

I think I thought of it straight away!   I remember joking about how much fanfic there must be ... and when I first found the fandom, I almost said that I was a Johnlocker, not realising that it meant you had to believe it would happen in the show, rather than seeing them as a shippable couple!  It didn't include "that's a nice idea, but it's not going to happen".  Maybe it does now that we know it's not happening. 

But anyway, I can see that the "detective" part of looking for clues is engaging, and I also wondered if being able to create the romance on your own terms (because it's not shown) is also an attraction.