BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Sherlock fan fiction tropes about food, sleep, and injuries

maryagrawatson · May 24, 2014 8:28 pm

nakahara wrote:
But if this story ever becomes canon, I wish they would let John injure Sherlock on some other part of his body - I would hate to see his beautiful face marred.

In SIB, Irene says that John must love Sherlock for having avoided his nose and teeth. In TEH, that's exactly what John goes for!!!

Which brings me to something that annoys me to no end in TEH.

Sherlock is seriously injured in this ep for dramatic effect and then the wounds disappear. The wounds on his back would have taken months to close if treated properly and years to heal fully. He would have still had pain from nerve regeneration five plus years on.

The split lip John gives him disappears overnight? HUH? And John meant that Glasgow kiss. Sherlock's nose should have been broken and both eyes blackened.

The violence in TEH felt gratuitous.

Mary

nakahara · May 24, 2014 8:34 pm

maryagrawatson wrote:
nakahara wrote:
But if this story ever becomes canon, I wish they would let John injure Sherlock on some other part of his body - I would hate to see his beautiful face marred.

In SIB, Irene says that John must love Sherlock for having avoided his nose and teeth. In TEH, that's exactly what John goes for!!!

Which brings me to something that annoys me to no end in TEH.

Sherlock is seriously injured in this ep for dramatic effect and then the wounds disappear. The wounds on his back would have taken months to close if treated properly and years to heal fully. He would have still had pain from nerve regeneration five plus years on.

The split lip John gives him disappears overnight? HUH? And John meant that Glasgow kiss. Sherlock's nose should have been broken and both eyes blackened.

The violence in TEH felt gratuitous.

Mary

Yes, I´d wish Moftiss would treat those things more seriously.
I love TEH but I agree fully, it was weird and unbelievable how those wounds miraculously disappeared.

maryagrawatson · May 24, 2014 8:52 pm

nakahara wrote:
Yes, I´d wish Moftiss would treat those things more seriously.
I love TEH but I agree fully, it was weird and unbelievable how those wounds miraculously disappeared.

It baffles me that they would choose to do this when the morning after the punch in SIB, Sherlock realistically has a black eye. Why did they drop the ball in TEH? Forgot to include wound makeup in the episode budget?

I just can't get over the slow pan of Sherlock's disgusting infected back in the Serbian cell and that we are meant to think that it all went away just like that. Would it have been too much in the scene of Sherlock shirtless in the hospital for to give us just a couple of scars, if only curling up over his shoulders? I know how much work is involved to get wounds like that to stay clean, closed, and healed into thick knotty scars that pull at every movement and it would have added depth to Sherlock's character to show him struggling physically upon his return.

Mary

nakahara · May 24, 2014 9:13 pm

maryagrawatson wrote:
nakahara wrote:
Yes, I´d wish Moftiss would treat those things more seriously.
I love TEH but I agree fully, it was weird and unbelievable how those wounds miraculously disappeared.

It baffles me that they would choose to do this when the morning after the punch in SIB, Sherlock realistically has a black eye. Why did they drop the ball in TEH? Forgot to include wound makeup in the episode budget?

I just can't get over the slow pan of Sherlock's disgusting infected back in the Serbian cell and that we are meant to think that it all went away just like that. Would it have been too much in the scene of Sherlock shirtless in the hospital for to give us just a couple of scars, if only curling up over his shoulders? I know how much work is involved to get wounds like that to stay clean, closed, and healed into thick knotty scars that pull at every movement and it would have added depth to Sherlock's character to show him struggling physically upon his return.

Mary

Well, this was an obvious case of "Hollywood healing":

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodHealing

Unfortunately, for all their creativity, even Moftiss fall for such tired and discredited tropes sometimes.

Zatoichi · May 24, 2014 9:29 pm

nakahara wrote:
I love TEH but I agree fully, it was weird and unbelievable how those wounds miraculously disappeared.

Just one more miracle..

His wounds heal incredibly fast, he can see through clothes to detect secret tatoos and he survives a fall that can not possibly be explained.. I deduce.. there´s some kind of supernatural thing going on with him, and John´s line about "the most human human being" was just to distract the audience from the obvious truth!

maryagrawatson wrote:
I just can't get over the slow pan of Sherlock's disgusting infected back in the Serbian cell and that we are meant to think that it all went away just like that. Would it have been too much in the scene of Sherlock shirtless in the hospital for to give us just a couple of scars, if only curling up over his shoulders? I know how much work is involved to get wounds like that to stay clean, closed, and healed into thick knotty scars that pull at every movement and it would have added depth to Sherlock's character to show him struggling physically upon his return.

Ugh.. I am very grateful for their use of artistic license in this case. Just like the little inaccurancy about his severe liver damage being operated endoscopically obviously, judging from the size of his scar, and not -like in reality- by opening the abdomen through a midline incision.. I´m way too squeamish to witness him suffer from realistic after-effects of his various injuries. Miraculously disappearing wounds are okay with me, just like mysterious survivals..

Last edited by Zatoichi (May 24, 2014 9:50 pm)

Zatoichi · May 24, 2014 9:32 pm

nakahara wrote:
Well, this was an obvious case of "Hollywood healing":

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodHealing

Unfortunately, for all their creativity, even Moftiss fall for such tired and discredited tropes sometimes.

And this from the writers that gave us the line "It´s not like it is in the movies..", tsktsk..

maryagrawatson · May 24, 2014 9:56 pm

Sherlock as an angel or some other non-human entity. Interesting...

Zatoichi wrote:
Ugh.. I am very grateful for their use of artistic license in this case.

Maybe it's because I was a medic for so long, but I just find wound stuff fascinating. The human body is a miracle!

And I realised this morning that I am such a hypocrite regarding the 'Sherlock won't go to the hospital trope.' Guilty as charged. I don't wait 12 hours to get stitched up when I have the knowledge to treat myself, so why should Sherlock when he's got John? I vow to no longer be annoyed by this trope. :D

Mary

TeeJay · May 27, 2014 1:22 pm

Kerkerian, I have now read both your whumpy stories, and I really liked them. Just what I needed! Great characterization, and just the type of story I love. Really good work!

One thing, however... I think it was "Rising To The Occasion" where you gave John the flu. Sarah said it was "the real flu", which means it's a viral infection. You also mentioned she gave John a prescription of Amoxicillin, which is an antibiotic. Antibiotics are only effective in killing bacteria. They do absolutely nothing against viruses. In fact, with viruses you usually can't do much, because they're difficult to kill, stemming from the fact that they're not "alive" as such. They're usually just a bit of DNA or RNA with a protein shell. But anyway...

There are antiviral drugs out there, but they would only be used in severe viral infections, like something that would put the patient in serious danger. John's flu wouldn't have qualified. I'm not a doctor, and I'm not sure what exactly you give a patient when he's got "the real flu", but my best guess is that it would be things that help with the symptoms, like NSAIDs to lower the fever or decongestants to help with the sinus symptoms. And lots of fluids and bed rest, of course.

Last edited by TeeJay (May 27, 2014 1:23 pm)

Kerkerian · May 27, 2014 2:29 pm

TeeJay wrote:
Kerkerian, I have now read both your whumpy stories, and I really liked them. Just what I needed! Great characterization, and just the type of story I love. Really good work!

One thing, however... I think it was "Rising To The Occasion" where you gave John the flu. Sarah said it was "the real flu", which means it's a viral infection. You also mentioned she gave John a prescription of Amoxicillin, which is an antibiotic. Antibiotics are only effective in killing bacteria. They do absolutely nothing against viruses. In fact, with viruses you usually can't do much, because they're difficult to kill, stemming from the fact that they're not "alive" as such. They're usually just a bit of DNA or RNA with a protein shell. But anyway...

There are antiviral drugs out there, but they would only be used in severe viral infections, like something that would put the patient in serious danger. John's flu wouldn't have qualified. I'm not a doctor, and I'm not sure what exactly you give a patient when he's got "the real flu", but my best guess is that it would be things that help with the symptoms, like NSAIDs to lower the fever or decongestants to help with the sinus symptoms. And lots of fluids and bed rest, of course.

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked them!
Also, thank you for the input, I appreciate it when people take the time to discuss these matters. You're right about Amoxicillin and viruses.
I imitated real life there, however: when I had the real flu, my doctor had me taking Amoxicillin in order to stem the infection in my ears, since it was causing severe dizziness and nausea. That is also the reason why at one point in the story Sarah says they (the pills) should help with the headcold. Maybe it's not become entirely clear that they were not meant to fight off the virus itself.

Last edited by Kerkerian (May 27, 2014 2:30 pm)

TeeJay · May 27, 2014 2:34 pm

Oh yes, that makes sense. Maybe I just didn't pay enough attention to the details mentioned in the story.

Kerkerian · May 27, 2014 2:47 pm

TeeJay wrote:
Oh yes, that makes sense. Maybe I just didn't pay enough attention to the details mentioned in the story.

No worries!

maryagrawatson · June 10, 2014 7:23 pm

I have to come back to this thread now that I've read quite a bit of the ACD stories, just to say that I am further confused by the Sherlock doesn't eat comes from ACD canon trope!

In the stories, I've read so far, Sherlock has a breakfast of coffee and toast every day, didn't eat all day once because he was too busy working and then came home famished and demolished a loaf of bread (who hasn't done that at least once in their life?! ), and also interrupted a case to have some cold beef and beer. That's just what sticks out, I know there's more.

As for our Sherlock, I just realised that there's another clue to his eating habits, a very subtle one, in TGG opener. John comes in and asks if there's anything in. So he expected that Sherlock might have ordered/bought/made food and left him leftovers. They'd been living together long enough by this point that I doubt John would have wasted his breath to ask that if Sherlock didn't at least occasionally order/buy/make food and leave John leftovers...

The mysteries of fanon continue to confound me...

Mary

nakahara · June 11, 2014 11:23 am

Exactly.

Sherlock´s words about his body being just transport are taken from the canon and so are some occasions when he doesn´t eat while on the case. But that doesn´t mean Sherlock doesn´t eat normally in his daily life. Even when he fasts during some cases, he usually compensates for it afterwards, mostly by eating rich many course menu in a fancy restaurant.

Fans had taken his words too literally and exaggerated this characteristics of his to the point of absurdity.

They were probably thinking that by adding such details they will create the truthful characterisation of Sherlock Holmes - but they just made an anorectic out of him.

Vhanja · February 10, 2015 10:13 am

I was pointed to this thread, so I will chip in with the tropes I've discovered so far:

- Sherlock has a military kink
- Sherlock experimented sexually while at uni and have usually been sexually inactive since then.
- Sherlock was an active drug user in the past, overdosing once, was found and saved by Lestrade and Mycroft put him into rehab
- For some of the darker fics, Sherlock often paid for the drugs with sexual services

- John is "Three Continents Watson" (where ever THAT came from - is that purely from the BBC series?)
- John is either straight and Sherlock-sexual or he is bi and knows about it
- John is constantly nagging Sherlock to eat and to sleep, which is always an uphill battle.
- John is always making tea
- John has in general a very low threshold for wanting to punch someone

I know the eating trope has been discussed, but it does actually makes sort of sense. Ben did lose weight for the first season, to show that Sherlock wasn't really taking care of himself. By S2 he has put on some pounds, to show that John helps him eat and have a more healthy lifestyle.

Personally I have a bit more issue with the trope of John seemingly wanting to punch most people for the smallest offense. That is not something I see in BBC John. He hits Sherlock on two occasions, one being hit first and second after the reunion. Whatever we might think of him doing it in those cases, he certainly isn't the kind of guy who feel like punching anyone who looks at him funny.

Last edited by Vhanja (February 10, 2015 10:15 am)

nakahara · February 10, 2015 10:32 am

Vhanja wrote:
- John is "Three Continents Watson" (where ever THAT came from - is that purely from the BBC series?)

No, it comes straight from the canon - from the story "Sign of Four", the second chapter, where John describes his first meeting with Mary Morstan in this way:

Her face had neither regularity of feature nor beauty of complexion, but her expression was sweet and amiable, and her large blue eyes were singularly spiritual and sympathetic. In an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents, I have never looked upon a face which gave a clearer promise of a refined and sensitive nature. I could not but observe that as she took the seat which Sherlock Holmes placed for her, her lip trembled, her hand quivered, and she showed every sign of intense inward agitation.

Vhanja wrote:
Personally I have a bit more issue with the trope of John seemingly wanting to punch most people for the smallest offense. That is not something I see in BBC John. He hits Sherlock on two occasions, one being hit first and second after the reunion. Whatever we might think of him doing it in those cases, he certainly isn't the kind of guy who feel like punching anyone who looks at him funny.

Fanfiction usually embellishes stuff like that, I agree. Something that happens once in the story or some characters reaction that occures once becomes "constantly" in most fanfics.

Vhanja · February 10, 2015 10:39 am

Oh, thank you for clearing up the TCW!

And you are right, that is what fanfiction do. That is why Sherlock and John live on Thai/Chinese take-away, why John always makes tea and why Sherlock never eats.

I haven't really read ACD (Reading SiS now), so when I encountered someone named Victor Trevor again and again I knew I was missing something. Luckily a google search cleared that up. Unfortunately, he's been painted in such a horrible light in so many fics that I feel slightly disgusted just seeing the name now. A bit not good when I haven't read about him at all yet in ACD, and know nothing of the poor sod from the books.

Last edited by Vhanja (February 10, 2015 10:39 am)

nakahara · February 10, 2015 12:29 pm

Poor Victor Trevor featured in a single story, "Gloria Scott" and was quite a nice friend of a youthfull student Sherlock. But then, by some strange leaps of imagination, he became this sinister figure we encounter in most fanfictions.

Similar case, but reverse, is Sebastian Moran. The elderly, balding, unpleasant man suddenly became a sex-symbol in fanfictions. I´m still amused over that. I´d like to know how we got from this:

To this:

nakahara · April 29, 2015 2:22 pm

One common fanfiction trope concerning Sherlock and food is making Sherlock inept even at such an activity as making tea so that John can patronise him and prove his own "genius" at this "domestic matter". I´ve just read a very good example of the trope:

Deep sigh. "John, I just made you tea. And you poured it down the sink."
John looks at him pityingly. "Yes, Sherlock, I did. That's because what was in that cup was not tea. It was, well, I'm not certain exactly what it was but 'mud' comes to mind. Possibly toxic waste. I am going to teach you how to make a proper cup of tea, Sherlock. And you will pay attention."
"Honestly, John, how difficult can it be?"
"Exactly," John says without further explanation.
The whistle sings. John places a teabag in each mug, then turns to the kettle and turns back with the steaming kettle in his hand.He carefully pours boiling water over the teabags, returns the kettle to the stove. All the while he works, he watches the detective, who watches John's movements with pursed lips.
"Lesson number one," John says, "Always use boiling water. Always."

The authors use this trope despite the fact that John never ever makes tea in the whole show. While Sherlock:

Sherlock not only makes a perfect cup of tea, he also serves it most gracefully. And the brew certainly doesn´t resemble mud or toxic waste.

I wonder why is it neccessary to make Sherlock a complete dumbass and reduce his abilities to nil to make John look good. Doesn´t John have plenty of admirable qualities that can be explored without reducing Sherlock to a pathetic wretch?

Last edited by nakahara (April 29, 2015 2:23 pm)

Vhanja · April 29, 2015 3:22 pm

Oh, I think I've read that fic, that part sounds familiar.

I do agree with you that it does seem a bit far-fetched. We don't see him actually making the tea, though, so perhaps Mrs. Hudson did it? In TSoT it is stated that Sherlock believes his morning tea "just sort of happens", while Mrs. Hudson makes it for him.

I don't think it's done to make John look good, though. I think it's more to show how focused and pinpointed Sherlock is. Everything that doesn't include The Work is boring, and thus not worth knowing. Including how to make a cup of tea.

SusiGo · April 29, 2015 3:31 pm

It may also serve to stress his basic unwillingness concerning everyday tasks like pulling his phone out of his pocket or using his own laptop.