besleybean wrote:

Well they'd banged on for two series about John being a ladies man, so it only made sense to continue the canonical theme and marry him off.

Again, there was no need to make Mary such a fast changing unplausible character that appears in seen episodes.

I feel the need to mention again thst I really liked her in the first two episodes before her character took all those strange spins.

besleybean wrote:

I think she was a strong and interesting female character.
Liked her and am sorry for John and Rosie that they've lost her.

Where has she been strong? I fail to see strength in her. She can use a gun, yes. But she rather shoots or runs away than dealing with problems.

She is smart, yes. But where the heck do you see strength?

besleybean wrote:

She tried to do everything she could to protect those she loved:  her family.

Again, where did she show strength? Talking to John instead of running away would have shown more strength.

besleybean wrote:

She did not run away.
She was trying to make the danger follow her and take it away from her family.

Um no, she was hiding from danger by using this strange system of choices. Actually, she left John and Rosie behind, not knowing they were in danger, while she was trying to hide.

I think it seems to be very subjective - the way I see it, she was strong in trying to deal with her own problems herself.   Which she may possibly have done successfully if Sherlock and John hadn't intervened. 

I agree that Mary brought them together.  No, they didn't have to have them separate after her death, but the story is centered around Sherlock and John's friendship - it needed some development, and we had speculated about how it could forward, and what could make one of them blame the other, etc.  

But I think she's more than just that.  As I mentioned earlier, I think the main point of Mary was to make cases more personal for Sherlock and John.  Instead of an assailant or a client that's new to us, we have somebody that John and Sherlock care deeply about (even if the audience don't always!).   It's more of a drama than a detective story sometimes, and Mary added more drama.

I know!  Una was 80 a few days ago .   Let's hope she has many years left, but maybe she'll be thinking of retiring at some point! 

Una doesn't seem to be slowing down too much. She seems strong. Dame Judi Dench is still going, so why not Una?

There are several actors I can think of who work well into their 80s and beyond, so there is definitely hope!  But with kgreen's comment about Martin and Benedict being old and grey made me think that by the time they're in their 60s/70s, she'll be getting on a bit . 

To get back to the topic, there is one thing (among many) that I still wonder about:

What was her motivation for recording the second DVD? Did she think John and Sherlock needed that to go back to their old live again? Like in, without me they will never manage?

besleybean wrote:

To try and jolt them out of their grief?

That would mean she feels like they would still be stuck in their grief.

What do you think, how long after her death did the boys receive the DVD?