John′s dream indicates that he percieves Sherlock as a stabilising force in his life and not as a bearer of chaos. We as an audience are maybe blinded by some of Sherlock′s unflattering characteristics (his untidiness, recklessness and pride) therefore we tend to forget that Sherlock was originally written as a force of good, indeed – as a man who brings rationality, order and light into the world ruled by senseless passions, twists of chance and dark undercurrents of human mind.
 
It′s one of the reasons why Victorian audience embraced Sherlock Holmes with such enthusiasm initially – the people who saw murdered bodies pulled out of Thames on a daily basis (some winters there were as many as 80), who witnessed unresolved cases as that of „Jack the Ripper“ and who were surrounded by poverty and misery of slums with their share of nasty and petty deliquency were delighted to have a hero able to overpower those dark forces and to raise a flag of reason above the irrationality of existence. We, modern 21-century audience, may be a tad more sceptical about the positive atributes of sheer rationality witnessing the horrors of totalitarian regimes such mindset brought to our world, yet our world is much more chaotical now that we lost our traditional conservative values and so we crave a hero who resist such chaos all the more.
 
That′s exactly why John reveres Sherlock, almost as a fervent believer who worships his god. At the beginning of ASiP, John was drowning in the absurd and mundane hollowness of ordinary life, wrecked under the weight of the world and Sherlock′s appearance not only gave him guidance which John craved as a former soldier, but he also took John′s disposition towards danger and diverted it to another direction, shaping something positive from this rather negative trait, setting a positive goals for John to achieve with his Work.
 
John was originally introduced into this story as a foil for Sherlock - it′s his ordinary nature and appearance which magnifies Sherlock′s excentricity and cleverness in our eyes. But it can also be that Sherlock is a foil for John at the same time. John is probably not as goody two-shoes as he appears in his essence but in connection with Sherlock his good traits are emphasized and he actually embraces them, gladly taking a role of good, loyal, patient and caring man. So, parted from Sherlock, he is also stripped of those good qualities and his true nature, with all his dangerous and unpleasant traits, starts to emerge. John life is thus becoming unhinged and he gradually starts to divert from the positive direction where he was headed under Sherlock′s guidance.
 
John needs Sherlock. He subconsciously seeks his presence even when Sherlock is not near him: when John is shown in his bedroom at the beginning of HLV, he wears a similar blue robe as Sherlock in TGG. He even parrots Sherlock′s former attitude – he is not that interested in the plight of his female neighbour, it seems as if he raids a drug-den only because of himself, his own fullfilment (just what he accused Sherlock of doing in TGG), nevertheless he does the right thing at the end and he helps to find the missing boy.
 
Mary cannot give the same kind of stability to John. She can only keep him in trouble, giving him a taste of danger but is unable to actually convert that dangerous trait of John into something positive as Sherlock has done for him before. And by chaining him in marriage she inadvertently buried him in the same sense of hollowness he experienced in ASiP. That is why Mary cannot replace Sherlock where John is concerned.
 

Brilliantly stated.

No John is not exactly conductor of darkness with Mary, it′s just that Mary cannot do to same thing for him as Sherlock can.
Sherlock has what Japanese people call „osanai-gokoro“ (heart of a child) which is a positive character trait – althrough he has a definite dark side, he never lost some sense of innocence and guilelessness that we usually connect with children. He is unable to be a real force of evil then.
Mary  cannot have that. Mary is disillusioned and jaded because of her dark past and she lost that childish innocence a long time ago. She also cannot be a foil to John, she is too similar to him in character and too normal to force him out of his bitterness by some outrageous acts as Sherlock does. She does not willingly want to, but she has some negative influence over John, unfortunately.
 

SusiGo wrote:

Yes, that is true. As if John started having one of his usual nightmares which suddenly changed to the positive dream of Sherlock. Well, there seem to be some hidden desires in there. 

It's a great point that John asks Kate if she needs Sherlock before Kate has really asked for anything. Of course, for what Kate wanted, Sherlock might have been useful...but it was JOHN who first brought up Sherlock. Because John had Sherlock on the brain! (Much like when Mrs. Hudson was talking about sex in the last episode.) And "I haven't seen him in ages" could express John's frustration.

What first struck me was that John had suddenly started dreaming about Afghanistan again. The worst surface-symptoms of the effect of the war on John (I'm not sure it really is PTSD) are always "cured" by Sherlock: first, the limp, of course. Remember how John's therapist said in RF that she hadn't seen John in months, and asked why he was back? It was because there was suddenly no more Sherlock.

And now that he is separated from Sherlock, he's dreaming about the war again. Except that now, Sherlock is alive, and Mary is understanding, so John is still "allowed" to work with Sherlock...so his dream reflects that Sherlock is there.

Reenacting the "would you like to see more" conversation reflects that John wants to do more of his work with Sherlock.

And of course, in bed with Mary, dreaming of Sherlock...there is, of course, fanfic where Watson calls out Holmes' name in bed with Mary...(and in a few cases, the result is that Mary offers to, er, involve Holmes in their private life! As of TSoT and before all the revelations, I could see this Mary doing that.)

nakahara, you and I are really those strange minds that think alike. 

Oh, thank you  

belis wrote:

Willow wrote:

John may have been unknowingly attracted to Mary because he sensed her capacity for violence, though I am exceedingly dubious about that idea; I do worry that it's close to arguing that a woman in an abusive relationship actually chose a man she knew would beat her up because deep down she wanted it to be like that. I don't want to touch that one with a sixteen feet barge pole.

It's a difficult topic to discuss and I hope I won't upset anyone. I wouldn't want to suggest that people in abusive relationships choose their partner with an intention of being beaten up. However there is a question as to why certain people (often those who witnessed domestic abuse as children) keep ending up in abusive relationships time and time again. There are various theories about that from psychodynamic, through learnt behaviour to brain chemistry but it remains a fact that they are attracted to a type of person who has predisposition to being violent towards them. That’s not the same as saying that they are to blame for what happens to them.
 

I'm going to totally agree with this; I see it every other day, with a lot of my clients. And yes, it usually starts with a cycle of abuse from childhood-- and it's subconscious. This is not blaming the victim, it is, however important to let people know why they keep sticking with the same patterns when it comes to relationships. 

 John may have been unknowingly attracted to Mary because he sensed her capacity for violence, though I am exceedingly dubious about that idea; I do worry that it's close to arguing that a woman in an abusive relationship actually chose a man she knew would beat her up because deep down she wanted it to be like that. I don't want to touch that one with a sixteen feet barge pole.

Leaving out the "capacity for violence" and the good/bad debate, Mary had already, bythat point, shown herself to have certain traits in common with Sherlock (i.e., cleverness - remember the tracking of John when he was in the bonfire; her "working" of the boys to get them to go work a case). I like the idea that John chose a woman who is a lot like Sherlock. 
 

Back to "Dream" now? 

SherlocklivesinOH wrote:

 John may have been unknowingly attracted to Mary because he sensed her capacity for violence, though I am exceedingly dubious about that idea; I do worry that it's close to arguing that a woman in an abusive relationship actually chose a man she knew would beat her up because deep down she wanted it to be like that. I don't want to touch that one with a sixteen feet barge pole.

Leaving out the "capacity for violence" and the good/bad debate, Mary had already, bythat point, shown herself to have certain traits in common with Sherlock (i.e., cleverness - remember the tracking of John when he was in the bonfire; her "working" of the boys to get them to go work a case). I like the idea that John chose a woman who is a lot like Sherlock. 
 

But Mary lacks any sort of moral compass-- like , thou shalt not shoot your husband's best freind in order to keep your husband from knowing that you lied to him about the fact that you're an ex-assassin--

Actually, I hear people asserting that Mary is like Sherlock-- and actually, she may be more like ...John. Without the conscience. :-)

belis wrote:

RavenMorganLeigh wrote:

Actually, I hear people asserting that Mary is like Sherlock-- and actually, she may be more like ...John. Without the conscience. :-)

I agree. I think John and Mary have a lot in common. That's part of the attraction. I think Mary has a moral compass. It just isn't pointing North as for most people. She is pretty consistent in terms of acting in accordance with her own values. Self-preservation is right on top.

 

That's a really interesting perspective; Mary can be relied upon to be motivated by 'what's in it for me'.  It's rather like shaking a kaleidoscope; the same facts but a completely different picture.

I'm trying, and failing, to fit this into the dream so I had better stop there...