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Here's a question-- do you think some of the way we look at Sherlock from s1 &2 might also have to do with seeing everything from John's POV? Because, in s3-- we saw everything through Sherlock's POV. If nothing else, it makes them both unreliable narrators.
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RavenMorganLeigh wrote:
Here's a question-- do you think some of the way we look at Sherlock from s1 &2 might also have to do with seeing everything from John's POV? Because, in s3-- we saw everything through Sherlock's POV. If nothing else, it makes them both unreliable narrators.
I've heard (read) this several times, about POV. I might very well be stupid, but I don't see the shift in POV? How do you see it? How do you know S1 and 2 are from John's POV and S3 from Sherlock's?
Last edited by Vhanja (September 15, 2015 8:26 pm)
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Well, for example the mind palace in HLV. We have never had insight in Sherlock's head before, apart from deductions. But this is personal. Or the voices in his head in TEH. I think are are more points, anyone?
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SusiGo wrote:
Well, for example the mind palace in HLV. We have never had insight in Sherlock's head before, apart from deductions. But this is personal. Or the voices in his head in TEH. I think are are more points, anyone?
Yeah, we get the deductions from Sherlock's POV all the way from ASiP. And we have equal amounts (-ish, haven't counted) with scenes showing only Sherlock or only John. So I don't see the two first seaons being from John's POV exclusively. More a mix. Same with S3, really.
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But, if I remember right, in S1 and S2 we were never inside of his Mind Palace, only seeing some snippeds of information projected into the outside world. Plus we have a long voiceover about London after Sherlock is back in London in TEH.
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Exactly. And there are so many things we learn about Sherlock that John does not know: Serbia, the voices in his head, the talk with Mycroft about loneliness and friendship, leaving the wedding without John realising, the look at the empty chair, etc., etc. All important information and John has no idea of all this.
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I do think there's a bit of a shift in perspective, but I don't think it's completely clearcut. For instance, quite a lot of ASIB in just Sherlock's perspective, in TRF Sherlock has conversations with Moriarty that John isn't privy to, etc. It's quite different to the books, where it's all John's perspective, but it's also not a clear case of being either one or the other.
Vhanja, yes I think I agree that in S2 John knew better how to deal with it. There are some things that Sherlock does in S2 that I find dodgy (shutting John out, drugging him, etc.), but John genuinely doesn't seem to mind too much.
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Very good point, JP and Susi. I may add that in S1 and S2 we tended to hear plenty of John´s opinions about Sherlock, his feelings or lack thereof and we tended to take them as truth because nothing was pointing otherwise to us yet. But in the last series that changed and we realised how little we (and John as our proxy) actually know about the real Sherlock.
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Actually it doesn't feel like a strong shift to me personally, I realized there might be one after reading others' comments.
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My take-- in season 3-- well, one of the major complaints from a lot of viewers was that we saw a lot less of John-- and part of that was because we were seeing John from Sherlock's POV. It started with Sherlock being tortured, and goes all the way through the episodes. The Mind-Palace scenes, Sherlock's revealing himself as more "human" than John seems to be able to see ("But he's Sherlock. Who would he bother protecting?)
Redbeard is a good example-- there's all this stuff going on that John never witnesses, never finds out about. And it explains a lot about why John still doesn't quite see Sherlock as "human".
Last edited by RavenMorganLeigh (September 15, 2015 8:59 pm)
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nakahara wrote:
Very good point, JP and Susi. I may add that in S1 and S2 we tended to hear plenty of John´s opinions about Sherlock, his feelings or lack thereof and we tended to take them as truth because nothing was pointing otherwise to us yet. But in the last series that changed and we realised how little we (and John as our proxy) actually know about the real Sherlock.
Bingo.
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RavenMorganLeigh wrote:
My take-- in season 3-- well, one of the major complaints from a lot of viewers was that we saw a lot less of John-- and part of that was because we were seeing John from Sherlock's POV. It started with Sherlock being tortured, and goes all the way through the episodes. The Mind-Palace scenes, Sherlock's revealing himself as more "human" than John seems to be able to see ("But he's Sherlock. Who would he bother protecting?)
Redbeard is a good example-- there's all this stuff going on that John never witnesses, never finds out about. And it explains a lot about why John still doesn't quite see Sherlock as "human".
This is a very good point that I know has been mentioned before. We, as the viewers, know a lot more about Sherlock than John does. We know about Serbia, about the shooting, about the mind palace scene in HLV, the wonderful dialogue with Mycroft (goldfish) - lot of stuff that gives us great insight into Sherlock that John never knows about. So we can't expect John to see Sherlock as we do.
Again, to me, it boils down to lack of communication. From the both of them. Then again, if they were great at communicating their thoughts and emotions, we wouldn't have half of the drama we have today.
Edit: Having that said. As much as we talk about John having issues with emotions (which he does), he was actually the first to state in words to Sherlock's face that he loved him. ("... with the two people I care about and love the most...").
Last edited by Vhanja (September 15, 2015 9:09 pm)
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Actually, I think John is ...amazingly bottled up: when it comes to love, friendship-- it seems the one emotion he's comfortable with is anger. He doesn't seem to have much trouble letting it out-- compared to how hard it was for him to tell Sherlock that he was his best friend.
And think about this-- Sherlock had no idea! He might not even have know that John considered him a friend at all, but a "colleague." Why? Because John doesn't express that stuff easily-- or at all.
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And the next season is supposed to be ...darker, heart-rending. OWIES cometh.
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[quote=]But in the last series that changed and we realised how little we (and John as our proxy) actually know about the real Sherlock.
That's true!
John can be (and mostly is) as thick as Sherlock in expressing emotions. He always makes a damn speech trying to do this. He probably was brooding over this "wo people I care the most" line for days and nights before he decided to visit Sherlock.
Last edited by JP (September 15, 2015 9:23 pm)
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Vhanja wrote:
Edit: Having that said. As much as we talk about John having issues with emotions (which he does), he was actually the first to state in words to Sherlock's face that he loved him. ("... with the two people I care about and love the most...").
Have you ever heard of "Ishin Denshin"?
I believe John and Sherlock as best friends should posses it to some extent. They should at least sense something about the other, even if they don´t openly speak about it.
Sherlock not knowing that John considers him a friend after TGG and after TRF or John being unaware about Sherlock´s feelings after TSOT is very implausible, IMHO.
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RavenMorganLeigh wrote:
Actually, I think John is ...amazingly bottled up: when it comes to love, friendship-- it seems the one emotion he's comfortable with is anger. He doesn't seem to have much trouble letting it out-- compared to how hard it was for him to tell Sherlock that he was his best friend.
And think about this-- Sherlock had no idea! He might not even have know that John considered him a friend at all, but a "colleague." Why? Because John doesn't express that stuff easily-- or at all.
I think the reason Sherlock doesn't realise he's John's best friend has just as much, if not more, to do with Sherlock's low self-esteem. It's clear to us, the viewers, that they are the best of friends. But Sherlock can't even imagine someone being his best friend (he even says that in his best man speech).
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nakahara wrote:
Have you ever heard of "Ishin Denshin"?
I believe John and Sherlock as best friends should posses it to some extent. They should at least sense something about the other, even if they don´t openly speak about it.
Sherlock not knowing that John considers him a friend after TGG and after TRF or John being unaware about Sherlock´s feelings after TSOT is very implausible, IMHO.
See my reply to Raven above.
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Personally, I´m not so sure Sherlock has such low self-esteem where John is concerned. And as I pointed out, Sherlock overheard John´s speech in TRF (later confirmed by John in TEH) - he can´t have any doubts that John is his friend.
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Vhanja wrote:
But Sherlock can't even imagine someone being his best friend (he even says that in his best man speech).
IMO he rather cannot imagine himself being worth of someone's friendship.