I personally don't mind if people want to spend a lot of their time on analysing Johnlock. I spend a lot of my time gaming, that isn't particularly more (or less) constructive than writing Johnlock metas. Whatever people find joy in.

The only problem with spending a lot of time on something, whether that's gaming, writing metas or other things, it that you can lose focus and it becomes bigger in your mind than it perhaps should be. At the end of the day, if I lose in a game or Johnlock doesn't become canon, it really doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. When you get very preoccuipied with something, I think it's important to sometimes take a step back and get a little perspective.

I just wish some fans could take it less seriously and have some fun with it. If it happens - great. If not - a bit disappointing, but it doesn't really matter. Still a great show.

QUESTION: Many fans are very interested in one question. Is there some sort of love between Sherlock and John?        
     
MOFFAT: They love each other very much.       
The whole story is that, always has been – these two unshakeable friends who complete each other, and redeem each other.      
It’s a story over a century old, and we show no sign of getting tired of it, and why should we?      
Some people want that love to be, well, more romantic, and good luck to them.      
Everyone should enjoy the show the way they want to and all interpretations are equally valid – I’m only a writer.     
Personally, I thought Charlie’s Angels all lived in the same jacuzzi – I was happy. ”

http://twocandles.tumblr.com/post/155092963788/question-many-fans-are-very-interested-in-one

Last edited by nakahara (December 29, 2016 11:45 am)

Thank you, nakahara.
I think Steven and Mark see the matter a bit differently. Steven is quite relaxed, whereas Mark can get a bit prissy lately...

Well, how about that tweet "R.I.P."? (Not that I would have tweeted him "If I don't get Johnlock I will kill myself" in the first place but anyway...)
How about that tweet confirming the content of the interview and what came after with the "garbeled mistranslation", I might be wrong but it didn't sound too friendly...

JP wrote:

ewige wrote:

However, if they choose to end the show as though none of the johnlock was ever hinted at throughout the series, I will pass judgement about their writing prowess and also share it with other people. (...) I won't hate them as people, just frown upon their writing, you know ;)

So if they choose not to fulfill your expectations, they are bad writers, right?

Merely inconsistent ones - which is actually worse.
Why is it OK for me to badmouth Hesse but not Moftiss? In both cases I express my opinion based on my perspective.

Liberty,
I too don't agree with many of the examples in those list of tropes, but some of them are valid. Besides, we seem to agree that the ambiguity is there - so why is it there otherwise? A famous writer once said that if you have a gun hanging on the wall in the beginning of your story, it must have fired at least once by the end of it.

JP wrote:

Have you badmouthed Hesse because he didn't write an ending you would prefere over the one he wrote?

I don't think I'll have an issue with the ending of the show so my problem won't be with it but with the storytelling before it.
They know what they are doing, they are aware of the interpolations. The gun smells like gunpowder. To make it a lighter in the end would be pretty lame.

Last edited by ewige (December 29, 2016 1:03 pm)

diva wrote:

Well I see a lot of pining, can't imagine how they could have done more without making it too blatant. But I don't want to repeat all the pros and cons that have been discussed here.

What baffles me even more than the question if Johnlock will happen in the show is the intensity of the argument that's been going on for years now. I understand why people who think it will happen or want it to happen try to find evidence for their theories. But I wonder why those who don't see it are so keen on disproving any signs for a romantic relationship. I guess most people who see Sherlock and John as a couple will continue to ship them even if it never becomes official in the show, and I hope they will still enjoy the show as a brilliant modern take on the original stories. I know some people might be disappointed (and yes I have seen a few rather disturbing things on tumblr) but most Johnlockers will hopefully accept that the writers are free to tell the story they want to tell.
But what about those who are opposed to any romantic connection between Sherlock and John? If you don't see it will you stop watching the show if it turns out that Sherlock and John will end up together as a couple? I'm really curious because I think Johnlockers and non-Johnlockers all want to see them reunited in 221B. I can't think of any plausible arrangement where Sherlock and John are spending the rest of their lives together while one or both of them have another equally important relationship with someone else.

I think that's a really good question (that I've bolded).   For me, it's to do with what it changes about the characters and the story.  I think it changes perspective on everything.    It all becomes a bit Fight Club, where you have to look back and reinterpret everything you see.   Now if Moftiss decided, after TAB, that they wanted them to fall in love, and that's what happened in S4, that would be absolutely fine by me ... it would change the relationship obviously, but it wouldn't destroy what I know about the characters or the story so far.   My only issue would be that Moftiss have denied that's going to happen so sincerely. 

The other thing - and I'm really just talking about fervent TJLCism - is that I would hate to think that the whole thing, all the bits that I thought were funny, clever, moving or just incidental, was just a series of codes just showing that Sherlock and John were going to be lovers, rather than telling us.  How banal, in a way. 

The other thing, and this is just personal, is that I'm not on board.  I don't feel it.  I don't feel any passion or investment.  I'll admit I'm not a big romance fan, and I don't usually seek it out.  (Although funnily enough, I love it in games - Vhanja, you mentioned gaming and I love playing through romances in those!).   Now it's possible that I could get on board on S4, but at the moment if I think of Sherlock and John kissing, it just feels like something they wouldn't do. 

And of course I wouldn't stop watching!  But I can see it being plausible that they stay together without being lovers ... and I kind of like the idea of not having to end things with a romance.  Some people just never meet the person they'd have as a lover for a life, or it doesn't work out, or they die, or whatever, and then friendships maybe become more important. 

Last edited by Liberty (December 29, 2016 7:02 pm)

I will repeat my comment from the episode discussion thread:
So John dated women, married a woman and had an affair with a woman.
I know straight men who do this, I do not know bisexual or gay men who do this.
Once again the only evidence we are shown points to a heterosexual.  John has never been shown to have any romantic interest in any man. 
 

It does tend on your definition of romantic.
Mary made the most 'romantic' act, sacrificing herself for Sherlock.
But yes, Sherlock and John have always loved each other deeply...but not in the way a man loves his wife.

Yes, "romantic" is interesting, because actually Sherlock and Mary's relationship is "romantic" in the very broad sense in this episode.   Sherlock's need to protect her, secret meetings, confessions, chasing her across the world, trying to save her all the time, and finally Mary dying for him.