Indeed.

She darn well better be real. 
I love her and am enjoying writing about her.
She's real to me at least.

The Ricoletti case was real, wasn't it?
Anyhow, I see absolutely no reason to think Eurus is not real, I can't believe they haven't addressed this in any interviews and I'm fairly certain they have...

I do think TFP is real (it's just their universe that has become more fantastic), but I kind of like this idea.  Before TFP aired, I did spend a while playing with the idea that Sherlock himself would be the antagonist for the last episode of the series - I was almost disappointed when it turned out to be an actual evil sibling after all!  

Well yes and for me the story fits.
I don't want to say too much more and make myself more unpopular than I already am, but there is certainly a level of frustration for me with this kind of debate, and it's on different levels:
we get these theories, but we can't even try to counter them, without being met by: but Mark and Steven would just lie, anyway.  You know how they allegedly lied about Moriarty being dead?  Well, I for one believed them and do believe them.
Oh well I've started now and I'll finish: it honestly does just concern me if there is even any sense of:  I don't like the story we were given, it doesn't fit with my head canon and so I'm going to offer another version. 
This may be an entirely personal thing and may not be an issue for anybody else at all, but I do get heart sick when it seems for some: nothing is ever real! It's an even greater coincidence that this only seems to occur when a certain scene, story line or character isn't liked.
I fully accept the last series was very different(as I've previously said, they all felt different to me), but for me that is because they had to bring the story to some kind of conclusion and in case it was their last shot, they literally threw the kitchen sink at it.
It worked for me and actually left me wanting more..dunno if that's good or bad, but it is as it is.
Now before I get the: well what's the point of being on a discussion forum and not discussing thing: alternative versions are fine, though again personally I think this is a different thing to analysis of what we are actually shown.
Further, for me, I take my different versions to fan fic...which of course then people would be free to share with others. There is also the fact that I have read some posts which has made me think: why are they even on this forum?  They seem to hate the show!
You know I wonder even if there was a suggestion that an alternative version may just be a pet theory would(for me) be fine, it's when it constantly seems to be set against the premise that what we were shown wasn't real and(for me) therefore somehow wrong, that I possibly find most difficult to deal with.
I know some people think certain things weren't true to canon or to a character or a story line, but we could all cherry pick.  We can all nit-pick, which we do!
But at the end of the day, the prosaic remains true: this is Mark and Steven's version, it either works for you or it doesn't.
Yes we know they use dream scenes and mind palace etc...but other than in TAB- proportionately so, it doesn't negate whole vital stoy lines like Sherlock shooting  a guy in the face.
As I always show on here, if I am proved wrong about something:  I am the first to say so.

Last edited by besleybean (March 23, 2017 7:10 am)

Thank you for your detailed posts. Just in short: I am a writer, a novelist by profession. And for me my editors one of the most important criteria is that the story has to make sense. I feel that with TFP a lot of people - viewers and critics alike - felt that it did not. The ratings were low, the reviews mostly bad. And the conclusion often was: the writing was bad. They got arrogant. They sunk their own show.
This was hurtful to read and I started asking myself what could be the reason. Trying to make sense of S4 and most of all TFP for me is a way of defending the writers. For me the whole of S4 is very different and dreamlike.
And besides, besley, this has always been a place for discussion. For polite critique. And I am not ready to stop enjoying and discussing the show yet.

Agreed.  And you are right, it is fascinating how differently people can read the same piece of art.

I still wonder how one can believe that this episode is to be taken at face value if it starts with doctored footage and ends with the set designer himself cleaning up the set, thereby breaking the fourth wall. 

Yes, these are lovely moments which proves that things can be lovely and fucky at the same time.