Ivy wrote:

@NW16XE: I love that childishness, too. I think Mycroft would like to have a grown-up relationship, but sometimes he can't help himself either.

Exactly! They are both so controllled and able to rise above it all-- except with each other.

Hello !
I love Mycroft Holmes and his little brother and I was very surprised when i saw the two Holmes. They are more different than the Holmes of ACD. And they look like Brothers of "the world"...Like my brother and me....Yes I have a little brother : I am Mycroft and he is Sherlock...Hum...
It is a relationship very interresting

Telling Moriarty all about Sherlock's personal business is only a serious betrayal if you don't follow the premise that Sherlock and Mycroft are colluding to ensnare Moriarty.

Last edited by Davina (November 3, 2012 1:23 pm)

The other day I met a group of holmesians and they had a theory about what happened in Mycroft and Sherlock's childhood, and why Mycroft is watching over Sherlock and why he's anxious about him. They think that Sherlock has killed in the past, and that Mycroft is looking after him to make sure it doesn't happen again. They say that maybe Sherlock killed their father because he was abusing their mother, and that that's at the root of the brothers' strange relationship and Sherlock's weirdness. A bit far-fetched, eh?

For me I prefer that they don't explain and spell out everything plainly in the show, to make it interesting the history of Mycroft and Sherlock has to retain some mystery, and some of the allusions they make are hilarious, like when Mycroft says he'll be mother to pour the tea and Sherlock says that sums up a whole childhood.

SusiGo wrote:

This reminds me of the novel "The Seven-Percent Solution" in which Sherlock's mother and her lover are killed by Sherlock's father. A very good pastiche by the way which sends Sherlock to Vienna to be treated by Sigmund Freud. 

 
Hoho, that sounds very interesting, I'll read it as soon as I finish re-reading the canon, or maybe in parallel.

Aurora wrote:

kazza474 wrote:

I sometimes wish Benedict wasn't the star of this show,

But are "all the girls" going wild about Sherlock because of Benedict, or are they going wild about Benedict because of Sherlock?

I can answer that! I was in love with Sherlock the first time I read Hound of Baskervilles when I was 13 (or 14?) anyway, that's the kind of man I always wanted...someone who could meet me on an intellectual level. I married my husband of 15 years not only because I was attracted to him but because he came with a crap load of BOOKS! We can discuss characters and plots, and he seems to have a bit of understanding in the way the human mind works. He is no student of philosophy or psychology as I have been and continue to be, but it nice to be able to see the world through someone else's eyes. 

I am not saying that a physical relationship isn't important (it very well IS!) but for a certain percent of the world wide population, we need MORE. A body is just a body, but a MIND...now that is something amazing!
 

I thought Sherlock had absentee parents. It seemed like Mycroft was both older brother & quasi-father, which I think would cause Sherlock to conflate the I-hate-dad relationship with the I-hate-brother relationship together so that it's a I-loath-brother/father relationship. It would explain why Mycroft's so good at running the country if he first had to run a household & being of the genius Holmes DNA, he found no trouble applying that to "the British government, or the British secret service or the CIA on a freelance basis".

Last edited by saturnR (February 3, 2013 6:46 am)

BlinkULDHC wrote:

I agree with those who think that Mycroft's character has somewhat departed from canon.

Sure, Mycroft's does not appear heavily in the canon, but he is described enough in a couple of sentences that demonstrate that the show departs from such characterization.

Sherlock admits that Mycroft is in many ways the superior brainpower, but he's just too lazy and indifferent to details to follow through.  He'd much rather be lazy and wrong than make the effort to be right, quite the opposite from Sherlock. 

I'm certain the writers know this, and they figure that the TV character is a much more interesting character.  A lazy, indifferent Mycroft would severely limit the scope of Sherlock's available government crises to solve. 

My only nitpick is that Mycroft just doesn't seem close to Sherlock's brainpower in the BBC series.  Things like talking about the Bond Air over the phone while Sherlock is around, or being rebuffed by Irene Adler in every attempt to achieve leverage over her phone.  He certainly isn't lazy or indifferent in these instances, he just simply lacks Sherlock's forward-thinking, which I see as a minor, but not bothersome, nitpick.

Mycroft still doesn't like to do the footwork, and he mentions he the very first episode that he'd rather Sherlock didn't, either.  Most of the antagonism between the brothers actually comes from Mycroft trying to protect his little brother and Sherlock resenting it.

I shouldn't think he'd see any reason to be secretive about Bond around Sherlock - it's not like Sherlock is going to announce it to the whole world.  Both of them are played by Moriarty and Irene - Sherlock only gains leverage with her in the end because he is finally able to deduce the phone code.

There is a significant scene earlier in ASiB, when Sherlock and Mycroft have a short exchange about the case Sherlock's been 'working' (or rather, John has been working):

- What, the hiker and the backfire? I glanced at the police report. Bit obvious, surely?
- Transparent.

In other words, Mycroft has solved the case from the police report alone.  His character has suffered somewhat from TRH, but I think it'll play out differently when we get the whole story.  I very much doubt he was any more fooled by the key than Sherlock was, and given his overprotectiveness, I don't see him throwing Sherlock under the bus to get information from Moriarty.  If he did give Moriarty information, he did so with Sherlock's consent.  (And it's possible that it was Sherlock's plan and not one Mycroft particularly liked.)
 

Having a younger sibling myself, I can understand their relationship quite well. My brother drives me up the wall and there is a constant bickering between us. People think we really don't like each other, but the truth is, I would die for him any day. Even if, most of the time I feel like killing him myself. And I know he'd do the same. I'm not a very emotional person.  I don't display affection, not openly. I can't and I don't like it. I don't hug or kiss people and I am very critical. I seem harsh and cold and uncaring.

Anyway, I can see where Mycroft and Sherlock are coming from. I understand their bond. Except they're two of me. My brother is more affectionate, more normal, so Mycroft and Sherlock share a bond like I'd share with someone else like me. It's a very powerful one, even if people can't see it. Even if it's burried deeper than most can dig, it's there and it's real and it's forever.

Last edited by Sparrow (March 8, 2013 6:48 pm)

I think my favourite scene in the whole entire show has to be them bickering in Buckingham palace. Because honestly, anyone with a sibling can recognise that one, the fact that however much of a professional face you can put on for others your siblings can still reduce you to your nine year old self at the drop of a hat.

And Mycroft is literally the only person who Sherlock cannot ever outsmart. Ever. Unless I'm mistaken there is not one single instance (in canon or on the show) where Sherlock actually gets the upper hand. When Irene says something like "not you junior, you're done,", that just about sums it up.

Last edited by beekeeper (March 29, 2013 6:45 pm)