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itsonlystrange · 3 years

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I’d like to point out that the “it’s all just a bunch of coincidence” argument is very poor. People say that about anything they don’t like. If we’re using this argument then I could say that everytime Mileven accidentally held hands or touched or any of that lovey dovey stuff that the Mileven fandom goes nuts over is a coincidence, but I have 0 evidence that it’s a coincidence, I’m just saying it is because that’s how I, a biased person on the side of byler, sees it. And I love the Milevens that actually respect us, it’s just the toxic ones that stomp on us or rain on our parade that irritate me.

So I ask skeptical Milevens, why do you think it’s all a coincidence? Because the Duffers have gone on record multiple times saying that nothing in their show is a coincidence, so it’s odd of you to assume that it is, when that goes against everything the duffers have said.

I see a lot of people claim that all of Bylers very romantic coded scenes are just coincidences with out any real evidence solely because they want them to be coincidences.

Reminder that the duffers had to write, revise, have Noah and Finn read at the table read, rehearse, and then film all of Bylers romantic coded scenes. And do you seriously believe that nobody stepped up and said, “Hey, I think some people will start to ship this if you make your two male characters hold hands and look at each others lips.” Like on paper, that sounds romantic. And on screen, it looks romantic too! If the duffers didn’t want byler to be shown as romantic they wouldn’t have put all of that effort into Mike and Will’s romanticly coded scenes in season two. And sure, one could say they were oblivious and didn’t realize that this relationship could be seen as anything more than romantic and that one of their 100 other writers and revisors and producers didn’t step up and say “Is this really what we want to be conveying in this show when they’re just supposed to be friends?” (Which I doubt. The duffers and everyone else on the writing crew knew exactly what they were implying. And if the duffers themselves didn’t, I HIGHLY doubt that someone didn’t step up and point out how romantic some of these scenes are, especially considering multiple of their writers are apart of the lgbtq community which makes it highly more likely that someone would have realized as I’m sure their gay senses are much stronger than those of the cishet writers on the squad. ) However, byler kind of blew up after season two, so if ST didn’t mean for Mike and Will’s relationship to be seen as more than platonic, then why did they continue doing it in season three? And the thing is, we’re not “delusional” for thinking this. Hundreds of thousands of millions of people have pointed this out across all platforms. It stops being a problem with us and “seeing what we want to see” when millions of people see the same, and it becomes the writers problem for even implying that in the first place.

Here’s an example: take Lucas and Dustin. Sure, there are definitely people out there that think or head canon as either as gay, but not nearly as big of a community as the Byler community. The reason is: Lucas and Dustin don’t have queer coding. They haven’t been painted the same way as Mike and Will’s relationship has. Or Jonathan, yeah, people may head canon as him as gay, or even think he actually is, but he doesn’t have any evidence that really points up to the fact that he is, or that he could be.

The duffers aren’t stupid. They wouldn’t have written byler this way if they didn’t want people shipping it. The official ST writer account has acknowledged byler multiple times, before st3 even started filming. They knew what they were doing. If their goal was to portray Mike and Will as a simple platonic friendship, and that all of their queer coded scenes in st2 were just a coincidence, why would they continue to do it in season 3? Queer baiting is real, yes. However like I said before, the st writing team has a lot of queer and lgbtq+ members themselves, not sure why they would want to queer bait when they’re gay/lesbian/bisexual themselves.

The truth is, byler would have never made it this far if it wasn’t meant to be shipped and portrayed like more of a romantic relationship than a platonic one. They would have shut it down awhile ago. They wouldn’t be so ominous about it. Noah and Finn wouldn’t constantly dodge questions about it unless they legally weren’t allowed to answer them. The duffers wouldn’t have been so vague in the ending of season 3 or in any interviews regarding season 3 about byler. Mike and Will wouldn’t have gotten a whole segment in the official ST book, they wouldn’t have held hands! Seriously! They held hands. Did someone seriously not point out how non platonic that was?———

And use the excuse all you want, “Will was just scared. That’s why Mike held his hand.” Okay, well Max and Lucas held hands when they were both scared in the exact same episode but I guess that doesn’t count because they’re a boy and a girl and Mike and Will are two boys. ———-And it’s funny because you KNOW that if Mike promised to go crazy together with El, that would he in every Milevens Instagram bio, it’d be on merchandise, it’d be everywhere. If Mike said meeting El was the best thing he’s ever done, people would be going bat shit crazy over how romantic that is and how they’re so in love. If Mike and El fought and he ran out in the middle of the rain looking for her when he couldn’t even apologize to his real girlfriend who dumped him just hours prior, people would say that Mike was in love with El and how much he cares about her yadda yadda. But that’s the thing. It’s two boys, so apparently it has to be platonic. Because that’s just how it works in their cishet minds. ——I’d like to see a better argument then “it was all a coincidence.” Because that’s not valid. Why? Why do you think it’s all a coincidence? It’s all just fake? Please. Elaborate. Because if these romantic scenes involved Mike and El instead of Mike and Will, then they’d see. Because they didn’t have Finn and Noah rehearse all these romantic coded scenes multiple times for nothing. They literally wrote, revised, edited, rehearsed, and filmed ALL of these scenes and still went through with it. And even in season three when people really started shipping byler, they STILL directed Finn and Noah to look at eachothers lips. They still filmed the rain fight. KNOWING byler shippers existed and KNOWING this would only heighten the amount of byler shippers there are.

The duffers aren’t stupid. This isn’t a surface level show. Everything they do is intentional, they’ve said it themselves. And yes, I agree that some byler proof COULD just be apophenia, but stuff like this? Crazy together? Looking at eachothers lips? Holding hands? I’m the only one that cares about Will? Mike keeping his eyes open in the final Mileven kiss, those aren’t small little things. You’re telling me that they couldn’t find another take for that final Mileven kiss? No. Finn kept his eyes open because he was directed to do so. The duffers are writers and directors for a reason. They went to school for this. So please, I’d like to see some actual argument against byler other than “they said they loved eachother!” “It’s all a coincidence!” I’d like to see people actually counter my arguments with actual evidence. Not just “Finn says they’re in love” not just “Millie ships it!” Because interviews are not evidence. They’re instructed to create hype for the show. If David can lie about hopper being dead, Finn and Millie can lie about Mileven being in love. I don’t want the argument of “it’s been built up for 3 seasons so they won’t destroy it now.” Stancy was built up for 2 seasons and see how that turned out. And Mileven fell more in season three than it went up.

Anyways,, if you’re a polite Mileven, this isn’t for you. I love you with my whole heart. If you’re just vibing, I love you. Ship what you want to ship! Feel free to counter my argument! However, If you’re someone who calls us “delusional”, leave. The doors right there. The cast has talked about how much they hate the ship wars in our fandom, so if you’re just gonna say how stupid we are, don’t let the door hit you on the way out:)

Sorry for long post lol. Love you all

#stranger things #byler #will byers #mike wheeler #st4 #byler is endgame

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rwby-redux · 4 years

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Preface

RWBY is the breakthrough anime web series created by the late Monty Oum of Rooster Teeth. Originally teased on November 5th, 2012, and officially debuted July 18th, 2013, the series follows the journeys of four young women enrolled in an academy that trains monster-slaying warriors known as Huntsmen. Set in the fictional world of Remnant, the story initially focuses on the surface-level plot of fighting against humanity’s ancient adversary, the ever-present Creatures of Grimm; over time, it becomes apparent that things aren’t what they seem, as the cast slowly begins to connect a string of heists committed by a criminal syndicate with the violent acts of a terrorist cell. The series is aired weekly on Rooster Teeth’s website, with its main arcs spanning 12 – 16 episodes per volume. In the years following the show’s initial release, RWBY has spawned numerous merchandise and related media, including two spin-off shows, multiple side-stories published as mangas, two standalone books, three mobile games, a behind-the-scenes artbook, and OSTs for every volume to date.

As of Volume 7 there are 98 episodes in total with a collective runtime of 18:52:00, or approximately 1,132 minutes, with more episodes and side content underway.

At best, they’re visually interesting; at worst, they’re disappointing.

Let me take a second to backtrack before the lynch mob starts to sharpen its pitchforks. The series deserves much of the praise that it’s gotten. RWBY was the first American-produced anime to be released in Japan (and if you’re a fan of anime, you know how insane those words sound). The 3D models and animation from Volume 4 onward are breathtakingly stunning, and even before the show made the leap from Poser to Maya, the fight sequences managed to be equally creative and entertaining. The show was nominated for and received multiple Streamy Awards, and was awarded Best Animated Series by the International Academy of Web Television. The Volume 1 soundtrack reached number one on iTunes, beating out the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Such is RWBY’s (and Rooster Teeth’s) reputation that it managed to attract the attention of, and later bring on, industry veterans and vocal legends such as Jen Taylor, Josh Grelle, and Aaron Dismuke.

That’s to say nothing of the fandom this franchise has amassed, of kids, teenagers, and young adults alike. RWBY has generated dozens of forums dedicated to fanfiction, fanart, and roleplaying. Thousands of people the world over have bonded over this show, fans from all walks of life. They’re passionate about this series. The fact that I’m writing this post is a testimony of that. If I didn’t care about RWBY, I wouldn’t be sitting on my couch at 3 AM, hunched over my laptop in my pajamas.

If RWBY is so good (or occasionally threatens to become good), you might be wondering, why, then, does this blog exist?

Well, because…when you stop and look at it critically, it actually kind of sucks.

Despite initially being written by a three-man team, the series is full of inconsistencies and an underdeveloped cast. The characters, especially from Volumes 1 — 3, are full of one-dimensional stereotypes whose contributions to the story amount to a three-word summary: “The School Bully,” “The Wacky Professors,” “The Racist Cop,” “The Cutthroat Bitch,” “The Anime Waifu,” “The Audience Surrogate,” “Discount Elle Woods,” and so on. Fundamental elements of the story, like Aura, Semblance, and Dust, are either poorly-explained or not explained at all, and the limitations of those core concepts can change at a moment’s notice to suit the needs of the plot. The primary antagonist of the first three volumes is universally hated by the fandom for having no discernible motivations beyond being “ambitious and power-hungry,” and having a personality that consists exclusively of irritating smug. The show-writers, despite repeatedly promising queer representation, have failed to make even one of their ten central protagonists queer. This isn’t touching upon the fact that the first openly-gay character on the show was an antagonist, or that the next two were side-characters who were relevant to the plot for all of seven episodes, before vanishing from the story entirely. The two leads that are currently being hyped as our first queer main-cast members have only been repeatedly teased, with said characters never once uttering the words, “I’m bi,” “I date women,” “I’m not straight”—nothing but narrative subtext and playful winks from the VAs whenever a fan asks if they’re queer. Subplots end up having no pay-off or get entirely forgotten mid-volume. The story is so protagonist-biased that the heroes are frequently able to get away with being hypocritical, or committing criminal acts because “it was the right thing to do,” with their POV framed as an infallible “fuck you, got mine” verbal gut-punch to the audience (while other characters in the show, who often make the exact same calls as the heroes, are ridiculed by the show and the fandom). Whenever the story isn’t spray-painting stolen cars and selling them to their original owners, it manages to clumsily handle allegories for real-world issues such as systemic racism, mental illness, abuse dynamics/victim survivorship, and gray morality. The worldbuilding is absent from the main show and has to be supplemented through RWBY’s spin-off series World of Remnant. The story’s setting feels flat and lifeless at times because the “cultures” of this world are never established.

The list goes on and on.

So if this show has so many flaws, why are we still having this conversation?

Because I’m captivated by the untapped potential of this world. When you brush away all of the detritus, you can see the wealth of raw material buried beneath. This is a world where the gods have forsaken their creations, with one having even deliberately created the monsters that hunt humanity. The two characters who are central to the history of this world are tragic figures, one cursed with immortality as a punishment for demanding that the gods revise the first draft, and do away with needless death; and the other, cursed to ceaselessly reincarnate into the minds and bodies of like-minded souls, waging a war of attrition against a person warped beyond recognition by the capricious spite of the gods. This is a world of forgotten magic, of shifting allegiances, of characters embarking on personal journeys and unearthing deadly secrets. It’s a story of people from all walks of life learning to cooperate and work together, forging friendships and alliances in order to face the challenges that lie ahead.

It could easily have the bones of an epic fantasy series as long as it remembers to drink its milk.

RWBY’s issues aren’t insurmountable. Most of them are the byproduct of the series’ blind adherence to “rule of cool,” the motto that practically codified the beginning of the show. From Volume 4 onward, the series took a radical shift in tone that tried to be “more mature,” and only succeeded in making the earlier episodes absurd in hindsight. Why, in Volume 6, are the characters concerned about civilian endangerment, when in Volume 2 they happily pursued a giant mech in a highway car-chase scene that would’ve caused untold collateral damage and civilian death? This change in storytelling created a thematic disparity that reoccurs time and time again, retroactively emphasizing just how inconsistent the worldbuilding and storytelling are.

It tried to be Avatar: The Last Airbender, and what we’re left with instead is Game of Thrones Season 8.

Now, I’m not using this blog as a platform to damn Monty Oum (or claim to be a better creator than him). But it’s important to address the flaws in his story, and to acknowledge that his passing doesn’t make RWBY somehow sacrosanct or immune to constructive criticism. RWBY has flaws, ranging from nitpicky to potentially capable of causing real-world harm (in the case of the aforementioned queerbaiting and racism analogies). I’m a firm believer that art doesn’t exist in a vacuum; art is informed by our beliefs just as much as art informs our beliefs. We can still respect and admire the potential RWBY has to offer, while being mindful of where it needs to improve.

That’s where this blog comes in.

At the end of the day, the RWBY Redux exists as a thought experiment. I’m writing it chiefly to entertain worldbuilding ideas and headcanons I’ve spent years musing on. I’m not asking readers to agree with any of my numerous stances, nor am I going to shy away from other fans’ criticism as I hammer this project out. With a little TLC, perhaps I’ll manage to create something that manages to be more complex than its source material. And if you choose to follow along with my endeavors, hopefully you’ll find this project equal parts engaging and entertaining.

Wish me luck.

#preface #deconstruction #writing

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hugsfromdad · 5 years

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Um... Well... THAT happened. holy shit. Let me tell you about my night. (Ya bisexual boi got his flirting mojo back but now idk what to do)

(This is a long story, but worth it. my theater crush comes in at the end fyi for those keeping up with me)

So, opening night of this play i've been working on just happened.

(Reminder: this is my first play ever)

And, it was beyond incredible. I had nothing to compare it to, but literally everyone was freaking out because of how good it apparently was.

....also apparently I was all everyone could talk about.

We had a theater critic there who was(is) gonna write us a review, and everyone was stressed about what he was gonna think (except me cause I had no idea if that was important. I guess it was)

WELL, I was pulled aside afterwards by both our director, and the mother of a cast member to tell me that not only did the critic love it, but he loved me. He said this was the best show he has ever seen at that theater...and he's directed shows there before! But I was being told that he loved me...so yeah, i really didn't know what to do with that but I guess it's really great

I have one of the 2 slow songs, and I have a riff near the end of mine. Well, I turned the riff into me holding a note for a long ass time. Like, the longest I've ever held a note. And then, to top it off, I hit a really high note at the very end.

Everyone fucking loved it. They positively freaked out and it was, again, so overwhelming. I didnt know what to do with it or how to react.

After the show, the cast and their families, friends, and as much of the audience who wanted, went to a restaurant/pub down the road that was staying open late soley for us. Dude, there was a big crowd.

I had been talking to my director with my mother right after the show and before we went over, and he could not shut up about people's reaction to me. It was overwhelming. He kept telling me about all these important people who had loved me and wanted to know about me and were freaking out when he told them it was my first show. A couple other cast memebers also came over and were talking with us and my mum and they kept complimenting and praising me and I genuinely didnt know what to do with it.

So we go to the pub and I start to like hang out and then--

Girls

talking to me.

People

wanting to hang with me and laughing at everything I had to say.

Backing up for a sec; at the absolute beginning of this whole play process at auditions, there was a cast member I noticed as very attractive and i had my eye on. She's probably older than my parents, but a ridiculously gorgeous woman, and high soprano.

Well, she was glued to me for some reason. After I walked in and had been there for a minute talking with my family, she comes over and we started talking. ....and kept talking. Like, this was the most i had ever talked with her this entire thing, and she was just sipping her single glass of wine and talking and laughing with me. I was genuinely confused as to whether she was just proud of me, her motherly instincts had kicked in, or if there was something else cause uh... I wish I could describe her eyes when she looked at me.

OH, also I should mention that when she decided to leave, she pulls me into this long, tight hug, and then fucking tucks her head in and kisses me quite gently on the cheek. I genuinely was stunned because we had maybe hugged like... once(?) before when she was nervous and cold.

Oh, and speaking of cold/clothes, i should mention that I was wearing... a really good outfit. I had planned it out so i would look really good cause I play a nerd in the show and i wanted to counteract that. Well, i did. I'll post a picture of it later if i remember. But specifically once I took my jacket off, my short sleeves were rolled up (queer eye would be proud) and all of my tattoos were showing.

And oh my god,

did people love them.

I had people touching my arms, asking what they meant, mentioning that they had been wondering about my tattoos all night cause they had seen a glimpse of them at the beginning of the show when i wore a t-shirt for like one song.

Dude, it was insane.

So there was this other girl who had some incredible silver shoes there and this chick was flirrrrting. She was(is) so fucking cool. Like, her makeup was WILD and jeffree star would have been proud-- like glitter eyeshadow type proud. And she was like talking and laughing with me, then hanging with her friends and playing shuffle board-- but coming back to me to tell me about it. It was kinda overwhelming. By the end of the night, she comes up to me and like asks for my info and like says she wants to be in a play with me and we should be friends and all that. She then texted me right after too 🙈

There was also the drummer's girlfriend who, holy fucking shit she absolutely is stunning and slays life and just.. I cant. She's so cool and gorgeous and confident and wow. And she and i wound up talking and laughing and joking for quite a bit as well. I sweear, i don't get how her eyes exist, cause she would look at me and it was like with beautifully cunning and see right through you type of look..and yet full of amusement. Like she was ready and waiting to enjoy what i had to say. Crazy. But she and I hung for quite awhile. She'll be here today at this performance too and she told me that she is expecting me to have a different meaning behind my tattoos when she asks about then tonight.

There were some more friends of our cast members who were like talking with me and touching my arms and grabbing my hand. one woman even fucking took my hand and kissed it. I swear. Woah. It was so overwhelming. Everyone was just telling me how blown away they were and that i have to have to have to keep acting. I guess word might have gotten out that i was unsure whether i wanted to do more acting or not... People were literally begging me to do another play. My director literally is begging me to do another one... Like begging. You shoulda seen his eyes.

OH. speaking of guys, there was this beautiful young man who came up to me and was like telling me how much he loved my performance and was just blown away. Well, apparently this kid is like super critical and very talented and trained with vocals and he could not get over me. He was(is) definitely not straight and i honestly was enjoying him way too much. My cast member who was still with me at that point said to me afterwards that praise from him is rare and really has weight. So, yay lol

(I will admit that as overwhelmed as I was with all of the praise, I was handling the flirting well. I will admit to that. My instincts kicked in and i was flirting and being smooth. I couldnt help it.)

AND. now, for my final person who I have been holding out talking about-- my gorgeous cast member who has the deep voice and cuddles me for part of the play...

Dear lord. Her eyes on me. I really wanted to stop breathing. At the end of the night she and our director, the drummers girlfriend, my friend Kai (holy shit he's beautiful and he came all this way just to see my performance and he met my dad and god I love him but that's another post) and my mum and I were all hanging out. At one point, I was looking at and talking to our director. And then, I felt her eyes on me. Like, she was standing right next to me, but i FELT her eyes on me.

And oh my god, like what the fucking hell, I snuck and glance and i wonder if it was the alcohol, but her eyes are like glowing and filled with like... I don't even know. Like the biggest joy and adoring look I've ever seen. I forced myself to not make eye contact anymore just because what I could see of here eyes out of the corner of mine was making me slightly dizzy.

She put arms around me multiple times that night and when it was time to leave, she comes over, gives me this look I cant quite make sense of, and then grabs my face and kisses my cheek. Like, just suddenly. In front of my mom. And it was like a kiss that threw me way off holy shit cause I've never really gotten cheek kisses from people. But wow. This was one.

I swear my head was spinning and I did not know what to do with it all. Not just her, but everyone else too. However, when I'm driving home and talking with my little brother (dear god he's amazing. It was 1am and he was just letting me have my night. I fucking am so grateful for him) I mentioned the people flirting with me and HE GOES "oh my gosh, especially [her name]."

I kind of try to not react, but he said it like mutliple times as we drove "oh she was flirting. How she was looking at you...oh yeah." And I kind of just silently died the entire time.

Okay. So that's it. My very bisexual adventure. It's been a long time since one of those have happened. Sorry for the long read, but i needed to get it all out somewhere. I have another performance tonight and then on Sunday. And then 3 next weekend. So, expect more to happen.

I have no fucking idea how this is all gonna wind up, but I did NOT and was NOT expecting or ready for last night. I really wasnt. I really didn't. I still cant believe it. Idk what I'm gonna do.

Dear god.

#my gay adventures #my bisexual adventures #idk what the hell just happened

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possiblyimbiassed · 7 years

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Maggie, Mary and Moriarty – like ghosts from ze past…

There are indeed lots of recurring themes in BBC Sherlock, like for example suicide or codes and ciphers or ghosts.

But one of the recurring themes is more specific, in the sense that it’s about a person who has lived in the real world – and a powerful one to boot: Margaret Thatcher. This former British prime minister is mentioned repeatedly in the show, but in different ways. So – why this obsession with Thatcher? Is it some sort of clue? Let’s have a closer look; I’ll try to account for all the occurrences here in chronological order and analyze their possible meaning (a warning: this might be a bit lengthy, so please bear with me):

1. The first time Thatcher is mentioned is in John Watson’s blog, at about the time of ASiB. The entry is called “The Six Thatchers” (which most certainly is a reference to ACD Canon’s case The Six Napoleons):

Sally Barnicot contacted Sherlock about the murder of her art-student friend Pietro Venucci, who was found stabbed in the pottery room. His boyfriend Beppo Rovito told the police he had discovered the body. Sally accused Beppo of murder, but there was no evidence.

Sherlock discovered a series of burglaries at other houses related to the university and the victim. John went there in disguise and found that Pietro had made six pottery figures of Maggie Thatcher with devil horns, which had been sold to all the burglary victims. Apparently the figures were meant as satire of Thatcher. Nothing else was taken during the break-ins.

Sherlock and John visited the houses of the two remaining figures. John watched Beppo breaking in, heard glass shattering and saw him finding the figure on the mantlepiece.

They followed him outside, watched him smash the figure and caught him picking up a penknife from inside the figure, which had his initials on it.

Beppo confessed that he and Pietro had an argument and, in a struggle, Beppo had stabbed him. He'd seen the figures going into the oven and pushed the knife into the clay. He'd then smashed a window to make it look like there'd been a break-in.

Observations: a) We never get to know the actual motive for Beppo stabbing his boyfriend.

b) In this blog entry there’s a picture of Sherlock wearing the ‘funny hat’ (deerstalker), which has often been interpreted as his ‘public image’ in spite of him not liking it at all; a Persona he is forced into by others.

c) John believed Sally had been in love with the victim, which could be a sign of a triangle drama of some sort.

2. In The Hounds of Baskerville, Sherlock tries to figure out the password to Major Barrymore’s online info about the secret CIA project H.O.U.N.D. Since the Major is strict, conservative and has five biographies of Margaret Thatcher in his book shelf, Sherlock deduces the password: “Maggie”. He finds out that this project has produced a drug as a secret chemical weapon. The online text mentions things like ‘Paranoia,’ ‘Severe frontal lobe damage,’ and ‘Multiple homicide,’ in association with this drug. Sherlock explains it: “ …a new deliriant drug which rendered its users incredibly suggestible. They wanted to use it as an anti-personnel weapon to totally disorientate the enemy using fear and stimulus…”

Observations: a) One of the five project leaders, whose family names form the acronym HOUND, is named Mary Uslowski. Mary Watson was also part of a group with an acronym made from the group members’ names; AGRA.

b) In this scene Thatcher’s name is associated with a poison that brings hallucinations, paranoia and fear to its victims.

3. In the episode The Six Thatchers in Series 4, there are six plaster busts of Margaret Thatcher owned by five different people. There are also a series of burglaries where someone systematically smashes the busts, but doesn’t take anything. The importance of the Thatcher busts is emphasized not only in the episode title, but within the story as well:

Sherlock seems obsessed with finding out how Margaret Thatcher might be connected to James Moriarty:

But he doesn’t have a spelled-out theory; it rather seems based on intuition...

...and the surroundings go spooky and bluish...

However, in spite of Sherlock being called back from his fatal mission in Eastern Europe specifically to deal with Moriarty’s supposed return, he fails miserably to track Moriarty down. In fact, there is basically nothing more revealed in this episode about Jim Moriarty or his possible connection to Thatcher. Mycroft believes that Moriarty is after a certain Black Pearl of the Borgias, but Sherlock doesn’t find the pearl either. (And in the following episode Jim seems totally forgotten).

Instead, the evidence hidden inside the last of the Thatcher busts leads directly to Mary Watson, and her background as member of the contract killer group A.G.R.A.

At first, ‘Mary’ isn’t directly participating when Sherlock investigates the case that leads him to the first Thatcher bust; she is merely seen curiously waiting in the background.

However, when two more Thatcher busts are smashed and they do get in focus, ‘Mary’ - for some odd reason - suddenly gets involved in Sherlock’s search:

It’s a bit strange; ‘Mary’ has never been a part of Sherlock’s cases until now, so it’s unclear why her presence is suddenly so important - especially since her ‘help’ doesn’t lead to any improvement of the case whatsoever:

And still she gets to participate as some kind of expert. It almost seems like Sherlock deliberately lets ‘Mary’ come between him and John, even when they’re working together.

At the end of the episode ‘Mary’ dies from a gunshot (in an extremely unrealistic and overly dramatic way) and her death seems to damage John’s and Sherlock’s friendship when John blames Sherlock for the incident. The interesting thing is, that from now on we get Mary’s ghost as a transmitter of Moriarty’s eternal “miss me?” message:

Associated with one of the Thatcher burglaries is the mysterious death of a young man, Charlie Welsborough, who wanted to surprise his father on his 50:th birthday by pretending to be a car seat and then suddenly drop the disguise. But the guy dies of some sort of seizure and never gets to surprise his father. His body is discovered a week later when the parked car accidentally gets hit by another car and explodes.

Observations: a) This whole Six Thatchers case seems extremely similar to the earlier case on John’s blog; there are the same number of Thatcher images (although this time with no devil’s horns, thus worshipped rather than mocked), they are all smashed and there is important evidence hidden inside one of them at the pottery, with someone’s initials on it (but this time information rather than a weapon).

b) This time Sherlock actually seems happy about the busts being destroyed. Charlie Welsborough’s father has images of Thatcher as a shrine placed on a prominent place in the living room, while the photos of his dead son only appear on a side table. Sherlock pretends to not recognize the importance of Thatcher, and he almost expresses sympathy with the burglar:

And Sherlock is not alone; even his mostly very formal and polite civil servant of a brother is critical:

As the smashing continue, Sherlock is not exactly worried…

:) Actually, I believe he’s encouraging people to vote against Thatcherism:

And Sherlock even gets to smash the last Thatcher bust himself:

c) The young Charlie Welsborough seems queer- or trans-coded in the subtext, since

i) Sherlock mis-genders Charlie by referring to him as the Welsboroughs’ daughter:

ii) There’s an 18th or 19th century painting in his parents’ house with a little girl with a drum – hardly a common toy for girls in those times:

iii) There’s a Blue Power Ranger figure attached to the front of Charlie’s car, associating to the TV series with the same name, which is shown melting when the car explodes:

David Yost, the actor who played the Blue Power Ranger ‘Billy Cranston’, has stated he had “walked off the show --- due to repeated and ongoing homophobic slurs by the creators, producers, directors, and writers of the series” (X).

Even Charlie is associated with ghosts in this episode; John mentions that he’s going to call this case “The Ghost Driver” on his blog.

So maybe Charlie’s death is also significant; he died while trying to make himself invisible to his father-the-Thatcher-lover by resembling a car seat, possibly due to fear that his father would disapprove of his sexual orientation or trans-gender identity.

d) Whenever Thatcher is in focus in this episode, weird things happen; the surroundings become spooky and bluish…

…and/or watery…

… or Sherlock gets the imprint of Maggie projected on his face:

5: Right before one of the bust smashings, parting from the scene in Mycroft’s office where Sherlock wants to know how Moriarty is connected to Thatcher, there’s a glass being shattered:

The same thing happened earlier, in John’s blog case The Six Thatchers, when Beppo was discovered at a crime scene. And later in the show, inside Sherlock’s mind palace in TAB, John and Sherlock also heard the sound of glass shattering. At the time they thought it was a window shattering while someone was breaking in, but it turned out that the object broken was a mirror used to produce the illusion of a ghost:

To summarise: We have these three ghosts casting their shadows over the show from TAB to TFP, and maybe even earlier: Maggie Thatcher, James Moriarty and Mary Watson. But in TAB Sherlock insists to John: “You may, however, rest assured there are no ghosts in this world… save those we make for ourselves”.

So my guess is that these are ghosts that Sherlock has created in his mind palace. The blog case and also Major Barrymore’s fondness of Thatcher in THoB might be ‘real’, but Series 4 seems to be Sherlock’s rehashing of past events in new ways inside his mind palace (EMP theory). In THoB Barrymore’s secret info accessible with the password “Maggie” is about a drug that instils fear in the victims, confuses them and makes them hallucinate. Maybe this drug is also involved with all the weird things Sherlock experiences in Series 4.

The shattering of glass in the two Six Thatchers cases, as well as in the ghost case in TAB, seem to alert the audience to pay attention, and to realize the fact that this ghost imagery is all fake; there’s no reason for us to believe in these ghosts or obey their messages, since they all belong to the past and do not actually exist except in people’s heads.

But I do think each one of the ghosts represents something in this story on a metaphorical level, for Sherlock, for John and for society as a whole, which I’ve been trying to show here: (X, X, X, X) . In ‘Mary’s case I think it’s heteronormativity and in Moriarty’s it’s homophobia. They’re the villains of the story; they’re the issues that are keeping Sherlock and John from openly becoming who they really are.

But what about ‘Maggie’ – why this massive emphasis on a PM from the eighties and people smashing images of her? Well, I suspect it’s because she’s been infamous for her homophobic conduct as a Prime minister in that period. Some of the best-known examples:

Quote from Margaret Thatcher’s speech to Conservative Party Conference October 9, 1987 (X): ”Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. - - - All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life - yes cheated.”

In 1988 Thatcher’s government legislated Britain’s first new anti-gay law in 100 years; Section 28, which stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship" (X)

Thatcher tried to block public health warnings about Aids in the eighties. Allegedly she feared teenagers would be “harmed" by an Aids awareness campaign about how the disease spread. (X) (X)

My conclusion: Maggie, Mary and Moriarty are connected in this show, they take turns to represent what’s literally killing Sherlock, John and their relationship: homophobia and heteronormativity. And in the case of Thatcher it’s connected to the official power – a prevailing viewpoint that totally dominated society in the Victorian times when ACD’s Canon was written, and that still has a lot of influence. The six Thatchers are all smashed in the show, but Mary and Moriarty still linger as ghosts until the end of TFP. Let’s hope there actually will be a fifth series some time, where we can finally get rid of these ghosts once and for all.

#Thatcher and Sherlock #the six thatchers #johnlock #TJLC #MARY IS A VILLAIN #mary is evil #Moriarty

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