#i think it would've been so cool if in the veiled lodger when the woman took off her veil

[everysongineverykey]

doctor watson is so weird because like. he's a super important character. he's barely a character at all. holmes' abilities of deduction would never be as fascinating told from his own point of view than from watson's. you can change the pov of a story from watson's pov to third person omniscient and hardly anything will change. he's holmes' best friend. he's so often nothing but an afterthought. he's the character we know the most about. he's the character we know the least about. it's impossible to write a sherlock holmes story without him. he takes up so little space in the actual stories that he might as well not be there. he has a gift for writing and an excellent memory. he can't see what's going on right in front of him. he was shot in the shoulder and nowhere else. he was shot in the leg and nowhere else. his name is john. his name is james. his name is "my dear watson". he has no name. he objects to holmes leading a housemaid on for information. he's perfectly fine with holmes robbing houses, letting murderers go, and throwing master criminals off cliffs. he's frustrated with holmes for his recreational use of cocaine and morphine. he doesn't particularly care when he finds holmes hunched over in an opium den. he's seen far too much death already by the time he meets holmes. he's fairly well-adjusted. he describes his and holmes' adventures faithfully and meticulously. he's the least reliable narrator you've ever seen. everyone in every room he enters forgets he's even there. sherlock holmes would kill for him.

#sherlock holmes #like. acd so clearly only really intended to use watson as a normal guy lens through which we the normal readers could view holmes' #weirdness. #that was it. he didn't think about the implications created for a character who trusts his friend so much and is so unerringly loyal #that he forgives him immediately no matter how the man mistreats him! #he didn't think about the circumstances that could lead someone to be that self-effacing! #he never makes use of watson's past. his time in the army. his ptsd. #i think it would've been so cool if in the veiled lodger when the woman took off her veil #watson was pained and saddened at her disfigurement but not shocked. because he was an army doctor. #and he'd seen plenty of unpleasant face disfigurements in his time. #but no! watson gets no development! no arc! nothing! #he's married! he's divorced! he's never been married! he's a widower! who cares! #he's a doctor but he never ever like. examines any of the many bodies he and holmes come across. #he never makes use of that knowledge. #sherlock holmes himself says it best in the sussex vampyre when he finds out watson used to play rugby in school: #'i never get your limits watson. there are unexplored possibilities about you.' #watson's just as much of a mystery to holmes as holmes is to watson in a way! #maybe that's part of why holmes loves him so! #anyway i love the thought that there's actually a fair bit watson exaggerates or leaves out in his printed accounts. #like he plays up holmes' deductions. or efficiency. or coldness. and he downplays or even cuts out his own actions/words entirely. #why would anyone care what he had to say? they want to know about the famous sherlock holmes right? #my headcanon is that watson is a chronic self-effacing people-pleaser like me💙 #and holmes isn't cruel to him or anything but watson just doesn't know how to function #without a Purpose. without praise. without order and people telling him he's good. #as holmes' chronicler he has that! people talk to him! so what if they can't remember his name? #so what if they only wanna hear about his flatmate? it's something! he finally has SOMETHING! which is more than what he ever had before! #even in the army! #anyway. doctor john watson md late of the army medical department my beloved💙