George Bain, (1881–1968), born in Scrabster in Caithness, Scotland, was an artist and art teacher who made an important and influential contribution to the revival of interest in Celtic and Insular art which began in the 19th century.

Remember when the motto of the fandom used to be “it’s all fine”?

Sherlock is a dark fuck prince liquidly stalking his way towards John to show him the most amazing night of pleasure of his life.

Sherlock is a desperate bottom who begs to be taken apart by Captain Three Continents Motherfucking Watson.

Sherlock is in a committed relationship with Molly, and he fucks up as often as she forces him to be a better person. Then they fuck.

Sherlock wanks to the sound of Mrs Hudson’s vacuuming. He doesn’t know why but ooh that sure does it for him.

Sherlock is an asexual who thinks genitals are for pissing with, end of story.

Sherlock has kinks The Marquis de Sade has never heard of and spends his nights in a very exclusive club in SoHo.

Sherlock is a virgin. Whether this bothers him or not is unclear.

Sherlock is gay but John is straight and it would be great if their sexualities lined up but tragically they don’t so here’s the fic about how they get by.

All of these are true.

None of these are true.

Don’t let anyone DARE try to take any headcanon, what-if, or exploration away from someone else.

AMEN

Suck it, haters.

<3

This one was a little bit more challenging to do than I thought it would be – and that was mostly in all the detail (RIP) ,as well as figuring out ways to adapt a Klimt-esque look to Howl. It was really tempting to put him in his pink jacket since it lends itself to rectangular form so well. However I just had to go and make things difficult for myself… because I love his transformed version!

Based on Klimts ‘The Kiss’ (1907-1908)

hanging plant knowledge for later

So, this whole thing about secrecy involving Sherlock, Molly and John has been bugging me for a long time. I put my thoughts down but it became this huge thing so I have been sitting on it for ages. But now the fact that it’s sitting there is bugging me so I’m throwing it out there in 2 parts if anyone has the patience to read it.

Sherlock, Molly and John – the secret life of the legend Part 1 So is Sherlock Holmes an unprincipled drug addict or a gentleman hero? Or both? Or neither? For me, one of the most interesting things about this incarnation of Sherlock Holmes is that it regularly points to the man Sherlock Holmes being not quite the same as the legend created by John Watson, because Watson knowingly distorts the truth to create a more appealing hero for his stories. But even more than that, it also plays with the idea that the real Sherlock, the vulnerable, fallible creature we as viewers can see, is something not even John Watson fully grasps, at least not until the final episodes.

Throughout the show we repeatedly get glimpses of its several layers of storytelling. One is the 100 year old legend of Sherlock Holmes that the show has built on and has finally become a part of.  Then there is the story told by BBC John Watson on his blog but also in the attitudes and reactions of John Watson the character, “the audience surrogate”.  There is also the story that we actually witness on the screen, whether John sees it or not. Finally, there are things that are only hinted at, things even we don’t actually see but are directly invited to imagine.  It can get pretty dizzying looking at all these layers and how they relate to each other and sometimes intertwine. And Molly’s place in this complex scheme has intrigued me for a long time.

As a non ACD canon character, she and her relationship with Sherlock are specific to this particular version of Sherlock Holmes and are not a part of the inherited legend. But since S2 Molly’s relationship with Sherlock, although mostly in the background of the main storyline, grows in importance and their scenes together give us a unique perspective on Sherlock’s character and its development. To me their scenes seemed very carefully constructed and tightly woven for maximum effect in minimum screen time. They are like miniatures where each little detail tells us an important part of the Sherlock and Molly story.

What really started intriguing me at some point was the noticeable element of secrecy, the quality of Sherlock’s and Molly’s relationship being kind of hidden. Of the other characters being largely in the dark about it and even the viewers being told, on at least two significant occasions: There’s stuff going on here, but we’re not showing you. By secrecy, I don’t mean a secret romantic relationship, but that their relationship, as it is, unfolds and develops largely outside the view of the other characters. And what’s really interesting is that one of these characters is John Watson, chronicler/blogger and entry point for the audience. The two biggest and most obvious instances of literal secrecy are the Reichenbach plan, with Sherlock and Molly plotting together and keeping a huge secret from all the others, except for Mycroft, for two years. Just to remind ourselves, for Molly this plotting involved at least: breaking several laws, lying to the police and all of Sherlock’s friends while watching them grieve, going through various inquests, fooling Moriarty’s men, extreme danger in case of being found out, locating, transporting and using a Sherlock look-a-like corpse, and probably preparing with Sherlock for the other 12 scenarios. And parting with Sherlock. For Sherlock, in addition to all the extreme practical demands of the plan, it also meant being in a state of great vulnerability and uncertainty. And leaving his life behind. Mycroft was instrumental in the practical side of things, but it’s pretty certain that the only person who gave Sherlock emotional, as well as practical, support through all of this was Molly. In other words, Sherlock and Molly went through this extreme situation together and, in terms of the emotional side of it, more or less alone. And none of the other characters, nor the viewers, know exactly how things went down in this highly emotionally charged situation. We got a mere glimpse in the night lab scene – filmed for heavy dramatic effect, and we got a Sherlock very reluctant to divulge any reliably true details after his return. Then there is the fact that Sherlock sometimes stays at Molly’s flat (and bedroom), because he calls it one of his boltholes, as Molly reveals directly to the audience, dropping a real little bomb in less than 30 seconds screen time during the dark events of HLV. Similarly to Reichenbach, if you actually stop and think what this entails in practice – the level of intimacy it implies is really startling. And his reasons for choosing her flat (bedroom) can raise a few questions. Again, none of the others, not even Mycroft, know about this. It’s Sherlock’s little secret.

So, even we as viewers are only informed about the existence of their Reichnebach drama and about him staying at her flat sometimes - we never actually get to see any of this, which reinforces the notion that there are rather interesting bits of Sherlock’s life, involving Molly, that neither we nor the other characters are privy to.

There are also other references to Molly and secrecy or the quality of being hidden throughout the show, such as the very fact that Moriarty overlooked her. Then there is TAB and the fierce Dr Hooper who is secretly a woman. And interestingly, in his exchange with Holmes in the mortuary, Hooper refers directly and with a hint of resentment to the unreliability of the face Holmes presents to the world through Watson, of his known face.  

But it’s not only these instances of literal secrecy. Equally important in terms of storytelling is the fact that most of Molly’s and Sherlock’s scenes after ASiB, a turning point in their relationship, involve only the two of them. This is definitely the case with scenes that are the most emotionally charged and telling in terms of their relationship and their growth. This means that most of the other characters are probably at least partly oblivious to the real nature of their relationship at any given point after ASiB. (This again is reinforced by the impression I have that, in relation to Molly, Sherlock has a kind of adolescent quality about him – his tone with her is always more gentle and warm when they’re alone, and he’s often truly on the back foot with her. In front of others, however, there’s more of his usual confident self, booming voice and all; or he’s at least more emotionally reserved or even cocky.)

Now, to me this is interesting for several reasons. First, the fact that most of their interaction is effectively hidden from the others seems odd enough to be deliberate and makes me ask why, what does it achieve? One of the things I think it does is hint at the gap between what we know, as viewers who witness Sherlock’s and Molly’s scenes and what everyone else knows, including John Watson, the chronicler and creator of the legend. The scenes with Molly are important pieces of the Sherlock puzzle – they are there in the show, there is an intention behind them, they are carefully constructed and quite a few are emotionally charged, revealing a Sherlock that the other characters don’t get to see very often, a slightly uncharacteristic Sherlock – vulnerable, scared, gentle, physically affectionate, confused, kind, at a loss for words,  awkward, unsure of himself, seeking out company, seeking emotional support, compliant. These traits are not there only with Molly, of course, but in his scenes alone with her they’re concentrated and highlighted. This is what he’s like alone with her. But these pieces or the fact they’re revealed in Sherlock’s interactions with Molly never go into the puzzle John Watson is putting together because he doesn’t know they’re there. It really is remarkable that the majority of the scenes where Sherlock and Molly appear together are ones in which they’re alone or interact without the others hearing them. This is not true of any other supporting character - Mrs Hudson, Lestrade, not even of Mycroft and Mary. Only of Molly. And this “hidden” quality appears only after their relationship starts to change after ASiB.

TLD is also scattered with references to blog vs. reality, legend vs. reality, to the blog readers thinking John’s construct is Sherlock’s truth (nurse Cornish, for example), to John himself evidently not knowing what’s really going on, and finally to the gap between Sherlock the man and Sherlock Holmes the famous detective in the funny hat. And interestingly, this episode throws in the most direct indication so far that John doesn’t actually grasp the real nature of Sherlock’s and Molly’s relationship and what it means for Sherlock. It does so by directly speaking of Molly, but also by the way Molly’s name and what we know of her is used in situations that are not directly about her but deal with love and relationships.

At the therapist’s house, when John says Molly is the last person Sherlock would think of as the only one who sees through his bullshit, he is directly and immediately refuted by the result of Sherlock’s actions as she appears at the door. Of course, Sherlock probably figured out John would call Molly also because he did so in HLV, but a point is clearly being made here of John stressing Molly as the last person Sherlock would think of and then it being shown she is in fact not. And fittingly, later in that scene, in response to Mrs Hudson’s question about Molly, John stands at the door and as he watches Sherlock and Molly walk away towards the ambulance he concludes the scene with: “Oh Mrs Hudson, I don’t know anything any more”.

And this could be the subtitle of TLD. Nobody knows what Sherlock is doing for most of the episode, not even us. Is he high because he can’t cope with Mary’s death, or is he up to something? Even after Mary’s video we don’t really know how much of it was his plan and how much his desperation. He has completely wihdrawn, for much of the episode nobody has access to any long-term plans and thoughts; he’s a mystery. Even to us.

And the interaction with Molly in TLD is frustrating because it’s not only John but also us who don’t really know what’s going on. John really is the audience here. You could also argue that this is a re-run of the HLV lab scene with Molly scolding Sherlock and him trying to deflect by being flippant while John looks on. But there’s a difference, a twist. It’s not merely her scolding him. They are bickering, quipping, they’re in a back-and-forth. His flippancy doesn’t seem to be convincing even to himself let alone to her. Something is just off. It’s like it’s supposed to be a re-run of the HLV scene but he can’t do it properly, because something is different about both of them, the situation and their dynamic. And the final twist are the strange looks they give each other as he leaves, that seem to contradict their behaviour in the preceding exchange. His look is very earnest and the look she responds with is anything but scolding. Like a short dip under the surface. What the hell is going on? I finally realised how John must have felt a lot of the time. Of course, we’ll never know what exactly was going on, but the effect of that scene on me was that it deepened the mystery. As he’s progressively becoming more merely human in the show as a whole, in TLD we’re faced with the fact that Sherlock is still such an enormous mystery. As far as Molly is concerned, her physical presence in Sherlock’s life is either shown or clearly indicated, but the quality of being hidden persists and is even heightened. There are the twenty minutes in the ambulance that were explicitly mentioned and then spent without John or us. There is the „hope you remembered to bring my coat“ line casually thrown in that can make you wonder. There is the strange exchange in front of the ambulance and the mysterious meaningful looks they give each other as he leaves. There is the explicit mention later on that she spends time with Sherlock, probably every day, keeping him company and watching over him as he recovers, but we don’t see them together. And the fact that she’s one of the two people he’s celebrating his birthday with is communicated to us, but we don’t actually see this. So, the message seems to be: she’s very much there, in a very significant and even intimate way, but I’m/we’re not telling you any more. Now it’s no longer just John who is in the dark, the door has now been closed to us as well.  

Of course, it could be just unfortunate editing somebody suggested a while ago, but the final result seems to reinforce the overall notion that there’s something strange going on here and that neither John nor we are entirely privy to it. That the detective really isn’t entirely who he presents himself to be. That he really is the lying detective.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think there’s anything specific to hide at this point, like a romantic relationship that has already begun. But I do think that things like this serve to reinforce the notion that things are happening off screen, and we are invited to imagine them and moreover to imagine a specific direction they’re taking.  

And John unwittingly gives us a clue as to what that direction may be. Besides the scene at the therapist’s house, there is another instance of a gap between what the audience of BBC Sherlock are given to see and John’s take on Molly, and it’s linked to “romantic entanglements” and John’s perception of Irene Adler. (I want to stress that I feel very strongly that Irene and Molly are not set up in confrontation as regards Sherlock. In relation to him, they’re both important although in different ways and don’t cancel each other out.) It seems to me that in a way it’s to John Watson, the man who has created the legend of Sherlock Holmes, that Irene Adler is very much The Only Ever Woman, the one who completely eclipses all the others. My take is that BBC Sherlock did in some way fall for Irene and that she is and always will be very important and special to him. (And incidentally, Sherlock keeps his contacts with her a secret from John as well.). But what we see in TLD and also later in TFP is that John is completely focused on Irene in terms of romance, to the exclusion of any other possibility. I think this isn’t just because he found her dazzling and also saw how taken with her Sherlock was in ASiB. I feel that within the story we’re being told – a story that repeatedly refers to itself again in TLD – this also plays with the traditional perception of Sherlock Holmes, as created by John Watson: completely uninterested in women, except perhaps for the dazzling and mysterious Irene Adler. But then, in TLD and TFP on two occasions involving John we have Irene and Molly mentioned very close to each other, with John Watson thinking only of Irene but then Molly’s name being introduced as well in the same context, or suggestively close to it. Interestingly, both times, it’s John Watson who mentions Irene and Sherlock who then mentions Molly. The first instance is after John’s “Get a piece of that” speech inspired by Irene’s text, where John tells Sherlock that “she’s out there, she likes you” etc. go to her! Moments later, when the talk is over, Sherlock tells John Molly is meeting them at the cake place. Still a bit broken, unshaven, with a blood-clotted eye and looking, sounding and feeling nothing like the dashing Sherlock Holmes of legend, Sherlock will be celebrating his birthday with John and -  Molly. A small party that would include Lestrade and Mrs Hudson could have been mentioned, and that was the usual party set up throughout the show. Here, the only one that is mentioned, and is therefore emphasized for us, is Molly.

I also thought it was interesting that Molly is explicitly mentioned both at the beginning and the end of the 221b scene at the end of TLD - a scene that is the only instance in the show (apart from MP in TAB) where Sherlock and John talk about romantic relationships seriously. So, we have a scene involving the big Relationship Talk enveloped, albeit discreetly, by Molly’s name.  

Then, finally, there is the TFP coffin scene when John immediately thinks of Irene Adler as somebody who loves Sherlock but Sherlock tells him that it is in fact Molly.  He has, of course, deduced so from the coffin but I found it interesting that once again we’re clearly presented with the contrast between how John Watson sees things, reflecting the legend in which the only woman ever associated with Sherlock Holmes in anything resembling a romantic way is Irene Adler, and what we know as the audience of this particular show, listening to the deduction of this particular Sherlock and knowing about Molly’s feelings.

So, John Watson can only think of Irene when considering Sherlock and romantic entanglements. And both times in S4 when he utters her name in this context or close to it, the name that comes from Sherlock’s mouth is Molly. What I’m saying has nothing to do with what Sherlock may feel for Irene. It has to do with John’s perception of Sherlock and romance. It’s John who has a kind of fixation on Irene Adler as the only woman who has or ever will interest Sherlock. And going back further it was John (ironically, with regard to Irene) who said that „Sherlock doesn’t feel things that way“, it was John who Sherlock said thinks love is a mystery to him. I don’t think this reflects only John’s misconception of Sherlock, but I think that here John speaks also as the creator of the legend and the audience surrogate. The legend knows only of Irene Adler, but here, in this particular story of Sherlock, we also have Molly unassumingly standing  half-hidden in the background (and I see her with a mysterious little smile).

So, why all the secrecy?

On the most superficial level, I think because Sherlock has genuinely decided to stay away from romantic entanglements and if he has anything approaching this, he would see it as “giving in” and would definitely hide it, even from John. He never tells John about his contacts with Irene Adler, for example, not until he’s found out.  With Molly, since the beginning of S3 there has been an additional element in the relationship, something that is beyond friendship and Sherlock seems awkward about it. He can’t seem to stay away from it but he doesn’t want to follow through on it or have it exposed. For him, it’s a truly delicate matter. His avoidance of romantic relationships is part of his armour, part of being Sherlock Holmes.

I think the hidden quality of their relationship adds a beautiful touch, because through Molly’s eyes we also see the Sherlock other people don’t. With Molly Sherlock is more easily in touch with his softer, more human side. In this sense, Molly truly is his bolthole. (And the idea that he would need her place as any other type of bolthole always seemed very suspect to me.)  And this is how I understood Benedict’s description of the changing relationship between Sherlock and Molly (some time around S3) as being “beautiful and touching”.

In terms of storytelling, several things come up. There are a few important ways in which this incarnation of Sherlock Holmes veers away from the legend toward a unique story and a unique Holmes. And to fully see this particular Sherlock Holmes, you need Molly Hooper and his relationship with her. But it has always been running in the background, never becoming the main storyline, not only because it’s a real departure from canon, but also because of the nature of the story this relationship was telling. Seen as a whole, Mofftiss’ story is largely concerned with Sherlock’s journey from being a self-proclaimed high-functioning sociopath to a man who unearths and embraces his beating human heart. The central relationship, here as in canon, is the one with John Watson, but Sherlock’s relationship with Molly has also been an essential part of this process, complementing the main theme. Without that relationship and the Sherlock we see in that strain of the story, in his scenes with Molly, this particular Sherlock with this particular journey, would not exist as believably and vividly as he does. It gives us a concentrated taste of that “hidden” Sherlock, strong flavoured droplets that complement the main events and developments.

So, for example, in TRF as the plot develops, we see the mounting pressure on Sherlock, we see him stressed but dealing with it, taking action to counter it. He’s running around with John figuring stuff out. But then, in the midst of it all, in the night lab scene with Molly, we also get a glimpse of something else – of his utter vulnerability, his deep self-doubt and intense emotions. It’s a short dip under the surface, before he returns as the scheming confident Holmes with 13 scenarios and a squash ball. Similarly, in HLV he’s shot, he’s fighting for his life, and we’re invited into his MP. And there, with Molly, he’s helpless and trusting. His facial expressions as he listens to her and lets her lead him are incredibly touching. He has just faced what must have felt like an utter betrayal of trust with Mary shooting him, and trust and its betrayal is a huge theme in HLV. Later again, although wounded, Sherlock will run around London, setting stuff up in order to take care of things for John and Mary, figuring stuff out and taking action, being Sherlock Holmes. Yet in his mind palace with Molly, Sherlock is helpless and completely trusting of Molly, laying his life in her hands. She tells him when to fall, and he falls.

Things like this can’t be fully developed in the main storyline at these points. They have to remain in the background, complementing the main developments and explorations of the story as a whole and highlighting his overall development.

The relationship with Molly is also a tricky strain of Sherlock’s journey to tell of, because it has always been framed as potentially romantic, if for no other reason (and there have been reasons involving Sherlock himself) then because Molly has repeatedly and unequivocally been shown to be in love with him, rather than just caring for him as a friend. To explore their relationship further would mean either explicitly developing the theme of romance, which I doubt they would ever do because it’s not the kind of story they want to tell, or dispelling the romantic aspect altogether by having Molly stop being in love with Sherlock and the two of them being shown as clearly just pals (like Sherlock and Mary for example). This they definitely didn’t do, although it would have been very simple. The result is that - and Sherlock’s  behaviour contributes to this - the romantic potential is always there and the friendship they share continues with a note of that additional something.

So, because of all this, their relationship was kept going but was also kept in the background. And then, there is a point toward the end, when this thread that has been appearing and disappearing from view all along finally comes to fruition and breaks to the surface.

Oh my god. I read all of this. It’s 4 in the morning. Can l count myself as a true fan of Sherlock and Sherlolly now,? Cause I really love this and care about it…

The droid the droids are looking for. 

this is the most perfect thing i have ever seen 

This is truth. 

#myfavoriteStarWarsCharacter

As 2017 is dying

Anonymously send me something you’ve always wanted to tell me

For Dior Autumn Winter 2017-18 show, Maria Grazia Chiuri created the, now already iconic, Tarot Card coat that reportedly took 1,500 man hours to make. 

She recruited Maison Vermont, an embroidery atelier in Paris, to create the intricate surface of the coat made using different materials, including satin and mastic.

Read more + watch a video here

And the deck that was used is the famous Visconti-Sforza tarot deck