My woke take, as someone who has worked in both a public library and a school library, is that we desperately need both more books that are at a higher reading level but a less mature subject matter, and more books that are at a lower reading level but a more mature subject matter, because 8 year olds who are advanced readers are still 8 year olds and don't want to read about graphic violence and torture, and teens and adults who have learning difficulties or who are just later readers for whatever reason are still teens and adults and don't want to read about Billy the Bunny going to school or whatever the hell.
Sherlock doesn’t wear the suits because he likes the suits. Sherlock wears the suits because he’s an ex-junkie trying to make a career out of helping law enforcement, he’s trying to get people to take him seriously, he’s trying to get people to respect him, to believe him, when he makes a deduction, because if they don’t respect him as an intelligent, competent individual they discount him as a drug addict, as making it up, as lying, as the perpetrator. He is trying, essentially, to run a small business and he needs to look like he’s good at what he does, he needs to look worth paying. Sherlock wears the suits because that’s what a consulting detective would wear, that’s the image his clients expect out of a genius. The suits are only there to sell you on Sherlock the Ruthless Genius who will solve your case by any means.
Sherlock likes to wear soft inside out t-shirts and silk dressing gowns and bare feet, and he’ll like the way John feels on his skin too, if he ever gets the chance to try it.
Fuckkkk I would be such a good Watson except ppl also find me off putting and I struggle in social situations so I guess I’d be a better Holmes but actually I’m not smart so never mind
Been re-reading my copy of Sherlock Holmes, and I never noticed how little Watson actually speaks in the text. Other than a couple questions and a few equivalents of ‘oh my!’, the main way we hear his thoughts are through his narration. Now I know this probably because ACD had a limited amount of words, and watson dialogue wouldn't be as interesting to the readers- But I like the idea of 'WORD FAMOUS DETECTIVE and his hypeman that he brings along’. You never hear a peep out of that guy, he just stands menacingly in the background until Holmes says something like “ah yes. He was 6ft tall.” and he goes “ AHH FUCK YEAH, THATS MY FUCKING BITCH I LOVE YOU YOU’RE THE SMARETEST PEROSN IN THE WORLD I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU GOT THAT LETSS A FUCKING GOOOOOOO!!!!!!” and then falls silent again.
Chapter One and The Awakened (2023) is so important to me for bringing back my Sherlock obsession, i forgot how precious he is to me since life drags me around like a doll
I just finished this game, and I'll start by saying that I liked it! But I have thoughts™️
I could say a lot about the gameplay, but I'm going to focus on the story:
So, I think that overall it was fine, but! I didn't like the ending
Honestly the parts of the asylum and New Orleans were very good, but the ending, it felt like too much build up, not enough pay off
I would've liked it better if the whole game was just about the asylum or New Orleans. I feel like the Cthulhu stuff was a bit too much, specially for a character like Sherlock Holmes
Because I don't think Sherlock is the kind of character that would mix well with cosmic horror. He's the kind of character that would definitely break with that type of story. So here you have two options of how to go with that kind of story, avoid it completely or go all the way and break him
The first one is easy, make the game a smaller story, like I've already said, make it about just the asylum, make it just about a weird cult in New Orleans; make it so Holmes is out of his comfort zone but is not unmanageable for him
Like I believe he can definitely deal with ghosts and ooky spooky things, he will logic it away, but I can totally see him being mentally ok with it after a while
That or, break him completely and see what happens lmao, kill Watson, unironically. Have Holmes deal with the unknown, emotional distress and on top of that take away his only source of comfort and stability (and the love of his life). Kill Watson (or nearly kill him) and see what happens, I'm betting that he would grab the obsidian dagger and go to town with it lmao
Would that take the usual enjoyment from a Sherlock Holmes' story away? Yes, but again, I fail to see why would you throw Sherlock in a story like that if you didn't want to see something different from the usual
And tbh, I thought that the developers would go with the later route, I was half expecting for Watson to die or get hurt towards the end, but that didn't happen, so the ending stayed in an unsatisfactory middle
AND that is not to say that the writing was bad, on the contrary the writing was really good, that's why the ending was very meh to me, because I have some very good parts to compare it to (and considering the context in which the game was made, I don't really blame the developers if they had to close the curtains a bit abruptly)
But I really loved how they wrote Watson and Holmes and their relationship. Especially loved it as a Watson fan
Funnily enough, I think Watson could deal a lot better with Lovecraftian horrors than Holmes
Like in the books he never talks a lot about what happened to him during the war, other than apparently he saw his comrades cut brunoise style, so maybe he already saw horrors beyond human comprehension? In the game he says that he ran away from a fight and then got lost in the desert, so maybe he saw something that he isn't too willing to share with Sherlock? Or something because why is this man weirdly good at dealing with the horrors™️ lmao
Who knows, but to me he has the "vibes" of a survivor, maybe that's why at the end the game becomes the adventures of doctor John "I'm doing all the fucking work here" Watson and Sherlock "I picked the worst time to have a mental health crisis" Holmes
Like, I don't know why but it's funny how he in the game has seen people chopped for a human sacrifice to a cosmic entity while Holmes is 100% losing his sanity, and yet Watson is still like "a bit hot innit Holmes? :D"
And I'm not complaining, because John Watson is my favorite character of the books, so I loved all the Watson parts, but I do understand the criticism that I've seen of Sherlock being pushed to the side towards the end
Though, all in all, I really liked the writing of the game! You can tell that the people making it really love the books, I loved how they used that quote from The valley of fear at the end of the game and I'm considering buying the other games lmao (specially crimes and punishment since I've read that that one is the best)
