This take is definitely too hot for a lot of fans but I’m gonna say it anyway: Sherlock Holmes is a canonically queer character. What type of queer he is is up to interpretation, but he is canonically, explicitly Not Straight, and people who write him as an allosexual hetero man are the ones who are actually projecting their own headcanon onto him.
I’m 100% serious. Here are the canonical facts we have about his feelings on sex/romance:
- He says multiple times that he is not interested in women. When Watson comments on the attractiveness of a woman, Holmes responds that he “didn’t notice”.
- He is uninterested in marriage and remains a bachelor his entire life, and never expresses any regret or sadness over this.
- He states that he has “never loved” (in this context it is implied that he is specifically talking about romantic love.) He repeatedly expresses disdain for romance in general.
That’s IT. That is ALL the canonical information we have about his sexuality. We know that he is capable of love in some sense, and Watson even explicitly says that Holmes loves him. But we never see any evidence that he has romantic feelings for women.
Any interpretation of Holmes as a heterosexual man directly contradicts all of the evidence we have about his sexuality. It assumes that everything he or Watson have ever said about his feelings on romance is a lie. The only interpretations of him that actually fit with all the facts are if he’s aroace, gay, or some combination thereof.
Anyway I’m going to start referring to straight interpretations of Holmes as “straight headcanons” now. Holmes is canonically queer.
Sherlock Holmes loved Dr. John H. Watson. He outwitted his enemies with his great mind and helped those in need with his great heart. And that is nothing if not encouraging. Because I too have a great heart, and I am capable of great things, and capable of great love. As are you!
This month I got to meet a bunch of cool museum people and chat to them about my mystery game which is set in a giant museum, and one of them scampered off and found this stuffed bird for me and said I should put it in my game, and you can bet I'm going to do just that.
Tumblr friends, I got tickets for the press night for "Sherlock Holmes and the Twelve Days of Christmas" musical in my city, because if I can't manage that who even am I
Moriarty gets a mention but is dead and stays dead - a miracle!
I also wasn't sure whether to tick homoerotic tension or not, for reasons that'll become clear in the rest of my write-up! Lots of jokes are made about Holmes and Watson's biographer/detective relationship being similar to being a couple, but I didn't feel there was any chemistry between Holmes and Watson. At all. Uh. Of any kind.
SPOILERS BELOW! I won't spoil specific plot details or the mystery, but I will give details of some specific scenes.
Positive things which I feel this show adds to The Fandom:
Andrew Lloyd Webber lament sung by Watson about how now Holmes has died, Baker Street is no longer home. It's played entirely straight (the actor had tears in his eyes...) and if it ever comes out on a soundtrack album I need a bunch of fan videos, stat.
The finale is basically the end of the Wrath of Khan but Holmes is Kirk and Watson is Spock. And Holmes is dressed as a Christmas pudding. And Watson is in his combinations. It's weird but like, I've never seen that before I guess. It'll probably inspire someone to write a really good fanfic, I have faith.
The reason Holmes survives falling from a high place is that he's built an immunity to falling from high places because he's done it so much which is chef's kiss. Perfect joke, no notes.
There's a bit where Watson finds out that he's left Holmes alone in mortal danger at a theatre show of the Neibelingung. Cut to Holmes dressed in an opera costume infront of a giant vertical painted stage backdrop of a waterfall. I thought that was kind of neat.
Mrs Hudson was cool and there was a female detective character who I liked
Cons of the show as a fan:
I'm not sure I've ever come across any other Holmesania which is quite so relentlessly cruel to Watson, which is really saying something. Holmes remains mean to him basically right up until the last five minutes. He ignores him, insults him, deliberately uses his grief for his own ends, lets him think he's in a death trap when he's not, doesn't get him a Christmas present…
I think that even the normies in the rest of the audience ended up not finding that aspect funny, as some moments with Watson that I think were supposed to be laugh lines fell flat. If the tone had been more farcical throughout, perhaps it would have worked for people who don't have a prior investment in the characters, but that was undermined by also trying to pull off moments of actual pathos. I don't think you can do Watson crying on his knees singing about his heartbreak when all we've seen Holmes do to him is berate and ignore him and try to bring that around to a laugh-out-loud moment.
Soooo... yeah. A fun grown-up pantomime, the mystery plot itself had lots of fun moments and twists and turns that were enjoyable and a bit clever, but I think that I can't really recommend it with my fandom hat on. Not My Blorbo, basically.
Developer: Frogwares
Published: 2021
Played: Jan 2025, replayed several times - currently in the middle of playthrough four?
I love it
You play as a 21-year old Sherlock returning to the island town he grew up on to visit his mother's grave. This trip down memory lane turns into an investigation when he learns there may be more to her death than he remembers. You are joined by imaginary-friend-slash-tulpa Jon who fills the role that Watson normally would. Interesting implications, there.
So yes, another adaptation that deals with a dark family past and mental illness à la BBC and Young Sherlock, but among these three (I am sure there's more) Frogwares has to be my favourite. I had the joy and privilege of playing this game (and its sequel The Awakened) with a dear friend of mine who works in mental health and apparently it is quite accurate and quite concerning.
The setting is Cordona - a British colony and beautiful Mediterranean island with shockingly high crime and corruption. Out of necessity I suppose, because there are plenty of cases for you to stumble upon and the police need your help. It is an open-world game, and while the environment isn't terribly rich with things to do, it has a beautiful atmosphere and musical score that I am always listening to outside the game.
(The open world does have its quirks though - the first time I played I ran around exploring the first opportunity I had, and I accidentally stumbled across an altar in the woods with a ritually dismembered goat on it. Since I was not supposed to have found that yet, Sherlock apparently had no opinion on the matter.)
There is a main questline of several somewhat-interrelated cases and side cases you can stumble upon. Mechanics include some returning from previous Frogwares games - Sherlock-vision, cold-reading suspects, the "mind palace" / deduction board etc. - and as with each Frogwares title, these have mostly been improved upon from game to game. There are some new mechanics, and while they mostly work there are some frustrations.
One that is more funny than frustrating is a mechanic where you have to dress up to get intel from people in different professions / social classes - dress like a criminal to chat with criminals etc. You can also cross-dress *chef's kiss* However, this has the side effect of making everyone in Cordona really class-conscious to the point of parody. Like if you ask a beggar for intel while you are wearing a fancy outfit they'll say something like "You bourgeoisie spit on those of us who live in the gutter. Why should the streets help you??" I know it's just the game's way of telling you you have the wrong outfit but damn bro chill.
The game also has combat mechanics, which are horrendous. Any time you enter a building or door on a case, there's a risk you'll be swarmed by a series of thugs with maybe three voicelines to share between them, forcing you into some precise shooting and quicktime events punctuated by silly one-liners from Sherlock. The Ritchie Holmes influence is clear, with Sherlock out here straight-up discombobulating people in slow-motion, but it gets old fast. Thank goodness they can be skipped.
On the subject of mechanics that don't quite work, there are times you will have to piece together events that transpired based on evidence you have found. This will show up as silhouettes throughout the crime scene that you have to sort through to act out a timeline. This usually works really well, but if you get any of it wrong the game will not tell you which part(s) are wrong, and Jon has exactly one (1) voiceline giving you sass for it.
During one case I knew exactly who did it based on other evidence, but I had to piece together the timeline with the silhouettes to progress. In this case, several silhouettes looked identical save some minor details (and a boater and bowler hat look too dang similar when they are just silhouettes), so I had to work out who had what hat and work backwards while Jon was on my ass about how I'm "not even trying".
On the subject of the cases, interestingly in this game you don't really find out the true culprit for many of them. There is a difference in how much money you get paid but that is so easy to miss, I have played this game several times and didn't even notice - I saw someone say it online.
In previous multi-case Frogwares games you could make a choice but could often check if you came to the correct conclusion or not. Here you can't check to the best of my knowledge, and often don't know if you actually accused the right person or not. This really annoys some people, and I can sympathise. This does have the unfortunate effect of making most of the side-quests more satisfying than the main cases.
For most of the main story cases there is no decisive piece of evidence and it often comes down to just choosing between two or more equally likely suspects. In my most recent playthrough I chose a different suspect for one case and they actually fessed up - so whoops I'd arrested the wrong guy several times in the past.
However, I do kind of like this. A huge theme in this game is the nature of truth - whether it is objective or subjective, with Sherlock being firmly convinced it is objective and needs to be uncovered. This worldview and dogged pursuit of truth causes some quite horrible consequences for him at the end of the game (and in the sequel as well ? though I need to replay that one).
However, I think it fits this painfully-21-year-old Sherlock's personality to be unable to deal with subjectivity, or to leave a case cold - so you have to choose. In one case (no spoilers, you know the one) you need to choose a suspect even though it was clearly an accident and all the options are horrible - and I just take this as him being unable to cope with that.
It is a character-driven game, rather than case-driven, and while Sherlock here is an intelligent rich white kid (also see above "painfully-21-year-old") I don't find him annoying - though some will, but he seems to be doing his best.
All this is to say, I love this game. It is character-driven so I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who is here for the who-dunnit and doesn't like modern Sherlocks with their sass, but the Frogwares games do just get better and better with each entry.
Late to the party but here’s my submission for @shco-shta-fanzine!! It’s been so wonderful participating in the fanzine and witnessing its making - the immense love for the games and the support from the community have made my first fanzine experience absolutely amazing. Please check out the full zine and everyone’s great work!!
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