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@miss-watolock
Moonlight (2016) dir. Barry Jenkins
Joanlock is so pure
Catra: I love holding hands and cuddling
Catra: …with one person everyone else don’t touch me, I hate being touched
it sounds like you’re saying goodbye :( are you leaving tumblr?
I’m not leaving! I’m definitely still in the Miss Sherlock fandom, eagerly anticipating that sweet sweet Season 2 announcement….
and Watolock lives forever
I really enjoyed reading your analyses so much!!!
Thank you! I wish I could have been more in-depth with all of them but I’m glad you enjoyed them~
Watolock: Miss Sherlock, Queerbaiting, and Portrayals of WLW in Media
Queerbaiting and portrayals of WLW (Women who Love Women) in media deserve their own barrages of blogs dedicated solely to these topics, but I will be condensing and selecting some aspects that I feel are especially pertinent to Watolock in Miss Sherlock.
Disclaimer: I know queer is not a term that everyone in the community is comfortable using for themselves, and I in no way want to force this term upon anyone who rejects it. That being said, a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community have reclaimed the term, so I will be using it here NOT as a slur in any way.
What is queerbaiting? The Wikipedia definition:
“Queerbaiting is the practice of hinting at, but then not actually depicting, a same-sex romantic relationship between characters in a work of fiction, mainly in film or television. The potential romance may be ignored, explicitly rejected or made fun of.
The derogatory term "queerbaiting" is meant to imply that this is done for the purpose of attracting ("baiting") a queer audience with the ultimately unrealized suggestion of relationships that appeal to them. The concept arose in and has been popularized through Internet discussions among the fandom of popular films and television series.”
Now for some background, we’re going to fast-forward to an infamous moment in WLW content history: Lexa’s death in The 1*0. I won’t write out the whole of what went down (too much), but I will focus on the aftermath that ensued. There was an online campaign that rallied around “LGBT Fans Deserve Better” and to my recollection, this is the first time I’ve personally witnessed the outrage of fandoms mobilizing a large number of people to reach people who weren’t even in these fandoms. The Bury Your Gays trope became a focal point in discussion for mainstream media representation what with people becoming more aware of how terribly LGBTQ+ characters are treated and the negative effects on LGBTQ+ viewers (I remember seeing how calls to LGBTQ+ teens suicide hotlines skyrocketed after Lexa’s death, etc.)
This incident and the whole movement helped bring the prominence of how LGBTQ+ representation gets sidelined and has always been sideline to a mainstream consciousness. And while this issue harmful LGBTQ+ representation is very much still present , there have been strides that show even minute changes. For one, a variety of people actually talked about it, not just LGBTQ+ fans who were so easily ignored before. ClexaCon became a thing. Media with thoughtful and fleshed out representation like Moonlight and The Handmaiden are critically acclaimed. We have seen shows choose deliberate responses in how they interact with potential queerbaiting like with how Wynonna Earp specifically had Officer Haught wear a bulletproof vest that saved her life (even more pointed considering how Lexa was killed off by a stray bullet) and how Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Andi Mack, The Legend of Korra, and She-Ra: Princesses of Power all have overtly LGBTQ+ characters.
I do think the issue of queerbaiting is especially prominent in Sherlock Holmes and related fandom, mainly because of BBC’s Sherlock. I avoided watching any of the show because that was the first thing I heard about it - the show queerbaits like none other but then yanks the rug right after with strong denials of queerbaiting and repeated statements that nothing like JohnLock will ever come to fruition. And as someone tired of shows alternating between queerbaiting to lock in a certain demographic of watchers and then having the token non-straight character only to kill them off in some manner (https://www.glaad.org/whereweareontv16). So many characters have died and note: a lot of them did not have to die. Seriously. It’s not that hard. There aren’t that many LGBTQ+ characters out there, and it’s telling that so many of them end up dead.
For Sherlock Holmes fandoms, you already feel the difference between BBC’s Sherlock and Miss Sherlock in how people frame the relationships between the Sherlock and Watsonian character. There are at least 3 allusions to JohnLock being in a gay relationship within the first episode and no one ever seems to question whether Watolock could be vaguely romantic. To be fair, with Miss Sherlock, you have the context where the legitimacy of wlw relationships in media are already so often questioned (’They’re just really good friends, the best of friends, who would die for each other and repeatedly profess that the other is their most important person) along with being in Japan, an Asian country that is not exactly the most progressive when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues.
This ties into how society frames relationships between certain genders - man-woman must always be romantically linked, man-man that has any connection must be romantically linked because how else could you have a close relationship with anyone else as a man, and woman-woman must be friends only because the limits of friendship can be so stretched for women and not at all for men so that it is inconceivable that women could ever be together in a romantic notion.
Back to Miss Sherlock because what’s been said in the previous paragraph can be disseminated in so many ways - I am reluctant to claim that Miss Sherlock has queerbait written into Watolock. I am however suspicious that HBOAsia as a TV network or the writers, producers, anyone involved in the show would not expect for people to interpret the relationship between Watolock as a shippable one given that they take cues from past Sherlock adaptations - all of which have interactions with fans who rabidly ship Sherlock and Watson.
https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=%23misssherlock%20from%3AHBOAsia&src=typd&lang=en is a link to HBOAsia’s twitter with the hashtag MissSherlock - and 3 of those involve Watolock.
https://twitter.com/HBOAsia/status/1009965542738878464 => basically I don’t believe at all that they didn’t expect this - maybe they didn’t expect how big the ship would be given that it is 2 Asian women together, maybeeeeeee, but I still don’t buy it.
I guess I do appreciate them highlighting Watolock in a positive manner instead of shouting from the rooftops that it could never ever happen. But please don’t let this turn out to be like SwanQueen. Pls.
For fans who ship wlw or mlm ships, there is always a lot of reading in between the lines, over-analyzing subtext, making our own fanon because canon would never recognize such ships as truly legitimate. It is tiring when the only options are to just be resigned to these characters never getting their happily ever afters and having fan-created content that canon content creators mock as ‘Cute. But that would never happen.’
This is a topic I tire of having to explain to people who could never really get just how painful and exhausting it is to sometimes have to interact with this kind of content for scraps of representation that no one should ever have to settle for. I appreciate Watolock as the non-queerbaiting form it is in at the moment because it’s true that the two have a special relationship in the show and have been recognized within and outside the show as such. I just hope that this show could possibly join the slim ranks of positive wlw media out there, or at the very least be a concrete stepping stone of inspiration in paving the way for other shows that will be more willing to be overt and respectful with its LGBTQ+ representation. LGBTQ+ Fans Deserve Better.
Final Reflection
I was really hoping to have done more creative little projects on this blog - creating gifs, videos, even creative writing.
But there’s nothing stopping me, after the conclusion of the academic project portion of this blog!
There’s a lot more that can be said about Miss Sherlock, and the tributaries of all sorts that stem from Sherlock Holmes canon. The show itself could be analyzed in so many other ways apart from what I’ve covered so far on this blog with the show composition itself, camera work, specific plot choices, placing what has been a mainly Western story into a Japanese setting and context and genderbending it at that. The characters of Sherlock and Wato themselves are fascinating in their own right - Sherlock’s name has been revealed (Futaba Sara Shelley) but not the reason for her use of Sherlock itself, and the characterization of Wato in comparison to the standards of the Watsonian character would be great to delve into.
I’m really craving for more Miss Sherlock content - fanmade and canon-wise. To give the fall of Sherlock without her inevitable revitalization would just be :/
It’s safe to say that Miss Sherlock is my most favorite rendition of any Sherlock Holmes content, and I recommend it to anyone who loves Sherlock Holmes in any capacity. Please. If you haven’t watched season 1, do yourself a favor and watch it. The actresses have definitely done other shows, and Miss Sherlock has demonstrated their strong acting chops and I myself am tempted to check out some of their other stuff.
It has been rewarding to take something I’ve so enjoyed and critically analyze it and look at various aspects of the show, and I definitely want to continue this kind of interaction with other types of content I enjoy.
That being said, I’m nowhere done with the Miss Sherlock fandom. A fan forever, if you will.
BACKGROUND: Sherlock Holmes adaptations (original text versus intertexts)
The viewing experience of Miss Sherlock is always going to be colored by the pre-existing adaptations of Sherlock Holmes canon. The only instance in which I can think where you would not have an already influenced perspective of the series is where you’ve never been exposed to literature/TV/film/popular culture or actively stayed away from consuming any of the aforementioned mediums. Basically, Sherlock Holmes is one of those characters that you can’t get away with NOT knowing.
With this in mind, it would be foolhardy to provide meta analysis on Miss Sherlock without keeping prior adaptations in mind. This post hopes to acknowledge both overt and subconscious influences that can be dissected from this lovely miniseries.
Because the amount of Sherlock Holmes content out there is OVERWHELMING (there are 91363 AO3 fics as of the last time I checked), I will be focusing mainly on ACD’s OG Sherlock Holmes and BBC’s Sherlock - ACD for background and canon references, and BBC’s Sherlock for characterization that has made fanon transcend into canon. Keep in mind, I’ve only read a few of ACD’s Sherlock Holmes stories and watched 3 episodes of BBC’s Sherlock so this is going off of my own observations and opinions, and I have no real impressive credentials to offer.
The OG canon consists of 4 novels and 56 short stories which were written from 1887 to 1927. Off the top of my head, I’ve read “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” The Sherlock Holmes character was inspired by Joseph Bell, a surgeon that ACD had clerked for, who apparently also could draw conclusions from minute observations. Despite ACD’s insistences that Sherlock Holmes was indeed a fictional character, it is still a existent conspiracy to this day that Sherlock Holmes was a real person that ACD knew and merely recorded his adventures. I’m personally inclined to believe that Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character but to each their own.
Sherlock Holmes was killed off in “The Final Problem” in 1893 but was brought back to life with The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901 - a plot point that is especially relevant to BBC’s Sherlock and Miss Sherlock.
A few things about Sherlock Holmes adaptations tend to stay constant: the partnership between the Watson character and Sherlock, the iconic deduction skills that makes up the core of the Sherlock character, and some incarnation of the Moriarty character.
This brings us to BBC’s Sherlock, with what I deem to be the most relevant example of how fanon has become canon for the Sherlock Holmes character. Don’t know what I mean?
“I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath.”
ACD’s Sherlock Holmes would likely be hard-pressed to be considered neither a psychopath nor a sociopath but as someone without the knowledge to really say anything accurate, I’m not touching upon that. I’m rather touching upon the fact that BBC has taken the Sherlock Holmes character to be an asshole, and somehow justify that by shoving the label of sociopath upon him. The asshole part is not really canon Sherlock, but it seems safe to say that most people - because of BBC’s Sherlock - would associate him to be one because he’s of such godly intelligence and above everyone else, or just someone completely out of touch with his own humanity.
Which I find rather unfortunate because there kind of has to be some component of humanity in the Sherlock Holmes character, in my opinion. In “The Adventure of the Yellow Face,” Sherlock is proven to not only be fallible but capable of recognizing that fact and asking for Watson to check him (”Watson, if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little overconfident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whisper 'Norbury' in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you” - a quote in relation to Sherlock’s investigations of a case that dealt with interracial marriage, a radical issue at the time). This Sherlock cares enough about other people and is not so sure of himself that he would disregard any possible suspicions about his own capabilities to call upon Watson to offer such assistance should the situation arise.
Now, Miss Sherlock is an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes that has caught my eye, and I’m going in with some already set-in-place perceptions of Sherlock Holmes. I’m excited to see what this version has to offer, and what it will continue to contribute to canon and fanon for Sherlock Holmes - because I certainly am hopeful and sure that it will offer a lot more positive characteristics for Sherlock Holmes fanon.
Finale: The Dock - WATOLOCK, True Love, and why we need more Miss Sherlock
fjadflkasdf cannot believe we’re at the end of S1 Miss Sherlock.
Ep. 7: Stolen Virus - Sherlock’s Humanity, Wato’s Pain, and the Most Logical Villain Reveal
I’m pretty sure at this point in pop culture, any scene where a scientist is seen to be dealing with test tubes means that shit is about to go down in the form of a world-ending virus. No? Just me? Biological terrorism and warfare is very much a reality I could see descending - and the popularity of games like Plague Inc. and Pandemic really echo just how aware of or at least present in society’s psyche biological terrorism/warfare are. Japan is no stranger to such external forces providing massive tragedy to the country (atomic bombing, Tokyo subway sarin attack, etc.) so it comes at no surprise that Miss Sherlock would use a deadly virus as a plot point.
Ep 6: Stella Maris - Welcome
Nothing like a dismembered ear to start off an episode, or so I would assume. I heard that this episode is one that definitely draws upon one of the OG ACD Sherlock stories so there’s that bit of trivia for you.
The episode cuts to Sherlock being well, Sherlock:
Ep 5: The Missing Bride - Wato’s Mental and Physical State, Sherlock’s Concern, and Women Acting Instead of Being Acted Upon
Miss Sherlock pulls no punches nor does it shy away from showcasing Wato’s struggles with her PTSD. Presumably following quite soon after her flashback in the streets, she is seen relegating her experience to her therapist:
I love the detective wives and I still want to make charms of them 😭
Ep 4: The Wakasugi Family - Logic v. Empathy and the Relevance of Wato’s PTSD
TW: Blood, PTSD
MISS SHERLOCK DVD RELEASE!!!!!
http://www.cinema-life.net/henews/p181120_msrl/
Date: January 23, 2019
Price: 15,200 yen
4 discs with all 8 episodes and bonus content
竹内結子, 貫地谷しほり, 森淳一, 瀧悠輔, 松尾崇 海外TVドラマ、日本のTVドラマのDVD・Blu-rayをオンライン通販アマゾンで予約・購入。
a useful preorder link for the 1.23.2019 boxset release