I think I struggle with social subtext (and maybe imposter syndrome), though I'm great at media subtext, if I do say so myself! Ace, but not Tumblr!Ace
let’s talk about how they made it impossible to function without a phone and digitalised everything and then turned around and went “actually! these phone things aren’t safe for kids but it’s magically ok once you’re eighteen. guess you’ll have to have your life dictated by your parents now lol cause we’re gonna take the devices away from you. IT’S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING”
ok my apologies. take away my ability to buy anything too ig because these fuckass stores don’t accept cash anymore. take away my ability to communicate with people outside my house and school because I can’t text and I can’t email and I cant drive to them either and I can’t even fucking get public transport without a phone either. can’t order at a fucking restaurant without being asked to get a membership and install an app and also very sorry but you can only order through our online menu now! have you ever considered that it’s not just about instagram?
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.
Hello, tumblr! I saw something on here the other day that worried me, so I decided to Do Science about it. But I can't do it alone: I need your help to build the dataset!
Here's what I need you to do:
If you see a post with a "mature content" label, and it's 2026, DM me a link to the post.
Yes, that's really it.
I am hoping to collect several thousand such posts, so that I have a decent sized dataset. I do not care what the post is about; if it's labeled as "mature content", I want to add it to my dataset.
If I get 10,000 posts in my dataset before August 31st 2026, I will post my preliminary findings then. I won't feel comfortable calling my findings "settled" before 2027, unless I get over 50,000 posts.
I transcribed the opening music for Granada's Holmes series for piano solo and for violin & piano for anyone who wishes to play some sweet sweet music!
You can find the piano solo sheets here
You can find the duet sheets here
[ID: two screenshots of sheet music transcribed of the 221B Baker Street theme from Granada's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Patrick Gowers. The image on the left is of the piano solo version and the image on the right is the violin piano duet version. /end ID]
In conversation with multiple posts going around discussing technical literacy and typing skills…
I HAD typing classes: my typing speed is less than 35 Words Per Minute
I did NOT have typing classes: my typing speed is less than 35 WPM
I HAD typing classes: my typing speed is 36-45 WPM
I did NOT have typing classes: my typing speed is 36-45 WPM
I HAD typing classes: my typing speed is 46-55 WPM
I did NOT have typing classes: my typing speed is 46-55 WPM
I HAD typing classes: my typing speed is 56-69 WPM
I did NOT have typing classes: my typing speed is 56-69 WPM
I HAD typing classes: my typing speed is faster than 70 WPM
I did NOT have typing classes: my typing speed is faster than 70 WPM
I'm on mobile/ vanilla extract option
Voting ended onJul 20
➡️ Take a typing test here (and you need an actual, physical keyboard for this):
The industry-standard benchmark used by employers and typing certifications worldwide.
➡️ 'Typing classes' refers to computer skills classes you might have had in school; you can also count games or other related typing training your parents might have had you do.
➡️ Across 3 different typing test websites*, the (english language) world average typing speed is 40 WPM.
unfortunately i dont think its queerbaiting if the creator is just so terminally heterosexual that they never remotely considered the same gender relationship their show is centered around could be read as romantic. it is deeply painful however.
By definition you can't accidentally queerbait. Queerbaiting is specifically using a same sex pair from the show to market the show to queer audiences with no intention of ever following through on a romantic relationship.
There is officially licensed Destiel merch signed off on by Kripke. Teen Wolf had a commercial with the actors for Derek and Stiles draped over each other talking about being "on a ship." Both shows actively used scenes between them as marketing while actively mocking fans for wanting them together. Sherlock has multiple characters refer to Johnlock as a couple, including characters we're supposed to believe are never wrong about human behavior and pushed those scenes in marketing. Then they acted insulted when fans saw them as a couple.
That's queerbaiting.
Done on accident it would just be queer subtext. Done because they had no other choice due to censorship is queer coding.
The specific meaning of the word is really starting to get lost and it's a pretty important one to keep accurate. It describes a very specific phenomenon that was done repeatedly and maliciously for decades and is meant to examine that specifically.
Doing it on accident sucks, but it isn't a tactic of capitalism intentionally intended to suppress queer representation while making money from queer fans.
I spent. So many days on this. Reworking, recolouring re shading, I despise drawing real people with a passion, I never think they look good. But here’s what I was finally satisfied with 🙏 my two favourite boys. The Holmes brothers 💙
