#john's cheating

[inevitably-johnlocked]

I just cant believe that John would watch Sherlock kill a man, so that John could be happy with Mary and then consider cheating on Mary?

Yeah, doesn’t make sense to me either, Nonny. :/ I feel it’s really out of character for John. I’ve had people tell me otherwise, but I guess it’s in how you interpret his character. Personally, I think if John was ever going to cheat, it would be with Sherlock.

[monikakrasnorada]

John cheating- whether he did or not- isn't the problem. It's the insinuation that bothers me. The insult to Sherlock's vow, and the hard-fought fandom belief that the forgiveness scene was to protect John and keep him safe from Mary. John may be trash but he isn't an entire landfill. Whose version of John is this?

[inevitably-johnlocked]

I thought I was over of how bad s4 was but I'm not and it's now 4 am and I can't sleep. The thought that's making me loose sleep is why did they have to make Mary part of the team? It's just the two of them against the rest of the world, right? why did they have to love her and include her in the cases? Why can't at least Sherlock see how horrible she is? I know I'm being rediculous but it gets to me it really does

Hey same ridiculous insomniac anon do you know what gets to me too??? John cheating on Mary even if it’s texting… people argue that it’s in character he’s a womanizer after all but isn’t he the guy who’s loyal very quickly? What do you think?

Hi Nonny!

Yeah, I never understood why they went the route of making all of S4 essentially NOT about John and Sherlock. I liked the visuals of T6T and TLD, but Mary REALLY fucking killed it for me, especially the magical redemption arc they chose to give to her. The whole season felt really ooc for me, and Mary being more of Sherlock’s partner than John was REALLY rubbed me and many others the wrong way. The way the narrative was going, it SHOULD have been her being on the run FROM them, not working WITH them.

Because of this, I really, really feel like there is a false narrative at play here, that the entirety of S4 is being told like a blog entry (hence why they stopped the blog AND used the title of one of the entries to clue us into this fact) because of all the OOC-ness, inconsistencies, fourth wall breaking, “scene jumping” and the “fakeness” of Mary’s death and TFP. The season contains a sense of adventure,  is romanticized (though in the wrong direction), and fantastical elements, just like the blog. I found it SO bizarre that Sherlock CONSTANTLY kept saying “I’m Sherlock Holmes!”… just like John’s blog would have done. And TFP for me is John’s TAB, so there’s already an alternative narrative. Anyway, this went way off topic, but you get me. John’s blog is playing out on screen. Why, I don’t know; perhaps to show the general audience that not having John and Sherlock in the picture together doesn’t work, since most of the entries are told as if John is standing on the sidelines watching events unfold – ergo making the season seem very not-our-show. Plus, calling the first episode “The Six Thatchers” after a blog entry on John’s blog and ENDING the season with Mary narrating is so telling to me.

Second part of your ask: I AGREE. It’s really weird to me, simply because we SAW John was essentially done with dating by the end of ASiB because he was happy with whatever he could get with Sherlock. And it took him TWO YEARS to mourn Sherlock before he decided to move on, and for whatever reason, Mary was able to establish that trust with John within six months (I presume she emulated what she thought John wanted, but she’s a professional manipulator). He only stayed with Mary because he didn’t think Sherlock wanted what John wanted, and perhaps also some manipulation on Mary’s part, convincing John that Sherlock would never love him like she loved him.

So then when John is “cheating” I find it really OOC, if only because I just can’t see John ever wanting to get involved with anyone every again after the heartbreak of both Sherlock and Mary. Though, I still hold the belief that it’s really Sherlock John is texting in T6T, and we are told otherwise because of the false narratives (given that I think that the episodes are being told like a blog entry, it’s only natural to assume lies about the things truly happening are present). And maybe it was “just texting”, fine, but it just doesn’t really fit John’s character to me unless that person is Sherlock or unless John is doing another plan behind everyone’s backs with Mycroft (ie. the texting is coded and E is an associate of Mycroft). He has serious trust issues, even an emotional affair with some rando on the bus just doesn’t jive with his character arc they’ve built up over three seasons.

I don’t know. People say it’s in his character, but I just have a really hard time seeing it, especially since he knows the kind of person Mary is (killing Sherlock for trying to tip off John), like… I can’t imagine he would do that again. Mary’s complete shift from the character she was in S3 is what’s tipping me off the most about a false narrative, and as such we can assume the other characters may not be who they seem to be as well, at least in my opinion.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

John's Cheating

Hi, Steph! I’m sorry for sending a submission, but this is too long for a couple asks. I hope this is okay. I’m going to attempt to defend John’s cheating as being in-character, and if any of this has been said on this blog before, I apologize :P

So, today you said that it would be OOC for John to cheat with anyone but Sherlock, especially a rando on the bus, because of his heartbreak over Sherlock, Mary, his overall trust issues, and as your nonny mentioned, his loyalty. It’s for these reasons that I actually think it’s in character. I think John is so upset and frustrated with Sherlock being unavailable and being stuck with Mary, that his heart can’t take feeling alone anymore. In TST, I think John is struggling to live the life society wants him to live–doting, domestic husband and father. That’s what he feels like he’s supposed to do, and I think one of the only reasons he went back to Mary in the first place was because society would think leaving a pregnant woman is a no-no. 

So John is trying to fit society’s mould, but he can’t. He can’t stand Mary, but he has an infant with her, so it would be wrong to file for a divorce at this point (I believe he would’ve eventually, though). He can’t go to Sherlock, though (and I’m functioning under the assumption John was actually texting E), because not only is Sherlock more aloof than ever (he ignores John a lot in TST), but cheating on the mother of your child with a man? Society would deeply frown upon John for that, and he’s struggled with his sexuality since day one. He wants Sherlock in the end, of course, but can’t have him. His heart is aching and he’s trapped in a marriage where his (murderer) spouse disrespects him. John would jump at any opportunity to feel wanted. Then, he sees a pretty woman on the bus who’s interested in him. John’s immensely unhappy by that point, and it’s due to his intense heartache over Sherlock and being stuck with Mary that makes him text E.

As for loyalty? With Mary, while he’s obviously guilty over the whole ordeal at the end of the episode and in TLD, he still wants more. He wants more than what Mary gives him, and cheating on her might be the only way he feels like he can really get back at her for lying so much to him. So maybe, for a brief moment, he felt like she didn’t deserve his loyalty. She betrayed his trust too many times. For Sherlock, again, Sherlock is kind of isolating himself and not paying attention to John in that episode with his constant tweets and cases, so John feels shut out by him, he’s hurting, and because he’s in such a bad place, he does something he would, normally, never do.

Regarding John’s trust issues, I think John kept enough distance from her that it wasn’t really an issue? Like, if he were meeting up with her in her shady apartment or something like that, then yeah, but if they were only texting, then I don’t think it exactly applies?

This got obnoxiously long but…..yeah :P I think John cheating goes to show how unhappy he really was, and he wanted love and attention so much, that he resorted to having an affair. But, and I think this is definitely in character, he just can’t go through with it, feels guilty, and cuts it off. I feel like this rambled a lot but I hope it makes sense lol

(Submitted by obsessivelollipoplalala)

(referencing this post)

Hey, thank you so much for this interesting and respectful reading of John’s cheating! I never really thought of it this way, and I will concede that you make very good points here. I still am very much "meh" about John’s characterization in S4,  but I can see the point you are making here.

As an aside, I actually prefer “long asks” sent as submissions so that parts don’t get missed :)

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hello, Steph! I was trying to find a meta for John/Sherlock texting theory in TST but unfortunately the original post is deleted. Do you know where could I possibly read it?:)

(referencing this post here)

UGGHGHHG NONNY I SEE THAT. See, this is one of the major problems with read mores, LOL.

It’s down right now, but I suggest once it’s back up, putting the read more link into the wayback machine on Archive.org and see if anything pops up. Aside from that, that’s all I can really offer. I can’t find the post on the OP’s new blog, but I didn’t really try that hard, LOL. I loved that meta to death; I hope it's not permanently gone!

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Dear, Steph! I really like the idea that in TST John in fact texts Sherlock instead of E. Do you know any fics that support this theory? Thank you;)

Ahh, Nonny, me too! I haven’t read any yet, but I know only of one directly that is on my MFL list:

The Missing Piece by IamJohnLocked4life (M, 1757 w. || Sexting, Infidelity, Evil Mary) – Who was really texting John in the middle of the night?

Other than that one, I don’t know! Anyone have any other ficlets or fics?

[inevitably-johnlocked]

In your reply to someone else's ask you said that J cheating with a woman doesn't make any sense. I think it makes a lot of sense if it's S's sister (either real or imagined). J's subconscious probably recognizes a lot of S's mannerisms in her & she comes as close to actually being S as J can allow himself, without having to admit he's attracted to a man: She comes without a penis, which is the only way J will allow himself to desire S. Internalized homophobia played tricks on me like that too.

(referencing this post)

Hmm. You may be correct, Nonny. John is a bit repressed in his sexuality, possibly is closeted and trying to accept that part of himself.

I concede that your read of John’s character in T6T / TLD is a valid one as well. Although I DO believe that there is very little that is true about both episodes, and I like to think that John was having an emotional affair with Sherlock, LOL. I know that’s probably not the truth, but I can have headcanons.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Extra upsetting about S4 -Mary is redeemed near perfect, self-sacraficing mother/wife & they paint JW as loving husband/father on the surface - then they have him cheat (emotionally) w/o any apparent signs (besides stress of a infant)-it normalizes cheating when it is typical in our society to say 'boys will be boys' - men cheat. SH hated people that cheat but they end with SH like 'Yeah, it's OK you (emotionally) cheated on your wife J, I text Irene - we are just human human = men cheating :(

UGHGHG my browser crashed while replying to this post and I lost it all.

Here’s what I remember: I think the season doesn’t sit well with a lot of people BECAUSE of the mischaracterizations. I think the closest was Sherlock but even he had his off moments (we’re not going to talk about TFP, nor the fact that he hated Mary by the end of HLV). I think I hate Mary’s characterization the most in this season because she was going to be a perfect villain – they set her up, by the end of HLV AND EVEN TAB, to be a dubious character. You don’t redeem the person who killed the title character and tried to kill him two more times all in the same episode, much less have that main characters “like” them. It doesn’t make any narrative sense to have done this. Granted, they still made her manipulative and emotionally abusive, but NO ONE SEEMED TO CARE ABOUT THE GLARING FACT SHE KILLED SHERLOCK. And then they give her a golden halo during an over-the-top death scene AND HAVE HER NARRATE THE FINAL WORDS OF THE SEASON??? PLEASE. IT MAKES NO SENSE.

John was the other one that bugged me a tonne, because I REALLY DON’T BELIEVE he would cheat on Mary with another woman. They way they set up his arc was that John was essentially done with romance and Mary only “lucked out” because John was vulnerable in his grief over Sherlock – she knew which buttons to push to crack his walls. If John was going to cheat with anyone, EVEN EMOTIONALLY, it would have been with Sherlock. THEY PAINTED THE END OF HLV and TAB TO SEEM LIKE JOHN FINALLY GOT IT, that he finally knew Sherlock loved him. But NOPE.

You know? I think that’s why I’m bothered. All the rules and character building they set up in S3 and TAB they totally ignored completely. Anyway. Those are my problems with it. It’s such a shame that they made the first two episodes so visually beautiful and they WERE progressing into a logical story arc… but the lack of answers TFP gave us turned the entirety of the season into one huge mess.