Thoughts about Sherlock Holmes, having now listened to several of the audiobooks of the original series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
First and foremost, Sherlock is actually nice? Like, he is never deliberately rude to people. He can be quite blunt, direct and to the point, but he's never going out of his way to be rude or dismissive of people. (He has immense amounts of cheek and sass about the competencies of the police officers once they are no longer present, but he is always perfectly polite to them when they are speaking.)
He is especially kind to people in the cases that they are working on. He tries to be respectful of people, particularly those who have been traumatized by the event that they have just experienced. He is very kind to women, and has great admiration for smart and competent women that he encounters in his work, regardless of their social class. (In the adventure of the copper beeches, he allows the woman to take a suspicious job, because she is in desperate need of the money, but makes sure that he is available to her night or day in case she runs into any trouble.)
Sherlock genuinely likes John. They are actually best friends, and Sherlock treats him as such. Sherlock is proud of John when John figures things out and offers him sincere praise. Sherlock genuinely enjoys John's company and makes a point to express that fact on multiple occasions.
The cases are often simple, but never stupid. The cases are interesting to read, and it's satisfying as a reader when you figure something out alongside the characters but before the big reveal. They're not trying to twist you in knots, tricking you into thinking that your first thought is going to be absolutely wrong because it's way too obvious. The stories make sense, but are layered with more complexity and clues that you might not have caught.
Sherlock does a lot of moral questioning and struggles with some of the implications of the cases, such as the adventure of the Abbey Grange. In that case, a young woman's admirer murders the woman's abusive husband. Sherlock makes a point of not telling the police about it because he thinks that that would be the wrong thing to do. He lets the man go and encourages him and the young woman to make a better life for themselves. Sherlock quite openly struggles with the results of his cases, the implications of them, their impact on him and the people around him.
Sherlock openly admits to his faults. And not in an “oh I'm so much better than you all but I have to keep my mind occupied somehow” kind of way, he is quite willing to admit where he struggles and where he considers himself to be weaker, and often asks for help.
John Watson is very much an equal partner, and Sherlock is openly quite reliant on John for a lot of things. Obviously, Sherlock's detective abilities are the star of the show and that is what Watson focuses on in his recounting, but Sherlock actively seeks out John's involvement and opinions on the cases, and relies on John's protection and support on many occasions.
Anyways. I'm not entirely sure where the idea of “Sherlock Holmes the genius asshole” comes from but it's very distinctly NOT the impression I get from the original stories.
