thistie replied to your quote: We didn’t want to introduce [Mary Watson] and then…
Am still not entirely convinced and not be salty about it, but will take this into consideration. X
I can totally get feeling ambivalent. I think I see what they were going for, but also the complications it hits in conveying that to the audience.
I think it’s clear their goal was for Mary’s death not to just be a way of driving John and Sherlock apart but of driving them to be better. Her legacy and desires sort of govern series 4 posthumously, and her presence to the team is still very great, as evidenced by both John and Sherlock still seeing and responding to her. The point is trying to be that she is the core of this legend, that she is who tells them to be great and be the legendary Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
But for one thing, that’s one of two main arcs of series 4 that don’t quite mesh. The other arc of series 4 is the Eurus stuff, which is a very very different concern. They dovetail thematically as being the two women who drive Sherlock and John to be better, Mary bringing out their best and Eurus showing their worst to work away from and exposing the emotional growth Sherlock has had, which is tied together in Mary’s closing speech. But in terms of plot motion, they don’t really intersect very well at all. There’s little in concrete events that demands Mary’s legacy be the question when investigating Sherlock’s secret sister. And so though thematically she’s still very present and her closing speech ties it together nicely, The Final Problem does feel at a distance from her agency and her legacy.
Plus it’s just a fine line. Fridging is a common issue and you can’t read Mary’s fate in isolation from it, now matter how well-meaning or well executed it is.
The line between her dying for John and Sherlock’s angst and her dying on her own terms and leaving a legacy defined by the two men is pretty slim and I can see why people would say basically nonexistant. This show is defined by men, and having its strongest woman die and in the process drive further relationships is just gonna innately look like fridging when the rest of the main characters are men. And while angst isn’t the sole purpose of her death, it is a very prominent result that does look like every fridging ever.
I don’t hold it against Moffat or Gatiss and I do think they did well given the choice to kill Mary, but I really don’t think that was the right choice in the first place. I love many elements of it. The Six Thatchers is an utterly fitting note for Mary to go out on, if such a thing needs to happen. It’s in-character and it fits her arc utterly perfectly, and I genuinely adore it. And I adore her legacy in the following two episodes, they are all my favorite bits of those. But frankly, the show would be better with her still there in the flesh.
mary watson
I am so sick of people saying that fans of Johnlock hate Mary/Amanda.
I love Mary as a character and that character happens to be a villain.
I also love Amanda and her puppy cuddles.It is possible to love a character but acknowledge that they are not some kind of precious and pure snowflake.
Ugh.
But she’s not a villain. She’s no shining beacon of pure pureness, but she’s not a villain.
Okay, lets look at some facts about Mary:
She lied to John about everything.
She has killed multiple people and went “rogue” and became an assassin who was most likely paid to murder all sorts of people, innocent and bad.
She killed Sherlock, stopped his heart and in this scene you can see that the surgeons have stepped away from trying to save Sherlock and have probably pronounced him dead.
No one is such a good shot that they can know that someone will come back to life.She threatens Sherlock and tells him he can’t tell John.
She is possibly one of the snipers at the pool who worked for Moriarty.
She herself says that if John knew the things she has done that he would not love her anymore.
She is possibly involved with Moriarty or is Moran of both or she IS Moriarty.
Amanda says she is fucking psychopath.
Tell me, does none of this sound like a villain to you?
It’s textbook.Also, this is just a very short list and I could go on and on but I’m pretty sure this gets my point across.
Let’s look at some facts:
- John and Mary love each other, as people. The rest is backstory: fit to burn.
- Mary described her work as an assassin by saying “People like [Magnussen] deserve to be killed, that’s why there are people like me.” It’s a view shared by men who say things like “but he wasn’t a very nice man” and “neonazi; don’t waste your time”.
- When she left that life, she chose to become a nurse. She could have done anything; she decided to heal the sick.
- No one can stab someone through a belt and not kill them until they take it off; and yet. A woman who can shoot a hole through a coin in a dim corridor doesn’t miss a man’s heart at five paces by mistake.
- Invented theories are a sign that you’ve passed beyond finding reasons
- Amanda says that they’re all psychopaths, and she did that because she’s using the word as a causal term for ‘person more suited to the greenworld than mundanity’. Which is its own problem, but not related to Mary’s heroism.
Moriarty was a villain, Magnussen was a villain, that cabbie, Lord Moran, the photographer guy and the random racist-stereotype Chinese gang-slash-circus were villains. (Irene was
almost, but not quite a villain.)
Mary isn’t.
She has a pretty similar backstory to Black Widow, really.
Reblog this if you love Mary Watson
because like 99% of the Sherlock fans I know despise her, and I’m curious if that’s a common opinion?
Favourite characters of 2011 (sticking to ‘active’ characters only- so no Marthas or Eowyns or Skywalkers, alas)
Rory Pond (Doctor Who): Because he’s a brave, loyal, flawed hero.
Amy Pond (Doctor Who): The exact same reasons except also she likes to dress as a pirate.
Mels Zucker/Melody Pond (Doctor Who): It took me a while to warm to River (I like her now, of course) but I liked Mels instantly- I don’t know why. Then I wrote a lot of fanfiction about her incredibly unorthodox childhood, thusly spending a lot of time in her head. Now I really love her.
Kelly Bailey (Misfits): Do I even need a reason for her? She is amazing. Kick-ass, loyal, confident, brave, beat up Nazis, headbutted Hitler.
Shaun the probation worker (Misfits): Obviously I wouldn’t want to spend any time with him in real life, in fact I’d hate his guts, but he was such a slimy, sleazy, magnificent bastard that I looked forward to his scenes most of all.
Marnie (Misfits): I deliberated for about twenty seconds whether to put Marnie or Nathan on the list, but it had to be Marnie, because she’s basically a female Nathan and is awesome.
Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter): I wish I was more like Luna. I’m slowly getting there.
Neville Longbottom (Harry Potter): There are a lot of badasses in the world. He’s the best.
FRYCROFT Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock Holmes): This is the most important man in the British government, who casually strolls naked round his house and flirts with the servants.
John Watson (Sherlock Holmes): Come on, it’s Watson!
Mary Watson (Sherlock Holmes): The unsung hero of A Game Of Shadows. Hey, it was her who actually translated all of Moriarty’s notebooks. And she knows how to handle a gun.
Rapunzel (Tangled): God she’s awesome. Hyper, childlike, creative, clever, and yet can fight when the chips are down.
Jodie ‘Scout’ Allen (Waterloo Road): Not many people know this, but I’m addicted to Waterloo Road. And she was my favourite of the kids. I dunno what exactly it was drew me to her…probably because she was treated appallingly by everyone, including her horrible mother, and came out swinging nonetheless.
Daniel Chalk (Waterloo Road): And he’s my favourite of the teachers. Look at his squishy face. I wish the romance between him and Janeece had worked out, bloke deserves a little happiness. Fun fact: Mark Benton was Clive in Rose.
Miranda Hart (Miranda): Okay, I know that there wasn’t actually a series of Miranda this year, but she did show up on the Michael McIntyre show and stuff, so she’s going in here. Also I want her for the Twelveth Doctor.
Sarah Jane Smith (The Sarah Jane Adventures): This should have been her year.