ilvalentinos:

IREEEEEENNNNNEEEEE

seeing as i haven’t read the books - i am woefully under read in that department - i can’t speak to acd canon, but BUT BUT IRENE AS A CONSTRUCTION IN THE SHOW? I AM DYING I AM DEAD.

• i’ve seen good critique of playing irene as a villain or as this lady whose entire existence is sherlock in recent adaptations, and yes i think it is a problem that a woman isn’t allowed to brush up against our white logical ubermensch hero and then go off on her merry way, but at the same time i am SO READY AND SO HAPPY WITH THIS REVEAL.
• like. women are so rarely allowed to be on an equal playing ground, and don’t even think about being BETTER than men. and what gets me with this is that not only is she allowed to be better than sherlock, she is a better sherlock than sherlock. she’s smarter, she’s bolder, she’s more cunning, and she sees more and what’s more than that, she is allowed to not be remorseful, she is allowed to be confident in herself and walk away. sherlock isn’t the center of her existence - sherlock is an entertaining mouse whose tail she has her paw on, sherlock is someone like her, but ultimately someone who is inferior to her, intellectually speaking. AND THAT IS SO RARE. THAT A WOMAN’S STRENGTH IN A PARTICULAR PIECE OF MEDIA IS SOMETHING THAT WE’VE ASSOCIATED WITH MEN FOR SO LONG - COLD, HARD, RATIONALITY. AND SHE’S NOT PUNISHED FOR BEING EQUAL TO SHERLOCK, SHE’S NOT PUNISHED FOR BEING BETTER THAN SHERLOCK AND SHE ISN’T PUNISHED FOR BEING LESS OF A ~WOMAN~
• GENDER DOESN’T EVEN COME INTO IT
• what she is destroyed and beaten by in the end is humanity. sherlock doesn’t win because he’s a man. sherlock doesn’t win because moriarty is a woman. sherlock doesn’t win because she needs to lose. moriarty loses because sherlock has a network, because sherlock has someone like JOAN. who sees people as people and not puzzles or games and solves moriarty because moriarty is a PERSON AND NOT A GAME OR A PUZZLE. joan solves the one that sherlock couldn’t solve because joan sees people as people. in the end its not about moriarty losing because she’s a woman or because she’s not womanly enough but because she’s underestimated the inherent power of humanity, of compassion.
• not that prison can hold her for long
• ALSO IREEENNNNEEEE. i love irene in and of herself because irene adler is not a fake. irene adler is a distorted facet of moriarty and moriarty is not The Woman because there has only ever been A WOMAN and EVERY WOMAN inside of one. it’s how women are and it’s how all people are - there is no one version of us, there are infinite versions. and irene adler is only one woman out of the multitudes of facets that moriarty has - irene adler is free spirited, irene adler loves beauty, irene adler is careless and carefree and smiles bright and optimistic, and it’s not fake. it’s used to ensnare sherlock but moriarty was never faking anything. it’s a careful distortion of the truth, a filtering of self into the correct prism to be seen by the correct eyes.
• AND JUST. NATALIE DORMER??? NATALIE DORMER!!!!!
• as much as i love the reveal scene, my favorite has got to be the scene where she is irene and tells sherlock that he ‘sees so much that he’s starting to see things that aren’t there’ because UGH NO ONE DOES ANIMALISTIC UNRAVELLING LIKE NATALIE DORMER. you start seeing the line beginning to blur between moriarty and irene and it’s only later that you put your finger on it and realize that something. IS. OFF. if moriarty is cool composure, irene adler is uncompromising, borderline unhinged. and the balance of that in that scene is gorgeous.
• SHERLOCK AND JOAN!!!!!
• SHERLOCK AND JOAN????
• SHERLOCK AND JOAN!!!!!!
• IM DYING
• DEAD
• GONE
• they make me so FUCKING HAPPY I WATCH THEM WITH A GIANT SMILE ON MY FACE BECAUSE GODDAMN YOU SEE SHERLOCK BEGINNING TO SOFTEN AROUND THE EDGES AND WARM AND IT’S NOT WEAKNESS IT’S STRENGTH
• BECAUSE HES AN INVESTIGATOR OF THE CRIMES THAT /HUMANS/ COMMIT AND I NEVER UNDERSTOOD OR REALLY LIKED THE COLD INHUMAN UNFEELING LOGIC MACHINE INVESTIGATOR THAT SHERLOCK IS PORTRAYED AS (COUGH CUMBERSWUMBLE) BECAUSE HOW CAN YOU SOLVE HUMAN CRIMES IF YOU CEASE TO UNDERSTAND HUMANITY????
• JUST
• SHERLOCK AND JOOAAAANNN

sydneyflapper:

French postcard, WWI era.

This wouldn’t look out of place at certain sporting events today…if the supporters were a particularly stylish lot.