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Anonymous asked: Hello, Seth! This question will probably be very silly but since it’s such a generally unknown and unconfirmed thing, I can’t help but to be curious; I just wanted to ask you what do you think about Sherlock’s a/sexuality and his supposed love for John and/or Irene? And I mean this in general, regarding the books, the previous series, the current one, etc.

h3rring:

I hope you don’t mind a lot of words, anon.  Breaking this down by adaptation:

BBC Sherlock

Maybe it’s surprising, but almost everything concerning Sherlock’s inclinations has been confirmed.  Moffat and Gatiss have gone on the record about how they write sex and romance where Sherlock is concerned.  To begin with, Moffat has done at least two interviews (one, two) that we can reference easily.  Let’s pull out some important quotes:

 

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Hmm, the thing here is that I’m not willing to take Moffat’s word as truth. Because it’s not a straightforward deduction - there are a million holes in this ‘logic’. One easy example: Moffat is willing to treat ACD Sherlock’s interactions with both genders the same in Victorian England. This is stupid - all things were not (and are not) equal between the two in terms of societal interactions, social status, social expectations, etc. In Victorian England, ‘being distracted’ by a woman verses ‘being distracted’ by a man have very different consequences and implications. It’s idiotic and a denial of history to act as though they’re comparable in this context. He wouldn’t live with a man if he found men interesting? So, then, he would live with a woman if he did? To do that and be respectable in the time, he’d have to get married. It’s a rubbish argument.

I also see little to no evidence that Sherlock and/or Irene are psychopaths. Moffat is egregiously misusing the term, or is an idiot. Quite likely he is using the word psychopath as a stand in for ‘unusual individual’. Either way, I think this is a situation in which there’s good reason to choose textual interpretation over stated authorial intent.

I do agree that what is interesting and important about Sherlock Holmes is that regardless of his sexuality or romantic inclinations, he is choosing not to act upon them. So yes. BBC Sherlock’s sexuality isn’t important - what is is that for whatever reason, he’s made a decision not to act upon anything, because he is not interested.