I’ve finally come to accept that I don’t like S2 Sherlock very much.
S1 Sherlock was kind of a selfish, self-centered ass, but then he was largely alone, so sure. S2 Sherlock, though, has actually degenerated. Sure, he does occasionally think of other people, now, but he’s also become a casually abusive fucker who thinks nothing of testing nerve gas on his friend (at least John calls him on that one), and in Scandal commits what twigs to me as something akin to adultery.
Do people think that it’s impossible to cheat in an asexual relationship? Because it’s entirely possible, and this is exactly how you do it. In Scandal, they’re called out as a couple, and all this attention is drawn to Sherlock-and-John as something more than ‘just friends,’ even if there’s no sex involved (John’s sure as hell something, considering the way everyone up to and including Sherlock has ceded him the right and obligation to invade Sherlock’s life in the name of looking after him). And then we have Sherlock doing his best to cut John out of the situation at every turn, swanning off after Irene, and then LYING about it? Yeah, I’d call that cheating. It’s not about sex, it’s about lying. If I were John, I’d sure as hell feel betrayed.
And then Sherlock goes through all of Fall without saying a fucking thing to anybody about what he KNOWS is going down, despite how involved they all are; and…it’s not the faking his death that’s the problem. It’s the STAYING dead.
I’m pretty sure he made that decision on the spot, in the cemetery, after hearing John and Mrs. Hudson talking. (Anyone else would hear that conversation as, “My friends are suffering :(,” but of course Sherlock hears, “Oh, how convenient, it’s more convincing if they actually believe it!”) But even if he’d made up his mind earlier, I highly doubt it was for the continued protection of his friends. All that fanon stuff about snipers continuing to follow John and the others around is sweet and all, but rather vastly unlikely. (We’ll find out, though, I suppose; they could handwave how he managed the stunt, for all I care, but I DO want to know his rationale for staying dead.)
Fake-dying for his friends is not a redemptive act. It’s a step in the right direction, but it does not by itself turn him into a good man, especially when he’s spent the rest of the season being a total asshole whenever he felt like it.
This is why I can’t read Sherlock h/c, or Sherlock angst, or sub!Sherlock, because I can’t enjoy empathizing with his trials and sufferings when I’m mostly thinking, “You colossal wanker,” and the idea that getting the shit beaten out of you (even consensually) is a functional form of penance just makes me massively uncomfortable.
But god, he’s sexy when he’s being a dick, isn’t he?