“Oh, Sherlock. What do we say about coincidences?”
“The Universe is rarely so lazy.”
I keep looking at this gif set, which breaks down the stages of Sherlock’s deduction so beautifully, and it occurs to me that here is Sherlock’s sexuality. I’m not making an argument for canonical Holmescest*, but rather for… a sense of Sherlock’s erotics, if you will. The buildup is all there – each deduction takes him closer and closer, mindpalace!Mycroft leading the way (and visually coming closer – each prod of his brings Sherlock closer to the solution), coaxing it out of him, until that one orgasmic realization – the look on his face! – and *cough* ending in a splash of white fluid on the floor.
But, seriously, I can’t help but wonder if this scene isn’t actually the closest we get to an overtly sexual (ETA: probably should be “erotic”) Sherlock in the entire series to date? As Sally Donovan says, he gets off on it – not on the murder, per se, but on the deduction – that burst of realization that comes after tangling with a problem, coming at it from all angles, massaging it, teasing out a solution. When it hits – I mean, speaking from personal experience – when it hits, there’s nothing like the rush that comes with it. I feel like I’m seeing that here – why it’s such a charged scene for me.
*and seriously, if this gets reblogged with people telling me I’m sick for thinking that Sherlock and Mycroft are getting it on, I will… be very, very cross
Totally agreed. I enjoy writing and theorizing about a lot of different Sherlocks, but for me the “true” reading is this one. Sherlock’s eroticism lies on the mental plane. I read him as demisexual, in a sense, and dominant, in a sense—and that sense is that if he experiences physical arousal and attraction, then it’s led by his mind. His ability to engage intellectually with someone/something, his ability to puzzle it out and dissect it and know it inside and out, is what gets his engine revving.