Thanks so much for answering Redbeard. i think Sherlock's go at Google glass was to lure CAM to play like he did Moriarty (boring sherlock,code) to infiltrate CAM's library THEN realizing it's a mind palace. still don't get Y Sherlock hates/fears CAM so much?He disproves of blackmail?If Sherlock is Mycroft's weakness Y would Sherlock be a threat("go against me'"-HLV) if he takes on CAM? Sorry if i'm asking too many questions,i'm simply wowed by your indepth / critical analysiss. thank you. :)

lindentreeisle:

prettyarbitrary:

Sherlock lays out his reasoning on CAM’s information as he goes through the show. It goes as follows: (spoilers)

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I’ve been thinking about CAM a lot…

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CAM bothered me a lot at first, because I saw the whole “there are no vaults” twist as a huge plot hole. The power of the press is big, especially against a public figure, but at the end of the day if you don’t have hard evidence nobody is going to care. And if the person you target is rich or powerful enough to have lawyers, they will eat you alive. The UK has really horrific libel laws, btw- you can be sued for hurting people’s fee-fees even if you say something true, never mind some shit you just pulled out of your ass- I mean, mind palace. (If you’re not familiar with the phenomenon, google “libel tourism” and be prepared to feel really nauseous for the rest of the morning.) And that’s if you’re not simply inclined to blow his brains out once you realize those brains contain the only evidence of your supposed misdeeds (there’s no indication that CAM works with an accomplice). So how does it make any sense that CAM is so powerful and successful a blackmailer when he has absolutely nothing to back it up?

The answer is devastatingly simple: it works because everyone believes the vaults exist. CAM is well aware of this and he encourages the belief: he lives in a high-security palace and occasionally flashes a piece of evidence (like those letters) to keep everyone firmly convinced that he has the hard data to back up his knowledge. It’s not hard to scare people into leaping to dumb conclusions when you know their secrets; are they going to take the risk of defying you when you give every indication of having them by the balls? After all, you’re clearly an intelligent man, you’re not going to come into their office and lick their face if you think there’s the slightest chance in hell you might not get away with it.

CAM is repugnant and I’m sure he genuinely does get pleasure from fucking with people, but I bet you that at least 90% of his behavior is simply because he needs everyone to believe in his persona. He has to have balls of steel, because his power depends 100% on you believing in it. He’s like the villain in a children’s story- terribly big and flashy and immensely powerful, but when you truly see what he is he just melts away like nothing. Really if Sherlock and Mary hadn’t picked the same night to break into his office, the problem would have been totally solved. Blam blam, no more blackmail.

I think the main reason it never occurs to Sherlock that CAM doesn’t have some kind of hard storage is that it is batshit insane to go around blackmailing people and fucking around the way he does if you have nothing to back it up. CAM outsmarted Sherlock not because he was smarter, but because he was ballsier as well as being a completely convincing actor. So kudos to you, CAM, you dead, disgusting bastard.