Discussion Post: The Adventure of the Empty House

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's a classic this week. Everyone loves The Adventure of the Empty House. What's not to love? So let's dig in. Here are a few questions and thoughts to get you started -- add your own!

- In what capacity is Watson looking into cases without Holmes? Just unofficially in his spare time? Helping Lestrade or other men of the Yard out when they ask?

- Two weeks in a row now with some truly unforgivable behavior from Holmes. It's not enough to fake your death for three years, apparently. You must also reveal you're still alive in a ridiculous and elaborate manner, startling your poor friend into fainting. And again, Watson is simply too overjoyed Holmes is not truly dead/dying to care. Or if he is upset about it, he doesn't reveal it in the text. Again, it's easy to wonder if he's omitting a good portion of the truth here.

- In other bending the truth questions, does Holmes' story really hold up? It seems on the outer reaches of plausibility. So Holmes fears for his life, because Moriarty has loyal men who will avenge his death. Okay, fine. But his attempt to save himself climbing the cliffs nearly does the assassins' job for them several times over. Was it really worth it? Is there more to why he faked his death than this?

- What must it be like to watch your friend search for you and then read what amounts to your suicide note? What must it be like for Watson to know Holmes saw all that and did nothing (even if that inaction was justifiable)?

- On a side note, if you've got your goggles on, this is a very slashy story. Lots of undone collars, fingers to wrists, hands to lips, lips to ears. Mmm, good stuff. ;)

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Watson speaks of fainting for probably the only time in his life and it seems rather more than just a 'gentle' faint. This sounds more like the affects of shock. I can imagine a considerable amount of the language that Watson had learnt during his time in Afghanistan were uttered in the next few minutes, which would not have been printable.

Would Watson continue to have the same levels of trust in Holmes (and Mycroft) as before, or would there always be doubts in his mind?

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Good question. Given the rigmarole that Watson gets put through by Holmes on a regular basis, you'd think he'd develop a level of skepticism, but he seems too good and kind to second-guess his friend. Mycroft on the other hand... perhaps not.

[darkest-alchemy.livejournal.com]

My head!canon is that Holmes made almost everything up, in part to cover up the fact he was in a relationship with Sebastian Moran during his time away. (I have lots of theories about this (including that it wasn't Holmes' life that was in danger if he tried to return to England, it was Watson's) and several variations of it, but they do tend to always involve Holmes/Moran. Their confrontation after Moran tries to shoot him just sounds far too much like a lovers' quarrel with Holmes taunting Moran because now he's back with Watson).

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting take! I almost included a question about Moran and whether you could consider him a Watson analog for Moriarty. Looks like you would say he's a Watson (temporary) replacement!

[darkest-alchemy.livejournal.com]

I ship Holmes/Moran like you wouldn't believe (and even Holmes/Watson/Moran; I'm working on a story where they end up in this strange three-way relationship).
Initially it's more that they just understand each other (because Holmes has lost Watson and Moran has lost Moriarty) but they do hate each other, but over time they do become genuinely attached to each other. I do think the reason Moran messes up trying to kill Holmes and falls for the trick with the dummy is because he's not thinking straight because he feels so betrayed by Holmes (and I actually end up feeling very sorry for Moran).