On Mycroft
Jan. 5th, 2016 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fandomnumbergenerator"[Mycroft’s] less mad than Sherlock. He hasn’t got the heart of a poet, which is what Sherlock has, really.
I think the most revealing exchange about Mycroft and Sherlock is at the end of ‘A Scandal in Belgravia’, when he says, ‘Sherlock has the brain of a philosopher or a scientist, but he likes to be a detective. What might we deduce about his heart?’
There’s tremendous _romance_ in Sherlock Holmes. He _needs_ to be fighting crime and fighting bad guys.
He doesn’t admit that to himself, but there are plenty of opportunities for him to go and think elsewhere … but this is what he chooses to do.
So [Mycroft] doesn’t have that drive for color or glamour. Mycroft just wants to be alone and precise and do all his thinking.
No, he hasn’t allowed anyone to get close to him at all … except he’s quite close to his brother, from the very start — that’s not something that’s changed — from the very, very beginning of ‘A Study in Pink’.
[Mycroft’s] trying to look out for him. He’s worried about him. He’s worried about what his junkie little brother might do next, as you would be in real life.
If your little brother or something wanted to be a detective—not a junkie anymore, now a detective, because crime is really fascinating—you’d be worried.
He’s worried, that’s all."
I think the most revealing exchange about Mycroft and Sherlock is at the end of ‘A Scandal in Belgravia’, when he says, ‘Sherlock has the brain of a philosopher or a scientist, but he likes to be a detective. What might we deduce about his heart?’
There’s tremendous _romance_ in Sherlock Holmes. He _needs_ to be fighting crime and fighting bad guys.
He doesn’t admit that to himself, but there are plenty of opportunities for him to go and think elsewhere … but this is what he chooses to do.
So [Mycroft] doesn’t have that drive for color or glamour. Mycroft just wants to be alone and precise and do all his thinking.
No, he hasn’t allowed anyone to get close to him at all … except he’s quite close to his brother, from the very start — that’s not something that’s changed — from the very, very beginning of ‘A Study in Pink’.
[Mycroft’s] trying to look out for him. He’s worried about him. He’s worried about what his junkie little brother might do next, as you would be in real life.
If your little brother or something wanted to be a detective—not a junkie anymore, now a detective, because crime is really fascinating—you’d be worried.
He’s worried, that’s all."
—
Steven Moffat, when asked about Mycroft’s ability (or lack thereof) to connect with other people.
(IGN interview, February 2014 [x])
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Mycroft just seems so dismissive of Sherlock’s choice to be a detective. Like, you could be ruling the world, but instead you’re running around playing pirate. And, as someone who reacts very badly to being told she’s not living up to her potential, I totally understand why it pushes Sherlock’s buttons.
Though, I understand that Mycroft has a very limited vocabulary for expressing his emotions, and so maybe disapproval is as close as he gets to affection.
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Date: 2018-12-07 09:40 pm (UTC)I am trying to move my writing over from Tumblr and am trying to backdate things. But I'm not quite sure what to do about them showing up in people's reading lists out of order.
It's been a while since I really engaged with Sherlock BBC, but I always felt like I could almost make sense of Mycroft and Sherlock's relationship -- that Sherlock resented that Mycroft was always trying to save him -- but then by the end of S4, I got the sense that Sherlock really did need saving. The question is, Is Mycroft even able to save him. Though, honestly, I feel like 2 years later, I would be hard pressed to back that up with specific examples. I think I just always wanted, probably because I was overinvested in Sherlock as a character, for Sherlock to be more OK than the show wanted to let him be.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-07 10:10 pm (UTC)I liked the idea of him being troubled and maybe using drugs in unsafe ways as one of the ways he copes. But that's a far cry from the 'woe the sensitive self-destructive man' angle I'm kind of tired of in pop media.