personal venting about Irene Adler
So well said. And if I may be so bold to add: Sherlock Holmes knew, by the end, who was the better person in the scenario and it sure as hell wasn’t the King of Bohemia:
“What a woman—oh, what a woman!” cried the
King of Bohemia, when we had all three read this
epistle. “Did I not tell you how quick and resolute
she was? Would she not have made an admirable
queen? Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?”“From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed
to be on a very different level to your Majesty,”
said Holmes coldly.Not a villain, not a seductress, not a con artist. A straightforward, talented, clever, bold, beautiful, snarky kickass woman with her own agency and intent on living her life on her own, honorable, terms. <3
It diminishes Holmes, too. Goes right back to the cultural narrative that if you throw a pretty woman in, a man stops being able to use his brain. Whenever people write Irene that way, the conflict ceases to be Holmes vs. Irene and becomes Holmes vs. his own cock.
