sebitron asked: Just wanted to comment on the aerogel question, from some quick research it looks like this would be a highly unlikely solution because it's incredibly expensive (several places sell small sample disks for $30) so anything large enough to actually break Sherlock's fall would be prohibitively expensive. Also, regardless of cost, aerogel is a brittle substance, even if it's strong, so the impact of a falling body would cause it to shatter.
Some kinds of aerogel aren’t brittle, but still. I just don’t think that’s what we’re dealing with here.
It’s great for catching space dust, though. So somewhere maybe there’s a little space dust Sherlock and John and Jim…
Anonymous asked:
You’ve already confirmed that the binary code was nonsense. Could you *please* stop the absurdity that is this: bakerstreetconfessionsDOTtumblrDOTcom/post/18737768724 You’ve already nipped the “sos” debacle in the bud and this is just as frustrating…if not moreso!
Hmm. After this post and this post, I’m running out of ways to explain that the supposed “binary code” Jim tapped was nonsense that doesn’t translate to anything.
But I guess I can think of one more way to try proving Jim didn’t tap “there is no key” to anyone who’s still confused. Let’s give it a shot.
Step 1: Look at the screenshot above. Those are the first few digits of “binary code” Jim tapped out when he was in 221B. (Check at about 1 hour and 10 minutes into Reichenbach if you’d like to confirm this.)
Step 2: Go to a binary translator such as this one.
Step 3: Use the translator to convert the text “there is no key” (or “THERE IS NO KEY” or “There is no key” or all three) into binary code.
Step 4: Compare the first few digits of the translated binary with the first few digits in the screenshot above. They won’t match, because Jim didn’t tap out that or any other message.
Anonymous asked: I don't have time to research and calculate this myself, but can aerogel be used to soften a fall? I don't know how hard it is but it's some kind of clear substance.
…are you assigning me science homework?
If so, as much as I love science-ing, I respectfully decline.
Even without doing a bunch of research and math, I can say I don’t think aerogel is very likely as a solution. Here’s the usual three reasons thing, though there are more:
- Clear is not the same as invisible.
- I don’t see how that fits into the idea of “fair clues” at all.
- Any explanation of how Sherlock could have quickly acquired sufficient quantities of aerogel to involve it in his plan in any way would surely be complex enough to raise questions of why he didn’t use those same resources to make simpler and safer arrangements.
evil-sherlock-holmes asked: no obviously sherlock wanted john to recognise him by ... not his face.
Oh, what crazy, mutant Reichenfeels there would’ve been if Sherlock had been naked when he jumped.
dancingsoot asked: I was rewatching ASiB, and something dawned on me. It is a coincidence that both Irene and Sherlock disguise their deaths as head injuries?
I don’t know if I’d even say Sherlock disguised his death as a head injury, exactly… It was more like a jumping off of a building injury that involved a head injury.
Irene did the head injury thing so the corpse couldn’t be easily identified as not-her, but Sherlock had a different goal. He wanted John to see and recognize him. So yes, I think any connection there is coincidence.
howtoquityou asked: Did a quick scan of your lists (brilliant, by the way, absolutely brilliant) and not sure if I missed it, but do you have anything to do with the question of why Sherlock was bouncing a rubber ball when John came to visit him the morning of the Fall? Maybe it's a hint (something stuffed under Sherlock's coat to cushion him from the impact - wouldn't be surprised if Mycroft had access to the technology)?
I think the rubber ball is a much more literal clue than that—Sherlock used it to temporarily stop his pulse. See this post, this post, and this post for a more detailed explanation.
Anonymous asked:
Did you catch this? One of those Mark Gatiss interview things he answered with “has anyone suggested that sherlock by the graveside might actually be a ghost” but you posted a tweet a while back where moffatt said “No or yes, one of those” to someone asking that same question. They are trolling each other and they don’t even know it.
![Mark Gatiss: It’s worth saying that there were a couple of things that influenced his creation. One (which works equally for Sherlock) is the story that Isaac Newton was so clever, so brimming with ideas that when he woke every morning he had to sit on the end of the bed with his head in his hands, just to let his mind ‘settle’. I think that’s just so thrilling as an idea and we wanted Moriarty to have something of that quality. Secondly, I remember when I was a child watching Peter Sellers being interviewed and he said something at once extraordinary and chilling. He was such a chameleon, such a repository for other characters and their quirks that he said to the interviewer “I THINK this is my voice’. Like a lost soul who no longer knows what he is. That sense of an empty human being with something dark and terrible inside him, Andrew can do like no one else. [x]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m41dnqgtjV1rnw7ato1_r1_500.jpg)
Mark Gatiss: It’s worth saying that there were a couple of things that influenced his creation. One (which works equally for Sherlock) is the story that Isaac Newton was so clever, so brimming with ideas that when he woke every morning he had to sit on the end of the bed with his head in his hands, just to let his mind ‘settle’. I think that’s just so thrilling as an idea and we wanted Moriarty to have something of that quality. Secondly, I remember when I was a child watching Peter Sellers being interviewed and he said something at once extraordinary and chilling. He was such a chameleon, such a repository for other characters and their quirks that he said to the interviewer “I THINK this is my voice’. Like a lost soul who no longer knows what he is. That sense of an empty human being with something dark and terrible inside him, Andrew can do like no one else. [x]
(Source: imthestoryteller)
Enjoy some random leftover screencaps of John Watson vs. arch-enemy #2. Because who could resist that smooshy little face?
Anonymous asked: Don't you know? The spray paint is how Sherlock survived Reichenbach.
DUDE. NOT COOL.
The first rule of Spray Paint Jetpack Club is: You do not talk about Spray Paint Jetpack Club.
From A Scandal in Belgravia
Turns out a bowl of fruit isn’t as out of character as I thought!
(cc finalproblem)
Okay, so I saw this post and was temporarily very confused because I had made almost exactly the same screencap early this morning (spot the difference!)…
…and had a moment of “I didn’t post that in my sleep, did I?” (I may have made it more for that cardboard box I like, but still.)
Anyway, to get this back around to something that might be remotely interesting to anyone else—yes! Those sneaky people went to a lot of trouble to get that apple there for Jim. The fruit bowl was in the flat from Scandal on. Mrs. Hudson had to keep it stocked with apples for months just so Jim could make a threat eventually.
Though maybe she wanted to do that anyway:
I think he doesn’t have a good appetite. Which worries me. I try to get him to eat. It’s all rubbish food Sherlock eats, that’s why he looks so pale. A lot of crisps and probably food that’s passed its sell-by date like sausage rolls.
—Una Stubbs as quoted in LA Weekly
Anonymous asked:
Probably Nothing to Do With Reichenbach: The yellow spray paint from the Blind Baker episode came up a couple times afterwards, in both the Great Game and a Scandal in Belgravia. Do you think this is of any significance, or will be in later episodes? Maybe Sherlock will leave a message to John before he returns?
The yellow spray paint from The Blind Banker was used to paint the smiley face on the wall of 221B in The Great Game.
It took me a minute to figure out what you meant about its reappearance in Scandal, though. Unless I completely missed something, I’m assuming you’re talking about when Sherlock hit the CIA agent in the eyes with cleaning fluid? That was like what Sherlock did with the spray paint at the circus.
I know the yellow spray paint has become a thing in fan culture, especially the #believeinsherlock movement. I also know that some people would love to see that reflected in Series 3.
All the same, I can’t say that I see two uses of the spray paint in Series 1 and a similar use of spray cleaner in Series 2 as being predictive that the spray paint will reappear. And even if they were to find a way to work the spray paint in again, I still don’t think I’d consider the spray cleaner incident a clue. It’s just too different.
Andrew Scott at the Arqiva British Academy Television Awards nominees party on May 10, 2012 in London.
Dammit, all I can see is a still-living “Richard Brook” pulling off a huge con.
GET OUT OF MY HEAD, JIM.
Anonymous asked:
RE: the I.O.U thing, I’m not sure if you’ve said it but I understood it that they were threats for each of Sherlock’s three friends - the apple in the flat = John, the office = Lestrade, and the winged one on Baker Street = Mrs Hudson. Don’t know if you agree? Love the blog by the way.
a-scandal-in-spain asked:
Verityburns has written in a fic of hers that the three IOUs are meant to be the three victims: the one in Scotland Yard is obviously Lestrade. The apple was in 221B, that means John. And the one opposite 221B is for Mrs. Hudson. It’s a pretty neat headcanon if you ask me!
While I do get the appeal of this idea as headcanon or as a useful plot point for fanfic, I can’t say I think that was the writer of the episode’s actual intent.
For example, let’s consider the idea that the winged graffiti I.O.U. was for Mrs. Hudson. Why for her? Because she lives on Baker Street? Well, so do Sherlock and John. What makes that message particularly about her? In fact, isn’t it least likely to be about her since of Sherlock, John, Mrs. Hudson, and Lestrade, she’s the only one who wasn’t out on the street with that I.O.U.?
And yeah, you could reassign the apple to Mrs. Hudson and the graffiti to John. But the very fact that you can do that shows that the connections between I.O.U.s and characters weren’t particularly solid to begin with.
The I.O.U. messages were for and about Sherlock. They were “following” Sherlock around. The fact that the I.O.U.s happened to be near Sherlock’s targeted friends was because Sherlock only goes to three places on a regular basis, and those are the places his friends are as well.
And there were three I.O.U.s and three targeted friends just because that episode had three of freakin’ everything.
Which maybe gives another way to approach this idea—there were also three fairy tale clues. The breadcrumbs, the Grimm book, and the gingerbread man. You could say those three things are even more directly connected with John, Mrs. Hudson, and Lestrade—John found the breadcrumbs, the police (Lestrade) found the book, and Mrs. Hudson accepted delivery of the gingerbread man. But do we assume that was a message about which of Sherlock’s friends would be targeted? Because it isn’t as sexy as the I.O.U.s, it seems like everyone’s cool with the idea that those were simply clues for Sherlock that coincidentally got to him via his friends because his friends are naturally going to be around him. (And from an out-of-universe perspective, because it allowed the writer to control the timing of the clue deliveries.)
Of course, by mentioning this at all I’ve probably kicked off a theory about the fairy tale clues and Sherlock’s friends in someone’s mind. Oops. Well, enjoy the headcanon if so, because I’m pretty sure that’s all it will ever be. Not that there’s anything wrong with some entertaining headcanon.
