Books are just dead trees with tattoos
remember when the Sherlock fandom decided to dislike all the Elementary trailers on youtube in an attempt to get it cancelled before it even aired
No, but I believe it.
My favorite part was when they called the show homophobic because making Watson a woman made it harder for them to write slash fiction about two lead characters.
Remember when Elementary fans had to create their own tag to get away from the Sherlock fandom invading the ‘Elementary’ tag on Tumblr
Remember when Sherlock fans found it incomprehensible that an Asian woman was playing the role of Watson. Never mind that both Holmes and Watson have been mice and dogs and robots and pieces of fruit in different media.
Remember when the cast and crew of BBC Sherlock pretty much baited its fandom by being passive-aggressive whiny chits about the show on social media and in interviews.
Remember when Mark Gatiss retweeted that ‘Not Benedict Cumberbatch/Not Martin Freeman’ mock-poster.
Remember when self-professed ‘militant feminist’ Louise Brealey (Molly Hooper) called the casting of Lucy Liu - the first time a woman would play the role of Watson in a major adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories - ‘gimmicky’.
Remember when Benedict Cumberbatch insinuated that Jonny Lee Miller took the role so he could ‘buy something nice for his wife.’
Remember when Martin Freeman called Lucy Liu a dog on live television and then brushed it off as a ‘joke.’
Remember when renowned feminist Victoria Cohen lost her shit in a Guardian article and frothed at the mouth for like 800 words on how Lucy Liu’s Watson “was an insult to British values”
Remember when renowned feminist Caitlin Moran wrote an entire article about how Asian Watson was “gimmicky” and “trying too hard”.
Remember when renowned fandom feminists was all about “SCREW WRITING STRONG WOMEN!!!! WRITE COMPLEX WOMEN!!!!!!” but collectively shat themselves and bent over backwards trying to justify their racism and how “Asian Watson is not progressive” and how “disinterested” they were in the Holmes/Watson relationship because it wasn’t about two white men eyefucking
don’t forget when elementary included a trans woman in the show and people reached trying 2 say that including her was “FORCING DIVERSITY” and “WASN’T REALISTIC” because she was in the same room as an asian woman
I remember some of this yeah.
I found elementary a million times more compelling than bbc sherlock honestly
No but guys, GUYS, we need to talk about how important this scene is. Because the commonly accepted lore about unicorns is that they are so good and pure that they’ll only appear to young virginal girls. Because Molly Grue is a middle-aged woman who has been living with bandits for most of her life and is as far from innocent and virginal as you’re likely to get. Because she’s so angry that this creature, embodying everything that society tells her she’s lost, everything she’s thrown away through her own choices, is here now when all that The Unicorn represents is long since behind her. Because she knows, in a way that only someone who’s been steeped in an oppressive system her entire life can ever know, that she’s missed her chance and doesn’t deserve to be seeing a unicorn now.
And you know what? The Unicorn doesn’t give two fucks about her virginity, about her supposed loss of innocence and purity. She’s not repelled by Molly being older, being experienced, being a full human person. None of that has ever mattered to unicorns, only to the people telling stories about them. Not only does she step in to physically comfort her here, but before long this bandit’s wife becomes her friend, closer to her in most ways than Schmendrick.
This story is fucking revolutionary, you guys, and I just have a lot of feelings about it.
I heard Peter S. Beagle speak about this scene at a convention once. He said he just kept writing and writing into the scene and suddenly here was this powerful, moving dialogue which came out very strong and natural, flowing directly from inspiration.
He said it was one of those moments when “the writer just gets really lucky.“
This is really true advice. Some of my most emotional scenes have come unexpectedly after hours of writing.
Close by, a familiar voice said, “Leaving so early, magician? The men will be sorry they missed you.” He turned and saw Molly Grue leaning against a tree. Dress and dirty hair tattered alike, bare feet bleeding and beslimed, she gave him a bat’s grin. “Surprise,” she said.“It’s Maid Marian.”
Then she saw the unicorn. She neither moved nor spoke, but her tawny eyes were suddenly big with tears. For a long moment she did not move; then each fist seized a handful of her hem, and she warped her knees into a kind of trembling crouch. Her ankles were crossed and her eyes were lowered, but for all that it took Schmendrick another moment to realize that Molly Grue was curtsying.
He burst out laughing, and Molly sprang up, red from hair-line to throat-hollow. “Where have you been?” she cried. “Damn you, where have you been?” She took a few steps toward Schmendrick, but she was looking beyond him, at the unicorn.
- The Last Unicorn, Peter S. BeagleI’ve loved this movie my entire life, but an An Adult Person™ this scene hits me where it hurts
“It would be the last unicorn in the world to come to Molly Grue.”
I don’t know what it says about me that this was the greatest scene in the world to me when I was ten, but goddamn if it isn’t even better now.
The older I get the more this scene matters. And hurts. In a good way ish. But it’s also painful. I haven’t seen this movie in such a long time. Not sure I could handle it this year. Maybe next year.
In the book Schmendrick and the unicorn come across a virgin princess performing a ceremony to call a unicorn, a ritual required before her wedding, and they just stay in the shadows. After the princess leaves, he asks why the unicorn didn’t appear in front of the virgin princess and she responds something like “She didn’t really want me to, it would have scared her” which contrasted with the Molly Grue scene just makes me happy.
Peter s Beagle remains my first, best and most benevolent influence. I’m honored to have been able to tell him so.
