I am with you! Irene was one of the most self-possessed characters I have ever seen, and I feel like she was working with Moriarty because he had expertise she could use--she called him a "consulting criminal" after all--rather than getting used by him.
I've seen a little bit of criticism, too, about Irene as a self-identified gay character falling in love with the male lead because he's just so awesome, and I get where they're coming from, but--
1) They've already said she has carried on long-term affairs with both men and women; I know that's in her professional life, but some fluidity in sexual identity is built in to her character.
2) That scene, that scene in the warehouse. I can't get over it. She and John are both so bound to Sherlock despite whatever they might think about themselves. (And yet Sherlock, eavesdropping, is so so so alone, is treating them as the subjects of an investigation. Gah I can't even.)
3) The things Sherlock notices--increased heart rate, dilated pupils--are not that specifically tied to carnal lust. Speaking for myself here, they're things I experience when looking at a piece of art I love (well, the heartbeat thing is, I don't often measure my own pupils). The fascination she has for him doesn't have to be purely sexual to be physically manifested. Sherlock says she's in love with him, but Sherlock is not a reliable narrator in that moment--he's angry at her, he feels he's been had, he needs to redeem himself in front of Mycroft, and since when do we trust Sherlock on the subject of love? He betrays her in that scene, which is why, to me, it's okay that he's the one who rescues her--it's not putting her in his debt, or proving she's less clever than he is, it's just settling the score.
Anyway, I don't think I'm even responding to your comment at all at this point, so I'll stop.
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Date: 2012-01-04 03:04 am (UTC)I am with you! Irene was one of the most self-possessed characters I have ever seen, and I feel like she was working with Moriarty because he had expertise she could use--she called him a "consulting criminal" after all--rather than getting used by him.
I've seen a little bit of criticism, too, about Irene as a self-identified gay character falling in love with the male lead because he's just so awesome, and I get where they're coming from, but--
1) They've already said she has carried on long-term affairs with both men and women; I know that's in her professional life, but some fluidity in sexual identity is built in to her character.
2) That scene, that scene in the warehouse. I can't get over it. She and John are both so bound to Sherlock despite whatever they might think about themselves. (And yet Sherlock, eavesdropping, is so so so alone, is treating them as the subjects of an investigation. Gah I can't even.)
3) The things Sherlock notices--increased heart rate, dilated pupils--are not that specifically tied to carnal lust. Speaking for myself here, they're things I experience when looking at a piece of art I love (well, the heartbeat thing is, I don't often measure my own pupils). The fascination she has for him doesn't have to be purely sexual to be physically manifested. Sherlock says she's in love with him, but Sherlock is not a reliable narrator in that moment--he's angry at her, he feels he's been had, he needs to redeem himself in front of Mycroft, and since when do we trust Sherlock on the subject of love? He betrays her in that scene, which is why, to me, it's okay that he's the one who rescues her--it's not putting her in his debt, or proving she's less clever than he is, it's just settling the score.
Anyway, I don't think I'm even responding to your comment at all at this point, so I'll stop.