eternalsojourn:

lestradisms:

actinoutloud:

jawdust:

A lot of people interpreted this scene as ‘Irene’s unreadable thus attractive, John’s predictable thus isn’t’, as though John’s incapable of surprising Sherlock, and consequently fails to embody the sense of mystery Sherlock’s so desperately in love with.

But I don’t think that’s the case. Of course, there’s merit to that argument, but it just doesn’t fit with canon. I don’t think Sherlock likes a mystery - that’s why he fights so hard to solve them. That’s why he doesn’t want John posting about the unsolved cases. Sherlock’s spent his entire life shaping himself into a master of observation and deduction because he’s deeply, intrinsically uncomfortable with not knowing. He lacks communicative ability (the way most people garner information) and learnt to compensate by interpreting people in different ways. Why would someone who has dedicated their existence to making the unknown known find the unknowable anything more than intriguing? Than briefly attractive? Charming, alluring? And why would that person find someone as knowable, as sure, as stable and secure and honest as John anything less than completely fucking marvellous? John is the epitome of everything Sherlock is trying to shape his world to be. John is known. John is communication. He is blatant and open when the world is vague and closed. He is comfortable in a way nothing else is.

When Sherlock looks at Irene he’s thrown off guard, out of his comfort zone, into a disquieting realm of insecurity and failure. So of course he looks back to his safe-base. It’s 101 Child Psychology. He looks to the one secure attachment he has to make himself feel better. He looks to John to steady and steel himself and make himself feel safe when the tools he uses to make sense of his world suddenly fail him. John is sweaters and jam and quiet nights in with tea and violins when the outside world is loud and brash and violent and unorganised and confusing. John is Sherlock’s home, and home always trumps the unfamiliar, even for a sociopath.

OH SNAP

john is sherlock’s safe place; john is familiarity, john is reassurance, john is home.

Oh my god. That pretty much sums up why they’re my OTP. John makes sense.