Fandom Moment

I'm in a Goodwill store waiting in line. The cashier is talking to the woman at the register, and says "Aw Jeeze."

The way he says it makes me give him a sharp look.

Then I get up there and he tells me that he really loves my pin.

We share a look and a small smile. Because we just know.

I think we really need a fandom greeting. Something small, something that all the normal people really won't notice. But something that shows us that we aren't alone. It's easy to believe in the fandom community while you are online. We seem to be everywhere! But in person... I've only ever met 2 people who understood that button. That cashier is the 2nd.

What really depresses me though is all the fans seem to be under the age of 20. I'm 31. I have very little in common with these 15year olds. I've been devoted to the stories for longer than they have been born. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have been voices in my head for just as long. They are the seat of my morality in a sense. As such, I am possessive of them. I want to cry when I see an online conversation about Sherlock centering only on the fact that they actors are attractive. Not that they are good at what they do. Not that they have brought the characters to life in a way I never thought possible. Benedict Cumberbatch may be a great Sherlock Holmes, Mark Gatsiss may be a good Mycroft. But Martin Freeman is the best John Watson I have ever seen, and it is for that; just that, that I watch this.

I love the Robert Downey Jr/Jude Law movies. I look forward to more of them. They were the first to show Watson as more than an echo. And they gave him his looks back. He is described as attractive and slim, how he got to be tubby and old looking in most depictions I'll never know. Jude Law's sass makes him a brilliant Watson.

But it is Martin Freeman's eyes that just about kill me. Most fans fell in love with Sherlock when Benedict walks onscreen. I've been in love with every version of them forever, but what made me a rabid obsessed fanatic was the first minute of the first episode. Because of Martin Freeman. The way he looks when he wakes up from his nightmare, the aura of damage and the British Stiff Upper Lip. My god. John Watson breathes because of him. He brings a depth that I knew was there but that was never allowed to be articulated.

Wow. This was meant to be just a quick note about my little fandom moment. I didn't mean to unleash my inner fangirl. Only a little sorry about that.