By Monique
Sherlock left a sour taste in many mouths. From where I’m sitting, the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies aren’t that spectacular either. However, there’s one fan art that went viral, giving us Sherlock Holmes fans a salve for aching minds. It poses the question: What if Sherlock Holmes and John Watson were played by Dev Patel and Riz Ahmed?
Beka Duke drew this after being inspired by the Oscars appearances of Patel and Ahmed, and the idea definitely has merit. Wouldn’t it be cool to see Victorian England represented as it was—which was certainly more diverse than popular culture would lead you to believe—and gave us a Sherlock and Watson that represented Britain’s colonialist reach through India and the Middle East?
Judging from the response the fan art got, there are tons of people who would love to see a brown Sherlock-John Watson duo. The response has been so overwhelming that fan art has been made of the fan art.
I would hope that if a film was made based on this fan art, that they would also follow Duke’s dissection of Sherlock’s personality, since it lines up with Sherlock’s actual personality shown in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, not pop culture’s “brooding, misanthropic” personality that has been grafted onto the character.
To quote her in part:
Ok, so this I feel is a pretty big one that people get wrong! Sherlock Holmes possesses an enormous confidence in his brain and in his work–and it is described as “bordering on arrogance” but not actual arrogance itself (at least most of the time, he does get on Watson’s nerves if he presumes too much, hah). When Holmes’ confidence is misplaced, he is quick to criticize himself, apologize to whomever, and move the heck on, so that he can fix things…which…the more arrogant portrayals of Holmes struggle to do. Also, Holmes is “eager” (probably the most used description in all the books) not because he is compensating, but because he just loves his job. Thusly, he isn’t as concerned with “getting his man” as he is with solving the crime/protecting innocents. You’d be surprised how many villains get away at the end of these books (Holmes believes they get their just desserts eventually).
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“‘No, it is not selfishness or conceit,’ said he, answering, as was his won’t, my thoughts rather than my words. ‘If I claim full justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing–a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare.’” (Mystery of the Copper Beeches)
You really need to read her whole post on Sherlock’s personality, because it’s pretty on-point.
What do you think of this fan art? Give your opinions in the comments section below!
Julian 