Holmes/Watson

The relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson is the most popular pairing in the Sherlock Holmes fandom. There has been some sort of speculation that Holmes and Watson were in a romantic relationship, and stories to that effect, for decades. However, the pairing being explicitly romantic, instead of subtextual, was rather rare, until fannish interest in the pairing expanded exponentially during the late 2000s and the 2010s with the release of the Sherlock Holmes 2009 film and the BBC's 2010 TV series Sherlock.
==History==
Speculation that Doyle's Holmes was gay or bisexual has been rampant for many decades. Thomas Bragg's thesis "A Mere Appendix: The Reclaiming and Desexing of Sherlock Holmes" (Univ. of Florida, 2004) makes an interesting circumstantial case for Doyle's Holmes as an aesthete of ambiguous sexuality, then later as a more "masculine" and unemotional character. 
Chris Redmond of the Baker Street Irregulars describes the history surrounding Holmes/Watson in "Intimate Converse in Baker Street". Perhaps the first documented romantic interpretation of the paring was in Rex Stoat's 1941 humorous essay "Watson Was a Woman" in which Stoat references the canon to claim Holmes and Watson act like an old married couple, with Watson as Holmes' wife. The first publicized portrayal of Holmes and Watson as a gay couple was The Sexual Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a 1971 erotic pulp novel by Larry Townsend.
Holmes/Watson was not especially common before the overwhelming popularity of BBC's Sherlock, but has long been present in fandom communities being included in Zines as early as 1990 (in Pæan to Priapus's first issue). Early fans often cited both Doyle's canon and the 1984 Granada TV adaptation as inspiration for fanworks. This iteration of Holmes/Watson was possibly first vidded by Mary Van Deusen in the early 90's. 
==Canon==
In pretty much all adaptations, Holmes and Watson are close friends and roommates who live on Baker St. Watson assists Holmes with his detective work and chronicles their adventures together. 
The blog With Love, S.H. features an extensive archive of essays extrapolating the slashy subtext of each of the Holmes stories, as well as a timeline of the Holmes/Watson Relationship.
===Pastiches===
Because the characters have long been public domain, Holmes/Watson has been 'canonized' in a number of published pastiche novels. Some examples include My Dearest Holmes, A Murmuring of Bees, and Kissing Sherlock Holmes (a list of gay pastiches is available on goodreads)
===The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes===
The 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes includes a plot in which Holmes pretends to be in a relationship with Watson to avoid a ballerina who wants to have a child with him. Director Billy Wilder later stated he originally intended for Holmes to be explicitly portrayed as a "repressed homosexual" in love with Watson, but ended up making the relationship ambiguous in the final film. 
===2009 Film===
One of the major sub-plots of the 2009 film is that Holmes wants to stop Watson from getting married and from moving out of 221B. Robert Downey Jr was quoted as saying about Holmes/Watson "two men who happen to be roommates, wrestle a lot and share a bed...Guy wanted to make this about the relationship between Watson and Holmes. They're both mean and complicated.Downey Hints at Gay Relationship in Sherlock Holmes, by John Scott Lewinski at Wired.com, August 5, 2009"
===BBC TV Series===
The Sherlock (BBC) TV series somewhat toys with the possibility of a romantic relationship between Sherlock and John; notably, there is a dinner conversation where Sherlock thinks John is coming on to him, so Sherlock gently explains that he is "married to his work"; a number of other characters assume that the two are a couple, such as Mrs. Hudson thinking that they might share a bedroom.
==Fandom==
=== Zine Fandom ===
Although a great deal of early Holmes zines were gen, in the early 1990s there were some slash zines featuring the Holmes/Watson pairing, most often in collected multimedia anthologies with other fandoms, one example being No Holds Barred, but occasionally in Holmes only focused zines. These were often based on the Granada series or the book fandom, see Friend of My Heart for example.
After the release of the Robert Downey Jr films there was also a spurt of zine production featuring that version of Holmes/Watson. There has also been several zines from the BBC Sherlock fandom.
=== Online Fandom ===
Sherlock Holmes fandom is one of the oldest, most venerable, and mainstream of fandoms, however Holmes/Watson is rare enough online that it continues to qualify as a Yuletide fandom, when BBC's Sherlock is excluded.
An early, and essential, web archive of Holmes/Watson slash was called Sacrilege! (founded in 1998, it was updated through 2013, before going offline in 2015) which featured a number of stories by various authors, including what the ship manifesto refers to as the classic H/W slash story: Irene Adler's Absurdly Simple.
==== Terminology ====
Early on the pairing was most often referred to as Holmes/Watson online, and could be shortened to H/W or SH/JW for use on mailing lists that had limited space. 
The smush name of Johnlock was used exclusively in the BBC Sherlock fandom to begin with, but as time has gone on you will see, on sites such as Tumblr, the use of Johnlock for other variations of the pairing usually with the adaptation attached, for example "granada johnlock" or "acd johnlock". "Podlock" is the ship name variant used for the Sherlock & Co. podcast fandom, and "Joanlock" in Elementary fandom. 
There have also been other ship names for the pairing, "mystery husbands" is an all encompassing one for most adaptations, although its use seems to have fallen off in recent years. "Victorian husbands" is also sometimes used, and applies to the ship in the Victorian era like granada, book canon, etc.
=== Common Tropes and Storylines in Fanworks ===
The prevalence of certain tropes vary depending on the adaptations and characterization of Holmes and Watson, but many of these tropes tend to be common:
* Hurt/Comfort: usually with hurt Holmes and Watson providing the comfort. This may include Holmes hiding how hurt he is and Watson tending his wounds once they find out. There is also some hurt!Watson fanworks, a common cause being chronic pain from Watson's war wound(s).
* Whump: as with Hurt/Comfort, Holmes tends to be a popular target for whump, but there is also fair bit of Watson focused whump, and many stories where they are going through something traumatic together. There is also a sub-genre of fanworks where Watson is hurt, injured, kidnapped, or something of that nature, which usually leads to a reveal of feelings by Holmes. 
* Asexual Holmes: fans portraying Holmes as asexual is quite common, and they will often explore how Holmes and Watson's romantic relationship would handle this.
* Bisexual Watson: since in canon Watson is shown to have an interest in the opposite sex, it is not unusual for fans to characterize Watson as bisexual. Although rare, there is also some fanworks where Holmes is the only person of the same sex that Watson is attracted to, aka the gay for you trope.
* Substance Abuse: Holmes' addiction issues and Watson's care for him and their attempts to get Holmes clean are often explored in fanworks.
* Friends to Lovers: their close friendship developing into a romantic one.
* First Kiss: exploring how and where their first kiss would occur, these works can be comforting and romantic, or brought about from desperation from harrowing scenarios 
* First Time: their first sexual encounter together 
* Codas: fanworks related to specific stories/episodes/films, usually dealing with the aftermath of canon events. Popular choices for codas are The Empty House, The Devil's Foot, and The Three Garridebs (see Garrideb Moment), all stories that include intimate/emotional moments between Holmes and Watson, although codas for other stories are also quite common. 
* Reichenbach Falls: most adaptations have some version of Reichenbach Falls, many fanworks will explore the trauma surrounding that event and Holmes' supposed death, what happened in the intervening time before Holmes' eventual return, and the effect it had on their relationship.
* Established Relationship: fanworks where Holmes and Watson are already in a relationship. These fanworks can be domestic and focus on their everyday life, or they can be casefic where the Holmes/Watson relationship is more of a background element. 
* Victorian Terminology: if taking place in one of the adaptations with historical settings, fans will often try and use Victorian terms, some examples are "invert" for homosexual, "frig" for masturbation/hand jobs, "crisis" for orgasm, among others. There was controversy about Victorian language in a 1992 story, Akin to Love. See comments about this story. 
* Retirement: we know from book canon that Holmes retires to a home in Sussex and Watson visits him there, many fanworks will change this, either having them both retiring to Sussex at the same time or Watson joining Holmes at a later time, or them reuniting in some fashion for a case, or even them remaining at Baker St. together.
== Example Fanworks ==
=== Fanfic ===
==== Books ====
* The Seventeenth Step stories by Katie Forsythe (unknown date)
* "The Cornish Coast" by J.H.W. (1993) in Filling Time & Spaces (1993)
* Hidden Depths by Susannah Shepherd (2002)
* The Case of the Stolen Doctor by flawedamythyst (2011)
==== Granada ====
*Akin to Love by Melody C. (1992)
=== Fanart ===
* Dr. Watson's Inner Monologue by elina-elsu and harrietkaarre: Comic art with a story. 
* Art by Spacefall.
=== Doujinshi ===
====Sherlock Holmes (2009)==== 
*221b (2010)
*7% no Shohouyaku (2010) 
*All the Days of My Life I Will Walk With You (2010)
*Another Honeymoon (2012)
*Are You Happy? (2012)
*Be My XXX! (2012)
*Bittersweet Distance (2012)
*Bed Side (2010)
*Buddy Buddy Bird (2012)
*Case Closed (2010)
*Chocolate Voice. (2012)
*Chotto Ranbou Dakedo Jiman no Yome o Shoukai Shimasu. (2012)
*Cocaine' night (2010)
*Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same. (2012)
*Distance01 (2012)
*Escape Game (2012)
*Fighting Lovers Royal (2012)
*Find You (2012)
*Gendai Rhapsody (2011)
*Gladiolus (2012)
*Holmes Made Love (2010)
*Holmes! (2010)
*Hon no Yama ni Sumu Akuma (2010)
*Honey Moon Destination (2012)
*Honey Pot (2012)
*Hotchpotch (2011)
*I Love Your Buns (2012)
*It Is Your Gentle Place (2010)
*It's My Lifework!! (2011)
*Ibara no Kagi (2011)
*John H. Watson wa Shizuka ni Kurashi Tai. (2012)
*Junai Supplement (2012)
*Just For You (2012)
*London Jungle (2012)
*A Love Game of Shadows (2012)
*Love Me or Leave Me (2012)
*Me protect you. (2012)
*Monochrome Logic (2012)
*Mr. Right (2012)
*Not us... you! (2010)
*Oh! Good Life, No Good Life! (2011)
*Ohiza ni Suwatte mo (2010)
*Ore no Tantei ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai. (2011)
*Owakare Shinakucha Ikenai no (2012)
*Person Who Wait (2012)
*Reichenbach Kara Kaette Kitara, Joshu ga Honki o Dashite Kita. (2012)
*Rodeo Bishop (2012)
*S&H Casebook (2012)
*Sekai ga Urayamu Koi o Shiyoujanai ka (2011)
*Sneak A Look (2012)
*Storm is Coming (2012)
*Substitute (2013)
*Sugar!! (2011)
*Suichuu ni Hi o Motomu (2010)
*Take Me Out (2010)
*Táo zǒu de zhōng quǎn (2010)
*Te no Hira ni Tokeru Ondo (2011)
*The Sick Rose (2010) (contains Moriarty/Holmes)
*Usual Crime (2010)
*Wandering + (2010)
*Wandering the Road (2010)
*Water Lily (2012)
*We are just back in London (2012)
*Yakousei Garden (2012)
*Yǒngbù jiéshù de yuánwǔqǔ (2012)
*Yotaka no Saezui (2012)
*You Can't Catch Me!! (2012)
*You'd open the door. (2010)
*Your Love Is My Drug (2012)
*Yuruhuwa Intelli (2012)
*Zenbu Kimi no Sei. (2012)
====Sherlock Holmes (general)====
*Back Wild (2010)
*Holmes Senka (2010) 
*Mr.OP (2010)
*The Adventure of the Concussoris Magnus (2009)
=== Vids ===
There is a lot of Holmes/Watson vids, especially in the Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock (BBC) fandoms, listed are just a few examples:
*Your Mistake by Diana Williams (Granada)
*Holmes/Watson - Silver Lining (Granada Sherlock Holmes) by Sherlock Holmes Addict
*Whole New Way by mresundance - A meta pairing vid with H/W in three incarnations: BBCverse, the 2009 film, and the original Sherlock Holmes by Doyle.
*Holmes/Watson: 500 miles (coming home with you) by Educated inYellow (2019), including clips from Granada, the Lenfilm series (Old Russian Holmes), the New Russian Holmes series, the Ritchie movies, Without A Clue, and Murder By Decree.
*Crayola Doesn't Make a Color (Holmes/Watson romance, multiverse) by Educated inYellow (2022), including clips from several different adaptations
=== Meta ===
* by wisdomeagle at Shipper's Manifesto (2004)
=== Zines ===
The majority of the zines listed are based on Granada or the books. For zines based on the 2009 films see the Sherlock Holmes (2009) page.
==== Multimedia zines ====
Multifandom zines that had Holmes/Watson stories in them: 
* No Holds Barred #1 and #3 (1992, 1993)
* Plain Brown Wrapper #1 (1993)
* Pæan to Priapus #1, #2, #4, #5 (1990, 1992, 1993)
* Dyad #6 and #10 (1991, 1992)
* Compounded Interest #3 and #4 (1994, 1995)
* Alter Egos #1 and #2 (1996, 1997)
* Cohorts #3 and #4 (1997, 2002)
* Awakenings #5 (1998)
* This Happy Breed of Men, This England (1998)
==== Holmes only zines ====
* Friend of My Heart (1993-1994)
* No Holds Barred #8 (1995) - a Sherlock Holmes only issue
* The Battered Tin Dispatch Box (1997)
* Tokens and Traditions (1999)
* Worth the Wound (2004 Sherlock Holmes slash anthology)
* Trilogy (unknown date)
== Example Art Gallery ==
File:Noholds3.jpg|Cover art of No Holds Barred #3 by TACS (1993), this piece inspired by the Granada series
File:Fillingtime-1.jpg|from Filling Time & Spaces, art by TACS (1993)
File:Russian shwatsonlock by ladysokolov.jpg|alt=illustration of Watson laughing and hugging Holmes from behind, and Holmes is smoking his pipe|Russian Shwatsonlock by LadySokolov (2010), this piece inspired by The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson the 1980s Soviet series
File:Sherlock hwnouveau.jpg|It is Probable by Ponderosa121 (2010), inspired by the 2009 film series
File:Sherlockholmesbrevig.jpg|Art by Lorraine Brevig created for The Case of the Stolen Doctor, as part of the 2011 Sherlock Holmes Big Bang, this illustration inspired by the book illustrations
File:The Button by maXKennedy.jpg|Sherlock BBC - The Button by MaXKennedy (2012), inspired by BBC Sherlock
File:Elementary by clockwork-moon.jpg|elementary by clockwork-moon (2012), this piece inspired by the Elementary TV series, which had a female Watson
File:Basil Rathbone Nigel Bruce Holmes Watson.jpg|alt=drawing of Holmes kissing Watson on the forehead|Untitled art by trashdumper (2024), inspired by the Basil Rathbone films
==Communities==
*Holmes-Watson (DW)
*HolmesWatson09 (LJ)
*JohnSherlock (LJ) (BBC'verse)
General Sherlock Holmes slash:
*Cox & Co. (LJ and DW)
*221b_Slash (LJ)
=== Mailing Lists ===
* Holmesslash (1999 - 2019)
==Archives and Links==
* Sherlock Holmes/John Watson tag at Archive of Our Own
*A Layman's Guide To The Holmes/Watson Relationship
*Lyra's Holmes Watson Slash Links
*Sacrilege! a H/W slash site
*fuckyeahmysteryhusbands @ tumblr
==References==
Category:Slash Pairings
Category:Sherlock Holmes