History Fanon / SherlockHolmes

* It's fairly established fanon that Holmes' parents were called Violet and Siger and that he at some point was part of a Shakespearean acting troupe that toured America.

Related to [[YMMV/SherlockHolmes YMMV]], except these particular fan-reactions and interpretations are quite widely entrenched in fannish thought.

* It's fairly established fanon that Holmes' parents were called Violet and Sanger and that he at some point was part of a Shakespearean acting troupe that toured America.

* For some reason, Holmes/Watson is so widespread, it's often mistaken for actual {{Canon}} by fandom newbies. Adaptations don't help. Is considered SeriousBusiness by some fans to the point [[http://www.nekosmuse.com/sherlockholmes/subtext.htm essays are written about the "subtext"]]. (In a series where "ejaculation" means "sudden exclamation" and nothing else, at that.)

* On the other hand, just about every non-Doyle author to write multiple Holmes stories will eventually buy into the fanon that his relationship with Irene Adler was [[DatingCatwoman more than intellectual]], and that rather than the courtesan she is described as in "A Scandal In Bohemia" she was a much more modern and active kind of "[[DarkActionGirl adventuress]]".

* The idea that Watson had more than one wife comes from several stories. In "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter", Holmes, for once narrating a story, talks about Watson having "deserted me for a wife". The story is explicitly dated to 1903, well after the death of Mary Watson nee Morstan. "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Five Orange Pips" both briefly mention Watson being married before his canonical meeting with Mary. There is much fannish argument about who these other two (at least) might be.

* It's fairly established fanon that Holmes' parents were called Violet and Sanger, he at some point was part of a Shakespearean acting troupe that toured America.
* His older brother Mycroft is head of the proto British secret service. This sometimes assumes that the Diogenes Club is actually a front organisation for some kind of spy organisation, an idea explored most deeply in a series of stories by Creator/KimNewman.

* This happens quite a bit in Sherlock Holmes. Among other things, it's fairly established fanon that Holmes' parents were called Violet and Sanger, he at some point was part of a Shakespearean acting troupe that toured America, his older brother Mycroft is head of the proto British secret service, and the eldest of the Holmes brothers is called Sherringford (the name Arthur Conan Doyle gave to Sherlock in early drafts), a country squire.

* A very popular bit of fanon in the ''SherlockHolmes'' fandom is that Dr. Watson's middle name is Hamish; this theory was first devised by Creator/DorothyLSayers in order to explain why Watson's wife calls him James in one story although his first name was previously stated to be John (Hamish is the Scottish form of James).

* Many adaptations talking about Sherlock's family-life (''YoungSherlockHolmes'', ''The Seven Percent Solution'', ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'') seem to be oddly agreed on the fact that a young Sherlock Holmes deduced that his father was having an affair, told his mother and ended up ruining the family.

* A mostly irrelevant EpilepticTree refers to Watson's bulldog, which is mentioned in ''A Study in Scarlet'' when Holmes and Watson first meet and move in together and then completely disappears. The theory varies, saying that Holmes either used the dog for an experiment that resulted in its death, or, the more PETA-friendly version, he simply had Watson get rid of it.

* A very popular bit of fanon in the ''SherlockHolmes'' fandom is that Dr. Watson's middle name is Hamish; this theory was first devised by DorothyLSayers in order to explain why Watson's wife calls him James in one story although his first name was previously stated to be John (Hamish is the Scottish form of James).

* More Sherlock Holmes fanon; Watson had three wives, Holmes and [[PromotedToLoveInterest Irene Adler]] met in Montenegro while he was [[FakingTheDead faking his death]] between ''The Final Problem'' and ''The Empty House'' and fathered a child who would grow up to be Literature/NeroWolfe, that the King of Bohemia was Edward VII, that Holmes worked on the JackTheRipper case (and it was Watson who secretly solved it), that Holmes's retirement to bee-keeping was in the hope of creating "royal jelly" (believed then to be a sort of FountainOfYouth) and that Holmes spent the last decade of his life fighting Nazis before dying at the ripe old age of ''90''. All of this is present in W.S. Baring-Gould's tongue-in-cheek "biography", ''Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street''.

** People who join the 'Baker Street Irregulars" have to write an essay. {{NeroWolfe Rex Stout's]] was titled "Watson Is a Woman".

** People who join the 'Baker Street Irregulars" have to write an essay. {{NeroWolfe Rex Stout]]'s was titled "Watson Is a Woman".

** People who join the 'Baker Street Irregulars" have to write an essay. Rex Stout's was titled "Watson Is a Woman".

* Watson's appearance is never described beyond being "brown as a nut and thin as a lath" in ''A Study in Scarlet'', and ''that'' after having just returned from severe illness abroad. Nowadays, though, it's generally accepted that he was blond - helped along, perhaps, by David Burke of [[Series/SherlockHolmes the Granada series]] and Vitaly Solomin of [[Series/TheAdventuresOfSherlockHolmesAndDoctorWatson the Russian series]], not to mention Jude Law and MartinFreeman.

* More Sherlock Holmes fanon; Watson had three wives, Holmes and [[PromotedToLoveInterest Irene Adler]] met in Montenegro while he was [[FakingTheDead faking his death]] between ''The Final Problem'' and ''The Empty House'' and fathered a child who would grow up to be NeroWolfe, that the King of Bohemia was Edward VII, that Holmes worked on the JackTheRipper case (and it was Watson who secretly solved it), that Holmes's retirement to bee-keeping was in the hope of creating "royal jelly" (believed then to be a sort of FountainOfYouth) and that Holmes spent the last decade of his life fighting Nazis before dying at the ripe old age of ''90''. All of this is present in W.S. Baring-Gould's tongue-in-cheek "biography", ''Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street''.

* More Sherlock Holmes fanon; Watson had three wives, Holmes and [[PromotedToLoveInterest Irene Adler]] met in Montenegro while he was [[FakingTheDead faking his death]] between ''The Final Problem'' and ''The Empty House'' and fathered a child who would grow up to be NeroWolfe, that the King of Bohemia was Edward VII, that Holmes worked on the JackTheRipper case, that Holmes's retirement to bee-keeping was in the hope of creating "royal jelly" (believed then to be a sort of FountainOfYouth) and that Holmes spent the last decade of his life fighting Nazis before dying at the ripe old age of ''90''. All of this is present in W.S. Baring-Gould's tongue-in-cheek "biography", ''Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street''.

* Calling someone (usually sarcastically) solving some mundane problem "Sherlock Holmes" is an OlderThanRadio meme.

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!!Common Fanfic Tropes

[[folder: BBC Sherlock TV Series]]
* The ''{{Sherlock}}'' KinkMeme has spawned the idea that Anderson has a dinosaur fetish.
* There's also a great deal of {{Crossover}}-y fun involved in figuring out who the "married ones next door" are.
* Because of BenedictCumberbatch and Creator/MarkGatiss' real life redheadedness, Sherlock and Mycroft are occasionally "secret gingers".
** In post-Reichenbach fics, [[spoiler: Sherlock sometimes dyes his hair red while he's pretending to be dead.]]
* Sherlock's eventual [[spoiler: reunion with John post-Reichenbach is normally after three years (as it was in the novels)]] and John either punches Sherlock, kisses him, or faints (depending on whether or not the person is a shipper and if they've read the originals).
* John also seems to have a jam fetish.
** Upgraded to canon (sort of): a jar labeled "John's Jam" appears on Sherlockology's "Silver Blaze" advent calendar.
* Lestrade apparently got Sherlock off of drugs as a condition for letting him consult.
* It's commonly accepted that the Holmes family is very, very rich. Many stories involve the "Holmes Estate".
** Along with this goes the notion that the reason Sherlock needed help paying the rent is that before the consulting-detective business became lucrative, his income was from a trust fund which was under Mycroft's control.
* John's father was either an alcoholic or a soldier, or both.
* Lestrade has a young daughter.
* John's leg injury was real, but not from a gunshot. Also he has recurring pain (and sometimes limited mobility) in his injured shoulder.
* John, as he said in "A Scandal in Belgravia", is "not actually gay" -- [[BiTheWay but neither is he completely inexperienced with men]].
* There's a recurring motif in fanart that John has the RAMC insignia as a tattoo.
* For some reason, there seems to be a widespread joke/belief involving John and red underwear. In other words, avoid Tumblr on "Red Pants Monday" if you aren't a shipper. And apparently Martin Freeman knows about it, too.
* Mummy Holmes is either an Alzheimer's victim or [[JamesBond M]].
* [[ColdSniper Sebastian]] [[TheDragon Moran]] has not been mentioned or seen on-show, with the closest thing being a minor MythologyGag. If you just went by the fandom, you'd think he was a recurring character.
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