Bring a Friend to Fandom Day - #2

[beeinmybonnet]

Courtesy of laurenmitchell.

Fandom:
Sherlock Holmes movieverse
Medium/Media: TV show? Book? Comic? Band? All of the above?
A movie adaptation of the famous novels and short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Extent: What are newbies letting themselves in for - a single book or a fifteen-book saga? A fifteen-episode cancelled TV show, or nine seasons of twenty 45-minute episodes? A set of comics that'll need a truck to deliver?
If you're purely in it for the movie, that's easily achieved. If you want to get familiar with book canon as well--which I certainly hope you are--you're in for 56 short stories and 4 novels, and that's just the original canon. Then you have the plethora of other adaptations, and then we get to the pastichés. But everything between just watching the movie and being a dyed-in-the-wool Holmsian works. (As for other adaptations, the Granada TV-series starring Jeremy Brett is considered a must among fans, partly due to Brett's excellent gay portrayal of Holmes. Personally, I heartily recommend Bert Coules' adaptation for BBC Radio, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson.)
Genre: Science fiction? Fantasy? Horror?
Victorian England! Prepare to get run over by four-wheelers, choke on pipe smoke, doff your frock coat before a fight, bring your card with you and forget all you know about water closets. Movieverse is somewhat more action-filled and less "formal" than original book canon, but nevertheless firmly set in the late 19th century. Any mention of magic, other than in pure jest and/or ultimately proved to be a hoax, will be frowned upon. Let's not even get started on anachronisms.

Canon
Main characters: Name the main characters with a brief bio.
Mr Sherlock Holmes is the brilliant consulting detective that has brought deduction to an art. Dr John H Watson is his friend and fellow lodger, who not only assists him on his cases but also becomes his chronicler. They met through a mutual acquaintance when Watson had just returned from the Afghan War and was in search of cheap dwellings, and in that moment one of the world's greatest love stories began. Holmes is a genius when it comes to logic and knowledge, but he's seriously lacking in social and emotional skills, and to be quite frank with you, I'm convinced he has some form of high-functioning autism, like Asperger's Syndrome. At the very least. Watson is a man of action, rather popular with the ladies, and fiercely loyal. It should be mentioned that both these men love sarcasm, so prepare yourself for a blitz of bickering and banter.
Main plot: A brief explanation of the main plot of the story. Try to avoid spoilers! If you can't avoid major spoilers, warn for them in your cut-text!
Holmes and Watson solve crimes. That's pretty much the gist of it. There are a couple of important events in canon, though. Watson gets married to Mary Morstan some 8-10 years into his and Holmes' acquaintance. Holmes does not like that. Then a master criminal called Professor Moriarty has a bone to pick with Holmes, leading to Holmes and Moriarty falled down into a huge waterfall in Switzerland. Watson does not like that. Three years later, Holmes shows up again, revealing himself not to be dead, and Watson faints. Then things go on as they've always done. Holmes and Watson like that. Mary? She died and/or divorced Watson sometime during those three years Holmes went missing. (Movieverse has ticked off the first event, and we fans are eagerly awaiting the rest.)
Setting: When and where is the story set?
Like I said, Victorian England. With occasional visits to Switzerland or France.
Why I think you should watch/read/otherwise partake of this fandom: Reasons in canon that new people might be interested.
Because it is brilliant. I've never been part of a kinder of more intelligent fandom, or a funnier one. And the average quality of fanworks is amazing. Really, it's such a nice place to visit.
Activity level: What's happening to canon at the moment? Is it finished, or ongoing, or debatable?
The book canon ended some 80 years ago, but there are already plans for two sequels to the movie Sherlock Holmes.
Shipping: Does the canon tend towards slash, het or gen? NB this means actual IN CANON pairings, not the sort you see through the goggles (yes, I am as guilty of this as the next ficcer, assuming the next ficcer is fiareynne).
Well. The majority of the fandom are Holmes/Watson shippers, and with good reason. I mean, the creators and actors themselves say that the movie's pretty much about Holmes and Watson's (platonic...) relationship. But, it's not yet canon that Holmes and Watson intimate friends indeed. What is canon is Watson's engagement to Mary Morstan, and the seriously weird relationship between Holmes and Irene Adler. Though I'm not sure if the latter should count, since they don't actually do anything about it. If Holmes/Adler counts as canon, then Holmes/Watson should as well, imho.

Fanon and Fandom
Communities: Places that new people can go for fic/art/fine dining and conversation - include LJ comms or off-LJ lists, whatever. Might be wise to mention how welcoming the comms are of new people.
Personally, I think holmeswatson09 is the best community. If you're looking for more gen-oriented stuff, sherlock2009 is a good place to start.
Recs: Recommend up to five fics/artses/whatever. (Limit suggested only so it doesn't go on forever.)
- Everything by katieforsythe (PG to NC-17). Yeah, she writes fic for book canon. So? She's the best H/W author there is.
- Everything by candle_beck (PG-13 to NC-17). In my humble opinion, this author is the movieverse's answer to Katie.
- These Things Were Promises by paperclipbitch (NC-17). A 50k story in which Holmes and Watson are painfully in-character and misunderstand each other time and time again. Brilliant first-time fic.
- What It Is To Burn by foxxcub (NC-17). Angsty, like many fics are in this fandom, but utterly gorgeous. H/W.
- Broken Substitutes by zarah5 (NC-17). A perfect movieverse cocktail: plot, angst and sex. H/W.
- Unraveled by circa1220bce (NC-17). Doesn't the summary "Holmes takes a knock to the head, and assumes he and Watson are together due to his friend's overt concern over said knock" sound promising? Well, this fic certainly meets your expectations.
(Oh, shush, Katie's a bonus since she doesn't write movieverse fics, so I've given five recommendations.)
Activity level: Roughly how active is the fandom? Can be expressed in terms of community posts per day/week/month/ice age, or just as a general vibe.
Currently it's crazy busy, with five posts a day at holmeswatson09 at minimum. We're certainly alive!
Shipping: Does the fandom tend towards slash, het or gen? Is there a majority-preferred pairing? Does it match up with canonically established pairings? Is the fandom generally welcoming of alternative pairings or will it bite your head off?
Like I've already said, the majority of fandom ship Holmes/Watson. There are also Holmes/Adler shippers and some Watson/Mary shippers, but I haven't seen much of them. I'm afraid this is a very slash-oriented fandom. ♥
Kink: What is the fandom's attitude towards kink? Is there a kink meme?
Seeing that a part four of the sherlockkink meme has been posted, I ~suppose~ the fandom is not averse to kink. Quite the opposite, in fact. There also seems to be a trend of bottom!Holmes, or--perhaps more fittingly--of top!Watson.