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the-johnlock-conspiracy

The Johnlock Conspiracy

Ed. note: If you've come here from an outside website, please be aware that while we strive for these pages to be an accurate and well-documented accounting of events, this is an unofficial and internal wiki for the use of the nonnies at fail_fandomanon. Links marked in red go to posts outside of FFA, and the footnotes are archived versions of these pages.

TJLC is hugely influential. It ripped through the fandom like a shart in a crowded elevator. TJLC wank has become more divisive than Mary wank, and that's because of people like grace.

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In a Very Nutty Nutshell

As stated here, The Johnlock Conspiracy is a group of Sherlock BBC fans who believe that

Moffiss [Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss; also 'Mofftiss'] conceived the series with the intention of eventually having John and Sherlock enter a romantic relationship, but have opted to be sneaky about it because they realized that if they'd been open about where the show was headed from the beginning, many viewers would've written it off as a “gay show.” The only way to get a mainstream audience to watch a slowly-unfolding gay love story at this point in time may very well be to convince them they're watching something else. And so, as the theory goes, Moffat and Gatiss are lying through their teeth to preserve the surprise they have in store. They're hoping the reveal is going to be a huge cultural watershed moment, and it very well may be.

Another nonny: “The TJLC theory is “the exact (almost) same theory that Grace and the Sam/Kurt shippers argued in Glee fandom. To the point of cut pasting names and the insistence that Chord Overstreet was going to win an Emmy once the media realized the delicate acting he had done and how many lives he was going to change.”

This nonny who claims to work in BBC programming writes, “There is no TJLC. I know most people know that, but I know there's not…I don't work on Sherlock (which is made by an outside production company but still has a team at the BBC), but a few months ago I worked on a major project under the new head of diversity, looking at the range of representation going forward. Sherlock was brought up several times. If there was any sort of TJLC, Gatiss and Moffat are fucking phenomenal actors and keeping basically the biggest secret of all time, while also being incredibly dodgy with the editorial regulations of the BBC.” (Another nonny: “Yeah, as much as I love the Beeb when it's trying for diversity, it's, er…not subtle at those attempts.”)

TJLC 302: Deep Theory

This nonny who spent ”almost an entire day” reading the Tumblr of TJLCer loudest-subtext-in-television (LSIT) says, “[T]hey really do believe it's going to be a monumental event that will be studied in history classes and also bring an end to gay subtext in fiction. It read so much like the craziest conspiracy theories that I couldn't stop.” (This prompted an ad hoc TimeCube///Sherlock// crossover from another nonny.)

wufflesvetinari on Tumblr plugin_helper.php quotes a few bits from this LSIT post* and summarizes it: “i am reading the most bizarre pseudo-intellectual essay about how all of the decorations and most of the scenes in sherlock are symbolism for how sherlock wants john to fuck him.” (Brief meme discussion.)

In the context of Sherlock 221b Con Wank and its continuation Sherlock 221b Con Wank 2: The Chafening, the above linked LSIT post is notable for mentioning several times that “at the beginning of The Sign of Three, Sherlock was psychologically still a child, but he wasn’t at the end of it.” Nonny reaction: “Wait, sorry, did one of the BNFs in a subset of fandom that's currently ~striking down pedophilia~ just say Sherlock was a child until John's existence gave him a sexual awakening?”

This TJLCer believes that the fact that give my love to mary" anagrams to "motive, my gay loverplugin_helper.php proves JohnLock will become canon.

TJLC history

Nonnies differ on TJLC history. One nonny who was involved with it from its earliest days, and claims it was founded by LSIT, says it was pleasant until Graceebooks (the ringleader of Sherlock 221b Con Wank) jumped aboard and gained more visibility from it. Another TJLC veteran says, “There was mudslinging from both sides,” and credits Graceebooks, Joolabee/Joolaweed, “and some others” with founding the group.

Richard Siken involvement

Celebrity poet Richard Siken inadvertently got in the middle of top vs. bottom wank when he asked Tumblr to vote on whether Sherlock or John tops (and from whose perspective such fic should be written). He got an anon ask warning him that “toplock and switchlock are extremely bullied and shamed in this fandom and the people that like those things along with it. Also, bottomlockers outnumber everyone else, so really a vote is entirely unfair because it will always have the same outcome. You should just write whatever you want.”

Per this nonny, “people [were] allegedly bombarding Siken with pleas for top!lock or something, or toplockers [were] upset that a lot of people wanted bottomlock and then the TJLC crowd, who are afaik basically all bottomlockers, [made] fun of toplockers and their insecurities (in, IMO, a similar way to how they lowkey make fun of hetshippers and the like in the fandom, despite the fact that Johnlock is a massive juggernaut and there's no need to give two shits about hetshippers if you don't want to).”

When asked his opinion on TJLC, Siken diplomatically replied, “I have no theories on any of it. I just want to write a story :)”

Nonnies discuss whether the Sherlock 221b Con Wank has scared Siken away from fandom, as no additional news has been forthcoming.

A blast from the past

Immediately after the close of 221b Con, but before the wank blew up, Sherlock BNF & TJLCer Ivyblossom, fandom infamous for being part of Cassie Claire's “Inner Circle,” vagueblogged about what happened at the con.plugin_helper.phpMeme discusses the post, with a few nonnies expressing disappointment with her. Most, however, are unsurprised, as ”to [their] memory she's always been a wanky asshole,“ while another asks, ”Who in Cassie Claire's Inner Circle *wasn't* wanky back then?“

IvyBlossom came up on meme again, after her vagueblogging in support of Gracee et al. One nonny is done with her:

This about not having the right to ostracize people because their bad behavior may be coming from a place of pain or whatever bullshit, that's just too much. You don't lose the right to protect yourself from vicious assholes because the vicious assholes are also suffering, jeez.

Sherlocked 2015, or folie à fuckload

TLJC'ers mycroftcakeholmes and idontknowwhereibeelong attended Sherlocked 2015 in London during April 2015, at the height of the Sherlock 221b Con Wank. During this con, the two fans met with Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffatt (unknown whether they paid £3000 for the VIP ticket that included a roundtable with Mofftiss), and believed that the two showrunners made it subtly clear that JohnLock would become canon:

THE MOST AMAZING THING JUST HAPPENED
JULIA AND I WERE GETTING OUR STEVEN MOFFAT’S AUTOGRAPHS, AND HE WAS CHATTING WITH US AND HE ASKED US “SO IF YOU’RE FROM ITALY AND YOU FROM FINLAND, HOW DID YOU MEET?” AND WE WERE LIKE “ONLINE, BECAUSE OF SHERLOCK” THEN WE CHATTED A BIT MORE TOGETHER AND WHEN WE DEPARTED HE SAID “WHEN ARE YOU TWO MEETING AGAIN?” AND I DON’T KNOW WHY I SAID “WE WANT TO MEET AGAIN THE DAY JOHNLOCK BECOMES CANON” AND HIS EXPRESSION CHANGED COMPLETELY AND HE JUST MANAGED TO SAY “YEAH”
LIKE
GUYS I CAN’T EXPLAIN HIS FACE IT WAS TOO PRICELESS BUT
TJLC IS REALplugin_helper.php

NO YOU DONT UNDERSTAND IT WAS MY TURN TO TAKE A PHOTO WITH MARK AND HE READ MY TSHIRT, HUGGED ME FOR THE PIC AND SAID “Uhh softly softly!” WITH A TONE WHICH WAS KINDA LIKE “yeah i know what that means and you know i know and we both know” AND I DONT EVEN- OMG AJXIWNAL TJLC IS REAL MARK I LOVE YOU YOU GENIUS CUTIE PIEplugin_helper.php

WHEN I MENTIONED JOHNLOCK HE SAID NOTHING*
HE COULD HAVE LAUGHED AND SAID “YEAH JUST HOPE FOR IT” OR SHOOK HIS HEAD IN MOCK DISAPPROVAL
NOTHING
IF I HAD TO DESCRIBE IT WITH A WORD I’D SAY HIS FACE WAS SCREAMING “SHIT” BUT ALSO “LOL

Meme is skeptical that Mofftiss were trying to communicate the truth of John & Sherlock's Big Gay Love with their microexpressions:

"his face changed" AHAHAHAHAHAHAH yeah, like "oh fuck, it's one of those lunatics."

I'd guess his face was screaming "get these nutcases away from me," but that's just me.

They're celebrating as if they'd been shown an official promo pic of johnlock fucking (with the right person topping, ofc).

One nonnie hypothesizes that this rabid tinhattery is a result of changing fandom norms and possibly the spread of social media:

Because they're true believers and confirmation bias is one hell of a fucking drug.

I'm trying to remember if there was a time in my fandom life where I was absolutely, positively, 100 percent positive something I wanted badly to happen in canon would happen. I mean, hopeful, yes, pretty damn sure because of obvious textual clues, okay. But I don't think I've ever trusted creators to give me good things like so many of these younger fans. It might be the consequence of internet community and folie à fuckload, it might be because the cults of personality are so much more a thing now with writers and creators. The people behind my canons weren't people to me; they were fickle gods who sometimes sent down manna and sometimes toads. I didn't count on deliverance, I just prayed they wouldn't destroy everything I loved.

Graceebooks took this to be 100% pure gospel, and began gloating about winning the game of (fandom) thronesplugin_helper.php and groups of people she hates (assumed to be non-TJLC truebelievers) being laid to waste at her feetplugin_helper.php. Nonnies discuss Gracee's descent into madness.

The Mythology of TJLC

During the midst of TJLC vs JLEG: The Return of the Wankers, nonnies found a TJLC Youtube channel called TJLC Explained. It is apparently ~27 hours of explaining/defending TJLC, with video titles such as “Sherlock is Gay,” and “Sometimes a Meat Dagger is Exactly What it Sounds Like (Is that a dick? Yes).” As one gentlefailer noted, ”That's, like, almost twice as long as the running time of the show to date! I am impressed by her stamina.“

On 10 August 2106, the host posted a video interviewing Graceebooks and Joolabee regarding the founding of TJLC. One nonny with a stronger stomach than the editor watched the whole thing, and reported back:

There [is] a FOUNDING LEGEND. *glee*

*31.53 minutes later* *plus transcription time*

The things I do for you, ffa.

NOT going to comment on appearance, except to say *stop touching your hair*

Okay, so fox/jollabee seems honestly kinda sweet. Deluded, but aware that that perception of her would be pretty normal. Gracee has. Shatner. Pregnant. Pauses. And also specifically attributes her championing of the ship to a desire to “make it happen” for a young queer shipper. Personally, I think she comes off as insincere and self-aggrandizing, but that's an opinion.

Gracee says she came up with the name, but fox started the acronym, and it started pre-series 3.

“And of course anything involving me, no matter what, has to be dramatic and wanky; people were like pissed at me immediately 'what's this secret exclusive club you're creating?' We were just making a space for ourselves in fandom, creating a space where people who had this perspective, who shared the frustration born of that conflict between what we were watching on TV and what we were all sort of lead to believe had to be the truth about what's happening…a perspective that we felt had to be the right one, and we didn't feel was otherwise represented in fandom.”

Fox: “I have to say a conspiracy, because everyone thinks it's bullshit, as we well know and have experienced” [nonny with early grudge theories thinks this is significant]

Natty [LSiF] wrote meta and then joined in post series 3.

Fox: “After 'His Last Vow' fandom became a TJLC paradise”

Fox has a *fingers crossed* comment on JL becoming a reality in season 4. Gracee has:

“Here we are, just a few months away from canon JL…thank you for being part of creating a place in the fandom that was a place for us…looking at the show from a perspective that was first, we felt, not represented in fandom, and second, was inevitably the right one, and not just the right one, but the one you wanted to be true.”

Transcription nonny has many thoughts, but would like to leave this without them. Choice of quotes was biased, but their content is accurate.

TJLCers being assholes to other Sherlock fans

In TJLC, there are believers and there are haters. There are people who have faith that Johnlock will become canon, and there are what amounts to Suppressive Persons. Someone who likes Johnlock but doesn't believe it will become canon: hater. Someone who wants to believe but doesn't find the evidence convincing: hater. Someone who posts a meta addressing why they don't believe TJLC is correct: pressed pretentious hater, and let's celebrate the strength of our oppressed community and togetherness by celebrating 'hater day' just for all us TJLCers to have a bit of fun together.

This nonny elaborates how Sherlock MNF mid0nz was accused of “bullying young queer fans” after she wrote that she doesn't believe in TJLC. Her meta post on Sherlock BBC and “death of the author” per Roland Barthes has since been taken down but can be read via Gracee's vitriolic reblog;plugin_helper.phpthis Tumblr user tried to explain it, but LSIT simply decided* that mid0nz was a “hater.” IvyBlossom, discussed above, was part of this wank, on the side of the TJLCers.

Another nonnie brought meme up to speed on “The JohnLock Refutation,” (TJLR) which started sometime after LSiT's “Hater Day,” and involved TJLCers being assholes (though they point out that the other side didn't come out smelling like roses either):

Basically, TJLC peeps were going into various tags (Mary Morstan, Sherlolly, and Sheriarty being the big ones) and saying wanky shit. TJLC also had a habit of highjacking posts for other ships and either talking shit about the ship or changing it so it was about Johnlock. Some Sheriarty shippers (don't remember who) started the TJLR tag so they could whine about wanky TJLC shippers. TJLC found out and started posting wanky shit in the TJLR tag, and it was basically just fountains of splooge all over the place for awhile.

TJLCer Thealogieplugin_helper.php has written that “all the fic writers are consistently trash like like if someone told me they write sherlock fanfic i’d cross the street immediately because chances are i would want to murder them in the first ten minutes of knowing them.” After Thealogie was called out for this, Graceplugin_helper.php explained that the reference was to “one particular chunk of bnf fic writers who have chosen to really publicly, condescendingly, and unnecessarily trash the tjlc idea and anyone associated with it, for reasons that many have ascribed to their discomfort with shifting fandom dynamics.” She added that Thealogie's was a “lighthearted post, using ludicrously exaggerated hyperbole.” In her threeplugin_helper.phpfollow-upplugin_helper.phppostsplugin_helper.php she continued to insist that everybody was taking the matter of friends joking amongst themselves far too seriously. Nonnies point out that LSiT, Gracee, and some of their clique have 40,000+ followers each, making this "joke between friends" far more than that: We're just some friends joking around in front of 40,000 people. What's the problem?

Interestingly, one nonny has accidentally found a post from ~2013 by bennyslegsplugin_helper.php (screenshots here and here) discouraging the TJLC mentality. TJLCers Joolabee, Ivorylungs/Mannaneedstoshush, and Katzensprotte/Yourfalkaisproblematic all liked that post.

* denotes posts that have since been deleted. wiki nonnie is attempting to find copies of these in reblogs and will update if possible.

the-johnlock-conspiracy.txt · Last modified: 2021/08/29 17:35 (external edit)