Comment by Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]@hexbear.net on *Permanently Deleted*

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House is literally a version of Sherlock Holmes. Like explicitly meant to be a take on the character.

So that’s probably the trope you’re seeing.

Kind of, yeah. I’ve only read a couple of the stories, but it’s basically the same guy lol

Eccentric rude guy whose main redeeming quality is being really good at puzzles and lucking into incredibly forgiving friends.

I’ll say the TV shows give a different vibe. The character drama was not the main point of the Sherlock stories, at all, it was mostly just about solving the mystery

Sherlock Holmes from the books is a gent. From what I remember more of a knowledgeable deliberative pulls-no-punches vibe than annoying jerk.

Yeah it was played as just a character quirk moreso than this overarching dramatic personality flaw that was ruining everyone’s lives

He’s a recluse or autistic or something which turns people off instead of brashness. Although there probably was some brashness too now that I think about it.

It just reads as a lot more forgivable, idk. The characters in the shows are near irredeemable.

he’s not autistic

in part because fictional characters can’t have real conditions that the author doesn’t understand

I dunno, there have always been autistic people even if we didn’t have a word for it.
Idk much about Holmes, but if Doyle based some of his behavior on someone he knew or people in general who we would now describe as autistic, then I think it would be fair to say Holmes was as well…even if it wasn’t the author’s intent.

I disagree with this — I’ve picked up on a lot of characters being plausibly autistic (being autistic myself there can be a certain kinship or recognition of self) entirely without the author’s conscious knowledge.

People write what they know, and if they know autistic people or people with autistic traits then there’s a decent chance that’ll work its way into some of their characters.

Watson mentions a few times that Holmes’ knowledge only extends so far and a lot of it isn’t practical or very structured. He has a complete obsession with investigating crime and knows basically nothing about anything else, except maybe playing the violin. I think a plot point in one book is that Holmes knows absolutely nothing about astronomy?

He’s a bit no nonsense and abrasive, and coked up. So not so much. The books fucking rock btw

in the books he’s portrayed as a mess.

the fact he gets bored and injects cocaine and is very abrasive are both portrayed as flaws

House’s drug addiction and abrasiveness are also portrayed as flaws as well. The fact they try to make him seem a bit more likable at times is probably because execs feel that “happy endings” and “likable characters” is what keeps people tuning in.

yeah but Holmes isn’t like this because of a tragic backstory and Holmes isn’t miserable either

I suppose House is more of a mess

Sherlock from the books and short stories is alright, the portrayal of him has gotten flanderized as the years have gone on. At worst he is a little rude or condescending at times. Compare this to the absolute asshole that is the Cumberbatch Holmes in the BBC series.

This is basically the answer. I’d also add that in both cases, though the protags are portrayed to have great aptitude, if anyone watching either show thinks being like them is ‘cool’, they can’t have been paying attention. They both live lives of thorough self-torment and self-destruction.

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