Moriarty and ACD

[221bcrow]

ACD Conspiracy Theories

thejohnlockrapture:

wellthengameover:

I have an annotated version of ACD, and reading the annotations, I figured out where Mofftisson got their ideas for TRF:

The Final Problem … has probably given rise to more discussion among Holmesians than any other [story] in Canon … numerous … theories are proposed to explain the inconsistencies …

Moriarty is imaginary:

• Holmes staged the entire affair to obtain a three-year rest-cure for his drug addiction
• Holmes imagined Moriarty and traveled to the Falls bent on suicide
• Moriarty was invented by Holmes to explain his lack of success in an increasing number of cases; Holmes’s ego would not allow him to admit that ordinary criminals had outsmarted him, so he invented a master criminal
• Holmes and Moriarty were the same person
• Watson made up the entire story, at the request of Colonel James Moriarty, to memorialize his brother, who died saving Holmes’s life!
• Professor James “Moriarty” was in fact Professor James Holmes, an elder brother of Sherlock’s; the flight from England must have been made to give James a chance to escape with his life
• Holmes invented the story of Moriarty as a cover-up for a secret diplomatic mission
  

Moriarty is innocent:

• Moriarty was persecuted by Holmes as revenge for Holmes’s being forbidden to woo Moriarty’s daughter
• Moriarty as Holmes’s childhood tutor, the seducer of Holmes’s mother, upon whom Holmes projects a fantasy of criminality
• Moriarty was a wholly innocent bystander killed by Holmes at the Falls while Holmes was [high on cocaine], and Moriarty’s reputation was smeared to preserve Holmes’s

Moriarty lives:

• Holmes died at the Falls while Moriarty took his place
• Moriarty was never at the Falls but lived to confront Holmes later in The Valley of Fear
• Moriarty escaped death because his cloak acted as a parachute until it caught on a branch and Moran was able to rescue him
• Holmes killed the wrong man at the Falls and Moriarty took on a new identity - Colonel Sebastian Moran
• Holmes let Moriarty go and … Moriarty subsequently achieved moral rehabilitation and … pursued law enforcement in the United States
• Moriarty was Count Dracula

Holmes is guilty:

• Holmes could not obtain sufficient evidence to convict Moriarty, [and so] enticed Moriarty to follow him up to the Falls for the express purpose of killing him

Holmes killed the wrong man:

• A brother of Moriarty … was thrown into the Falls
• Holmes at a tryst at the falls with Irene Adler and … she fell into the Falls
• Watson and Mycroft dumped Holmes … into the Falls

Holmes died:

• After Holmes’s death, Mycroft replaced him with his cousin Sherrinford
• The entire post-Reichenbach Canon was made up by Watson, to supplement his income

I think it’s pretty incredible how Mofftisson put most of the major theories in TRF - Moriarty is innocent, Holmes is guilty, Moriarty lives, etc. These guys are such huge ACD fans.

Additionally, apparently some ACD scholars think Mycroft worked for Moriarty:

Although Mycroft Holmes’s aid [in driving Watson to the train station undercover in The Final Problem] seems purely altruistic … he was a double agent, working for Moriarty while feeding information to his brother. It is clear … that someone leaked information from Holmes’s camp to the professor … this information would have included both a physical description of Holmes … and the precise time of Holmes’s departure … Mycroft [was] Moriarty’s agent in The Greek Interpreter and as Porlock, a nom de plume of an informant in the Moriarty camp in The Valley of Fear … Mycroft inhabits a difficult role as a man playing a delicate part in an irreconcilable duel between his brother … and a super criminal. 

And - best for last - some ACD scholars think Mary Morstan is a criminal:

Mary Morstan’s utter lack [after The Sign of the Four], to the point of never again being mentioned by name, and … ultimately understanding nature in the face of her husband’s tendencies [to run off with Holmes] … is nothing more than a cover written by Watson … Suspecting Mary’s involvement with the Four, Holmes and Watson agreed to keep her close. She did not die during Holmes’s absence … but was in fact sent to jail several years earlier.

Wow, how much do Mofftisson love ACD. This is ridiculous. How can people say Mofftisson aren’t invested? This is surreal.

(Everything in italics is quoted or heavily paraphrased from The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, annotations by Leslie S. Klinger.)

{SCREAMING INTENSIFIES}