Sherlock Holmes is, yes, an arrogant, showoffy sod. He's very intelligent, yes, but he's also the type to insult people by deducing, say, their entire life stories from some minute detail about them, and saying their private issues out loud. He thinks very highly of himself, as Irene Adler once says in Scandal, "No, I think you're damaged, delusional and believe in a higher power. In your case, it's yourself," and as seen pretty much every day. He thinks that everyone around him is an idiot, and makes no secret of it. He's blunt and straightforward about his opinions and what he's deduced--he won't sugarcoat it for you just to soothe your fragile ego.
Unfortunately, that same bluntness can also be described as, well, tactlessness. He's been known to shout that he wanted a "nice juicy murder" for Christmas. At Santa Claus. In front of a bunch of kids and their parents. He also gets excited by serial killers, because according to him, "there's always something to look forward to". Sometimes it's just a bad case of timing (see: The Hounds of Baskerville, when he finally solves the case and is going, "This case, Henry! It's been brilliant." After Henry Knight, his client, has just discovered that the man he thought was his father's friend actually killed him and, beforehand, almost ate his gun), but at other times, he just has no sense of what to say.
And most times, it's deliberate. He doesn't really care what other people think about him, so long as he gets cases, so long as he doesn't get bored. He also does not care if his clients are important or not, he makes it very clear to them that he only wants the interesting cases. He's the sort of person who, if he's wearing only a bedsheet at the time, would refuse to put his clothes on if he had to go to Buckingham Palace. (And yes, it did happen. See Scandal.)
But he is very intelligent. He wouldn't be Sherlock Holmes, if he wasn't. Aside from being able to deduce something from someone at a glance, he's also written an article on 243 different types of tobacco ash on his website (later taken down), managed to crack a code that baffled Britain's best cryptographer in less than eight seconds, and solved a case while at home wrapped in a bedsheet, among other things. The only thing he doesn't know is the solar system, general pop culture and anything that does not relate to solving crimes.
He also describes himself as a "high-functioning sociopath". Don't ask me how it works, I'm no psychologist, but apparently, it means he doesn't really care for others. Which is, as the series goes on, completely false. He does care for other people, he just has a weird way of showing it, and he doesn't have many people he cares for, owing to his personality and general attitude towards others. But when he does care for someone, it's to the point where he's fiercely protective of them--going so far as to throw someone out the window for Mrs. Hudson and, later on, to throw himself off a building so John, Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade won't get shot.
Doesn't mean he won't manipulate them, though. He can be rather manipulative when he feels like it, often using what he's learned about someone against them, or pretending to be someone he's not to get what he wants or needs. He's used a morgue attendant named Molly Hooper's crush on him to be able to see some bodies that she doesn't have the authority to take out (see, The Blind Banker), and put sugar in John's coffee in the belief that there was a drug of some sort in the sugar (see, Hounds, and no there wasn't, which just goes to show that not even Sherlock is infallible). He's also a very good actor, on one occasion pretending to be a recently-mugged vicar to get into someone's house (see, Scandal).
Throughout this app there's been mentions of his only taking interesting cases. It's because he's...well, you could say he's an addict to the feeling he gets when he solves a particularly baffling case. He practically craves that high, though cigarettes and nicotine patches seem to be an acceptable substitute, so if he's denied a case and access to nicotine, he's liable to throw a temper tantrum, point harpoons at people and generally be meaner than usual (as seen in Hounds). And simple cases won't do it for him, he wants the ones that baffle even the police, the ones that seem almost impossible to solve.
He's also a terrible flatmate. Won't talk or eat for days, plays violin at 2 AM, keeps body parts in the kitchen (sometimes beside the food), shoots the walls when he's bored...he's generally not much good at keeping house, and he doesn't see any reason as to why he should change that.
So. In summation, Sherlock is an arrogant git who, nevertheless, has his redeeming factors.
Abilities: - Deductive abilities: pretty obvious already, but he's very good at deducing things. He can tell a person's life story at a glance, though something sometimes trips him up. (Irene Adler and Jim Moriarty hold the honor of having thrown off his trademark scan.) - Mind Palace: it's, basically, a mind mapping technique where you deposit memories and facts somewhere in your head. For some reason Sherlock's chosen a palace. Don't ask. - Reasonably good at combat, though he's probably never formally trained. He prefers guns. - And speaking of guns, he's also rather adept at shooting. This is the man who shot a smiley face into the wall. - Very good at playing the violin.
Re: Sherlock Holmes | Sherlock (BBC) | reserved
Personality:
Arrogant showoffy sod. The end.
...no, wait, not the end.
Sherlock Holmes is, yes, an arrogant, showoffy sod. He's very intelligent, yes, but he's also the type to insult people by deducing, say, their entire life stories from some minute detail about them, and saying their private issues out loud. He thinks very highly of himself, as Irene Adler once says in Scandal, "No, I think you're damaged, delusional and believe in a higher power. In your case, it's yourself," and as seen pretty much every day. He thinks that everyone around him is an idiot, and makes no secret of it. He's blunt and straightforward about his opinions and what he's deduced--he won't sugarcoat it for you just to soothe your fragile ego.
Unfortunately, that same bluntness can also be described as, well, tactlessness. He's been known to shout that he wanted a "nice juicy murder" for Christmas. At Santa Claus. In front of a bunch of kids and their parents. He also gets excited by serial killers, because according to him, "there's always something to look forward to". Sometimes it's just a bad case of timing (see: The Hounds of Baskerville, when he finally solves the case and is going, "This case, Henry! It's been brilliant." After Henry Knight, his client, has just discovered that the man he thought was his father's friend actually killed him and, beforehand, almost ate his gun), but at other times, he just has no sense of what to say.
And most times, it's deliberate. He doesn't really care what other people think about him, so long as he gets cases, so long as he doesn't get bored. He also does not care if his clients are important or not, he makes it very clear to them that he only wants the interesting cases. He's the sort of person who, if he's wearing only a bedsheet at the time, would refuse to put his clothes on if he had to go to Buckingham Palace. (And yes, it did happen. See Scandal.)
But he is very intelligent. He wouldn't be Sherlock Holmes, if he wasn't. Aside from being able to deduce something from someone at a glance, he's also written an article on 243 different types of tobacco ash on his website (later taken down), managed to crack a code that baffled Britain's best cryptographer in less than eight seconds, and solved a case while at home wrapped in a bedsheet, among other things. The only thing he doesn't know is the solar system, general pop culture and anything that does not relate to solving crimes.
He also describes himself as a "high-functioning sociopath". Don't ask me how it works, I'm no psychologist, but apparently, it means he doesn't really care for others. Which is, as the series goes on, completely false. He does care for other people, he just has a weird way of showing it, and he doesn't have many people he cares for, owing to his personality and general attitude towards others. But when he does care for someone, it's to the point where he's fiercely protective of them--going so far as to throw someone out the window for Mrs. Hudson and, later on, to throw himself off a building so John, Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade won't get shot.
Doesn't mean he won't manipulate them, though. He can be rather manipulative when he feels like it, often using what he's learned about someone against them, or pretending to be someone he's not to get what he wants or needs. He's used a morgue attendant named Molly Hooper's crush on him to be able to see some bodies that she doesn't have the authority to take out (see, The Blind Banker), and put sugar in John's coffee in the belief that there was a drug of some sort in the sugar (see, Hounds, and no there wasn't, which just goes to show that not even Sherlock is infallible). He's also a very good actor, on one occasion pretending to be a recently-mugged vicar to get into someone's house (see, Scandal).
Throughout this app there's been mentions of his only taking interesting cases. It's because he's...well, you could say he's an addict to the feeling he gets when he solves a particularly baffling case. He practically craves that high, though cigarettes and nicotine patches seem to be an acceptable substitute, so if he's denied a case and access to nicotine, he's liable to throw a temper tantrum, point harpoons at people and generally be meaner than usual (as seen in Hounds). And simple cases won't do it for him, he wants the ones that baffle even the police, the ones that seem almost impossible to solve.
He's also a terrible flatmate. Won't talk or eat for days, plays violin at 2 AM, keeps body parts in the kitchen (sometimes beside the food), shoots the walls when he's bored...he's generally not much good at keeping house, and he doesn't see any reason as to why he should change that.
So. In summation, Sherlock is an arrogant git who, nevertheless, has his redeeming factors.
Abilities:
- Deductive abilities: pretty obvious already, but he's very good at deducing things. He can tell a person's life story at a glance, though something sometimes trips him up. (Irene Adler and Jim Moriarty hold the honor of having thrown off his trademark scan.)
- Mind Palace: it's, basically, a mind mapping technique where you deposit memories and facts somewhere in your head. For some reason Sherlock's chosen a palace. Don't ask.
- Reasonably good at combat, though he's probably never formally trained. He prefers guns.
- And speaking of guns, he's also rather adept at shooting. This is the man who shot a smiley face into the wall.
- Very good at playing the violin.