John Watson (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stillhastrustissues) wrote2012-01-07 06:09 pm
stillhastrustissues) wrote2012-01-07 06:09 pm
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PLAYER
» Journal: ----
» Birthdate/Age: 08/27/1991 -- 20 yrs
» Characters Played: N/A
CHARACTER
» Name: John Watson.
» Fandom: Sherlock (BBC 2010 series)
» Reference: Here is a link to general series information, and for fun, here is a link to his official blog (cross my heart).
» Canon Point: Post "The Hound of Baskerville."
» Gender: Male
» Age: It doesn't seem to have been specified in this canon just yet from what I've seen, but I would easily put my guess at 37. From the way that he interacts with Sherlock (a little more particularly, the role of unofficial moral compass that he takes up), who I assume to be about 34/35, it seems like he's older by a few years, but not quite enough for the difference to be very jarring. It leaves him room to be an experienced medical doctor, returned from war, without putting him over 40 (which I honestly have trouble imagining for him, I don't know whether the preference is strictly personal).
» Orientation: John is straight and openly identifies himself as such more than once. In the series he is attracted to women, and even goes through a string of girlfriends off-screen in 'A Scandal in Belgravia.' He and Sherlock have a very strong and unique connection, one that makes most third parties think they're together in a romantic sense (and drives off those girlfriends), but he maintains they're just flatmates on a regular basis.
» Personality: A first look at John Watson by the average eye wouldn't reveal much of anything special about him. John's not the type of man who stands out in a crowd and even less the type of man to want to. Spending about an hour in his company, I imagine it would be easy to get a basic feel of his character, or as much of it as he tends to show on the fly. John is an ordinary bloke, a skilled doctor, and very much a pragmatist. He's the kind of man who cares about the duller details of living and often the first one to take care of them, even if they're not quite the things people enjoy doing. He'll tidy up around the flat, go out for the groceries, look through the bills, go to work, every day, like clockwork, because he understands that he has responsibilities and can't just leave them off. He's also quite a personable man- friendly, easy to relate to, and surprisingly good at accepting just about anything that gets thrown into his path- the last of which can be maintained by the fact that he's not only willingly friends with someone as difficult and complicated as Sherlock Holmes, but that he's also pretty damn good at being friends with him to boot. This is a man you have a friendly conversation with at random and nine times out of ten wouldn't expect could be dangerous at all.
That is entirely far from the truth.
It's entirely accurate that John is a kind man, good at heart and responsible, of course, but beneath all of that there is a constant current of soldier. John joined the army as a doctor of his own volition, knowing exactly the kind of danger he could be sent into, and he made it to the rank of Captain when he did get sent into it (as referenced in the Baskerville episode). While he was there primarily to treat the wounded, he has killed people in the line of duty, and it's not something that he's just forgotten. John served for quite some time in the invasion of Afghanistan before he was injured and invalided home. He's a crack shot with a pistol and he throws a mean right hook, and his idea of what's too dangerous, what he should honestly panic over- well, they definitely take his experiences at war into account when he reviews them. For all that he blends into a crowd and converses nicely, for all that he has very few problems connecting with women to date, John Watson is extremely capable of being dangerous if he feels the need to.
He's also a pretty damaged man, though he's been improving since the beginning of the series. Going to war isn't something that happened until he returned home and completely brushed it away, forgetting it ever happened. John has nightmares, returned with a wounded shoulder, a psychosomatic limp and got sent to a therapist. While it couldn't be said that he's traumatized beyond belief from his experiences, or that he wouldn't have enlisted all over again if he had the chance to go back, the first few minutes of 'A Study In Pink' alone go to show how much of an effect Afghanistan had on him. While having a stilted conversation with an old college buddy, who comments on how different he seems, he starts to say "I'm not the John Watson you know." Because it's fairly clear that he's not who he used to be. He spent his days talking to no one, staring at the spartan conditions of the room he'd taken up in, not contacting his sister because they don't get on, she's an alcoholic, and he was too proud to ask for monetary assistance. Like with many people, John has a hell of a lot of pride and it takes a hell of a lot to get him to let go of it.
Further, he's also a bit of an adrenaline junkie. And by a bit, I mean he's absolutely an adrenaline junkie, if very good at hiding it. He prefers to be useful, active, having something to do above all else- an uneventful life is something that he appears to have a lot of trouble handling, just judging by the social discomfort and silence that we get to see from him in his first few minutes on screen. When his therapist tells him that writing a blog about what happens to him will honestly help him, his only response is a quiet, almost pained "Nothing happens to me." John wants to be occupied instead of staring at the walls thinking most of the time, even while his time in action means he appreciates quiet moments and the basic comforts of modern living. It rather seemed like he had every intention of making the army a lifelong career, and had no idea what he was supposed to do once that was taken from him. This is even pointed out by Mycroft Holmes during their meeting face to face. When he refers to what John's therapist has written about him (the benefits of holding that position in the government, naturally), he sums up a lot of John's character point-blank. To derive from quotes of their conversation, he tells John that when John walks with Sherlock Holmes, he sees the battlefield. That the tremors in his left hand aren't the result of post-traumatic stress disorder, but from distaste for what his situation had turned into.
Or, as he puts it, "you're not haunted by the war, Doctor Watson. You miss it."
Of course, we might have figured out that he desires action and purpose earlier on. Sherlock offers him the chance to see a little more trouble, and he goes along with an "oh god, yes." Not so much as a second thought on the matter, and no looking back since.
Something else to mention, I suppose: his left hand is on occasion prone to tremors (not from the trauma of having been at war, but from a lack of that adrenaline he's so secretly addicted to), an occurrence which has all but disappeared since getting involved in such an active life with Sherlock. Speaking of vanished habits, after being thrust into a very uneventful civilian life (this quite probably to do with trauma), John also used to walk with a significant limp from pain in his left leg. These really only vanished after meeting Sherlock and starting up a life that's just... full of distraction and unpredictability and running across rooftops. This is something that I would just casually mention in passing as not being all that important anymore, but heading into a game would be quite a game-changer for him, and I'd rather have it in the open on his application as something that could resurface, unlikely though it may be.
Dr. Watson also possesses an uncanny ability to keep a cool head under pressure. Considering he was taken with the career of an army doctor and shipped out to service for a while, it makes a lot of sense. In fact, high-pressure situations tend to mean he'll excel. We see people strapped to explosives and forced to read off instructions in the episode "The Great Game," and towards the end John is put in that same position. He does as he's told with a steady voice, even keeping his wits about him enough to make a move against the consulting criminal responsible later. Towards the beginning of the scene when Sherlock arrives, he even thinks to blink S.O.S. in Morse code while he's talking, trying to get that message across. He can think most of the time when the stakes are high, can treat wounded soldiers under fire, accept his apparent kidnapping by Mycroft with an almost-casual "okay" in the first episode, and even offer up a sarcastic thanks to the men holding him at gunpoint (see A Scandal in Belgravia).The man has courage in spades, and a sense of humor both dark and dry enough to calmly get through most of the situations that a life with Sherlock Holmes produces.
Which isn't to say he's completely unaffected by great personal danger- following the removal of the bombs that were strapped to him in The Great Game, he could barely get through two or three steps before the rush of it all caught up to him and his legs nearly gave out. He still has nightmares about his service in Afghanistan as far back as the first episode. John is an extraordinary man by all means, but he's still just a man, after all.
He's also quite the foil to Sherlock, emotionally speaking. John is a man of pride, strong morals and not a small amount of nobility. He became a doctor because he genuinely cares about people, wants to help them, and an army doctor at least partly for that very same reason. Lives that are lost and saved and put in danger- he cares. John is too proud to put the majority of his emotions on deliberate, dramatic display, but he's still an emotional man and well aware of it. He has no qualms with shouting at Sherlock over the fact that he doesn't seem to care about the people in danger in The Great Game, and he likely never will have a problem telling Sherlock when he's got a problem with him. John wants to believe there's some good in people, as much as he believes in doing what he considers to be the right thing, therapist-noted trust issues aside. From his military time and the fact that he was willing to sacrifice himself in order to kill Moriarty and see Sherlock safely out of danger (The Great Game), it also appears he can look at the matter of his own life very objectively compared to those of others. One life to save his friend and put an end to a criminal mastermind once and for all? Fine. His actions were obviously also influenced by the fact that he cares about Sherlock, which is a relationship I'll get into shortly. Suffice it to say, the actions he takes for this man in canon, his personality in general, make it easy to see that he is a GOOD man. Unbelievably loyal, even only a day after meeting somebody, and he would take a bullet for the people he cares about any day (it's not like he hasn't taken one in the line of duty saving people already).
And of course, Sherlock Holmes has to be mentioned. It's... really hard to know where to begin, in terms of who he is to John and what he's done for him, and how they balance each other. A good start off to explaining their friendship would be to say it's not hard to see why so many people are under the impression that they're romantically involved. Because Sherlock really is responsible for the majority of John's character evolution in canon so far: this man just sort of swept into his life, told him all about himself within five minutes of their meeting, became his flatmate, apparently cured him of a psychosomatic limp, took him along on a crime-solving spree and became someone he had literally killed for in less than two days (A Study in Pink). It would be a bit melodramatic to say that John's life was empty without Sherlock in it, but it would be entirely accurate to say that it's improved immensely by his standards since they became flatmates. John thinks that Sherlock is brilliant (which he is), as brilliant as he is exasperating and awkward and childish. With Sherlock in his life, things never just fall into monotony. Judging by how unhappy he was with that sort of routine in the first episode, I would say it's safe to think he's grateful for that much.
In all honesty, it's probably not a friendship that should even work. An ex-army doctor and a consulting detective who calls serial killers Christmas come early and solves cases just because he can? But we come to see over the course of canon, from being in the thick of criminal chases to John and Sherlock bickering in an almost casually domestic way, that they just... suit each other. Sherlock gave John drive and purpose, ensures just by being so completely himself that nothing will ever be bleak and boring, and John takes on the mantle of being a moral compass of sorts (even when they'd only known each other for a day or two. When Sherlock expressed an indignant sort of surprise that a woman had been upset over her stillborn infant years later, the silence following had him turning to John and asking "Not good?"), of making sure Sherlock eats and sleeps and going out to pick up groceries. For all that Sherlock leaves body parts in the fridge and John supposedly nags, neither of them wants to see the other come to harm. Just the last few minutes of The Great Game is all you really need to see for the proof. The two of them are so completely different, but they balance each other out flawlessly- they work as an incredible team and bring each other up to their very best seamlessly.
Sherlock is always something of a complicated subject where John is concerned. Within 48 hours of meeting him, John was willing and able to shoot and kill a man to save his life- and I won't say it's just because it's Sherlock, having nothing to do with his moral standings, but Sherlock had quite a bit to do with it. As the people in Sherlock's life go, John seems to develop the best understanding of him that's really possible (Mycroft Holmes aside for obvious reasons)- walking away from the scene of the climax in 'A Study In Pink,' he asks in a tone of... almost fond exasperation, mixed in with genuine frustration, "You were going to take that bloody pill, weren't you?" In their time as flatmates, John's just plain gotten to know him and his habits, to the point where Sherlock walks in bloodstained, holding a harpoon, and John just asks if he really rode the tubes looking like that (Hound of the Baskervilles).
John very clearly considers this man a good friend, his best friend possibly, and becomes extremely protective of him- especially of his emotional state. He's aware that Sherlock and emotions don't tend to mesh well, if Sherlock allows himself to get mixed in with them at all, and sometimes the way he discusses matters of the heart with him seem like he's talking to a child. John really has become a moral grounding of sorts for him (it's very openly theorized that when Moriarty spoke of burning the heart out of Sherlock, John was what he was referring to)- the progression that Sherlock's made emotionally since they met is fascinating to see. In 'A Scandal in Belgravia,' he arrives at Buckingham Palace to find Sherlock, wrapped in nothing but a sheet, clearly tense and a bit sore at being dragged out of the flat, and manages to diffuse a lot of that tension in minutes. He's been able to make Sherlock genuinely laugh since they chased down a taxi in the very first episode, a skill that hasn't been developed by anybody else just yet.
From the very first day they met, they were just sort of drawn to each other. He so clearly admires Sherlock's abilities (and has no problem with saying as much out loud several times in episode one) and Sherlock clearly has respect for him, even when it almost makes no sense for him to. Simply put, they met by chance and have since managed to fill voids for each other, help each other in ways that nobody else could manage, without even being romantically involved.
So all in all, Watson can be summed up as one great big walking contradiction of a man. Both a doctor and a soldier- he knows how to save lives in the heat of battle, and at the same time he's taken lives as well. He appreciates the comforts of home (hot tea, jumpers, crap television), but his deep-seated desire to have a purpose and be useful keep him from being content with a quiet life at this point. He's got the patience and understanding of a saint, except for when he hasn't and he's bickering with his flatmate like they're an old married couple. John can be friendly, personable, and he can be stern, wary, angry, awkward, off-putting. He cares about people but he would kill to save a friend's life- would sacrifice himself and tell them to run. It can take him a while to trust somebody, but if he does he's loyal to a fault and not ashamed of the fact. John Watson can be kind and equally hard-hearted, long-suffering and short-tempered, not want anybody to know if something's wrong with him but berate a person for doing the same thing.
At the end of the day, he's just overwhelmingly... human. Hell, maybe that's why his friendship with Sherlock balances out so well.
» Appearance: It's hard to pinpoint the first thing that a person would notice about John Watson upon meeting him- a lot of this comes from the fact that he is a man who just doesn't stand out. Where Sherlock is tall, pale, willowy, with a flair for the dramatic, John is his opposite in even that. But right, let me list it off properly.
John Watson stands at about five and half feet, pushing five foot seven (judging by his height in comparison to the heights of most of his castmates). His build is rather stocky and quite fit- fit enough to spend the majority of his time running around the streets of London with his flatmate, at least. Not incredibly muscular, but very sturdy. In terms of posture, he typically keeps his back straight and his arms at his sides, something of a leftover from his years in the military. His discharge from the army came from being shot in the left shoulder, which it is safe to assume bears a scar from the incident.
John's face falls into the same sort of category as his body type, really- nothing very extraordinary, but not unattractive. No scars there, no birthmarks. His eyes are a darker shade of green, with a few more lines around them and occasionally more bags under them than the typical person would have. Generally, he has a face that would lend itself more to warmer expressions even while he tends to look neutral, grave and definitely deadpan more often than anything these days. He has darker blond hair, which he keeps cut close to his head, and also has a bit of a penchant for wearing sweaters. Here is a picture for reference.
» Suitability: N/A
» Journal: ----
» Birthdate/Age: 08/27/1991 -- 20 yrs
» Characters Played: N/A
CHARACTER
» Name: John Watson.
» Fandom: Sherlock (BBC 2010 series)
» Reference: Here is a link to general series information, and for fun, here is a link to his official blog (cross my heart).
» Canon Point: Post "The Hound of Baskerville."
» Gender: Male
» Age: It doesn't seem to have been specified in this canon just yet from what I've seen, but I would easily put my guess at 37. From the way that he interacts with Sherlock (a little more particularly, the role of unofficial moral compass that he takes up), who I assume to be about 34/35, it seems like he's older by a few years, but not quite enough for the difference to be very jarring. It leaves him room to be an experienced medical doctor, returned from war, without putting him over 40 (which I honestly have trouble imagining for him, I don't know whether the preference is strictly personal).
» Orientation: John is straight and openly identifies himself as such more than once. In the series he is attracted to women, and even goes through a string of girlfriends off-screen in 'A Scandal in Belgravia.' He and Sherlock have a very strong and unique connection, one that makes most third parties think they're together in a romantic sense (and drives off those girlfriends), but he maintains they're just flatmates on a regular basis.
» Personality: A first look at John Watson by the average eye wouldn't reveal much of anything special about him. John's not the type of man who stands out in a crowd and even less the type of man to want to. Spending about an hour in his company, I imagine it would be easy to get a basic feel of his character, or as much of it as he tends to show on the fly. John is an ordinary bloke, a skilled doctor, and very much a pragmatist. He's the kind of man who cares about the duller details of living and often the first one to take care of them, even if they're not quite the things people enjoy doing. He'll tidy up around the flat, go out for the groceries, look through the bills, go to work, every day, like clockwork, because he understands that he has responsibilities and can't just leave them off. He's also quite a personable man- friendly, easy to relate to, and surprisingly good at accepting just about anything that gets thrown into his path- the last of which can be maintained by the fact that he's not only willingly friends with someone as difficult and complicated as Sherlock Holmes, but that he's also pretty damn good at being friends with him to boot. This is a man you have a friendly conversation with at random and nine times out of ten wouldn't expect could be dangerous at all.
That is entirely far from the truth.
It's entirely accurate that John is a kind man, good at heart and responsible, of course, but beneath all of that there is a constant current of soldier. John joined the army as a doctor of his own volition, knowing exactly the kind of danger he could be sent into, and he made it to the rank of Captain when he did get sent into it (as referenced in the Baskerville episode). While he was there primarily to treat the wounded, he has killed people in the line of duty, and it's not something that he's just forgotten. John served for quite some time in the invasion of Afghanistan before he was injured and invalided home. He's a crack shot with a pistol and he throws a mean right hook, and his idea of what's too dangerous, what he should honestly panic over- well, they definitely take his experiences at war into account when he reviews them. For all that he blends into a crowd and converses nicely, for all that he has very few problems connecting with women to date, John Watson is extremely capable of being dangerous if he feels the need to.
He's also a pretty damaged man, though he's been improving since the beginning of the series. Going to war isn't something that happened until he returned home and completely brushed it away, forgetting it ever happened. John has nightmares, returned with a wounded shoulder, a psychosomatic limp and got sent to a therapist. While it couldn't be said that he's traumatized beyond belief from his experiences, or that he wouldn't have enlisted all over again if he had the chance to go back, the first few minutes of 'A Study In Pink' alone go to show how much of an effect Afghanistan had on him. While having a stilted conversation with an old college buddy, who comments on how different he seems, he starts to say "I'm not the John Watson you know." Because it's fairly clear that he's not who he used to be. He spent his days talking to no one, staring at the spartan conditions of the room he'd taken up in, not contacting his sister because they don't get on, she's an alcoholic, and he was too proud to ask for monetary assistance. Like with many people, John has a hell of a lot of pride and it takes a hell of a lot to get him to let go of it.
Further, he's also a bit of an adrenaline junkie. And by a bit, I mean he's absolutely an adrenaline junkie, if very good at hiding it. He prefers to be useful, active, having something to do above all else- an uneventful life is something that he appears to have a lot of trouble handling, just judging by the social discomfort and silence that we get to see from him in his first few minutes on screen. When his therapist tells him that writing a blog about what happens to him will honestly help him, his only response is a quiet, almost pained "Nothing happens to me." John wants to be occupied instead of staring at the walls thinking most of the time, even while his time in action means he appreciates quiet moments and the basic comforts of modern living. It rather seemed like he had every intention of making the army a lifelong career, and had no idea what he was supposed to do once that was taken from him. This is even pointed out by Mycroft Holmes during their meeting face to face. When he refers to what John's therapist has written about him (the benefits of holding that position in the government, naturally), he sums up a lot of John's character point-blank. To derive from quotes of their conversation, he tells John that when John walks with Sherlock Holmes, he sees the battlefield. That the tremors in his left hand aren't the result of post-traumatic stress disorder, but from distaste for what his situation had turned into.
Or, as he puts it, "you're not haunted by the war, Doctor Watson. You miss it."
Of course, we might have figured out that he desires action and purpose earlier on. Sherlock offers him the chance to see a little more trouble, and he goes along with an "oh god, yes." Not so much as a second thought on the matter, and no looking back since.
Something else to mention, I suppose: his left hand is on occasion prone to tremors (not from the trauma of having been at war, but from a lack of that adrenaline he's so secretly addicted to), an occurrence which has all but disappeared since getting involved in such an active life with Sherlock. Speaking of vanished habits, after being thrust into a very uneventful civilian life (this quite probably to do with trauma), John also used to walk with a significant limp from pain in his left leg. These really only vanished after meeting Sherlock and starting up a life that's just... full of distraction and unpredictability and running across rooftops. This is something that I would just casually mention in passing as not being all that important anymore, but heading into a game would be quite a game-changer for him, and I'd rather have it in the open on his application as something that could resurface, unlikely though it may be.
Dr. Watson also possesses an uncanny ability to keep a cool head under pressure. Considering he was taken with the career of an army doctor and shipped out to service for a while, it makes a lot of sense. In fact, high-pressure situations tend to mean he'll excel. We see people strapped to explosives and forced to read off instructions in the episode "The Great Game," and towards the end John is put in that same position. He does as he's told with a steady voice, even keeping his wits about him enough to make a move against the consulting criminal responsible later. Towards the beginning of the scene when Sherlock arrives, he even thinks to blink S.O.S. in Morse code while he's talking, trying to get that message across. He can think most of the time when the stakes are high, can treat wounded soldiers under fire, accept his apparent kidnapping by Mycroft with an almost-casual "okay" in the first episode, and even offer up a sarcastic thanks to the men holding him at gunpoint (see A Scandal in Belgravia).The man has courage in spades, and a sense of humor both dark and dry enough to calmly get through most of the situations that a life with Sherlock Holmes produces.
Which isn't to say he's completely unaffected by great personal danger- following the removal of the bombs that were strapped to him in The Great Game, he could barely get through two or three steps before the rush of it all caught up to him and his legs nearly gave out. He still has nightmares about his service in Afghanistan as far back as the first episode. John is an extraordinary man by all means, but he's still just a man, after all.
He's also quite the foil to Sherlock, emotionally speaking. John is a man of pride, strong morals and not a small amount of nobility. He became a doctor because he genuinely cares about people, wants to help them, and an army doctor at least partly for that very same reason. Lives that are lost and saved and put in danger- he cares. John is too proud to put the majority of his emotions on deliberate, dramatic display, but he's still an emotional man and well aware of it. He has no qualms with shouting at Sherlock over the fact that he doesn't seem to care about the people in danger in The Great Game, and he likely never will have a problem telling Sherlock when he's got a problem with him. John wants to believe there's some good in people, as much as he believes in doing what he considers to be the right thing, therapist-noted trust issues aside. From his military time and the fact that he was willing to sacrifice himself in order to kill Moriarty and see Sherlock safely out of danger (The Great Game), it also appears he can look at the matter of his own life very objectively compared to those of others. One life to save his friend and put an end to a criminal mastermind once and for all? Fine. His actions were obviously also influenced by the fact that he cares about Sherlock, which is a relationship I'll get into shortly. Suffice it to say, the actions he takes for this man in canon, his personality in general, make it easy to see that he is a GOOD man. Unbelievably loyal, even only a day after meeting somebody, and he would take a bullet for the people he cares about any day (it's not like he hasn't taken one in the line of duty saving people already).
And of course, Sherlock Holmes has to be mentioned. It's... really hard to know where to begin, in terms of who he is to John and what he's done for him, and how they balance each other. A good start off to explaining their friendship would be to say it's not hard to see why so many people are under the impression that they're romantically involved. Because Sherlock really is responsible for the majority of John's character evolution in canon so far: this man just sort of swept into his life, told him all about himself within five minutes of their meeting, became his flatmate, apparently cured him of a psychosomatic limp, took him along on a crime-solving spree and became someone he had literally killed for in less than two days (A Study in Pink). It would be a bit melodramatic to say that John's life was empty without Sherlock in it, but it would be entirely accurate to say that it's improved immensely by his standards since they became flatmates. John thinks that Sherlock is brilliant (which he is), as brilliant as he is exasperating and awkward and childish. With Sherlock in his life, things never just fall into monotony. Judging by how unhappy he was with that sort of routine in the first episode, I would say it's safe to think he's grateful for that much.
In all honesty, it's probably not a friendship that should even work. An ex-army doctor and a consulting detective who calls serial killers Christmas come early and solves cases just because he can? But we come to see over the course of canon, from being in the thick of criminal chases to John and Sherlock bickering in an almost casually domestic way, that they just... suit each other. Sherlock gave John drive and purpose, ensures just by being so completely himself that nothing will ever be bleak and boring, and John takes on the mantle of being a moral compass of sorts (even when they'd only known each other for a day or two. When Sherlock expressed an indignant sort of surprise that a woman had been upset over her stillborn infant years later, the silence following had him turning to John and asking "Not good?"), of making sure Sherlock eats and sleeps and going out to pick up groceries. For all that Sherlock leaves body parts in the fridge and John supposedly nags, neither of them wants to see the other come to harm. Just the last few minutes of The Great Game is all you really need to see for the proof. The two of them are so completely different, but they balance each other out flawlessly- they work as an incredible team and bring each other up to their very best seamlessly.
Sherlock is always something of a complicated subject where John is concerned. Within 48 hours of meeting him, John was willing and able to shoot and kill a man to save his life- and I won't say it's just because it's Sherlock, having nothing to do with his moral standings, but Sherlock had quite a bit to do with it. As the people in Sherlock's life go, John seems to develop the best understanding of him that's really possible (Mycroft Holmes aside for obvious reasons)- walking away from the scene of the climax in 'A Study In Pink,' he asks in a tone of... almost fond exasperation, mixed in with genuine frustration, "You were going to take that bloody pill, weren't you?" In their time as flatmates, John's just plain gotten to know him and his habits, to the point where Sherlock walks in bloodstained, holding a harpoon, and John just asks if he really rode the tubes looking like that (Hound of the Baskervilles).
John very clearly considers this man a good friend, his best friend possibly, and becomes extremely protective of him- especially of his emotional state. He's aware that Sherlock and emotions don't tend to mesh well, if Sherlock allows himself to get mixed in with them at all, and sometimes the way he discusses matters of the heart with him seem like he's talking to a child. John really has become a moral grounding of sorts for him (it's very openly theorized that when Moriarty spoke of burning the heart out of Sherlock, John was what he was referring to)- the progression that Sherlock's made emotionally since they met is fascinating to see. In 'A Scandal in Belgravia,' he arrives at Buckingham Palace to find Sherlock, wrapped in nothing but a sheet, clearly tense and a bit sore at being dragged out of the flat, and manages to diffuse a lot of that tension in minutes. He's been able to make Sherlock genuinely laugh since they chased down a taxi in the very first episode, a skill that hasn't been developed by anybody else just yet.
From the very first day they met, they were just sort of drawn to each other. He so clearly admires Sherlock's abilities (and has no problem with saying as much out loud several times in episode one) and Sherlock clearly has respect for him, even when it almost makes no sense for him to. Simply put, they met by chance and have since managed to fill voids for each other, help each other in ways that nobody else could manage, without even being romantically involved.
So all in all, Watson can be summed up as one great big walking contradiction of a man. Both a doctor and a soldier- he knows how to save lives in the heat of battle, and at the same time he's taken lives as well. He appreciates the comforts of home (hot tea, jumpers, crap television), but his deep-seated desire to have a purpose and be useful keep him from being content with a quiet life at this point. He's got the patience and understanding of a saint, except for when he hasn't and he's bickering with his flatmate like they're an old married couple. John can be friendly, personable, and he can be stern, wary, angry, awkward, off-putting. He cares about people but he would kill to save a friend's life- would sacrifice himself and tell them to run. It can take him a while to trust somebody, but if he does he's loyal to a fault and not ashamed of the fact. John Watson can be kind and equally hard-hearted, long-suffering and short-tempered, not want anybody to know if something's wrong with him but berate a person for doing the same thing.
At the end of the day, he's just overwhelmingly... human. Hell, maybe that's why his friendship with Sherlock balances out so well.
» Appearance: It's hard to pinpoint the first thing that a person would notice about John Watson upon meeting him- a lot of this comes from the fact that he is a man who just doesn't stand out. Where Sherlock is tall, pale, willowy, with a flair for the dramatic, John is his opposite in even that. But right, let me list it off properly.
John Watson stands at about five and half feet, pushing five foot seven (judging by his height in comparison to the heights of most of his castmates). His build is rather stocky and quite fit- fit enough to spend the majority of his time running around the streets of London with his flatmate, at least. Not incredibly muscular, but very sturdy. In terms of posture, he typically keeps his back straight and his arms at his sides, something of a leftover from his years in the military. His discharge from the army came from being shot in the left shoulder, which it is safe to assume bears a scar from the incident.
John's face falls into the same sort of category as his body type, really- nothing very extraordinary, but not unattractive. No scars there, no birthmarks. His eyes are a darker shade of green, with a few more lines around them and occasionally more bags under them than the typical person would have. Generally, he has a face that would lend itself more to warmer expressions even while he tends to look neutral, grave and definitely deadpan more often than anything these days. He has darker blond hair, which he keeps cut close to his head, and also has a bit of a penchant for wearing sweaters. Here is a picture for reference.
» Suitability: N/A