Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Dangerously Genre Savvy is being merged with Genre Savvy. Misuse and zero context examples will be cut.
Deleted line(s) 80,82 (click to see context) :
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy:
** As "Scandal" shows, if it comes down to a choice between baiting Sherlock Holmes and his actual job, he'll pick the job. After all, crime is a heavily trust-based business.
** In "The Reichenbach Fall", he plays -- and ''wins'' -- GambitRoulette with both Holmes brothers and forces Sherlock to [[spoiler: fake his own suicide or risk John, Lestrade, and Mrs. Hudson's deaths. Although in Season 3, Sherlock claims he and Mycroft were playing Moriarty all along]].
** As "Scandal" shows, if it comes down to a choice between baiting Sherlock Holmes and his actual job, he'll pick the job. After all, crime is a heavily trust-based business.
** In "The Reichenbach Fall", he plays -- and ''wins'' -- GambitRoulette with both Holmes brothers and forces Sherlock to [[spoiler: fake his own suicide or risk John, Lestrade, and Mrs. Hudson's deaths. Although in Season 3, Sherlock claims he and Mycroft were playing Moriarty all along]].
Deleted line(s) 213,214 (click to see context) :
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy:
** He keeps all his information in an underground vault in hard copy, because computers are hackable. [[spoiler: Taken further when we find out there is no vault. He's able to '''memorize''' '''everything''', by having his own version of Sherlock's mind palace. Further, while he has no physical evidence of anything he knows, the people he blackmails don't know that. And besides, he's a media mogul - his newspapers don't ''need'' proof to print the stories.]]
** He keeps all his information in an underground vault in hard copy, because computers are hackable. [[spoiler: Taken further when we find out there is no vault. He's able to '''memorize''' '''everything''', by having his own version of Sherlock's mind palace. Further, while he has no physical evidence of anything he knows, the people he blackmails don't know that. And besides, he's a media mogul - his newspapers don't ''need'' proof to print the stories.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* MagnificentBastard: Not just ''a'' magnificent bastard. ''The'' magnificent bastard.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* AdaptationalNationality: Like Adler, he was originally American, this time from Utah. In the TV series, he is a Cockney cab driver.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* AdaptationalNationality: In the original series, Adler is American, from New Jersey. In the new series, she's played by English Lara Pulver. They do allude to her original American background with [[spoiler:her going to America for witness protection, but really being captured in Karachi, and seemingly beheaded...]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 167 (click to see context) from:
* KarmaHoudini: For all the havoc and damage she caused, [[spoiler: she still gets to survive in the end.]]
to:
* KarmaHoudini: For all the havoc and damage she caused, [[spoiler: she still gets to survive in the end.end, albeit which her reputation destroyed and her "occupation" taken away from her.]]
Added DiffLines:
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We never find out what became of her after the events of "A Scandal in Belgravia", presumably she's in hiding in somewhere.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* FauxYay: He claims he was only pretending to be gay in his "Jim from IT" persona, but whether he's telling the truth is unclear.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: He has few problems blending in and/or pretending to be a normal guy. When he puts on a jacket and baseball cap, hardly anybody gives him a second glance.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 144 (click to see context) from:
* BadassBoast: "This is how I want you to remember me...the woman who beat you."
to:
* BadassBoast: "This is how I want you to remember me... the woman who beat you."
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* AdaptationalVillainy: Far more depraved and ruthless than his literary counterpart.
Changed line(s) 117 (click to see context) from:
* SissyVillain: How Jim liked to portray himself to Sherlock, [[NotSoHarmlessVillain at]] [[KnightofCerebus first]].
to:
* SissyVillain: How Jim liked to portray himself to Sherlock, [[NotSoHarmlessVillain at]] [[KnightofCerebus [[KnightOfCerebus first]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 254 (click to see context) from:
** He tends to underestimate the people he blackmails. Some like Lady Smallwood and [[spoiler: Mary]] refuse to put up with it, and seek to bring him down.
to:
** He tends to underestimate the people he blackmails. Some like Lady Smallwood and [[spoiler: Mary]] refuse to put up with it, and seek act to bring him down.
Changed line(s) 256 (click to see context) from:
** He repeatedly [[WrongGenreSavvy dismisses Sherlock as a hero]] who can't do anything to stop him. [[spoiler: Sherlock calls him out on this and shoots him.]]
to:
** He repeatedly [[WrongGenreSavvy dismisses Sherlock as a hero]] who can't do anything to stop him. [[spoiler: Sherlock calls him out on this and shoots him.]]
Changed line(s) 263 (click to see context) from:
* WrongGenreSavvy: He repeatedly and mistakenly labels [[AntiHero Sherlock]] a "hero". [[spoiler: This leads to his downfall.]]
to:
* WrongGenreSavvy: He repeatedly and mistakenly labels [[AntiHero Sherlock]] a "hero". [[spoiler: This leads to his downfall.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 256 (click to see context) from:
** He repeatedly [[WrongGenreSavvy labels Sherlock as a hero]]. [[spoiler: Sherlock calls him out on this and shoots him.]]
to:
** He repeatedly [[WrongGenreSavvy labels dismisses Sherlock as a hero]].hero]] who can't do anything to stop him. [[spoiler: Sherlock calls him out on this and shoots him.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 252,253 (click to see context) from:
* SmugSnake: He considers John and Mrs. Hudson to be "unimportant".
** He tends to underestimate the people he blackmails, some like Lady Smallwood and [[spoiler: Mary]] refuse to put up with it, and try to bring him down.
** He tends to underestimate the people he blackmails, some like Lady Smallwood and [[spoiler: Mary]] refuse to put up with it, and try to bring him down.
to:
* SmugSnake: SmugSnake:
** He considers John and Mrs. Hudson to be "unimportant".
** He tends to underestimate the people heblackmails, some blackmails. Some like Lady Smallwood and [[spoiler: Mary]] refuse to put up with it, and try seek to bring him down.
** He considers John and Mrs. Hudson to be "unimportant".
** He tends to underestimate the people he
Added DiffLines:
** He repeatedly [[WrongGenreSavvy labels Sherlock as a hero]]. [[spoiler: Sherlock calls him out on this and shoots him.]]
Added DiffLines:
* WrongGenreSavvy: He repeatedly and mistakenly labels [[AntiHero Sherlock]] a "hero". [[spoiler: This leads to his downfall.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 109 (click to see context) from:
* NotSoDifferent: To Sherlock, being a true sociopath. It means that people start assuming Sherlock made him ''very'' easily.
to:
* NotSoDifferent: To Sherlock, being a true sociopath. It means that makes it ''very'' easy for people to start assuming Sherlock made him ''very'' easily.up.
Changed line(s) 114 (click to see context) from:
* PsychopathicManchild: [[EvilIsHammy Flamboyant]], petulant, [[GigglingVillian prone to creepy laughter]], and without a shred of morality.
to:
* PsychopathicManchild: [[EvilIsHammy Flamboyant]], petulant, [[GigglingVillian [[GigglingVillain prone to creepy laughter]], and without a shred of morality.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 235,236 (click to see context) from:
##He decides to blackmail Mary, a recently retired assassin. He presumably knows everything about her, and takes joy in amusing himself with the nature of her assassinations. Except this also means she has no moral or practical issue in just sneaking into his office and shooting him in the head as soon as she could fit it in her schedule. Which she was seconds away from doing if not for Sherlock and Watson making an appearance and forcing her to improvise to avoid them being suspected in Magnusson's murder.
##The reveal that the Appledore blackmail vault is entirely in Magnusson's head, and he controls no records other than what he remembers, makes him pretty impotent. Perhaps the only reason he hasn't been killed before the episode is that his targets think that Magnusson has some sort of failsafe in case he's killed, such as physical records that would be disseminated if he dies under suspicious circumstances. Magnusson likes the idea of showing up Sherlock by getting the police to search his home and find nothing incriminating. However, he seems ignorant of the fact that this also will reveal to lots of current and future unhappy blackmail victims that it might be better to just kill him instead of pay him. The reveal is intended to demonstrate Magnusson defeating Sherlock's plan to expose him, but it also suggests Magnusson is far and wide the stupidest criminal Sherlock has ever faced, as even after Mary attempting to kill him, he seems unaware that any of his victims might attempt to kill him, and therefore makes no effort to use his extensive blackmail library to protect himself.
##The reveal that the Appledore blackmail vault is entirely in Magnusson's head, and he controls no records other than what he remembers, makes him pretty impotent. Perhaps the only reason he hasn't been killed before the episode is that his targets think that Magnusson has some sort of failsafe in case he's killed, such as physical records that would be disseminated if he dies under suspicious circumstances. Magnusson likes the idea of showing up Sherlock by getting the police to search his home and find nothing incriminating. However, he seems ignorant of the fact that this also will reveal to lots of current and future unhappy blackmail victims that it might be better to just kill him instead of pay him. The reveal is intended to demonstrate Magnusson defeating Sherlock's plan to expose him, but it also suggests Magnusson is far and wide the stupidest criminal Sherlock has ever faced, as even after Mary attempting to kill him, he seems unaware that any of his victims might attempt to kill him, and therefore makes no effort to use his extensive blackmail library to protect himself.
to:
##He decides to blackmail Mary, [[spoiler: Mary,]] a recently retired assassin. He presumably knows everything about her, and takes joy in amusing himself with the nature of her assassinations. Except this also means she has no moral or practical issue in just sneaking into his office and shooting him in the head as soon as she could fit it in her schedule. Which she was seconds away from doing if not for Sherlock and Watson making an appearance and forcing her to improvise to avoid them being suspected in Magnusson's murder.
##The reveal that the Appledore blackmail vault is [[spoiler: entirely in Magnusson's head, and he controls no records other than what he remembers, makes him pretty impotent. Perhaps the only reason he hasn't been killed before the episode is that his targets think that Magnusson has some sort of failsafe in case he's killed, such as physical records that would be disseminated if he dies under suspicious circumstances. Magnusson likes the idea of showing up Sherlock by getting the police to search his home and find nothing incriminating. However, he seems ignorant of the fact that this also will reveal to lots of current and future unhappy blackmail victims that it might be better to just kill him instead of pay him. The reveal is intended to demonstrate Magnusson defeating Sherlock's plan to expose him, but it also suggests Magnusson is far and wide the stupidest criminal Sherlock has ever faced, as even after Mary attempting to kill him, he seems unaware that any of his victims might attempt to kill him, and therefore makes no effort to use his extensive blackmail library to protect himself.]]
##The reveal that the Appledore blackmail vault is [[spoiler: entirely in Magnusson's head, and he controls no records other than what he remembers, makes him pretty impotent. Perhaps the only reason he hasn't been killed before the episode is that his targets think that Magnusson has some sort of failsafe in case he's killed, such as physical records that would be disseminated if he dies under suspicious circumstances. Magnusson likes the idea of showing up Sherlock by getting the police to search his home and find nothing incriminating. However, he seems ignorant of the fact that this also will reveal to lots of current and future unhappy blackmail victims that it might be better to just kill him instead of pay him. The reveal is intended to demonstrate Magnusson defeating Sherlock's plan to expose him, but it also suggests Magnusson is far and wide the stupidest criminal Sherlock has ever faced, as even after Mary attempting to kill him, he seems unaware that any of his victims might attempt to kill him, and therefore makes no effort to use his extensive blackmail library to protect himself.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 114 (click to see context) from:
%%* PsychopathicManchild
to:
** She's reported as breaking up the marriage of a writer and his wife by having an affair with ''both of them''.
Changed line(s) 174 (click to see context) from:
* {{Troll}}: She loves to troll Sherlock, even leaving her ImmodestOrgasm as his ''ringtone''.
to:
* {{Troll}}: She loves to troll Sherlock, even leaving her ImmodestOrgasm as altering his ''ringtone''.phone so that every time she messages him it plays a [[ImmodestOrgasm soft, pleasured sigh]].
Changed line(s) 200 (click to see context) from:
* BullyingADragon: Seriously, revealing [[spoiler: that there are no physical Appledore vaults, that all the information is in his head, and there are no tangible copies of data or backups or contingencies that can be disseminated in the event of his death to cause chaos, and then being utterly unrepentant and physically humiliating the people who hate him and want to stop him. Did Magnussen really not consider someone would be desperate or stupid or self-sacrificing enough to simply kill him where he stood? Because that is the one thing that will easily and definitively eliminate the threat of his blackmail scheme by leaving all that sensitive information completely dead inside his equally dead brain.]]
to:
* BullyingADragon: Seriously, revealing [[spoiler: that there are no physical Appledore vaults, that all the information is in his head, and there are no tangible copies of data or backups or contingencies that can be disseminated in the event of his death to cause chaos, and then being utterly unrepentant and physically humiliating the people who hate him and want to stop him. Did Magnussen really not consider someone would be desperate or stupid or self-sacrificing enough to simply kill him where he stood? Because that is the one thing that will easily and definitively eliminate the threat of his blackmail scheme by leaving all that sensitive information completely dead inside his equally dead brain. It is especially puzzling that he would admit as much to Sherlock, after just barely escaping a similar fate by Mary's hand earlier in the episode.]]
Changed line(s) 202 (click to see context) from:
* TheChessmaster: His ultimate goal in Series 3 is [[spoiler:to get leverage on Mycroft to blackmail and control him]]. He achieves this by blackmailing [[spoiler:Mary]], then manipulating Sherlock and John when they react as he expects they will, relying on a series of "pressure points" to control the involved parties. [[spoiler:Once Sherlock implicated himself in high treason by trying to sell him Mycroft's laptop full of government information, Magnussen would have the leverage he needs to get to Mycroft.]]
to:
* TheChessmaster: His ultimate goal in Series 3 is [[spoiler:to get leverage on Mycroft to blackmail and control him]]. He achieves this by blackmailing [[spoiler:Mary]], then manipulating Sherlock and John when they react as he expects they will, relying on a series of "pressure points" to control the involved parties. [[spoiler:Once Sherlock implicated himself in for high treason by trying to sell him Mycroft's laptop full of government information, Magnussen would have the leverage he needs to get to Mycroft.]]
Changed line(s) 213 (click to see context) from:
* DirtyCoward: No problem with begging for his life.
to:
* DirtyCoward: No problem with begging for his life.life when he's got a gun to his head.
Changed line(s) 227 (click to see context) from:
** He flicks [[spoiler: John]] in the face repeatedly, because if the latter doesn't allow him, Magnussen will have Mary killed ([[PragmaticVillainy or rather, expose her as an assassin in his newspapers and thus make her a fugitive from the law and on the run from people who want her dead]]). It's implied he did something similar to [[spoiler: Janine]]. He points out he does this metaphorically to whole countries.
to:
** He flicks [[spoiler: John]] John in the face repeatedly, because if the latter doesn't allow him, Magnussen will have Mary killed ([[PragmaticVillainy or rather, expose her as an assassin in his newspapers and thus make her a fugitive from the law and on the run from people who want her dead]]). dead]]).]] It's implied he did something similar to [[spoiler: Janine]]. He points out he does this metaphorically to whole countries.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
1) All tropes in a list have to be visible. 2) Killed Off For Real only applies in settings where resurection is possible.
Deleted line(s) 100 (click to see context) :
* [[spoiler: KilledOffForReal]]: [[spoiler: While Moriarty appears to be back at the end of Series 3, Sherlock confirms that he is definitely dead in "The Abominable Bride," making it likely that someone else is using his image to their own ends, if this wasn't [[CrazyPrepared yet another]] plan of his.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
*[[spoiler: KilledOffForReal]]: [[spoiler: While Moriarty appears to be back at the end of Series 3, Sherlock confirms that he is definitely dead in "The Abominable Bride," making it likely that someone else is using his image to their own ends, if this wasn't [[CrazyPrepared yet another]] plan of his.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 256 (click to see context) from:
* TakeThat: To another newspaper executive RupertMurdoch (leading to more accusations of BBC bias from the Daily Mail.)
to:
* TakeThat: To another newspaper executive RupertMurdoch UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch (leading to more accusations of BBC bias from the Daily Mail.)
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* {{Badass Bookworm}}: Just as much as Sherlock.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 213 (click to see context) from:
* DirtyOldMan: He can go anywhere from small, simple actions and words that will leave your skin crawling, to licking a woman's face and molesting Sherlock while [[DudeShesLikeInAComa he's nearly unconcious]]
to:
* DirtyOldMan: He can go anywhere from small, simple actions and words that will leave your skin crawling, to licking a woman's face and molesting Sherlock while [[DudeShesLikeInAComa he's nearly unconcious]]unconscious]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Deleted line(s) 126 (click to see context) :
* [[UsefulNotes/IrishAccents Irish Accents]]: Moriarty's is a Dublin 4 accent, usually associated with being obnoxiously upper-middle-class.
Changed line(s) 256 (click to see context) from:
* TakeThat / ShoutOut: To another newspaper executive RupertMurdoch (leading to more accusations of BBC bias from the Daily Mail.)
to:
* TakeThat / ShoutOut: TakeThat: To another newspaper executive RupertMurdoch (leading to more accusations of BBC bias from the Daily Mail.)
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 214 (click to see context) from:
* DirtyOldMan: He can go anywhere from small, simple actions and words that will leave your skin crawling, to licking a woman's face.
to:
* DirtyOldMan: He can go anywhere from small, simple actions and words that will leave your skin crawling, to licking a woman's face.face and molesting Sherlock while [[DudeShesLikeInAComa he's nearly unconcious]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
A Smug Snake is a villain who cannot back up his boasts. Moriarty repeatedly demonstrates that he CAN.
Changed line(s) 118 (click to see context) from:
* SmugSnake: He's very aware of how smart he is.
to:
* SmugSnake: SmugSuper: He's very ''very'' aware of how smart he is.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Removing word cruft
Changed line(s) 108 (click to see context) from:
* NotSoDifferent: To Sherlock, being basically a true sociopath. It means that people start assuming Sherlock made him ''very'' easily.
to:
* NotSoDifferent: To Sherlock, being basically a true sociopath. It means that people start assuming Sherlock made him ''very'' easily.
Changed line(s) 199 (click to see context) from:
* TheBully: What he basically is, and the specific reason Sherlock hates him as he picks on people for being different, hinting at a bit of bullying in Sherlock's own past.
to:
* TheBully: What he basically is, and the specific reason Sherlock hates him as he picks on people for being different, hinting at a bit of bullying in Sherlock's own past.
Changed line(s) 217 (click to see context) from:
* EvilCounterpart: Another one to Sherlock. [[spoiler:Like Sherlock, he's a genius who stores vast amounts of information in his head via the Mind Palace technique. This is the secret of his serial blackmailing. He doesn't need to store the information corporeally or digitally.]] He's basically Sherlock's logical side, if taken to a cold, logical extreme.
to:
* EvilCounterpart: Another one to Sherlock. [[spoiler:Like Sherlock, he's a genius who stores vast amounts of information in his head via the Mind Palace technique. This is the secret of his serial blackmailing. He doesn't need to store the information corporeally or digitally.]] He's basically Sherlock's logical side, if taken to a cold, logical extreme.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 256,257 (click to see context) from:
* TakeThat / ShoutOut : To another newspaper executive RupertMurdoch (leading to more accusations of BBC bias from the Daily Mail.)
* ThouShallNotKill: Villainous version, and an extremely borderline case. He has no problem arranging for John to be put ''in a bonfire'' just to see how Sherlock would react...but says he had a man on-site who would have saved him had Sherlock not made it in time, [[InsaneTrollLogic so it doesn't really count.]] [[spoiler: His final fate is to be on the receiving end of Sherlock [[DefiedTrope defying this trope.]]]] Also, at least one of his blackmail victims committed suicide after he threatened them, and he doesn't give a damn.
* ThouShallNotKill: Villainous version, and an extremely borderline case. He has no problem arranging for John to be put ''in a bonfire'' just to see how Sherlock would react...but says he had a man on-site who would have saved him had Sherlock not made it in time, [[InsaneTrollLogic so it doesn't really count.]] [[spoiler: His final fate is to be on the receiving end of Sherlock [[DefiedTrope defying this trope.]]]] Also, at least one of his blackmail victims committed suicide after he threatened them, and he doesn't give a damn.
to:
* TakeThat / ShoutOut : ShoutOut: To another newspaper executive RupertMurdoch (leading to more accusations of BBC bias from the Daily Mail.)
* ThouShallNotKill: Villainous version, and an extremely borderline case. He has no problem arranging for John to be put ''in a bonfire'' just to see how Sherlock would react... but says he had a man on-site who would have saved him had Sherlock not made it in time, [[InsaneTrollLogic so it doesn't really count.]] [[spoiler: His final fate is to be on the receiving end of Sherlock [[DefiedTrope defying this trope.]]]] Also, at least one of his blackmail victims committed suicide after he threatened them, and he doesn't give a damn.
* ThouShallNotKill: Villainous version, and an extremely borderline case. He has no problem arranging for John to be put ''in a bonfire'' just to see how Sherlock would react... but says he had a man on-site who would have saved him had Sherlock not made it in time, [[InsaneTrollLogic so it doesn't really count.]] [[spoiler: His final fate is to be on the receiving end of Sherlock [[DefiedTrope defying this trope.]]]] Also, at least one of his blackmail victims committed suicide after he threatened them, and he doesn't give a damn.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 197 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Sherlock''': ''...he attacks people who are '''different''' and preys on their secrets!''
to:
-->'''Sherlock''': ''... he attacks people who are '''different''' and preys on their secrets!''
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 190 (click to see context) from:
* AchillesHeel: Magnussen stores all the information about his victims not on a computer, which would be hackable, but in hard copy form in a vast underground vault underneath his high-security home. Only he has access to it, and he doesn't let anybody in. [[spoiler:...Except that he doesn't. There is no such vault. He just remembers it all. As a result, Sherlock is able to eliminate Magnussen as a threat by shooting him in the head.]]
to:
* AchillesHeel: Magnussen stores all the information about his victims not on a computer, which would be hackable, but in hard copy form in a vast underground vault underneath his high-security home. Only he has access to it, and he doesn't let anybody in. [[spoiler:... Except that he doesn't. There is no such vault. He just remembers it all. As a result, Sherlock is able to eliminate Magnussen as a threat by shooting him in the head.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* SmugSnake: He's very aware of how smart he is.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[Characters/{{Sherlock}} Back to Sherlock Character Index]]
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Jeff Hope]]
!!!Jeff Hope (Phil Davis)
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sherlockjeffhope_8843.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:256: "It's not chance, Mr. Holmes, it's chess. It's a game of chess."]]
The killer in "A Study in Pink," who has a sponsor and receives money for his family for every kill.
----
* AdaptationalVillainy: The literary version of him was a SympatheticMurderer who targeted {{Asshole Victim}}s for hurting the people he loved. Here he's a SerialKiller whose motivation is much less sympathetic, targets completely innocent people, and is overall much more cold-blooded and cruel.
* AlmightyJanitor: His career is rather dull and unimportant, yet he shows himself to be rather intelligent and calculating. He lampshades that someone like him who [[spoiler:drives a cab]] doesn't look all that bright.
* AloneWithThePsycho: A variation. Sherlock actually ''volunteers'' to be alone with the psycho because aforementioned psycho's promised to tell Sherlock how he's been committing his murders.
* BeneathNotice: As he says, nobody ever thinks about the [[spoiler:cabbie]]. It's like he's just a back of a head. He's able to take advantage of his job to hide in plain sight and be inherently trusted by his victims.
* CutLexLuthorACheck: He's very intelligent but working in a low income job, even Sherlock lampshades it:
--> "Either way you're wasted as a [[spoiler: cabbie]]."
* TheDogWasTheMastermind: There was some subtle foreshadowing about what the character's profession was, but the character himself is never introduced, nor is he ever clearly seen onscreen, until the climax of his episode.
* DrivenToSuicide: It looks like this is what he does to his victims. [[spoiler:It turns out he's forcing them at gunpoint to choose between two pills, one of which is poisonous.]]
* EvilOldFolks: His exact age is unknown but he's definitely getting on in years.
* FauxAffablyEvil: His ''tone'' is certainly friendly and cordial, but the actual content of what he says shows him to be a pretty massive asshole.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: His glasses only add to the eerie appearance that he has, although they're more subtle than most cases of this trope.
* LackOfEmpathy: He doesn't seem particularly bothered by the fact that he has to kill people [[spoiler:in order to secure money for his children]]. In fact, he seems to like killing and holds most people in contempt.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:The entire reason behind his killings is because, once he's dead, there'd be no income to provide for his children. Moriarity acts as a "sponsor," paying him loads for each person he kills.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: He's able to play on Sherlock's constant curiosity and desire for excitement to get Holmes to, [[AloneWithThePsycho not only go alone somewhere with him]], but also to play the "game" even when there’s no reason for Sherlock to do so. His game also depends on manipulating people based on what he's deduced about them and what he believes they've deduced about him.
* NeverSuicide: The entire plot of his episode really. Though since these are "serial suicides" it's kind of obvious.
* NiceHat: Sports a nifty flat cap.
* NoNameGiven: His name is only revealed in the credits, and even then his last name's not given.
* NotAfraidToDie: Whenever he plays his "game" with his victims, there's a good chance he could die too but he just doesn't seem to care. Most likely it's a combination of this trope due to [[spoiler:the knowledge he's dying anyway]], and confidence that he'll always be able to outsmart his opponents.
* PapaWolf: The more people he kills, the more money Moriarty gives to his children.
* PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo: [[spoiler:His method of killing involves offering his victims a choice between two identical pills, one of them harmless, the other poisoned.]]
* SerialKiller: He's murdered at least four people and he aims to take a fifth in Sherlock Holmes.
* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: He may not look it, but he is a genius behind the simplish look.
* SmugSnake: While he is a very clever man, as proven by how he's managed to survive four rounds of his "game," his arrogance, cold-bloodedness and firm belief in the stupidity of everyone around him does little to earn anyone's admiration.
* StarterVillain: He's the villain of the first episode of the series, and, while clever and dangerous enough to arouse Sherlock's interest, he's just the opening act for Moriarity.
* SurroundedByIdiots: At least in his own opinion
--> " Between you and me sitting here, why can't people think? Don't it make you mad? Why can't people just think?"
* TakeAThirdOption: If anyone tries to refuse his game, he offers them a bullet from his gun instead. [[spoiler:Gun's a fake.]]
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: He's a perfectly ordinary-looking man, which aides him in committing his murders.
* WorthyOpponent: While he talks about all his other victims as if they were idiots, he seems to hold Sherlock in some regard. Granted he still thinks Sherlock's not as smart as him, but he's conversational with him and even compliments Sherlock on the ideas Sherlock's put on his website.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler:He has a life-threatening aneurysm, meaning he lives with the knowledge any breath could be his last.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jim Moriarty]]
!!Jim Moriarty
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moriarty_james_3139.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Every fairytale needs a good, old-fashioned villain."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/AndrewScott
Sherlock's biggest fan and his arch-nemesis before Sherlock even knows he exists. He has a vast criminal network that he manages largely as a way to stave off the boredom of a world that poses no challenges for his incredible intellect.
----
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: As smart as Sherlock is, Moriarty is just as brilliant and has none of Sherlock's [[TheUnfettered self-imposed constraints.]]
* AmbiguouslyGay: He claims he's not gay, but he ''delights'' in flirting with Sherlock regardless. Andrew Scott coming out as of 2013 doesn't help either.
* ArchEnemy: Sherlock and Moriarty's relationship shows many traits connected with the trope.
** ItsPersonal between them? Check. Moriarty is obsessed with Sherlock and Sherlock [[spoiler: keeps his own version of Moriarty in his Mind Palace]].
** TheHero and his EvilCounterpart? Check.
** WorthyOpponent rivalry? Check.
** NotSoDifferent? Check. Moriarty is what Sherlock could become if he'd let his quirks, boredom and anti-social behavior overcome his mind and morality. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by their talk on the roof.
** Moriarty is the BigBad of Seasons 1 and 2, which makes him the most consistent enemy for Sherlock to fight - another trait of the ArchEnemy which may explain why [[spoiler: Moriarty may return in Season 4]].
** His ArchEnemy status is consistent with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories.
* AteHisGun: Puts a gun in [[spoiler:his own mouth and blows his brains out in "The Reichenbach Fall", ForTheEvulz.]]
* AxCrazy: Though more in the way of telling other people to kill people, rather than assaulting them himself.
* BadassBoast: "The man with the key is king, and honey you should ''see me in a crown''."
** "Sorry boys! I'm ''sooo'' changeable! It is a weakness with me, but to be fair to myself...it is my ONLY weakness."
* BadassInANiceSuit: Westwood, to be precise.
* TheBadGuyWins: Destroys Sherlock's reputation in "The Reichenbach Fall", [[spoiler:forcing Sherlock to fake his own death for a full 2 years.]]
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Go ahead, laugh at him. See what painful punishment he comes up with.
* BigBad: Every major antagonist in Series 1 and 2 either answered to or was advised by him. [[spoiler:He's supposedly back from the dead to return as the BigBad for Series 4.]]
* BoringInsult: Invoked. According to him, the most heinous insult to someone like him or Sherlock is to be "boring".
-->'''Moriarty''': I'm disappointed, I'm ''disappointed'' in you, ''ordinary Sherlock''.
* BreakThemByTalking: Moriarty has developed this to an art form.
* CampStraight: Keeps up his {{Camp}} persona after [[spoiler:revealing his identity to Sherlock]]. Also delights in flirting with him, calling him "sexy" and "honey". As always, it's hard to tell what really motivates him.
* CardCarryingVillain: Is openly proud of being reprehensibly evil. [[spoiler: He even gave Sherlock his card.]]
* TheChessmaster: In Series One, he's behind ''every'' case Sherlock investigates. In Series Two about the only one he wasn't involved in was an actual accident.
* ConsummateLiar: To the point where he can claim to be the former host of a children's TV show, and have an astounding amount of evidence to back it up.
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy:
** As "Scandal" shows, if it comes down to a choice between baiting Sherlock Holmes and his actual job, he'll pick the job. After all, crime is a heavily trust-based business.
** In "The Reichenbach Fall", he plays -- and ''wins'' -- GambitRoulette with both Holmes brothers and forces Sherlock to [[spoiler: fake his own suicide or risk John, Lestrade, and Mrs. Hudson's deaths. Although in Season 3, Sherlock claims he and Mycroft were playing Moriarty all along]].
* DeadpanSnarker: When he's not giggling.
* DeathSeeker: Jim's excruciating boredom with the world leads him to try get Sherlock to kill them both at the end of series 1, simply because it'd be ''fun''.
* DiabolicalMastermind: He's a "consulting criminal" behind dozens of illegal schemes.
* DiesWideOpen: Complete with [[spoiler:a ''seriously'' creepy smile after having supposedly blown his brains out, though his return at the end of "His Last Vow" has thrown the "Dies" part into question]].
* DoNotAdjustYourSet: Takes control of [[spoiler:every TV set in Britain for his return at the end of "His Last Vow".]]
** Although far more likely he [[spoiler:took control of the transmitters and ground stations.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Zig-zagged. Looks suicidal when he realizes that in destroying Sherlock, he's actually won, and now has nobody who will pose a challenge to him anymore. Then changes his mind and says he'll manage. Unfortunately Sherlock then convinces him that as long as Sherlock has Jim alive, Sherlock can also stop Jim's plan. Moriarty promptly shoots himself in the head to make sure Sherlock can't beat him.]]
** [[spoiler:Possibly subverted at the end of "His Last Vow".]]
* EvilCounterpart: To Sherlock. In this version, he lists his occupation as "Consulting Criminal", and his InsufferableGenius tendencies are played up just as much as Sherlock's. His goal, as it turns out, is to find [[spoiler: a perfect counterpart -- someone who ''is'' him]]. Sherlock indulges him, in the end, and admits as much. [[spoiler:He may well have faked his own suicide, to boot.]]
* {{Expy}}: Aspects of Jim's personality are similar to that of Moriarty expy [[Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective Professor Ratigan]].
* FauxAffablyEvil: Makes him even creepier.
* FoeRomanceSubtext: Invokes it with Sherlock, every chance he gets.
* FoeYayShipping: In-universe, no less, judging by one of the members of Sherlock's fanclub who puts forward the theory that [[spoiler: Sherlock and Moriarty faked their deaths to run off into the sunset together!]]
* ForTheEvulz: Has no real reason behind his cruel EvilPlan except that he is a psychopath and he "got bored". [[NotSoDifferent Remarkably like our hero, in fact.]]
--> '''Sherlock''': People have ''died!''
--> '''Moriarty''': That's what people '''DO!'''
* GigglingVillain: His laughter is truly creepy.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Grins right before shooting himself in the head in "Reichenbach Fall".]]
* KarmaHoudini: He's [[spoiler:DrivenToSuicide]], but this is only done as a way to ensure Sherlock can't wriggle out of his EvilPlan.
* KnightOfCerebus: The series was never the most lighthearted, but there was plenty of humour. When Moriarty enters as an indirect antagonist, the death toll escalates and the show gets darker. When he appears in person, things get seriously disturbing.
* LargeHam: His [[GigglingVillain high-pitched voice]] and [[PsychopathicManchild psychopathic mannerisms]] make him constantly appear on the edge of psychotic madness. He also changes his tone of voice and his mannerisms about every other line, rapidly going through affected personas and acting styles just to mock Sherlock. He's ''always'' hammy, though.
* TheMadHatter: He's out of his damn mind and proud of it.
* ManOfWealthAndTaste
-->'''Jim:''' ''(Straightens suit)'' Westwood!
* ManipulativeBastard: He is ''really'' good at this.
* MoodSwinger: ''Holy shit''. He goes from calm and collected to practically screaming in about two sentences. He even acknowledges it.
-->'''Jim''': Sorry boys! I'm ''sooo'' changeable!
* MyDeathIsOnlyTheBeginning: "His Last Vow" ends with [[spoiler: his image appearing on every screen in the United Kingdom, suggesting he had plans in place even in the event of his death, if he even died at all]].
* NotSoDifferent: To Sherlock, being basically a true sociopath. It means that people start assuming Sherlock made him ''very'' easily.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Poses as Jim from IT, a seemingly dumb and weak-minded guy.
* PosthumousCharacter: In Series 3, he appears as a mental vision in Sherlock's mind, tormenting him further. He also appears in a few flashbacks or ImagineSpot moments.
* PostMortemComeback: ''Maybe''. He appears at the end of "His Last Vow" [[spoiler:via [[DoNotAdjustYourSet mass broadcast around the UK]], but it's unclear if he's dead for real or not.]]
* PsychoForHire: He acquired his wealth and connections by working as a "consulting criminal". Once Sherlock gets his attention, he's happy to cut loose several clients as part of the game.
%%* PsychopathicManchild
* SecretIdentityIdentity: Until he and Sherlock meet at the end of the first series.
* ShadowArchetype: He's Sherlock if our protagonist had decided to commit crimes rather than solve them to pass the time, and didn't have the [[MoralityPet moral guides]] of John, Mrs Hudson, Molly, and Lestrade (plus the ones that followed as he TookALevelInKindness).
* SissyVillain: How Jim liked to portray himself to Sherlock, [[NotSoHarmlessVillain at]] [[KnightofCerebus first]].
* ASinisterClue: [[RewatchBonus If you watch closely]], when Sherlock hands him a cup of tea he gives it with the handle on the right side and Moriarty irritably turns it around to pick it up.
* TheSociopath: A genuine example, unlike Sherlock.
* SuddenlyShouting: Tends to shout certain words for emphasis when upset.
--> '''Sherlock''': People have died.\\
'''Moriarty''': That's what people '''''DO'''''!
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:"The Reichenbach Fall". To ensure that there is no way for Sherlock to stop his plan, he ''kills himself'', thus forcing Sherlock to commit suicide to protect his loved ones.. apparently all ForTheEvulz.]]
* TheUnfettered: Ultimately a deconstruction. Having absolutely no empathy and no limits, Jim's one and only concern is to try and stave off his endless boredom... even if that means putting his own plans and well-being at risk to do it. Best illustrated in the second series finale [[spoiler:where Moriarty gleefully '''shoots himself in the head''' for no reason other than he thinks it's the best way to "win" his game with Sherlock.]]
* UnwittingPawn: Makes one out of Molly Hooper, Sally Donovan, and [[spoiler:the entire British legal system and tabloid press in "The Reichenbach Fall".]] Such is his {{Manipulative Bastard}}y that he even makes pawns out of ''[[spoiler:the Holmes brothers themselves''. Although Sherlock claims in season 3 that Moriarty was the one being played all along.]]
* [[UsefulNotes/IrishAccents Irish Accents]]: Moriarty's is a Dublin 4 accent, usually associated with being obnoxiously upper-middle-class.
* VictoryIsBoring: As Sherlock points out, there is nothing that Moriarty can't already steal or buy. No problem presents a challenge for him. And Jim absolutely ''can't stand'' it. (This is one of the creepy Holmes/Moriarty parallels.)
* WouldHurtAChild: He threatens to blow up one in "The Great Game". In "The Reichenbach Fall", he poisons two more and almost kills them, as they could play into his plans well.
* YoureInsane: Sherlock says this to Moriarty in "The Reichenbach Fall".
-->'''Moriarty''': [[CaptainObvious You're]] [[InsultBackfire just getting]] [[CardCarryingVillain that now?]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Irene Adler]]
!!!Irene "The Woman" Adler
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adler_irene_6077.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Do you know the problem with a disguise, Mr Holmes? However hard you try, it's always a self-portrait."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/LaraPulver
'''The''' Woman, perhaps the only person to ever consistently flummox Sherlock Holmes. She's a dominatrix who first enters the story due to blackmailing the royal family.
----
* AdaptationalBadass: In the original stories, Irene Adler's impressive feat was simply seeing through Holmes' ruse, pulling one in turn, and then having the good sense to skip town while she has the chance. Here, she manages to [[spoiler:con him into decoding top-secret, vital information which she then passes along to Moriarty, ruining Mycroft's day]]. It takes a last-second epiphany for Sherlock to recover himself and make up for his own royal screwup.
* AdaptationalVillainy: In the original short-story, Irene just wanted to be left alone.
* BadassBoast: "This is how I want you to remember me...the woman who beat you."
* BigBadWannabe: For all of Irene’s cleverness, it’s still clear that she wouldn’t have gotten away with as much [[spoiler: without Moriarty’s assistance. This is made more evident after she loses his support, and is captured and almost put to death.]]
* BitchInSheepsClothing: She may not have been a sweetheart when she was introduced but by the time the episode ends, it’s revealed [[spoiler: that she’s complicit in terrorist plots and Moriarty's willing accomplice]].
* BiTheWay: She's been in relationships with both men and women prior to meeting Sherlock.
* BrainsAndBondage: A dominatrix who caters to the highest echelons of society. One of very few people to get several over on Sherlock Holmes.
* BrainyBrunette: Brown hair and nearly as smart as Sherlock.
* BrokenBird: She's very clever, but also clearly rather damaged; Irene routinely drugs her 'friends', keeps blackmail material on her phone just in case she needs it and her career is sex- it's not fun, it's a job.
* TheCameo: Irene very briefly appears in Sherlock's mind palace in "The Sign of Three", suggesting that Sherlock still thinks about her sometimes. She's completely naked, naturally.
* {{Catchphrase}}: She mentions a couple of times she knows somebody, then amends, "Well, I know what he/she likes."
* TheChessmaster: Outplays ''both'' Holmes brothers, at one point.
* DarkActionGirl: She can handle herself in a scrap, as seen when she and Sherlock are ambushed in her drawing room, she easily disarms and pistol-whips her attacker.
* {{Dominatrix}}: Mycroft specifically describes her as such.
* EasilyForgiven: She was perfectly willing to [[spoiler: extort the British government for millions, enlist the skills of a psychopath, aid in a terrorist plot, and manipulate and betray Sherlock]], yet she [[spoiler: still gets saved by Sherlock in the end and lives without any apparent consequences or moral development.]]
* ExcessiveEvilEyeShadow: Prior to meeting Sherlock, she is seen liberally applying copious pearlescent eye-shadow and blood-red lipstick.
* FakingTheDead: ''Twice''.
* FemmeFatale: A classic example.
* FemmeFataleSpy: One of her many tricks for stealing blackmail material.
* FetishFuelStationAttendant: In-universe. It comes with [[{{Dominatrix}} the job]].
* FunWithSubtitles: When Sherlock does his trademark scan, a subtitle floating beside the clue says what he's noticed. When he first meets Irene, all his scans get is "???????".
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Let's be honest, whether she has feelings for Sherlock or not, it still doesn't stop her from treating him terribly or [[spoiler: excuse her for working with Moriarty]]. She's made it pretty clear all through that episode that her self-interest comes before anything else.
* KarmaHoudini: For all the havoc and damage she caused, [[spoiler: she still gets to survive in the end.]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: She does everything she can to exploit Sherlock’s naivete when it comes to sex and intimacy but in the end [[spoiler: her own feelings for him prove to be her downfall.]] Verges on DramaticIrony.
* MsFanservice: Struts into the drawing room to greet Sherlock stark naked.
* NakedOnArrival: Pulls this on Sherlock to defeat his [[SherlockScan trademark scan]]. Can't tell anything from a person's clothes if they're not wearing any, right?
* NoSell: When first meeting Adler, [[SherlockScan Sherlock's scan]] can only come up with "??????"
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Admittedly, she might not be from NewJersey in this version, but the fact Pulver uses her normal accent is a notable departure from past portrayals of the character.
* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: With Kate, her lover/assistant.
* ShowSomeLeg: Calculates that showing some leg would simply be analyzed for what it is by Sherlock. So she takes it UpToEleven.
* SilkHidingSteel: Elegant. Ruthless.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Caters to both [[BiTheWay male and female]] clients, claims to self-identify as being gay, yet the only man (or indeed anyone) she actually shows any ''serious'' interest seems to be [[DatingCatwoman Sherlock]]. [[spoiler: Her chosen password is particularly telling.]]
--> ''[[spoiler: I Am SHER Locked]]''
* {{Troll}}: She loves to troll Sherlock, even leaving her ImmodestOrgasm as his ''ringtone''.
* UnusualEuphemism: At one point, her occupation is described as "recreational scolding".
* TheVamp: A dangerous, beautiful woman who uses sex as a tool to get what she wants.
* VillainessesWantHeroes: Very much taken with Sherlock.
* WomanOfWealthAndTaste: The phone everybody was fighting for in "A Scandal in Belgravia" was a Vertu Constellation Quest smart phone, with a price tag of £17,300. There was more than one reason she was fighting tooth and nail to get it back.
* WhipItGood: ''Introduced'' holding a riding crop, which features extensively in her website's photos, and [[{{Dominatrix}} uses it for reasons very different from Sherlock's]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Charles Augustus Magnussen ]]
!!Charles Augustus Magnussen
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/magnussen_charles_augustus_4796.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Knowing is owning."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Lars Mikkelsen
A media mogul who owns the majority of Western civilization through very careful application of blackmail.
----
* AchillesHeel: Magnussen stores all the information about his victims not on a computer, which would be hackable, but in hard copy form in a vast underground vault underneath his high-security home. Only he has access to it, and he doesn't let anybody in. [[spoiler:...Except that he doesn't. There is no such vault. He just remembers it all. As a result, Sherlock is able to eliminate Magnussen as a threat by shooting him in the head.]]
* AdaptationalBadass: His literary counterpart was content blackmailing England's nobility and gentry, specifically ladies, who were either married or engaged. Here he's blackmailing world governments, and [[spoiler: instead of keeping all of his information in a locked safe, he keeps it all in his own head.]]
* AdaptationNameChange: From Milverton to Magnussen.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Sherlock's hatred of him is exacerbated by the fact that Magnussen is genuinely smart enough to outwit him.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: He's so cruel and unlikable, you can't help but cheer Sherlock on when he shoots Magnussen in the head.]]
* BigBad: He's the one for Series 3.
* {{Blackmail}}: Specializes in extortion.
-->'''Sherlock''': ''...he attacks people who are '''different''' and preys on their secrets!''
* BoomHeadshot: Sherlock [[spoiler:shoots him in the head after he makes it clear that if he dies, his information goes with him.]]
* TheBully: What he basically is, and the specific reason Sherlock hates him as he picks on people for being different, hinting at a bit of bullying in Sherlock's own past.
* BullyingADragon: Seriously, revealing [[spoiler: that there are no physical Appledore vaults, that all the information is in his head, and there are no tangible copies of data or backups or contingencies that can be disseminated in the event of his death to cause chaos, and then being utterly unrepentant and physically humiliating the people who hate him and want to stop him. Did Magnussen really not consider someone would be desperate or stupid or self-sacrificing enough to simply kill him where he stood? Because that is the one thing that will easily and definitively eliminate the threat of his blackmail scheme by leaving all that sensitive information completely dead inside his equally dead brain.]]
* CardCarryingVillain: To the people he's blackmailing. In public, he presents himself as a simple businessman. [[DefiedTrope Defied]] at the end, though -- he mocks Sherlock and John precisely for treating him like some kind of villain. He seems to honestly believe that he ''isn't'' a villain due to some InsaneTrollLogic like, for instance, the fact that he technically hasn't killed anyone (even though he has ruined several lives and puts others in mortal danger, both for his own amusement).
* TheChessmaster: His ultimate goal in Series 3 is [[spoiler:to get leverage on Mycroft to blackmail and control him]]. He achieves this by blackmailing [[spoiler:Mary]], then manipulating Sherlock and John when they react as he expects they will, relying on a series of "pressure points" to control the involved parties. [[spoiler:Once Sherlock implicated himself in high treason by trying to sell him Mycroft's laptop full of government information, Magnussen would have the leverage he needs to get to Mycroft.]]
* CompositeCharacter: Largely based on Charles Augustus Milverton, from the short story of the same title. However, the larger scale of his activities, the "Napoleon" nickname, his appearance and personality, and the events in his brief meetings with Sherlock, make him a more faithful depiction of Moriarty as he originally appeared in the Conan Doyle stories than the ''Sherlock'' Jim Moriarty is.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In addition to his blackmailing activities, he has no problem printing false information in his papers.
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy:
** He keeps all his information in an underground vault in hard copy, because computers are hackable. [[spoiler: Taken further when we find out there is no vault. He's able to '''memorize''' '''everything''', by having his own version of Sherlock's mind palace. Further, while he has no physical evidence of anything he knows, the people he blackmails don't know that. And besides, he's a media mogul - his newspapers don't ''need'' proof to print the stories.]]
* DeadpanSnarker:
-->'''John''': I don't understand.\\
'''Magnussen''': You should put that on a t-shirt.\\
''[later]''\\
'''John''': I still don't understand.\\
'''Magnussen''': And there's the back of the t-shirt.
* DirtyCoward: No problem with begging for his life.
* DirtyOldMan: He can go anywhere from small, simple actions and words that will leave your skin crawling, to licking a woman's face.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: His interactions with his victims '''strongly''' resemble those of a rapist (and in Britain, forcibly licking someone like that counts as sexual assault).
* TheDreaded: Sherlock mentions that Magnussen is the most dangerous threat he's faced up to that point and nobody's ever made his stomach turn quite like Magnussen.
* EvilCounterpart: Another one to Sherlock. [[spoiler:Like Sherlock, he's a genius who stores vast amounts of information in his head via the Mind Palace technique. This is the secret of his serial blackmailing. He doesn't need to store the information corporeally or digitally.]] He's basically Sherlock's logical side, if taken to a cold, logical extreme.
** Like Sherlock, Magnussen specializes in uncovering secrets and solving mysteries, but while Sherlock uses it to put evil away and better society, Magnussen uses it as power to assert his dominance over people and countries.
** He is arguably more the evil counterpart of Mycroft. Both have extensive influence over governments, both have direct yet ethically-questionable access to leaders of Britain, both are more [[TheChessmaster chessmasters]] than [[TheTrickster trickster]], and both are strongly implied to actually be smarter than Sherlock (and both definitely like reminding him of it). It's strongly implied that Magnussen has clashed with Mycroft before and has found a way to blackmail or control him [[spoiler: which may be threats against Sherlock]] and at one point Sherlock tries [[spoiler: and fails to bribe him with Mycroft's laptop, because Magnussen craves the information on it.]] In the original stories Sherlock muses that if Mycroft had the inclination he could easily become the most successful criminal the world had ever seen- Magnussen could be read as an attempt to see if that is true.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler: For all the ways that he managed to outwit Sherlock and take advantage of the fact that John is Sherlock's pressure point, he was apparently unaware of how far Sherlock would go to protect John.]]
** Also, for all the truly vile and horrible things he does every single day, he scoffs and laughs at the idea that he is actually the bad guy.
* EvilGloating: Magnussen likes to do this. And in classic villain fashion, this ultimately leads to his downfall: [[JustBetweenYouAndMe When he thinks that he has beat Sherlock Holmes, he tells him the reason why]] - [[BondVillainStupidity this way exposing his own biggest weakness]]. [[spoiler:Namely that the police can't confiscate his blackmail vault because it only exists in his head. Thus the vault will simply cease to exist and stop causing any more trouble with Magnussen's death.]]
* EvilIsPetty: Mainly because of all the information he has on people, he fully believes he can do whatever to whomever he wants. In fact this seems to be his main motivation.
** He licks Lady Smallwood's face after declaring he can ruin her husband.
** He pisses in 221B's fireplace, and when he wipes his hands, he throws the towelette on the floor.
** He picks up and eats an olive off Sherlock's pasta meal and cleans his fingers with Sherlock's drink.
** He flicks [[spoiler: John]] in the face repeatedly, because if the latter doesn't allow him, Magnussen will have Mary killed ([[PragmaticVillainy or rather, expose her as an assassin in his newspapers and thus make her a fugitive from the law and on the run from people who want her dead]]). It's implied he did something similar to [[spoiler: Janine]]. He points out he does this metaphorically to whole countries.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He rarely gets angry, and almost always speaks with the same polite tone of voice. It makes him even creepier and even more disgusting.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: A criminal mastermind with a pair of rimless glasses.
* ForTheEvulz: He's a wealthy newspaper magnate, so he blackmails people because he enjoys the power it gives him, not for the money.
* {{Hypocrite}}: He loves threatening people with ruination and does so with the utmost apathy and grace, but as soon as his neck's on the line, he breaks down into a quivering, pleading mess.
* IcyBlueEyes: Sherlock compares his eyes to the "dead eyed" gaze of a shark.
* IdiotBall: Magnussen makes two mistakes:
##He decides to blackmail Mary, a recently retired assassin. He presumably knows everything about her, and takes joy in amusing himself with the nature of her assassinations. Except this also means she has no moral or practical issue in just sneaking into his office and shooting him in the head as soon as she could fit it in her schedule. Which she was seconds away from doing if not for Sherlock and Watson making an appearance and forcing her to improvise to avoid them being suspected in Magnusson's murder.
##The reveal that the Appledore blackmail vault is entirely in Magnusson's head, and he controls no records other than what he remembers, makes him pretty impotent. Perhaps the only reason he hasn't been killed before the episode is that his targets think that Magnusson has some sort of failsafe in case he's killed, such as physical records that would be disseminated if he dies under suspicious circumstances. Magnusson likes the idea of showing up Sherlock by getting the police to search his home and find nothing incriminating. However, he seems ignorant of the fact that this also will reveal to lots of current and future unhappy blackmail victims that it might be better to just kill him instead of pay him. The reveal is intended to demonstrate Magnusson defeating Sherlock's plan to expose him, but it also suggests Magnusson is far and wide the stupidest criminal Sherlock has ever faced, as even after Mary attempting to kill him, he seems unaware that any of his victims might attempt to kill him, and therefore makes no effort to use his extensive blackmail library to protect himself.
* {{Irony}}: Sherlock [[spoiler: shoots Magnussen in his both his literal and metaphorical computer, (where he stored all his oh so valuable blackmail information) which is directly caused by two separate instances of [[TheDogBitesBack the dog biting back.]]]]
* KickTheDog: To '''all''' of his onscreen victims.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: What two of his onscreen victims do back.
* KnightOfCerebus: For Series 3. At first, it appeared "The Empty Hearse" would be more lighthearted and funny... then John Watson is nearly burned to death. From there, he only gets worse.
* LeanAndMean: Although his slender build doesn't stand out a whole lot against the likes of Sherlock and Mycroft, Lars Mikkelsen's [[http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140113033247/bakerstreet/images/9/9f/Magnussen.png sharp, angular features]] help to create the effect.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Of Rupert Murdoch. Both are wealthy, powerful foreigners who run controversial news organizations.
* OldMediaAreEvil: He's an international newspaper magnate who blackmails people as a sideline.
* OutGambitted: For all of his planning and manipulation, he'd never anticipated [[spoiler: Sherlock shooting him in the head.]]
* PsychopathicManchild: He is arguably the most powerful man in the world, but he acts like a SpoiledBrat or SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp, since he uses said power mainly to bully and humiliate people ForTheEvulz.
* {{Sadist}}: Absolutely revels in the power his information, influence and public standing gives him over other people- to the point of forcefully licking the arm and face of a government minister or pissing in Sherlock's fireplace, just because he ''can''.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Even though he's seen blackmailing MP's (and it's implied the Prime Minister) Mycroft wants him left alone for reasons that are unclear.
** Sherlock accuses Mycroft of ''also'' being blackmailed by Magnussen. It's implied that he actually got to Mycroft by [[spoiler: threatening to use his papers to [[BigBrotherInstinct go after Sherlock.]]]]
* SharpDressedMan: Always dresses in suits.
* ShadowArchetype: If Moriarty is the more chaotic, wild counterpart to Sherlock, Magnussen is Sherlock to his absolute coldest depths.
** He is also a more smug, sadistic, and unprincipled version of Mycroft, what the latter could be if he stopped caring about the defence of the realm and instead decided to rub its face in the mud.
* SmugSnake: He considers John and Mrs. Hudson to be "unimportant".
** He tends to underestimate the people he blackmails, some like Lady Smallwood and [[spoiler: Mary]] refuse to put up with it, and try to bring him down.
** [[spoiler: All his information is memorized, so there's no hard copy of it. But he tells this all to Sherlock, thinking he got one up on him, which is a rare but severe miscalculation on his part. Sherlock has no problem putting a bullet in his brain when he threatens John and Mary's happiness.]]
* SoftSpokenSadist: Is always soft spoken, [[DirtyCoward even when pleading for his life.]] Also, torments people he doesn't need to just because [[ForTheEvulz he enjoys it.]]
* StatOVision: His glasses show information useful for blackmail on anyone he looks at including their porn preference and "pressure points." [[spoiler:It turns out that his glasses are completely ordinary and the information he sees is just his "mind palace." It still fits this trope, though.]]
* TakeThat / ShoutOut : To another newspaper executive RupertMurdoch (leading to more accusations of BBC bias from the Daily Mail.)
* ThouShallNotKill: Villainous version, and an extremely borderline case. He has no problem arranging for John to be put ''in a bonfire'' just to see how Sherlock would react...but says he had a man on-site who would have saved him had Sherlock not made it in time, [[InsaneTrollLogic so it doesn't really count.]] [[spoiler: His final fate is to be on the receiving end of Sherlock [[DefiedTrope defying this trope.]]]] Also, at least one of his blackmail victims committed suicide after he threatened them, and he doesn't give a damn.
* UngratefulBastard: Mycroft has him under protection, yet Magnussen has no problem stealing data from British Intelligence if it gives him more power. [[spoiler: But he's GenreSavvy enough to not get caught doing it.]]
* WhiteVoidRoom: His "vault", [[spoiler: which helps him in accessing his mind palace.]]
[[/folder]]
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Jeff Hope]]
!!!Jeff Hope (Phil Davis)
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sherlockjeffhope_8843.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:256: "It's not chance, Mr. Holmes, it's chess. It's a game of chess."]]
The killer in "A Study in Pink," who has a sponsor and receives money for his family for every kill.
----
* AdaptationalVillainy: The literary version of him was a SympatheticMurderer who targeted {{Asshole Victim}}s for hurting the people he loved. Here he's a SerialKiller whose motivation is much less sympathetic, targets completely innocent people, and is overall much more cold-blooded and cruel.
* AlmightyJanitor: His career is rather dull and unimportant, yet he shows himself to be rather intelligent and calculating. He lampshades that someone like him who [[spoiler:drives a cab]] doesn't look all that bright.
* AloneWithThePsycho: A variation. Sherlock actually ''volunteers'' to be alone with the psycho because aforementioned psycho's promised to tell Sherlock how he's been committing his murders.
* BeneathNotice: As he says, nobody ever thinks about the [[spoiler:cabbie]]. It's like he's just a back of a head. He's able to take advantage of his job to hide in plain sight and be inherently trusted by his victims.
* CutLexLuthorACheck: He's very intelligent but working in a low income job, even Sherlock lampshades it:
--> "Either way you're wasted as a [[spoiler: cabbie]]."
* TheDogWasTheMastermind: There was some subtle foreshadowing about what the character's profession was, but the character himself is never introduced, nor is he ever clearly seen onscreen, until the climax of his episode.
* DrivenToSuicide: It looks like this is what he does to his victims. [[spoiler:It turns out he's forcing them at gunpoint to choose between two pills, one of which is poisonous.]]
* EvilOldFolks: His exact age is unknown but he's definitely getting on in years.
* FauxAffablyEvil: His ''tone'' is certainly friendly and cordial, but the actual content of what he says shows him to be a pretty massive asshole.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: His glasses only add to the eerie appearance that he has, although they're more subtle than most cases of this trope.
* LackOfEmpathy: He doesn't seem particularly bothered by the fact that he has to kill people [[spoiler:in order to secure money for his children]]. In fact, he seems to like killing and holds most people in contempt.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:The entire reason behind his killings is because, once he's dead, there'd be no income to provide for his children. Moriarity acts as a "sponsor," paying him loads for each person he kills.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: He's able to play on Sherlock's constant curiosity and desire for excitement to get Holmes to, [[AloneWithThePsycho not only go alone somewhere with him]], but also to play the "game" even when there’s no reason for Sherlock to do so. His game also depends on manipulating people based on what he's deduced about them and what he believes they've deduced about him.
* NeverSuicide: The entire plot of his episode really. Though since these are "serial suicides" it's kind of obvious.
* NiceHat: Sports a nifty flat cap.
* NoNameGiven: His name is only revealed in the credits, and even then his last name's not given.
* NotAfraidToDie: Whenever he plays his "game" with his victims, there's a good chance he could die too but he just doesn't seem to care. Most likely it's a combination of this trope due to [[spoiler:the knowledge he's dying anyway]], and confidence that he'll always be able to outsmart his opponents.
* PapaWolf: The more people he kills, the more money Moriarty gives to his children.
* PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo: [[spoiler:His method of killing involves offering his victims a choice between two identical pills, one of them harmless, the other poisoned.]]
* SerialKiller: He's murdered at least four people and he aims to take a fifth in Sherlock Holmes.
* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: He may not look it, but he is a genius behind the simplish look.
* SmugSnake: While he is a very clever man, as proven by how he's managed to survive four rounds of his "game," his arrogance, cold-bloodedness and firm belief in the stupidity of everyone around him does little to earn anyone's admiration.
* StarterVillain: He's the villain of the first episode of the series, and, while clever and dangerous enough to arouse Sherlock's interest, he's just the opening act for Moriarity.
* SurroundedByIdiots: At least in his own opinion
--> " Between you and me sitting here, why can't people think? Don't it make you mad? Why can't people just think?"
* TakeAThirdOption: If anyone tries to refuse his game, he offers them a bullet from his gun instead. [[spoiler:Gun's a fake.]]
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: He's a perfectly ordinary-looking man, which aides him in committing his murders.
* WorthyOpponent: While he talks about all his other victims as if they were idiots, he seems to hold Sherlock in some regard. Granted he still thinks Sherlock's not as smart as him, but he's conversational with him and even compliments Sherlock on the ideas Sherlock's put on his website.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler:He has a life-threatening aneurysm, meaning he lives with the knowledge any breath could be his last.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jim Moriarty]]
!!Jim Moriarty
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moriarty_james_3139.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Every fairytale needs a good, old-fashioned villain."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/AndrewScott
Sherlock's biggest fan and his arch-nemesis before Sherlock even knows he exists. He has a vast criminal network that he manages largely as a way to stave off the boredom of a world that poses no challenges for his incredible intellect.
----
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: As smart as Sherlock is, Moriarty is just as brilliant and has none of Sherlock's [[TheUnfettered self-imposed constraints.]]
* AmbiguouslyGay: He claims he's not gay, but he ''delights'' in flirting with Sherlock regardless. Andrew Scott coming out as of 2013 doesn't help either.
* ArchEnemy: Sherlock and Moriarty's relationship shows many traits connected with the trope.
** ItsPersonal between them? Check. Moriarty is obsessed with Sherlock and Sherlock [[spoiler: keeps his own version of Moriarty in his Mind Palace]].
** TheHero and his EvilCounterpart? Check.
** WorthyOpponent rivalry? Check.
** NotSoDifferent? Check. Moriarty is what Sherlock could become if he'd let his quirks, boredom and anti-social behavior overcome his mind and morality. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by their talk on the roof.
** Moriarty is the BigBad of Seasons 1 and 2, which makes him the most consistent enemy for Sherlock to fight - another trait of the ArchEnemy which may explain why [[spoiler: Moriarty may return in Season 4]].
** His ArchEnemy status is consistent with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories.
* AteHisGun: Puts a gun in [[spoiler:his own mouth and blows his brains out in "The Reichenbach Fall", ForTheEvulz.]]
* AxCrazy: Though more in the way of telling other people to kill people, rather than assaulting them himself.
* BadassBoast: "The man with the key is king, and honey you should ''see me in a crown''."
** "Sorry boys! I'm ''sooo'' changeable! It is a weakness with me, but to be fair to myself...it is my ONLY weakness."
* BadassInANiceSuit: Westwood, to be precise.
* TheBadGuyWins: Destroys Sherlock's reputation in "The Reichenbach Fall", [[spoiler:forcing Sherlock to fake his own death for a full 2 years.]]
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Go ahead, laugh at him. See what painful punishment he comes up with.
* BigBad: Every major antagonist in Series 1 and 2 either answered to or was advised by him. [[spoiler:He's supposedly back from the dead to return as the BigBad for Series 4.]]
* BoringInsult: Invoked. According to him, the most heinous insult to someone like him or Sherlock is to be "boring".
-->'''Moriarty''': I'm disappointed, I'm ''disappointed'' in you, ''ordinary Sherlock''.
* BreakThemByTalking: Moriarty has developed this to an art form.
* CampStraight: Keeps up his {{Camp}} persona after [[spoiler:revealing his identity to Sherlock]]. Also delights in flirting with him, calling him "sexy" and "honey". As always, it's hard to tell what really motivates him.
* CardCarryingVillain: Is openly proud of being reprehensibly evil. [[spoiler: He even gave Sherlock his card.]]
* TheChessmaster: In Series One, he's behind ''every'' case Sherlock investigates. In Series Two about the only one he wasn't involved in was an actual accident.
* ConsummateLiar: To the point where he can claim to be the former host of a children's TV show, and have an astounding amount of evidence to back it up.
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy:
** As "Scandal" shows, if it comes down to a choice between baiting Sherlock Holmes and his actual job, he'll pick the job. After all, crime is a heavily trust-based business.
** In "The Reichenbach Fall", he plays -- and ''wins'' -- GambitRoulette with both Holmes brothers and forces Sherlock to [[spoiler: fake his own suicide or risk John, Lestrade, and Mrs. Hudson's deaths. Although in Season 3, Sherlock claims he and Mycroft were playing Moriarty all along]].
* DeadpanSnarker: When he's not giggling.
* DeathSeeker: Jim's excruciating boredom with the world leads him to try get Sherlock to kill them both at the end of series 1, simply because it'd be ''fun''.
* DiabolicalMastermind: He's a "consulting criminal" behind dozens of illegal schemes.
* DiesWideOpen: Complete with [[spoiler:a ''seriously'' creepy smile after having supposedly blown his brains out, though his return at the end of "His Last Vow" has thrown the "Dies" part into question]].
* DoNotAdjustYourSet: Takes control of [[spoiler:every TV set in Britain for his return at the end of "His Last Vow".]]
** Although far more likely he [[spoiler:took control of the transmitters and ground stations.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Zig-zagged. Looks suicidal when he realizes that in destroying Sherlock, he's actually won, and now has nobody who will pose a challenge to him anymore. Then changes his mind and says he'll manage. Unfortunately Sherlock then convinces him that as long as Sherlock has Jim alive, Sherlock can also stop Jim's plan. Moriarty promptly shoots himself in the head to make sure Sherlock can't beat him.]]
** [[spoiler:Possibly subverted at the end of "His Last Vow".]]
* EvilCounterpart: To Sherlock. In this version, he lists his occupation as "Consulting Criminal", and his InsufferableGenius tendencies are played up just as much as Sherlock's. His goal, as it turns out, is to find [[spoiler: a perfect counterpart -- someone who ''is'' him]]. Sherlock indulges him, in the end, and admits as much. [[spoiler:He may well have faked his own suicide, to boot.]]
* {{Expy}}: Aspects of Jim's personality are similar to that of Moriarty expy [[Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective Professor Ratigan]].
* FauxAffablyEvil: Makes him even creepier.
* FoeRomanceSubtext: Invokes it with Sherlock, every chance he gets.
* FoeYayShipping: In-universe, no less, judging by one of the members of Sherlock's fanclub who puts forward the theory that [[spoiler: Sherlock and Moriarty faked their deaths to run off into the sunset together!]]
* ForTheEvulz: Has no real reason behind his cruel EvilPlan except that he is a psychopath and he "got bored". [[NotSoDifferent Remarkably like our hero, in fact.]]
--> '''Sherlock''': People have ''died!''
--> '''Moriarty''': That's what people '''DO!'''
* GigglingVillain: His laughter is truly creepy.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Grins right before shooting himself in the head in "Reichenbach Fall".]]
* KarmaHoudini: He's [[spoiler:DrivenToSuicide]], but this is only done as a way to ensure Sherlock can't wriggle out of his EvilPlan.
* KnightOfCerebus: The series was never the most lighthearted, but there was plenty of humour. When Moriarty enters as an indirect antagonist, the death toll escalates and the show gets darker. When he appears in person, things get seriously disturbing.
* LargeHam: His [[GigglingVillain high-pitched voice]] and [[PsychopathicManchild psychopathic mannerisms]] make him constantly appear on the edge of psychotic madness. He also changes his tone of voice and his mannerisms about every other line, rapidly going through affected personas and acting styles just to mock Sherlock. He's ''always'' hammy, though.
* TheMadHatter: He's out of his damn mind and proud of it.
* ManOfWealthAndTaste
-->'''Jim:''' ''(Straightens suit)'' Westwood!
* ManipulativeBastard: He is ''really'' good at this.
* MoodSwinger: ''Holy shit''. He goes from calm and collected to practically screaming in about two sentences. He even acknowledges it.
-->'''Jim''': Sorry boys! I'm ''sooo'' changeable!
* MyDeathIsOnlyTheBeginning: "His Last Vow" ends with [[spoiler: his image appearing on every screen in the United Kingdom, suggesting he had plans in place even in the event of his death, if he even died at all]].
* NotSoDifferent: To Sherlock, being basically a true sociopath. It means that people start assuming Sherlock made him ''very'' easily.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Poses as Jim from IT, a seemingly dumb and weak-minded guy.
* PosthumousCharacter: In Series 3, he appears as a mental vision in Sherlock's mind, tormenting him further. He also appears in a few flashbacks or ImagineSpot moments.
* PostMortemComeback: ''Maybe''. He appears at the end of "His Last Vow" [[spoiler:via [[DoNotAdjustYourSet mass broadcast around the UK]], but it's unclear if he's dead for real or not.]]
* PsychoForHire: He acquired his wealth and connections by working as a "consulting criminal". Once Sherlock gets his attention, he's happy to cut loose several clients as part of the game.
%%* PsychopathicManchild
* SecretIdentityIdentity: Until he and Sherlock meet at the end of the first series.
* ShadowArchetype: He's Sherlock if our protagonist had decided to commit crimes rather than solve them to pass the time, and didn't have the [[MoralityPet moral guides]] of John, Mrs Hudson, Molly, and Lestrade (plus the ones that followed as he TookALevelInKindness).
* SissyVillain: How Jim liked to portray himself to Sherlock, [[NotSoHarmlessVillain at]] [[KnightofCerebus first]].
* ASinisterClue: [[RewatchBonus If you watch closely]], when Sherlock hands him a cup of tea he gives it with the handle on the right side and Moriarty irritably turns it around to pick it up.
* TheSociopath: A genuine example, unlike Sherlock.
* SuddenlyShouting: Tends to shout certain words for emphasis when upset.
--> '''Sherlock''': People have died.\\
'''Moriarty''': That's what people '''''DO'''''!
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:"The Reichenbach Fall". To ensure that there is no way for Sherlock to stop his plan, he ''kills himself'', thus forcing Sherlock to commit suicide to protect his loved ones.. apparently all ForTheEvulz.]]
* TheUnfettered: Ultimately a deconstruction. Having absolutely no empathy and no limits, Jim's one and only concern is to try and stave off his endless boredom... even if that means putting his own plans and well-being at risk to do it. Best illustrated in the second series finale [[spoiler:where Moriarty gleefully '''shoots himself in the head''' for no reason other than he thinks it's the best way to "win" his game with Sherlock.]]
* UnwittingPawn: Makes one out of Molly Hooper, Sally Donovan, and [[spoiler:the entire British legal system and tabloid press in "The Reichenbach Fall".]] Such is his {{Manipulative Bastard}}y that he even makes pawns out of ''[[spoiler:the Holmes brothers themselves''. Although Sherlock claims in season 3 that Moriarty was the one being played all along.]]
* [[UsefulNotes/IrishAccents Irish Accents]]: Moriarty's is a Dublin 4 accent, usually associated with being obnoxiously upper-middle-class.
* VictoryIsBoring: As Sherlock points out, there is nothing that Moriarty can't already steal or buy. No problem presents a challenge for him. And Jim absolutely ''can't stand'' it. (This is one of the creepy Holmes/Moriarty parallels.)
* WouldHurtAChild: He threatens to blow up one in "The Great Game". In "The Reichenbach Fall", he poisons two more and almost kills them, as they could play into his plans well.
* YoureInsane: Sherlock says this to Moriarty in "The Reichenbach Fall".
-->'''Moriarty''': [[CaptainObvious You're]] [[InsultBackfire just getting]] [[CardCarryingVillain that now?]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Irene Adler]]
!!!Irene "The Woman" Adler
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adler_irene_6077.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Do you know the problem with a disguise, Mr Holmes? However hard you try, it's always a self-portrait."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/LaraPulver
'''The''' Woman, perhaps the only person to ever consistently flummox Sherlock Holmes. She's a dominatrix who first enters the story due to blackmailing the royal family.
----
* AdaptationalBadass: In the original stories, Irene Adler's impressive feat was simply seeing through Holmes' ruse, pulling one in turn, and then having the good sense to skip town while she has the chance. Here, she manages to [[spoiler:con him into decoding top-secret, vital information which she then passes along to Moriarty, ruining Mycroft's day]]. It takes a last-second epiphany for Sherlock to recover himself and make up for his own royal screwup.
* AdaptationalVillainy: In the original short-story, Irene just wanted to be left alone.
* BadassBoast: "This is how I want you to remember me...the woman who beat you."
* BigBadWannabe: For all of Irene’s cleverness, it’s still clear that she wouldn’t have gotten away with as much [[spoiler: without Moriarty’s assistance. This is made more evident after she loses his support, and is captured and almost put to death.]]
* BitchInSheepsClothing: She may not have been a sweetheart when she was introduced but by the time the episode ends, it’s revealed [[spoiler: that she’s complicit in terrorist plots and Moriarty's willing accomplice]].
* BiTheWay: She's been in relationships with both men and women prior to meeting Sherlock.
* BrainsAndBondage: A dominatrix who caters to the highest echelons of society. One of very few people to get several over on Sherlock Holmes.
* BrainyBrunette: Brown hair and nearly as smart as Sherlock.
* BrokenBird: She's very clever, but also clearly rather damaged; Irene routinely drugs her 'friends', keeps blackmail material on her phone just in case she needs it and her career is sex- it's not fun, it's a job.
* TheCameo: Irene very briefly appears in Sherlock's mind palace in "The Sign of Three", suggesting that Sherlock still thinks about her sometimes. She's completely naked, naturally.
* {{Catchphrase}}: She mentions a couple of times she knows somebody, then amends, "Well, I know what he/she likes."
* TheChessmaster: Outplays ''both'' Holmes brothers, at one point.
* DarkActionGirl: She can handle herself in a scrap, as seen when she and Sherlock are ambushed in her drawing room, she easily disarms and pistol-whips her attacker.
* {{Dominatrix}}: Mycroft specifically describes her as such.
* EasilyForgiven: She was perfectly willing to [[spoiler: extort the British government for millions, enlist the skills of a psychopath, aid in a terrorist plot, and manipulate and betray Sherlock]], yet she [[spoiler: still gets saved by Sherlock in the end and lives without any apparent consequences or moral development.]]
* ExcessiveEvilEyeShadow: Prior to meeting Sherlock, she is seen liberally applying copious pearlescent eye-shadow and blood-red lipstick.
* FakingTheDead: ''Twice''.
* FemmeFatale: A classic example.
* FemmeFataleSpy: One of her many tricks for stealing blackmail material.
* FetishFuelStationAttendant: In-universe. It comes with [[{{Dominatrix}} the job]].
* FunWithSubtitles: When Sherlock does his trademark scan, a subtitle floating beside the clue says what he's noticed. When he first meets Irene, all his scans get is "???????".
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Let's be honest, whether she has feelings for Sherlock or not, it still doesn't stop her from treating him terribly or [[spoiler: excuse her for working with Moriarty]]. She's made it pretty clear all through that episode that her self-interest comes before anything else.
* KarmaHoudini: For all the havoc and damage she caused, [[spoiler: she still gets to survive in the end.]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: She does everything she can to exploit Sherlock’s naivete when it comes to sex and intimacy but in the end [[spoiler: her own feelings for him prove to be her downfall.]] Verges on DramaticIrony.
* MsFanservice: Struts into the drawing room to greet Sherlock stark naked.
* NakedOnArrival: Pulls this on Sherlock to defeat his [[SherlockScan trademark scan]]. Can't tell anything from a person's clothes if they're not wearing any, right?
* NoSell: When first meeting Adler, [[SherlockScan Sherlock's scan]] can only come up with "??????"
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Admittedly, she might not be from NewJersey in this version, but the fact Pulver uses her normal accent is a notable departure from past portrayals of the character.
* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: With Kate, her lover/assistant.
* ShowSomeLeg: Calculates that showing some leg would simply be analyzed for what it is by Sherlock. So she takes it UpToEleven.
* SilkHidingSteel: Elegant. Ruthless.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Caters to both [[BiTheWay male and female]] clients, claims to self-identify as being gay, yet the only man (or indeed anyone) she actually shows any ''serious'' interest seems to be [[DatingCatwoman Sherlock]]. [[spoiler: Her chosen password is particularly telling.]]
--> ''[[spoiler: I Am SHER Locked]]''
* {{Troll}}: She loves to troll Sherlock, even leaving her ImmodestOrgasm as his ''ringtone''.
* UnusualEuphemism: At one point, her occupation is described as "recreational scolding".
* TheVamp: A dangerous, beautiful woman who uses sex as a tool to get what she wants.
* VillainessesWantHeroes: Very much taken with Sherlock.
* WomanOfWealthAndTaste: The phone everybody was fighting for in "A Scandal in Belgravia" was a Vertu Constellation Quest smart phone, with a price tag of £17,300. There was more than one reason she was fighting tooth and nail to get it back.
* WhipItGood: ''Introduced'' holding a riding crop, which features extensively in her website's photos, and [[{{Dominatrix}} uses it for reasons very different from Sherlock's]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Charles Augustus Magnussen ]]
!!Charles Augustus Magnussen
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/magnussen_charles_augustus_4796.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Knowing is owning."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Lars Mikkelsen
A media mogul who owns the majority of Western civilization through very careful application of blackmail.
----
* AchillesHeel: Magnussen stores all the information about his victims not on a computer, which would be hackable, but in hard copy form in a vast underground vault underneath his high-security home. Only he has access to it, and he doesn't let anybody in. [[spoiler:...Except that he doesn't. There is no such vault. He just remembers it all. As a result, Sherlock is able to eliminate Magnussen as a threat by shooting him in the head.]]
* AdaptationalBadass: His literary counterpart was content blackmailing England's nobility and gentry, specifically ladies, who were either married or engaged. Here he's blackmailing world governments, and [[spoiler: instead of keeping all of his information in a locked safe, he keeps it all in his own head.]]
* AdaptationNameChange: From Milverton to Magnussen.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Sherlock's hatred of him is exacerbated by the fact that Magnussen is genuinely smart enough to outwit him.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: He's so cruel and unlikable, you can't help but cheer Sherlock on when he shoots Magnussen in the head.]]
* BigBad: He's the one for Series 3.
* {{Blackmail}}: Specializes in extortion.
-->'''Sherlock''': ''...he attacks people who are '''different''' and preys on their secrets!''
* BoomHeadshot: Sherlock [[spoiler:shoots him in the head after he makes it clear that if he dies, his information goes with him.]]
* TheBully: What he basically is, and the specific reason Sherlock hates him as he picks on people for being different, hinting at a bit of bullying in Sherlock's own past.
* BullyingADragon: Seriously, revealing [[spoiler: that there are no physical Appledore vaults, that all the information is in his head, and there are no tangible copies of data or backups or contingencies that can be disseminated in the event of his death to cause chaos, and then being utterly unrepentant and physically humiliating the people who hate him and want to stop him. Did Magnussen really not consider someone would be desperate or stupid or self-sacrificing enough to simply kill him where he stood? Because that is the one thing that will easily and definitively eliminate the threat of his blackmail scheme by leaving all that sensitive information completely dead inside his equally dead brain.]]
* CardCarryingVillain: To the people he's blackmailing. In public, he presents himself as a simple businessman. [[DefiedTrope Defied]] at the end, though -- he mocks Sherlock and John precisely for treating him like some kind of villain. He seems to honestly believe that he ''isn't'' a villain due to some InsaneTrollLogic like, for instance, the fact that he technically hasn't killed anyone (even though he has ruined several lives and puts others in mortal danger, both for his own amusement).
* TheChessmaster: His ultimate goal in Series 3 is [[spoiler:to get leverage on Mycroft to blackmail and control him]]. He achieves this by blackmailing [[spoiler:Mary]], then manipulating Sherlock and John when they react as he expects they will, relying on a series of "pressure points" to control the involved parties. [[spoiler:Once Sherlock implicated himself in high treason by trying to sell him Mycroft's laptop full of government information, Magnussen would have the leverage he needs to get to Mycroft.]]
* CompositeCharacter: Largely based on Charles Augustus Milverton, from the short story of the same title. However, the larger scale of his activities, the "Napoleon" nickname, his appearance and personality, and the events in his brief meetings with Sherlock, make him a more faithful depiction of Moriarty as he originally appeared in the Conan Doyle stories than the ''Sherlock'' Jim Moriarty is.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In addition to his blackmailing activities, he has no problem printing false information in his papers.
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy:
** He keeps all his information in an underground vault in hard copy, because computers are hackable. [[spoiler: Taken further when we find out there is no vault. He's able to '''memorize''' '''everything''', by having his own version of Sherlock's mind palace. Further, while he has no physical evidence of anything he knows, the people he blackmails don't know that. And besides, he's a media mogul - his newspapers don't ''need'' proof to print the stories.]]
* DeadpanSnarker:
-->'''John''': I don't understand.\\
'''Magnussen''': You should put that on a t-shirt.\\
''[later]''\\
'''John''': I still don't understand.\\
'''Magnussen''': And there's the back of the t-shirt.
* DirtyCoward: No problem with begging for his life.
* DirtyOldMan: He can go anywhere from small, simple actions and words that will leave your skin crawling, to licking a woman's face.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: His interactions with his victims '''strongly''' resemble those of a rapist (and in Britain, forcibly licking someone like that counts as sexual assault).
* TheDreaded: Sherlock mentions that Magnussen is the most dangerous threat he's faced up to that point and nobody's ever made his stomach turn quite like Magnussen.
* EvilCounterpart: Another one to Sherlock. [[spoiler:Like Sherlock, he's a genius who stores vast amounts of information in his head via the Mind Palace technique. This is the secret of his serial blackmailing. He doesn't need to store the information corporeally or digitally.]] He's basically Sherlock's logical side, if taken to a cold, logical extreme.
** Like Sherlock, Magnussen specializes in uncovering secrets and solving mysteries, but while Sherlock uses it to put evil away and better society, Magnussen uses it as power to assert his dominance over people and countries.
** He is arguably more the evil counterpart of Mycroft. Both have extensive influence over governments, both have direct yet ethically-questionable access to leaders of Britain, both are more [[TheChessmaster chessmasters]] than [[TheTrickster trickster]], and both are strongly implied to actually be smarter than Sherlock (and both definitely like reminding him of it). It's strongly implied that Magnussen has clashed with Mycroft before and has found a way to blackmail or control him [[spoiler: which may be threats against Sherlock]] and at one point Sherlock tries [[spoiler: and fails to bribe him with Mycroft's laptop, because Magnussen craves the information on it.]] In the original stories Sherlock muses that if Mycroft had the inclination he could easily become the most successful criminal the world had ever seen- Magnussen could be read as an attempt to see if that is true.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler: For all the ways that he managed to outwit Sherlock and take advantage of the fact that John is Sherlock's pressure point, he was apparently unaware of how far Sherlock would go to protect John.]]
** Also, for all the truly vile and horrible things he does every single day, he scoffs and laughs at the idea that he is actually the bad guy.
* EvilGloating: Magnussen likes to do this. And in classic villain fashion, this ultimately leads to his downfall: [[JustBetweenYouAndMe When he thinks that he has beat Sherlock Holmes, he tells him the reason why]] - [[BondVillainStupidity this way exposing his own biggest weakness]]. [[spoiler:Namely that the police can't confiscate his blackmail vault because it only exists in his head. Thus the vault will simply cease to exist and stop causing any more trouble with Magnussen's death.]]
* EvilIsPetty: Mainly because of all the information he has on people, he fully believes he can do whatever to whomever he wants. In fact this seems to be his main motivation.
** He licks Lady Smallwood's face after declaring he can ruin her husband.
** He pisses in 221B's fireplace, and when he wipes his hands, he throws the towelette on the floor.
** He picks up and eats an olive off Sherlock's pasta meal and cleans his fingers with Sherlock's drink.
** He flicks [[spoiler: John]] in the face repeatedly, because if the latter doesn't allow him, Magnussen will have Mary killed ([[PragmaticVillainy or rather, expose her as an assassin in his newspapers and thus make her a fugitive from the law and on the run from people who want her dead]]). It's implied he did something similar to [[spoiler: Janine]]. He points out he does this metaphorically to whole countries.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He rarely gets angry, and almost always speaks with the same polite tone of voice. It makes him even creepier and even more disgusting.
* FourEyesZeroSoul: A criminal mastermind with a pair of rimless glasses.
* ForTheEvulz: He's a wealthy newspaper magnate, so he blackmails people because he enjoys the power it gives him, not for the money.
* {{Hypocrite}}: He loves threatening people with ruination and does so with the utmost apathy and grace, but as soon as his neck's on the line, he breaks down into a quivering, pleading mess.
* IcyBlueEyes: Sherlock compares his eyes to the "dead eyed" gaze of a shark.
* IdiotBall: Magnussen makes two mistakes:
##He decides to blackmail Mary, a recently retired assassin. He presumably knows everything about her, and takes joy in amusing himself with the nature of her assassinations. Except this also means she has no moral or practical issue in just sneaking into his office and shooting him in the head as soon as she could fit it in her schedule. Which she was seconds away from doing if not for Sherlock and Watson making an appearance and forcing her to improvise to avoid them being suspected in Magnusson's murder.
##The reveal that the Appledore blackmail vault is entirely in Magnusson's head, and he controls no records other than what he remembers, makes him pretty impotent. Perhaps the only reason he hasn't been killed before the episode is that his targets think that Magnusson has some sort of failsafe in case he's killed, such as physical records that would be disseminated if he dies under suspicious circumstances. Magnusson likes the idea of showing up Sherlock by getting the police to search his home and find nothing incriminating. However, he seems ignorant of the fact that this also will reveal to lots of current and future unhappy blackmail victims that it might be better to just kill him instead of pay him. The reveal is intended to demonstrate Magnusson defeating Sherlock's plan to expose him, but it also suggests Magnusson is far and wide the stupidest criminal Sherlock has ever faced, as even after Mary attempting to kill him, he seems unaware that any of his victims might attempt to kill him, and therefore makes no effort to use his extensive blackmail library to protect himself.
* {{Irony}}: Sherlock [[spoiler: shoots Magnussen in his both his literal and metaphorical computer, (where he stored all his oh so valuable blackmail information) which is directly caused by two separate instances of [[TheDogBitesBack the dog biting back.]]]]
* KickTheDog: To '''all''' of his onscreen victims.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: What two of his onscreen victims do back.
* KnightOfCerebus: For Series 3. At first, it appeared "The Empty Hearse" would be more lighthearted and funny... then John Watson is nearly burned to death. From there, he only gets worse.
* LeanAndMean: Although his slender build doesn't stand out a whole lot against the likes of Sherlock and Mycroft, Lars Mikkelsen's [[http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140113033247/bakerstreet/images/9/9f/Magnussen.png sharp, angular features]] help to create the effect.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Of Rupert Murdoch. Both are wealthy, powerful foreigners who run controversial news organizations.
* OldMediaAreEvil: He's an international newspaper magnate who blackmails people as a sideline.
* OutGambitted: For all of his planning and manipulation, he'd never anticipated [[spoiler: Sherlock shooting him in the head.]]
* PsychopathicManchild: He is arguably the most powerful man in the world, but he acts like a SpoiledBrat or SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp, since he uses said power mainly to bully and humiliate people ForTheEvulz.
* {{Sadist}}: Absolutely revels in the power his information, influence and public standing gives him over other people- to the point of forcefully licking the arm and face of a government minister or pissing in Sherlock's fireplace, just because he ''can''.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Even though he's seen blackmailing MP's (and it's implied the Prime Minister) Mycroft wants him left alone for reasons that are unclear.
** Sherlock accuses Mycroft of ''also'' being blackmailed by Magnussen. It's implied that he actually got to Mycroft by [[spoiler: threatening to use his papers to [[BigBrotherInstinct go after Sherlock.]]]]
* SharpDressedMan: Always dresses in suits.
* ShadowArchetype: If Moriarty is the more chaotic, wild counterpart to Sherlock, Magnussen is Sherlock to his absolute coldest depths.
** He is also a more smug, sadistic, and unprincipled version of Mycroft, what the latter could be if he stopped caring about the defence of the realm and instead decided to rub its face in the mud.
* SmugSnake: He considers John and Mrs. Hudson to be "unimportant".
** He tends to underestimate the people he blackmails, some like Lady Smallwood and [[spoiler: Mary]] refuse to put up with it, and try to bring him down.
** [[spoiler: All his information is memorized, so there's no hard copy of it. But he tells this all to Sherlock, thinking he got one up on him, which is a rare but severe miscalculation on his part. Sherlock has no problem putting a bullet in his brain when he threatens John and Mary's happiness.]]
* SoftSpokenSadist: Is always soft spoken, [[DirtyCoward even when pleading for his life.]] Also, torments people he doesn't need to just because [[ForTheEvulz he enjoys it.]]
* StatOVision: His glasses show information useful for blackmail on anyone he looks at including their porn preference and "pressure points." [[spoiler:It turns out that his glasses are completely ordinary and the information he sees is just his "mind palace." It still fits this trope, though.]]
* TakeThat / ShoutOut : To another newspaper executive RupertMurdoch (leading to more accusations of BBC bias from the Daily Mail.)
* ThouShallNotKill: Villainous version, and an extremely borderline case. He has no problem arranging for John to be put ''in a bonfire'' just to see how Sherlock would react...but says he had a man on-site who would have saved him had Sherlock not made it in time, [[InsaneTrollLogic so it doesn't really count.]] [[spoiler: His final fate is to be on the receiving end of Sherlock [[DefiedTrope defying this trope.]]]] Also, at least one of his blackmail victims committed suicide after he threatened them, and he doesn't give a damn.
* UngratefulBastard: Mycroft has him under protection, yet Magnussen has no problem stealing data from British Intelligence if it gives him more power. [[spoiler: But he's GenreSavvy enough to not get caught doing it.]]
* WhiteVoidRoom: His "vault", [[spoiler: which helps him in accessing his mind palace.]]
[[/folder]]
----
