Adaptational Badass: Inverted, in that while the movie's version gets into a lot more fights and makes more gratuitous use of martial arts, he lacks the original's prodigious strength and often needs to use his cunning as much as his skill to stay just ahead of his opponents. Conan Doyle's Holmes was a skilled enough boxer and martial artist to never need to stoop to combat pragmatism, preferring Good Old Fisticuffs, and was able to beat an extremely skilled boxer in a fair fight.
Cursed with Awesome: Sherlock's eponymous Sherlock Scan apparently has no figurative off-switch as shown in the restaurant scene in the first movie, and is explicitly called a curse by him late into the second.
Dating Catwoman: Played with as Irene's alignment is ambigious. He also counts as the Batman to Irene's Catwoman.
Lack of Empathy: Toyed with, but ultimately downplayed. Holmes appears to be interested in solving problems and stopping criminals mainly because he enjoys the challenge, and he also admires and respects the cunning and intelligence of the main villains in both movies despite the nature of their crimes. However, he also specifically points out to Blackwood that he wishes he could have caught him sooner in order to save innocent lives, and to Moriarty that he finds his scheme to be both impressive and horrific. Furthermore, while he has a lack of tact, he's also quite devoted to keeping his friends and companions safe.
Large Ham: Most beacuse his facial expressions and his gravely voice complete with a fake english accent.
Mad Scientist: Always tests his drugs on poor Gladstone.
The Watson: Downplayed, as Holmes and Watson have both hit their prime after long experience. Watson is himself a decent investigator, though not naturally inclined to be as such.
Adaptational Badass: In the books, she was nothing more than an unusually clever opera singer who happened to get her hands on a compromising photograph, and was smart enough to prevent Holmes from stealing it back. Here's, she's a full-on professional thief and a Femme Fatale who's able to best Holmes in a fight.
Butt Monkey: He's Watson's dog, and as a result he keeps being injected with paralytics and potentially poisoned a lot by Holmes. Lampshaded in A Game Of Shadows when Watson shouts at him to stop killing his dog.
Not Quite Dead: A result of several of the compounds he's injected with.
Sherlock Holmes
Lord Henry Blackwood
"You and I are bound together on a journey that will twist the very fabric of nature."
The Dreaded: His influence is so strong that he causes rioting outside Parliament in the final scenes.
Evil Brit: Averted. He is evil but being british has nothing to do with it. Everyone here is british.
Evil Plan: Fakes his own death to convince others that he has supernatural dark power and assassinate Parliament.
Evil Sorcerer: Invoked but he can only fake it.. He talks the talk and uses the imagery, but his "powers" are nothing but smoke and mirrors. Though that reoccurring crow and those prophecies coming true are a bit suspect.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: An odd number of coincidences could be seen as repercussions of his dark magic, and there's this crow that seems to be following him.
Red Right Hand: One of his front teeth is badly crooked, mirroring the nature of his character. It's also his first recognisable feature shown to the viewer in a close-up.
Self-Made Orphan: He kills his father, Sir Thomas Rotheram, by forcing him to drown, and his mother died after giving birth.
Badass Grandpa: Well, he's wrinkled and his hair is graying and thinning, so he looks almost past retirement age. But he moves like a man half that.
The Bad Guy Wins: He actually arrives to set up WWI before probably dying at the Reichenbach Waterfalls. True, it doesn't happen at the right time as he intended, but it's still a victory.
Evil Counterpart: To Holmes himself. It's even mentioned in the first by movie by Adler.
Evil Teacher: Althought not towards his students - in fact he's shown to be quite kindly towards 'em. However when he's not teaching, he soon reveals the sociopath monster inside him.
Faux Affably Evil: He's quite polite, he's also a sociopathic mastermind who was planning and actually set up the conditions for WWI.
For the Evulz: You can see a look of pure fiendish glee when he tortures Holmes on meat hooks.
Genius Bruiser: Was Cambridge's boxing champion in his youth.
Good Old Fisticuffs: Relies on straightforward boxing techniques when fighting, in comparison to Holmes' modified Bartitsu fighting style.
He Looks Just Like Everyone Else: Part of his redesign from the first movie, where he was an ominous, shadowy figure. When you see him in the sequel, he's obscured by the shadows of some blinds. But he pulls them back to look at Irene face to face, and we are introduced to... an ordinary man. An ordinary Moriarty who manipulates, tortures, and kills untold numbers of people without a second thought.
Lightning Bruiser: Seriously, witness his fight against Holmes. The man moves like a bullet.
Loves the Sound of Screaming: He wears a soft, contented smile while dangling Holmes from the ceiling on a meathook, and even sets up a speaker system to broadcast the sounds throughout his factory.
No Sell: Sherlock's fight analysis/planning is useless against him because Moriarty can think as fast and fight even faster. They both conclude in their Sherlock Scans that Moriarty would tear Holmes a new one (in part due to Holmes' injury).
Tranquil Fury: Sherlock didn't foresee this, and as such had no real advantage over Moriarty in their fight.
Villain with Good Publicity: To everyone except Holmes and his allies, Moriarty is a kindly and respected professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, and a personal friend to the Prime Minister. The British government even invite him to the peace summit, not realising that it's Moriarty's fault France and Germany are at each other's throats in the first place.
Villainous Breakdown: An extremely subtle one, more to do with his actions than any expression or anger. His rage is restrained, but he makes the decision to go all-out on Holmes. And then that goes out the window after Holmes pulls off his Taking You with MeHeroic Sacrifice. His facial expression as he plummets to his death is of impotent rage.
Wicked Cultured: Has an appreciation of Opera, particularly the work of Schubert, which he sings during the torture scene. Also, attending Don Giovanni right before the Meinhart shooting.
Worthy Opponent: Holmes admits respect but can barely hide the great hate he feels towards him.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: To the point where it's odd that anyone agrees to work with him. You have to wonder what Moran's pension plan is.
Though Moran is shown to possess true loyalty to Moriarity, most people we seen working for Moriarty are either paid-off people or people forced to do it, who would easily squeal given the right amount of money or to get revenge on Moriarty for taking their family hostage.
Simza is a tag-along protagonist to Holmes and Watson. Holmes runs into her when he intercepts a letter that was intended to go to Moriarty.
Action Girl: Though she's a bit outclassed, she nevertheless is far from helpless. It really does well in her and Holmes's fight with the Cossack assassin.
Bomb Throwing Anarchists: Simza and her brother counted as these a long time ago, but she managed to get out of the job, while Rene was blackmailed into working for Moriarty.
Ambiguously Gay: Finds nothing wrong with walking around naked with his butler and other men, but is taken aback at the notion that women (i.e. Mary) are creatures to be admired. He even tries to hit on her using this logic, but it fails spectacularly.
Naked People Are Funny: Walking stark naked in a casual way around his house, which his servants don't even bat an eye at.
OOC Is Seriousbusiness: Watson knows something important must be going on if it forces Mycroft to miss an appointment to dine on potted shrimp at the Diogenes Club.
Improbable Aiming Skills: When analyzing the firing distance for the Meinhart shooting (a 650 yards shot with a 7-8mph wind), Watson comments that there are only half a dozen men in Europe who could manage a shot like that, and with some additional info from Holmes singles out Moran as Moriarty's sniper. He proves pretty good on the fly, too, taking a crack shot at Watson with a rifle he scooped up while running and missing by only the slightest degree, and later shooting a Gypsy from a fair distance while suffering from a bullet wound himself.
Kick the Dog: He shoots a random German soldier who happened to be standing in front of Watson, sarcastically "warning" him to move while lining up his shot.
Wicked Cultured: At the Paris book signing, when Moriarty informs Moran that he won't need his opera ticket, Moran says, "It's a shame, professor. I was looking forward to Don Giovanni."
