History Characters / SherlockHolmes

** Even his intellect is subjected to this. Holmes is undeniably brilliant but a recurring theme in the stories is that he is not invulnerable and is capable of making mistakes or arriving at the wrong conclusions from his deductions and he will openly admit his skill is not a superpower but the result of intense training and something anyone could learn. He is also defeated a few times, most notably by Irene Adler who uses his own confidence against him, or simply fails to solve cases. Many adaptations have it so that Holmes' deductive skills are something akin to a superhuman ability and he's almost never wrong with only Moriarty presenting any serious intellectual threat to him.

* CharacterDevelopment: He becomes considerably less aloof as the series goes on, and more open to a life outside detective work. [[/note]] In ''The Sign of Four'', he explicitly says that Watson is his only friend, but later addresses his farewell note in "The Final Problem" to his ''"friends"'' (note the plural) who might be saddened by his departure.

For a list of the actors and actresses who have appeared in Sherlock Holmes adaptations, see [[UsefulNotes/SherlockHolmesActors here]].

* DragonTheirFeet: Moran spends three years trying to get revenge on Holmes for killing Moriarty.

** Even his intellect is subjected to this. Holmes is undeniably brilliant but a recurring theme in the stories is that he is not invulnerable and is capable of making mistakes or arriving at the wrong conclusions from his deductions and he will openly admit his skill is not a superpower but the result of intense training and something anyone could learn. He is also defeated a few times, most notably by Irene Adler who uses his own confidence against him, or simply fails to solve cases. This stands in contrast to many adaptations where Holmes' deductive skills are something akin to a superhuman ability and he's almost never wrong with only Moriarty presenting any serious intellectual threat to him.

* GeniusBruiser: Downplayed. While stories like "The Adventure Of The Speckled Band" show that Holmes has great strength, his outward appearance is not exceptionally imposing. Despite this, he is a talented boxer and martial artist on top of his extraordinary intellect. Still, some criminals have outmuscled him from time to time, forcing Watson and/or several police officers to step in.

%%* BerserkButton: Comparing him to a fictional detective.

%%* DeadpanSnarker: Especially toward the hapless Scotland Yard inspectors whose perception is so inferior to his own.

** For all his ego, Holmes is quite willing to admit when he's in the wrong. He has even asked others to bring up his failures if acting too arrogant.

** Emphasis on "personal." It's possible for him to have a disorganized home but still prefers to keep himself clean. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again,]] Doyle may have been trying to StealthPun play around with the readers by likening Holmes to a cat, given the AntagonistTitle.

** Emphasis on "personal." It's possible for him to have a disorganized home but still prefers to keep himself clean. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again,]] Doyle may have been trying to StealthPunplay around with the readers by likening Holmes to a cat, given the AntagonistTitle.

** Emphasis on "personal." It's possible for him to have a disorganized home but still prefers to keep himself clean. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again,]] Doyle may have been trying to TrollingCreator play around with the readers by likening Holmes to a cat, given the AntagonistTitle.

** Emphasis on "personal." It's possible for him to have a disorganized home but still prefers to keep himself clean. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again,]] Doyle may have been trying to TrollingCreatorplay around with the readers by likening Holmes to a cat, given the AntagonistTitle.

** Emphasis on "personal." It's possible for him to have a disorganized home but still prefers to keep himself clean. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again,]] Doyle may have been trying to play around with the readers by likening Holmes to a cat, given the AntagonistTitle.

** Emphasis on "personal." It's possible for him to have a disorganized home but still prefers to keep himself clean. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again,]] Doyle may have been trying to [[Pun]]play around with the readers by likening Holmes to a cat, given the [[AntagonistTitle.]]

** Emphasis on "personal." It's possible for him to have a disorganized home but still prefers to keep himself clean. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again,]] Doyle may have been trying to [[Punplay around]] with the readers by likening Holmes to a cat, given the [[AntagonistTitle.]]

** Emphasis on "personal." It's possible for him to have a disorganized home but still prefers to keep himself clean. [[FridgeBrilliance Then again,]] Doyle may have been trying to [[Pun play around]] with the readers by likening Holmes to a cat, given the [[AntagonistTitle.]]

** Emphasis on "personal." It's possible for him to have a disorganized home but still prefers to keep himself clean. [[FridgeBrillianceThen again,]] Doyle may have been trying to [[Pun play around]] with the readers by likening Holmes to a cat, given the [[AntagonistTitle.]]

* GeniusBruiser: Downplayed. While stories like "The Adventure Of The Speckled Band" show that Holmes has great strength, his outward appearance is not exceptionally imposing. Despite this, he is a talented boxer and martial artist on top of his extraordinary intellect. Still, some criminals have overpowered him from time to time.

** For all his ego, Holmes is quite willing to admit when he's in the wrong. He has even asked others to bring up his failures when acting too arrogant.

* ToBeLawfulOrGood: Several stories place Holmes, who (while hardly being a paladin) generally respects and upholds the law, in a position where he is forced to either let a sympathetic guilty party be punished or look the other way and let them go, thus ensuring that justice is never served. Alternatively, he might have to break the law in order to ensure a deserving guilty party is punished (usually by burgling their house in order to find evidence). Generally, he picks the 'good' option, although in the former examples he does usually make a point of ensuring that the evidence is still available to the police for them to draw the correct conclusions (they rarely do) and will make a point of informing the guilty party that if an innocent person should find themselves facing punishment for the guilty person's crime, then all deals are off.

* GameBreakingInjury: Suffered a major bullet wound to either one of his shoulders or one of his limbs that made him ill-suited for continued military combat, leading to his honourable discharge.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Watson lives with Holmes and acts something like a spouse to him, despite no (explicitly stated) romance between the two. Furthermore, Watson falls in love with and weds one of their clients, Mary Morstan, and Holmes explicitly states during one case after the marriage that wedlock suits Watson very well.

* LastNameBasis: He's often referred to solely by his last name by Sherlock although other characters do refer to him as John.

* RudeHeroNiceSidekick: One of the oldest examples. While dangerous when roused, Watson is a romantic who is considerably kinder than the often arrogant Holmes.

* TheStoic: Mary seems to have died sometime between Holmes' disappearance and return. Watson doesn't talk about it and Holmes doesn't press the issue, implying that he probably maintained a StiffUpperLip despite his loss.

* UndyingLoyalty: Would follow Holmes anywhere and do anything Holmes asks of him, no matter how crazy, dangerous or illegal. Despite Holmes' frequent dishonesty and manipulative behaviour, Watson always trusts that he knows what he's doing and that it's best to go along with his plans, however little he understands them.

** Despite the above, Holmes acts more humane again after retirement, best shown through his narratives in "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" and "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane".

* DreadfulMusician: Subverted. Holmes is actually a decent-to-good violinist when he can be persuaded to play the violin rather than just play ''with'' it. Most of the time, however, he just scrapes the strings with the bow to give his hands something to do while his mind works, and doesn't notice people's reaction to the noise.

* GeniusBruiser: Downplayed. While Holmes is described as having above-average strength, he is not considered exceptionally imposing. Despite this, he is a talented boxer and martial artist on top of his extraordinary intellect. In "The Adventure Of The Speckled Band" he comments that he could have shown the bullying villain his own strength if the latter had stayed around, but the criminals in "A Study In Scarlet" and "The Adventure Of Black Peter" nearly overcome him one on one and he needs the help of Watson and one or more police officers to subdue them.

* GoodIsNotNice: He's on the side of justice and the down-trodden, and he can be a perfect gentleman to his clients. However, Watson himself sometimes notes Holmes as an InsufferableGenius and he doesn't hold back if he's dealing with someone who has earned his contempt.

** Holmes also shows more tenderness in stories he narrates, such as "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane". This strongly implies that he simply keeps his emotions in firm check, rather than outright not feeling them.
** For all his ego, Holmes is quite willing to admit when he's in the wrong and even asks others to bring up his failures when he's getting a swelled head so as to remind him that he's not invulnerable.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Definitely eccentric, and can be oblivious towards Watson's feelings. However, despite moments of arrogance, Holmes is clearly a good man at heart and cares about others, especially Watson, and is capable of considerable kindness and compassion, even towards murderers.

* MirrorCharacter: Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty, both brilliant and equal matches in nearly every way except in that Moriarty is devoted to crime. The mirroring catches attention so effectively that despite Moriarty being a fairly minor character in the original canon, he has an [[BreakoutCharacter outsized role]] in many, if not most, adaptations.

* NonIdleRich: Subverted at first. While Holmes states that his ancestors were country squires, he did not seem to rely on family money, hence becoming roommates with Watson in ''A Study of Scarlet''. As he gained a firm detective career though, Holmes gradually became much wealthier, regularly paying enough rent money to outright buy 221B Baker Street. Likewise, Holmes later purchases Watson's old practice after the Great Hiatus, done so the two can work together again.

** One of the more famous among the fanbase (particularly Holmes/Watson fans) is Holmes' reaction to Watson being shot in "The Three Garridebs". He gently helps the doctor to a chair and [[TranquilFury coldly]] tells his attacker that he's lucky he didn't kill Watson or it would have been his death as well.

* SherlockScan: Holmes' trademark. He can tell a lifetime's worth of information about a person by just looking them over for a few moments which normally leaves everyone else in the room baffled. The original stories made a point of showing that this skill is not perfect as it is based around figuring out details and drawing conclusions rather than definitive knowledge, meaning Holmes can get details right but still draw the wrong conclusions, and he is not immune to making mistakes due to his own biases as well as that people don't necessarily like being observed in such a sense with Watson calling him out for doing so to him which Holmes even acknowledges was insensitive. Other stories also show that Holmes has to maintain this skill through long hours of intense study of extremely dull topics on the off chance that they might come in handy, even if they wouldn't be useful in anything but investigation.