History YMMV / SherlockHolmes

* HilariousInHindsight: In "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor," Holmes expresses a hope that the U.S. would rejoin the U.K. An...eccentric position when the story was written, but with the popularity of [[Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia USUK]], [[FanPreferredCouple he has plenty of support on that,]] [[{{Shipping}} albeit in a different sense]]. An additional layer of hilarity is that this is one of the goals of ''the villain'' in the 2009 Holmes film.

** Holmes' stated disinterest in women: is he gay, asexual, or simply straight but very repressed?

** [[Series/{{Blackadder}} Lord Percy/Captain Darling]] as Vincent Spaulding.
** [[Film/RockyHorrorPictureShow The Criminologist]] as Mycroft Holmes.

* MagnificentBastard:
** Moriarty is one of the most iconic. Sherlock has damn good reason to call him "The Napoleon of Crime."
** Jefferson Hope (''A Study in Scarlet'') spends '''''two whole decades''''' making XanatosSpeedChess-style comebacks against his ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections targets before finally avenging his dead would-be family, then even manages to GoOutWithASmile.

* PeripheryDemographic: Both the producers and the star, Jeremy Brett, were surprised to learn that their TV series was very popular with kids, who seemed to see the lead character as a SuperHero. As such, Brett got permission from the granddaughter of Arthur Conan Doyle to have Holmes beat his cocaine addiction and bury his needle.

* ValuesResonance: The last few paragraphs of "The Yellow Face". To clarify, Effie Munro [[spoiler: had married a black man in America and had a child with him before he died of disease]]. [[TheGayNineties Considering the time period]], this is quite remarkable. Then her husband (Grant Munro) quietly tells her that she could have just confided in him from the start, [[spoiler: picks up the girl and kisses her affectionately]] and tells his wife [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming that he would find a way to make it work out for all if them.]]

** Especially poignant when one considers the prejudice towards non-whites during the time.

** Nearly every interpretation of Sherlock Holmes is different from the last. The base character seems to be as a cool, brilliant, strait-laced and classy hero-for-hire (sort of like the Creator/BasilRathbone version), but later adaptations have branched into two (equally accurate but not mutually exclusive) interpretations: the BunnyEarsLawyer Sherlock Holmes, who is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} while being disturbingly competent (see [[Film/SherlockHolmes the Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr. version]] or Disney's animated ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'') or an anti-social {{Jerkass}} who is highly manipulative and insensitive, often out of lack of understanding rather than malice (see ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' and ''Series/{{Elementary}}''). Naturally, expect a great deal of overlap within these two fields, but most interpretations will lean towards one or the other.

* HilariousInHindsight: "Shoscombe Old Place" features a very, ''very'' young Creator/JudeLaw as a stable boy. ([[ItMakesSenseInContext In drag, no less]].) Fast-forward to [[Film/SherlockHolmes 2009]]... [[HilariousInHindsight and who's playing Watson]]?

** Creator/JudeLaw as Joe Barnes. Funnily enough, he would later play [[Film/SherlockHolmes Watson]].

* ValuesDissonance: Sir Arthur's depiction of the Mormons as a ReligionOfEvil in ''A Study in Scarlet'' was completely uncontroversial at the time (Jules Verne also did it in ''Around the World in 80 days''), whereas his portrayal of the KKK as a murderous secret society in "The Five Orange Pips" was not. [[AcceptableTargets Nowadays, it's the opposite.]]

* "The Greek Interpreter" gives us four. In addition to the interpreter and the brother and sister (all hideously treated), we have the old soldier from the people-watching scene, recently widowed with multiple children.

** Nearly every interpretation of Sherlock Holmes is different from the last. The base character seems to be as a cool, brilliant, straight-laced and classy hero-for-hire (sort of like the Creator/BasilRathbone version), but later adaptations have branched into two (equally accurate but not mutually exclusive) interpretations: the BunnyEarsLawyer Sherlock Holmes, who is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} while being disturbingly competent (see [[Film/SherlockHolmes the Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr. version]] or Disney's animated ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'') or an anti-social {{Jerkass}} who is highly manipulative and insensitive, often out of lack of understanding rather than malice (see ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' and ''Series/{{Elementary}}''). Naturally, expect a great deal of overlap within these two fields, but most interpretations will lean towards one or the other.

* CaptainObviousReveal: Because TimeMarchesOn, the twist that [[spoiler:the Ku Klux Klan]] are the villains of ''The Five Orange Pips'' is far more obvious now than it would have been to British readers in 1892.

* NightmareFuel: Now with [[NightmareFuel/SherlockHolmes its very own page, again!]]

** [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk Colonel Dietrich]] is the King of Bohemia.

* TearJerker: The ending of "The Adventure of the Crooked Man". [[spoiler: While Nancy and Henry are cleared of any wrongdoing in the Colonel's death, it's hinted that Henry is dying...so even though the former lovers are now free to be together, Henry's holding the locket with their silhouettes with a saddened expression implies that they won't be together..]]
** Much like the original version, the adaptation of "The Cardboard Box" is hard to get through. [[{{Creator/CiaranHinds}} Ciaran Hinds']] performance is a major reason for this.

* SavedByTheFans: Doyle ''tried'' to kill off Holmes when he got tired of the character. People didn't take it well, so he was brought back. Although [[MoneyDearBoy it wasn't the complaints that led him to bring Holmes back]]...
* TorchTheFranchiseAndRun: The reason for the downer ending in ''The Final Problem''. Doyle had simply got tired of writing Sherlock Holmes stories and wanted to move on to do historical novels. He managed to ignore the backlash for a decade before going back to writing Sherlock Holmes stories when it became clear that his historical novels just aren't selling, but not before producing the classic that is ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' two years before returning to writing ''Sherlock Holmes'' stories full time.

** One sailor is prepared to accept that Holmes is really being honest with him... because he's white.

* TheWoobie: Holmes himself, mostly for his overall loneliness; see the ending of ''The Sign Of Four'', after Watson has resolved to [[spoiler:move out and marry Mary Morstan]], and Holmes is left alone in stiff-lipped British quiet desperation.

** Jefferson Hope (''A Study in Scarlet''), albeit [[StrategyVersusTactics just tactically instead of outright strategically]]. Nevertheless, he spends '''''two decades''''' making XanatosSpeedChess-style comebacks against his ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections targets before finally avenging his dead would-be family, then even manages to GoOutWithASmile.

** Jefferson Hope (''A Study in Scarlet''), albeit just with [[StrategyVersusTactics tactics instead of strategy]]. Nevertheless, he spends '''''two decades''''' making XanatosSpeedChess-style comebacks against his ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections targets before finally avenging his dead would-be family, then even manages to GoOutWithASmile.

* MagnificentBastard: Moriarty is one of the most iconic. Sherlock has damn good reason to call him "The Napoleon of Crime."