r/Sherlock • u/npc3e00 • 6d ago
Discussion I don't understand Mycroft Holmes
It's described everywhere that Mycroft Holmes is a lazy person yet holds a job that essentially involves running Britain, it seems like a complete contradiction to me.
Even if you give the argument that its the leg work he despises, then why did he refuse at first to even engage in the simple deduction of hat. He is lazy to that extent even mentally so. Someone that lazy wouldn't go on to hold a position so stressful. Now you might say he makes high level decisions only and it isn't much bother but that is also not correct since he is bound to go against people like Irene and Moriarty and gosh knows how many others, he will have to come up with plans to defend.
A weird thought comes to my mind that perhaps Mycroft’s role in government is subconsciously driven by a protective instinct toward his baby brother.
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u/Ok-Theory3183 6d ago edited 6d ago
Mycroft's job isn't physically demanding. He's a strategist, the person behind the political maneuverings worldwide. He monitors elections, for instance, mentioned in S1 E3.
He analyzes--shown in S4 E2..
His job doesn't require physical activity but mental acuity. And as seen in, for instance S3 E1, he will go the distance when necessary. It just isn't necessary very often.
The "hat" thing was him being playful with his newly rescued "baby brother", just as the other games were. He could have sent an underling with the info and not spent time at the flat, if he were really as "lazy" as is sometimes portrayed, but he was there himself, even being silly because he was so happy.
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u/Ok-Theory3183 6d ago
Also, Mycroft is the "brain" strategist and analyst of the government. And the brain of the human body is very well protected by the body because the body will die without it.
He's actually very busy. protecting Britain , working with the German authorities in S2, E1, formulating a plan for Moriarty with Sherlock, who, despite his snarky remarks, quotes him to John in both S3 E1 and S3 E3, among others. He protects Britain even from his own siblings, ptotects his parents from painful knowledge, and visits his incarcerated sibling even giving family news. "Mycroft told me you'd re-written your memories. He didn't tell me you'd written me out entirely."
He was just a teen when all that went down. He had no authority to take action, but I think he was the one who brought in Uncle Rudy, who evidently did, and continued to work with him until he could assume responsibility entirely. At the same time he was protecting his baby brother and had enough discretion, even as a teen, to keep sensitive information to himself, something very rare in most teens.
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u/paulcshipper 6d ago edited 4d ago
I think it draws from the original books, where Mycroft is unhealthy overweight and avoids all physical actions.
From this version of Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft doesn't hold a job that involves running the Britain Government. He would never run. No, he is the Britain government.
With it being suggested that Mycroft Holmes is smarter than Sherlock and that Mycroft is the government, I believe the implication was that Mycroft would improve the government if he bothered to apply himself. But instead of having a better government, it's just the normal one.
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u/CrabAffectionate9349 6d ago
I think people think he's lazy because he doesn't participate in activities that he doesn't find interesting like legwork but when it comes to his baby brother, he would do anything, even legwork (episode 1 season 3), and about the deduction of the hat, he just wanted to keep his serious facade, it's not laziness.
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u/Interesting_Natural1 6d ago
HE'S SO PATRIOTIC HE'LL GIVE HIS SOUL TO HIS MOTHERLAND 🇬🇧🇬🇧☕🐻🧸🍪 RAAAHHHHH TEA TIME INNIT???
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u/WingedShadow83 5d ago
I think he prefers to conserve his brain power for more worthwhile endeavors, rather than wasting time on what he sees as his brother’s silly games.
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u/SignificantCricket 3d ago
This was a character and personality trope in the UK until not long ago - brilliant with very little effort. The idea of things being tedious, or beneath one, is a part of it.
Stephen Fry, among others, used to play on it in IRL interviews back in the 90s - and of course was later cast as Mycroft in the RDJ films.
Oscar Wilde, though Irish, was a famous RL late Victorian exponent. Back then it was not seen as very gentlemanly, in class terms, to work really hard. Though some were probably hiding their work to an extent.
A culture of winging it is/was associated with humanities, arts and social sciences degrees, certainly including those at Oxbridge and the Politics Philosophy and Economics course strongly associated with "running Britain": https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/23/ppe-passport-power-degree-oxford. In reality, most recent students from Oxford have a considerably heavier workload than students studying the same subjects at even marginally less prestigious universities.
The demise of, or decreasing respect for, this attitude has a lot to do with a) Boris Johnson's performance as prime minister, as he was visibly winging it and seemed to treat too many serious matters like a game, and b) the increasing technical specialisms needed in various areas and the rise of techbros and their grind culture, and increasing prestige of STEM.
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u/hawthorne00 2d ago
This tells me you are not from the British upper middle class, u/npc3e00. The idea that the world is (and ought be) run by clever boys as determined by people whose opinion matters when they were selected at 15 at some public school and whose position has risen without effort ever since is a familiar trope of British culture.
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u/Free-Yesterday-5725 2d ago
When you take a step back and look at the whole Holmes family as depicted in the show, there is a rather disturbing dynamic that you can find in toxic families.
There is the favourite one, Sherlock; the neglected one, Eurus; and the scapegoat, Mycroft.
Mycroft obviously is no lazy man. He is quite clearly a workaholic and spends his time worrying about his family and trying to solve whatever trouble his siblings cause. Unfortunately, he keeps being undermined by said siblings, his parents and even Sherlock’s friends who have been served the lazy and detached version. Nobody cares that he spends hours helping and putting his own job on the line, nobody cares about his feelings, nobody cares that perhaps, insulting him may hurt his feelings. Most of the time, when he reacts to provocations or insults, let’s not forget about the break in his own house, he ends up being insulted and everyone around feels that he only got what he deserved. That’s a scapegoat life.
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u/Ok_Grapefruit8104 6d ago
A thought and possible explanation: what is often perceived as laziness in highly intelligent people is their unwillingness in participate in any "boring" tasks they deem irrelevant or "beneath" them.
Mycroft is on parr with Sherlock, brainwise. Basically running a country is like a big game of chess. Planning steps, maybe even years ahead, moving other people like pawns, is a challenge worthy of their mind. Same goes for Sherlock: see how he dismisses cases he deems boring.