Its fitting that Sherlock Holmes nemesis should be his opposite: the consulting detective versus the consulting criminal. Moriarty is a mercurial, sadistic, sociopathic creature: grandiose, overwhelmingly arrogant and very easily bored. His grand machinations are treated almost as a career, a day job to pay the bills he finds interest in matching wits with Sherlock, who appears at first to be someone on his level. When he believes that hes outwitted Sherlock hes angry and disappointed in him, seeming to regress almost to a childish temper tantrum. Thats Moriartys trademark, though his unpredictable, chaotic persona, with the weird little voices, pulling faces, is an exaggeration, intended to throw people off, just as his MO relies on decoys and smokescreens, elaborate, ornate schemes with weird little clues. Both men are geniuses in their own way Moriarty, however, recognises Sherlocks need to solve intricate puzzles, where his own schemes run far more to the practical: he usually simply manipulates, bribes and blackmails people into doing his dirty work for him. Where Sherlock creates Rube Goldberg machines in his head, needing to be at the heart of complex chicanery that only he understands, Moriarty is a simpler monster: the poisonous spider at the centre of his web. Of course, Jim Moriarty killed himself at the end of season two just to screw with Sherlock some more or did he? Well find out soon: filming of season four begins next spring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOGXSFK3Xsw
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
