Sherlock: 5 Reasons Why The Next Villain Won't Be As Awesome As Moriarty

5. His Childishness

In 'The Hounds of Baskerville,' Sherlock observes that Henry Knight is "psychologically still a child." While this psychological state may not be true for Moriarty, it may be that empathically he is still a child. He sees other people not as fellow human beings worthy of respect, but as pawns he can use within his criminal network. People are playing pieces within a game he can control, and when Sherlock fails him as the ultimate distraction from boredom, it's "back to playing with the ordinary people." Other child-like tendencies crop up throughout the series - for instance, his preoccupation with fairy tales in 'Reichenbach.' His eagerness to play the role of the "good old-fashioned villain" shows that, to him, this is just another opportunity to show off his versatility in playing what becomes a strange game of make believe , another tendency of children. His fondness for games and riddles, like I.O.U. and the Final Problem, bring forth the image of a child desperate for new entertainment, and Sherlock is just that. Even the fact that Moriarty resorts to calling Sherlock "DOOFUS!" when Sherlock seems to fail in figuring out the truth behind the computer code shows just how childish Moriarty can be. He controls a vast criminal network that stretches across the globe, yet his world is still so small; he can't see beyond himself. Compared to his own brilliance, other people seem like children to him, and so he mocks others for their seeming mediocrity - "'Aren't ordinary people adorable?" - when he is really the child. The contrast of his superior intellect and cunning with his child-like craving for entertainment creates a frightening portrait of a man ambitious enough to control the criminal underworld and apathetic enough to others not to care about the consequences. Even his mercurial temperament, which can shift from joking to deadly serious within seconds, illustrates the two extremes of his personality.