Day 4 of Sherlolly week: Why do I ship Sherlock/Molly?

Another ramble by me in aid of Sherlolly week. I hope it makes sense, but not feeling at all well today so wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t. You are forewarned.

…Because though I also accept and enjoy the idea of aromantic/asexual Sherlock, I like to believe Sherlock is despite his front is capable of romantic love. The obvious choice to pair him with is for many John and I do read John/Sherlock from time to time, but I am picky on how I like my pairing fic and there’s a lot that pairing to trawl through to find the stories I personally find emotionally satisfying - perhaps for that reason that pairing never clicked for me. I don’t so much have that issue with Sherlock/Molly, I find so many fics that I can get into and it became my Sherlock OTP.

…Because Molly as Sherlock’s love interest is appealing because she is not the obvious choice. I have a habit of enjoying underdog ships/rare pairings instead of main character 1 with next main character 2 as somehow too obvious for me, and generally het too which feels a bit of an underdog in fandom often enough thesedays. No surprise really I preferred Sherlock/Molly. I don’t always want the main partners/friends to be more and I don’t think I’d want Sherlock/John in this canon. I probably wouldn’t want Sherlock/Molly canon either, as ambiguity can be nicer for not sinking any ships and leaving blanks to fill in, but I think what this boils down to is I like being able to take Sherlock & John scenes which make up the majority of the episodes at face value as a deep friendship and still have squee over a theoretical ship with the precious few Sherlock & Molly scenes as a highlight that doesn’t overwhelm my viewing of the show.

…Because part of the interest for me is that her friendship with Sherlock shares many traits with his and John’s. John has got to a certain place with Sherlock much quicker than her, where Sherlock depends and recognises him as his friend but to me it seems Molly has that potential too, it’s just happening at a slower pace and to watch that (or indeed read/write that) is more satisfying for me because I really enjoy slowly developing relationships, friends to more and there’s so much to work with on that theme for this pairing.

…Because the idea of Sherlock being equally oblivious to his own feelings about Molly, whether they be friendship or more, or being out of his element trying to handle them once they are known is tantalizing to read. Sherlock tends to be the empowered one in scenes with most characters and I like the idea of changing the power dynamics there by reversing that with Molly, having her overcome her crush and be strong despite it or because of it, able to teach him something or surprise him as she has done at a few points in canon.

Maybe the main reason is I want to see Molly’s feelings reciprocated, I want the lovely personage of Molly to be happy, I want to see the pathology geek get the other massive multidisciplinary genius geek. Is this self-identification? Partly, but I actually don’t much identify with Molly even as I am female and shy and have an interest in morbid things. Usually it’s the geek gets the girl trope (with the girl loving him despite his geekiness) but two just as odd people, by normal social standards of interests, being well suited (and liking each other for their geekiness) sounds great to me for pairing, hence my finding Sherlock/Molly awesome.