Tumblr's Greatest Conspiracy: The Story of TJLC

Video Essay
Title:	Tumblr's Greatest Conspiracy: The Story of TJLC
Creator:	Sarah Z
Date(s):	October 31, 2020
Medium:	YouTube video
Length:	1 hour 30 minutes
Footage:
Fandom:	BBC Sherlock
Topic:	TJLC
External Links:	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZBP_0UTh5Q&t=1s
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Tumblr's Greatest Conspiracy: The Story of TJLC is a 2020 video essay by Sarah Z exploring the origins, history, and tinhatting surrounding The Johnlock Conspiracy (TJLC)-- a popular tumblr fan theory in the 2010s that purported that BBC Sherlock would depict a romantic relationship between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

The video uses aliases to hide the names of individuals and conventions heavily involved in the drama and wank surrounding TJLC. In particular, Sarah obscures the identities of the three founders of the theory using the names of the PowerPuff Girls (based on nicknames the three fans had for each other).

Content

• Background on the culture of the fandom surrounding BBC Sherlock in the 2010s
  • The prevalence of shipping Sherlock/John among the fanbase, which consisted largely of teenagers-- many of whom were LGBTQ+
  • The references within the show (now viewed as blatant queerbaiting) to the possibility of Sherlock and John as a couple
  • Sarah Z's own experience as a member of the BBC Sherlock fandom on tumblr and witnessing the rise and fall of TJLC
  • The show and its creators encouraged fan speculation and theorizing, hinting that fans could solve mysteries the show presented
• Two sections of the Johnlock fandom: people who liked the couple yet didn't necessarily believe it would become canon and those (gaining traction in advance of Season 3 in 2014) who believed Sherlock and John would become canon and this could be proven by clues within the show. The latter portion of fans became known as The Johnlock Conspiracy (TJLC)
  • Definition of "TJLC" given in a blurb on the video: "Initialism for "The Johnlock Conspiracy", a popular fan theory and community centered around the belief that Johnlock was an intentional inevitability and searching for clues placed by Moftiss to suggest its existence."
• The TJLC tag on tumblr was created partially in earnest and partially as a joke by a group chat consisting of three friends. Sarah Z refers to the trio as 'Blossom,' 'Bubbles,' and 'Buttercup' as the friends referred to each other by Powerpuff Girls-themed nicknames. While the Powerpuff Girls weren't the first people to theorize that John and Sherlock would be canonical endgame, but were the first to coin the term and ran a TJLC blog together. This resulted in their status as BNFs and accumulation of social clout in the fandom.
• TJLC theories skyrocketed in popularity during Season 3, despite the content of the season premiere being generally seen as mean-spirited and mocking towards fans. The first post made in the tag was on January 7, 2014.
• Among the "Cambrian explosion" of TJLC content, a YouTuber (given the pseudonym 'Carly') created the series series TJLC Explained, consisting of over 40 hours of videos dissecting the theory. These videos have since been deleted. Sarah Z mentioned this content as many former fans who reached out during her research mentioned the channel as a "gateway drug" that got them into the community. The videos also serve as a good example of how TJLC looked-- "analytical, comprehensive, and long."
• Popular symbolism in TJLC theories included: elephants, tea (tea is gay), food (food is sex), and phones (phone is love).
• The statements of the show's creators that Johnlock would not become canon did not dissuade the theorists, as this was seen as proof that they were trying to throw fans off the trail.
• Sherlock's mind palace lead to a branch theory that certain things in specific episodes did not actually occur in canon and instead happened in the mind palace.
• Sarah mentions of M-Theory, but does not go into great detail-- instead scrolling past a lengthy explanation.
• Sarah emphasizes that the theories were, by and large, harmless fan speculation made by people who genuinely loved the show and the ship.
• However, the passion towards the ship lead to toxicity.
  • Hate posts directed at the female characters of the show (particularly Mary Morstan) and to her actress, Amanda Abbington.
  • The hatred towards female characters also extended to Lucy Liu who played Joan Watson (a genderbent version of John) in Elementary, a contemporary Sherlock adaptation set in the 21st Century.
  • Racism towards the characters of color on both BBC Sherlock and Elementary.
  • Support for TJLC could lead down a pipeline of acephobia and ace discourse due to backlash against the interpretation of Sherlock Holmes as asexual.
  • Many fans also took issue with shippers who portrayed Johnlock the "wrong way." A particular issue people took was with Toplock aka portraying Sherlock as a top instead of as a bottom. This was seen by some as writing Sherlock OOC as a "dark fuck prince" and generally problematic. 'Blossom' (a self-proclaimed fandom mom and heterosexual lawyer in her 30s) is credited with being one of the primary forces behind the backlash against Toplock.
• March 2015: Tumblr user Ben C. termed "TJLR" or the "The Johnlock Refutation" and shared meta about why Johnlock was not going to become canon. Many of these fans though Johnlock shouldn't become canon, though others liked the ship but just didn't agree with the TJLC orthodoxy. This caused a lot of drama between the two groups.
• The conversation turns back to 'The Powerpuff Girls' and the controversy they (particularly Blossom) started and the notoriety that brought. The group's drama spilled over into real life as they became involved in multiple conventions with the intent to attend and start arguments with those whom they disagreed. These conventions are referred to by the pseudonyms 'Tea is Gay Con'; 'Food is Sex Con'; and 'Phone is Love Con' which occurred between early-mid 2015.
  • 'Tea is Gay Con': Rumors about a panelists about those who shipped Johnlock and those that did not insisted that the panelists had an argument about the ship or were demanding the fandom change their name. This convention was then framed as having an "anti-TJL panel" despite accounts from people who were actually there disputing this. The Powerpuff girls were not in attendance at this panel, but decided to crash some of the involved creators' panels at the future 'Food is Sex Con.'
  • 'Food is Sex Con': see the wank surrounding 221B Con#2015. Specific details were not discussed in the video due to the events being triggering for those involved. The Powerpuff Girls (or potentially just 'Blossom') ended up banned from the convention.
  • 'Phone is Love Con': A fan's experience with asking the show's creators about the ship became part of the discourse surrounding TJLC. No footage exists of this exchange, and it is based on a fan's first-hand account which cannot be verified.
• Much of the fandom drama, according to Sarah Z, revolved around the Powerpuff Girls and a group of their acquaintances. Sarah stated that while she did not mention 'Blossom's' name in any of her calls for fandom members' personal recollections, more than 10 people brought her up independently. Some described 'Blossom' as having a 'cult of personality.' Though the 'cult' framing was also a point of contention in the emails Sarah received.
• By the end of 2016, as people began to leave the fandom, the drama started to die off. And then, Season 4 aired. It was widely viewed as terrible, and Johnlock did not become canon.
• TJLC adherents responded to Season 4 by doubling down that Johnlock would still, in fact become canon and continued tinhatting. These conspiracy theories included:
  • A secret, good last episode of BBC Sherlock existed and would come later.
  • January 20, 2017: Fans speculated that the showing of the US Presidential Inauguration scheduled to be streamed in Piccadilly Circus by the BBC was, in fact, actually going to be a public showing of the real Sherlock finale. [Obviously, this didn't happen].
  • January 22, 2017: Fans speculated the show that mini-series set to premiere in Sherlock's old timeslot, Apple Tree Yard, was fake. Instead, the actual ending of Sherlock would be shown instead. This was in spite of Apple Tree Yard being an adaptation of a book. [Once again, this theory did not bear fruit].
  • After the Apple Tree Yard fiasco, many fans marked this as the end of the theory. Others, brought the in as part of a larger conspiracy.
  • January 29, 2017 was the next day that fans insisted the real last episode would be aired. [Once again, nothing].
• Eventually, most of the fans who were involved in TJLC gave up after repeated false alarms. Though, some still to this day believe there exists somewhere a secret last episode of Sherlock in the vaults of BBC.

Reception

Prior to the video's release, some Sherlock fans expressed concern that the video would mock members of the community. Sarah Z was also noted to have asked for feedback from former (and current) fans during the video's production, which some fans encouraged others to contribute to as it would help the video capture a more cohesive version of events.

I appreciate that she emphasizes that many of the people in this were young lgbt teens who were kinda taken advantage of. It's very easy to just dismiss and mock them but they were trying to engage with a show that meant a lot to them and trying to get something from it that it wasn't offering.

Oddish1, 11/01/2020 https://www.resetera.com/threads/sarah-z-tumblrs-greatest-conspiracy-the-story-of-tjlc-sherlock-season-4-spoilers.317065/

Sarah Z’s TJLC video is actually good, and more somewhat more sympathetic than Hbomberguy’s Sherlock video. While his was an epic takedown of the show that was absolutely right on all accounts, Sarah Z deeply understands the pain and hurt that people like me went through. I was a lonely and alienated young teenager with undiagnosed OCD, who was on top of that, in denial about being a lesbian. So naturally I gravitated towards that fandom. The way she described how people can get sucked into this kind of conspiracy like that really resonated with me, and on top of that really affirmed how wronged all of us young closeted sherlock fans were. Very cool and thumbs up

salt-blog, c. 2021 https://salt-blog.tumblr.com/post/634084853216919553/sarah-zs-tjlc-video-is-actually-good-and-more