A Sibling Question

[awanderingbard]

Anyone have any thoughts on whether Harry Watson is an older sister or a younger sister? I can give arguments for either one, mainly that John has the responsible, caregiving nature of a stereotypical older sibling, but the show seems to be trying to parallel Sherlock and Mycroft's relationship with John and Harry's, which would make Harry older. Unless John is supposed to be the Mycroft and Harry the Sherlock.

If we go by 'canon', a newspaper that flashes up during Reichenbach puts John's age at 37, and if you add to that with the (two!) original canon theories about Watson's birthday, he'd either have just turned 37, or be about to turn 38. Which would put him at 35-36 during Series One. On John's official blog, he refers to Harry as being 36 during Series One. Which would make her either slightly older, or the same age. But I think Sherlock would have mentioned if they were twins. And canon isn't exactly brilliant with keeping itself logical. If you go by John's CV, he's 28 in Series One, which, despite Martin Freeman's spritely appearance, is stretching things a bit.

So, I guess it's basically up to me what I want to make her. She's always been older in my mind, but I was just curious to see what everyone else thought, or if I've missed something.

Comments

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

#1 - There's no way I can go with John being 28 in S1, IMO he's done too much with his life to be that young! That means I'm going with the 35-36 in S1 which is much more believable.

#2 - I've always thought of Harry as older. I don't think there's as much of a gap as there is supposed to be between Mycroft and Sherlock (7 years I think) but around 3 or 4 years feels right to me. Part of it is the vibe I get that the tables are kind of turned with them, that John has had to look after his older sibling, rather than the other way around as it was when they were little kids. I have no evidence for this whatsoever of course.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

1- Yes, that's what I thought, too. I wondered if the person who made the CV wrote 199- for the years instead of 198- for the years. That would have made him 38, which was how old Martin Freeman was at the time.

Of course, according to the casebook, evidently, Sherlock is supposed to be 31 when he 'dies'. Which again, is stretching things a bit. My canon has him having just turned 33 or 34 at the beginning of Series One (which takes place in January and Sherlock's birthday is Jan 6), so about 34-35 during Reichenbach. Molly is definitely 31 during Series One (she states it in her blog), and I can't picture him as younger than her.

... I've thought about this too much.

2. That's exactly how I think of it, too. John as the younger sibling forced to be responsible because the older one is a mess. Nice to know my reasoning makes sense to one person at least!