On Mythea…
I love everything about this site! Thank you for indulging my love of mycroft. I was wondering about your opinion of Mycroft/Anthea. I know there isn’t much to go on and any discussion is more imagination than fact but hey what do you think?
Hello, and thank you. I am always happy to indulge all Mycroft-love!
I have such a soft spot for Anthea - you may have noticed! She remains quite the enigma. And who can resist an enigma? I do hope she reappears next series…there’s no guarantee, of course (on the commentary she was referred to as ‘someone from downstairs’ rather than something more immediate like ‘Mycroft’s PA’), but there was a long gap between Anderson’s two appearances (Pink & Reichenbach), so I’ve not given up hope she’ll make a return.
You’re right, there’s next to nothing to go on, apart from the shared immaculateness of their attire and their matching rings (oh, those rings have caused me so much speculation!)…but I will wander into the realms of my headcanon if I’m permitted…
- I like to think of Anthea as Mycroft’s Girl Friday around the office. She the one who reminds him to change his tie when he’s been up all night and deflects the calls from the Prime Minister when he wants something her boss would consider beneath him. She is, at once, impressed by and frustrated with Mycroft’s own particular brand of Holmesian madness/brilliance.
- I suspect that she also lives with him, as a sort of Watson-esque ‘live-in PA’. Mycroft is a Holmes, after all - moreover, he is the Holmes who chooses to wear the mask of normality - he needs someone to keep him grounded and remind him how to behave like a normal human being.
- As it has been said regarding Watson - only a fool would surround himself with idiots. And Mycroft Holmes is no fool. Mycroft needs an equal, or as close to one as a Holmes can find. I think she’s capable of looking him in the eye and saying, “Sir, you’re clever, but you’re stupid.” No one else, apart from his brother, is capable of doing that. He admires her for it.
- It almost goes without saying, as it is so ingrained within the Anthea Fanon, that she is more than capable of handling the elder Holmes. She possesses a brilliance of her own and knows what to do with a gun. Like her employer, she is far more dangerous than she lets on. Mycroft has never intimidated her. Before coming to work for Mycroft and a whole new level of the Secret Service, she was probably MI5 or MI6. I sense something quite blithe to authority about her character - something she would need to deal with Mycroft, who is basically authority incarnate - so I like to think she was on remand from the service when Mycroft discovered her. He liked her - I think Mycroft respects those who aren’t afraid of him, (he does seem fond of John, after all) and almost everyone else is afraid of him. He had her transferred, and no one dared question Mr. Holmes.
- She had absolutely no interest in ‘three-continents’ Watson. While this could be for any number of reasons, (sexuality, personal preference, etc.) if one did happen to be involved with a Holmes, why would one ever even look at another man?
- As it happens, I was driven to think of them as a couple partly because of what little of her personality we glean through her dealings with John - her condescending, slightly mischievous sense of humour and her indifferent superiority are both traits that Mycroft shares. Also, the coldness of her rebuff of John’s advances, without making any effort to save his dignity or his feelings, suggest that she may herself be almost as emotionally distant as a Holmes. Based on this, I think their partnership would be a happy and equal one.
I’m sorry, am I babbling again? I feel like I’m babbling. I think I stopped answering what you asked me about three paragraphs ago. I’ll stop now and leave you with my favourite piece of Mythea fan art:
