the essence of johnlock is that the watson character has settled sustainably, tho unhappily, into heteronormative life when he meets the holmes character, while the holmes character has entirely rejected the task trying to pass as heterosexual/normatively masculine/neurotypical, so in a certain sense he’s freer than the watson but in another sense he’s even more isolated and lonely bc his abnormality makes him a social outcast. & then over the course of their relationship watson becomes more comfortable w himself and holmes becomes more emotionally open and less isolated. it’s like they have to be Freed from the two contrasting pitfalls that queer people trying to survive in normative society often fall into & the key to both of their escapes is each other