It does become part of the main story. It's not an essential part of every single story. It's an essential part of the subtext of every single story. The background. Subtext is a thing, I swear.

Yep, the exchange went:
Watson: "I'm not actually gay."
Irene: "Well I am. Look at us BOTH."

She was a professional mistress. She stopped and got married. End of lifestyle.

Trust me, I would have remembered if I'd said "all marriage is sexist." However, in the Victorian context, Irene settled happily down into what was at that time a sexist institution. Because her happy ending involved giving up her life of wedlock and getting married.

As I said, a woman like Irene Adler in "Sherlock" will always be able to get more money, especially now that she doesn't have to worry about people hunting her down. It's basically what Sherlock did: "Liberty in death" and all. And ACD Irene is free to do whatever she wants in theory, but what she wants is to CONFORM.

Dude, first off, calm down.

Watson's past is subtle and subtextual, but it is never excluded from the character because it makes an essential piece of his background, explaining how he responds to things, how he thinks, all sorts of stuff. Removing that background for the first time in an adaptation, apparently only because the character is a…

Every other version of Watson has included the military background. The only one that is a woman has removed the military background. That's not exactly a leap in an assumption.
And I'm not responding to petty insults.

Watson on both shows is a Doctor. His military element is a defining part of his BACKGROUND. It is therefore in the background, influencing the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he thinks. Sorry that it's subtle, but that doesn't mean it's not there.And there's a difference between peeking at an accident site…

Irene ends the story by giving up her subversive lifestyle because she fell in love. She then rides off into the sunset, never to challenge Victorian gender mores again. That's almost progressive, but it clearly shies away from Irene actually challenging anyone's gender ideas.

If I'm not mistaken, I would be swearing a lot more if I were Limbaugh.
Marriage isn't necessarily "taming" or anything else you're accusing me of thinking. But in the context of the story, a marriage in which she retires from any previous schemes and her life as a professional mistress IS taming, because she conforms…

1. Literally the win from the short story.
2. Excuse me, I mean she literally beat him. With a riding crop. And she doesn't have to demonstrate cleverness all the time: Sherlock's cleverness didn't exactly help him fend her off. Finally, the final loss does not erase all the previous wins.
3. First time, not the second.…

That "botched" phone security very nearly worked, for the record.
And what she implied was that she was as gay as John. Which has a whole pile of different implications. If you want a label, she's clearly bi.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's great that she can contribute actively. But a fundamental part of her character has been completely removed, and instead the doctor part of her character is being deepened (that's based just on what you say above). And it was removed as part of the woman revision. You want to make her a woman? Fine, cool.…

Pleased to hear that about Elementary. But yep, I'm saying that. Watson, Sherlock, or both are damsels at the end of a lot of episodes. Doesn't detract from their characters either.

Dude, Irene Adler in "Sherlock" got away too, and no one knows where she is. She's arguably more free than the canon Irene, because most of the world thinks she's dead.

Interesting argument, but Sherlock's drug habit was never to dull his senses. He took drugs when he got bored, and when he wasn't bored he didn't need the drugs. In the modern world, he'd be less likely to need lots of drugs because there is more to distract him from being bored.

Oh my God—the idea was the Holmes was emotionally traumatized and so became a drug addict? That's literally exactly the opposite of what would happen to Holmes.
Look, I don't mind making Moriarty and Irene the same person. I actually think it's a very clever and totally believable piece of updating. It stays true to…

The whole point is that "luck" had nothing to do with it. And if Irene was a damsel in distress, than Watson has been that almost half the episodes.