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Moriarty/Moran

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Pairing
Pairing: James Moriarty/Sebastian Moran
Alternative name(s): Moriarty/Moran, mormor, MoraMori, Moraniarty
Gender category: M/M Slash
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes
Canonical?: No
Prevalence: secondary pairing, most common pairing for Moriarty or Moran
Archives:
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Moriarty/Moran is the most common pairing for Professor James Moriarty and Colonel Sebastian Moran in the Sherlock Holmes fandom. This may be based on elements from the canonical stories in which they appear or are referred to or may be based on or around various pastiches or adaptations featuring one or both characters.

Canon and history

Within the canon Moriarty is stated to be unmarried while Moran is not said to have any partner. Moriarty is also referred to as Moran's friend and Moran as Moriarty's "bosom friend". This in addition to the pair being in some ways 'mirror' characters to Holmes and Watson as well as Moriarty taking Moran with him to Switzerland in The Final Problem and protecting him from arrest or even suspicion, as well as Moran's actions and somewhat irrational behaviour in trying to seemingly avenge Moriarty's death in The Empty House suggests that the pair do have much more than a mere working relationship.

With this being a secondary pairing and rare compared to one such as Holmes/Watson, it is difficult to find much older content for them or much historical discussion of the relationship. The pairing did come to greater prominence due to Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and the Sherlock (BBC) show, although fan-created material does exist based on the canon and on older adaptations. There is also speculation still about the sexuality of either or both characters, with it being plausible that they or their relationship could have been subtly coded as queer, either in the canon or in certain other versions, especially as coding the villains as queer is a relatively common trope. At the very least Moriarty, canonically unmarried, has only extremely rarely been paired off with women in pastiches and adaptations, itself suggestive that he may often have been viewed as gay or asexual. Graham Robb in Strangers (2003), though primarily concerned with talking about Sherlock Holmes in the relevant chapter, did suggest that Moriarty could be gay, referring to the "dark rumours" that forced Moriarty to resign his chair, and to his "hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind." One slightly older non-canonical text which also made a connection between Moriarty and queerness was John Gardner's The Return of Moriarty (1974), which suggested that the original actual Professor Moriarty was gay, although Gardner's main character, the younger Moriarty brother (who subsequently murdered the real professor and assumed his identity) was definitely heterosexual. Gardner's book also contains the rather ambiguous but also suggestive line that "he was not much of a man for the ladies" about Sebastian Moran which may hint that Moran too has sometimes been suspected of being queer. It may be noted too that Moran, like Moriarty, appears to have been driven out of his original career for reasons that were never specified in the canon. Says Holmes in The Empty House, "Without any open scandal he still made India too hot to hold him" and thus Moran had to retire from the army and return to London. It is not inconceivable that whatever Moran did to cause upset in India, it could have related to queerness and this has been expanded on sometimes in fanworks.

Sometimes even prior to the creation of particularly influential adaptations or verses, it seems that Sherlock Holmes fans who didn't even like the characters or relationship still saw the potential in the pairing, commenting for instance that Moran "must have had a pretty good reason for still hating Holmes after three years."[1]

Pastiches

While relatively few published pastiches have included both characters together, some have shown the pair interacting fairly extensively at least, including Michael Kurland's The Empress of India, Kim Newman's The Hound of the D'urbervilles, Vernon Mealor's two The File on Colonel Moran books and Gareth Rubin's Holmes and Moriarty. A few stories in the anthology The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Moriarty (various authors, edited by Maxim Jakubowski) also feature both characters and involve the pair interacting. Also a series of ebook novellas by Kit Walker shows a modern take on the pair (with Moriarty's name changed to Jay Moriarty) with them entering into a romantic relationship.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Both characters appear in the 2011 sequel to the 2009 film and despite their relatively brief screen time are shown interacting, including in a friendly manner, and that Moriarty has a lot of trust in Moran is demonstrated multiple times. Several elements relating to the characters and their relationship in this film do, as in the canon, seem to mirror Holmes and Watson. Some hoyay moments between the pair and in particular Moran's behaviour when Watson almost causes Moriarty to be killed or injured suggests that Moran's feelings for Moriarty go far beyond anything expected of a mere 'gun for hire'.

BBC TV Series

The Sherlock (BBC) TV series does not have an actual confirmed Sebastian Moran character. However fan-created takes on the character are commonly shipped with Jim Moriarty, making this probably the most popular take on the pairing. Sometimes this shipping also incorporates elements from other texts such as Kim Newman's The Hound of the D'urbervilles as a way to expand on the characters and their relationship.

James Moriarty, Consulting Criminal

The James Moriarty, Consulting Criminal audiobook (2017), written by Andy Weir and read by Graeme Malcolm, has Moran and Moriarty becoming acquainted through their criminal activities with Moran initially hiring Moriarty to help him work out who has betrayed him, but they subsequently become regular associates and friends.

Moriarty (podcast)

In the two podcasts Moriarty: The Devil's Game and Moriarty: The Silent Order, created and written by Charles Kindinger, while both Moriarty and Moran are explicitly shown as attracted to women and much of the plot of both revolves heavily around Moriarty's love for a woman, they are still friends with quite a lot of interaction in both stories.

Fandom

Moriarty/Moran remains a relatively rarepair within the Sherlock Holmes fandom, although a not insignificant quantity of fan-created material does exist for various incarnations of the pairing. There are well over 4,000 works which involve the pairing on Archive of Our Own for example. Many fanworks portray the pair in a sexual and/or romantic relationship while others portray the relationship as being more of a queerplatonic one.

Online fandom

Sherlock (BBC) material tends to predominate for the pairing but various canon-based or other Victorian versions exist also, especially works based on or inspired by Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Sometimes in fanfiction there will be some overlap between the universes, often for example where the story is based in the Victorian book setting but also utilises elements from a particular adaptation such as A Game of Shadows so that technically many works would fit under both universes and are often tagged with both. Hence some of the example fanworks listed below will actually fit into more than one universe.

Terminology

The pairing is commonly referred to as Moriarty/Moran or by the portmanteau 'mormor' (occasionally 'MoraMori'). Sometimes the term 'Murder Husbands' is also applied to the pairing.

Common Tropes and Storylines in Fanworks

  • Asexual Moriarty: in a large number of Victorian-set fics in particular Moriarty is portrayed as asexual or aroace although usually not as sex-repulsed and generally still as willing to engage in a romantic and sexual relationship with Moran, sometimes with him being specified to be gay aroace.
  • Bisexual Moran: Moran is very commonly portrayed as bisexual in both Victorian and modern day settings. He may sometimes be shown engaging in sexual or romantic interaction with other characters including women within the same fic as he is in a relationship with Moriarty, sometimes prior to entering a relationship with him or sometimes while in a relationship with him but with Moriarty's knowledge and consent.
  • Character Death: since Moriarty appears to die in the canon, although his death is not actually conclusively proven, his death and how Moran deals with it does occur repeatedly in fanworks. Sometimes it may turn out however that Moriarty isn't actually really dead at all and Moran only temporarily believes that he is (see: Presumed dead)
  • Darkfic: dark themes are present in many Moriarty/Moran fanworks, including the pair plotting or enacting criminal schemes together and Moran's willingness to commit violent crimes such as murder or torture for Moriarty. Also it seems to be more common for their relationship in some BBC Sherlock fics to be portrayed as more of a toxic one, sometimes with elements that may be considered dubcon. In others including some of the canon or Victorian-based fics a fairly common darker theme is that of Moran having experienced abuse (usually of a physical or emotional nature) in his past and how Moriarty helps him to deal with this.
  • Developing Relationship: multiple fanworks focus on how the pair's relationship develops, sometimes with them starting out as total strangers or sometimes as acquaintances only through their work who then become friends and then lovers or sexual partners.
  • Devotion: Moran's devotion and loyalty to Moriarty is a particularly common theme, inspired originally by his apparent loyalty to Moriarty in the canon. This devotion may extend to even after Moriarty's death or presumed death and it may lead him to commit violent crimes either on Moriarty's orders or in an attempt to avenge Moriarty's death, sometimes by trying to murder Holmes.
  • Established Relationship: many fanworks do jump straight into the story where the pair are already in an established romantic/sexual relationship. Sometimes these may include very domestic elements, often with a perhaps surprising degree of tenderness between them for a 'villainous' couple, or sometimes they are purely PWP.
  • First time: their first sexual encounter together appears in many fanworks.
  • Fraternising with the enemy: there are numerous fanworks where Moriarty and Moran will meet with one or both of their 'good' counterparts or their narrative foils, Holmes and Watson, or sometimes with Mycroft Holmes or other non-villainous Sherlock Holmes characters such as police inspectors, with sometimes the interaction between them being fairly amicable and occasionally this leading to threesomes or even moresomes.
  • Friends to lovers: or sometimes acquaintances to lovers. The pair are canonically described as friends as well as Moran being employed by Moriarty, so them first becoming employer and employee and this developing into a sexual relationship, or them going from employer and employee to friends and then this relationship becoming romantic/sexual is fairly common.
  • Kink: kinky elements, particularly BDSM, are fairly common in fanworks for both the Victorian and modern day setting. Moriarty tends to be portrayed as a very domineering or dominant character generally and this often seems to extend into their sex life in fanfiction especially, with Moran often playing a submissive role.
  • Reichenbach Falls: the Reichenbach Falls or an adaptation's own particular take on that and Moriarty's encounter with Sherlock Holmes there appears in various fanworks, with Moran sometimes being present there or sometimes not. This generally will lead to actual Character Death or Deathfic or else Moriarty being mistakenly Presumed Dead.
  • Presumed Dead: Moriarty is shown in many fanworks to be assumed to have died, sometimes including by Moran, but then have actually survived. Some works will then involve a reunion between the pair as well as dealing with themes such as the grief and trauma caused by such events.
  • PWP: many fanworks for the pairing are largely focused on smut.
  • Victorian terminology: since many Moriarty/Moran fics are set in the Victorian era, older terminology or slang is used sometimes, for example 'invert' (meaning homosexual).

Example Fanworks

Fanfic

Books

Sherlock Holmes (Granada)

Sherlock (BBC)

Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows

The Hound of the D'urbervilles

A Study in Emerald

Other/miscellaneous:

Fan Videos

Graphics and manips

Meta

Example Art Gallery

Links

References

  1. ^ "I don't particularly *like* Moran, but he must have had a pretty good reason for still hating Holmes after three years" - commented by rabidsamfan, 2008
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