And certainly not the best friend of the bravest, and kindest and the wisest human being I have ever had the good fortune of knowing." Sherlock seems to care more about the crimes than about the victims involved. He is rude and appears to be inconsiderate towards others, including John (often leaving him behind and asking him to do menial, domestic tasks such as shopping). However, Sherlock is shown to care deeply for John as the series goes on, showing uncharacteristic emotion when his friend's life is in jeopardy or when John comes to his aid. Sherlock states the highest compliment he can give is saying that Mary deserves John as a husband. He considers only four people as his friends: John Watson, Mrs Hudson, Molly Hooper and DI Greg Lestrade, whose first name he never remembers. He also has an extremely complex relationship with his brother Mycroft, his only admitted intellectual superior. Mycroft, from the outset, is shown to care and worry deeply for him whilst at the same time sharing a mix of mutual contempt and respect. Sherlock seems to have grown more fond of his brother as the stories progress, even pleading with Mycroft to attend John and Mary's wedding; though he was also scornful upon hearing his brother admit he'd be saddened by his death. Sherlock appears largely asexual and describes himself as "married to his work". He seems oblivious to the romantic attraction that Molly has toward him in the first two series. After the introduction of Irene Adler, Sherlock seems to feel some interest in her, though her attempts to throw him off by shocking him seem to have no effect on him; and comes to her rescue when she is about to be executed in Karachi. She frequently flirts with and texts Sherlock in "A Scandal in Belgravia", but he seldom responds. When Irene is believed to be dead, Sherlock is visibly affected, with John saying "he's writing sad music; doesn't eat; barely talks" even suggesting he may be "hearbroken". In the following series, Sherlock briefly has a mental image of her in his Mind Palace when thinking of who would know John's middle name, but quickly retorts "Out of my head, I'm busy." In Series 3 he is briefly in a relationship with Janine; however, this is later revealed to be a ruse to gain information on her boss, and he carefully avoids allowing the relationship to become too intense. Sherlock has considerable fighting ability, fighting off a man armed with a sword using his bare hands in The Blind Banker.