A passionate and impulsive woman.

[Louise]

I made the mistake of writing one story set in the later seasons and it took something like 18 chapters just to get Penny to the point where she was a capable human being again.

I believe it. That's the type of thing I don't want to deal with. I have the attitude of "as long as I don't acknowledge the later seasons, they're not "real." It's that type of "magical thinking" where mentioning something makes it real.

For me, I like all of the characters in their early incarnations so I tend to use all of them in my stories.

I ship Howard/Raj in a shippy way, so I wouldn't be super-enthused about B. even if she'd remained pleasant. IDK, I'm an "original five characters fundamentalist." I tend to be skeptical of new characters in any fandom, not just this one. It's cool that you're able to make the situation work for you, though.