01-25-2014, 01:40 AM
We were never supposed to like him. He was the weird one, too tall and too clever and too different. The whole point of him was someone to point at and snigger, because he was strange and Not Like Us.
Unfortunately, the 'Us' out there rather took to him, since we also tend to be a bit clever and a bit different. So the showrunners decided to SHOUT AT US, to make it clear that we weren't supposed to like this weirdo, we were supposed to like the myopic little troll...sorry, sympathetic underdog with his relatable concerns (ie gotta get me some booyatitties) And then they screwed us over by introducing the frog princess, a total two fingers. "You wanted him to have a girlfriend, here, he's got one, now shut up - no, he can't have the girl he has actual onscreen chemistry with, she's ring-fenced for the Designated Hero."
For a show ostensibly starring genius scientists, it has a strong anti-intellectual bent. Smart is different, dangerous, something that has to be broken down and reduced, so that nobody thinks they are 'better'. It is all about saying 'see, smart people are weirdo losers, so don't feel bad that you have to take your shoes off to count to twenty', with a sideorder of 'weirdo losers deserve to be poked with sticks until they stop being weirdo losers'.
Also, if Sheldon is made ridiculous and cartoon-like, people stop thinking of him as an actual human being, and more indignities can be heaped on him. It is the most outrageous case of character sabotage I've ever seen, really - the showrunners are destroying the character out of pique because their designated protagonist isn't getting the warm adulation they feel he should have received. (Mainly I think because he's the Expy for someone's midlife crisis/high school trauma, and we're getting to share the Issues.) I really do feel that the whole show is stamping it's feet and pouting - someone wrote about their feelings re the way a certain director treated movie characters in a franchise, that he had not only broken the toys but then pee'd on them so no-one else got to play, and that is how it feels that Sheldon has been treated. (And dear god but I hope the Abhorrence doesn't start marking her territory that way...)
Unfortunately, the 'Us' out there rather took to him, since we also tend to be a bit clever and a bit different. So the showrunners decided to SHOUT AT US, to make it clear that we weren't supposed to like this weirdo, we were supposed to like the myopic little troll...sorry, sympathetic underdog with his relatable concerns (ie gotta get me some booyatitties) And then they screwed us over by introducing the frog princess, a total two fingers. "You wanted him to have a girlfriend, here, he's got one, now shut up - no, he can't have the girl he has actual onscreen chemistry with, she's ring-fenced for the Designated Hero."
For a show ostensibly starring genius scientists, it has a strong anti-intellectual bent. Smart is different, dangerous, something that has to be broken down and reduced, so that nobody thinks they are 'better'. It is all about saying 'see, smart people are weirdo losers, so don't feel bad that you have to take your shoes off to count to twenty', with a sideorder of 'weirdo losers deserve to be poked with sticks until they stop being weirdo losers'.
Also, if Sheldon is made ridiculous and cartoon-like, people stop thinking of him as an actual human being, and more indignities can be heaped on him. It is the most outrageous case of character sabotage I've ever seen, really - the showrunners are destroying the character out of pique because their designated protagonist isn't getting the warm adulation they feel he should have received. (Mainly I think because he's the Expy for someone's midlife crisis/high school trauma, and we're getting to share the Issues.) I really do feel that the whole show is stamping it's feet and pouting - someone wrote about their feelings re the way a certain director treated movie characters in a franchise, that he had not only broken the toys but then pee'd on them so no-one else got to play, and that is how it feels that Sheldon has been treated. (And dear god but I hope the Abhorrence doesn't start marking her territory that way...)