Sheldor the Conqueror

[FranEssi]

I remember posting something almost identical to that in Orangeland a couple years ago and the response from most posters was "You just want Sheldon & Amy to die old and lonely in their empty apartments. How can you be so heartless?". You can't really discuss the show with people like that.

I apologize in advance for the length of this post. tl;dr

Here is what my response to people like that would be:

1- From a storytelling point of view, the point of the Sheldon character was never romance. One of his main purposes and the things that made him funny was his his outsider, aloof point of view and his very contrast with everyone else around him when it came to most social constructs and protocols and to romance. Even as an individual, he was strictly depicted as uninterested in romance and sex to the point that many people considered him asexual and many asexuals identified with him. Questioning and/or taking away any of those characteristics makes him less interesting as a character, and more importantly it makes him less him. It destroys the core of the character. I'd rather worry about the character remaining interesting and himself now rather than about his old age and whether or not he is going to be lonely then.


2- But let's pretend that we (the audience and the writers) all are very worried about Sheldon getting lonely in his old days when we watch the show! There still was a way to guarantee him having people/things in his life without forcing him into a relationship. In the last episode of the show, he could still have his friends (and his work and his passions). Not everyone has to have a romantic partner to be happy.

But if some think a romantic partner is the only remedy to loneliness, there still was a way to guarantee Sheldon wouldn't "die alone in his apartment" without writing him into a silly relationship. All they had to do was to hint at him getting together with someone in the last episode(s) of the series. They could write a subtle scene between him and Penny, or even between him and Amy (if Amy were around) to imply that these two have a thing for each other and might end up together in the future. That way, Sheldon and his spirit and his identity and his nature as a character would remain intact during the course of the show, the ending to the show would leave a lot to the audience’s interpretation and imagination, and the people who worry about him ending up lonely and old could relax!


3- While I think numbers 1 and 2 show that it was quite easy to keep Sheldon single and happy and himself without forcing him into a relationship, let's pretend that they HAD to, for some reason I personally can never fathom, put him in a long-term relationship with a romantic partner. But the question remains: why on earth did the relationship have to be handled this way? Why has Sheldon lost IQ points since dating Amy? Why does he keep failing at his work? Why doesn't he do or say anything intelligent anymore? What happened to the science rants? Why doesn’t he have anything to contribute anymore? Why is he shown to be always wrong about everything these days? Why is Amy's relationship with him the relationship of a nanny and a child? a child that has to be taught the things that he used to know in early seasons? He is more childish, weaker, less intelligent and less confident compared to his early self. Why has he become less because of this relationship?

They could have made the relationship about love and respect, but instead they have made it about control and manipulation and reluctance and sexual frustration. The ship has become the story of a (sexually) frustrated nanny teaching her boyfriend stuff he used to know before she showed up and waiting for the reluctant boyfriend to somehow change and to eventually give in, while instead it could have been about two intelligent adults challenging each other and having fun.