Amy was emotionally and physically abused by her mother. I always viewed her inconsistent personality and how she is erratic as her working through mental health issues.
As she is exposed to a friend group she is finally able to feel a self worth outside of her intelligence and is able to “be in her body“ for the first time in her life. Dissociation is very common in ppl who have been abused.
This may be too psychodrama a reading of it, just sharing how I saw her.
It’s just a matter the writers and producers figuring out the character. They wanted a female version of Sheldon at first but quickly realized that wouldn’t work.
Same thing happened with Howard just over a much longer period.
the way she changed so fast (literally within 2 episodes) always bothers me the most. the first time she met penny she seemed indifferent or even condescending to penny, like when sheldon said "muggle", she nodded in agreement. and literally the next time she saw penny, she was forcing herself into penny and bernadette's girl's night, trying to make friends. the "i am a girl" always has me shocked of her audacity... penny has always been so kind to amy even in times when she was harassed by amy.
I *think* the change happened when Penny brought in that armchair with the rat in it and when Amy was being difficult about it, Penny said something like "I thought you were my friend" and that seemed to be the turning point since Amy sat down on the chair and stayed seated deapite the rat biting her.
Before Amy said that, I think she was the usual Female Sheldon attitude.
In reality, most of this could be chalked up to lack of continuity from the writers both while trying to figure out her character, and the general nature of sitcoms bending characters personalities to fit a joke.
In-universe, it's because Amy was emotionally stunted her entire life up until she joins the group and starts making friends.
Growing up, Amy's mother was extremely overbearing and controlling (not allowing her to get her ears pierced, be a Girl Scout, or participate in the school play, even going as far as locking her in a closet as punishment). On top of her home life, she was also relentlessly bullied by her peers (Fuzzy-Fingers Fowler in high school, locked in a sauna with an otter in grad school, etc).
All that could certainly cause a person to put their walls up and retreat into a shell for her own self preservation. By the time we meet her, she's well into adulthood and has built barriers around herself and repressed a lot, including a lot of her emotions and desires.
While her friendship with Sheldon was built upon their similar academic strengths, once she befriends Penny and Bernadette, she truly starts to open up. Without them, she might never have progressed past her robotic self. The incident with Zack was possibly the biggest turning point for her, as it opened her up for a lot of new emotions and experiences.
From there, she essentially starts going through a delayed adolescence, which is why she sometimes seems immature, but not always. The examples you gave even reinforce this. While she was immature in not understanding when she overstays her welcome or experimenting with her attraction to girls/Penny, she eventually learns from that (perhaps in observing Sheldon and his lack of social awareness?) and grows past it, and becomes more emotionally mature, like with the I Love You scene later on. By then, she's evolved past her highschool mindset into a true adult, and is ready for a grown-up romantic relationship with Sheldon.
TLDR; over time, she outgrows a lot of her "creepy" traits (although still quirky as she's always been), and becomes the Amy we see later on with more adult interests and emotional maturity.
This is how I’ve always viewed Amy. Her awkward robotic self was a coping mechanism in a world that has been harsh towards her. With Sheldon, his traits seem to be more neurologically driven.
I think her character evolved very naturally. The reason she did come off as robotic in the beginning was because the writers wanted her to come off as a female Sheldon but not soon after they made sure they make it explicit that she has sexual needs when she meets Zack. Also they mentioned her using a vibrator or an electric toothbrush. So she never came off as asexual.
They also soon handled it very nicely to make her more human because before Sheldon she had 0 friends. She couldn’t make friends at neither school nor college. Her mother raised her as an awkward, scared individual. If anything, it was exposure to Penny and Bernadette that changed her into the person she became later on. Her monotonous voice changes gradually and she starts talking more relaxed and with more emotion because she’s coming out of her shell.
Was there inconsistencies with her? Probably. But in the later seasons pretty much every character did do something weird for the sake of the plot of that very episode.
I think it's just the writing. I love the show, but the characters can be very inconsistent.
I'm thinking about instances of Sheldon using irony and sarcasm early on in the series (even though he supposedly doesn't understand it) or licking his finger before turning a page (even though he's a tremendous germaphobe.)
I recently made a post asking a question about other Sheldon inconsistencies.
These posts always confuse me. Are people not allowed to change? In your own life, do people not evolve and change? Because in mine they do - sometimes in small ways, sometimes in big ways. To me it’s unrealistic to expect people to stay rigidly within set parameters and it’s cool that entertainment reflects they too- after all it’s supposed to mirror real life, we’re supposed to find touchpoints in the storyline we can relate to
Your second point is off. It is a reference about rape at parties. A girl passes out, and wakes up with less clothes because she was raped and the agressor(s) put the clothes back on, but forget a piece. It is sadly so common that the reference is pretty clear. It is a very dark joke, but it doesn't speak about her hoping to get undressed.
oh yeah, i got that. but she said that she woke up at parties with 'more' clothes on with a clear sense of self-pity/sadness in this context. this was a reference to how she felt she was undesirable, wrongful assumption being that rape/harassment only happens to people who the aggressors find attractive, but this is how she meant it.
maybe i might be wrong tho.
People have made great points here. But very importantly, her asexual female Sheldon character was brought on for one episode. She wasn't meant to return, letalone become part of the ensemble, so naturally they had to create her character to evolve quickly & actually fit into the show. There's already a Sheldon, we didn't need an exact likeness of him as well.
Who caressss it's a comedy tv show. It's not like Better call Saul or Peaky Blinders where it has to be connected all in all.
It's a TV Show that you are supposed to auto-play when you don't have anything to do or if you are eating your meal or you just want a good laugh.
Amy was emotionally and physically abused by her mother. I always viewed her inconsistent personality and how she is erratic as her working through mental health issues. As she is exposed to a friend group she is finally able to feel a self worth outside of her intelligence and is able to “be in her body“ for the first time in her life. Dissociation is very common in ppl who have been abused. This may be too psychodrama a reading of it, just sharing how I saw her.
It’s just a matter the writers and producers figuring out the character. They wanted a female version of Sheldon at first but quickly realized that wouldn’t work. Same thing happened with Howard just over a much longer period.
You are so right, a female Sheldon was redundant and pointless.
the way she changed so fast (literally within 2 episodes) always bothers me the most. the first time she met penny she seemed indifferent or even condescending to penny, like when sheldon said "muggle", she nodded in agreement. and literally the next time she saw penny, she was forcing herself into penny and bernadette's girl's night, trying to make friends. the "i am a girl" always has me shocked of her audacity... penny has always been so kind to amy even in times when she was harassed by amy.
I *think* the change happened when Penny brought in that armchair with the rat in it and when Amy was being difficult about it, Penny said something like "I thought you were my friend" and that seemed to be the turning point since Amy sat down on the chair and stayed seated deapite the rat biting her. Before Amy said that, I think she was the usual Female Sheldon attitude.
Part of her change was also because of meeting Penny’s ex-boyfriend Zach.
EXACTLY
In reality, most of this could be chalked up to lack of continuity from the writers both while trying to figure out her character, and the general nature of sitcoms bending characters personalities to fit a joke. In-universe, it's because Amy was emotionally stunted her entire life up until she joins the group and starts making friends. Growing up, Amy's mother was extremely overbearing and controlling (not allowing her to get her ears pierced, be a Girl Scout, or participate in the school play, even going as far as locking her in a closet as punishment). On top of her home life, she was also relentlessly bullied by her peers (Fuzzy-Fingers Fowler in high school, locked in a sauna with an otter in grad school, etc). All that could certainly cause a person to put their walls up and retreat into a shell for her own self preservation. By the time we meet her, she's well into adulthood and has built barriers around herself and repressed a lot, including a lot of her emotions and desires. While her friendship with Sheldon was built upon their similar academic strengths, once she befriends Penny and Bernadette, she truly starts to open up. Without them, she might never have progressed past her robotic self. The incident with Zack was possibly the biggest turning point for her, as it opened her up for a lot of new emotions and experiences. From there, she essentially starts going through a delayed adolescence, which is why she sometimes seems immature, but not always. The examples you gave even reinforce this. While she was immature in not understanding when she overstays her welcome or experimenting with her attraction to girls/Penny, she eventually learns from that (perhaps in observing Sheldon and his lack of social awareness?) and grows past it, and becomes more emotionally mature, like with the I Love You scene later on. By then, she's evolved past her highschool mindset into a true adult, and is ready for a grown-up romantic relationship with Sheldon. TLDR; over time, she outgrows a lot of her "creepy" traits (although still quirky as she's always been), and becomes the Amy we see later on with more adult interests and emotional maturity.
This is how I’ve always viewed Amy. Her awkward robotic self was a coping mechanism in a world that has been harsh towards her. With Sheldon, his traits seem to be more neurologically driven.
she also said during her wedding that she was dreaming about that day since she was a child
There are plenty inconcistecies in this show...
I think her character evolved very naturally. The reason she did come off as robotic in the beginning was because the writers wanted her to come off as a female Sheldon but not soon after they made sure they make it explicit that she has sexual needs when she meets Zack. Also they mentioned her using a vibrator or an electric toothbrush. So she never came off as asexual. They also soon handled it very nicely to make her more human because before Sheldon she had 0 friends. She couldn’t make friends at neither school nor college. Her mother raised her as an awkward, scared individual. If anything, it was exposure to Penny and Bernadette that changed her into the person she became later on. Her monotonous voice changes gradually and she starts talking more relaxed and with more emotion because she’s coming out of her shell. Was there inconsistencies with her? Probably. But in the later seasons pretty much every character did do something weird for the sake of the plot of that very episode.
I agree with everything you said and she’s still my favorite.
I think it's just the writing. I love the show, but the characters can be very inconsistent. I'm thinking about instances of Sheldon using irony and sarcasm early on in the series (even though he supposedly doesn't understand it) or licking his finger before turning a page (even though he's a tremendous germaphobe.) I recently made a post asking a question about other Sheldon inconsistencies.
These posts always confuse me. Are people not allowed to change? In your own life, do people not evolve and change? Because in mine they do - sometimes in small ways, sometimes in big ways. To me it’s unrealistic to expect people to stay rigidly within set parameters and it’s cool that entertainment reflects they too- after all it’s supposed to mirror real life, we’re supposed to find touchpoints in the storyline we can relate to
Your second point is off. It is a reference about rape at parties. A girl passes out, and wakes up with less clothes because she was raped and the agressor(s) put the clothes back on, but forget a piece. It is sadly so common that the reference is pretty clear. It is a very dark joke, but it doesn't speak about her hoping to get undressed.
oh yeah, i got that. but she said that she woke up at parties with 'more' clothes on with a clear sense of self-pity/sadness in this context. this was a reference to how she felt she was undesirable, wrongful assumption being that rape/harassment only happens to people who the aggressors find attractive, but this is how she meant it. maybe i might be wrong tho.
I can't quite agree; to me it seemed a consistent series of changes from minus-3 to 11.
People have made great points here. But very importantly, her asexual female Sheldon character was brought on for one episode. She wasn't meant to return, letalone become part of the ensemble, so naturally they had to create her character to evolve quickly & actually fit into the show. There's already a Sheldon, we didn't need an exact likeness of him as well.
Who caressss it's a comedy tv show. It's not like Better call Saul or Peaky Blinders where it has to be connected all in all. It's a TV Show that you are supposed to auto-play when you don't have anything to do or if you are eating your meal or you just want a good laugh.