#tiredofalltropes

[tcottagecheese]

So, I have this The Big Bang Theory AU

So I have this sorta AU of the big bang theory that start sooo early in the show, and it’s one that I live in a sad relationship with because the big bang theory was the one show I was heartbroken to hate.

So, basically, we meet the boys and Penny, and she IS this blond, Nebraskan naïve kid who’s just really into the United States’ dream of fame and fortune so she’s in Cali, and we happily go those three or four episodes where the blond dumb tropes where… eh, okay, and all the boys where just behind he creepy line in their adorkable type that you half cringed but they seemed more like Peter Pan’s lost boys and less future sexual harassment suits; so, we’re just a that point, then, STOP:

AND ACTION:

Because in my half-made expectations before the show actually got along, Penny, who has been spending most dinner nights with the boys save the occasional ‘girls night out trope’, has some ‘unnamed person over’ in the boys apartment, and they can be really impressed or snide about some unfinished equation on the board, and this will prompt her into explaining whatever crazy science scribble it’s on Sheldon’s board really earnestly, which of course send everyone into shock, only she brushes it off because when she was a little kid she was actually somewhat into science before it stopped being cool (as in, high school where all dreams go to die), so, she forgets about that…

EXCEPT then one day Leonard is SUPER stuck on something on the board, and she goes and just… puts those numbers that seemed to be just missing from it, and HEY YOU JUST SOLVED THIS CRAZY HUGE EQUATION HOLY SHIT

And then it turns out PENNY was a ‘WHATEVER BRANCH OF SCIENCE SHELDON AND LEONARD ARE’ genius all along, but she never allowed herself to be too much into it the mere basis behind it (math and physics) because growing up she had too much energy to just allow herself those hours listening to sciency diatribes to put into written all that stuff she always kinda got in a faraway sense, but now she’s older and can actually focus beyond bull-riding, she realizes that faraway thing is SCIENCE and IS HER THANG

ONLY excuse you, she has a dream, and it’s to be an actress, so she resists the call of math, and stubbornly continues auditioning and selling herself as THE BLONDE TROPE because she’s a sensitive artistic soul who will NOT be shackled by the rigor of scholastic paths

ONLY turns out that Caltech place pays really well, and she does like shoe shopping, so she allows them to lure her once in a while to the evilness of UNIVERSITY where she feels really awkward because as the show shows, CalTech seems like a really cut-throat place, and also she’s not into writing out long essays explaining her math thingy, no please. SO she continually escapes the clutches of Gabblehouser (? his name T.T)

WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO THE BOYS! who are super confused by this sudden turn of event (A WOMAN who is ATTRACTIVE and SMART and also their PLATONIC FRIEND *gasp!) and at first don’t really know how to interact with Penny, who as far as she is concerned still acts her same hot dumb blonde role, only better paid, cuz it’s not like her actual intellect changed, she just started using that part of it she disconnected from a whiiiiile ago, (so no, she won't suddenly turn into an overnight nerd more than she had always been, nor does she abandon her cute outfits and vanities and actual lazy personality)

And part of the show would be about the boys showing her the cool fun parts of SCIENCE without dumbing it down for her in that really insulting way they do it on the actual show

Part of it is also Sheldon going bananas because the faculty asked him to make Penny’s BRILLIANT UNADULTERED GENIOUS into hard, fast, college essay worthiness, and no, Penny, Chicago is not the right way for citations and STOP PUTTING CUTE SQUIGGLES IN THE PAGE FRAME WOMAN! CUTE SCIENCE IS NOT SCIENCE And also let’s stop looking at my equations I can do it myself, and poor Sheldon ends up having to translate pop cultured sass into gentile math for the sciency peeps, (P & S do always influence each other, after all) so we focus on their cute, quirky BFFsness (and maybe eventual romance, cuz I shipped them until HARD CHAUVANIST SHELDON EMERGED later in the show) and they have the time of their lives bickering over how Penny’s equations are too short and dry and to the point while Sheldon’s are whimsical and romantic and too drawn out.

And the other beautiful part of it it’s the boys are still having their go at love, except HERE they actually realize the kind of woman they want to date is LITERALLY RIGHT THERE to give them real life advice beyond ‘pick up lines/ew nerds are creepy’ and explains the things women actually want, like being respected for their intellect in whatever shape may come, as well as whatever employment they have –whether there rocket scientist or dog walkers or waitresses, as long as they work hard and honestly for a living no work should be made fun of-

AND because this is an AU, Penny actually, continually whoops their asses Nebraska style for being sexist little shits and thinking they can get away with it with their little underdog bullshit and off course it’s not something that happens like magic, it takes a series of dramatic, emotional, occasionally chaotic events that allows the boys to finally understand that they’ve been materialistic jocks all along, (really, just give them serious muscles and a backwards hat and they all become that really frightening coworker/schoolmate/ad infinitum that acts in that super unsettling way that they think it’s sexy-funny but it’s actually very threatening) 

SO: they find themselves on all too new path in their search for a partner: one in which they start to view women beyond the tropes and the ideals, and realize there’s some seriously cool chicks who are actually always that much more deep than they initially realized and perhaps they don’t find THE RIGHT ONE, but somehow they start gaining an increasing number of awesome, diverse women friends, and sometimes some of them grow to be more than that!

And of course, this is a COMEDY so, instead of the creepy ‘revenge of the nerds’ shenanigans that always leave u feeling that bit uncomfortable (using toy trucks with cameras to see under a person’s skirt in real life is SO WRONG so I don’t understand why it was okay on TV on a space where the guys were supposed to be her friends, in the very building where she lives and also that teddy bear with the camera that’s super illegal?) Penny and all the boys’ new woman friends teach them the WAYS OF LOVE into girls hearts, the REAL ONES like actively listening (not dude-listening where they nod and you can see them thinking ‘women talk’) and engaging in non-judgmental debate rather than lying about agreeing with whatever they think they want to keep them agreeable, and talking WITH them about the boys interests rather than AT THEM because seriously, there are many fun ways to join all the sci-fi, fantasy, etc fandoms with aspects of EVERYDAYS LIFE you just have to take an interest in what the other person likes and TRY to find a way to make the convo fun for both, which the boys by their very own plot are not very good about but the point of social awkwardness is that it can be helped by practicing in safe environments with people you trust,

but again, because it’s a COMEDY they’ll try too hard (like they’ll try to explain how PRO-feminism they are, except they’ll be so earnest and filled with facts about it that they’ll dominate the entire conversation and at the end of their date they’ll be like OHSHIT I DID THAT MALE THING) , or just plain be stuck in WTF-With-This-Century-Land (like a girl who aggressively insists on paying her own food but then gets super offended when they don’t open the door for them and the boys are like: I JUST WANT TO RESPECT YOU! And men who insist on fighting for WHITE MAN RIGHTS-hellyeah! and they want to jump in and argue that except Rajesh is the only actually culturally diverse and he’s kinda meh about it so they just flutter with indignation) or a trope where they’ll be watching some movie/playing a game that they REALLY love only half way through it they start to get really uncomfortable and then they’ll realize that’s its sexist in some way or another and they be like: THIS TOO?! DAMN YOU WHITE RICH MALE SOCIETY! YOU’VE LEFT ME WITH NO SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE THINGS TO ENJOY! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS WRONG WITH YOU IN THE 80s-90s?!)

All meanwhile Penny is seriously tripping cuz how the fuck did they make an 80 page long, long-worded, pompous pretentious essay on that itty-bitty, classy, elegant equation she wrote for funsies last week SHELDON WHY and now she has to read through it all when she just wants to go for a fun caltech-cheque spending shoe extravaganza and kick the traumatized boys’ asses on halo ½ which they have decided are the least offensive ones in the franchise and even though Penny is very ‘meh, its fine, women are used to it’ they’re like NO WOMAN MY GUILTY CONCIENCE WON'T LET ME ENJOY THE GAME AND ALSO IT GIVES YOU AN ADVANTGE CUZ WE’RE TOO BUSY ASSURING OURSELVES WE’RE NOT PART OF DA-SYSTEM TO SHOOT BACK!

So Penny learns to integrate this part of herself she always pushed aside and learns about being a practical adult while maintaining that sweet, yet dryly idealistic side that made her Penny, and also using your full potential in all that you do and probably something about balancing all the aspects of your personality rather than grabbing the ones you think will please people the most and shoving the other aside, and my babies will learn that once they put aside prejudice and insecurity and cynism by way OF TRYING HARD AND ACEPTING YOURSELF (as in the human that you are at your core, not all those things society tries to pin on you) even when certain parts of society aren’t always ready to take you as you are, rather than conforming and using this as an excuse to justify behaviour your ‘label’ accuses you of, you keep opening yourself up and never stopping from trying, (which is hard and not always short-term rewarding) it all leads to something beyond physical attractiveness and first-meeting impressions and tropes and prejudices and all that crap, it leads to TRUE HUMAN CONNECTION OF MINDS AND SOULS ALIKE.

And that’s the actual, awesome Big Bang of HUMANITY!

So, yes, this is what I had actually pictured back in the very first episodes before it all went so, so wrong. I really thought it was gonna be one of those progressive, dry/funny shows that show the fun side of progress like The Flash or Boy Meets World