Young Sheldon Made 1 Emotional Big Bang Theory Reveal Even Sadder
The Big Bang Theory offered an explanation for one of Sheldon’s quirky obsessions, but it was Young Sheldon that later justified this sad backstory.
Jim Parsons’s pleased Sheldon displays a model train to Melissa Rauch’s intrigued Bernadette in The Big Bang Theory
SUMMARY
Sheldon’s character in The Big Bang Theory was rigid and strangely obsessed with order and structure, as evidenced by his love of trains.
The drama and turbulence of Sheldon’s early life, as shown in Young Sheldon, justify his desire for order and structure.
Sheldon’s character in The Big Bang Theory becomes more sympathetic when considering his difficult upbringing.
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While The Big Bang Theory rarely made Sheldon’s backstory moving, one revelation from the hit sitcom became unexpectedly poignant thanks to Young Sheldon. While Young Sheldon fleshed out the story of Sheldon Cooper’s childhood and adolescence, The Big Bang Theory focused on his personal and professional life throughout his twenties and thirties. As a result, The Big Bang Theory only featured a few moving moments of character drama, with most of Sheldon’s appearances in the series centering on the zanier, funnier side of his personality. Despite this, the sitcom did humanize Jim Parsons’s comically obstinate character on occasion.
In The Big Bang Theory’s finale, Sheldon’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech saw him thank his friends and family for their support, even acknowledging that he couldn’t do any of his work without Amy, Leonard, Penny, and the gang. This was a huge step for Sheldon, whose arrogance and self-interest previously drove him throughout the show’s earlier seasons. While The Big Bang Theory mostly played Sheldon’s character flaws for laughs, Young Sheldon’s more dramatic tone meant the later spinoff provided context for many of his quirks. This made some of these existing character details surprisingly affecting in retrospect.
Young Sheldon Justified Sheldon’s Big Bang Theory Train Obsession
Jim Parsons as Sheldon and the Coopers in Young Sheldon season 7
In The Big Bang Theory season 9, episode 22, “The Fermentation Bifurcation,” he revealed to a curious Bernadette that the reason Sheldon loves trains is that their regularity and dependability gave him a sense of peace and order in an otherwise chaotic childhood. Young Sheldon proved that Sheldon’s train obsession was sadder than most viewers would anticipate as the spinoff portrayed just how turbulent Sheldon’s early life was. In Young Sheldon’s season 6 finale, for example, his grandmother’s illegal gambling room was destroyed by a tornado, his father and twin sister were almost injured in the same disaster, and his brother Georgie accepted a marriage proposal.
The Big Bang Theory mostly treated Sheldon’s love of trains as a joke, but the turbulent nature of his family life makes the obsession pretty understandable.
While this was admittedly a series finale, the preceding episodes saw Georgie’s partner go into labor unexpectedly, Sheldon’s sister take the family’s truck on a multi-state joyride, and Sheldon’s parents openly fight about perceived infidelity. Young Sheldon proved that Sheldon’s childhood was frequently dramatic and tumultuous, meaning the fastidious character had plenty of reason to want order and structure during this pivotal stage of development. The Big Bang Theory mostly treated Sheldon’s love of trains as a joke, but the turbulent nature of his family life makes the obsession pretty understandable and more sympathetic than it seemed in the original show.
Sheldon’s Love Of Trains Highlights A Sad Young Sheldon Theme
Sheldon looking shocked while reading a book in Young Sheldon season 6
While he handles the situation well, Sheldon rarely gets the peace he wants throughout Young Sheldon. Once, this even resulted in him sleeping on campus to get work done in season 6, episode 5, “A Resident Advisor and the Word ‘Sketchy’”. Much like The Big Bang Theory’s tragic Sheldon character detail makes his father’s impending Young Sheldon death much sadder, the original show’s depiction of his desire for stability makes these attempts to control the chaos of the Cooper clan surprisingly touching. Luckily, The Big Bang Theory’s hero did eventually learn to accept the family he struggled with in Young Sheldon.