History Characters / TheBigBangTheorySheldonCooper

* EveryoneHasStandards: While he doesn't like Priya for exploiting the Roommate Agreement to his disadvantage, he is disturbed by Amy offering to kill her.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Had almost no friends as a child (and even his teachers hated him) because of his Main/InsufferableGenius tendencies. He did find a friend in Tam, though. It got to the point in the episode "German For Beginners and a Crazy Old Man With A Bat" that the congregration banded together to raise the money to help him go to Germany for the summer-because they all wanted him gone.

->'''Played by:''' Creator/JimParsons (''Series/TheBigBangTheory''), Creator/IainArmitage (''Series/YoungSheldon'')

** Asexuality: He casually refers to Penny being beautiful and immediately recognizes Leonard is attracted to her, seems to (mildly) compete for her attention and when they visit a sperm bank, Leonard makes an off-hand comment that Sheldon is a "semi-pro", the implications in such a context [[ADateWithRosiePalms should be obvious]].

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Has these moments not only with Amy, but with all of his friends and family. After an episode focusing on his jerkish tendencies, he almost always has at least one PetTheDog moment to show that he cares for them. Even despite his SiblingYinYang with Missy, she admits at the end that she's very proud of him, and tells all of her friends that her brother's a rocket scientist. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Naturally, Sheldon gets upset at the "rocket scientist" bit, but still]]. [[spoiler:For all the bickering he does with Leonard throughout the series, we find out in ''Young Sheldon'' that he names his eldest son after him.]]

* AccentRelapse: Jim Parsons manages to keep his natural Texan drawl under control but there are a few times it slips out, typically done in character with Sheldon who [[ActorSharedBackground is also from Texas]]. These relapses are rather cleverly worked into the story -- it is heavily implied that Sheldon affects his rather colorless normal accent, and that his natural Texan accent creeps back into his speech when he is too angry, distressed or occasionally too drunk to hide it. For example, when Sheldon is locked out of his apartment and Penny offers for him to eat his food in hers:

** Subverted in some other ways. Though some of his lifestyle choices are strange to outsiders, he has well-thought-out reasons for them that make sense, if in a SuperOCD way. For example, [[ThisIsMyChair his spot on the couch]] comes with a list of reasons ''why'' it is his spot, from balanced airflow in the room to allowing maximum interaction with guests (with minimal head-turning) while still allowing a proper view of the TV without distorting the image.

* SuperOCD:
** Don't sit on his favorite couch cushion, you'll smush it out of shape. A good example is when the cushion that was "his spot" on the sofa was stained and he spent the time in which the cushion was being cleaned slowly going crazy, eventually going to the point where he was crouching over the spot where he used to sit. Howard tries to solve the problem by grabbing Rajesh's cushion and placing it in Sheldon's spot. Rajesh starts to complain, giving us:
--->'''Howard:''' Who cares where you sit? ''You are not crazy!''
** In the thirty seconds it took Rajesh to find a new place to sit, Sheldon had found something unacceptable about the new cushion and the fun was restarted.
--->'''Sheldon:''' These shrimp are all the same size, there's no logical order to eat them in. ''[chucks them into the garbage can]''
** Sheldon always has to knock on Penny's door 3 times and each knock is followed by him calling Penny's name. Penny at one point tries to mess up Sheldon's rhythm by opening the door and imitating what Sheldon does. He feels "that's just wrong."

* DitzyGenius: He's a brilliant scientist, but is absolutely, painfully clueless in almost every other aspect of life. He overanalyzes things, making him unable to answer simple and easy questions (especially if it's not related to engineering, physics, calculus or statistics). He interprets Penny saying "Oh, I see" as the acronym [=OIC=], disputes a DMV written exam question for trying to define a standard car length claiming that cars are obviously of varying length and misconstrued Leonard's drawing of a chocolate-chip cookie in Pictionary as a quark gluon plasma. He stubbed his toe in a revolving door on the way in the hospital when he kept going around and around because he got confused by the lobby's plant.

* AnnoyingPatient: Sheldon suffers from severe social ineptitude, as well as mild hypochondria, turning him an literal ''nightmare'' to be around when he's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZb-LpW-pwM ill]]. He also exhibits no shame for any of his behavior until 9 seasons in.

* PhotographicMemory: He has it, though he objects to the name and insists that it's properly called eidetic memory. He's able to recall the precise date and time of any event in his life and win complex card games through memorization

* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Sheldon is revealed to have been so traumatized by his parents' constant fighting when he was a child that he is unable to be around people arguing. He goes so far as to run away from his apartment when roommate Leonard won't stop arguing with his girlfriend. He relates multiple incidents of being bullied (sometimes by his own siblings) that fit the trope, such as discovering string theory, due to being beaten round the head with a book about it.

* PrecociousCrush: Had one on a girl named Libby in ''Young Sheldon''. He's a nine-year-old in high school, so she's several years older than him. The adult Sheldon narrating the series claims he was actually interested in Geology, these claims ring hollow. He doesn't object when his family refers to Libby as his "girlfriend", the two spent hours talking on the phone, were toying with sharing activities together outside of Geology, and the most damning piece of evidence being how he reacts to Libby telling Mary that she was "babysitting" Sheldon. He breaks down in tears and swears eternal hatred over Geology due to this.

* SingleTargetSexuality: Amy is the ONLY person he has ever expressed romantic (and later sexual) feelings towards. While other women (and men) have shown some form of attraction to him, the most he ever reciprocates is an appreciation that they appreciate him. For the most part, he seems entirely oblivious to people who display attraction to him and openly expresses his total lack of interest in romantic/sexual relationships. The ''only'' exception to this is Amy when he ends up developing unexpected feelings for her and asks her out. Even though a sexual relationship is still repulsive to him and the first several years of their relationship are non-sexual, he confessed to Amy that what the two of them have is the most intimate relationship he has ever had. Later, when Penny asks if there's a possibility for sex in his relationship with Amy, he says yes. This completely floors Penny. When his colleague Ramona ends up kissing him while Amy is away on a work trip, he realizes the only person he experiences intimate feelings for is Amy and she is the only match for him. He also explains that the experience of being kissed by another woman told him that "Amy is the only woman [he] ever wanted to kiss for the rest of [his] life". [[spoiler:As of "The Opening Night Excitation", he decides to start a sexual relationship with Amy in order to finally show how much he truly loves her. He admits to enjoying the experience more than he thought he would and, afterward, has no problem having sex with Amy whatsoever.]]

* JerkassToOne: A "Crueler to One" example. Sheldon is an insufferable know-it-all who likes to belittle people for not being as intelligent as him. Howard gets the worst of it due to him possessing a Master's Degree (Sheldon once referred to it as a "trade school diploma") instead of a [=PhD=] like Sheldon, Raj and Leonard.

** He consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening Night Excitation", spending part of the episode debating on an appropriate birthday gift to give her. This happened shortly after they broke up but got back together and he wanted to prove to Amy how much she means to him. [[GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex Both really enjoyed the experience]], but he viewed it as a special occasion and says he looks forward to having sex on her next birthday, making it their yearly tradition. Exceptions seem to be made on particular occasions; after co-working on an experiment melding skin samples between him and Amy that produce a simple neural network, he became interested in getting her pregnant, even telling Amy he would be up for having sex with her ''right there in the lab'' (she refused on principle and not being ready for kids). In season 10, she was leaving for a fellowship at Princeton for 3 months and he offered sex as a special farewell present before she left. (This turned comedic when Raj, Penny and Leonard hear Sheldon and Amy vocally enjoying themselves from across the hall).

* HollywoodAutism: He's not officially diagnosed as Autistic but he's somewhere on the spectrum. Sheldon is a savant with science, literal-minded, possesses child-like qualities, and is socially awkward. Prior to meeting Leonard and Penny, Sheldon was socially impaired until he matured and eventually married Amy.

* BastardBoyfriend: To Amy whom he verbally abuses and treats badly, although technically, he treats everybody badly. Yet, it's PlayedForLaughs.

* AntiHero: He mostly cares about himself and, intentionally or not, he belittles his friends on a regular basis. He's also arrogant, strict, petty and demanding. Despite this, he does genuinely care for his friends, and a hybrid of that, lack of malicious intent behind his actions, suffering from severe AmbiguousDisorder, child-like traits and multiple PetTheDog moments stop him from becoming unlikeable.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Considering the sheer number of quirks he acquired after the first few episodes, it's somewhat of a shock to see him in the early stages. Sheldon wasn't quite as socially inept or uptight in earlier episodes and may not even have been established as asexual yet. He was still an arrogant jerk, but more of a friend ribbing another instead of having a huge ego mixed with an AmbiguousDisorder. As such:

** He's insufferable most of the time, but he shows concern and attention for his friends in his own ways, can offer genuinely helpful advice on their problems if he's in the right mood, he's never actively malevolent to them beyond verbal jabs, and is hurt if they slight him in some way. On the other hand, his perspective on social interactions are skewed, so he doesn't understand when he does something offensive or inappropriate, he's constantly flaunting what he considers his superior intellect, and while he can offer helpful advice on a problem at times, he's just as liable to interrupt their explanation of said problem to note he doesn't care. The Heart Of Gold ''is'' there, but it's deep down under a lot of arrogance and an AmbiguousDisorder.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Sheldon displays symptoms of ''lots'' of different disorders depending on RuleOfFunny. One of his most consistent symptoms is his lack of a social battery. He often finds social behaviours to be tedious at best and draining at worst, often needing time to recharge himself after socializing.

** ''[Knock, knock, knock]'' Penny. ''[Knock, knock, knock]'' Penny. ''[Knock, knock, knock]'' Penny. [[InterruptedCatchphrase Sheldon even gets a little annoyed when Penny opens the door before he finishes.]]

* DependingOnTheWriter: The degree of Sheldon's irreligion and views on God seem to be this. While it's clear that he doesn't share his mother's Christian beliefs, he seems to vary between atheism, agnosticism, apatheism and even acknowledging God and/or Jesus' existence at times. In ''Young Sheldon'', he is much more vocal about his lack of belief, likely due to growing up in the highly religious state of Texas, whereas in ''The Big Bang Theory'', he lives in the more secular state of California.
** There's also how ''deliberate'' Sheldon is about his abrasive behavior. Some times he's made aware of how obnoxious he's being, point blank doesn't care and acts entitled to keep going and can even KickTheDog just for his own petty pride or amusement. Other times it's clear that he's being InnocentlyInsensitive and honestly means well by his friends. And still other times he's in the middle of the road; demanding and irritating but acting by a governing code that he won't deviate from even if it inconveniences himself and willing to follow said code for sake of others rather than himself.

** Pride. So. much. ''Pride''. Sheldon is convinced that he's the smartest person on the planet and would avoid 90% of the problems he faces if he was just willing to admit he's not as smart as he thinks he is. He's shot himself in the foot and cost himself more than a few wins by not being willing to concede that someone could outdo him.