Well, he's not that enigmatic to me, lol. I recognize a lot of myself in him, excepting his remarkably high intelligence, which I certainly do not share.

I've been diagnosed with ASD, which came as kind of relief to me a decade or so ago because it helped me understand myself without negatively judging myself.

I've sometimes wondered how the showrunners did such a great job with Sheldon's character considering that they originally wrote it during an era when Asperger's type behavior was a lot less understood than it is now— at least among the general public.

I like the show. I enjoy Sheldon's character. But I don't wholly enjoy it.

In some ways, I see him as the butt of jokes, at least in particular circumstances and settings. I see people laughing at him rather than laughing with sympathy.

That can feel painful given I know I sure many character traits with him.

On the other hand, his overall arc is highly sympathetic. Broadly speaking, people (both other characters and the viewing public) like Sheldon, accepting his eccentricities as minor foibles rather than judging him and rejecting him.

On the other other hand, that sort of acceptance is idealized and aspirational in some ways. Many or most people on the spectrum (or so it seems to me) don't enjoy the kind of non-judgmental support Sheldon enjoys. Sometimes I wonder if people get an unrealistically positive idea from the show about what it's really like to live with ASD.

In my limited experience at least, real life is quite a lot harder than what people see on the Big Bang Theory.

Anyway, them's my two cents. Thanks for the story!