Every other woman Leonard was with.
They were all a better match than Penny.
share I've often thought that myself. In the first season he was attracted to her looks and the fact that she seemed so unattainable.
But as Professor Proton asked Leonard when Penny asked about powering the clock with the potato, "Is it a trick clock or a trick potato?", "What do you two talk about?"
There are different ways that people are compatible. But I've read and experienced that the most successful relationships are between people who are on a similar intellectual level.
All the time they were dating. Leonard got the cute, hot girl who never gave him the time of day in high school or college. Penny's favorite activities seemed to center around drinking and sleeping around.
Once they were married and she had a few kids and maybe added a few pounds, she wouldn't have the energy or desire to have him jump on her every night. There probably wouldn't be time to get drunk with him as she so often did. I'd like to see how their marriage would've progressed in fifteen years when she wasn't the young hottie anymore. What DID they talk about??
But I've read and experienced that the most successful relationships are between people who are on a similar intellectual level.
I can't say that's true - even if it's been true 100% of the time I've been with someone..
Penny was impulsive and promiscuous in the early years, but she always had a good heart from the first episode. She wasn't book smart certainly as her interests were mostly boys, fashion, and a career as an actress, but I would say she was always quite intuitive which is indicative at some level of some reasonable amount of intelligence.
As the series went on, they grew her up. She kept her good heart but also became a responsible adult, something that some people (but certainly not all or even a majority of people) do when get older. As she matured, Penny realized that the ideal man doesn't need to be 6' and chiseled, something she wouldn't have believed when she first moved to that apartment.
I'm willing to say that while Penny was a long shot early on, she grew into a very good mate for Leonard.
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You're right about the "early" Penny. She was quite promiscuous. I recall her crying on Leonard's shoulder a few times about the guys she dated. She couldn't seem to understand why they were "jerks' or treated her so badly. I guess a lightbulb finally went off in her head.
When a woman just gives it away on a first date, she isn't going to attract decent guys who have her best interests at heart. It must have occurred to her that Leonard was the decent type of guy she was looking for all along.
I never thought Penny was dumb. She just wasn't highly educated. Truth be told, all the math and physics that the guys are interested in is WAAAY over my head too! But I do like to read a lot more than Penny. I'm not at all interested in texting or going out dancing and drinking.
Penny was intelligent. But when she first met the guys, she had been used to trading on her cute blonde looks to get by. To her credit, she did finally grow up.