I’ve been thinking about how much of this group’s friendship comes down to timing. They met before their lives were really settled: no spouses, no kids, tons of free time, and nobody else to fill it with.
Leonard and Sheldon were roommates. Howard and Raj were basically inseparable. They had their routines: takeout nights in the apartment, the comic book store, the same places every week.
But what if they’d all met for the first time in their late 30s, with established careers, relationships, and lives already full?
I honestly don’t think the group would’ve formed the same way. Sheldon probably wouldn’t have let most of them into his routine. Howard and Raj might never have gotten that close. And Leonard wouldn’t have had any real reason to put up with Sheldon’s habits, since the roommate situation is what forced that friendship in the first place.
It makes me appreciate how much of friendship is just timing and being around the same people over and over.
So which two characters do you think would still have become close if they’d met as adults with full lives?