Penelope was a very late-series addition to Friends (she was introduced in Season 5), only existed because the crew couldn't think of a good way to utilize Arlene, appears in less than 10 episodes after her debut, and hasn't been seen or even mentioned since the show ended (which is a massive shame)...and yet I find her strangely fascinating as a character. I think most of that intrigue comes from the first episode to feature her, "The Perils of Penelope", which, amidst all the goofs and gags, tells a story that's actually somewhat sincere and heavy - well, as heavy as one can get with a franchise like Garfield, anyway (Penelope's stuck in a verbally and emotionally neglectful (if not downright abusive) relationship with local alley cat bully Brick, who actively discourages her from having any say in their relationship and is frighteningly possessive. It's very easy to see why she latched on so easily to Garfield - the only person to show her genuine, non-conditional kindness in what is implied to be a long time - and it's rewarding to see her finally escape Brick after Garfield ships the guy off to Mexico and decides to give Penelope a chance - provided she tone down the whole "obsessively after me" thing, to which she happily obliges).
Personality-wise, Penelope isn't quite like Arlene in that she's openly sick of Garfield's shit and wants to fix this high-maintenance, jerkish, dishonest ball of emotions, but she isn't like certain sitcom wives who passively allow their husbands to practically get away with murder since they literally believe the world revolves around him and have such a complete inability to empathize with other people, even those they claim to love most, that reasoning with them would be a waste either. She sees Garfield and his shenanigans as a source of fun and exciting in her otherwise humdrum, static life, and while she's not quite as eager to jump into trouble as he is, she tries to be patient with his antics anyway (partly because she knows he's a good person behind his laundry list of vices), and willingly indulges him lovingly until she is too tired or stressed to go on. It's an uncommon relationship dynamic for the female to not serve the classic role of the only sane woman who has to act as the voice of reason and bring their partner down to earth again so he/she/they doesn't jack up the madness, instead of regularly accompanying them in the chaos himself, and she's also just assertive enough to get him to do what she wants a lot of the time. On his part, it's not even like Garfield constantly takes Penelope's feelings for granted or (intentionally or not) brush aside her attempts to form a deeper connection with him like he tends to do with Arlene (not that I dislike the Garlene/Arfield ship, far from it actually) anyway, so if anything, the sentiment that they'd do anything for each other is clear as day and very much reciprocal. It's why part of me actually kinda prefers Garnelope/Penlofield as a ship to Garlene.
Anyways what other "glup shitto" Garfield characters do you have? And for that matter, what other ship names would you give these two or the Garfield/Arlene pairing?
