>>50374131Actually, that's yet more show, don't tell.
Cynthia is actually a very low-key and relaxed person. She doesn't parade around as champion in the way someone like Lance or Alder does, because that's not her thing. She just wants to do some archaeological research and see people face their own challenges from the sidelines. Don't confuse the dommy mommy persona coomers have given her as her actual personality. Cynthia's defining, off-spotlight character trait is actually that she's a massive fucking dork who likes reading.
Actually, she's very similar to Steven in that regard, who gave so few fucks about being Champion that he just left and let the 8th Gym Leader take over so he could go molest some rocks in a cave. Steven is unironically high-functioning autistic, though, so Cynthia's just a normal ass scholar and bookworm that happens to be super super fucking strong on the side.
Show don't tell is not a retarded rule, it's one built around many, many, many long years of people writing stories. Authors telling the reader things about characters that never come up tends to annoy readers across time, unless it's being done in a way that *gasp* shows something about the tone of the work or setting that isn't so directly being told.
