>>55110845Penny, Autistic child
>Genius ahead of her time>Turns out to be one of the most well-written characters>Making a hard decision to resolve a real dilemma>Manages to not hog the plotline or devolve into a mary sueRose, Genius ahead of his time
>Autistic child>Turns out to be written by an autistic child>Makes a poor decision to resolve a fake dilemma>Causes a weirdly poorly written plot detour where all the mary sue characters have a pissing contest in lieu of a real conflictThe worst part is how snippets of animation and concept production material, as well as other things in the game standing out as “obviously incomplete but good enough to put games on shelves in time for holiday buyers” suggest Rose and the Eternatus arc were going to have sensible writing and a sympathetic villain who could have possibly been more in the right than the protagonists, but production time, executive meddling, or both resulted in a rush job of a climax which was so weirdly nonsensical that, for once, it’s basically impossible to exaggerate for players who haven’t experienced it.
As it stands, the only caveats I can think of to suggest that Gamefreak intended what we got are 1) I have no idea if the Japanese writing tells the same story; and 2) the dumpster fire of a character we got winds up sounding a /lot/ like the kind of billionaire celebrity who insists for years that they alone are the answer to a real problem—Al Gore, Trump, Musk, etc.—who point fingers at an upcoming problem, sometimes real, sometimes not, sometimes legitimately believing they can fix it, sometimes just wanting public attention, but in any case making the problem worse by fucking up their credibility if they were in the right, or proceeding with their dangerously misguided plans if they weren’t.
(cont.)
