The thing about Snow is that clearly it was not the intention of the writers that he should be an idiot. They way red someone that comes off as passionate, determined, positive, inspiring. Except in this particular context, it backfires, quite cringe-inducingly. A perfect example of terrible writing ruining a character that could have worked. In general, the writing in FFXIII is a huge disappointment because there's so much potential in the concepts that it could have really been a better story in the proper hands.