Rinoa, go to school!!

[Imperia]

This just popped into my head, but I wonder why Rinoa seems so uneducated in the game? How come she's uneducated? I know the games doesn't explain things very well, but I can't help but wonder why. Her ignorance is revolting to me.

[Polaris]

her father was General Carlway or smth! She has to be rude!

i don't like her position at the beginig, she's a spoiler! But at the end she's better!

[Takara]

Caraway's the name, I think.

I don't think she's actually uneducated. She is a General's daughter, after all. He probably hired a tutor for her or something.

But yeah, she is a spoiled brat.

[nik0tine]

i dont see why people think she is stupid... i never got that impression from her, or any of the other characters.

[TheAbominatrix]

As much as I dislike her, I think she's more horridly naive than she is stupid. She was probably sent to the best schools and all that (whether she ditched/ignored them or not is up in the air) but she seems to have no common sense and no street smarts what-so-ever, which fits in with her persona as the General's spoiled, self-centered daughter.

[Cloudane]

Hmm... must admit, although there was no real "proof" either way, I did get the impression she was a little lacking in the brain department. Maybe it's due to the fact that half the game she was being a little brat over her father / Timber / etc and most of the other half she was comatose...

[ShivaBlizzard8]

I agree more along the lines of what TheAbominatrix said; I don't think that Rinoa is unintelligent or uneducated at all. In fact, I think she was TOO book smart if that makes sense. See generally, people who have had a great deal of schooling and are really book smart lack a lot of common sense (i.e. Einstein needed his wife to tell him when to come in from the rain) and/or street smarts. I think Rinoa falls into this catagory somewhat; I'm not trying to compare her to Einstein by any means, but in comparison to the other characters, I feel that she had the most formal education but lacked the most real-world experience.

Before everyone shouts "She's dumb!" remember that Rinoa did come up with quite an ingenius plan to capture President Deling. It was researched and timed "by the book" and I'm sure it worked perfectlyt on paper. However, she was too caught up in the hypothetical to deal well with the situation in real life - her plan hit a snag she hadn't prepared for, and she was unable to deal with it.

Squall and Co., by contrast, are trained to think on their feet and have had plenty of oppertunities to experience how things work in real life with real people. Therefore, they have a lot of street smarts. However, they aren't particularly book smart - even Quistis, who is supposedly the brightest, never seems to have much of a plan. Come to think of it NONE of the SeeDs really seem to come up with their own plans ahead of time. Think about it - the attack on Sorceress Edea was devised by Caraway, and even for the final battle and time compression, Dr. Odine and (SPOILER)Laguna came up with the steps by which to defeat (SPOILER)Ultimecia.

In this case, I don't think Rinoa was stupid, but that her and her other party members were smart in different ways. Since the rest of the group thought more alike because they were trained in similar environments, Rinoa was often left out of the loop, and therefore seemed less intelligent.

[aeris2001x2]

i could not have said it better Shivablizzard, i totally agree

[Cloudane]

A very insightful view, and difficult to argue with.

[ShivaBlizzard8]

Thanks. I try to put those English-major analyzing skills to work now and again.