To Aru Kagaku no Railgun - Ch. 154 - Mutual Affection

[YamiryuuZero]

TBF one of my issues with Kamachi's writing is that characters can be hypercompetent mega geniuses that can figure out the solution to a problem less than a second or overly emotionally unstable idiots depending on whether the plot needs them too. This isn't limited to the science side either.

Hold on a second, I think you're misunderstanding something here.
They are geniuses capable of <calculating> the necessary factors to execute their powers (or in the case of Uiharu, her hacking skills), but emotional control isn't necessarily tied to IQ even in the real world.

They do say that the line between a genius and in idiot is thin, and that's how the ability users tend to operate - they're still largely just kids and tweens with super powers. It doesn't matter how much computational power they have in their brains, they're still hormonal teenagers that lack emotional control, with Mikoto being regarded as the only sane Level 5, yet she's prone to picking up fights and has quite the disregard for authority.

Many geniuses in the real world have taken very emotional and retarded actions, such as Van Gogh having been theorized to cut off his own ear because he couldn't get it right in his self portrait, Albert Einstein getting his hair messy and sticking his tongue out to paparazzi because he thought throwing a tantrum in front of the cameras would make the journalists go away, and we have all the musicians that ruined their careers and lives because they got involved with drugs despite knowing what they do to a person (some even claimed they couldn't write if they weren't high).

A character being a genius does not mean they should necessarily have control of their emotions. That is not how things operate in the real world, and when it comes to fiction, a story can be more interesting when characters act based on their emotions rather than logic. Point in case, Baba being a robotics and engineering genius letting his own ego make him believe he's above the most powerful ability users, only to panic and commit mistake after mistake whenever he realizes he miscalculated his opponent's human nature.

 

[Degy]

Hold on a second, I think you're misunderstanding something here.
They are geniuses capable of <calculating> the necessary factors to execute their powers (or in the case of Uiharu, her hacking skills), but emotional control isn't necessarily tied to IQ even in the real world.

They do say that the line between a genius and in idiot is thin, and that's how the ability users tend to operate - they're still largely just kids and tweens with super powers. It doesn't matter how much computational power they have in their brains, they're still hormonal teenagers that lack emotional control, with Mikoto being regarded as the only sane Level 5, yet she's prone to picking up fights and has quite the disregard for authority.

Many geniuses in the real world have taken very emotional and retarded actions, such as Van Gogh having been theorized to cut off his own ear because he couldn't get it right in his self portrait, Albert Einstein getting his hair messy and sticking his tongue out to paparazzi because he thought throwing a tantrum in front of the cameras would make the journalists go away, and we have all the musicians that ruined their careers and lives because they got involved with drugs despite knowing what they do to a person (some even claimed they couldn't write if they weren't high).

A character being a genius does not mean they should necessarily have control of their emotions. That is not how things operate in the real world, and when it comes to fiction, a story can be more interesting when characters act based on their emotions rather than logic. Point in case, Baba being a robotics and engineering genius letting his own ego make him believe he's above the most powerful ability users, only to panic and commit mistake after mistake whenever he realizes he miscalculated his opponent's human nature.

No it's different to what you're thinking. I have more of an issue with the narrative device I call "hypercompetence" displayed by characters when Kamachi needs them to solve a problem. I think I might have worded it badly. Pretty much any character can act like an expert on a range of topics if the plot wants them to. It's like if a character is fighting another character who is utilizing some sort of concept, that character, if Kamachi wants them to win, will through the course of the fight find what is quite often a highly specific and roundabout way to beat them, usually requiring fairly deep knowledge of the subject. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. It happens like every volume. This hypercompetence isn't displayed however if the character has to lose, and usually the best explanation the plot gives is that they were too flustered to think things through. It's like how in the story they try to push the idea that espers are the talented and (modern) magicians are the talentless despite both displaying hypercompetence in equal measure throughout the series.
Honestly it's more somthing that urks me slightly while reading and it's far from worst thing about Kamachi's writing. it's not something I hate. The worst thing about him IMO is his tendency and comfort with sexualizing children in his works, which I find disturbing. The guy has sexualized girls as young as ten.