I don't think IK can be a science prodigy. If he was that good at the science they wouldn't risk losing him in the field. He wouldn't go out as a front line agent but would be embedded in the clean up crews to find what the bad guys have been developing.
I'm trying to remember where in the show we learn that Illya went to the Sorbonne and Cambridge. Is it Her Master's Voice, which is where we hear he has a doctorate in Quantum Mechanics? I don't remember any other place where his educational background is mentioned aside from the "University of Georgia in Ukraine" bit. (And I still can't figure out if that means a correspondence course or if he was just asserting Ukrainian territorial rights from past conflicts since parts of Georgia belonged to Ukraine at times.)
My sense is that they are both highly intelligent. Illya's background is in the physical sciences and probably engineering (he seems to have a lot of practical knowledge with electronic and such that he wouldn't have acquired from theoretical physics). Napoleon's background is probably in the social sciences. Maybe psychology with a minor in literature since he seems very conversant with poetry too.
I don’t think I fell for Illya, when I was ten, because he was the smart one. He is intelligent, though. He couldn’t have a Ph.D. in Quantum Mechanics and speak the number of languages he speaks without being intelligent. And he seens to have a very broad base of general knowledge. I’d describe him as someone who, coming from the background he came from, considers himself fortunate to have the ability and opportunity to learn so he always takes advantage of it.
Napoleon clearly doesn’t have the science education or knowledge that Illya has, and I don’t know that he’s fluent in as many languages. That could indicate a lower IQ, or it could just indicate a lack of interest. He strikes me as more a “look at the big picture” than a “look at the nitty gritty details” kind of person. The details probably bore him.
And I’ll add that intelligence isn’t the only trait that often seems to be exaggerated in fanfic. For one, in the show, Illya didn’t seem nearly as … antisocial as he’s usually portrayed in fanfic. Nor as uninterested in women. And, while there were one or two joking references in the show about Napoleon’s clumsiness, that also seems exaggerated in fanfic. How long would he survive in the field if he were clumsy?
Possibly, although I don’t think either of them would play regularly with someone against whom he wasn’t reasonably well-matched. They’re both competitive, and It would be boring for either of them to play against someone who always (or even almost always) loses.
In the show I see no indication that Illya is dramatically smarter or better educated than Napoleon. He has specialized scientific knowledge, sure. Once in a while his specialized interests come into play.
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My sense is that they are both highly intelligent. Illya's background is in the physical sciences and probably engineering (he seems to have a lot of practical knowledge with electronic and such that he wouldn't have acquired from theoretical physics). Napoleon's background is probably in the social sciences. Maybe psychology with a minor in literature since he seems very conversant with poetry too.
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I jsut remember him trying to pretend to be a scientist in the Virtue Affair and really being bad at it.
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Napoleon clearly doesn’t have the science education or knowledge that Illya has, and I don’t know that he’s fluent in as many languages. That could indicate a lower IQ, or it could just indicate a lack of interest. He strikes me as more a “look at the big picture” than a “look at the nitty gritty details” kind of person. The details probably bore him.
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For one, in the show, Illya didn’t seem nearly as … antisocial as he’s usually portrayed in fanfic. Nor as uninterested in women.
And, while there were one or two joking references in the show about Napoleon’s clumsiness, that also seems exaggerated in fanfic. How long would he survive in the field if he were clumsy?
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