9 Geniuses Who Aren’t That Smart, Actually
A wise person once said that a genius intellect is made not only of intelligence, but also of intelligence. Intelligence without intelligence is useless futility, and intelligence without intelligence is wasted potential. The greatest geniuses in history were not only well educated, but knew how to apply their intelligence in practical and beneficial ways.
While there’s no shortage of geniuses in gaming, not all of them strike that balance of intelligence and skill. Some of them can come up with amazing ideas but don’t know how to implement them, while others are very capable but have no idea what they are doing. Being a genius isn’t an exact science, it turns out.
9 The Think Tank – Fallout: New Vegas
Prior to the Great War universe of Fallout, Big MT was a Nevada-based research facility where a privately funded team researched the latest advances in science and technology for national defense purposes. The executives at the research center were all brilliant in their own right, each with specializations in areas like robotics and genetic sequencing. When the bombs started falling, they decided their spirits needed to be preserved, so they could continue their search.
Unfortunately, no one had the presence of mind to realize that turning into robot brains in jars was a really bad idea. Due to some quirk of their robotic bodies and programming, all of the executives began exhibiting erratic behavior, completely forgetting their humanity, while their experiences spiraled into the realm of the impractical, the strange and dangerous.
8 Miu Iruma – Danganronpa V3
As the high school student was awarded the title of Ultimate Inventor, Miu Iruma is undoubtedly a talented engineer. With the right tools and materials, she can do just about anything – several of her inventions have set students on the path to success in Danganronpa V3. However, all of Miu’s really good inventions have only been born out of coercion or random impulses, and she doesn’t care about any of them.
The only inventions Miu actually cares about fall into two broad categories: inventions that let you perform random daily tasks while you sleep, or inventions born out of a dirty joke, like her teleporter gun that can only teleport people’s underwear. If it has nothing to do with sleeping or people’s private parts, Miu can’t be bothered to do it.
seven President Shinra – Final Fantasy 7
President Shinra (who is apparently too rich for first names) considers himself a business genius. Indeed, there is some truth to that, as the Shinra Electric Power Company is the de facto ruler and supplier of all of Midgar, and a major world power in Final Fantasy 7. He was definitely smart enough to pull off the practical applications of Mako energy. , though he wasn’t smart enough to realize he was walking the planet until he died.
Shinra is very aware that Mako is a finite resource, but he still believes he could establish a “Neo Midgar” in the Promised Land of the Ancients, endlessly feeding it with his supposedly abundant Mako. Even if he could establish a city like that, the Mako would still wear out one day, leaving him the president of absolutely nothing. It’s unclear if he’s too blinded by greed to realize it, or if he’s just looking for short-term gratification, but his lack of foresight is what put him in Sephiroth’s crosshairs.
6 Crow’s Beak – Metroid Dread
A remarkable member of the Mawkin Tribe of the technologically advanced Chozo race, Raven Beak was both a cutting-edge physical specimen and a cunning strategist. As he valued power above all else, Raven Beak saw the practical application of Metroids and sought to use them to complement his personal war machine. That’s why he lured Samus to ZDR, so he could extract his Metroid hybrid DNA.
If Raven Beak had killed Samus at the start of Metroid Dread, his plan would probably have worked out well, but in his infinite arrogance he instead chose to let Samus regain her strength and awaken her dormant Metroid abilities. When she confronted him, armed with these abilities, her only real plan was to order him to kneel before him and be his tool. Of course, she didn’t do that and kicked his ass.
5 Dr. Light – Mega Man Series
As the creator of the first Robot Masters, Dr. Light’s philosophy is that humanity can live in harmony with robots. That’s why he treats most of his creations, especially Rock and Roll, like his children, rather than things. Unfortunately, he never found a way to make his robots hack-proof, which is why they keep falling into Dr. Wily’s hands.
It’s pretty annoying, but to make matters worse, when he created the first evolutionary robot, Mega Man X, Dr. Light didn’t leave his schematics lying around for someone else to find. This led humanity to create the reploids based on educated guesses about the physiology of X, which unsurprisingly led to many problems and vulnerabilities like the Sigma virus.
4 Bill – Pokemon Series
As the original creator of the Pokemon Storage System, Bill is arguably one of the smartest men in the entire Pokemon universe, one that certainly doesn’t mess up the academics. Not only did Bill actually create a means by which living creatures could be compressed into data and sent over long distances, but he invented an actual time machine that can send things back in time.
So why, then, hasn’t the Pokemon world mastered things like teleportation or digital consciousnesses? Well, because Bill only cares about Pokemon. The storage system is only for storing Pokemon and the time machine is only for trading Pokemon. This is probably why Bill tends to get stuck in realistic Pokemon costumes; the guy loves Pokemon a little too much for his own good.
3 Dr. Eggman – Sonic The Hedgehog Series
Dr. Ivo Robotnik, better known as Dr. Eggman, is a certified genius with a confirmed IQ over 300. His relentless pursuit of his personal brand of science has borne incredible fruit, including semi-autonomous humanoid robots, various weapon systems, and even the adaptation of ancient magic and primal forces. It’s a shame, then, that he’s so preoccupied with his endless feud with an oversized blue rodent.
Eggman has stated many times that his ultimate desire is to create a hyper-advanced city-state to rule over – which is why he keeps trying to take over the world, secure land and capital for such a thing. However, if Eggman were to patent a few of his more benign inventions, such as his various flying machines, he could probably make enough money to fund the creation of such a city many times over.
2 DJ Subatomic Supernova – No Straight Roads
A graduate in astrophysics, DJ Subatomic Supernova is one of the most erudite members of the upper echelon of No Straight Roads. To his credit, he played a major role in launching NSR’s satellite, but for what purpose is not explained. It doesn’t really matter anyway, because DJ doesn’t really care about NSR. The only thing he cares about is deep space.
DJ uses his know-how in astrophysics to regularly broadcast his EDM concerts in space in order to… do something. He expresses her as being an “avatar of Earth”, which presumably means that he wants potential aliens to hear his music and take it as a representation of Earth’s culture. The existence of aliens aside, the guy is far too full of himself to do anything practical with this degree.
1 The Institute – Fallout 4
Hidden deep beneath the Commonwealth in Fallout 4 is a clandestine organization dedicated to advancing scientific research above all else – the Institute. With its populace of genius scientists sequestered safely from the dangers of the wasteland, the Institute has made some truly marvelous progress, from food synthesizers to teleporters, not to mention its army of synths.
The Institute’s technology could revitalize the entire Commonwealth, if not the entire world, if made available. So… why isn’t he? Well, because the Institute is waiting for everyone to die before they start fixing everything. They could do it now and save a lot of people, they just don’t want to do it. Incidentally, we are not talking here about a single researcher from the Institute, but about the whole organization. You could throw a dart and hit a morally deficient researcher there.