I’ve seen a couple people point out that Dazzle isn’t really acting her age, and seems to act significantly younger than she is, and I agree! I would like to give a couple ideas on why, and spoiler alert, it’s mostly her relationship with Sun.
Dazzle is being taken care of by Sun, who is used to taking care of children 4-8ish in age range. He doesn’t have protocols to take care of a child older than that, and I think he might accidentally be stunting her mental growth because of that. He still cuts up Dazzle’s food into small pieces. He still dresses her regularly and locks her door at night. He coos when she mispronounces words and baby talks. She doesn’t have any significant chores and still takes naps. All of this behavior isn’t necessarily bad, but all together it doesn’t promote any sort of independence for Dazzle. Which makes sense on Sun’s part; He’s very much a helicopter parent and tends to shelter and spoil her, probably to make up for July 16th. He’s trying to keep her safe and happy in the only way he knows how to. But in the end, a daycare attendant and a parent are two VERY different roles. He’s unintentionally teaching her to act like a five year old when what she needs is to act like a nine year old. She needs to start doing basic chores, helping Sun out with laundry or cooking. She need to be dressing herself and cutting her own food. But these things can be unpleasant for both Dazzle, who is a kid and probably wouldn't be fond of doing work, and for Sun, who doesn’t want Dazzle to get hurt or leave him. Her speech and education is also lacking; she needs to be memorizing times tables, not struggling with basic addition. As someone who knows a child around her age, it is concerning to see how behind she is mentally. Nine year olds are able to read and write most words, spell words like submarine and concede. They should start understanding fractions and be able to make microwave ramen in their own. I worry that Sun might not be able to teach he those skills, especially educational ones, because he’s been shown to struggle similarly! He’s programmed with enough knowledge to teach children manners and their ABCs and 123s, 2 + 4 equals 6. But he seems to not know how to teach anything beyond the basics with any sort of accuracy. He gets division and multiplication wrong multiple times, and Monty has to step in to explain negative numbers to Dazzle. I don’t think this is a moral failing on Sun’s part, and seeking a proper education for her is a big step in the right direction. But there has to be change at home, too. He has to put his foot down on things sometimes. Either you pick waffles, or ice cream. Not both. Dazzle is so used to Sun letting her do whatever she wants that I fear it might make her upset if Sun tries anything. But it has to happen, because otherwise she’ll never be independent.
