>>58161332
Of course.
>>58161344
Sapphire's illiteracy despite being a professor's daughter is one of those things that sort of get handwaved away. It's initially just a "lmao Tarzan can't read" joke, but later Sapphire being stupid ends up being central to both her character and the plot, so there actually a point to her being illiterate.

Otherwise though looking any deeper into it just leads to contradictions, for example trying to blame Prof Birch for neglecting to teach Sapphire to read. But the same way Ruby and Sapphire are opposites, Prof Birch is also meant to be the laid back comic relief dad who has a great relationship with his daughter, while Norman's the strict distant dad with a poor relationship to his son. Though desu the RS arc flip flops a bit and couldn't decide whether Sapphire was as neglected as Ruby when younger. Or whether Sapphire's mom even exists. A lot of her backstory just seems like an afterthought compared to Ruby's.

One of the reasons why Sapphire doesn't get explored as much as Ruby does in RS is because her half of the story sometimes ends up being the support to Ruby's more serious scenes. For example following the Ruby vs Norman fight (which was kino at least), Sapphire goes to Mauville and ends up in literal slapstick comedy routines while Wattson makes shitty puns for half an hour. The purpose of the Mauville bullshit was for the overall story to release tension from Ruby's serious fight with a bunch of jokes. But as a result Sapphire ends up in joke shenanigans without any real depth, sort of wasting time that could've been used to flesh her out more before the volume 19 RuSa drama. But there probably wasn't enough time.

Prior to volumes 19-22, the most angsty Sapphire gets is at Mt Chimney after Team Aqua gets away, and she has a generic "oh no I failed" tantrum. Which she gets over after 1 page anyway. Her despair would've been more compelling if the scene hinted at why the loss hurt her so personally due to her past.