#A robot who's new to the world isn't the exact same as a newborn baby

[softichill]

My two cents on the mephone age thing (some ii16 spoilers below)

I think mephone4 is a kid in the sense that he's still kind of learning about the world around him and gaining life experience as he goes. Along with this, Brian Koch at some point said that they have mephone make typos sometimes bc they see it as him still being young. So calling mephone not an adult is still a fairly accurate claim

HOWEVER. I don't think it's meant to be a one-to-one comparison. Being a robot made by a creator and being a child with a parent are not exactly the same, even if there is a sort of parent-child dynamic. Mephone is inexperienced, yes, but he was pre-programmed with a good handle on language, motor control, and an adult voice. We do see Cobs constantly referring to him as a kid during his monologue, but cmon, it's Cobs. He's told half-truths before and often tries to twist words against mephone. He could easily be trying to play it up to turn the final 2 against him.

I think the big thing that's causing a lot of confusion here is knowledge vs. life experience. Mephone certainly wasn't a toddler when he started II, even if he was only a year old chronologically. He had the KNOWLEDGE he was made with help him with successfully run challenges. However, he still has the LIFE EXPERIENCE of a 14-year-old. I.e. you can read about camping all you want before trying it for the first time, but when you actually go out camping you realize it's completely different to actually experience it yourself.

Idk I'm not good at these kinds of posts. In short, I don't see mephone4 as someone fitting for the title 'minor', but he's definitely young + immature and saying he's strictly an adult doesn't feel quite right either.