I am very curious about this collective agreed people had back in much older overwatch days of "Junkrat cant read" or "Junkrat hasn't heard of basic stuff" because he has always proven to be quite frankly smarter than half of the cast so whats up with that.
Obviously its a watered down version of junkrat because "duh he's suchhh an idiot he screwed up the plan he's such a dummy" but thats not really it, he did a plan he thought of it himself, he's impulsive not stupid. Junkrat most defiently knows how to read given he literally makes bombs and traps himself, you see he has a board where he wrote the plan down (on the junkertown map) and he knows "xeno's paradox" (well i assume its a reference to zeno's paradox or he simple said the name wrong)
He knows chemistry, he followed Winston's periodical table joke and even laughed at it. I don't think if he was a dummy who doesn't know how to read he'd know the entire table of elements especially for someone who actively works with chemistry stuff to make bombs, hell even his old BP profesor skin resembles this part of junkrat, something the ow2 redesign also wanted to dwell on his more tinkering side.
Reading aside, they have access to TV, Roadhog's place has a TV and junkrat mentions channel 9 or wanting to watch football or whatever, so i don't think theyre all that asilated as many exagerate it to be. While i do think it's fair to say that growing up it was harder for him to have access to the "junker educational system" whatever that could be, it's clear junkrat has always had a knack for more scientific stuff and he has read books so he knows how to read and write. The only thing my poor guy is missing is understanding social clues.
Point is this babying of junkrat takes away a major important part of his character and honestly his most interesting! That last short story with him and JQ really seemed to lean more to "Rat is stupid and weak" which is why it felt so out of character for EVERYONE. As much as you want him to be a comic relief, that does not mean they need to loose their essence that distinguishes them from the rest.
