Thank you for your kind response. I do enjoy trying to understand why certain story elements do or do not work for me, and I am happy you saw value in my thoughts. In light of your response, I want to restate that the way Clash was written, it did not feel like he was the first sentient robot. Having it given more thought, I think for me it is the confusion of how much Clash actually knows. While reading the story, it felt like the time between Clash proving himself and him getting locked in the box wasn't that long. The part about Clash having had a couple human assistants did not come across as a long time, more that he had difficulty finding an assistant for more then a couple of years. Due to this short time, I expected Clash to have limited knowledge (as in only in those years he was active).