#btw this isnt ab to be a thing just think of it as a parting gift <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[keekity]

hellspawn's first snow! (+ a declaration of eternal love)

[saetoru]

although i dont appreciate the way karma tried to befriend you, her having to quit tumblr because of you being this drama driven rly isnt the vibe and its an ungoing theme of yours whenever you feel threatened, just saying…

girl i don’t have the time or energy for you people. i didn’t drive anyone off the app bc if you look at my blog, there has been no post before yesterdays ask that indicated anything about her to send her any anons. and before i posted the ask (which was threatening and harassing me btw) she’d already closed her inbox from anons harassing her. wtv anons were harassing her are not due to me bc idk this girl and quite frankly, i don’t care about some girl i hardly know exists 💀✋🏽 you know what i do care about tho ?? not getting asks sent to me that are obviously her. and not having asks answered ab me that are also obviously her sending them to herself. that’s weirdo behavior and yall will blame the person dragged into things unnecessarily before actually holding the person who started it accountable. if i wanted to send a whole army of ppl to bug her i would’ve said something a long time ago about the multiple anon asks that she’s been sending but i simply blocked and moved along bc i didn’t want to spark anything—and contrary to what most of you think, i don’t actually enjoy dogpiling a bunch of anons at a specific person. but i am also not a silent taker of weird ass anons in my inbox so when i receive an ask like “oh ur gonna be in trouble if ur jealous ass doesn’t watch it” i’m gonna set my boundaries. it’s ridiculous. one thing about me is i at least say everything with my whole chest on my own page, i don’t sneak around on anon on multiple pages because i have some self respect and i encourage you to develop some too bc speaking on something you have not the full story too is mainly embarrassing on your part

[ko-odi]

I'm the guy who submitted the anon ask before (where u drew me a pic of Drake, thank u so much I will cherish it for the rest of my life!!!) and I'm in need of some Haunted headcanon inspo for a dnd game I'm trying to run soon!! Tell me some of ur headcanons, no matter how obscure, small, or seemingly insignificant

SRY THIS TOOK SO LONGGGG i. forgort BUT HERE R A FEW !!! :D some of these are my own and some of these are me parroting things ive heard from the haunted discord that i love (u should totally join the discord btw its fun i can give an inv to anyone not already there if anyone wants one!!)

-Drakes issues regarding tone and reading the room, such as 1) his default mode of speaking being thru sarcasm (no hes really not always trying to be rude, thats just how he communicates 😭), and 2) cracking jokes or quips at inappropriate times (like when graysons house was burning down and drake was all like “wow grayson sure does love his secret hatches lawl” and “he should really rethink his escape routes for next time haha!” like drake this is NOT THE TIME). Im not saying hes NOT sassy or rude (because he totally is <3) but like. its not ALWAYS ON PURPOSE OK LMAO he is autistic 🫶

-somewhat related to this is that i hc that he says cheesy lines like “erm… hes RIGHT behind me isnt he” and “um guys, you MIGHT wanna take a look at this…” all the time, and he does so bcs he repeats phrases hes read in books (or from movies/shows he saw before traveling to the future or whatever) a lot. either that or he just Says That Stuff which is almost funnier

-drakes sleeping schedule SUCKS dude and a big parta that is cuz enderman are nocturnal and his internal clock is all messed up. (the water up on his mountain canonically helps him sleep tho im pretty sure?)

-his bodys kinda awkward to move around in, and hes always tripping over his feet or bumping into stuff (hes just like me fr….)

-this ones odd, but the subspecies of enderman that drake is fused(??) with have rings all over their body that they use to light up dark areas (such as caves), and to communicate (blinking lights like fireflies, bright flashes to intimidate others, are dim when sick, etc). Theyre able to control this using their natural magic or whatever. HOWEVERRR drake is unable to control his himself! His rings are stuck at a set brightness, and he cant “turn them off”, leading him to always be expelling a small but steady amount of magic. This is part of why he runs out of mana faster than other magic users/enderman, and is part of why he tries not to waste his mana when possible.

-related to above, hes not ab magic doesnt last very long, but is very volatile and powerful in bursts. this is the OTHER reason he doesnt use magic willy nilly .. he has to learn how to harness it properly or else he might end up hurting people by accident (this might literally be canon but i thought id mention it anyway)

-in the haunting one, hes always stating things abt himself that we never actually get to see (like when he calls himself the builder, or good at parkour, or when armen said that he had a problem with breaking windows???? 😭) so i like to think that those are just collins memories slipping thru the cracks, and those memories dont rly belong to/are about drake at all. theres probably other shared fuzzy memories he has from collin too (like ruby shire perhaps) so thats super fun to play with!! I think this might actually be also canon but yk

-ARMEN iiii love this guy ok so i love to hc that, after hes revived/saved (IF you want to go that route!), he comes back not dead, but not quite alive either…. hes like sorta half and half to me lol. or maybe hes alive, but coming back to life has some side effects (like being cold all the time for example). Hes also suuuper sleepy all the time after hes saved LET HIM SNOOZE dude.

as much as it pains me, I also love the hc that armen comes back with his memory wiped (i think this is close to where the intended canon was supposed to head as well!). You can either go the “his memory is totally wiped, which effectively makes him a new person” route, the “his memory is wiped back to the fall into the lava, right before HB possessed him” route, or the “his memory gets wiped to before HB was involved in his life whatsoever” route. I like all 3 options aaaah idk what my favorite is!!! i’ll probably talk in depth abt these in a different post later bcs the fact that it adds more parallels between him and collin/drake makes me insane. either way he will sometimes have unexplainable deja-vu and things will feel familiar to him.

-armen is super cold all the time (always wearing sweaters and stuff) while drake is super warm all the time (always wearing thin clothes. but this is cuz hes always expelling some sorta magical energy involuntarily, so when he runs outta mana he gets cold as well) this isnt important or anything i just like it :3c

-i like to think that despite his affinity towards it before the fall, he tries to avoid combat & conflict when possible post-possession/revival. very “uhh im a lover not a fighter haha ..” (<- could kick your butt if he tried) vibes. or maybe he lost all combat ability post revival and totally sucks now !! either way man just wants to chill (he is traumatized)

-MIA shes lowkey scared of being on the water after her and her sisters shipwreck, the day she was captured by the empire. she probably slips back into familiarity when they take over that airship one time tho- maybe she gets an airship of her own in the future o:? haunted group sky pirate crew when 🤨???

-along with magic, she also GETS INTO ALCHEMY/CHEMISTRY !!! its like.. magic ??? without needing to provide any ACTUAL magical power yourself?? thats so fucking sick ok. She and drake do magicy-sciencey experiments together and they end up blowing stuff up a lot. despite what drake says, they BOTH enjoy the chaos.

-mia and armen would be BEST. FRIENDS. i think abt mia armen friendship literally all the time they would be so chaotic and thoughtful with each other i love mia armen friendship sm. maybe mia helps style his hair like hers since its grown out later :] They are so sibling core to me

-related to both yhings above, she shares her love of learning with armen. They learn tons of random stuff together :D chemistry archeology history magic biology etc. Mia loves learning anything she can get her hands on, and armen feels the need to learn everything he missed while he was gone.

(sidenote: if he comes back with completely wiped memory, him learning all different sorts of subjects is him trying to figure out what he enjoys, and who he is as a person. “building himself up from ground zero”. and mias glad to help ): <3)

-MIA AND GRAYSON ARE ALSO SIBLING CORE !!!!!!!!!! you are NOT immune to the “mia is everyones sister” propaganda …. im mind controlling you ….

-grayson my GUY dude ok. not rly a hc and more of an observation but i loooove how hes so serious and pessimistic all the time but hes also like…. friendly (yet distrusting) and silly (devouring and entire cake and being all like “:D” with a flower crown and slimey friend) like idk i just looav that contrast its yummy. cruel world forcing his joyous whimsey into hiding </3

-finds a sickening comfort in loneliness, while also being deeply afraid of it. no it is not healthy. i might have to describe this later, as ive not found the words to do so yet.!!! maybe others can add onto this if they wish :)))

-His wife was fucking awesome ok. She was totally anti-empire and wrote many pamphlets that hurt the emperor & his followers image under an anonymous name that spread around the public like wildfire. Did she initially start dating grayson to get more info on the empire without his knowledge? Was she herself high up in the empires chain of command, helping get grayson the job in the first place? Did grayson know and help his wife with her endeavors(im leaning towards yes but no would be fun)? idk but she was awesome and they committed treason together and were in love

-idk if im totally down with the idea, but graysons wife and/or kid ending up being ALIVE…. MANNN THAT COULD BE SO GOOD. SO DRAMA INDUCING. GRRRR i wanna play with this later

-if i start talking abt drake and grayson friendship i will not shut up about it so ill keep it BREIF ….. they are ambiguously romantic/ALMOST queerplatonic to me. they dont care abt labeling what they are, partially bcs they CANT. they r life partners who hold hands and find comfort in the others consistency and the stability their friendship brings. grayson calls drake his “darling husband” for shits and giggles and drake glares at him (while very obviously smiling). OK WE’RE DONE ..

-none of them are allocishet sorryyyy (<- not actually sorry at all) i can list out my queer hcs later if anyone wishes smile :))

-collin, luke, and lalea are still cooking in my head .. i dont have that many hcs abt them qwq i suggest looking to APPLE @apple-rose301 FOR THESE GUYS (she said i could @ her for this) and for any character hcs and analysis stuff tbh, their thoughts are basically canon to me /pos . would also love to hear EVERYONES THOUGHTS AND ANALYSES AND HCS EVER !!!! so if anyone sees this … u should totally list out ur own thoughts :)))) PLEASR PLEASEPLEA

i also have more thoughts on each character analysis wise, specifically the contrasts and parallels they have with each other and themselves, but that might be putttt into a different postttt

OH also sry for being more drake focused i loav drake he is my favorite guy ever ever .!! I HOPE THESE FEW LITTLE THOUGHTS ARE ALRIGHT THO TYSM FOR ASKINNGGGG (ALSO IM GLAD U LIKED THE DRAWING TYY) AND ALSO ID LOVE TO HEAR MORE ABT THIS DND CAMPAIGN HELLO ???

[merethicera]

I'm thinking about this again and I think I have a more definitive answer for why I think these mods are so cool so here's my Extremely Niche Essay That I Did Not Write To Avoid My Philosophy Homework Earlier

(under the cut as always bc i hate to make people scroll)

So to start from like, a basic point, obviously one of the primary draws of TES as an rpg series (and more specifically as an open world rpg series) is the ability to create a character and kind of craft your own narrative for that character, be it through gameplay experiences, using the world as a starting point for writing, etc. And people get like, really attached to these characters they make and the stories that they write surrounding them (although I don't think that really bears repeating either) and it manifests in like, yknow, art and fanfiction and all kinds of cool stuff. I think they're all equally fascinating mediums and I enjoy looking through all of them (I just like seeing people's ocs, man.) but there's something that just really compels me a lot about people modding their ocs directly into the game.

I think the primary factor is just, like, the meta aspect to it- you're placing the character you made for that specific world into said world in an interactable format- looping around from appreciating a game as a player to contributing something to that same game that other players can then appreciate. And since you're doing that, you end up with a situation where people can learn about your oc gradually through gameplay like they would any other character that comes with the vanilla game. There's just something nice about it, yknow? Like, I really enjoy that My Funny Little Video Game Guy can, in some way, interact with Your Funny Little Video Game Guy in the original context that both of them were created for.

It's not, like a 1:1 thing all the time, obviously- the ocs people create solely for themselves as player charas and the ocs that they put into npc and follower mods are most often very different types of characters, because the structure of the game requires them to be. You run into a lot of narrative, engine, immersion and player convenience issues that you otherwise wouldn't in a different format (ex. it's tough to have a character object morally to certain in-world things if they're core elements of the gameplay loop, ya obviously can't import your ldb into the game as a 1:1 because it breaks narrative stuff, the CK sucks, etc.) and you do have to work around them, but I don't know- whether they're people's long-time personal ocs or a character made specifically for the mod in question, I just always find the whole thing cool.

Skyrim also suffers from a lack of compelling characters and actual player choice, so there's an added bonus there as well- stuff like INPC, CoT and standalone characters tend to add quests and dialogue options with heavier consequences than those in the vanilla game, which allows a little more agency to the player. These range from small changes to actual vanilla quests (Auri reacts to joining the stormcloaks among other choices, a number of things can happen to Lucien if you decide to kill Paarthurnax, etc) to more self-contained choices (INPC quests and dialogue, the sleeping dragon in CoT, whatever you decide to do with Inigo) but both create stronger roleplaying opportunities.

This whole thing, in general, isn't exclusive to Skyrim, of course- people have been adding new characters into games for ages. But I think the stark contrast between the very bleak and impersonal attitude of skyrim and the new opportunities and characters provided by npcs mods makes it kind of standout in this case. It's nice.

Anyway, TLDR;

i have like. Thoughts about how cool i think npc and follower mods are from a creative/artistic standpoint but i Cannot figure out how to word that shit eloquently enough to write a post ab it for the life of me

[sirmix]

Explain to me the charlie slimecicle iceberg

this is gonna be a long ass post ihjfihf ty for the ask tho!!!

dap me up - something his dream smp character says alot

never been beaten by an ostrich - this clip

charlie slimecicle - a name people who enjoy his content call him (like niki nihachu or philza minecraft)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

slimecicle cinematic universe - heres my post ab it!!! (its a series of videos on his channel w a combo of his friends bizly condi and grizzly thats semi rp!)

minecraft in vr - was a series on his channel that's pretty self explanatory by the title

my response to the carson situation - the caption to his response to callmecarson being outed as a shit person (the actual post is on twitter (i will NOT get into the rest of it dugiuhf god thats too much especially rn)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

bang, right on da head - 22 min into this vid is context

Vengalor bros - his dnd character and his dnd characters brother from the hit dnd podcasts just role with it

thatoneperson712 - a character from his 100 hunters are hunting me video

so this is... videos - a series on his channel where he makes jokes ab games

chased by a racoon - this clip

alligator puppet thing in the picture - he bought an alligator puppet in the zoo lunch club video who was promptly murdered by Ted Nivison (rip u will be missed alligator puppet)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

inside the mind of a ... player - a series of videos where he makes jokes while playing a specific character (he did alot of super smash bros and overwatch)

giga pudding - he used to play this ad for giga pudding for bits and it used to get media shared all the time to him and a few other smplive members

palcove - his Minecraft cave he built with ted nivison in epic smp (rip)

the void - the only part of epic smp (rip) "lore" (there was a big hole by his house in epic smp (rip) that he "couldnt see" but Ted could)

parkour - he stated he enjoys parkour on the hit podcast chuckle sandwich

fireflies by owl city - ppl thinks he sounds like the guy who sing s the song fireflies and h actually even sang it once (this also happened w the og pokemon theme btw)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

im baby - he used to say this alot fjofihiughfrig

who is this guy lmao - who is this guy lmao (the first 5 secs of this vid)

a tweet ab furries - 0w0 (this clip where he sings a cover of living on a prayer)

big time rush - the big time rush theme song used to get media shred to him/other smplive members and was used for bits lots

whats goochin boo bear- THIS ISNT EVEN OLD/BARELY EVEN COUNTS AS CHARLIE SLIMECICLE LORE BUT I JUST LOVE THIS TWT INTERACTION SM I HAD TO INCLUDE IT IT MAKES ME LAUGH EVRY TIME I THINK AB IT

[twinvictim]

I wanna know why you think RE Revelations is the worst RE game? If you don’t mind

Oh sure! (Also btw if you do like this game its all good!! I just...really don't)

I suppose my biggest thing with rev 1 is that unlike all the other re games that people tend not to like (mostly 5 and 6) is that I don't feel like rev1 brings anything interesting to the table. I find the story kind of confusing and not all that engaging, I don't like any of the new chracters really, I don't like how Chris and jill really act, and I'm not a big fan of how it plays regarding weapons and inventory, I don't feel like there's a rewarding puzzel or combat element, and I really don't like the setting, or how its episodic in nature it is and makes you jump between chracters all the time. I also kind of dont like the claim that rev1 retuned the series to survival horror bc to me it just feels like re5/re6 but less fun to play. (I think rev 2 did a much better job all around even if i dont like how guns generally work in the rev games)

If it had just one or two hell even three of these elements than it would still be ok, but I feel personally that I was really disappointed by the game overall. Ppl kind of hype it up tbh. While re5 and re6 have most of these elements I feel like they do have one or two things or a few interesting concepts that make it sort of easier to trudge through. Re5 plays like a less fun re4 (which kinda sucks too but I like re4 alot bc its...just fun) and re6 would be a decent action game if it wasn't bogged down by the resident evil title and all the qtes. I like the new chracters and the settings in re6 and I like how fun it is to kill things.

Rev 1 doesnt havw any likable chracters for me at all. Chris and jill are...fine I guess but they dont havw much personality and thry dont grow any by the end of the story. All of the side chracters are either annoying or in the case of Parker, just...hes fine I guess but he's uninteresting. And that doesn't help the story when you're forced to play as a bunch of chracters you don't really care about doing things that don't make much sense and you're bounced around so much its hard to make a mental map of where you even are in the game at any given time. Plus...the swimming sections which should be banned in video games nobody thinks those are fun lol. Add to that the fact that the monsters are, fine I guess but not very fun or tense to kill.

So you have this contrived plot, boring chracters and no fun gameplay and all of that makes it very easy to see all the blatant and horrible sexism everywhere. Re4 isnt great ab that, re5 is worse and re6 is atrocious yes, but when there's other good things ab the game you at least wanna still play it sometimes. (Re6...was a bit of a chore bc of that tbh) but rev1 has some of worst accounts for sexism in the series. From Jessica just...existing (she is in fact the one of the worst re chracters to me) to Rachel and even poor jills design being basically just the battle suit from 5 (seriously why are her boobs out in a wetsuit) its just...terrible.

So...basically I feel like while other games are bad they at least have some elements i can enjoy, and most ppl will tell you they suck out the gate, rev 1 doesnt seem to have any of those elements for me, and alot of people seem to think this game is super good. I suppose i just had higher expectations for it and was let down when it's really a sort of mediocre game to most people. I still do think that overall, it is the worst game bc all of its parts are at best just passable and together they just make a boring experience of a game, and not one I would ever wanna replay.

[liliv1]

Rereading the novels, first time checking out what others wrote on the internet (even if very late…)

„Okay, NO. No, that’s not a cute thing, that’s kind of messed up. Egwene’s strong and intelligent and capable, and she has her own goals and purposes, and I’m kind of uncomfortable with the way she thinks it’s sweet or whatever that he’s basically disregarding that and seeing her as…well, as a damsel-in-distress the way he did in one of his dreams.“

Up till now I found your posts really interesting! This is one of the few times I disagree. I believe in this chapter for once you missed out on a lot of subtleties and thus misunderstood the relationship between Rand and Egwene at this point in the story.

Irony 1: She arrives all dirty and tells Rand haughitly he should wash his ears (she isnt trying to be funny btw).

Irony 2: She arrives noticing how Rand looks like a king. A few lines later she tells him: „The Dragon Reborn won’t impress them any more than he does me, with your fancy coats and your thrones and your fool scepter… Light the thing made her skin crawl!“ No need to explain the contradiction here. She is clearly „impressed“ (doesnt matter if in a positive or negative way), seeing him as a king, being afraid of the scepter, but that is the last thing she would ever admit, not even to herself. Especially this „The DR wont impress them anymore than he does me“.

Irony 3: Egwene is angry that Gawyn thinks he knows whats best for her only to turn around and try to manipulate Rand, she would try to help him, she says, „just not the way he thought“. Ehm, yeah… You seem to have read this part about Gawyn straight, without seeing the irony.

There are many sentences that characterize Egwene here, which is vital for the relationship between Rand and her. Ill quote some:

1.) She arrives dirty which makes Rand grin: „That grin was insufferable“

2.) „What—? What did you do?” She was very proud of her voice, a trifle unsteady maybe, but nothing like the wail she wanted to let out.

“Look in that mirror,” he laughed. Laughed!“

3.)„Burn you, Rand al’Thor!” The curse came more awkwardly than she could have wished“

4.) „She did not understand why asking should rasp so, yet it did.“

5.) Quoting you;) She doesnt want to ask Rand for a place to hide.

All it meant was asking, putting herself under his protection.

And she hates that idea. Not necessarily because she doesn’t trust him – her distrust for him is a bit different to his for her, in that it’s more that she’s worried about the madness, and who he is becoming – but also just because she hates the idea of hiding that way. (I disagree) She does ask though, in the end.

6.) She tries to manipulate him and he indirectly tells her that he saw through her:

Her lips compressed indignantly. Bad enough that he knew, but throwing it in her face was just rude.“

One cannot read this as „yeah, its rude!“ and shrug it off. All these lines show us one of Egwenes main character traits.

The not so subtly presented fact in (not only) this chapter is that Egwene is inferior to Rand, and she cant deal with that. She tries to tell him to wash himself, not realizing the dirt on her own face. Him grinning about it she describes as „insufferable“. While she is afraid and proud of her steady voice in spite of her fear, Rand is laughing. She tries to manipulate him and is angry at him when it doesnt work because he sees through her. She doesnt understand why asking Rand something „rasps so“? The reader understands. Its a form of jealousy. She is a prideful character and cant stand someone else „standing above“ her, he hurts her in her pride. Twice she asks for his help in this chapter, but with much reluctance, when she doesnt have any other choice. There is not even any analysis needed, just the fact that Egwene says it „rasps her“ to ask him for help would already be enough to see what goes on in her head. We read:

„Egwene more than suspected why (the sea folk) were here, but she was not about to tell Rand; for once let him meet somebody without expecting them to bow down.“

She knows it, she knows about their prophecies, the sea folk told Elayne and Elayne her, but she still doesnt tell him. This is pure jealousy. There is nothing noble about holding this back, she doesnt keep it secret because she wants to help him here, not worry about mental health. An „intelligent and capable“ character?

Did you notice that in this very same chapter we learn that Egwene hates Berelain? In this chapter she admits that she barely spoke to her, but Berelain and the Wise Ones are best buddies, so… She of course tries to figure out what is going on between Berelain and the Wise Ones - why does she have to know?

Later in the chapter she asks Rand how he is Travelling and expects he will laugh at her. Because thats how she sees him, as someone who is looking down on her, which she cant stand. Its really telling that Rand is just telling her how he does it, asking if his explanation „helps“.

I believe the most important lines are these though:

When Rand and Egwene talk about Galina, Egwene says she must be Red. Rand:

„Because she doesn’t like me?” He was looking at her now, and she almost wished he was not. “Because she’s afraid of me?” He was not grimacing or glaring, or even staring particularly hard, yet his eyes seemed to know things she did not. She HATED that.“

Ofc its her inferiority-complex at work again. But the thing Rand (with more LTT-personality again) knows here has obviously nothing to do with the red ajah. Basically everyone is afraid of him and basically everyone is glad when he‘s far away. What he talks about here is Egwene. That he looks at her makes her uncomfortable. After all, in a broader sense, Egwene „doesnt like him“, obviously not on a personal level - on this level, they are worried about each other - but she dislikes him for being the DR. She cant cope with that. He knows that, while she doesnt admit it to herself.

This is a chapter that is all about Egwene‘s jealousy, her pride and her often incoherent ways to work out the fact that she is less than she wants to be. And its once again stressing how the persona of the DR weakens Rand‘s personality. As the bubble of evil in the Stone showed: being seen as the DR makes the „Rand-personality“ weaker or „step back“. Egwene sees more DR than Rand, and she dislikes him for it. And thus the „LTT->Rand-personality“ looks at her when he asks if „she“ is afraid and dislikes him. If you pay attention, we notice that after these two questions, Rand changes personality again (him being sometimes more LTT sometimes less happens frequently since the beginning of the novel TFOH). The change is noticed by Egwene, but she cannot interpret it. I think you missed all that when you wrote that Rand and Egwene are childhood-friends that meet again and if they simply talked more, everything would work itself out. Its not that easy. Rand cant stop being the DR and Egwene cant stop being prideful. They just arent „compatible“ anymore.

Egwene is a deeply flawed character who is wrong about the things she does more often than she is right. Sadly, at the same time she is self-righteous and much she does is for her own pride, not for the good of the world.

You say she is „strong, intelligent and capable“, and I disagree with all three of them. But it is certainly how Egwene wants to be seen - which leads to her behaviour in this chapter. Someone on the internet wrote that Mesaana is the perfect Forsaken Egwene must fight, and I agree.

Next time: Egwene uses the Power to throw three sea-folk women into the river for „revenge“, exposing herself doing this….

Wheel of Time liveblogging: Lord of Chaos ch 27

Proverbial pigtails are pulled, relationships are strained, games are played, and plans are afoot.

Chapter 27: Gifts

Weiterlesen

[realtalk-princeton]

Weird question that popped into my head - I've noticed a lot of contributors saying stuff like "because it's princeton and it's hard you shouldn't beat yourself up" (generally) in response to feelings over getting a B, self-esteem, etc. but does anyone know anyone with experience at another school? I guess what I'm asking is are we all collectively assuming things are hard bc us news rankings or are things actually harder here than at other colleges? Do we send someone to yale to find out lol

Response from Aspen:

Can’t compare to other private schools but!!... the two close friends I had at (a not good public) high school (where one of them literally almost failed out btw) have damn close to 4.0s at my local state university studying humanities and sure they study and stuff, but they do a lot more partying. I have friends at state schools who take hard ass courses of study and get struggle bus grades, but also some that choose waaayyy easier majors and have 4.0s without herculean effort. I’ve taken classes at other public universities since starting at Princeton as well, and in my experience they’re a lot more relaxed with an almost non-existent honor system, no restrictions on tutoring, etc. Take that as you will.

I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that setting aside the BSE and AB debate, there isnt a way to “cruise” through princeton. Any path you take requires similar levels of work and effort, thesis, independent work, etc. There’s also a huge disparity in college preparedness amongst students here that doesn't level out for a couple years.

As a sidenote: I have As in college credit from my state U for classes I had to retake here (thx Princeton’s credit transfer system!!) and got Ds in. Here in intro calc, everyone already took it in high school for the most part, so the testing doesn’t check that you can perform intergration by parts - because everyone would pass. So they make it much more difficult so there’s some semblance of a curve, which is cool, but it means that just knowing how to do the stuff doesn’t matter if you can’t apply in in 500 different situations. 

So like sure Princeton isn't the end all be all of hard shit out there and no one’s saying it is, but I've been told by profs/TAs/otherwise non-students that it is more difficult. 

Response from Clover:

Ah sniped! This is very direct anecdotal evidence above ^ my answer sort of went in a different direction of other possible reasons people might say stuff like this all the time—

Not weird at all— it’s popped into my head, too! I think that people say this for a number of reasons. Some people say it just to say it— like you said, it’s sort of a common phrase to use, associated with our culture here no matters its origins. Some people believe this by drawing conclusions from anecdotal/empirical facts, such as acceptance rate (it’s low, therefore this school is hard to get into, therefore you’re a good student to get in, therefore etc.), roughly comparing to friends experience at other schools (“my friend at another school says they have way less work/easier tests”, etc.), and comparing to transfer credit classes (generally heralded as easier to pass). Some people believe this is true because of things like rankings, whether it’s the college ranking thing or just the unofficial “hierarchy” of Ivy league schools that you quickly get the gist of after 2 seconds on the ivy league memes page lol. Another reason people say this maybe can be that, regardless of whether they believe Princeton is truly harder, the world sort of preceives it that way. So even if you think stuff like rankings is bullshit and Princeton isn’t that hard, you can’t deny that “Princeton” comes with the benefit of being a prestigious schools and therefore a “Princeton B > other B” (or something along those lines).