wisteria-lodge
I enjoy writing elaborate metas & headcanons
I talk about writing, history, language, literature, fandom, Shakespeare & the SHC system (but not HP.) Lion Badger. Asks open.
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had to be there i guess
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this was a great read. “Laziness Does Not Exist” by Devon Price
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Peter Cushing as Van Helsing | Fashion
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bird primary (in process of building system) + badger secondary
Hi! It’s been a while since I first took the shc quiz, and in retaking it recently I’ve had an unfortunate bit of identity crisis </3 Originally, I was Double Snake but now I’m sincerely doubting my primary. I was given Lion by the quiz, but I don’t think I’m full Lion as I don’t exactly have a “cause,” I’m just passionate about what I want (and what I want tends to be very self-focused and more selfish than I’d think of when I think Lion).
Well, you very well might be a Glory Hound Lion. :) It’s also possible that you’re sort of between causes - or morally bored - or a Fay Lion with a non-traditional definition of “good” and “bad.” Let’s see what we’ve got.
But I don’t want to influence your judgement too much, so I’ll get into just talking about myself :)
I’ve always been a very quiet person, and when I was younger I know it was because I had a fear of authority figures and disappointing them, whether it was my parents, a teacher, a coach, or anyone else. I still remember the one time I got told off in kindergarten for crouching in the door to the hallway to look at a caterpillar. Vividly.
Fear of authority figures can definitely be a human thing, but it does hit external primaries (Badger and Bird) the hardest.
Now, I’m still a quiet person though I think that’s mostly the social anxiety. I’d like to think I can hold a conversation if someone else starts it, but I’m very bad at initiating them unless I have a specific reason to. I can’t just go up to someone and start small talk, I’d die inside.
There might be a little Burning going on with your secondary. This is a very hopeless-sounding way of conceptualizing a pretty normal, neutral statement. “I initiate conversations when I have something I want to talk about.” Yeah! That’s how it works. “Nice weather we’re having” is not a start to a conversation, it is a phrase that means “I recognize you as a member of my social group and we are not enemies.”
I’m at the point in my life where I’ve just started college, so the biggest decision in my life right now is choosing a major. I don’t know what I want to do after, only that I want it to be fulfilling. I don’t know if I could handle something that felt like a drag. However, my idea of ‘fulfilling’ has a lot to it. I want a job where it feels like I’m doing something that’s greater than myself
Okay, definitely getting some Idealist primary (Bird or Lion) here.
or something that won’t cause me to remain stagnant. I want to be able to grow in my job in some way and consistently gain new experiences—if it’s boring or too routine, I’ll hate myself for continuing in it.
I’m thinking you might have an improvisational secondary. Maybe Snake - Snake especially loves new people, new experiences.
For example, for a few months last year my only criteria was that I wanted to be able to travel a lot or live in a new place.
That’s honestly a really great place to start looking. A lot of people absolutely do not want jobs that require a lot of travel.
I’d also like to do something I want to do, but logically I know that’s not sustainable. Since I was seven or eight, I’ve wanted to be an author and that dream hasn’t really faded but realistically, I am not going to do that. The most I’d do would be minor in creative writing so I could have something creatively fulfilling as well as mentally fulfilling to occupy my time.
Every single author. Every single one of them. Had a day job of some kind before they were able to make it their full-time job. (Unless they were independently wealthy.) It’s common for even *successful* writers to have another thing they do, because I’ve been there, and putting pressure on your art to be the only thing that sustains you is pretty intense and can lead to burn out.
So when I hear “I want to be an author but that’s not LOGICAL, that’s not REALISTIC,” number one thing I hear is Bird primary. “I want this, but my system says no, and so that’s what I’m going with.”
And I’m… lightly suggesting… that it’s possible your system may be a little rigid, a little black and white. Maybe it could be cool to be a flight attendant, or pharmaceutical rep, or event coordinator and write a book on the side.
The real reason I’m torn though is because I also put a lot of emphasis on what other people want me to do.
This is a person thing, but it hits External Primaries hardest. I’m starting to like Bird for you.
My mom wants me to go into computer science because she wants me to get a good, well-paying job out of college and has faith that I’ll be good at it. I’ve taken my first computer science class this year, and while she’s right that I am good at it at this level, I’m not sure if I will continue to be. I’ve been enjoying the challenge of a new subject so far, but I don’t know if this is what I want to tie myself to for the rest of my life. I do think I would be willing to, though. Like I said, I did enjoy the challenge.
You’re sounding a little black-and-white again. You do not have to “tie yourself” to computer science for your whole life if you major in it in college. You will almost certainly not have the same job your whole life. I’m not sure that’s even possible anymore. There is a high level of probability that at some point you will do a job that does not currently exist, just because that’s the way the world works.
If you like computer science now, great. If you fall out of love with it - maybe it gets predictable and boring - also fine. You’ll have experience, and be able to move sideways to something that suits the person you are in five years a little better.
But I also have put an unreasonable amount of weight on what my English teacher from last year said to me when she told me I was a good writer and wanted to see me go into the arts in some way. And I kind of want that too but again, I also want a job that will make me money. I am not going to spend 4 years at a college just to get an English degree or something like that. So essentially, I still don’t know what I want to do. I’m working on it, but I want it to be my own decision at the end of the day.
This sounds like a Bird primary decision making process to me. “My mom says x, my English teacher says y, the song “What Do You Do With a B.A. in English” from Avenue Q says z. I am trying to synthesize all of these into a workable model of the world.” (And I’m running into a few problems, because I want one option to be Objectively Correct, and another Objectively Incorrect.)
You want a job that’s creatively/emotionally fulfilling, allows for a lot of travel (and upward mobility within an organization?) and makes a lot of money right out of college. That’s a slightly tall order. But, you’re at college, and one of the functions of college is to sort yourself out, figure out who you are when you’re not part of your school/family/community. So if you are a Bird, and it sounds like you’re at a liberal arts school, you’re at the right place to try out a lot of things. And remember, you can put individual relevant *classes* that you’ve taken on your resume as well, not just your major.
What I do know is that the most emotionally and mentally fulfilling thing I’ve ever done was stage manage in high school—I was head stage manager my senior year, and I had to somewhat build the position from the ground up since, as a result of COVID, there was no one left who’d stage managed in person. The amount of pride I felt at seeing the fall show was unmatched, and it did help that my director read out a series of acknowledgments that included me at the end of the final show :) That moment on stage after the bows is what comes to mind first when I’m asked to think of my happiest memory, and I think it’s only a little bit due to recency bias.
So you like being part of, and ORGANIZING a team. That’s very relevant information. (Badger secondary? Bird secondary? Your ask has been very primary focused so far.)
I am not, by the way, even considering becoming a theater major. That sounds like a recipe for disaster equal to an English major.
Okay, hypothetically. Thought experiment. (I’m absolutely not saying you do this.) But hypothetically, you major in theater. You participate in/stage manage 6-8 shows during your college career. Put that on your resume. If I’m a hiring manager, what does that tell me? That you’re organized and detail orientated. You work well with other people, are good at managing a team, have a strong work ethic. You probably are decently familiar with fundraising/advertising/permit wrangling. You’re a good abstract/outside the box thinker. You’re good at putting on presentations. Probably a good public speaker. Work well under pressure. Those are all pretty good, and honestly very flexible job skills.
A surprising amount of the people I know in politics, business, non-profits, start-ups and general entrepreneur stuff actually have some kind of performing-arts background. My point is not that you should major in theater, or even minor in theater, my point is this is black-and-white thinking again. Once you leave school it’s not going to be ‘plug in A, B comes out.’ In every industry I’ve been in, or been adjacent to, it’s much more fluid than that. There’s also a lot more learning on the job than I expected there would be. You’re also allowed to have side gigs, and hobbies as an adult.
(it’s possible extremely specialized might work slightly differently. But the dentists and optometrists I know also come from like, idk. Dentist/optometrist *families?*)
The most difficult moments in my life, I’ve realized, have been when I’ve felt unfulfilled. I have to be stimulated enough to be challenged or I will quickly grow unmotivated, lethargic, and genuinely depressed. Stimulation for me can come in the forms of relationships, school work, extracurriculars, or creative inspiration. As long as one of those things is interesting to me and taking up enough of my time, I find that my mental state is significantly better. This past semester, for example, I did at a community college so I could transfer to my current one in the spring, and the classes were so painfully easy that I found myself napping in almost all of my free time and doing less than nothing except when I had to. I also withdrew from my friends because at that point, talking to them was too much effort. If that seems like a contradiction, it is.
It sounds like you might actually have just been depressed. It also sounds very possible that you’re some flavor of neurodivergent, and under-stimulation can absolutely be the kiss of death if that’s the case. As Sherlock Holmes puts it, “I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely.”
Talking to [my friends] would likely have helped, but I couldn’t be bothered. Being very alone, very bored, and incredibly under stimulated have led to some of my worst mental health periods—and I use this as an example because it feels very telling and also because I don’t want to go too terribly dark, not because it’s necessarily the worst I’ve ever felt, if that makes sense. Losing close friends also affects me poorly.
I don’t have much data about how you actually solve problems, so I’m not sure about your secondary. There are a lot of mentions of friends, being part of a group, and not liking when that isn’t the case? But you could just be a social version of any of the primaries.
I don’t make friends easily, so I only have two very memorable losses. The first explained the situation to me afterwards and apologized, and it very much wasn’t her fault. But for whatever reason, I still can’t get all the way over it. It was a very online thing, so I remember what I saw her and the people she left me for say. We used to be about as close to best friends as you could get in two years or so, but we don’t really talk now at all. We’re cordial, but the last time we spoke was also in November, which as of writing this was around three months ago.
Interesting. You had a falling out with a friend, and she apologized for the situation and explained why she behaved badly? Now, it’s interesting that you want the fact that there’s a sensible explanation to wipe out all the emotion associated with the friend break up (or think that it should wipe out the emotion associated with the friend break up…) That way of seeing the world - emotions are unreliable, I want to be able to logic myself into feeling however I want to feel… that’s extremely Bird primary.
The second one also really messed me up, and I’m still bitter and conflicted about it. I know there should be no timeline on moving on, but six months to still be periodically obsessing over it seems excessive to me personally.
That one was a bit more my fault, but it certainly wasn’t entirely and every so often I get irrationally angry that this friend didn’t give me the time to think and resolve everything properly. I don’t know exactly where we stand since it was kind of a mutual breaking off of the friendship, but it wasn’t really as clean as that and I’d thought we’d eventually talk about it again, but we haven’t. I’m not the one who made the final call, so I’m not going to reach out again first either.
This is also very Bird primary to me. It’s not so much that the friendship ended that bothered you, it’s that you haven’t been able to make sense of why it ended, and you low-key resent this friend not giving you a logical, cohesive explanation.
I also ended up asking the first friend after a few weeks whether or not it had been at all my fault when they’d broken off the friendship just to reassure myself that the feelings brought up by the second friend (i.e. I was a toxic and terrible friend) weren’t true. I knew it hadn’t been, and she told me again that it hadn’t been. But it had felt like a pattern, so I had to check.
Checking in with an outside source to confirm your idea of yourself actually seems like a very Badger secondary move.
Anyway.
I think most of all I want to be loved and appreciated for who I am. But not for what I do.
Yeah, that’s the dream. To be loved because you’re a person, and not because you’re a tool/trophy/symbol.
I want to be loved by those I love and admired by my peers, but not for being able to appear more competent than I am, if that makes sense. I do, however, want to be the best in whatever I do, but being listed or seen as among the best will work in a pinch.
I see a little of what made the quiz give you Lion. I don’t think you are, but this fantasy sounds very young Lion. I want to be seen as the best, but the best at what… is less important. There’s also a recurring theme of an intense need for external validation - from your mom, your teachers, your director, even in your fantasy here, it’s important that you’re listed as “best” as some kind of external list. I suspect this might be a young Bird thing, but it’s a thing to keep an eye on, because that’s a dangerous sort of drug.
That seems contradictory to my desire not to be put on a pedestal, but that’s different in my mind. I don’t want to be seen as unreachable. And those I love seeing me for what I do before who I am hurts just a bit.
I think I’m liking Badger secondary for you, if only because a big part of this fantasy is the desire to be *relatable*
Finally, because I fear this is getting too long, family dynamics. I grew up Christian and am not anymore, which probably says a lot already.
… I mean, I’d love if you went into why. Intense relationship with religion is often a marker of Bird primary, but there are lots of reason to step away from religion, and they all say a lot about you.
My mom and dad both have high expectations of me—which you might have already been able to gather—but they absolutely love me. I suspect my dad wants me to do what will make me happy first and foremost, but I think my mom, though she wants the same, believes that success will bring me happiness. She’s not entirely wrong, in fairness.
I also have a younger sister!! If I am a Snake primary, she is the one person right now who I’d call my inner circle. She’s not always the best person and I’ve sided against her when it’s come to some of her choices, but I know she’s trying and I truly don’t think there’s anything she could do to make me stop loving her. That’s not exactly a rousing endorsement I know, but deep down she really is the sweetest and loveliest person I know (I suspect Badger primary for her btw). I really am so lucky to have her as my sister and I know she feels the same, and for that reason I’m always slightly worried she’ll be bitter if she’s ever compared to me, and I don’t want that for her at all.
If there’s a need for glory, it’s coming from your primary and not your secondary. I don’t know 100% about your secondary, but with the evidence I have I’m going to say that Badger is most likely. You want approval, but you don’t want the spotlight.
Anyway! Thank you so much for reading through all of this if/when you do, I hope it wasn’t too much to work with but was enough to glean an understanding of Me. I look forward to seeing what you have to say about it :)
I really, really enjoyed reading and going through this.
#submission#shc#sortinghatchats#sortme#wisteria sorts#bird badger#bird primary#badger secondary#black and white bird
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Invention of bread is weird bc it’s like some Neolithic ppl were like “hey you know that tall grass thing that’s sorta edible but not really how about we take it and grind it into a very very fine powder which is extra backbreaking right now bc the wheel won’t be invented for awhile and then we mix it with water and heat it up and you know what let’s also toss some mold in there just to see what happens”
#there is a very good case to be made#that beer is responsible for civilization#food history#history stuff
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"Don't confuse how I communicate with what I am saying, nonny."
Really good point from @sevilemar. A Snake secondary's message doesn't change (because the message comes from the primary). Only the method of delivery does. And if you've decided that a very direct, straightforward expression is the correct vibe for *this specific person,* then great. But that's different from being a Lion who wants to only be direct and straightforward, and if they end up alienating/confusing someone, them's the breaks.
Hello, I've been reading through your sortings and thinking, y'know... snake secondaries sound really impractical? I mean, if they change so rapidly. Wouldn't the practical thing to do be to at least *look* consistent and straightforward and honest, since those traits are at least nominally prioritized and praised/valued (and then watch people squirm because they don't *want* you to be like that because they can't manipulate you but they can't say that because everyone is supposed to strife towards being honest and direct and value that in other people). I guess what I mean is, Snake secondaries are supposed to be pragmatic and practical so why do they do something that is likely to get them mistrust?
Snake secondaries aren't more pragmatic or practical than any other secondary. Unless you're very Burnt, everyone thinks their own secondary is a very pragmatic and practical way of doing things, and very likely thinks that one (if not all...) of the other secondaries is very silly for doing it how they do it.
(it's possible you're thinking of Snake primaries, who absolutely do have a reputation for being grounded. Their focus is very narrow compared to the others, so their sense of self-preservation is generally pretty high. It's weighted more.)
But to answer your other question, which is basically how do snake secondaries *work* if they don't look straightforward and honest... well... they generally don't *want* to come off that way. A Snake secondary wants to look clever, sparkling, lucky, like they hold all the cards, never miss a trick, and can pull solutions out of the air. Snake secondaries are people like Captain Kirk, Jack Sparrow, Ferris Bueller, Lyra Belacqua, Lucy Grey Baird, Percy Jackson. They would feel constrained by being always one way - always consistent, always straightforward, always honest.
It's also worth noting that Snake secondaries will often have have specific faces they wear for specific people, so while I guess it might be jarring to see a Snake secondary act very differently around someone else... it's not like they're a different person every time you meet them. It's also true that when Snakes trust you they often stop playing, just exist around you in Neutral, and there's an honesty and consistency in that - a very earned one. I generally feel very flattered and very safe, whenever they trust me like that.
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Can I ask what the problem is with classifying Pluto as the ninth planet?
Because it’s not. When the scientific community makes an informed decision about the classification of celestial bodies based on new information, you don’t just get to shove your fingers in your ears and ignore it because you don’t like it.
#pluto#science stuff#not to be that guy#but it always bugged me that pluto was classified as a planet#it didn't fit the definition!#it was too different#was pleased when it was#un-planeted
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Hello, I've been reading through your sortings and thinking, y'know... snake secondaries sound really impractical? I mean, if they change so rapidly. Wouldn't the practical thing to do be to at least *look* consistent and straightforward and honest, since those traits are at least nominally prioritized and praised/valued (and then watch people squirm because they don't *want* you to be like that because they can't manipulate you but they can't say that because everyone is supposed to strife towards being honest and direct and value that in other people). I guess what I mean is, Snake secondaries are supposed to be pragmatic and practical so why do they do something that is likely to get them mistrust?
Snake secondaries aren't more pragmatic or practical than any other secondary. Unless you're very Burnt, everyone thinks their own secondary is a very pragmatic and practical way of doing things, and very likely thinks that one (if not all...) of the other secondaries is very silly for doing it how they do it.
(it's possible you're thinking of Snake primaries, who absolutely do have a reputation for being grounded. Their focus is very narrow compared to the others, so their sense of self-preservation is generally pretty high. It's weighted more.)
But to answer your other question, which is basically how do snake secondaries *work* if they don't look straightforward and honest... well... they generally don't *want* to come off that way. A Snake secondary wants to look clever, sparkling, lucky, like they hold all the cards, never miss a trick, and can pull solutions out of the air. Snake secondaries are people like Captain Kirk, Jack Sparrow, Ferris Bueller, Lyra Belacqua, Lucy Grey Baird, Percy Jackson. They would feel constrained by being always one way - always consistent, always straightforward, always honest.
It's also worth noting that Snake secondaries will often have have specific faces they wear for specific people, so while I guess it might be jarring to see a Snake secondary act very differently around someone else... it's not like they're a different person every time you meet them. It's also true that when Snakes trust you they often stop playing, just exist around you in Neutral, and there's an honesty and consistency in that - a very earned one. I generally feel very flattered and very safe, whenever they trust me like that.
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Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance, Weddell Sea, March 2022.
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Ancient egyptians really had something with the whole Atum creating the world via masturbation thing. I enjoy the idea that the act of creation was pleasurable. There is a sense of both divine intimacy and divine loneliness.
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Heyo it’s back to school time and here’s a research tip from your friendly neighborhood academic librarian.When searching for any topic on the internet just type in the word ‘libguide’ after your topic and tada like magic there will be several beautifully curated lists of books, journals, articles, or other resources dealing with your subject. Librarians create these guides to help with folks’ informational needs, so please go find one and make a librarian happy today!!
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(it counts because even though old french is of course derived from latin, the medieval latin "scalare" and the old french "escale" were around at the same time, and did mean different things)
in an interesting case of linguistic convergent evolution, the english words scale, scale, and scale are all false cognates of each other
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Sailors Superstition
I have found a few more
A sick man does not die at low tide
A superstition that persisted on Cape Cod and other regions of New England was that a sick man does not die at low tide. Therefore, the surgeons always kept an eye on the tides, because if their patient managed to survive at the onset of the tide, then he might make it further, because at low tide he would not die.
Hex Marks
These geometric patterns were painted or carved on guns to prevent witches hired by the enemy from bewitching them.
Just no two-tone eyes
It could well be that a pressed man had to face a somewhat strange question during the health check. Namely, look me in the eyes - this is not a romantic attempt by a surgeon to get closer to him, but to check whether he has two different coloured eyes. Because that brought the greatest misfortune on board and the man luck, because he had to leave the boat immediately.
May it be a few flowers?
No, flowers were given at funerals and meant bad luck and the death of many on board. And it was probably about cut flowers, because there were some captains or admirals, especially on blockade duty, who kept half a garden in their great cabin, because it reminded them of home and meant a bit of work against boredom.
May I ask for the right foot ?
Come aboard yes, but please with your right foot. Left is bad and brings bad luck. Which was due to the general view that left was the evil, unclean side.
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I just want to remind everyone of this extremely powerful scene from In Purgatory’s Shadow/By Inferno’s Light from season 5 of ds9.
“I'm sorry, but that's absolutely unacceptable. I'm under enough strain as it is, I can't have you quitting on me. Get a hold of yourself, Garak. After all, you haven't had one of these attacks in years. Yes, this is a tight enclosed space. Yes, there's not a lot of room to move. But a disciplined mind does not allow itself to be sidetracked by niggling psychological disorders like claustrophobia. Besides, this isn't like Tzenketh. The walls won't collapse in on you. Your friends are near by, there's plenty of air, so there's nothing to be concerned about. Focus on the job. You're the only person who can contact the runabout. People are depending on you. Ziyal is depending on you. You promised her you'd come back, and that young lady has had quite enough disappointments in her life without you adding to them, so control yourself. You're stronger than this. A disciplined mind-”
This is one of the most accurate depictions of a panic attack I’ve ever seen in a tv show. Andy Robinson went above and beyond here. He depicted it perfectly. That choking panic that rises in your throat and steals your breath, while your mind screams at you. The fear in his voice as he talks to try and ground himself.
The sheer strength and fear and dread of Garak, as he prepares to go back in, knowing what awaits him. That choking cloying panic, your mind and body betraying you…
I read somewhere that Andy Robinson is himself claustrophobic. I wonder how much of himself he poured out into these scenes.
It’s powerful because it’s real. People go through this every day of their lives. And seeing a scene like this, it reminds us we are not alone, that there are others who suffer like this too.
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Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks SHC Sorting
This is part 2 of a 4-part series. An explanation of the SHC system by @wisteria-lodge is here.
Sunset: Badger Lion
This movie is about Sunset learning how to unburn her Badger primary, which is hard because she feels like she's not part of any group in the first place. Almost everyone in the school hates her because she bullied them for years. She's not a part of the band, while every other member of her friend group is. Everyone in her friend group keeps bringing up how she turned into a demon, describing her demon form as horrifyingly awful. When the new students hate her, she assumes that it was because of something that she did, which would be pretty painful to a Badger primary like Sunset.
She uses her Badger primary pretty well, though. She volunteers to show new students around the school, so that they can know the new her before they heard stories about how she was before she was redeemed. She kept a book that let her contact Princess Celestia, because deep down, she knew that running away from her was a mistake. Eventually, she joins the band. She unburns her Badger primary as the school forgives her, and she feels more like part of a group.
It almost seems like Sunset has a Bird primary model, since she talks about how she's changed completely as a person. It's caused by her dropping her Glory Hound Lion primary model, though. Sunset's Lion secondary primarily appears in her temper and impulsivity, just like how it did in the first movie.
Twilight: Double Bird
When Twilight can't figure out how to defeat the villains, she immediately assumes that it's all her fault. Everyone expects Twilight to fix everything, so the pressure feels suffocating.
Sunset and Twilight have a nice conversation about how everyone expects them to be something that they're not (Twilight, because everyone sees her as someone who can do anything perfectly, and Sunset, who everyone sees as still being a delinquent). They both don't want to let anyone down. Twilight wants to live up to everyone's perceptions of her, but she's trying to be something that doesn't exist. It's caused by her perfectionism, but also because everyone assumes that she's a Badger primary, even though she's not. Her Badger primary model starts to explode here, and it gets worse throughout the series.
She ties her self-worth to bringing value to her friends, and when she can't do that, she falls apart. “But why wasn't it working? I should know what to do. How could I not know what to do? How could I have failed like this?”
Sunset helps Twilight by saying that no one can do anything alone, and that she needs to rely on her friends. Because this is a Badger primary show, Twilight's Badger primary model is treated as a good thing, even when it causes problems.
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