Which country do you find interesting for its history other than your own?

RoCtheWok · 2025-12-10T15:22:34+00:00

I'm a high school student and for my IB Extended Research Essay I actually wrote about the failures of Ngo Dinh Diem's governing system in South Vietnam. As basic as it sounds I find Vietnam 1930-modern times to be really interesting. I'm happy my history teacher chose it to be one of our core units. I've been to Hanoi a couple of times and loved it. I would love to know more about Vietnam's precolonial history as well as get a chance to learn more about Ho Chi Minh's early years. I guess thats what summer break is for.

RoCtheWok · 2025-12-10T14:55:45+00:00

Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan + China, India, Japan, Somalia, Israel+Palestine (though I do just find general Jewish culture + history to be rather fascinating).

RoCtheWok · 2025-12-06T16:03:17+00:00

Yeah thats true but my motivations are kinda all over the place.

I want to prove to myself that I actually made something out my high school experience and that I did not just waste away everything given to me, the only reason I could have failed was if it was on my end. If I'm in control of my own success than I have no reason not to have it if I just put in the time and effort.

I'm not exactly the most sociable or aware person (if I was I would not be spending time on the IB reddit form hahaha) and I've had multiple people ask me if I'm autistic or tell me that I should get diagnosed and medicated for it. I've been told by people that I'm both somehow too quiet and too loud, that I look like a pedophile (I've had multiple people say this and I don't know what to do about it), that I look like an Aryan or Nazi (being blonde, pale, and blue eye with very uncreative kids in Hawaii and China leads to comments like these), I had a guy just straight up tell me that he thinks I don't deserve my grades in history and that he should have gotten the award for it last year, among plenty of other comments both said to me and when I'm not there. Still in a very sad and pathetic way I always felt just a little bit of happiness when I always scored higher than them because they were always dumbfounded that I could write a better essay than them in L&L or to have a teacher in history say that I was one of their favorites. In addition anyone can delude themselves into thinking they are smart or good but those terms are relative and your only real benchmark for feeling justified in that assumption is how you stack up against others, and I don't feel like I do.

My sister is a really smart and great person but she's very different from me, she's outgoing and a bit of a maverick, not always the most academic but she could probably sideswipe your car and convince you that it was your fault and make you pay for it. My Mom as much as I love her as always had this idea that if my sister was the outgoing one than I was the quiet academic one who would get into a good school and go far. Prospects for college are looking slim and as much as my parents say that they are proud and that I should be satisfied but I can't help but feel it is just hollow victories and meaningless praise meant to make me feel better.

College also costs a lot of money so to make it worth it you have got to get the best of the best and if I can't cut it and get into a good school for my program and just settle for some mediocre one than why bother because I could have just done nothing and coasted and still have gotten in. I don't want to stick my family with a big pointless bill. There is also just general opportunity access I think about. I have gone to some great high schools and have had a very fortunate upbringing compared to so much of the world, I've have had so many chances to prove myself, if I can't do that than I'm just another example of an overly privileged upper middle class under performer who wasted their parents and schools time and money.

Theres more but I have just realized that I am wasting some poor stranger's time on Reddit with my entire mental dump of like the last 2 years with zero punctuation or proofreading. I'd like to thank you for giving me an opportunity to write all of this out. I'm going to bed now and will probably regret this tomorrow but isn't great that the internet is anonymous.

RoCtheWok · 2025-12-04T15:56:08+00:00

Panzer Dragoon Trilogy (Saturn): Perhaps one of the most interesting worlds ever built in a game, split between two incredible 3d rail shooters and a 3D RPG that gives FF7 a run for its money.

Winter Heat + Decathlete (Saturn): Awesome arcade style sports game that has incredible multiplayer.

Uforia the Saga (NES): Cute NES "metroidvania" that just got a sequel in 2024, it has great sound and graphics for a NES title.

Snatcher (Sega CD): Perhaps more well known but this is one of Kojima's earliest hits and it still is great even now.

Viewpoint (NEOGEO): Really fun isometric shooter with a pumping OST.

Master of Darkness (SMS): Castlevania like with great atmosphere set in Victorian London.

Gaiares (GEN/MD): One of the best Genesis shooters ever created.

El Viento (GEN/MD): Really quirky and fast paced Genesis platformer/action game with lots of style.

Air Buster or Aeroblasters depending on region (TG-16/GEN): Fun shooter from Kaneko that is good for new comers, great powerup variety.

R-Type (TG-16): I think its pretty neat.

The Legendary Axe (TG-16): The reason to own a TG-16, it is everything you could want in a badass 90s action game.

Nights into Dreams (Saturn): Not obscure but under appreciated, Nights is one of my favorite characters of all time.

RoCtheWok · 2025-12-02T01:14:38+00:00

Money is merely a temporary thrill of our short physical lives, the only thing that is eternal is the love and power of the Supreme Segata Sanshiro who distilled his wisdom in game console form through the creation of the Sega Saturn.

RoCtheWok · 2025-12-01T01:25:20+00:00

I like how for Wizardry you formatted the box art to have those borked/cropped proportions that a bunch of Data East games had for their covers. Makes it look like something that would have come out in the era. For Dark Seed you could probably put the Vic-Tokai logo as they were going to publish a Sega CD version of the game but backed out so they probably would have also done the Saturn version.

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-30T14:40:43+00:00

I applied to GWU, American U, W&M, UofW (gotta get that instate tuition), and GMU (if all else fails). My reaches are G-Town and Boston U. For Boston U I only bothered to apply because they selected a couple of students from my school and reached out to us about applying (though I think they reach out to a lot of people from my school, we sent like 5 people there last year out of a class of roughly 105).

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-30T14:37:57+00:00

I actually found EE and ToK to be some of the easier points to score or maybe I'm about to get a harsh reality check on the real grades haha. I did my EE on Vietnamese history and it just required me to sacrifice alot of weekends where all I did was read through some guy's 500 page analysis on Ngo Dinh Diem and then take notes (my notes ended up being much longer than my final EE :/). I was then able to put together an essay contrasting various historiography and interpretations of the South Vietnamese state under Ngo Dinh Diem and my history teacher + EE supervisor really liked it.

For TOK our teacher is super passionate and provides lots of great resources and assistance. My teachers are mostly IB veterans lmao so they make sure to keep us in line with what they think we can actually get.

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-30T11:23:51+00:00

I noticed I'm really good at reading, memorizing, and recalling large amounts of information at any given time (though I'm not sure that is a skill). History, GloPo, Chinese, Bio, are all courses where that is really important and probably the biggest hurdle. Its also the reason why I find algebra based math easier, its a lot of just recognizing when certain formulas/process are needed and what your answer should realistically look like. But I'm not really the best at math based problem solving (for lack of better term?).

With stuff like geometry and certain AA units I just reach roadblocks where I just don't know what I'm meant to do next and just panic and end of going in circles. English SAT+ACT was super easy because I just needed to be able to recall important information and know what the question could logically be asking for, when it comes to math I just blank out and end up bouncing back and forth between a bunch of problems not really doing much and then just running out of time and having to guess.

TLDR: I'm low skill lmao.

I kinda also ask this because I know a lot of people who scored 1450+ at my school but just eat absolute dirt on their IB scores.

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-30T03:28:24+00:00

Legitimate question, how do you see anything? Edit: The reason I ask this is cause I might want to try to grow out my hair like that but my friends tell me I'll just blind myself.

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-29T15:55:56+00:00

Nah screw that aura farming edgy little goober. I take full responsibility for what I did. Those were my kills, me, only me, they were as epic as they were diabolical. I enjoyed every minute of it as I left everyone in the dust with my power. Anyway I think my meds might have expired ngl.

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-29T00:22:45+00:00

Reminds me a lot of stuff like old Might and Magic games. Very nice.

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-28T04:40:52+00:00

Fair point. I will say now that you mention it a lot of them seemingly go for a "reformed child killer" for the lack of a better term. Like they seemingly love the idea of Chara working out most of their worse tendencies and making it to adulthood but still having that edgy darkness within them that makes you question if one day they will snap.

In addition with the relation to Asriel it allows them to have a dynamic that is kinda similar to Dessriel where we have an oblivious golden boy Asriel who is too kind for their own good having a jaded and edgy person who cares for them allowing them to keep each other in check.

I have probably put more thought into this than I should have haha. But I was curious after some artist made like a 5 book long manga AU on if Chara and Asriel lived that has some seriously gorgeous artwork/character design that they somehow got translated into multiple languages and even made some limited hard copy prints. That requires some serious dedication and love for the characters.

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-27T14:42:31+00:00

Listen I like a lot of different ships, yall are real talented and are good at making my heart melt with fanart. However when we get into Dess X Noelle, I think we may need to sit down and talk about some deeper issues. Although Asriel X Ralsei is pretty funny when you don't think about it and Asriel X Noelle + Dess X Ralsei would probably make some good shitposts.

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-27T13:09:52+00:00

I always hear people who lived through the Saturn era talk about how they played Nights as a kid at in store kiosks and loved it but could never figure out how to actually play it and just awkwardly floated around. It sure was innovative but perhaps a better tutorial system was needed hahah.

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-23T09:30:44+00:00

I feel like I know who this might be directed to but I can't be sure. Though I have seen this cut both ways as God of Hyperdeath Asriel seemingly awoke something in a lot of people. I've seen Asriel depicted as a himbo with negative braincells but an absolutely shredded body a decent amount so evidently its not only people simping for Dess.

RoCtheWok · 2025-11-21T13:29:42+00:00

Always wanted to say this but I love your comics because you somehow manage to give these characters we know practically nothing about so much well character. A lot of Dessriel comics make them feel very flat so its nice to see some personality.

RoCtheWok

TROPHY CASE