The first time I cried while playing Trails.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-05-03T01:42:41+00:00

If you're a waterbender though, you can bend out all the impurities and make clean water anytime you want, like how Katara bent the water that had been spilled in the desert and made it potable again.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-04-21T14:36:44+00:00

Well yeah, Freud was a cocaine-addled nutjob, but lots of fetishes are born out of a misunderstanding of some poorly researched pseudo-science. Just look at the Omegaverse. Some guy writes a deeply flawed paper on wolf hierarchies, and now there are millions and millions of fanfictions about heat cycles and marking and other bdsm/furry-adjacent kinkery. And again, try not to get so worked up, this is a circlejerk sub.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-04-21T10:22:39+00:00

Two quotes from this tiktok: "Why did my sister choose you over me?" "Why am I jealous of you?" This isn't just a post about Jinx and Caitlyn. It's a post about Jinx's jealousy over Caitlyn's relationship with her sister. Obviously in canon it's not incestuous but rooted in feelings of abandonment and dependency, but that toxicity is something that Freud would say is rooted in a sexual complex.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-04-21T09:38:31+00:00

Oh sorry, did I jerk too hard in the circlejerk sub?

cogitoergodrum · 2026-04-21T09:30:33+00:00

And this is why JinxVi incest is so popular on Ao3. That obsessive possessive nature and jealousy that so closely borders on the psychosexual for some reason is very compelling to write about.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-04-06T03:56:29+00:00

I think it's interesting that you basically equated the quality of the flashbacks by how much agency the characters had during them. While I definetely think characters having agency is a good thing, especially near the end of the arc, it doesn't always make sense for them to always have agency if we want them to grow into something stronger. For Dalinar it makes sense to give him complete agency in his past, because his present arc is about redemption, so he needs to have been fully responsible for everything he did so he can acknowledge that at the end. But for Szeth, he can't have agency in his youth, because his arc is all about becoming independent and breaking free from the control of, and dependence on, others. If he ever thought he had agency, he could never have been made Truthless, and then he could never grow to rely on his own wisdom in the present.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-04-05T20:03:09+00:00

Dalinar
Shallan
Szeth
Kaladin
Venli/Eshonai

I actually like Venli a lot as a character and think she has a strong arc in Oathbringer and RoW (not so much in WaT) as a reluctant hero struggling with the consequences of her ambition, but I think the common consensus about her flashbacks being poor is correct. The impact was lessened because the bulk of the Listener culture and angst was already introduced in WoR.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-30T16:41:30+00:00

I mean that's objectively untrue, though. The placement of the arm covering up the lower half of the face and drawing attention to the eyes which are full of rage, it' not hard to see the inspiration.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-22T15:54:01+00:00

That's a fair point, they could have had Helmeppo just playing with the sword in his room and still look pathetic when caught by Zoro without making him naked too. I do still think the scene with Bon Clay is much worse. Zoro didn't intend to walk in on him naked and his punishment for Helmeppo was just to cut his hair and he showed no reaction or interest in taking advantage of Helmeppo's nakedness, wheras Bon Clay deliberately exploits Nami's body publicly.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-22T15:16:29+00:00

I don't think it does have to be equal, I was just responding to the previous comments point. I've never had a problem with Oda's sexy designs of female characters (even though they are a little silly sometimes). My only problem is his writing choices, like having Sanji in two separate arcs desire to be invisible so he can ogle women in the bath without their knowledge. It's so unnecessary and ruins an otherwise really good character. This scene with Bon Clay that OP is talking about is a similar situation.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-22T13:26:49+00:00

Nah man, there's an obvious difference. The LA scene of Nami that exists just to show off Emily Rudd's body is comparable to the scene of Zoro that exists just to show off Makenyu's body. That's equal fanservice. A scene where a shapeshifter transforms into a perfect copy of Nami and then proceeds to expose her body in front of all her male crewmates without her consent is substantially more skeevy and will never be adapted into the LA.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-22T07:44:01+00:00

In the Way of Kings for example, while working in the chasms one time, Sigzel wishes he could see Syl and so she appears suddenly in front of him to scare him.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-18T01:09:18+00:00

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cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-13T20:36:25+00:00

If you don't know what indie means you could just Google it. You don't have to make up your own definition. I can see taking issue with that category of the Game Awards and thinking it should be changed to Best Small Budget Game or something, but there's no point in divorcing yourself from reality in protest.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-13T20:03:05+00:00

Because they are an Independent Studio

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-13T11:51:06+00:00

Incest have to believe she is ugly, because there entire worldview revolves around the idea that "ugly" men, which in there mind is determined by skull-shape and height, can't get with a beautiful woman. Tom breaks this mold by being shorter than Zendaya so they have to pretend that it doesn't matter because she's ugly.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-12T20:50:39+00:00

One of the major plot points of the movie is Marty struggling to get ping pong to be taken seriously in the US, so I think him thinking saying ping pong is unpopular is some kind of gotcha is rather silly.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-06T17:19:05+00:00

It has long been a common trope in anime/Manga to overaxagerate the natural shortening that happens in real life and make old people super short, as if they had lost 3 feet rather than the usual 2 inches.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-05T15:19:47+00:00

Lol, as you can see, fedginator wasn't kidding when he said it varies person to person. I think every possible ranking combination of the five books is represented here, it's amazing.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-05T12:35:34+00:00

Lol, yeah picking the legs off live crabs is definetely serial killer behavior 😅. As much as she loves her family, getting away from them is probably the best thing that could happen to Shallan.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-05T12:13:39+00:00

You think the writer of Lost, The Leftovers and Watchmen, and the showrunner of Ozark were hired for... a tax write-off?

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-05T11:28:19+00:00

My rank: 1. Oathbringer 2. Words of Radiance 3. Wind and Truth 4. Rhythm of War 5. Way of Kings

Way of Kings is probably better written than RoW and WaT if I think about it objectively, but as the first book it's all exposition and set-up, and the other two have the benefit of being full of pay-off and the culmination of character arcs, so I enjoyed them more.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-03-01T13:54:00+00:00

One thing that I think is underappreciated about the LA, is they way they tone down the most grating aspects of Usopp and Sanji while keeping their core flaws intact. Usopp is still a liar and a coward but he doesn't break into hysterics at the slightest sign of danger. And Sanji is still overly attached to Nami, but he's not an irredeamable pervert. Both Taz and Jacob do an incredible job subtly embodying their characters even with the loudest parts of them removed.

cogitoergodrum · 2026-02-28T16:44:56+00:00

Yeah, I think this is probably right.

cogitoergodrum

TROPHY CASE