instead of doing work this morning I am thinking about the nebulous literary phenomenon where many isekai settings end up feeling like they're just an elaborate backdrop for the isekai'ed main character rather than real worlds in their own right
(the context for this is that I am grouchy because I read through a webnovel on a whim yesterday and was Displeased with it because it felt too much like they were willy-nilly killing off various characters in the otherworld before their arcs could be properly explored, for the sake of Letting The Earth MCs Have Awesome And/Or Traumatizing Moments)
This post has content warnings for: spoilers through Shadowbringers patches.