#theres supposed to be more screenshots but i think i got bored of watching thru at the time? so eh

[toriliashine]

ndrv3 scenes that made be go hmm (extra hmm)

@ ryomaa

[flyingcookierambles]

hguroahgouahrgo try infinite dendro im bEGGING

i keep seeing ppl be like "infinite dendro is just another sao" bc the anime came out and altho i havent watched the anime yet, since im on vol 3 rn, im like sobbing in my corner like no plz at least have the decency to compare it to log horizon or something. sao is like. dumb power fantasy. edgy loner wolf dude. log horizon was like. actual mmo stats and game mechanics! teamwork! guilds of mmo players and npcs working together! a real world where you can build things!!! log horizon is/was so gooooddd (;_;)

and like. infinite dendro's whole appeal is the ability to be a fantasy life where you can create things. and growth and stuff that's represented by your embryos. and like late spoilers but in log horizon they learned that to make actual good food you need to actually cook and not go thru the menu like you're just playing a video game. they worked their way up to making an actual working steamboat and then had this whole political arc w/ the npcs in a nearby country abt like. rights and economic trade and stuff. and like.

slight spoilers for volume 2 and 3, but in infinite dendro the country of dryfe is populated by artists and tradesmen players. like. ppl that are engineering students irl literally got together in guilds and made working mechas in the game. theres apparently a manga godframe grandmarshall that was made by a player in-game w/ a Painter/artist job skills. theres geopolitics that happen between the different countries and wars and histories and stuff. its a slower light novel than other mainstream vrmmo/isekai stories, but the world building is so good. arrrrrrghghghg

also im like so confused by comments (maybe not in tumblr specifically, but i’ve seen them on kitsu and twitter) that are like. "this game'll never work since players would just kill all the npcs and stuff bc npc permadeath" and im just like??? am i the only person to treat npcs in skyrim and stuff decently? geez whats wrong w/ you ppl? try? not killing?

sorry for the rando rant about this isekai video game anime lol but like srsly im so annoyed by ppl who judge an entire franchise by like 1 or 2 episodes of a show that's like. what. 12 or 15 episodes?? uuuuuuuuuuuuu YOU’VE ONLY SEEN LIKE WHAT. 30 MINUTES TO ABOUT AN HOUR OR SO OF THIS 11 NOVEL SERIES? THAT’S ON GOING??? HOW CAN YOU JUDGE IT SO EASILY, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT’S PRACTICALLY COMMON SENSE THAT BOOKS ARE BETTER THAN SCREEN ADAPTATIONS AND THERE’S A TON OF WORLD BUILDING AND EXPOSITION THAT BOOKS HAVE THE FREEDOM TO GO ON ABOUT IN SOME EXTRA PARAGRAPHS OR TWO THAT I’M SURE THAT ADAPTATIONS ALWAYS LEAVE OUT.

(whispers also high school me did actually read the sao light novels too when they were on like. baka tsuki in 2014. up to around half way thru alicization, years before the alicization arc’s novels were even officially in english. and like. they all revolved around how cool kirito was and like i dont really remember much about if they did do any world building, even in arcs where players could have even a fraction of the creative freedom that the log horizon/dendro games give their players, in like the first sao/aicrad arc. where you were supposed to have a real second life and stuff. and ppl got trapped there for 2 whole years. like. idk. liz's a swordsmith. asuna. has cooking skills?? meh not much else. it just went “let's not explore the game features or anything abt fun world building. instead have this emo loner high schooler. look at how cool he is.” bluhhh. at least ray's an average, well adjusted college dude who can work w/ others. shiroe's also a decent guy who's just really good at math and multitasking.

i think theres some sao side novels abt other players that were trapped in aincrad and like. that would be. so much more interesting. then kirito stuff. like. the whole orphanage for the kids who were playing sao and got trapped? average ppl who made livelihoods in 2 years like liz or agil who opened shops and just wanted to live their lives and stuff? like an anthology series abt players making. idk. therapy groups, publishing books to deal w/ their shit, and creative arts guilds, going abt their lives would be soooooo much more interesting to me world building-wise.

also, the geo-political stuff? afaik, it’s non existent in sao. maybe the closest that you can get is the uhhh. race wars? (yeah wow that’s actually really awful when you put it that way holy shit thanks sao abridged) that whole conflict in alo is maybe the closest you can get to fractions and guilds and stuff fighting. 

but log horizon? elder tale has the HALF Gaia project, where the game is literally just a scaled down version of earth w/ post apocalyptic ruins of the “modern world” thats why the whole akihabara thing exists. then, it created an actual history of npcs and their countries and empires and spawned them around the world. and then, to add to the npc’s geo-politics, we also have the players’ geo-politics in terms of servers. the main cast is in akihabara. iirc, the light novel ended w/ the akihabara players in an alliance w/ the npc country/federation/city state thing the eastern league of free cities. they’re in some war against other players from minami city. 

and then infinite dendrogram vol 3 comes in with this treat about geopolitics and world building that i’m sure that you would never see in sao:

(i’ve copy and pasted the text from the screenshots, and also some not from the screenshots for further context and put it on a seperate text post if you need it. click this -> https://flyingcookierambles.tumblr.com/post/190389803125/the-text-id-from-the-screenshots-if-you-need-it anyways this rant’s getting quite long so i’ll end it here)

but yeah. i’m sure that you would never see anything like this in sao, so seriously. please. IM BEGGING. GIVE INFINITE DENDROGRAM (the light novel at least) A TRY. IF YOU LIKE VRMMO/ISEKAI/FANTASY LIGHT NOVELS AND LOVE WORLD BUILDING, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T JUST BRUSH IT OFF AS “OH, JUST ANOTHER SAO” OR “IT’S REALLY BORING” BECAUSE I WILL CRAWL INTO A CORNER AND FUCKING CRY IF I HAVE TO SEE ANOTHER COMMENT ABOUT THE DENDRO ANIME BEING COMPARED TO SAO. I SWEAR THIS WILL JUST TURN OUT TO BE ANOTHER CASE OF “THE BOOKS ARE BETTER THAN THE MOVIE” AND PLEASE DONT LUMP ALL VRMMO ANIME/MANGA/WHATEVER TOGETHER. I AM BEGGING YOU. AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO SAY SOMETHING LIKE “OH JUST ANOTHER VRMMO TRYING TO BE LOG HORIZON/MAOYUU/[SOMETHING THAT IS BETTER THAN SAO]”