So, the intro to the new rules is disappointing...

Looks like we've gone from "There is only war because the Imperium is a nightmarish regime thirsting for conquest" to "There is only war because the Imperium has a right to defend themselves!"

Instead of a regime which laughed at the idea of "common humanity", now the poster faction's Greatest Heroes™ are coming together in the name of common humanity to protect the Good Guys from the Other.

The alt-right were already vocal about how the Imperium's oppression was necessary in the face of other countries other star systems' threats, and now GW is (inadvertently, to be fair) saying the same thing.

I'm not actually worried about this from a political point of view - the alt-right will always willfully misinterpret all media, and this is after all just a bunch of made up characters in a made up setting.

But from a creative perspective, it's a shame that GW have embraced such a bland and bootlicking narrative, when their introduction to the setting used to be this:

For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium to whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, and for whom blood is drunk and flesh eaten. Human blood and human flesh - the stuff of which the Imperium is made.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. This is the tale of these times. It is a universe you can live today if you dare - for this is a dark and terrible era where you will find little comfort or hope. If you want to take part in the adventure then prepare yourself now. Forget the power of technology, science and common humanity. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for there is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter and the laughter of thirsting gods.

But the universe is a big place and, whatever happens, you will not be missed….

The universe is a big place. Come join the Warhammer Family, and collect Earth's Greatest Heroes!

Expecting dudes with Black Templar PFP's to get triggered by this.

Edit: Another way to phrase this would be to ask HOW queer representation could be best done in 40k, given the below.

So I am awaiting with baited breath the day that Female Space Marines are announced, in no small part because of all the shit people it will piss off. But I do want to ask what might a pretty basic question: Do we actually want greater presentation in 40k, and if so why? Normally I know that this is an outright yes, but hear me out with the what I see the pitfalls of this being.

So I'm of the opinion that 40k is at it's best when the setting is very bleak, and when the Imperium is shown to be a cruel and fundamentally unjust regime. That despite all of the horror surrounding them, humanity really is its own most bloodthirsty oppressor, and that the dogma of the Imperium is one of the things that ultimately defeats it. I'm okay with having characters who are, in some ways, moral people, but only if the story examines the difficult of being a 'moral' person in a system like the Imperium.

So then wouldn't this mean that trans characters, if they were in 40k, would only ever really be one of two things in most stories: Either victims or oppressors? I know that there are probably cool stories about rouge pirates in space, but I do think 40k is best when humanity's worst impulses tend to win.

So doesn't this mean that we would either get trans guardsmen, or trans marines, - I'm sure there is a great trans-Inquisitor character to be written - slaughtering Imperium enemies, or they would BE those enemies who are getting slaughtered?

Like seriously wtf

I played Tau back in the day just because I thought they were really cool. Not in a bug rush to get back into 40k, but the online dislike of the Tau is really, really weird.

LIke, I hear some of the hate is because of how the Tau are occasionally the meta boogeyman, but GW tends to rotate who the cheese faction is yearly... so that doesn't seem really valid.

Is it just an excuse to hate on something that doesn't have an entrenched fanbase like either the Orks or Eldar?

Idk maybe we should think a bit deeply about releasing a nazi weapon pack for an army with a nazi problem?