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Why play a fascist? Unpacking the hideousness of the Space Marine
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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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I agree there are problematic elements, most exemplified by the whole "no girls allowed" nonsense so much of the fandom engages in (tho the addition of female Custodes has been a welcome development) and the Slaanesh faction, which is in dire need of more fleshed out characterization
But I don't agree with there being a genuine lack of mockery of fascism, there's just so much to pick from, take for instance this single excerpt from one of the most popular space marine novels, where the undoubted protagonist of the novel slaughters alien refugees, the point is absolutely obvious, and the satire is blatant, the space marines literally lose their humanity as they descend into bloodlust, if a nazi looks at that and thinks COOL then who gives a shit, 99% of people reading that excerpt understand what's being described
And here we have GW literally making allusions to 20th century lynchings of black Americans in a scene describing the lynching and burning alive of suspected "mutants", I mean come on how blatant does the satire have to get before we acknowledge, just because there are nazis in a fandom doesn't mean the writing caters to them, because it certainly doesn't in those examples I gave
People do not get into Warhammer 40K for the boxart or even the figurines, they get into it because of the LORE, that's not an in-universe diegetic reason, that is the literal motivation for why people in the real world consume this product, it's pure nerd shit distilled, it's Verhoeven, it's Hellraiser, it's Dune, its Isaac Asimov meets gothic horrors meets Lovercraft meets Moorcock
Aesthetics does not define art alone, what matters is what is being said, what is the nature of the satire, the critique, the presentation being shown thru in-universe elements and characters, and for that 40K can't be "Hilterite" for the simple reason that FASCISTS DO NOT MAKE FUN OF THEMSELVES and that crtitical mockery is present even in the most bolter porny, tacticool crap produced by GW and certainly present in the actual worthwhile productions
Again if the expectation is you can't make satirical anti-fascist art without guaranteeing every single nazi out there will get it and hate it then frankly no one can make any anti-fascist art whatsoever
The whole point of online discourse around Starship Troopers wasn't that Verhoeven shouldn't have made the film, the point is fascists are brain-dead and their opinions of art should ever be taken seriously, let alone form the reactionary crux of how leftists should create and interact with art themselves
If a fascist likes it, I can't like it, well ok, have fun with that
The majority of fans literally cannot afford the miniatures lmao, I was serious when I said the majority of the fandom are in it for the lore, not simply books or comics, but youtube, video games, TV shorts, the wikis, the tabletop game is in a firm last place for the simple reason it's freakin expensive as a hobby, people don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on this shit. And even then, why would anyone buy a specific min if they don't care about the backstory behind the figures? And this has become especially true after the success of Space Marines 2
Also those lore examples I gave aren't simply representative of "10% of lore books nobody reads" they're representative of the vast majority of the lore, you can keep asserting without proof that the mockery "doesn't work in this case. the people it is mocking are not affected by this criticism" when in reality the 40K chuds are famous for doing nothing but complaining that their faction is unfairly being represented as incompetent, evil, and gross. The fascists who like this game are affected by the critique because they're constantly whining about it and throwing fits every time new lore about their favorite faction drops, again to the point where that whining becomes the butt of countless memes
Again I think you're letting the chuds lead you by the nose when it comes to this franchise, is GW trying to have it's cake and eat it too with the way they unduly focus so much of the narrative on the imperium at the expense of other factions, along with their obsession with tacticool aesthetics, yes absolutely, it's a capitalist game company. But the satire, the mockery, and anti-fascist subtext are still fully intact and still pissing the chudy fans off to the point they have to rely on fan fiction to get their nazi rocks off, fan fiction that is widely mocked among a fandom that isn't exactly all that progressive
Warhammer 40K isn't the kind of satire that's gonna hit bullseye 100% or even 80% of the time, that wasn't even true during the 80s, but considering the wasteland of anti-fascist satire out there, I'll take my cool 75% hit ratio thank you very much
I couldn't agree more, that's why I'm cautiously optimistic about the recent direction of the franchise, compared to pre-2017 I've noticed a more critical tinge to alot of the writing (which personally I believe is the result of Trump and the politics centered around him) even tho alot of the problematic and annoying aspects still remain
I mean they kinda did that with the Blood Gorgons who's specialty is literally pulling off maoist revolts on imperial worlds, but it was only a single novel
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