WH40K coming to Amazon stream

[Thomas Cardew]

Seen in Hollywood Reporter



BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

*Cough Cough*

Sorry, got carried away there.

Anyway, I'm very curious to see how the same Amazon who gave us Rings of Power butchers interprets WH40K. If Tolkien is considered problematic for fantasy racism, well, the various factions in WH40K are nothing but cardboard stereotypes played for laughs. That's the point; WH40K is an excuse plot for moving miniatures around a table, not any kind of in-depth social commentary. I forget just how many different models and miniatures which were played for laughs in the 1980s would send the modern twitterati to their fainting couch for smelling salts.

Also, the Empire of Man isn't just militaristic. It's a full-on theocratic despotism which protects humanity through the sacrifice of I forget how many psykers per day to power the Golden Throne.

How do you make a good vs. evil story out of that? There are no good guys in 40,000 CE: In the grim and dark future there is only war. That's the point.

I also find it humorous that they seem to think the T'au are the good guys because of their philosophy of the "greater good". You would think a writer who grew up in the Harry Potter era would have recognized the subtle sarcasm in the motto, which parallels exactly Grindelwald's slogan (written ten years later, but same strand of thought) "For the Greater Good". When you see an organization claiming to be for the greater good, you can bet a year's salary there's going to be a lot of lesser evil genocide along the way.

They're certainly taking on a challenge to update WH40K for modern audiences. I would be greatly surprised if the eventual series bears any relationship to the original game -- but I have hopes that it will at least be entertaining.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

So I refused to watch RoP on principle and I didn't want to give it even the nominal support of my viewership even if I already have prime. And while I think RoP failure was overdetermined, I do think a large part of it had to do with just not having the rights to half the story and characters they were using to tell their story. This inherently meant they were going to piss off a lore nerd like myself. I don't think that will be the same issue for 40k/GW since it's both less the creation of a single author and still being progress (as much as there's any progress in 40k). There's no equivalent to the Tolkien estate saying 'no you can't use/acknowledge anything from this pile of pre-existing lore'

I've no-interest in the inevitable culture war fight that will spill out over it and social mores and modern audience ad nauseam... but in the grim dark present there is no peace only bickering. I can't wait to see how it relates to Star Wars.

They aren't commies, though. They have a rigid caste system with a hereditary ruling class.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need", dialed to 11 like everything else in the setting? Castes and commies aren't mutually exclusive.