Janeway would totally pull the Nick Mullen move of claiming that she doesn’t have a caffeine addiction she just gets really bad headaches and irritability when she doesn’t have two giant coffees first thing every morning (this is relatable, for the record).

Other than her being I relate to Grace from the new one because I, too, am constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

12 year old me would have considered this a vital gameplay element

That’s definitely the good way to have the Tau be awed by the Imperium, by it’s sheer size and barbarism

I watched the first series of that, eventually noped out because it got weirdly torture pornish, then caught a more recent episode a year or two ago and the protagonist is working alongside the US Military (that have materialised completely out of nowhere I guess) as they fight the theocratic regime, one of the most lib things I’ve seen on TV.

Like all the nerds that desperately want a Star Wars film/game about the Empire being epic and hyper-competant and slaughtering rebels :visible-disgust:

Exactly, I actually quite like the stupid “stiff upper lip” propaganda side of the Imperium when it’s used to shine a light on the realities of life in Warhammer 40k. There was a really good short story I read where after fighting tooth and nail in defence of a planet, a garrison of Imperial Guard get told “The Emperor Protects” at the end of a radio communication informing them that the Administratum have decided that it’s more resource effective to nuke the whole battlefield they’re on from orbit rather than risk transport ships getting shot down in an evacuation which is both darkly hilarious and, in a very unsubtle way, somewhat poignant but I guess bolter porn sells better so we end up with trash.

When handled by better writers very much so, but I’ve seen a lot of cringe “The Empire is super evil but it’s the only thing stopping humanity from being wiped out” bs before

Disclaimer: Against my better judgement I’m a pretty big 40k fan even though I realise the fanbase is painfully infested with chuds and a lot of the content enables that.

Like the book took pains to make Inquisition or Space Marines or whatever seem as cool as possible, not ridicule them.

Interestingly from what I understand the earlier portrayals of Space Marines (going back to Rogue Trader, which was a D&D like tabletop game that I believe was the first ever 40k thing) were a bit better for this - They were roided out fascist thugs who were good at slaughtering targets softer than themselves but prone to hubris and fanatacism that would often get them killed in droves for basically no reason. There was a lot more lore about how the Imperium was barely functional and the cause of a lot of it’s own worst problems, too.

Unfortunately I think GW realised that dorks who loved the Empire were a good market so they gradually revised Space Marines to be perfect badasses (something that’s only gotten worse recently with the Primaris Space Marines who are basically Space Marines but with a tacticool aesthetic and with any interesting facets about how they can turn against the Emperor ironed out) and made the Imperium seem more functional. By and large in regards to Warhammer 40k related media it kind of depends on who’s writing it. Obviously being a Capitalist product a lot of the lore serves to sell overpriced miniatures too which probably stifles some of the creative intent behind it.

I guess ultimately it’s good that GW put this message out, although I can’t help but feel like they also massively enabled the worst parts of their fanbase with all the "Purge the Xenos the Emperor protects bolter porn blah blah blah :le-pol-face: " shit lmao

I got turned away from the Handmaid’s Tale because it started to feel like misery porn (even though they had their moments I kinda blame Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead for making this a trend in TV), is it worth picking up again?