a lot of cringe “The Empire is super evil but it’s the only thing stopping humanity from being wiped out” bs
Which would still work fine if done with a satirical bent, if the overall theme of these stories was a kind of fatalistic “we could have stopped this” angle, rather than the cynical, psychotic banality of the worst evils mankind can inflict on the universe being the best we could have ever hoped to do.
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.
Which would still work fine if done with a satirical bent, if the overall theme of these stories was a kind of fatalistic “we could have stopped this” angle, rather than the cynical, psychotic banality of the worst evils mankind can inflict on the universe being the best we could have ever hoped to do.
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.