The road to the Warp is paved with good intentions - assuming Big E had any

submitted 2 months ago by

The road to the Warp is paved with good intentions - assuming Big E had any

Under danger of falling into “a concerning amount of 40k fans":

Was it not actually the case that the emperor was “good”? That he brought humanity into an age of prosperity and enlightenment?

Wasn’t it the whole point the dramatic irony, that he e.g. got rid of religions in favour of logic, only for his followers to rever him religiously in the end? But also it’s gotten so far that now if you say anything to that end, you’ll be executed as a blasphemer of the holy god-emperor, which is just the ultimate perversion of what he set out to do?

I always understood it as the emperor being a really good guy, but Ancient Greek level tragedy just turned it around completely.

3rdXthecharm@lemmy.ml

2 months ago

Yeah I’ve been becoming a fan the last year or so, listened to some Dan Abnett books, played the rogue trader game and a few RPGs from the series (no joke, why is Darktide not more popular?)

And I agree. No, Big E isn’t a soft and 100% ‘good’ guy, but his plans seem to span tens of thousands of years and take into account the corruption of his own sons. And on top of all of that, I think he’s quite literally beyond our comprehension. Like, the whole point of him seems to be this mysterious figure that is both just as amazing and not nearly as incredible as his followers believe him to be. His miracles are plenty, and scarce, given to sinners and saints alike. The nature of his character seems to be done this way on purpose. But he does seem like his whole thing is about ensuring humanity survives, which IS the job of an omnipotent jesus god king. And the brutality of that ‘saving’ fits the same style of duality that permeates the rest of warhammer.

Nobody is good, but Mankind may be slightly more good than chaos, and potentially on-par with the forced-cooperation of the Tau. The necrons are so smart they’re stupid, the tyranids are so ravenous that they bite off more than they can chew, the eldari are so proud and Noble that it isolates them from allies, the drukhari…well they’re sick fucks I don’t have much for them, they’re having a pretty good time honestly.

PugJesus@piefed.social

OP 2 months ago

Thing is, the Emperor was a major dickhead and tyrant. Everything he established was effectively the Imperium, just with a goal and less time to decay. He was still all about the totalitarian authoritarian regime that ignored the input of the governed, pursued the ethnic cleansing of other species, and didn’t tolerate dissent or offer human rights - it just wasn’t theocratic, bloated, or calcified yet. That is to say, it was an Imperium that was functional, but still not good.

It’s the anti-religious Soviet Union vs. the modern Russian Federation employing Orthodox priests to bless their equipment. The former is more impressive (ie having some idea of how their technology works) and less backwards, but not really less oppressive or repugnant.

I think you could legitimately argue (and I would agree) that simply by how far the Imperium has decayed, that Big E and his system was better, but it was still very far from good.