Re: [SG] comparing SG

At 10:10 AM 1/24/02 +0000, you wrote:
>On Thu, 24 Jan 2002 19:12:40 +1100 Alan and Carmel Brain 
><aebrain@austarmetro.com.au> wrote:
>
>> From: "John Crimmins" <johncrim@voicenet.com>
>>> (I do like bits of the 40K background -- especially since they've 
>moved away from the idea that the Imperium is neccessarily the good 
>guys <<
> 
>> Returning to the Rogue Trader roots. Some of the original illos 
>showed the inner sanctum of the Emperor in very Geigeresque style. It 
>called into question whether this was the lesser of two Evils. <
> 
>That was a _question_? The 40K background _never_ looked to have any 
>good guys in it. The Imperium is a bunch of power-mad religious 
>fanatics; the Eldar are ruthless survivalists with the usual 
>superiority complex; I'm not even going to bother describing the Orks 
>and the Tyranids; the various Chaos/Dark Whatever forces are, by 
>definition, evil; and I've seen nothing to make me think the Tau are 
>any better.

I've gotten the impression that the Tau are supposed to be at least
somewhat better.  The idea of the Tau being a civilization on the rise
--
as oppposed to the obviously declining Imperium -- has some appeal to
me.

>The whole concept of the 40K universe is a Dark Future(tm) in which 
>There Is Only War(tm). There is no optimism, no honour (only twisted 
>reflections of it), no trust, and the whole thing "works" purely on the

>basis of Might Makes Right.
>
>That's one of the reasons why I loathe GW. This is not a concept that I

>think should be aimed at children.

To be honest, that's not something that bothers me.  The kids like the
spiky bits; the underlying morality of the situation isn't something
that
gets even a moment's consideration.  It's like comic books -- there's a
reason that Wolverine is most 13 year olds' favorite character.

(And frankly, it could be worse -- the kids that I see every day are
obsessed with "Dragonball Z", which takes might makes right to a level
waaaay beyond anything that 40K could aspire to.)

John Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com
http://www.voicenet.com/~johncrim