I’m (very vaguely) familiar with that controversy but I guess I thought it had more to do with diehard Snyder fans than with Henry Cavill. But I never dug deep into it.
Is it something he encouraged at all, or more like the time when all the white supremacists decided that Taylor Swift was going to be their example of the Master Race whether she liked it or not?
Eta: sounds like the latter -
Makes sense to me and it is yet another way to hammer home that Space Marines aren’t really what the propaganda portrays them as (essentially perfect humans) but rather horrific genetic abominations that just happen to be on humanity’s side.
Sort of like how I like lore that plays up the Emperor of Mankind being, in essence, the artificial Chaos God of Mankind.
No, literally the opposite. There’s exactly one faction in the entire setting that’s male-only, and it’s not even just “the human faction,” it’s “this one specific human sub-faction out of a dozen or so.” Every other faction (that has any sort of discernable gender) has both male and female characters.
The lack of good female characters was only within Empire of Man and other human factions. Reading other responses IIRC it was complaining that Space Marines are canonically all male. It sounds like this has changed over time but I am only vaguely aware of the details of this universe as I have only played a video game based it it. I never played the table top version and haven’t read any of the books. As I understand it the lore for this game is extremely extensive.
Not all chapters are. Some, like the Salamanders are. I think Ultramarines too. Maybe Space Wolves?
Other than that I think there is disdain for humans and they only protect them because those are their orders and they always follow orders.
Ignoring Chaos Marines for this. Goes without saying they do not have any regard for humans.
There’s a big difference between being on the side of humanity and being on the side of any individual humans 
I believe, canonically, there are no female Space Marines (Astartes). They are all part of the gene-seed derived from the Emperor who is male. So, all Space Marines are male.
That said, and as many here have noted, there is no shortage of women being badass in the WH40K universe. Just not as a Space Marine.
ETA: Are Space Marines eunuchs? Or even androgynous? I can’t ever recall one expressing any sexual desire (nevermind how that would work if there were no female Space Marines). Seems the notion of sexual gratification is gone from them. To be fair, they seem to take little gratification from anything other than battle. Only Orks surpass them in this (battle is the only thing Orks desire).
I think that’s what @Miller was suggesting above, which I find both fitting with the lore and pretty logical.
Do Space Marines take much gratification from battle, or just the dull satisfaction of having completed their task?
Orks on the other hand are clearly enjoying themselevs when they fight. Orks just wanna have fun.
The Empire is the only human faction in the setting. It’s got a lot of sub-factions: Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Tech-Priests, etc, but they’re all part of the same empire.
Chaos followers are mostly human no?
Necron are immune (also kinda immune to Tryanids…they can not eat Necrons so only lose in those battles and steer clear of them).
I think Tau are immune (no one is sure why).
Orks are immune (and since they LOVE battle are eager to face chaos…chaos wants no part of it since there is no profit in it for them).
That leaves Eldar (space elves) and Humans which are not immune to chaos.
Heck, the Eldar are the ones who cracked that egg so they are definitely a part of it.
ETA: IIRC there is a fun story of an Ork Warlord (very powerful) who got sucked into the warp (chaos realm) and is happy as a clam smashing everything in sight.
The Eldar unintentionally created Slaanesh and he (is it she in 40k? I usually hear Slaanesh as “he” in Fantasy but “she” in 40k?) eats their souls after death as a result. But I know of few Eldar who intentionally serve the Chaos Gods.
I think Khorne actually doesn’t mind since he “doesn’t care from whence the blood flows”, IIRC there’s an Ork warship that drifted into Khorne’s realm and he keeps them alive and throws daemons at them to slaughter. This is a mutually beneficial relationship for the Orks and for Khorne.
Chaos-tainted Mandrakes. Shreikers. Corrupted Archons. Mainly aren’t Dark Eldar a thing?
Yes and their activities feed Slaanesh but to my understanding this is unintentional - I mean, the horrific tortures and decadent displays are intentional, but the Dark Eldar aren’t doing these things “for the glory of Slaanesh” like a Chaos Cult would, and if they understood that they were feeding Slaanesh, they’d be upset, because they’re terrified of Slaanesh
I’d hope that it’s a sort of situation where the setting is relentlessly grimdark, but the protagonists are trying to make their little bit less grimdark.
I mean having a show about your typical Inquisitor or Commissar would be hard to watch, while maybe a more iconoclastic Inquisitor (say.. Eisenhorn?) or Commissar (Gaunt or Cain?) might be more in line with a show people would watch. Or maybe some Rogue Trader written from whole cloth.
I’d personally think a Rogue Trader-centric show would be more interesting than anything else; it would lend itself to a more episodic and wide-ranging show than one concentrated on a military person, and a show focused on an Inquisitor would likely be a Space Cop show.
Yeah, if you’re reading it with anything more than sheer rah-rah bloodlust, you realize that being one of the Astartes is really a pretty terrible life.
They’ve been steadily distancing themselves from the sillier/more satirical/absurd elements of the game/lore. Part of the fun used to be that the game didn’t take itself too seriously- you had Thousand Sons Noise Marines with guitars, all manner of funny Orky stuff, and a lot of ridiculous but funny Imperial Guard stuff.
Now they’re retconning why the Guard stuff is so goofy, and generally shying away from the sillier aspects of the game, IMO.
Noise Marines were a bridge too far for me.
WH40K is not made for that kind of absurdity. Which is saying a lot considering all the other absurdities that are accepted. That’s how absurd noise marines were.
Reminds me of that guy in the Mad Max movie on top of the truck jamming away while mayhem happens. Why? (good movie overall though)
No, they’re well aware of what they’re doing. The Drukhari’s souls are constantly being drained by Slaanesh. They’ve figured out that, when they torture someone, they can absorb that person’s soul and replenish what Slaanesh is taking from them. They don’t like that they’re feeding Slaanesh, but “Better you than me.”
I don’t take 40k seriously. How could anyone? The setting as originally envisioned was simply a thin veneer to justify why your little metal men were trying to murder my little men. But as the decades moved forward, the setting has really expanded with novels, comics, and video games and it’s become a problem. Space Marines, the face of the franchise, are terrible. They’re essentially child soldiers, brutalized, brain washed, and physically altered to become inhuman super soldiers. And those are the “good” guys? GW kind of painted themselves into a corner.
As I don’t take the setting seriously, I think it’d be absolutely hilarious to have an anthology series where they try putting a lot of different stories into the 40k universe. A noir detective story taking place in the underhive of Necromunda? A romance between two members of the Mechanicus fighting against the urges of the flesh even as it’s replaced with iron? Awesome. A legion deciding to go rogue because being late incurs the same penalty as rebellion? Sounds great. Let’s embrace the silliness.
Few think they are the “good guys.” Depends on the chapter…some are more “good” than others. Chaos marines are downright bad.
It is not as tidy as you seem to think it is. Therein lies the drama for a story.
They’re explicitly not the good guys. There are no good guys. To quote the statement I linked to above;
There are no goodies in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
None.
Especially not the Imperium of Man.
Its numberless legions of soldiers and zealots bludgeon their way across the galaxy, delivering death to anyone and anything that doesn’t adhere to their blinkered view of purity. Almost every man and woman toils in misery either on the battlefield – where survival is measured in hours – or in the countless manufactorums and hive slums that fuel the Imperial war machine. All of this in slavish servitude to the living corpse of a God-Emperor whose commandments are at best only half-remembered, twisted by time and the fallibility of Humanity…
The Imperium of Man stands as a cautionary tale of what could happen should the very worst of Humanity’s lust for power and extreme, unyielding xenophobia set in. Like so many aspects of Warhammer 40,000, the Imperium of Man is satirical.
For clarity: satire is the use of humour, irony, or exaggeration, displaying people’s vices or a system’s flaws for scorn, derision, and ridicule. Something doesn’t have to be wacky or laugh-out-loud funny to be satire. The derision is in the setting’s amplification of a tyrannical, genocidal regime, turned up to 11. The Imperium is not an aspirational state, outside of the in-universe perspectives of those who are slaves to its systems. It’s a monstrous civilisation, and its monstrousness is plain for all to see.
Funny thing is…the Emperor of Mankind wanted none of that and explicitly fought against it.
Also, isn’t he a perpetual? Let him die. He’ll come back.