Warhammer 40,000/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• This Troper has a friend who complains that Warhammer 40,000's writers have screwed themselves over with the Tyranids. He says that this is because the Tyranids have been made out to be the biggest boogeymen of them all and so unstoppable that they cannot be stopped in universe. Then it hit me. THAT'S THE WHOLE DAMN POINT! The 40K universe is MEANT to be completely screwed. The only thing that prevents the Apocalypse from sticking is the fact that everybody is trying to wipe everyone else out! And they keep getting in each others' way. Heck, the players are Late to the Party for the apocalypse, because that's what the Horus Heresy was! Therefore, the Tyranids will be dealt with, but the Imperium (and everyone else) shall endure and everything will remain happily screwed. Because that's the way we like it. -- Hariman
  • This troper had a similar experience. My first view into the 40k 'verse was through Dawn of War, and since the Space Marines were portrayed as the protagonists, I always wondered why they seemed so utterly ignorant of everything around them. Then I learned some more about the universe. Silly me, thinking that there were good guys in this game. - Invertin
  • Isn't it possible that he meant that with the Tyranids, the apocalypse will go through permanently this time, and that anything else is going to be bad writing? This is the impression I got. Yes the whole universe is completely screwed, but now the logical conclusion WILL come and end it, instead of somehow being delayed.
  • And yet, some of the Eldar still seem to think there's a chance. The quotes that reveal this are usually presented in a manner so as to highlight how hopeless the situation is in the impossibility of what is required (hated enemies working together being the least of it), but the race that can see glimpses of the future can still see outcomes that aren't the destruction of the universe.
  • Perhaps the Tyranids and Necrons will cancel each other out to an extent. Biological versus Mechanical, both with a certain 'unstoppable tide' feel, endless production against endless ressurection, Life VS Death...
    • I've seen another theory that adds Chaos in a kind of rock-paper-scissors. The Necrons are inorganic and deny sustenance to the Tyranids, and are unaffected by their psychic disruption. The Tyranids can disrupt Chaos- they don't feel the emotions that Chaos feeds on, just a raw psychic block of hunger. And the Necrons are vulnerable to Chaos, which is all about passion, life, survival and psychic powers that can ravage even the C'Tan. -Sabre Justice.
  • Speaking of 40k, having so many factions that are so different in themes, style and aesthetic, and often have tons of variety even within them, may make the setting seem inconsistent. But you may have noted that there's stereotypes about the players of each faction, as if different types of people were attracted to certain armies. Then I read (and added to) the page for Multiple Demographic Appeal, and it all makes sense. -Sabre Justice again.
  • The Tau turned from cavemen to having technology on par with the Imperium of man in 6,000 years, and they are still advancing. Every other race seems to be fixed technologically, never advancing. Give them another 1,000 years and they will likely have all the tech they could ever need to take out the Tyranids.
  • Which is what the Eldar wanted, a race unaffected by the warp yet under their own "Control". A mallaeble race as without psykers. The Tau refuse to believe in Eldar is using them while the Eldar manipulates the Imperium to being expendable meat shields to take care of the Warp Abominations. Although back in finding Fridge Brilliance. During Soulstorm, apart from the terrible writing, there is a Fridge Brilliance in Carron's stupidity. The Warp Storm and his worship of Khorne have driven him even more insane and drunk with power. If the storm never have had happened, there would be less insane ramblings.
  • In Descent of Angels the Lion sends a lot of his Marines away, apparently for no reason other than a sudden bout of paranoia. However, after reading Fallen Angels his decission is much more understandable: Jonson relied on Luther to tell him who was trustworthy. With Luther proving that he could not be trusted, the Lion lost faith in all the others Luther might have recommended as trustworthy.
• The moment you realise that from an outsiders perspective, an Ork Waagh! and an Imperial Crusade are pretty much the same thing. On top of that 'unorky' and 'heresy' are the same basic concept.
  • And what Inquisitor Kriptman did to avert the assault of the Hive Fleet Leviathan (lure it into the Ork territory) is no different from what Eldrad did to avert the Waagh! (lure it to the Aramgeddon).
• The moment you realize that this dark setting of absurd war, cargo cult science, religious hatred, fascism, and brutality is written by writers are from one of the most secular, best educated, and most technologically and artistically gifted countries on earth.
  • Reality would like a word with you in regards to your assertions about secularity, education, and art...
  • All those traits (especially the bit about artistically gifted) that you mentioned are probably the very reason why Games Workshop made this setting as grimdark as possible. And we love them for it.
  • Not really contributing anything here, but GW comes from Lenton, in Nottingham. I'm from Nottingham. Not only is the GW HQ (and, by extension, Warhammer World)within walking distance, I go there all the time. It's an awesome life for me.
• Regarding the Sisters of Battle: that moment when having platinum blondes screaming about racial superiority and doctrinal purity while they wear red, black, and white is supposed to remind you of something.
• Some players actually don't realize the Space Marines are an intentional shout out to the Roman Legion. It's not just the names; their force organization in a chapter is basically identical to a Legion's.

Titans are Humongous Mecha and the poster child for Awesome Yet Impractical. Why would the Imperium use much more practical smaller vehicles, but for what is to be their ultimate weapons covered in wave motion guns do they use something so unstable? It's built in the image of the holy human form.. What better way to boost your troops' morale and crush your enemy's than to have the ultimate symbol of humany come in the form of a battle-breaking Walking Tank?

• • It helps that they didn't build any of them, just repaired them, much like everything big the Imperium has they can't build new ones so they won't dare mess with the ones they have.

Fridge Horror

• While most of the horror in Warhammer 40,000 is brutally obvious from first glance, there are some horrors that do not appear until you give the setting a second look:
  • Warhammer 40K casually mentions that after the many years of early FTL research, the Warp was considered the best! So one must ask, how much worse were the other forms?
    • It was considered best in that it was possible through human science.
    • Plus, when warp travel was first invented, the warp was relatively calm compared to the insanity of the warp in 40k; that was before Slaanesh and before 10,000 years of Grimdark war. Since using the webway would involve fighting the Eldar over it, if humans even had the technology to access it. Additionally it's implied, though not outright stated that early human ships used FTL similar to the Tau's; rather than fully entering the warp, they "stayed near the shallows", to use the Space Is an Ocean analogy.
    • Arguably, it is the best. And it is Fridge Horror. Look at the webway, and what it is now. Your soul, in the warp, can be protected by advanced shielding, and a million other unreliable things. In the webway? You can only hope to god that an indescribably vast horde won't find you. Primarchs have become lost there. For the record, a Daemon Prince breaking one Primarch's back didn't kill him. The webway has seemingly killed at least 2. All other primarchs were killed by another primarch. And the Warp Spiders basically dance through that.
      • As long as you have protection from the Harlequins or the regular Eldar you're safe. The Emperor was trying to give humanity access to the Webway because while it was dangerous it was also reliably dangerous thus letting you safeguard yourself and actually being able to have a set in stone arrival date rather than I might get there in a week or I might get there 10000 thousand years 'ago'.
        • It is also shielded from Deamons.
    • Or maybe its the only one that's allowed, considering the Adeptus Mechanicus have outlawed any new form of technology that's not permitted or built by them. The Tau were able to have their own means of FTL travel which is similar to the the Imperiums ability to warp jump except they can only go at short distances.
  • Longtime Space Marine players disliked the 5th Edition Codex because it glorified the Ultramarines and the Codex, and basically flipped off any other first founding Chapters and thier descendants, especially if they aren't codex-compliant. That's because this is the Codex Astartes, just outside of the 40k universe, of course it's gonna make the Ultramarines seem so overpowered, it was written by their Primarch!
    • Not exactly. The Codex Space Marine is meant to be an overview into all Space Marine chapters that don't have their own codex, i.e. the codex astartes adherent ones. While that makes it reasonable that the Ultramarines would get the limelight in the codex, being the most adherent, it still doesn't explain why they're apparently better than everyone at everything, even the things that other chapters specialise in...
• Abaddon the Despoiler has engaged in thirteen Black Crusades, all of which have been repelled. Despite these apparent failures, and despite having the gaze of Chaos Undivided upon him, Abaddon has somehow not been punished, suggesting that these crusades, their apparent failure notwithstanding, have served some greater purpose. Then again, Chaos can afford to play the long game...
  • He actually hasn't run all of them, and not all of them had the same goal-- or where even very large, thus making it easier to see why he hasn't been destroyed for incompetence.

Fridge Logic

• It's only a matter of time before any given player tries to work out how Space Marines can lift their arms while wearing 90-degree shoulder pads. Fluff has put forth a variety of answers over the years.
  • The most common reason being they same reason they can move any body part in the armor, they are both already super soldiers. Plus, the armor itself is also like a second skin to them--designed specifically to increase their strength further while allowing them to stay just as mobile as if they where wearing less heavy armor.
• For all their vaunted armor and power, Imperial armored vehicles compare oddly to present day ones. The Basilisk artillery, for example, has a stated range of about 15 km. The British present day AS 90 has a range of 25 km. The Baneblade's canonical armor thickness is 200 mm. The first production run of the M1 Abrams had the eqivalent of 350 mm of armor against specifically armor piercing projectiles, and that number has nearly doubled today.
  • While I'm not entirely sure, I believe the thinner armour would be cancelled out by the use of stronger / more resistant (and perhaps lighter) materials.
  • Perhaps as stated above they use more advanced materials. Compare her with the real-world German superheavy tank Maus (which, by the way, is -much- smaller in volume, or at least seems so).