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naraburns  nihil supernum  3yr ago (text post)   33472 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 7, 2022

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When I use the term Grimdark, I think it is etymologically tied to its role in 40k, by function. The 40k setting is grimdark because that makes gameplay work well. Everybody sucks and there are no good guys, so whichever faction you pick its all the same you're trying to kill the other guy. One guy isn't forced to pick being the bad guy, both sides are bad guys, all the damn sides are bad guys. You can be part of the slaughter xenos and execute anyone who thinks bad guys, the fight for the sake of fighting bad guys, the kill everyone and stack their skulls bad guys, the hivemind eat everything swarm bad guys. The fun is in picking your bad guy and leaning into it, not in trying to argue that the IoM are actually the good guys, or that Tzeentch is actually the good guy, or whatever.

Something like Succession is a very different example of well done grimdark, everybody sucks and no one is the good guy, so all the maneuvering and fucking each other over is just good fun. I don't give a shit about Roman or Shiv or Kendall, and for God's sake you can't really like Logan; so every twist of the knife is great no matter who its stuck in.

They're great when they understand that their grimdarkery is window dressing to make gameplay work. Where they fall apart is when they get up their own asses about "this is how things really are, maaaan." ASOIAF is great fun, but when GRRM or GoT fans get uppity about realism I lose interest.

I like everyone except Roman though, he's a disgusting sexual degenerate who kills tons of people through negligence.

I think Roman is actually my prohibitive favorite of the four kids? I sympathize with Tom and Greg to an unfortunate degree, but they're all pretty morally reprehensible in their own ways. Still don't like any of them really, any sympathy I have towards a character is sort of an internal cringe "Oh God am I like that..."

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