#look man I don’t want to sound gatekeepy

[plague-karm]

I am so happy Lisa The Painful released pre 2020 because I’m convinced the fandom would be fucking insufferable if it wasn’t.

[faisdm]

A guide to the cool parts of the Warhammer 40k Fandom

So, suppose you’ve heard Henry Cavill being out of both the DC movies and The Witcher is now planning to be in a Warhammer 40k thing, or you’ve seen stuff about the upcoming Rogue Trader or Space Marine 2 videogames, or been playing Darktide, and you might be thinking “Well... maybe it’s cool, but also I’ve heard the fandom can be scary and has a Nazi problem!” this is a quick guide to finding the cool parts of the fandom.

First off, the golden rule of 40k is anyone who thinks the Imperium are “The Good Guys” and misses the satirical elements of the setting should be avoided like they’re carrying Nurgle’s Rot (that’s a really bad plague...if that wasn’t obvious).

The Imperium of Man is a fascist religious oligarchy where people live on horrible polluted shitty planets eating “corpse starch” which is exactly what it sounds like, and everyone worships a mouldering corpse on life support because if you don’t, an inquisitor might arrest you for heresy and you’ll get turned into a frankenstein’s monster robot drone. Anyone who thinks that’s cool is definitely a pile of wank. Being shitty is the whole point of the setting; if it was a nice place, I wouldn’t want to send all the nice people to get shot with guns literally called “Meltas” that do exactly what they sound like they do, or get chopped up with chainswords (that’s a chainsaw-sword! No kidding!). It’s an outrageously shitty galaxy where bad people do bad things, but it’s exaggerated to such an extent it becomes kind of cathartic or funny?

There ARE people who play 40k who are total asshats, and a minority who are nazis, it’s true, and a real issue (just last year GW had to make a statement about it when people with nazi-themed armies turned up at tournaments and despite nearly everyone at the tournaments refusing to play with them, the staff wouldn’t throw them out because of “the rules!!!” so thankfully now the rules are “no nazis” finally), but there are also lots of really great people in the hobby too, and you can find them by looking for spaces that explicitly don’t welcome them. The more cool people are in the hobby, the better!

Cool 40k Youtubers who can be a gateway into the cool part of the hobby and finding cool people in it include:

Arbitorian - Makes great lore videos and even ones commenting on the problematic elements of the setting

Snipe & Wib - Couple who are in a ska band (and so are cooler than I will ever be) and make tongue-in-cheek lore retrospectives in their Codex Compliant series.

Midwinter Minis - Chilled out painting videos and fun, easy-to-follow battle reports, not gatekeepy, so great for beginners.

Dana Howl - Really cool and unique painting videos that don’t take the hobby too seriously.

Goobertown Hobbies - The Bob Ross of Warhammer.

Oculus Imperia - This absolute legend makes incredible, atmospheric lore videos in-character as an Imperial scribe discussing the historical events of the setting, complete with character development as he gets gradually disenchanted with the state of the Imperium. Chef’s kiss.

And a cool place to get news and stuff that’s explicitly trans-friendly and doesn’t welcome the shitty side of the fandom is Goonhammer. You can find starter guides to most Games Workshop/warhammer games on there.

So hopefully... if you’re looking for a taste of grimdark but with decent folk, that’ll get you rolling. I take no responsibility if you wind up spending a ton of money on little plastic people and paints due to this.

[gothwarlocks]

17. How were you introduced to the fandom? 25. What type of ship would you fly? and 30. Do you have any headcanons (was thinking of how you've talked about the underground scene in SW but this can be about anything)?

thank you Raven!! 🖤🥰

Placing under a cut bc I ended up rambling a lot! It’s a long post.

17. How were you introduced to the fandom?

I didn’t actively participate in any true Star Wars fandom for a while, actually. When SWTOR launched in 2011 I was about 16 and hadn’t had great interactions with SW fans since the majority I bumped into were gatekeepy cishet men, and being a closeted gay trans kid... lol, you get it. I mostly just chatted with irl friends about stuff I was excited about. And also, the fandom wasn’t really established too well on here yet, so there’s that. I would peek around tumblr occasionally but short of a couple people chatting about it or posting fanart there wasn’t a sense of community yet (at least, from what I saw).

In 2010 though, idk If anyone will know about this at all but if you ever heard of Clone Wars Adventures I was very very present there haha. I interacted with mostly other teens or the occasional chill adult that was there for some reason (this was a very...kid-oriented online game). I was hounded a lot by other players bc I would always be top 5 on the leaderboards for a couple of the silly little minigames :) it was really fun, actually! I would log on and since you can see peoples’ online/offline status, I would get messages within minutes from players wanting to challenge me to a 1v1 of some sort lol. There was also instanced housing, and there was more free reign on building stuff, so people got really creative. I myself built a functioning cantina/music venue on the roof of my Coruscant apartment (which should not have been reach-able lol) that was sometimes used for group chilling.

If anyone ever is interested, look up some videos. The things players would build and boundary-break to do is very cool lol. Once SWTOR launched though, players that had formed friend groups or guilds just migrated there. It was interesting to see!

25. What type of ship would you fly?

HMMM there are so many ships around in the EU lol. Almost too hard to narrow it down... When I was a kid I was obsessed with A-wings, X-wings, and Naboo starfighters. From SWTOR, I think my favorite ship is either the Phantom, for it’s sleek and elegent design, or the smuggler’s freighter, for it’s cozy and communal atmosphere.

30. Do you have any headcanons?

Oh yeah!! Like you mentioned I do love thinking about subcultures in the galaxy and expanding on that, but here’s a few for SWTOR and EU(?) that I enjoy:

(Sorry in advance for how many run-on sentences there are and if anything just sounds harebrained lol. CW for talk of transition, I suppose!)

Dathomirian Zabraks in the Old Republic Era... I just accept that their witchy culture(s) have existed for millennia, but were just very isolationist and did their best to remain undetected from the rest of the galaxy--different groups could have had other policies though. The group portrayed in CW could be maybe the last group to survive, or something like that (since in Jedi Order it’s presented like that, right?). Anywho, as a matriarchal culture that unfortunately enslaves Zabrak men, I think they would have a unique take on gender. I think trans women/trans feminine people would be wholly embraced and exalted as having “ascended” out of the male lower caste for discovering who they really are, and trans men/trans masculine people would be, well, not so cherished(?) having--and I say this as a trans man--“lowered” or “belittled” themselves. The witches can change/enhance body shape through magic, as seen with Maul and Savage. So I imagine they would help trans people that want to physically transition to help fit them into the social roles they were always meant to have, and beyond that there isn’t much to blink at. I headcanon Lorn still has the skin pigmentation of a Datho witch (and he retains some of their powers), but his tattoos are given to him by fellow Zabrak men and his horns and other body characteristics are given to him through witch rituals. And as for non-binary Dathomirian people, I would hope they just have the choice to belong to either the witch clans or Zabrak tribes. I’d love to hear a non-binary person’s take on this, to be honest 👀

Rattataki should have little to no sexual dimorphism, and they could stand to look more...alien. (Plus, they desperately need lore-building.) I just think of all the species they could have done this for out of the game, this one could have been it.

I also just absorb and adopt a lot of HC’s I see going around for all sorts of stuff, here’s a few of my fav that aren’t my own:

Twi’leks having headgear designed for trans or gnc twi’leks to help them express themselves. Also lekku accessories in general are very cute and fun to think about.

Cathar behaving a little bit feline... In cute ways :)

Togruta with sharp teeth and montrals that can grow into all sorts of forms!

Sith Purebloods having black sclera and pointed ears is a pipe dream of mine but it’s cool if they don’t given their integration with Humans.

[theorangedeath]

Comic recs about solving problems with teamwork and the power of friendship

Okay so i really enjoyed making that webcomic rec list and thought i might do some for print comics. Genres are going to be arbitrary as these comics are nothing alike, except that i love all of them, let’s GO [once again they’re all numbered 1 because formatting] 

Assassin Nation - Kyle Starks, Erica Henderson

A group of assassins are hired to protect a shady man. You might think “assassins assassinating using the power of friendship” sounds too good to be true. Well, buddy, not only it’s true, it also gets better - the characters are likable and fun, the writing takes itself just seriously enough to make a genuinely good and engaging story without being pretentious and unfun about it, the art is perfect. Just. tell me who to kill to make this team work together again. I’ll use the power of friendship to do it. 

Lumberjanes - Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Carey Pietsch and more

12 volumes so far, with many graphic and prose novels on the side. Different artists, writers, and yet not only it doesn’t stop being good, it also keeps being good in a way that doesn’t make me tired of it? I often go “i’m glad i read this but it’s time to stop” about comics, so i’m not taking it for granted. A group of girls go to summer camp, solve a bunch of supernatural mysteries, have fun, meet a bear woman. I love it to death and i want every school to have it. 

West Coast Avengers - Kelly Thompson, Stefano Caselli, Triona Farrell, Daniel Di Nicuolo, Gang Hyuk Lim, Moy R.

Kate Bishop is hawkeye. The west coast needs to be avengered. She calls all her super powered friends, super powered acquaintances, and one non super powered friend (clint barton, also hawkeye, was also in charge of the west coast avengers once) for help. The whole thing is shot (drawn?) mockumentary style since they had to agree to be documented in order to afford the whole thing. It’s amazingly written, amazingly arted, very un-amazingly canceled because while it WAS a good ending, it’d be an even better beginning to an ongoing series. 

Deadendia - Hamish Steele 

They live in a theme park where they also work. There’s a talking dog, some heavy supernatural and apocalypse-style mysteries, and ghosts. It’s got such a unique tone to it, light and serious at the same time but in a way i haven’t seen anywhere else, and honestly i need to re-read it because it’s been a while and i don’t remember much except the feeling of “YES THIS IS WHAT IVE BEEN CRAVING WITHOUT KNOWING” while reading. Definitely friendship filled though. 

Mech Cadet Yu - Greg Pak, Takeshi Miyazawa, Triona Farrell 

They’re kids!! They’re bonded with giant alien robots!! They use teamwork to save the world from different, more pointy aliens!! It’s exactly everything it needed to be, familiar and new at the same time, and it’s just so competently made it’s impossible not to enjoy even if you are in the “plot too simplistic” camp (which, don’t be, not everything needs to be groundbreaking, sometimes it’s enough for it to be good and succeed at what it’s trying for). Have i mentioned they’re KIDS WHO ARE FRIENDS WITH GIANT ALIEN ROBOTS oh my GOD it’s cute. 

Misfit City - Kirsten Smith, Kurt Lustgarten, Naomi Franquiz, Brittany Peer

Another one i need to read again but fuck if it isn’t absolutely gorgeous. The group of friends lives in a city in the middle of nowhere where they filmed a goonies type film and since then the whole place is goonies type film themed. There’s a sea mystery and a lot of delightful teen detective tropes, which is a genre i might never get over. The group dynamic is super fun to read and it’s just. so pretty to look at!! 

The Backstagers - James Tynion IV, Ryan Sygh, Walter Baiamonte

When Jory has to choose a school activity (i think it’s an american thing?) he reluctantly chooses drama - only to discover the real drama happens backstage. It’s a whole new world - literally, the backstage is an actual fantasy world filled with cool stuff, and there are mysteries to solve, friendships to develop and sets to build. Love the aesthetic, love the characters, love the world. It was one of the first comics i’ve read so it affected my taste a lot, and i’m glad it did. 

Giant Days - John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin, Liz Fleming, Whitney Cogar and more

One of my favorites ever, and soon to be yours. Susan, Daisy and Esther are friends. They’re roommates in university. One of them is a goth drama magnet (it’s esther). It’s just about the perfect slice of life story - i said it before and i’ll say it again, reading it is less like reading a comic book and more like gossiping with your friends who you love. The art - both Treiman’s and Sarin’s - is dynamic and fun and perfect for the story. My favorite character is susan. Make of that what you will. 

Okay so i think i’m done. There will be more arbitrary genre recs in the future because in case you can’t tell, i fucking love comics and i’m on a mission to make it more accessible and less snobby and gatekeepy and also i cannot stop talking about it so i might as well. As always feel free to dm me about comics or anything? If you figured out my taste and have some recs of your own, i’d love to hear them. Love ya <3