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I just picked a few guys at random who's fluff I don't like. Sure add shrike the list. Or any other marine hero who ever punched out a bloodthirster single handedly.

Its all gotten silly but we each still have our own opinion of what has surpassed silly and moved on into intolerable.

...but you play Orks.

They are a ridiculous, over the top faction in a ridiculous, over the top setting. But that's what makes it fun. If I want serious, believable science-fiction I watch Star Trek.
Space Marines are a ridiculous concept made from 12 year olds right from the beginning, with all their shoulder pads of awesomeness, plot armour, helmets with evil faces, miniature rocket launchers etc. And so what? There are grey SM with wolf-stuff, red marines with vampire stuff, blue marines with roman stuff, black marines with raven stuff, dark blue marines with batman stuff and so on. And all of them are described as awesome despite defending a ruthless dictatorship that could be Hitler's wet dream. I don't really see what's especially over the top on space wolves, when there were always Space Orks.

A cool concept in origin, until the joke was lost to the writers and model designers, and we got Thunderwolves, Super Santa Sleight and Murderfang.

Space Wolves are currently a fantastic example of what happens when subtetly goes down the gutter, and a fun faction becomes stupid and ridiculous beyond any reasonable measure.

 Jayden63 wrote:
And its not just a space wolf problem. Every army is turning into this. I'm not sure which is the worse fluff piece, murderfang. Draigo, the sanguinar, or that one necron guy who traps souls for eternity just for the lols.

Oh my. Draigo haunts my dreams, but i removed the Sanguinor. Is Space Wolves level, but at least does not ruin the whole faction.

Is from 5th edition that things changed. BTW, Sanguinor and Draigo are ideas of the Talented mr. Ward - the same fluff murderer that put orc shamans in the Lotr evil armies

On the setting: the setting is over the top, but as other posters suggested, to create something over the top you have to somehow be more subtle. You have to pay a great attention to nuances of the tone, naming, and so on. Epic, but not bombastic. Awesome, but not ridiculous. Naming that winks to literature or pop culture (or even politics), not unimaginative Bloodblooders of blood vs wolwolfener of wolfang - the bloody wolfing.

 Commissar Terrence wrote:
I was wondering what's the communities opinion on what the space wolves are like to you. I personally have a old grudge towards them


Thanks

They are awful. They are the most ridiculous SM chapter there is. It like the SW never evolved out of the 80s cheesey-ness like the rest of 40k. I don't understand how they can be taken seriously. I hope the Dark Angels blast Fenris to dust.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
They are a ridiculous, over the top faction in a ridiculous, over the top setting. But that's what makes it fun. If I want serious, believable science-fiction I watch Star Trek.

There's a line that gets crossed at some point however, where the suspension of disbelief just can't continue, particularly with the way GW portrays most stuff in a largely serious as opposed to fun-cartoony manor.

Space Marines are a ridiculous concept made from 12 year olds right from the beginning, with all their shoulder pads of awesomeness, plot armour, helmets with evil faces, miniature rocket launchers etc. And so what? There are grey SM with wolf-stuff, red marines with vampire stuff, blue marines with roman stuff, black marines with raven stuff, dark blue marines with batman stuff and so on. And all of them are described as awesome despite defending a ruthless dictatorship that could be Hitler's wet dream. I don't really see what's especially over the top on space wolves, when there were always Space Orks.

Orks are and always have been the comedic gimmick, a dark comedy streak running through the universe. The problem with SW's is that it just doesn't work the same way, they try to be way too many things at the same time, and their ridiculousness tries to blend with real world military stuff too much. Stuff like firing artillery by *smell* and then rushing said artillery forward so it can watch the stuff go boom when it lands. They try to be dark and brooding executioners, while at the same time being total party bros. They try to be "out for the little guy", but also genetically engineered psycho-indoctrinated super soldiers. They try to be total military geniuses, but also drunken pranksters. They try to be werewolves and psycho berzerkers, but it's all just a ruse to fool their enemies to underestimate them and turn out to actually be disciplined combined-arms soldiers instead...except then they actually are psycho berzerkers and werewolves too. During the HH era they're totally serving the Secular Emperor who is working to banish outmoded thoughts of spirits and religion, but they're totally shamanistic. During the HH they totally don't use Psykers because they're bad, they just harness the native power of Fenris...

There's a lot of really poorly thought out fluff, major contradictions, and pretentiousness in their fluff. Blood Angels fluff at least is largely consistent and the Ward-era naming got toned down in their last book (Dreadnaught weapons are no longer "Blood Fists").

 SickSix wrote:

 Commissar Terrence wrote:
I was wondering what's the communities opinion on what the space wolves are like to you. I personally have a old grudge towards them


Thanks

They are awful. They are the most ridiculous SM chapter there is. It like the SW never evolved out of the 80s cheesey-ness like the rest of 40k. I don't understand how they can be taken seriously. I hope the Dark Angels blast Fenris to dust.

Hey man, don't knock the 80's cheesyness, it was cool, and marines were much more sci-fi focused back in the RT era, the over-the-top wolfy-naming conventions never would have come out of RT era Space Wolves, and Thunderwolves would not have fit in then at all

There is certainly a line (and a thin one at that) where suspension of disbelief is crossed and suddenly becomes over the top cheesy.

However, I enjoy SW as an army, and yea I'll admit it, I love Santa's Sleigh.

Mostly, SW to me is a sign that someone at GW is keeping the Fantasy heart of 40K alive. The more the game becomes "sci-fi" the more I dislike it. 40K has always been fantasy in space, not sci-fi. The more it moves towards shooting/technology the more I lose interest. Thats why I hate armies like Tau and how popular they have become. The Imperium should have exterminated them when they had the chance.