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Repentias got daemonetted/dewytched. What a waste.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Casbyness wrote:
They should look like the Briar Queen with a human face, not Vasquez from Aliens.

This. This right here is the crux of the whole thing.

There's not 'repentant' about these. These miniatures don't look like people who are broken with grief and the need to make up for sin (real or otherwise). They're just determined angry buzz-cut girls wielding giant swords. And that'd be fine, if these weren't meant to be Sisters Repentia.

I did see one hilarious/cringe comment on GW's Facebook: "I'm so glad there isn't a Mistresses of Repentance there robbing them of their agency!"

I mean who talks like that?

Lol someone really said that? I swear I lose more and more faith in humanity by the minute. Good thing I avoid those facebook threads. And btw I sure hope there is a mistress of repentance either in the kit or as a clampack model, hopefully it's just something that they chose not to show in this bulletin.

 Casbyness wrote:
And Repentia are not in any way shape or form "looking to earn redemption".

... C:WH disagrees with you. As does every single codex since.

Repentia are Sisters that have failed to live up to the standards of the Adepta Sororitas. They seek to earn redemption for their failures through their service to the Emperor-- either from dying in His name, or by doing astounding deeds that redeems them for their past failures, as in the case of Saint Celestine or any Repentia that earns their way back in to the Sororitas proper.

That is the definition of what a Repentia is, their defining trait.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Thargrim wrote:
Lol someone really said that? I swear I lose more and more faith in humanity by the minute.

Pretty sure, assuming the post even went the way HBMC is paraphrasing, that it was joking/sarcastic.

 Melissia wrote:
Pretty sure, assuming the post even went the way HBMC is paraphrasing, that it was joking/sarcastic.

It wasn't a joke.

"A+ badass warriors fighting for redemption. Also super glad there's no sign of a mistress of repentance removing their agency. Thankyou so so much for such amazing and dynamic designs."

Right here. Doesn't make much to find it.

Doesn't link me to any such phrase when I search it with ctrl+f. Facebook is kinda dumb sometimes (edit: okay, most of the time).

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Casbyness wrote:
They should look like the Briar Queen with a human face, not Vasquez from Aliens.

This. This right here is the crux of the whole thing.

There's not 'repentant' about these. These miniatures don't look like people who are broken with grief and the need to make up for sin (real or otherwise). They're just determined angry buzz-cut girls wielding giant swords. And that'd be fine, if these weren't meant to be Sisters Repentia.

I did see one hilarious/cringe comment on GW's Facebook: "I'm so glad there isn't a Mistresses of Repentance there robbing them of their agency!"

I mean who talks like that?

I feel like we are on the same page with this. I also feel like some of the people who are defending the models are doing this from a starting point of wanting the Repentia to be a representation of strong, empowered, non-sexualised real world females; so that the models strike a chord with certain audiences.

Now I am fully on board with that kind of idea in principle, but selecting Sister Repentia as the vehicle for such as cause is like selecting Tyranid Hive Tyrants as the mascot for an animal rights charity, or cheering for an Eileen Wuornos action figure because said figure's appearance is more realistic looking than a Barbie doll.

Sisters of Battle, especially Sisters Repentia, are not where anybody should be trying to find positive or realistic female representation in the 40K universe. SOBs are psychotic zealots. They possess the Imperium's most fascistic, fanatical and extermist views then spend their entire lives doing nothing but backing those views up with self-righteous violence. There is nothing positive and no worthwhile agency to anything related with SOBs. They are absolute monsters, and of all their subgroups the most abhorrent are the Repentia. Sisters who have first been completely brainwashed into believing the only value they will ever have is the love of the Emperor, then utterly hollowed out by the further revelation that said Emperor has cast them aside.

You're actually accusing me of making it up? Just scroll to their post about the latest Sisters update. As I said, it's not hard to find.

I'm saying I couldn't find it in a low-effort searchbar function, and low-effort's about all I'm willing to give.

 Casbyness wrote:
Sisters who have first been completely brainwashed into believing the only value they will ever have is the love of the Emperor, then utterly hollowed out by the further revelation that said Emperor has cast them aside.

And then there was someone who just hasn't read a single bit of lore of the Sisters of Battle at all.

Seriously, this little diatribe, plus you claiming Repentia aren't seeking redemption (even though their redemption-seeking quality has defined them since the very creation of the unit), really puts doubts in my mind on your understanding of them as a concept. Every faction in 40k is monstrous from the outside. Space Marines are horrific abominations against the human genome, who care for nothing but war and death. Tyranids go without saying. Eldar are manipulative, self-important jerks whom either have devolved in to the most horrific kind of hedonism possible, or such hideous self-restraint that they're dying off. Orks are horrifying, nigh-unkillable hordes of insane warmongering killers that bring their own ecosystem everywhere they go, and where they go, they're there for keeps. Even the Imperial Guard is horrifying, with its casual disdain for the lives of anything around it, doing everything for victory. That doesn't stop any individual member of any of them from being heroic and an example which one might wish to emulate.

It was the literal first comment that showed up for me.

I even took a screenshot of it. You can now claim I doctored it if you like (beyond removing the poster's name).

Wasn't in the top ten for me. My guess is that Facebook's algorithms arrange comments differently depending on your facebook history.

 Melissia wrote:
Wasn't in the top ten for me. My guess is that Facebook's algorithms arrange comments differently depending on your facebook history.

Nope it’s definitely the first comment, I guess you just missed it.

A bit more on topic but I still think the biggest issues looking at them is that there likely bigger than the ladies in the power armour to the point were sisters power armour would not fit them. Also looking at the lovely dancer style poses I have a sneaky suspicion that if they stood up straight there going to be taller than power armoured Primaris.

Paint job would do a lot here, I'm sure we're going to some amazing ones once a few good artist start going mad with scripture tattoos across their bare flesh like you have in the Kopinski illustration.

Plus making the brands and cybernetics stand out a little more as being more than just metal rings on healthy flesh.

Power armour is expensive to maintain, not just because you need fancy parts, but probably because you need a lot of drugs to deal with the results of the implantation and neural interfaces. AdMech bionics don't usually leave people with a healthy glow (other than radioactive ones). Becoming Repentia means you're going to have infection and inflammation around your bionics as you're not taking the immunosuppressants any more and can't keep things as sterile as a sister in their cell could. The itch and pain from the one part of you that is still a battle sister is going to always be with you, even if you renounce you allegiance in shame - part of you will always be a battle sister, and that part will hurt until you can redeem yourself.

Pale grimy flesh, but red and inflamed around the ports, and then criss-crossed with tattoos and self flagellant scars, and there would be no doubt what they are or what universe they belong in. You're just missing a layer of texture on the models that the renders don't provide.

BrianDavion wrote:
I think we'll have a differant view once we see it fully painted..

Here you go:

 Melissia wrote:

 Casbyness wrote:
And Repentia are not in any way shape or form "looking to earn redemption".

... C:WH disagrees with you. As does every single codex since.

Repentia are Sisters that have failed to live up to the standards of the Adepta Sororitas. They seek to earn redemption for their failures through their service to the Emperor-- either from dying in His name, or by doing astounding deeds that redeems them for their past failures, as in the case of Saint Celestine or any Repentia that earns their way back in to the Sororitas proper.

That is the definition of what a Repentia is, their defining trait.

I think their defining trait is that they've had the one thing that gave their life any meaning taken away from them, and then been told that if they rally their fellow sisters by charging that Lascannon without any protection, self-regard or possible hope of reaching it before said Lascannon blows them to pieces, then maybe...just maybe...the Emperor might not hate them quite so much for being such an abject failure.

Any Repentia who said "I'm fighting in this battle so I can get my honour back" would be shot on the spot. There is no "I" for Repentia, they lost the privilege of being recognised as a person when they dishonoured their Order. I don't disagree that the lore - from a neutral standpoint - states that Repentia seek to earn redemption. It's just that applying the statement to them in first person is like saying Captain America fights bad guys because he wants to earn a medal. That sort of thing doesn't even remotely enter a Repentia's mind.

SeanDrake wrote:
Nope it’s definitely the first comment, I guess you just missed it.

Nope. Not in the top ten for me. Also, my response to its existence can be summed up with the letter "k". I'm really not interested much in HBMC's attempt to inject politics in to this thread.

SeanDrake wrote:
A bit more on topic but I still think the biggest issues looking at them is that there likely bigger than the ladies in the power armour to the point were sisters power armour would not fit them. Also looking at the lovely dancer style poses I have a sneaky suspicion that if they stood up straight there going to be taller than power armoured Primaris.

That is a good point. I wonder if they're going to be oversized compared to sororitas power armor to look "heroic scale". That might look a little funky side by side.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Casbyness wrote:
Any Repentia who said "I'm fighting in this battle so I can get my honour back" would be shot on the spot.

Then every single Repentia would be shot on the spot according to you.

Of course, for Repentia, it's not about "honor", but about redemption in the eyes of the Emperor for their failings in their past service to He Upon His Golden Throne. You can call that a twisted sense of honor if you really want, but it's really more of a sense of duty. Repentia have failed the Emperor in some fashion. And so, in penitence, they serve as Repentia (thus the name) to seek redemption in His eyes. Most likely this will result in death. But death in service to the Emperor is redemption.

 Melissia wrote:

SeanDrake wrote:
Nope it’s definitely the first comment, I guess you just missed it.

Nope. Not in the top ten for me. Also, my response to its existence can be summed up with the letter "k". I'm really not interested much in HBMC's attempt to inject politics in to this thread..

Excellent. So how about we stop arguing about whether or not a Facebook comment exists and move on?

As an aside, I'm surprised so few have referenced the Blanche concept art for Repentia given how much people say they love his artwork and influence on the setting.



Then again, GW itself has never used that concept art for Repentia. But the "punk" look of these new miniatures certainly reference the punk nature of that artwork (one of the few Blanche pieces for Sisters that I actually think are okay) pretty accurately, even if htey could have gone a few steps further in that direction.

Commenting on a dumb post is "injecting politics"?

Low bar there Mel.

 Melissia wrote:
As an aside, I'm surprised so few have referenced the Blanche concept art for Repentia given how much people say they love his artwork and influence on the setting.

Spoiler:

Then again, GW itself has never used that concept art for Repentia. But the "punk" look of these new miniatures certainly reference the punk nature of that artwork (one of the few Blanche pieces for Sisters that I actually think are okay) pretty accurately, even if htey could have gone a few steps further in that direction.

Probably because people recognise the naked, wrapped in script versions more. Blanche's influence is becoming increasingly less...influential in 40k. Many of the newer players I've seen flat out dislike Blanche's art.

I mean, I'm a long-term player who generally doesn't like Blanche's art. That's one of the exceptions. But you do make a point there.

 Melissia wrote:
As an aside, I'm surprised so few have referenced the Blanche concept art for Repentia given how much people say they love his artwork and influence on the setting.

Spoiler:

Yeah, I for one would have been much happier with that as a direction for the Repentia.

 Sim-Life wrote:
Many of the newer players I've seen flat out dislike Blanche's art.

Not just newer players - there's always been a fairly sizeable group who disliked his art. Which will happen with any artist who has a particularly distinctive style. I've grown much more fond of it over the years, but starting out in the '90's when his work was still all over GW's ranges I hated his artwork, while simultaneously loving his ideas, and being continually puzzled as to why there wasn't more effort being put in to make the miniatures reflect the art.

Although in light of GW's current direction, that's one of those 'be careful what you wish for' situations, I guess...

 Melissia wrote:
I'm saying I couldn't find it in a low-effort searchbar function, and low-effort's about all I'm willing to give.

 Casbyness wrote:
Sisters who have first been completely brainwashed into believing the only value they will ever have is the love of the Emperor, then utterly hollowed out by the further revelation that said Emperor has cast them aside.

And then there was someone who just hasn't read a single bit of lore of the Sisters of Battle at all.

Seriously, this little diatribe, plus you claiming Repentia aren't seeking redemption (even though their redemption-seeking quality has defined them since the very creation of the unit), really puts doubts in my mind on your understanding of them as a concept. Every faction in 40k is monstrous from the outside. Space Marines are horrific abominations against the human genome, who care for nothing but war and death. Tyranids go without saying. Eldar are manipulative, self-important jerks whom either have devolved in to the most horrific kind of hedonism possible, or such hideous self-restraint that they're dying off. Orks are horrifying, nigh-unkillable hordes of insane warmongering killers that bring their own ecosystem everywhere they go, and where they go, they're there for keeps. Even the Imperial Guard is horrifying, with its casual disdain for the lives of anything around it, doing everything for victory. That doesn't stop any individual member of any of them from being heroic and an example which one might wish to emulate.

As more of an old school player who remembers the original Hammersmith store, I'm disturbed by the idea of finding any character in 40k 'heroic' or worthy of emulation. Maybe the Deathwing protagonists from the Space Hulk expansion of the same name, but even then not really.

Just because you don't have time to read up on the past 25+ years of setting development doesn't mean it doesn't exist

 Melissia wrote:
As an aside, I'm surprised so few have referenced the Blanche concept art for Repentia given how much people say they love his artwork and influence on the setting.

Spoiler:

Then again, GW itself has never used that concept art for Repentia. But the "punk" look of these new miniatures certainly reference the punk nature of that artwork (one of the few Blanche pieces for Sisters that I actually think are okay) pretty accurately, even if htey could have gone a few steps further in that direction.

That was art made for the Inquisitor 54mm game, right? It was never intended as art representing Repentia as a whole, just that one who was serving an Inquisitor (hence the armor, guns, and lack of an Eviscerator).

While I would rather have models based on the Kopinski art that has been shown, I would happily take models based on this piece over what we have.

I still see what we have in this thread as a vast improvement over the current ones. Probably the only thing that actually bothers me is how disturbingly deep the brands are on their forehead. They're basically bone-deep. But ritual scarification does fit Repentia so eh?

 Melissia wrote:
I still see what we have in this thread as a vast improvement over the current ones. Probably the only thing that actually bothers me is how disturbingly deep the brands are on their forehead. They're basically bone-deep. But ritual scarification does fit Repentia so eh?

I mentioned that a while back. I’ve been talking about it somewhere else, and we think paint will help make it look less weird.

 Melissia wrote:
Just because you don't have time to read up on the past 25+ years of setting development doesn't mean it doesn't exist

Wait I know this one, I remember how this works from back in the early 2000s.

Two people disagree about X, so one of them starts to add implied insults and unsupported barbs to their comments. First something like "I'm not even sure if you even understand X at all", then later moving on to more obvious bait like "just because you're clearly ignorant of everything about X, doesn't mean the rest of us are".

Comments that are intended to sting and provoke a response, for the sake of an argument.

Hmm, what's the next move that the responder is supposed to use in this game?

Oh I remember - they just rise above it and move on with their life.

I don't know the lore and I didn't know what the original models looked like, but I think these are the worst models I think I've ever seen GW make. They just completely lack that sense of over the top heavy metal grimdark. No style at all. They are the worst thing that a model can be - boring.

Then I come in this thread and see all sorts of amazing art (I like the Blanche picture) and pictures of the previous models and my disappointment is heavily increased. Those models have some fething style. I look at them and I can feel the angry zealotry.

I was planning on starting a SoB army when they came out, but I've been extremely nonplussed by the renders showed to date. They are just sort of there, and I've been wracking my brains trying to figure out why these models feel so bland compared to the technically inferior metal ones, thinking that they'll probably look better when painted - but today's renders have completely turned me off of getting the army. Who wants to run a army of soccer moms who just got out of their spin class?

I don't think it is purely political correctness, but it does feel like the redesign has its roots in political correctness. I'm not a fan of companies fixing things which aren't broken out of an irrational fear of their customers, but if that's the way you have to go, then do it better, GW. Up until now, it seems like every female model EXCEPT Sisters of Battle has been awesome.

 insaniak wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
I think we'll have a differant view once we see it fully painted..

Here you go:

Spoiler:

Well played

 insaniak wrote:

 Melissia wrote:
As an aside, I'm surprised so few have referenced the Blanche concept art for Repentia given how much people say they love his artwork and influence on the setting.

Spoiler:

Yeah, I for one would have been much happier with that as a direction for the Repentia.

 Sim-Life wrote:
Many of the newer players I've seen flat out dislike Blanche's art.

Not just newer players - there's always been a fairly sizeable group who disliked his art. Which will happen with any artist who has a particularly distinctive style. I've grown much more fond of it over the years, but starting out in the '90's when his work was still all over GW's ranges I hated his artwork, while simultaneously loving his ideas, and being continually puzzled as to why there wasn't more effort being put in to make the miniatures reflect the art.

Honestly, for most of his really influential period, making the miniatures reflect his art just wasn't feasible- and I mean that from a modeling/casting perspective. The spinebreaker heels and other delicate details just didn't work the few times they tried them. Even in modern plastics the posterchild Blanche Sister ('Canoness Veridyan') has several points where the proportions and details just don't work and the sculptor had to compromise in a fairly clunky way. (Heels, right leg, pistol, etc)