The never-ending battle against woke Hollywood and SJW infused entertainment media [trigger warning]

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The memes just keep on coming. This news really has people in a frenzy. I HIGHLY doubt that this will put a significant dent in 40k, but funny nonetheless...

 

Honestly I'm both surprised and unsurprised.

Surprised because I thought the Sisters of Silence were the Custodes' female counterparts, so there would have been no need for GW to make female Custodes when they could just do something to expand the minuscule Sisters of Silence range. Of course their top-knotted models do look so naff that I can't blame GW for shifting away from them, though that could simply be dealt with by allowing the existing models to have normal heads full of hair.

But I'm also not surprised, as for a while I've noticed GW making a concerted effort to make more female models and, in particular, more female named characters - all the Cities of Skubmar named characters recently released for AoS were female, Castellan Creed has been replaced by his girl power daughter and female characters have been taking centre stage in Black Library novels more and more. Coincidence? I think not.

As for what I think of it in 40K, I'm not invested in the newer 40K rules anyway so I'm not bothered as to whether female Custodes will be given broken rules or anything. Moreover I stubbornly refuse to believe in the existence of Primaris Marines, or in Thorgrim Grudgebearer being stabbed in the back by Deathmaster Snickh and the Warhammer Fantasy world being blown up - this is simply just another bad lore decision that, as far as I'm concerned, does not exist. GW may write the canon but as a consumer I can choose which canon to consume and which to ignore. Same as with Star Wars and every other franchise that has been wokified.

With Necrons it's rather different - very much like Tomb Kings individual Necrons have a level of memory (and thus perceived identity) in accordance with their rank - Necron Warriors, like Tomb King Skeletons, have only retained memories of their training and their military experience. Indeed the Warriors aren't even given the programming to speak, except for a groan or howl of pain when they are destroyed. Immortals can speak, but in a monotonous voice like that of a Battle Droid, and have barely any more memory engrams than Warriors. Both of these units are thus gender-neutral because whatever gender identity they once had is forgotten - they have lost the understanding of what gender is and what gender they once were. From Lychguard upwards though Necrons do preserve more of their personality so female Necrons can certainly exist. Indeed it's already established that female Phaerons exist, called Phaerakhs, so I'm not bothered if any female Necron characters appear so long as they're a Lychguard or higher in rank (and if it's a Warrior or Immortal GW are gender-bending, what's a Warrior or Immortal doing as a character anyway? They haven't the programming capacity to lead).

 

What's this... we're in agreement!

I did not know this. Thanks for the info!

It doesn't bother me either. What I'm wondering is will it end up hurting 40k in the long run as it did for Star Wars. For some reason I don't think so, but I could be wrong. GW is such a juggernaut in the wargaming space; essentially uncontested. I think the only thing that can (eventually) threaten GW is the refinement and proliferation of 3D printers.

 

And one I forgot yesterday - if you watch the 4th Edition AoS trailer, you'll notice the two significant 'good' characters in it (the Freeguild Steelhelm who spots the Skaven emerging and the protagonist Sigmarine) are female (of course up against a cowardly male Skaven Warlord).

I don't think so either, principally because until now GW have been a lot more subtle about it than Disney Star Wars - they simply added in more female models alongside male models, and avoided breaking any canon for wokist purposes or getting any of their new female characters to do stupidly OP things as Disney Wars has. And it also helps that a fair few of their female models have been visually impressive, compared to the bland female characters Disney Wars came up with that have pretty much no redeeming qualities (Rey, Rose e.t.c). Moreover, they still have a lot of cool male character models that people like and want to buy too.

3D-Printers are as you say going to become more accessible and affordable with time, but I'm sceptical as to whether they can pose a threat to GW alone. They're not always reliable and can produce botched prints, and while they're great for making individual model sculpts and scenery, it is a lot more time consuming to 3D-print an entire unit (which is why I've noticed that a lot of sellers of 3D-printed sculpts online charge a lot more for a unit of 10+ infantry models than they would for a unit of 3 Monstrous Infantry or Monstrous Cavalry, or even a small monster - charge per model seems to be a big factor in their pricing strategy).

In that regard, other companies that make hard-plastic kits for more affordable prices (Mantic, North Star, Fireforge, Wargames Atlantic e.t.c) win out - being able to buy whole armies' worth of models for more affordable prices is a big selling point. These have also been slowly but steadily growing their ranges and winning respect in the eyes of the wargaming community. I think if GW ever do meet a reckoning, it'll be because their customer bases turn to a mixture of both of these alternative sources.

 

To be honest, I like having more female models in the game. I've picked up a few myself. I think you're correct, that GW are still producing quality, so they might be able to avoid the Star Wars and Marvel debacle that Disney are facing.

Of course it might all go to shit when GW announces that the Emperor of Mankind is actually the Empress of Womankind... and has been all this time.

True, but the technology is still in its relative infancy and continually maturing. Over the next decade they will become cheaper, faster and easier to use. At the same time, they will be capable of producing better quality prints. 3D scanning technology will also become more accessible. There will come a time where making a copy of a GW sculpt will be as easy as making a photocopy (I'm exaggerating of course, but point holds).

More competition will always be a threat to GW... especially if these companies can close the model/sculpt quality gap between themselves and GeeDubs. While I can't picture any of these companies single handedly competing with the big dog, each and every one of them can slowly chip away at GW's market share.