It's hard to pick the most egregious thing from the article because the entire thing is batshit.
It is tricky to pick a path through the entanglements of fascism with other cultural institutions. The rot goes deep. One ready objection to the above praise for early 40K art is that fascists may be more dangerous when they seem totally daft and ramshackle. Donald Trump is a clown. He's easy to laugh at. The post-Gamergate alt-right movement that helped elevate Trump into a "God Emperor" excel at making bigotry seem harmless by presenting it as edgy humour - or even better, as purposeful tastelessness, as cringe. Their basic debating gambit is to lambast their opponents for taking things too seriously.
Still, revisiting artworks like "Lost Patrol" feels like a good start for anybody genuinely committed to the notional anti-fascism of the Space Marine, inasmuch as it dissolves today's consecrated noble killer into a hash of referencing, smashed together in a manner that is, I think, genuinely countercultural, because the mode of composition exhibits no respect for the military, for beauty, for the religious ecstasy of crowds, for empires.
Looking at that posse of pantomime idiots touting their stupid props, these mismatched fools glorying in their own placelessness, these ciphers glued together from car boot salvage, I don't get a sense of masculine empowerment, a feeling of being swept up into an imperial brotherhood of righteous loathing and suspicion. Instead, I see an ethos of self-deprecating abandon and above all, an embrace of disparity, with the things Space Marines are now known for - patriarchal rage, absolute dominion and destruction - reduced to gaudy foreground elements, picked up and brandished like toys. I don't like these figures in the way that Saber Interactive would have us empathise with Titus and co in Space Marine 2, but I am curious about them. I'd like to know where they're going.
Also:
"It's very hard to imagine how they live their lives," Space Marine 2's creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick told me in an interview, shortly after the shooter launched in September.
No it isn't. It's described in great detail in the endless books published about them.
It's hard to pick the most egregious thing from the article because the entire thing is batshit.
Also:
No it isn't. It's described in great detail in the endless books published about them.
They never know a lick about the actual source material, they just pretend to.
But Jesus H Christ the pretentious snobbery in its writing is off the charts.
“Ooh look at all the big words I know 😏”
“I like Space Marine, just not the way Saber wanted me to. I like it ironically because of how bad it is 😏”
“Hmmm my farts smell so delicious😏…”
I hope this idiot gets ALS.