History YMMV / Warhammer40000

* OnceOriginalNowOverdone:

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The lore of the universe, especially the older versions of it, is rather clear in it's "fascist totalitarianism is bad" message with the [[TheEmpire Imperium of Man]] serving as an example of [[FascistButInefficient a dysfunctional fascist regime]]. But this aesop is watered down by how 1) the Imperium [[VillainProtagonist is the POV faction an overwhelming amount of material]] be it videogames, comics, books, lore blurbs in codices... (Even getting [[Literature/HorusHeresy a hundred books long series about their backstory]]) to the detriment of other factions who aren't given as much SympatheticPOV stories, 2) The Imperium's enemies are never really presented as being better than it ([[BlackAndGrayMorality they will sometimes be just as bad but will often be shown as worse]]), and 3) the Imperium just plain looks ''[[EvilIsCool cool]]'' and draws a lot of its imagery from Crusades-era Europe and 20th-century dictatorships. As a result, it's no surprise that a fair amount of ''40k'' fans are RootingForTheEmpire (and some even have a MisaimedFandom towards it). It got to the point that Games Workshop had to make an [[https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/11/19/the-imperium-is-driven-by-hate-warhammer-is-not/ official statement]] in November 2021 that they are not to be admired.

** Whether or not Female Space Marines should exist is a huge way to stir the playerbase. Some think it's a cool way to shake up the metaplot and maybe bring in more players, and that after so many retcons and changes to the lore over the years, it wouldn't even be that outrageous. Ignoring people who don't want them for sexist reasons, others say it desecrates the established lore of the Marines and should never be considered due to the amount of retcons needed to make it work, or feel they should instead focus on already existing female factions, like the Sisters of Battle, or work to create new groups that can focus on women. It should be noted that GW hasn't announced any plans to introduce female Marines beyond a generic "We're considering many things" statement on the subject of more female models, yet the subject ''still'' gets people frothing angry. The confirmation of the existence of female [[PraetorianGuard Custodians]] in April 2024 further stirred the pot and produced more conflict, though it was generally received more positively than the ongoing female Space Marines debate due to how there was [[FridgeLogic little to no in-universe reason]] why women ''couldn't'' become Custodians, as the process of becoming one is both highly individualized and ends with only the Custodian's soul remaining while the rest of their body has been replaced by superior material. The uproar was still significant, since while the lore itself is somewhat accepted (even if not by all) the fandom remains divided whether the manner of the introduction[[note]] A lore blurb in the codex describing female Custodian participating in Blood Games as if it was a completely normal occurence rather than quite significant development meta-wise and a tweet stating that [[{{Retcon}} the female Custodians have been around since the beginning, but]] OutOfFocus [[/note]] is a good way to do it or not.

* ArchivePanic: As befitting a franchise that started in the 80's and has steadily been growing in popularity, the amount of information and lore for ''Warhammer 40,000'' is pretty huge, so someone having only just been introduced to it has a lot to go through before they find out precisely ''what the hell this is about.'' There are a surprising number channels on Youtube dedicated to nothing but lore videos, to the point that some can release lengthy videos on lore subjects ''every day'' and still never run out of content to discuss.

** Whether or not Female Space Marines should exist is a huge way to stir the playerbase. Some think it's a cool way to shake up the metaplot and maybe bring in more players, and that after so many retcons and changes to the lore over the years, it wouldn't even be that outrageous. Ignoring people who don't want them for sexist reasons, others say it desecrates the established lore of the Marines and should never be considered due to the amount of retcons needed to make it work, or feel they should instead focus on already existing female factions, like the Sisters of Battle, or work to create new groups that can focus on women. It should be noted that GW hasn't announced any plans to introduce female Marines beyond a generic "We're considering many things" statement on the subject of more female models, yet the subject ''still'' gets people frothing angry. The confirmation of the existence of female [[PraetorianGuard Custodians]] in April 2024 further stirred the pot and produced more conflict, though it was generally received more positively than the ongoing female Space Marines debate due to how there was [[FridgeLogic little to no in-universe reason]] why women ''couldn't'' become Custodians, as the process of becoming one is both highly individualized and ends with only the Custodian's soul remaining while the rest of their body has been replaced by superior material.