here i was thinking.

"yeah. i dont need to say anything about female space marines. we got enough talk on that. imma close twitter for the night"

and then

i see the same tired old fucking take pop up on my feed. so here i am

here are two arguments that pop up EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. and it bugs me because, surprisingly, its offensive to THE LORE. ironically. yes. the lore...the thing that is always harped on about.

those two things are

-"we already have SoB"

and

-something something male biology

"we already have SoB"

SoB are not the same as Space Marines.

thematically AND BY THE LORE they are very distinct entities that operate on different themes.

SoB are about the powers of devotion and zeal. hence the heavy fire theme and penance theme.

SM are about gene tech

and saying SoB are the same as SM would imply that SM are, just dudes in power armor. they aint. no, you dweebs. you cant become a space marine by just wearing a power armor.

BY LORE, they are super roided up XXXXXXL sized monsters who could pop a linebacker like a zit.

even ogryns are more human than space marines are human.

to use a dog analogy

neandrathals are wolves
normal humans are Labradors
SoB are Labradors in kevlar vest
and SM are Great Danes... if Great Danes were genetically merged with Broc Lesnar and also are wearing a humvee

so saying "SoB = female marines" is being willfully ignorant of the mountains of materials we have on how space marines are monsters compared to humans. and that the imperium ironically needs monsters to survive. which is grimdark.

speaking of monsters. next point

something something male biology

ya. lets talk about biology. and this is gonna be long

what do SM need?

1. second heart. acts as literal second heart. not existent in normal human

2. ossmodula. hormonal. hyperaccelerates bone growth. fuses ribcage. N-E in normal human

3. Biscopea. hormonal. hyperaccelerates muscle growth. nonexistent in normal human

4. Haemastamen. more efficient blood cells. N-E in normal human

5. Larraman's Organ. makes super-platelets. N-E in normal human

6. Catalepsean Node. sleep deprivation counter measure. N-E in normal human

7. Preomnor. neutralises ingested poison. N-E in normal human

8. Omophagea. eat to gain memory. N-E in anything that we know of?

9. Multi-lung. 3rd lung. N-E in normal human

10. Occulobe. optic therapy requirement. N-E in normal human

11. Lyman's Ear. immunity to dizziness and selective hearing. N-E in normal human

12. Sus-an Membrane. for entering suspended animation. N-E in normal human

13. Melanochrome. super radiation adaptation. N-E in normal human

14. Oolitic Kidney. super kidney for super toxins. N-E in normal human

15. Neuroglottis. can sniff out toxins. N-E in normal human

16. Mucranoid. anti-vaccum mucus. N-E in normal human

17. Betcher's Gland. spit acid. N-E in normal human

18. Progenoid Glands. primarch gene materials. N-E in normal human

19. Black Carapace. interface with power armor. N-E in normal human. surgery needed to install.

that was tedious. but my point is. we basically have 19 super organs that make space marines what they are... 3 more for primaris. and for some reason...you HAVE to be male? is it really vital that the two tiny testes need to be present to secrete the extra amount of hormones?

we got 19 super organs. but we need that 1 tiny pair of organs to make it all work or otherwise, its just doesnt work? if you wanna show it by percentage, its 5%. do SM really need that 5%? i dunno. couldnt we just supplement that with artificial added hormones?

a SM is already a frankenstein's monster of added hormone pumping organs. why not just add more organs? do people really think testes are key to humanity becoming super-humans? especially when they got all these other cool super organs?

"uhhh actchually. a male body grows differently"

well wtf does that matter when SM starts as child soldiers when they are just 10-ish. 10? they havent even begun to grow properly for any of this shit to matter.

and what if they dont got the right bits. we can pump in hormones in livestocks to make them grow double the size RIGHT NOW. we had that tech for a while. you think we wont have that tech in the year 40k? the emperor didnt wanna use it? did he lose the tech? was he stupid?

those two points combined together actually brings me to a third. a combined point

the real gripe i have is that people keep on spouting that making female models of any kind is introducing diversity. and thus is making the world of 40k more PC. less grimdark.

SIGH. no

the IG, BY LORE, uses female soldiers cos why the fuck not. a body is a body. within the internal logic. a female guardsmen exists not for diversity sakes. not because the imperium has become soft and "panders" for equality among its troops. its because for IG needs more fodder

if GW just added child soldier units to the IG roster tomorrow, that isnt because the imperium is now pandering to kids. world logic-wise, its probably because the wolves are pounding at the door of the golden palace and the imperium needs LITERALLY every hands on deck.

and in the future, the imperium just may as well decide to utilise the other 50% of the population pool as SM candidates. because if shit gets bad, they are going to need even more ceramite coated monsters.

so basically. more model diversity = more grimdark implications and not the opposite. just basic grasp of the world setting would tell you this. the world setting being "literally everything is shit"

so its two birds with one stone. we get more models. and the setting improves.

PS: as a caveat. the only reservation i have against GW making female SM is that they will coward out and half-ass it

if, in the official arts, they arent basically the fusion of the bride from junji ito's version of frankenstein and Noi from dorohedoro...then they've failed me

that's it

did you read all of that? did you enjoy my essay?

...you fucking weirdo