Ultramarines the Movie

[andrewgpaul]

The screenplay has been written by someone who needs no introduction to Warhammer 40,000 fans – best-selling author Dan Abnett.

Dan Abnett.

This is the man who writes entire goddamn novels in the present tense. We're so fucked. So fucking fucked.

Huh? Which ones were they?

[Rye]

This is the man who writes entire goddamn novels in the present tense. We're so fucked. So fucking fucked.

An astute observation with only three minor flaws:

1. Abnett is a decent writer and I would consistently recommend him above the majority of BL writers.
2. Film scripts are written entirely in present tense.
3. Film scripts are written entirely in present tense. I realise that this is technically only two flaws, but the second one was so big it deserved repeating. It's like you couldn't have picked a worse reason to complain about someone being chosen as the screenwriter. Not only is it inaccurate, but if it were accurate, it would actually make for better scriptwriting.

[Sidewinder]

When I got 'Codex: Space Marines', I read something that justified all the "Smurfs SUCK! Nerd RAGE!" I found online.

It can be said that there are three categories of Space Marine Chapter. The first and largest group could perhaps be called the scions of Guilliman - those chapters directly descended from the Ultramarines and their Promogenitors. <snip>

Chapters in the second categories are disciples who owe their genetic inheritance to another Primarch, but follow the Codex Astartes as keenly as their divergent heritage allows. <snip> These Chapters can never be Ultramarines, for their gene-seed is not that of Roboute Guilliman. Nevertheless, they will ever aspire to the standards and teachings of the great Primarch.

The third and final group are aberrants; Chapters who, through quirk of gene-seed, mutation or stubbornness, eschew the Codex Astartes in favor of other structural and combat doctrines. Some, such as the Blood Angels and their successors, strive to be worthy of Guilliman's legacy, but their recalcitrant gene-seed drives them ever further from it.

Yes, the Codex just dissed every Space Marine who does NOT have Ultramarine gene-seed, using language commonly seen in white supremist publications. The efforts of other Chapters' Primarchs during the Horus Heresy- Dorn's heroic defense of the Imperial Palace, Sanguinius' sacrifice, etc.- are NOTHING compared to a Primarch who did nothing while daemons were tearing apart the cradle of mankind.

[Manus Celer Dei]

No-one particularly cared the last time you posted that ridiculous rant, why would you do so again?

Also, it's not at all surprising that a group as prideful and confident of themselves as a chapter of Space Marines would consider their particular Primarch to be the Mack-Daddy compared to the others. I did like how you managed to compare that to white supremacist stuff, though. That was funny.

[Connor MacLeod]

This is new? I'm pretty sure you can trace back to 2nd or 3rd edition that the Ultramarines gene-seed was dominant in the whole of the Astartes, making up something like half the current Chapters in existence. On top of that they spun out the greatest number of second founding Chapters, and the High Lords have long been noted to prefer Ultramarines gene-seed over others. When you add to that that Gulliman had the largest post-Heresy Legion, was noted to be singelhandedly keeping the Imperium together as well as masterminding the future military structure of said Imperium.... I forget what the point of the bitching is, really.

[Sidewinder]

Also, it's not at all surprising that a group as prideful and confident of themselves as a chapter of Space Marines would consider their particular Primarch to be the Mack-Daddy compared to the others.

My problem is that the lines imply the other loyalist Primarchs and their Chapters are inferior to Guilliman and the Ultramarines. Note that the codex says, "These Chapters can never be Ultramarines, for their gene-seed is not that of Roboute Guilliman. Nevertheless, they will ever aspire to the standards and teachings of the great Primarch." (Emphasis mine.) It does not say, "They will ever aspire to the standards and teachings of their great Primarchss."

So the Imperial Fists must worship Guilliman instead of honoring Dorn as their father? The White Scars must refer to the Ultramarine Primarch as the "Great Khan" in their battle cries? The Blood Angel Primarch's sacrifices during the Horus Heresy is nothing compared to Guilliman's? Guilliman taught Corvus everything he knew about stealth and infiltration, so the Raven Guard must worship Guilliman as their Primarch's Primarch?

With arrogance and hubris, it's no wonder the Ultramarines are so unpopular.

[SylasGaunt]

My problem is that the lines imply the other loyalist Primarchs and their Chapters are inferior to Guilliman and the Ultramarines. Note that the codex says, "These Chapters can never be Ultramarines, for their gene-seed is not that of Roboute Guilliman. Nevertheless, they will ever aspire to the standards and teachings of the great Primarch." (Emphasis mine.) It does not say, "They will ever aspire to the standards and teachings of their great Primarchss."

So the Imperial Fists must worship Guilliman instead of honoring Dorn as their father? The White Scars must refer to the Ultramarine Primarch as the "Great Khan" in their battle cries? The Blood Angel Primarch's sacrifices during the Horus Heresy is nothing compared to Guilliman's? Guilliman taught Corvus everything he knew about stealth and infiltration, so the Raven Guard must worship Guilliman as their Primarch's Primarch?

With arrogance and hubris, it's no wonder the Ultramarines are so unpopular.

Yes the Ultramarines consider themselves to be the shit. I mean they are the standard for Space Marine chapters.

Of course on the other hand if any of them ever took that attitude of 'you're trying to be like us but your genes prevent it!' to say.. the Space Wolves, they'd be laughed out of the room. Same with most of the chapters you named though they might be insulted to greater or lesser degree.

[Shroom Man 777]

The Raven Guard's Primarch created a mutant horde of deformed clone troopers to replenish his Chapter's numbers, and he ended up having to put them out of their misery and in atonement had to venture into the Eye of Terror. The Imperial Fist's most successful chapter are the utterly loony Black Templar whose officers end up risking court martial for ordering simple fucking tactical retreats. The Space Wolves are a bunch of drunken fratboys with hairy armpits who piss people off, and the Blood Angels have dumb mutations and thank the Emperor you don't have Lord Dante sparkling when exposed to sunlight or some shit. The Dark Angels are a bunch of pricks.

Between utter lunatics and shmucks sporting mutations (that, in the Imperium, are heavily looked down upon), it is understandable why the Ultramarines think they're hot shit when they've consistently provided genetic material for upstanding and well-to-do successor Chapters that don't spawn mutants or lunatics, and when they've been doing this for thousands of years.

The Imperium is an organization that has no moral qualms with enacting space genocide. What's so surprising about the Ultramarines being pleased with their racial purity? The fact that the spawn of their loins don't have recessive genes that turn people into fucking vampires or cause overgrown armpit hairs is, by Imperium standards, a good thing.

[Connor MacLeod]

Some of the codex stuff reads as propoganda, so you treat it as such. Its probably small wonder (given the reasons I alluded to above) that the Ultramarines might be so idolized by the Imperium, they're largely favored (rightly or wrongly) by the Administratum (Guilliman, if we believe the stories, played a huge role in holding the Imperium togethre and forging the modern Imperium post Heresy) so obviously any accounts would carry that slant.

[Ryan Thunder]

So the tense of his writing, and not the fact that he has written one of the "classic" 40k works (Eisenhorn) and a definitive ongoing series (Gaunt), determines the fate of the movie?

Yes, because he's liable to do something just as continually grating in the movie.

[Shroom Man 777]

So the tense of his writing, and not the fact that he has written one of the "classic" 40k works (Eisenhorn) and a definitive ongoing series (Gaunt), determines the fate of the movie?

Yes, because he's liable to do something just as continually grating in the movie.

Goddamn, the movie's going to be presented in present tense! Holy shit, that's impossible and if he somehow manages to do that, I'd be pretty cross too. I mean, a present tense movie? Grrr! Arrrgh! Chainsword!

Seriously though, between Eisenhorn and Cain, I'm pretty much satisfied with those two forays into 40k and I don't even bother with picking up other 40k materials in light of my satisfaction with Abnett and Mitchell. Sounds like I'm not missing much, anyway.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Seriously though, between Eisenhorn and Cain, I'm pretty much satisfied with those two forays into 40k and I don't even bother with picking up other 40k materials in light of my satisfaction with Abnett and Mitchell. Sounds like I'm not missing much, anyway.

They're certainly my two favorite Black Library authors, though I was a fan of Abnett a while before I read any of his 40K stuff. The thing I like about Mitchell's Cain books is he's not afraid of injecting a bit of sillyness and humour into the proceedings.

[PainRack]

They're certainly my two favorite Black Library authors, though I was a fan of Abnett a while before I read any of his 40K stuff. The thing I like about Mitchell's Cain books is he's not afraid of injecting a bit of sillyness and humour into the proceedings.

Mitchell makes even GrimDark FUN.
In any other author hand, incense, malfunctioning hololith, major Chaos/Ork incursions and heroic characters would be dressed in enough Goth that one can feel the skies darkening as you open the book.

[PainRack]

"Battle of Macragge: The Movie" would be awesome.

No. I cannot believe ANY director will be able to pull that off in a single movie. A trilogy, perhaps, but as a single movie, the Battle of Macragge contains too much content, in too many settings to properly protray. One can't even skip ahead and show the ground battles properly due to the huge amount of background fluff popping up.

Just make it a generic Tyrannid battle, or if one wants an iconic one, Ishar IV.