LogFAQs > #980024696

Enclave posted...

Their mistake wasn't making female Custodes, their mistake was saying there's always been female Custodes when there's apparently lore that directly refutes that.

All they had to do was come up with some new bit of lore about how there's now female Custodes but they took the more lazy way out. Not that I particularly care, I play Orks and don't care too much about 40k lore in general.

I'm by no means a Warhammer 40k fan. Never painted a model, never played the table top game, and I have barely any experience with the video games. This, to me, seems to be the crux of the issue. The lore up until now from my understanding (outside looking in) doesn't support their existence and the proclamation on twitter that they've always existed is lazy and boarder line gaslighting to lore aficionados of the universe. Instead it really seems like they were trying to easily and quickly meet some kind of ESG requirement to get the Black Rock investment that they got. Ultimately this is something for the 40k fan base to sort out, retcons apparently are common in this universe so I have no baseline on how significant this one is by comparison.

Now to opine on a more general level, the reaction to this news has been very interesting from an outside perspective. I've seen perspectives imply that 40k needs to the excise the "facists" from its fan base who don't support this change which is a very interesting take. Like a lot of nerd fandoms that have gone mainstream over the last 10+ years I've seen it proclaimed that a given fandom is unwelcoming and not inclusive enough and therefore the fandom needs to change to be more so. My question is why should a fandom change to suit outsiders to that fandom? Why is it whenever something becomes more mainstream that the original fans who built it up over the years are now the unwelcome ones that are expected to change or be excised? It's a kind of cultural colonialism that I think needs to be pushed back on. The long time fans honestly are the ones that made sure the fandom even existed long enough to become mainstream in the first place, these fans should be celebrated, not scorned for the commitment to their fandom. Fan bases should be welcoming to new comers but those new comers should be mindful of why it is they wanted into that fan base in the first place. If they only want in so that they can twist it to suit them then they should be made to feel unwelcome because they never really wanted to contribute anything meaningful the fandom in the first place.

TL;DR: OG fans should be celebrated and new comers should be welcomed. Gatekeeping is good though if it keeps out people who don't actually care about the fandom that they are joining and just want to use it as another culture war battleground.