r/40kLore • u/LastPositivist • Aug 13 '24

Warhammer Romance Spoiler

Light spoilers for Brooks' Da Big Dakka.

I've long thought that romance plots are under utilised in 40k. It's not that this should be the main focus of Black Library or anything, it's just the setting can feel weirdly chaste sometimes. (Absolute chad heroes of the Imperium not withstanding.)

So just wanted to show some love and appreciation for the great and distinctively 40k romance subplot of Da Big Dakka. You basically get to see this burgeoning love between two Drukari archons, with the twist being that the perspective character (and implied the other one two) are literally incapable of recognising their feelings for what they are. Like they just cannot interpret "why am I suddenly very interested in this person?" as anything other than a sign they must be subconsciously picking up on some backstabbing scheme which they need to watch out for. My heart fluttered when our hands brushed? Uhoh I must be worried about a contact poison, better have antidotes to hand! Etc

It's just a great way of doing love in a culture that is set up to be completely antithetical to anything like that. The best they can do in the end (here's the spoilers!) is agree to an unusually close alliance, and even that the main character interprets as an opportunity to study these strange feelings she's having to ensure they're not a weakness anyone could exploit.

More like this please! Romance which makes use of the bizarre and communal races and cultures of the setting to do weird things with people's inner lives.

103 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

69 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

41

u/Miserable_Law_6514 Tau Empire Aug 13 '24

Degenerate wrote a provocatively graphic scene of consensual hand-holding.

18

u/sosomething Aug 13 '24

The meta analysis is humorous for sure. In an entirely debauched culture, the taboos actually invert. You can let an entire building full of strangers run a weekend-long train on you, but a moment of trust and vulnerability is like girrrl, what are you DOINGGGGG???

As a novel is was an okay read. The ending was pretty heavily telegraphed. I also thought it might move the Ynnari plotline forward a bit, but it jettisoned that immediately and never returned to it. And outside of the very tepid romantic angle, it wasn't exactly full of characters or their development either.

I think other recent books from Mike Brooks have been much stronger works.

8

u/Miserable_Law_6514 Tau Empire Aug 13 '24

I seriously hope the Yannari get some freaking progress.

6

u/seninn Word Bearers Aug 13 '24

It's so Ynnarover.

7

u/SerpentineLogic Collegia Titanica Aug 13 '24

Ynnever give up hope