Baddies- The Imperial Guard

[Kiarr]

I very much doubt that they would ever seem themselves as bad guys even if they were fighting other humans such as chaos bands or even any groups that may want to break away from the Imperium

This is mainy because noone ever does see themselves as the bad guys as it comes to war do you think the German troops did during WW2? The Scots when fighting the English during the uprising depicted in braveheart? The Americans fighting the Vietcong? Each time there is a war each side fights for a different reason, neither side is good or evil theres just a reason pushing each side to war. At the end of the day most of the good or evil "fluff" after a war was written by the victors!

[Colonel Bindoff]

Au contrair my Berkshire based friend, there are instances in history of people realising this and switching sides. The whole of Italy in WW2 springs to mind. In your examples, Scots no, the mercenaries hired by England, possibly realising but not caring. A lot of Germans questioned their role in the war, and many balked at the zealous excesses of their commanders. And I think it's probably fairly well known that a lot of Americans questioned their involvement in Vietnam. Possibly not in an 'are we the bad guys' way, but nevertheless beginning to question whether these wars are actually morally justifiable.

[Colonel Bindoff]

Sorry, double post

[Kiarr]

I agree with you to some respect but the question was do the soldier themselves see themselves as the badguys

Most people that switch either see something in it for themselves or disagree with their commanders and for the itailians, americans and germans it was the general populous not the soldiers themselves that questioned it. (actully most grunts are conditioned just to follow orders)

My point was that whilst questioning the commanders to a certain respect - which does happen a lot most dont question if what they are doing is morally right and hence see themselves as bad guys

I think it would be doubily so for the Imperial Guard fighting against Xenos incursions even if they were landing on new planets and exterminating the natives as they wouldnt even relate the population as being "human"

[Adra]

Imperial Guard have joined the Tau, so i guess they must have figured things would be better on the blue side of the fence.

I'm not sure i agree with any notion that the Imperium are good guys, except maybe to themselves. In fact they are not even the closest to being good guys out of the 40k races. The Imperium is driven by the manifest destiny of mankind to rule the galaxy, and that means killing every living thing in their way, including other humans, and opressing its citizens into, basicly, slavery. Ok so chaos, orks, nids seem to have random kill kill kill on the brain but you can hardly say humans are any better then, oh lets say...necrons. Eldar and Tau are almost angelic when stood next to humans and even they dont really have the right to be called true good guys.

[Kiarr]

Thats one of the points I was trying to make Adra

No army is the good guys only from their , I would also say no army IRL are the good guys only to those people that they are fighting for and themselves.
If you were an ork you would think yourself as being a "good guy" if you were a Dark eldar then you would think you were a.... well maybe not good but what you were doing was just and right.

I had forgotten that some imperial guard had moved to the Tau... however how much was their choice and how much was the etherials strange way with people we may never know.....

[GrogDaTyrant]

And for those of you americans who are wondering, that is Dr House playing the upper class idiot.

I would like to make a side note about that... Not all of us Americans are ignorant of the fact that the actor who plays Dr. House is actually named Hugh Laurie, or the fact that he was also on shows like 'Black Adder', or 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie.' And some of us actually know who Stephen Fry is, that he currently hosts a show called 'QI' (for Quite Interesting), and that he's a national treasure.

But for the vast collection of us, yes... most Americans would only know Hugh Laurie as 'Dr. House', and many probably don't even know he's British or that the show is based loosely off of Sherlock Holmes.

[eldargal]

Last time I was in New York I had an argument with someone who completely refused to accept that Hugh Laurie was British, to the point of claiming the actor in Blackadder was a different Hugh Laurie and that interviews with him and various talk show hosts were faked.

I'm not saying this is representative of Americans in general but it does illustrate there are a pretty ignorant group of hardcore House fans who don't want to admit he is British for whatever reason.

[Drunkencorgimaster]

I wonder, have you ever been anywhere in the US other than New York? Is this why you seem to have a such a negative view of Americans? (brace myself)

If I had ever only been to London I'd have a rather messed up view of the British. Thank God for Brummies and Wales and the Granite City