It think its closer to a declining Rome, specifically the Persian frontier where Rome has to compete with the Persians, but also cooperate to keep out the barbarians. Its not just a head transplant, the entire bureaucracy is rotten and corrupt.
So yes, they have a lot in common with the Jedi, who fight to protect the people from enemies and the Dark Side, but they cannot fix the weakness within the Republic government and all the corruption because they've sworn to uphold the Republic, even if it was corrupt.
40K doesn't work with historical analogues because even if you remove all the more fantastic parts, the individual components are clearly based in history but they've never existed in that combination where you had so many players all at odds with each other, and no central authority. The closest you maybe come is the Warring States in china, but that was all interal chinese + the odd barbarian team up.
The thing is, 40K invites historical analogues, with things like the Inquisition hearkening back to Renaissance Spain, as well as Commissars and Space Nazis which hearken back to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. I suppose the Imperium is just a more dysfunctional, pagan version of the Holy Roman Empire, complete with internal warring states and knightly orders like the Teutonic Knights.
And as you said, everything is so status-quo focused... you don't see that in history except in very localized Euro skimmishes, and even then there's an authority keeping everyone somewhat in line.
That's why I didn't really get that invested in 40K's story. What's the point of all these conflicts and getting invested in them, when it barely changes a damn thing? It's also why I grew bored of comics even before the SJWs come in, because eventually, something stupid happens like Superboy Prime punching reality and turning things back to normal.
I sort of view the Space Marines as the Holy Orders they are clearly aping. They don't get involved in politics. They hammer the mess and move on. Though they have their own skeletons in closet, though almost universally its just the skulls, arranged in a vaguely chair-like configuration...
As for me, I said it before, I view them more like a mix of Iron Man, the Punisher, and medieval knights. Essentially, they're like superheroes; they come to fix things, but they don't get involved in governing outside of governing micro-nations.
And that's been addressed (sort of ) by the double factors that 1) there's something like only 16 million space marines, total. and 2) The space marines are no longer exactly human. They are too mission-focused to be good at state building. Only the Primarchs were meant to lead normal humanity through sheer charisma, and we were fresh out of Primarchs until recently.
There's only 1 million Space Marines, but I'm sure they have billions of Guardsmen and navy soldiers underneath their control within their own private feudal states. That, and I'm sure they have lots of supporters from within the regular army and navy who would support a coup. Heck, at this point, they can just tell the revived Guilliman that they'll back any reforms he'll pass, with a subtle indication that they're ready to help him wax the corrupt idiots within the Administratum and the Inquisition if those guys are dumb enough to rally against him.
Agreed. As a SETTING for a wargame, I generally like 40K. There are reasons for any army to fight any army, reasons for any army to team up with any other army, there are reasons for any army combination to fight any other army combination. I even like a fair bit of the lore, and how they address the technological stagnation. Its all retcon & justification for business decisions, but I feel they good job. As a game setting, its good.
But I can never get into the novels because as you said, everything is completely pointless and grim dark.
Yes, that pretty much sums it up. Warhammer 40K is excellent as a backdrop to justify having a setting in a wargame where any army can fight any army, although another setting can easily handwaive that by having allied factions engage in a civil war or in a training exercise. (Like how 343 Industries justified Spartans fighting Spartans in multiplayer as simulated wargames that were just military exercises)
The novels, not so much, because like with the comics, you know how it will end. It's just endlessly pointless and grimdark, and you're better off writing your own stories with it.
I believe the problem with the second Emperor, because IIRC there is an imperial sub-faction trying to gather enough psyker souls to do just that, was you still end up splitting the Imperium in half in civil war. And now instead of dealing with whatever spare manpower the ruinious forces have after clobbering each other, the chaos gods would recognize the imminent threat, uniting and taking over the half the imperium.
Well, they can just rally behind the new Emperor anyways, although yes, if the guy does decide to wipe out the old Emperor and all his supporters, that would end with a very terrible civil war. One that the new Emperor will eventually win anyways, before he goes off to go "VENI, VIDI, VICI!" against the aliens and Chaos daemons. Sure, the Chaos forces might gain some ground during the civil war, but they will eventually lose it and get pushed out in the end before the new Emperor starts eradicating or castrating their top generals.
I don't follow 40K very closely, but the last update I saw was they're already hinting that Guilliman not being a 24/7 raging cockbag is causing issues with the Administratum and straining the Imperium to the breaking point.
That probably will end with a more "progressive" Imperium under Guilliman that goes with rational thinking and pragmatism defeating the more "dogmatic" Imperium that goes with racial and religious purity. I mean, that's probably the most likely route GW would take, considering they're trying to appease both the leftists who hate the Imperium because of "FASCIST MAN BAD", and the people who like the Space Marines for their aesthetics.
I originally thought that WAS the plan behind the Primaris Marines; I thought they were akin to the Nazi SS where the top guys insert them into the army to keep an eye on them and keep them loyal, that Guilliman is forcing the chapters to accept Primaris Marines so he can keep an eye on them and whack anyone within the Space Marine chapters that might have naughty ideas; and he placed them in just to purposefully provoke the traditionalists to revolt. And that maybe, Guilliman has a second army of Primaris Marines still under wraps, numbering in the billions, ready to force the more retrograde aspects of the Imperium's government to follow his reforms or face the wall, until the situation in Brotherly Terra has been "normalized".
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