Tarot Reading: Temperance Reversed and the King of Swords
Another day, another swords card graces my presence. This is my sixth pull, and so far, each of my pulls had a card from the Swords suit. Doing some back-of-the-envelope math, there is a 0.5% chance of this happening randomly. “I am thinking too much?” he said to himself after calculating the odds of this happening.
Temperance is a hell of a card. The image has several metaphors about balance. The card also suggests viewing situations in shades of grey instead of black and white. To me, especially paired with the King of Swords, Temperance is defined by its spot in the Fool’s journey—it’s right after Death. Death is itself a metaphor for change or transition—I wonder if Death gets sold as a lighter change than it represents. In my mind, a true Death card is a substantial disruption and change in your life. You are not the same when you come out the other end and meet Temperance.
Temperance looks at the systems we develop and use in our lives. Death invariably knocks those systems down, and Temperance is the place where you rebuild them. Have you ever moved? There is this moment where the walls are painted, all the boxes are moved in, but you haven’t unpacked your kitchen. Thus, you order takeout. Temperance is the unpacking of those boxes, setting everything straight, buying groceries, remembering the strainer’s location, and learning to cook in your new kitchen.
Temperance is physical therapy for Death’s twisted ankle.
The same applies to your mental heuristics, which are shortcuts and systems in your mind (and perception of reality). Temperance is there to set them up after your experience with Death. You can’t process everything all the time, so you gotta make those connections.
Temperance reversed is almost a Death card in itself. Systems aren’t working. Perhaps you're ignoring your end of the bargain by failing to engage with the systems you set up, or simply your coping mechanisms or heuristics are no longer working. As the systems that keep you balanced fail, you will tend toward imbalance.
The King of Swords includes themes of social responsibility, truth, knowledge, and attention. We give power to those objects we pay attention to, whether it's our writing practices, our life systems, or our smartphones. The King implores you to build your attention so that you can later discover and hold to the truth. It pushes you, kicking and screaming, toward a broader truth.
All together, these cards indicate that one’s life systems are out of whack, and you are leaning toward imbalance. The cards implore you to bring your attention to this matter and see what truth it holds, and frame this draw on a societal level.
I am rarely inspired to write reviews, but middling art that could be great triggers me. Let me take you to a new dark age, in which enlightenment is replaced by superstition, rhetoric, and blind prayer. A time when humanity stands on the brink of annihilation. No, I am not talking about a conservative administration, it’s Warhammer 40k.
SPACE MARINE II is the second installment of a series I wanted to play 13 years ago, but didn’t have a PlayStation 3. Despite the resurgence of the series, SPACE MARINE is not available to run on my PS5. I’ll have to settle for the second installment. But alas, not much has changed. Here is a planet, it is in trouble, and instead of sensibly bombing the enemy, our troops, and the civilian population to zero, someone in the Imperium has decided that a rescue is in order. Enter you. Because this is grim-dark fantasy, it’s never to save civilians, it’s always for some secret, dangerous, and unpredictable weapon—time to bravely save some fancy equipment.
Gameplay
Let’s get the dumb stuff out of the way. Controls are standard: Light attack, heavy attack, parry, pew pew, and grenades. The executions are slightly too long for my taste. Very God of War with guns. The extra pistol shots are cute, but in all, it's fine. It works, nothing super innovative. I am sure if you are awesome at the game you can make it look good.
Story
Let’s talk about the story. You bought this for the vibes anyway. I find the most compelling stories are ones where outnumbered, outgunned everyman overcomes their trials and tribulations to succeed. What does it look like when a conscript with their trusty lasgun saves the day? In short, I like to root for the underdog.
In SPACE MARINE II this is not the case. You play as a titular SPACE MARINE named Titus. You are a walking brick shithouse of a soldier, capable of mowing through the enemy as if they were nothing. A single swipe of your chainsword can turn several creatures into a red paste.
Despite being unstoppable, Titus, your avatar, has a problem. At the end of the first game, his ability to save the day and resist the forces of Chaos was, according to the Imperial Inquisition, evidence of chaotic corruption. After a century or three of exile fighting in the Death Watch, he is eaten by a Tyranid. Game over.
Or is it? After a small intro, Titus is brought back with a new body and put on probation. He is a SPACE MARINE again. Titus is now more of a SPACE MARINE than the other SPACE MARINES as his new body is a “Primaris” a better version of the classic “firstborn” marine. I had to look this all up.
Despite my love of the underdog, I am down for the occasional power fantasy. However, this power fantasy is a walking contradiction. Titus isn’t acting on his own accord. He is merely the agent for the contradictory, failable, and paranoid Imperium. You can crush waves of Tyranid Gaunts, but only when and where you are commanded. Presumably, deviating from standard procedure pisses off your probation officer. This runs afoul of the power in the power fantasy. Part of being the most powerful ass-kicker in the room means that you don’t have to listen to anybody (see Doom Eternal, ”You can’t just shoot a hole into the surface of Mars”).
This creates a contradiction that makes for an unsatisfying story. You don’t feel like you are overcoming anything difficult beyond pointing the bigger gun at the bigger Tyranid, and you don’t get to live out a true power fantasy, you just want approval from the people in your organization.
Adding to your list of burdens, you are also at the beck and call of the Adeptus Mechanicus, a caste of IT professionals that make everything in the Imperium work. They also get into trouble searching the aforementioned artifacts.
Thus Titus is running from Macguffin to Macguffin doing as he is told like a good boy until it is revealed that the true enemy isn’t the swarm of Tyranids, but Chaos. Because it’s always Chaos. In the same scene, Titus concludes the Adeptus Mechanicus must be fucking around with a Chaos-based artifact (it is same one Titus encountered in SPACE MARINE, I guess?). So, after the dramatic reveal, Titus needs to call the boss of his SPACE MARINE chapter. The Tyranids are quickly defeated off-screen so you can make that intra-dimensional equivalent of a phone call to tell your dad you don’t like what IT is doing at work.
On a personal level, Titus has to keep his probation secret from his buddies who keep asking him reasonable questions like “How do you know all this?”. This comes to a head when Titus complains to his team about his Captain not giving him more mission-pertinent information. One of his buddies pops the same question to Titus: “You know you keep information we believe pertinent from us, just like the Captain is keeping from you.” You can almost hear the therapist hopefully say, “I feel like we are getting close to a breakthrough.”
Titus then tells his buddies to shut up.
That is as close as our heroes get to communicating important and relevant information that could save their lives. If you have made it this far, it slowly begins to dawn on you that most cockups in the Imperium could be stopped with direct communication and a few “I feel” statements. That’s girm-dark for you.
The game wraps up from there. Daddy shows up, and you all work together to defeat chaos in a few set-piece battles that are not as epic as the game is telling you they are. I do respect the developer for making it weird. In the end, Titus uses his special resistance to Chaos to save the day and is told that he is a good boy. As a reward, he gets to go on an off-screen special mission.
In short, the story is fine. But the worst kind of fine. The kind that could have had a well-written plot, fully developed characters, and an interesting enemy, but ultimately chose to recycle tropes from that universe. I may be a filthy Warhammer casual, but I know a Necron temple when I see one. I had a fleeting amount of excitement thinking we would get to fight Necrons. Nope.
But there are moments. There are these tiny moments that show the developers cared about the source material. The Imperial Guard bow to you when you walk by, there are tiny little rituals whenever any important computer is used. The Astropath cutting themselves with a small bone before sending a message was a particularly interesting moment. As well as the “empty” armor when you execute a member of the Thousand Sons. Late in the game, the SPACE MARINES argued over whether to execute some guardsmen who were stunned by a powerful Chaos warp spell. As a testament to the fractured Imperial bureaucracy, the SPACE MARINES eventually decided that these executions were, administratively, outside their jurisdiction.
But those story moments don’t make up for this odd mix of a power fantasy without the power and a midtier story.
Bottom Line: Should I buy this?
Great question. This review is for me. I am reconciling my feelings from being vaguely disappointed. If you love Warhammer, go for it. You’ll like it. Otherwise, it’s merely fine. Buy it on sale if you want to play it.
I am rarely inspired to write reviews, but middling art that could be great triggers me.
jerry pretends to understand the rules of shadowrun to impress his new girlfriend. elaine helps him fill out his character sheets but accidentally bases all the characters on famous terrorists she saw on the news. george starts a paid GM service but keeps finding ways to partykill his players so he doesn't have to work the full hour. kramer gets into chuubo's
elaine tries to break up with her goth boyfriend by repeatedly killing his character in her vtm game but discovers that he finds it romantic. george gets into trouble when a botched kickstarter scam puts him on the hook to deliver a 5e licensed adaptation of the dictionary
jerry joins a dream askew table to prove that he's a good roleplayer after his ex-girlfriend calls him a 'trad gamer'. kramer tries to get out of being contracted to write a supplement for an OSR game after he realizes that the creator of the game is racist
This beautiful boy will be the poster child for my GLOG project. Nothing like a fat goblin in plate armor. Drawn by Cat Rocketship. Follow their Instagram here. If you love their whimsical, beautiful art (and want to support my friend for 20+ years) patron is here, and yes there are stickers.
Buy D20 Expanded T-shirt by badgerandrabbitpress. Worldwide shipping available at Society6.com. Just one of millions of high quality products available.
This is the coolest D20 shirt in the room. Finally bought one today
ellievsbear
jbbartram-illu
blakekathryn
dededos
