I have been going on and on about how Hammer and Bolter tells stories through the series. For 14 prior episodes, Hammer and Bolter has been a great gateway to look into various other factions and locations across the universes of both Age of Sigmar and 40,000. For most of the extracurricular media, like shows and video games, it’s all about the Space Marines.
However, Hammer and Bolter has given us looks into the Tyrranid, as well as our first real look into Age of Sigmar animation. Hell, we even got a look into the Space Wolves! Hammer and Bolter has done more for introducing people to different factions across the two universes than any other media so far outside of the books.
That said, this week’s episode, “Eternal” placed a Chaos Space Marine into the spotlight, and got to see what what a CSM can really do. There’s two things that play here. You get to see, again, the depths that the Space Marine chapters will go to get what they want. These people are the most inhumane, uncaring war machines on the planet, and definitely do not fit the “good guy” persona at all. I’m loving that the lore is going extra hard on showing the Imperium are fucking terrible.
But the Chaos Space Marines are no better. Where the Imperium is in the “name of good,” the legions of chaos are evil for the sake of evil. In “Eternal,” this is on full display. We get to follow Lucius the Eternal, who has the innate ability to not die. His powers are really cool and come out of nowhere. The story weaves a mythical tale of what Lucius can do, and it’s done masterfully. The demon that’s in the hands of an Anti-Sensorium chamber, driven mad.
The coup de gras of the episode was the reason why Lucius came to the citadel housing this demon. The entire time, you’re stuck thinking he’s coming to get his guy out. And the entire time, there’s nothing showing otherwise. Yet, when his plan gets him into the Anti-Sensorium chamber is just pure vengeance and chaos. Lucius takes down an entire citadel almost singlehandedly just for the chance to kill the demon who’s been captive. Why? Because he was insulted. I can’t even lie here. This was beautiful.
The story was simple, but the execution was awesome. The show of what Lucius’s powers can do was masterfully done with the drips of insanity painting a vague picture of insanity from the demon, and then putting it on full display helped expand the notoriety of Lucius. “Eternal” is another great example of expanding existing lore to get more people into the game. Great job, Games Workshop.