40k isn’t a critique any more, and I’d argue it stopped the moment the Emperor became an actual strongman who is the bestest and smartest and handsomest immortal wizard human to ever live who guards humanity in its sleep uwu step on me daddy~~~~

Compared to the original, first edition version, where everything was at the whims of unreliable narration and it was understood that whatever the Emperor was in 30k, and that is a very big question, he’s a corpse on a throne in 40k.

Starship Troopers stopped being a critique the minute the first film ended, and the book never was.