MAGNUS DID NOTHING WRONG
Finished 1k Sons novel, do I really need to read this for any interesting bits on the invasion of Prospero, particularly on more Magnus/1k sons perspectives or any other things, or is it just the Wolves' perspective of the battle?
FUCK furballs tbqh family
Reminder that everyone did some things wrong and this is why the Heresy happened, yes, this includes the Emperor.
Yes.
To see the Space Wolves perspective.
Then read Scars to see some Jaghatai-Magnus BFF moments and the Khan basically telling Horus and Dorn "Fuck off, I'm gonna find out the truth on my own."
Can I say - I was insanely disappointed by the 1K sons novel, but loved this?
I say that because the Marines in A Thousand Sons are fucking stupid and have no subtlety at all. Magnus is getting into DBZ-style powerlevel fights with Titans and you have psychic waiters/tai-chi sessions/telekinetic weapon assembly and cleaning.
This is completely at odds with 40K's aesthetic. Even if the Thousand Sons are masters of sorcery, they really shouldn't do shit like that so blatantly. Just compare what Magnus does in the John French novels: He's incredibly powerful, but he's also extremely subtle and hard to understand.
The reveal of the shattered statue influencing Magnus's enlightenment and the literal zombie ghosts? That was dumb shit.
I think Prospero Burns is a lot better, because it's about a generation-spanning conspiracy, memetic weapons, superstition-as-defense-mechanism and all the crazy concepts that only work in 40K. Hell, I'll say that it does even better work in building up the Thousand Sons!
When the invasion of Prospero actually happens, it's constantly stated that the Wolves are scared shitless. They know they're getting involved in some dark hoodoo shit, and this is EXACTLY what goes down. They incinerate 90% of the population, they outnumber the enemy, and they're still terrified of what happens when the Thousand Sons bust out the magic.
Compare that to A Thousand Sons, where you have a crystal-controlled Titan roaming out punching people with flaming fists. THAT was their secret weapon? That's fucking bullshit. It should've been something like "Brothers, we have no choice. We must break the seals, and speak the Unspeakable Word, to wreak ruin upon those who seek our doom."
Free, common and easy sorcery is at odds with 40K's ascetic but not 30K's. They didn't know it had a terrible cost yet, they thought it was just science and there were no such thing as daemons so they used that shit all the time for trivial things like cleaning a bolter.
The problem is that it's done too trivially. It would make sense if it was a kind of Egyptian-themed utopia, with priests and so on, but they treated magic like free energy. I don't think that has EVER been done in any depiction of 40K.
Even on Daemon Worlds, they handle magic the way you'll handle plutonium. Because that shit blows up in your face.
to be honest the emperor is like a total autist when it comes to dealing with people.
being immortal does that.
30K is not 40K. Getting to 40k requires hubris and trivial use of destructive powers. You're thinking of it like someone in the grim darkness of the 41st, rather than at the crest of the enlightenment crusade in the 31st. Shit was different then. They thought they were in control. It did blow up in their face, that's the arc. That's the whole point of the series.
Welcome to like every single discussion about why shit hit the fan in 40k.