Perturabo-Greatest Primarch

[Daemon Prince Marbas]

So I have come to the logical conclusion that Perturabo is actually the best primarch of all twenty. First of all, he didn't die unlike Ferrus Manus, Alpharius, Sanguinius, Horus, or Konrad Curze. He was Grand Marshall of the traitor forces. He defeated Angron and Fulgrim. He humiliated Rogal Dorn both during the Siege of Terra and the Battle of Sebastus IV. He ascended to immortal daemonhood. He designed his own armor for gods' sake.

[Irate Khornate]

Perturabo was the best at his job, which was to be the mathematician. I would absolutely love to see what would have happened had he received the praise he absolutely deserved. But here is the nasty truth, he cracked. He honestly should have allowed himself to vent to other people. He did not have the people skills to lead an Army through actions or faith. His was nothing but numbers, he led through subjugation and fear. That was his fallacy. And while he and Angron are my favorite primarchs, they are also probably the worst.

[Daemon Prince Marbas]

Damn you make a fine point.

[MegaVolt87]

Perturabo was the best at his job, which was to be the mathematician. I would absolutely love to see what would have happened had he received the praise he absolutely deserved. But here is the nasty truth, he cracked. He honestly should have allowed himself to vent to other people. He did not have the people skills to lead an Army through actions or faith. His was nothing but numbers, he led through subjugation and fear. That was his fallacy. And while he and Angron are my favorite primarchs, they are also probably the worst.

He shares a lot of parrelles with Angorn in leadership styles - punishes failure, rules by fear and uncaring of the suffering of their troops because victory is more important than how you end up getting there. The easiest way for Perty to win his troops respect and adoration without improving his social skills at all, is to suffer at the front lines in combat with his men, as simple as that. More often than not though, he acted more like an accountant than a general sitting in his HQ. He really should have just sat down with the Emperor who would have told him what his sister did at the end of his primarch book on why he gets all the crap/ hard work to do.

[Irate Khornate]

A lot of the traitor primarchs could have been averted had Big E taken the time to be a dad. But then again this involves a lot of characters already written into corners.

[MegaVolt87]

To be fair, most of the traitors came across as pretty hard boiled character's, Emps probably thought they were tough enogh to go their own way. Unlike others who always sought out his advice etc by themselves. Its often the tough ones who really need the chat, but don't initiate because maintaining the image is more important than how they suffer.

[Snazzy]

He humiliated Rogal Dorn both during the Siege of Terra and the Battle of Sebastus IV. 

 

Perturbulo couldn't crack the Eternity Gate with more Legions, Demonic allies, the Custodes and the Emperor distracted by the webway war and half the Terran army forces flipping to Horus.  He refused to fight Dorn at least twice, and his greatest victory was one that came from Dorn fighting an unnecessary battle in a war he won anyway.  Perturbulo lives in exile on a demon world, trapped in his own paranoia.  He isn't the greatest.  He risked the least.

[Irate Khornate]

Honestly, no single primarch is the greatest. Each has their specialty that were meant to be an important cog in the machine that was the Imperium.

 

Now then, for a rundown.

No one has cracked the eternity gate, that would spell the end of the Imperium.

 

That was a pyrrhic victory for Dorn that would have been lost if not for other legionary reinforcements from his brother. Plus, had he fought and killed Dorn during the Iron Cage he would have made him a martyr. Best instead to have never fought him.

 

Make Dorn realise that it was his own stubbornness and anger that sent his beloved sons through the meat grinder of a war that would have killed them all. Just like Perturabo would have done. Show him they are not so different, humiliate and throw him into a pit of despair. It was absolutely a dark reflection of the Great Crusade.

[Iron_Within]

The Primarchs are characters from Classical tragedies, none of the greatest (save Perturabo!). But in terms of Greek tragedy perhaps Perty most of all.

 

Perturabo had the potential to be the greatest by far, but that was mixed in with a similar level of flaws.

Physically he is one of the strongest, he was one of the most physically resilient (see Angel Exterminatus)

Mentally he was almost certainly one of the most gifted intellectually if not actually the smartest.

But his flaws are huge.

First of all, those saying he didn't get the recognition he deserved, he never allowed himself to.

If Roboute is the Roman Primarch, Perturabo is the Grecian. Both had fathers growing up that were framed by that culture. Dammekos did try to how Perty love and paternal affection however Perturabo simply rebuffed it or viewed it as insincere. He didn't like either of his mortal brothers for differing reasons, he was utterly incapable of seeing any affection or love as sincere to him, save his sister.

And he murdered his sister for a perceived slight.

He wanted to create all these vast wonders but when given the opportunity (designing the triumph at Ullanor, creating his theatre in Angel Ex) he soured on them immediately for the perceived flaws in others or misuse. Similarly with smaller projects he would destroy them when they came in contact with other people, simply to make a point or in his rages, this was potentially because those other people had made them flawed because it didn't match his perception.

He had utterly rigid thinking. He knew he should have overthrown his father Dammekos because he would have been much better for Olympia than his rather vain tyrant of a father. However he didn't because he believed he had a place in that order and that was that. He kept that place knowing it was wrong because he couldn't think of it any other way.

This rigid thinking was applied when he was lord of the IV, he could've easily said "no" to all the things the legion were subjected to, he absolutely hated it all, but he didn't, because that isn't his way. But that was on a scale larger than Olympia and he couldn't handle it, the backlash was far greater as a result. It drove him mad with bitterness. He wanted to be a creator and administrator, an intellectual, but it wasn't that he was too weak to say no and do what he wanted (which wouldn't have brought him censure, it didn't with Roboute certainly), he lacked the schema within his mind and personality to do so.

To Perturabo, saying no to being the corpse-grinders, the forgotten son, the trench digger, the ignored one, the destroyer, was as big of a deal as betraying the Emperor and the Imperium, it's not that he didn't see the difference, he literally couldn't conceptualise the difference.

This is also why he was so extreme on his subordinates. A small failure, a large failure? A small or large disobedience? There was no difference to him.

Everything was absolute black and white thinking. To be the way he wanted things to be they had to be absolutely perfect, had to match what was in his minds eye. That's why he let Dorn escape, twice, he even said as much to him on Terra. He could've killed Dorn there and then, he would have won the siege without him directing things. However, that was not perfect for him, and so that was his undoing.

Perturabo is similar to Curze in some ways, in that Curze could not see the potential for good in people, Perturabo could not see beyond absolutist thinking, including the flaws.

In that he is a tragedy, and his story, is a moral one.

It's also what makes him so interesting, his fall and his life are far more applicable to real life. Don't just keep your mouth shut otherwise you'll always be digging trenches, don't let perfection be the enemy of good.

[MegaVolt87]

Pert vs Bobby's upbringing, Konor didn't wheel out RG like a trained circus monkey to troll his neighbor states for clout.I can tell, Konor let RG do his own thing as he grew up, even in adulthood. All Perty learned is that all people want is to use him for their own ends against his wishes. So its little wonder he distrusted others, distanced himself and had a low opinion of basically everyone as a result. Leaving  Dammekos in charge is not only practical, but kind of an unspoken hey I know this is what you always wanted, so we are cool without me or you making it weird after I leave. Perty could never empathize with the people, because he was always taught and expected to show his superiority, which was obvious he would succeed 99% of the time on Olympia. So its natural you will be a sore loser, as evidenced in his primarchs short story. Basically Konor was the better ethnic dad hands down. 

[Goreshed]

Perturabo knew exactly what he was throwing his men into. He knew exactly what the cost would be to his Legion. What he did truly account for was the human aspect of those numbers. Firstly with his own soldiers, specially when he was told to pull out of Tallarn and also in his short story book where he had a moment of realization as Olympia burned around him of what his men did and asking Forrix if any had stood up to the wrongness of it.

 

It was all there. A small shard, a very small aspect of humanity. It just didn't come out until it was far too late for them to change their course. He looked at the numbers and crunched them when he took over the IVth and saw that they needed to be better. So he made them better in the only way he knew how.

 

Do I love his story and character? Of course. But this is the grim dark here. There are no good options for choosing a Primarch because all of them are humanity amplified to the exponential degree without the raw human aspect of empathy that makes a human truly human. Just like the Primarchs can create 'perfect' pieces of art, it has no soul within them and thus that one spec of greatness or what would make it truly perfect is never attainable for them.