Lysander vs Honsou post-Rift Novel Idea?

[Noserenda]

Yeah ive not read the SoT short because its only just been released but in every other appearance Sharrowkyn is utterly insufferable, i mean if he picked one out of Stealth/Duelling/Marksmanship/Fleet combat to be peerless at it would be fine but noooooo... *sigh* 

[DarkChaplain]

He's a Mor Deythan, an elite Raven Guard. Raven Guard do stealth, Mor Deythan do it even better due to having inherited some of Corax' genetic weirdness. Mor Deythan are also trained as excellent snipers. They're rare, but those that do exist are top notch.

 

That Sharrowkyn also happens to be skilled with the blade to the point where he could surprise the arrogant, overconfident Lucius, not giving a damn about beating the supposedly "best" swordmaster of the Legion and gloating about it, instead just finishing the job, isn't really far fetched. Lucius' has lost a lot of times due to his hubris in various directions.

 

As for him calling for caution during The Seventh Serpent, that one's also not particularly odd. He's the only one (besides the Salamander) who *isn't* an Iron Hand awed at Meduson's growing legend, and desperate to believe that their cause hasn't been futile those years. He's the only one in the spotlight with no real attachment to the successor of Ferrus Manus, so he doesn't get blinded as easily - and for his warnings, he gets ostracized by the Iron Hands.

 

Honestly, while there's plenty of fault to find with McNeill's stories, I'll never really grasp the whole mary sue allegations towards Nykona Sharrowkyn - he's plenty flawed and getting into trouble over his attitude. He just happened to succeed and be part of an elite force of Raven Guard that wasn't formally introduced until a bit later, when ForgeWorld got around to actually releasing a book again.

 

Is he McNeill's pet? Just going by screentime and how he's at the center of the Sysypheum stories, probably. But nothing he does is truly outlandish or overblown in the context of the stories or franchise, and it doesn't all just go his way either. And then you have that funny little tidbit about McNeill nearly forgetting the setup from The Seventh Serpent, re: Magnus told me not to kill you. That doesn't speak of overly great attachment to his pet, to be honest.

Edited June 13, 2020 by DarkChaplain

[Noserenda]

I mean if you cant see why people dont like a character thats exceptional at everything he tries and whos only downside is "oooh so edgy" i doubt im going to convince you, Mor Deythan were around by the time he was introduced i thought? At least the short story talking about them? I was living with a mad Ravenguard fan at the time so its possible he chatted up Alan Bligh or something :D

But yeah, Sniper sure, Stealthy? ofc! One of the best duellists in the legions? Ehhhh Master fleet tactician? Whaa? And didnt he set up a reflex shield for them as well or something? Im not so sure hes an authors pet exactly but he ends up being one of the rare Mary Sues in40k more because McNeil does not like to have lots of characters so he has one Ravenguard do all the Ravenguard things.

[bluntblade]

I don't recall Sharrowkyn ever being referred to as such, at least not in The Seventh Serpent. We're just left to infer it.

[DarkChaplain]

The Seventh Serpent released in 2014, The Shadowmasters - which was basically the Mor Deythan tie-in for the Heresy series - happened in 2015. Angel Exterminatus, meanwhile, was a 2012 release, same as Kryptos, where Wayland and Nykona were introduced.

 

He was never explicitly seen telling his Sysypheum hosts "hey, by the way, I'm a Mor Deythan - oh, you don't know what they are? Well, they're a super secret order within our Legion, with Astartes that inherited our gene-father's wraith-slipping abili-- wait a second, Corax kept this one secret even from his own brothers, so I'd better explain....", but his abilities speak for themselves - and we *do* know he's wraith-slipping. What I'm getting at, there is literally no reason for him, a solo-Raven Guard survivor from the Dropsite Massacre among brothers from other Legions, to make a big deal out of his role within the Legion to begin with.

 

Also, where's that Fleet Tactician thing coming from? Because the Sysypheum is one vessel. It meets up with the "Iron Heart", but that's hardly a fleet, and he's not in command of it. I'd also wager that being trained as an elite infiltrator unit, you'd get a bit of training in various areas that might make you viable as an independent asset. What we see him in Angel Exterminatus and The Seventh Serpent is pretty much that: He's an infiltrator who knows his stuff when it comes to acting behind enemy lines and being suspicious in a war of betrayals, and he's good enough with blades to show up a cocky Lucius, something the bloke still has a grudge over, same as with Loken.

[Lucerne]

He's a Mor Deythan, an elite Raven Guard. Raven Guard do stealth, Mor Deythan do it even better due to having inherited some of Corax' genetic weirdness. Mor Deythan are also trained as excellent snipers. They're rare, but those that do exist are top notch.

 

That Sharrowkyn also happens to be skilled with the blade to the point where he could surprise the arrogant, overconfident Lucius, not giving a damn about beating the supposedly "best" swordmaster of the Legion and gloating about it, instead just finishing the job, isn't really far fetched. Lucius' has lost a lot of times due to his hubris in various directions.

 

As for him calling for caution during The Seventh Serpent, that one's also not particularly odd. He's the only one (besides the Salamander) who *isn't* an Iron Hand awed at Meduson's growing legend, and desperate to believe that their cause hasn't been futile those years. He's the only one in the spotlight with no real attachment to the successor of Ferrus Manus, so he doesn't get blinded as easily - and for his warnings, he gets ostracized by the Iron Hands.

 

Honestly, while there's plenty of fault to find with McNeill's stories, I'll never really grasp the whole mary sue allegations towards Nykona Sharrowkyn - he's plenty flawed and getting into trouble over his attitude. He just happened to succeed and be part of an elite force of Raven Guard that wasn't formally introduced until a bit later, when ForgeWorld got around to actually releasing a book again.

 

Is he McNeill's pet? Just going by screentime and how he's at the center of the Sysypheum stories, probably. But nothing he does is truly outlandish or overblown in the context of the stories or franchise, and it doesn't all just go his way either. And then you have that funny little tidbit about McNeill nearly forgetting the setup from The Seventh Serpent, re: Magnus told me not to kill you. That doesn't speak of overly great attachment to his pet, to be honest.

He has no personality beyond literally knowing the events of the book he's in and the cheat codes to any given encounter despite having no in-universe reason to. There are literally mind readers that have less grasp of the plotlines they're in than Sharrowsue does, despite the lack of narrative justification or personality basis for such insight.

 

Sharrowsue always knows what's going to happen, never makes mistakes, and is always right. Because he's Sharrowsue. He can "kill" a Primarch and outfight Lucius while explicitly thumbing his nose at consequences he should not be immune to nor even know to reference, because Sharrowsue. He can spot Alpharius despite not having any in-universe reasons to know what the plotline is, because Sharrowsue.

 

He should have died to Lucius and had literally no excuse for his "lol I can cheat the curse of Slaanesh despite being an arrogant,self-pleased bastard who's textbook fodder for possession through the curse" after gloating at his execution of Lucius. He should have died to Fulgrim. He should have died to ALPHARIUS if not for in-universe plot armor. He should have died at the end of the book  that euthanized the rest of McNeil's cast, but no, it's implied he regrettably survives without Magnus ever having had a good reason for keeping him alive in the first place. With luck, there's a footnote in someone else's future work about his remains being flushed into Cawl's ship's waste disposal or out an airlock.

 

McNeil kept giving him more and more ridiculous "feats" and throwing him into scenarios where he obviously is cheating just to make his pet character look kewl and badass!1111 without any narrative weight behind the consequences of his actions or in universe justification.

 

It was excusable, barely, the first time. It became odious by Seventh Serpent, which honestly was some of the worst material in the whole Heresy as well as of McNeil's entire career.

 

Sharrowsue exists solely to be a stain on more interesting storylines and eat up valuable screentime.

Edited June 13, 2020 by Lucerne