Black Library Writers Hate Space Wolves

[VIth]

I apologize if this is not the forum for this, or if this horse has been beaten to death (I've not noticed it but could be wrong), but I'm in the middle of Saturnine right now and it just strikes me how much Black Library writers seem to hate Space Wolves.  This is a trend going back years now, and it only goes in one direction.  I know there were strong opinions about Prospero Burns--I was actually a supporter of the portrayal of the Space Wolves in it at the time, but throughout the rest of the series they remain the hubristic jerks who are nothing but a useless whipping boy.  Even in their own Space Wolves-focused novels they get torn up and achieve nothing.  It's relentless.  

Serious question: is there any other Legion treated this way in HH?  

-Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns both paint the Space Wolves as dark, relentless jerks.  I can dig the grim, dark Viking vibes of Prospero Burns, but if it's never in service to anything beneficial, and then it just feeds into the later trends of their depictions.  At the end of the day, neither the Thousand Sons book nor the Space Wolves' own book frames them in a positive light, but the trajectory continues throughout the entire series.  
-Succumb to Horus' trickery at Prospero, impotently hounded by the Alpha Legion in the Alaxxes Nebula and saved by Dark Angels (that plotline went nowhere), vainglorious and useless attack on Vengeful Spirit, sit out the rest of the war at Yarrant which seemed like it was supposed to be a thing but probably won't be since they've moved on to the Siege.

-The Space Wolves are the "Emperor's Executioners" which explains why they're bad at making friends--but actually they're not!  That's just Russ being presumptuous.  You can make the argument that he is doing precisely what he was designed for (is any other Primarch given the same loyalty designation as the VIth legion?  I don't believe so), however, if in novel after novel the writers reiterate it was Russ taking liberties then that boxes us in.

-Leman Russ's own primarch novel in which he is a massive idiot who is inferior to the Lion in every way (not to mention a legionary turns into a werewolf (before the events on Prospero).  Great stuff. /s

-Depiction of Russ in the HH: once upon a time, the rivalry between Russ and the Lion was because they were competing for the most victories in the Crusade, and it was Space Wolves and the Dark Angels racing to Terra which caused Horus to lower his shields and challenge the Emperor.  Now all-of-the-above is Guilliman.
-Also, Russ was once depicted as one of the most-active Primarchs during the Scouring.  I wouldn't be surprised if they completely change that as well.

-Space Wolves are constantly used by writers are a foil to make White Scars look better.  Oh, *we're* not the savage barbarians (White Scars), we're actually very complex and amazing, *Space Wolves* are the dumb barbarians.

-Compared to other Legions, even the broken ones, Space Wolves are useless in HH.  They accomplish nothing other than driving the Thousand Sons into the arms of Chaos (faster, at least, than they were already heading).  At least the Ravenguard, Iron Hands, and Salamanders are portrayed as struggling through their adversity and successfully harrying the enemy and contributing to the war effort.
-(One caveat will be if Russ wounding Horus was actually somehow useful, however, that itself would take away from Sanguinius which would both change the presumed cannon and make Blood Angels players mad.)

-In general, in nearly every legion-focused book (with the possible exception of the Dark Angels), the Primarch and Legion is painted in a sympathetic light.  In *none* of the Space Wolves books is this the case.  

Contemporary Space Wolves:
-The utter BS of the Curse of the Wulfen.  Complete and utter humiliation.
-Even Ragnar Blackmane's novella made him into a foolish jerk who's Dark Angel nemesis is portrayed as the much better person, keeping up the same vibes as the HH.
-Haven't gotten to read the new/third book of the Blood of Asaheim/Storm Caller series, but those were actually positive.

Final thoughts:
My theory is that the Space Wolves are viewed as too one-dimensional, too fun, too "good" in their previous depictions so the current crop of writers feel they need to add some pathos to them (or something).  Space Wolves even made the Grey Knights look bad.  William King's books were a bit over-the-top, IMHO, however, Space Wolves have a VERY active and vocal community, and with 5th edition tabletop vibes combined with their sunny depictions I get the impression many of the current writers want to knock them down a few pegs (and have successfully done so throughout the Horus Heresy series).  I'm totally fine with portraying the flaws of a primarch and his legion, and the legion paying for the results of those flaws.  That said, I think this goes much further than that, and the entire HH series is a relentless grind crapping on the Space Wolves.  As I began with, I'm currently reading the Saturnine book, and insofar as they come up at all, Space Wolves are there to make White Scars--who abandoned them at the Alaxxes Nebula!!!--look good ("ackchyually... Space Wolves are the real barbarians and we're actually amazing").  I also think this is the Black Library's way of pushing back on Space Wolves players who for years have tried to say the chapter was much larger than any other except Black Templar: it doesn't matter than Russ didn't split his legion if there were only 1,000 Space Wolves left! 

Had to get that off my chest.  Maybe I'm totally wrong, but I don't see much evidence of that.  Anyway, rant over.  Cheers.

Edited May 3, 2021 by VIth

[Lucerne]

1. Agreed on Guilliman eating up narrative.

2. The Wolves should  have a bad time during the Heresy. ALL the loyalists should. Thep roblem isn't that they have a bad time, it's that other Legions didn't as well.

3. The Horus wounding is significant. And Prospero being a :cussup is a major plot point.

[Harald Fairmane]

Haven't read that much of the "recently" written lore, but my impression is since the return of the wulfen the lore has continually been lacking. A couple decades ago we got good lore with the lone wolves graphic novel and Logans "months of shame" lore. 13th company returning in the eye of terror.

 

But then they disappeared again seemingly retconned when the wulfen appeared and the wolves behaved like bafoons ever since? Wasn't it logan who defended himself with "they are kin. It is difficult." When the whole chapter was threatened with execution?

 

Anyway, will always be a space wolves fan no matter where they take the lore

Edited May 3, 2021 by Harald Fairmane

[Guest Triszin]

Writers don't hate anything.

 

Wolves are known, and are good to beat up, because we set the standard, so when we get beat up that says a lot.

 

Take it instead as a point of pride. Every novel needs a antagonist, and the fact we are the antagonist in so many is pretty neat.

 

 

Secondly, writing is always inconsistent, it isn't a big deal

[Vassakov]

I think it's very much swings and roundabouts. There are definitely some issues, but a lot of this is structural changes in how the Heresy unfolded, with a lot of events being shuffled, fleshed out or invented. You are right that in the early lore, the Wolves were charging to Terra but this has now been replaced with the Alaxes Cluster campaign and then the events of Wolfspear - the latter of which ties back to the core identity of the Wolves a lot better than the "we were on our way" bit. It's also a much more grand ending for the Wolves in the Heresy - Russ was one of one 3 beings to truly hurt Horus, the other two being the Anatheme at Davin and the Emperor himself. After all the build up of Russ being one of the few who could actually go toe to toe with any Primarch, he went up against not just Horus, but the empowered creature Horus became and would have killed him, but not for a final act of mercy. We also got the Russ v Angron flashback in Betrayer where Angron technically wins the duel, but Russ wins the battle and has Angron again at his mercy.

 

You know, for the Emperor's Executioner, he really didn't enjoy having to hunt his brothers. I actually really like this element - much like many of the Primarchs, he is genuinely conflicted about his role.

 

The events of Prospero are also much more clearly a tragedy than previous versions of the lore had it be - it was a bit ambiguous in earlier versions, whereas there's really no way to read the events in the HH series as anything other than the Wolves and Russ being manipulated into destroying the Thousand Sons. 

Another slight change is that with the fleshing out of Legions and in particular, Legion sizes, it's more explicit that the Wolves are a lot smaller than some of the other Legions at around 100,000, with most being at least 150,000. Combined with the losses at Prospero and Alaxes, followed by the assault on Horus's fleet at Trisolian, and the Legion was essentially gone, leaving us with the beginnings of the Chapter that we know in the 41st Millennium.

 

For more modern fare, whilst I agree that some of the stuff surrounding the retcon of the 13th Black Crusade and the Indomitus Crusade has been... meh (though that's not just us, I think most of the 1st Founding Chapters have to a degree been done dirty by the Indomitus stuff), there are still some good bits of lore. The Emperor's Gift, though ostensibly about the Grey Knights, probably features one of the best Space Wolf plot arcs of the Black Library.

[ORKILL]

I think GW in general hates Space Wolves. We waited 10 years for the 5th Ed Codex, it was good. After that, all codices have been under powered or watered down...or both. At least in the 10 year gap between 3rd and 5th we had a solid adaptable codex. I'm already ready for 10th Ed. I hate the generic treatment in this new under powered book.

[Wulf Vengis]

There's a lot missing from the 9th ed codex. It's a truly unpleasant read. That's all I'll say about that.