Unfinished Business in the Horus Heresy

[bluntblade]

On 8/10/2022 at 7:24 PM, Roomsky said:

I'm of two minds on most of those issues.

It sucks that some novels were condensed or straight-up dropped due to the constant demand to speed to the Siege. I personally like how Meduson went out but it really deserved its own novel, especially considering it was the best part of Old Earth IMO. Marr on the other hand is wasted potential I can't think of any good reason to have been disposed of so quickly - post-Saturnine we have nothing but new SoH characters to follow outside of Argonis and Abaddon, one of whom has plot-immortality. I think it's fine that Marr got gunned down anticlimactically, but his POV would have been a valuable addition to the Siege considering how many established characters have already dropped dead.

Layak I think was perfectly utilized in Slavs of Darkness. Lorgar had fallen into a habit of finding new disposable favourites once the previous had stopped being useful, and it was great to see it finally biting him in the ass. And while I appreciated having another character with an uncertain destiny at the head of a Siege faction, we've been left with minimal/no pagetime for Erebus (or even the Word Bearers as a force, small as it may be) or Sor Talgron, who I assume still made it to Terra (though if A.Reynolds would like to surprise us with a novella, I would not object.) Doesn't help that Layak  seemed to have a total personality shift before Solar War that we didn't see - he was basically a different character than in StD.

I don't think every established character needed some grand epic payoff - I was perfectly fine with Amandera getting Kharned and Aximand getting ganked - but we're missing some valuable POVs to ongoing events, often in favour of new characters invented to die. 

This has actually happened to the SoH twice, ironically. The first half of the Heresy gutted the supporting cast which Abnett himself had introduced, with Sedirae, Targhost and Noctua all quickly killed off. I know what you mean with Saturnine in that the slaughter is satisfying, but there is definitely a cost.

It occurs to me that one place where Wraight especially succeeds with his Scars run is that he makes this rate of attrition into more of its own point, besides the fact that while Shiban survives thus far, his fate still isn't set in stone.

[Roomsky]

I just remembered good ol' Hibou Khan. His last action chronologically was cutting off Aximand's face (his introductory story, amusingly.) Would love to at least get a short story that's an epilogue for the character, though I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing him during some Scouring stories.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Roomsky
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[bluntblade]

6 hours ago, Roomsky said:

I just remember good ol' Hibou Khan. His last action chronologically was cutting of Aximand's face (his introductory story, amusingly.) Would love to at least get a short story that's an epilogue for the character, though I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing him during some Scouring stories.

I would like that very much. In general I really want to know where Wraight meant to go with him and the other Shattered Legions elements.

[lansalt]

I've updated the OP with Hibou Khan and the information (or lack thereof) about Zephon in Echoes of Eternity

[lansalt]

Another small update after reading TEATD vol3 and other recent books. Feel free to correct me and add anything I've missed!

[Sothalor]

I'd add Basilius Fo and his anti-Astartes/Primarch/genehanced beings weapon to that list. However, that entire plot thread came out of nowhere in the midst of the Siege, went nowhere, and trailed off in an odd cliffhanger.

 

It almost feels like it doesn't deserve to be considered an unresolved Heresy thread because it frankly wasn't one for 54 bloody books.

[DarkChaplain]

.....Damn, I actually had so many disappointments and missing things with the Siege and especially TEATD, I totally forgot about the Red Angel going completely unremarked.

Also, we got absolutely zero Omegon since Slaves to Darkness, right? Was it ever explained who set off the trigger on the Terran hibernating Alpha Legion?

 

It's also still maddening to me that we never received another moment with Fulgrim after he nope'd out from Dorn. Not even a PoV interlude in TEATD about how he's busy :cuss: at the south pole. Considering he was the only remaining Daemon Primarch on Terra, him being forgotten about and not even discussed by Dorn, Sanguinius and co as a major threat is just silly.

 

Seriously, in hindsight, the Siege needed an actual Emperor's Children book. They had so many characters who we know were at the Siege (and Lucius, who just got forgotten 20 books ago), so much internal and external tension, a chance to show Fabius at his worst, most insane, during the cataclysm that is the Siege, a host of characters that Josh Reynolds did major work on... but it all went poof in a very unsatisfying way.

[Cerbero666]

There were so many plot holes and characters arcs left untouched at the end of the Siege (TEATD3 included) that it's frustrating. 

• Fulgrim and the rest of the Emperor's Children after Saturnine. Where's Fabius during the conflict? Did Lucius reunited with his legion before the Siege? What happened to Eidolon after falling from the wall? There's a whole legion that just vanishes from the final act of the Siege.

• Sevatar's fate. I know it's going to be set after the Heresy, but not even a small scene of him, or almost any mention of him by other characters since "Pharos" and that was 9 years ago.

• Sigismund's whole arc. At the end of Warhawk he was the souless killing machine Abaddon encounters in Black Legion, the fanatic crusader. In TEATD he's again the "plain" first captain of the Fists. His whole arc during the Siege hunting named champions is limited to Khârn and some new champions created just for him to get rid of them. He was set to duel Typhus in TEATD3 but never actually happened, nor was the case of Corswain who had a whole arc opposing him.

• Arik Taranis and the Thunder Warriors. Another plot lost to nothing, not even a passing reference to them.

• Polux not joining Sanguinius on route to Terra, or did he? I guess he did not, since there was no mention of him since Pharos.

• Dorn reaction to the Emperor's fate. Is this the same dude that collapses from guilt and turns into a state of suicidal/selfharm mentality during The Scouring? He reacts just as he does everything else, with calm and coldness.

• Barthusa Narek... so what with him? He was even mentioned in TEATD1, but what for?

• Keeler losing her mysterious mystical new personality to turn her into the same irreverent character from Horus Rising. As long as I love her as she was back at the beggining, she was not that person anymore, supposedly... The last scene in TEATD3 was a nice touch though.

• Ingo Pech still playing Statues under the Palace I guess... And Omegon... well he's on vacation I suppose.

 

I believe we needed a proper epilogue to explain many of those things, either a long hundred pages one at the end of the last novel or some sort of novella.

 

 

[Sothalor]

One I realized after reading the HH story of the BL 2024 celebration shorts:

 

Amendera Kendel, the Silent Sister-turned-Agent of Malcador.

 

She had (has?) her own little cluster of side shorts, but hitherto there's been no resolution to her arc or journey. No idea if the shorts will continue now post-SoT. 

[The Scorpion]

On 9/10/2022 at 9:59 AM, Roomsky said:

I just remembered good ol' Hibou Khan. His last action chronologically was cutting off Aximand's face (his introductory story, amusingly.) Would love to at least get a short story that's an epilogue for the character, though I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing him during some Scouring stories.

Scouring stories are a given at this point, I don't think GeeDubs is gonna let go of their golden egg machine

[DarkChaplain]

Lol, Aximand is getting a model and his rules are banking harder on his conflict with Loken than the Siege did

 

 

Saturnine will never not be bitter for me with how it treated various established characters, including Endryd Haar, who just had a model as well.

[Roomsky]

On 3/28/2024 at 3:25 PM, Cerbero666 said:

 

• Sevatar's fate. I know it's going to be set after the Heresy, but not even a small scene of him, or almost any mention of him by other characters since "Pharos" and that was 9 years ago.

...

• Barthusa Narek... so what with him? He was even mentioned in TEATD1, but what for?

 

I believe the latter is an example of what you wanted for the former.

 

I'm personally not too torn up about a lack of Sev - he waits for ADB, and has always been a periphery character to the Heresy at large.

[Cerbero666]

On 4/4/2024 at 10:00 PM, Roomsky said:

 

I believe the latter is an example of what you wanted for the former.

 

I'm personally not too torn up about a lack of Sev - he waits for ADB, and has always been a periphery character to the Heresy at large.

 

Well, a small scene of Sevatar would be more useful than a small scene of Narek with no point IMO. Narek's scene was only there to indicate that he was on Terra, but what for? It served no purpouse, his character ark is him going against Lorgar and his former brothers, he was not shown doing any of that. But a small scene regarding Sevatar whereabouts and a hint of his final fate could add new info about him. At least we would know why the Lion did not kill him outright or some of his plans for the future if he escapes.