Sympathy for the Devil - favourite Traitor Primarchs.

[Mr Mystery]

How do?

Nice and straight forward this one, as it's about your favourite Traitor Primarch, and the reasons behind that favour.

My one is easy.

It's Perturabo.

One of the Emperor's two siege masters, he got dealt an exceptionally ****ty hand. Whereas as Dorn and his Imperial Fists got all the breaks and the glory, the Iron Warriors got stiffed with the grubby, grotty hard work of laying siege, and quite often weren't even given the honour of the kill, as other Legionnes Astartes got to exploit the breaches bought with Iron Warrior blood.

I mean, wouldn't you be pissed off with your Dad if you did all the work, and your arse of a Brother repeatedly got the praise? And I know he's not the only one to get the ****ty end of the stick, but he had potential.

Angron? Stiffed of a glorious death, but ultimately guided too much by the brain butchery in his head.

Lorgar? Victim of a necessary censure, and really, really bad advisors. In a sense, both Lorgar's fathers stiffed him.

Horus and Fulgrim don't really count, as their turning wasn't particularly self determined.

Alpharius? Listened to Xenos. Took their word for it. Prick.

Mortarion? Yeah ok, similar situation to Perturabo.

Magnus? Betrayed by Horus, not The Emperor overall. It was Horus that set the Wolves on him!

Rights, over to you. Let's hear some sympathy for the devil!

[Tyrendian]

As a preface, please don't get offended by me slandering your favourite Primarchs - I'm just too lazy currently to phrase things politely, no slights are intended

My favourite is probably Perturabo as well, closely followed by Magnus (who, for the longest time, was still loyal far into the Heresy; or at least not working actively against Big Daddy E but hardly able to go back...).

Several of the others, on the other hand, I can't stand - Mortarion is a grumpy dude with no personality beyond being grumpy, Angron is an angry idiot with no personality beyond being angry (through no fault of his own, but still), Fulgrim is just an idiot for the way he got corrupted...
Curze (whom you forgot, shame on you!) is odd... depends a lot on who wrote him and what his mood is; in Vulkan Lives and the flashbacks in ADBs NL trilogy I found him to be just about as pathetic and pitiful as it's possible for a Primarch to be, while in Unremembered Empire he's all kinds of evil genius awesomesauce.
Alpharius is... odd... in a really fun way, what with taking the guise of line Legionaries all the time just to confuse the ever-living daylight out of the world. Also, I kinda like to think he not only believes the Cabal, but also was right in doing so.
Horus is... kinda too important to really like or dislike for me; without him the whole thing wouldn't have happened, so it's kinda hard to be angry with him Also, he's pretty much a victim of that dolt Erebus showing him nothing but the truth (in that vision of the Emperor being worshipped as a god in the future, and only half of his brothers being remembered fondly - must've stunk to think you'd be erased from all memory...)

[Charon]

I guess the only ones left that are somewhat likable are Magnus and Alpharius.
The rest was cool until some writers decided to make them complete morons. Lorgar had an entire book with him *****ing and moaning. Angron is like Hulk without Bruce Banner and even less personality. Mortarion is so busy looking grim that he forgot to add some personality. Fulgrim turned into a complete idiot and while I really liked the book because of the creepy/disgusting things happening all around I disliked Fulgrim most of the time.
Torn on Curze but well he went mad after all. Pertuarbo has the same personality as Mortarion.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Ha, I don't like Perturabo at all.

I have a soft spot for Lorgar and Magnus.

[Mr Mystery]

Some more thoughts on the tragedy of Perturabo....

He was the equal of Rogal Dorn when it came to siege craft, excelling in the laying of a siege rather than building a fastness - though of course that's a matter of perspective.

He or Dorn were essential if Horus' uprising was to succeed. Why? Well, the Rebel Legionnes Astartes rushed to Terra, knowing their best chance came from minimising the time the rest of the Imperium had to react and reinforce, given their target was glaringly obvious.

Had Perturabo not turned, which again is entirely due to the Emperor being a dick to him, the Rebels would in all likelihood been repulsed from The Emperor's palace with crippling losses to both men and materiel.

In the nightmare scenario for Horus, imagine if the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists had both defended the Palace....the words 'no chance, tosser' spring to mind....

Now don't get me wrong, the whole tale of the Heresy is a tale of tragedy - so little of it was unavoidable had The Emperor been more even handed in his treatment of his sons? I mean there's tough love and healthy competition to be added to inevitable sibling rivalry, and then there's just being a dick to some of them whilst strongly favouring others.

But yeah. Poor old Perturabo. He didn't deserve the treatment he and his Legion received.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

I suspect you're giving a bit too much weight to Perturabo's version of events.

[CoffeeGrunt]

I like Magnus, he's the Icarus character, the one who flew too high and far and came crashing down because of it. He's intelligent and progressive, but also arrogant and naive. He thought he was his own master, but he was always a puppet dancing on a string, waiting for its master's call to hit the stage...

[Drew da Destroya]

Alpharius Omegon, but they sorta doesn't count since they're still loyal. But they're so damn fun!

Otherwise, I end up feeling bad for most of the Fallen Primarchs, but I don't particularly like them. Horus I guess would be my next favorite, since he's pretty awesome pre-fall, but he had basically no choice in whether or not to turn evil that it's sorta hard to judge him.

[Lurker]

hmmm, that's hard to say really. It comes down to Magnus and Alpharius/Omegon for me.

I like Magnus cuz he's kinda like the kicked dog you really empathize with. Yeah sure, he was arrogant but he was also misunderstood. He didn't deserve to have the wolves set loose on him (especially since they despised Magnus and his boys already). He was only trying to help, lol! He's the tragic hero made villain because in the end it served someone elses' purpose.

A/O - I really like because they did what they did for the right reasons, (even though it meant the death of humanity, it would eventually save everyone else). it's that altruistic virtue (that we HOPE humanity is capable of) that makes them very likable I think. And there's also the possibility that they still may not have wholly given themselves to Chaos, but in the End may come riding over the hill like the cavalry at the last moment. (I can dream... )

[Stephen James Hand]

I'd have to go for Fulgrim.

He brings an element of culture and style that the other Primarchs lack, but is still still technically savvy enough to build awesome relic weapons

He didn't rename his legion, and a traitor legion called 'The Emperor's Children' is just cheeky.

He's the coolest looking demon out there.

He did for 2 other Primarchs, including Papa Smurf, which would be enough to top my list by itself.

Why none of the others?

Konrad Curze - the Night Lords are my favorite traitor legion but Konrad has 3 big drawbacks for me:
He's self obsessed and mopey
He's a cheap batman rip off, and I don't even like the original that much
He's dead.

Perturarbo - I like his cold logic and technical skill & inventiveness, but when it comes down to it, he's a whiney little pee pants who's childishly jealous of his brother. Real badasses set their own agenda rather than defining themselves by hating someone else

Magnus - Probably my second favorite traitor Primarch, but he tries to warn the Emperor about Horus but instead blows up his webway project and nearly gets Holy Terra overrun by a horde of demons? Muppet.

Angron - This guy is liability, Horus would have been better off without him. Worst... Primarch... Ever...

Mortarion - Smelly.

Lorgar - Bible Basher.

Horus - Deamonhood is for WINNERS, punk!

Alpharius / Omegon - Their vagueness and contradictions appeal to many but he just seems annoying and wishy washy to me. Is he 2 guys or 1? Is he a traitor or not? And one of them got beaten up by Papa Smurf.