Okay, necro time. *cracks knuckles* (for the record this, fairly minor necro, is due to my not being able to access the site and reply between time of posting and now)
Yeah, it kind of seems like he was rubber stamping them at the end there. Still, a personal touch goes a long way. I mean, a decade with each legion would have added up to a little under 2 centuries. Not much compared to the big picture of the crusade, which went on for quite a while if I remember right.
I'm not really sure that spending lots of time with the Primarchs would've been that helpful. Night Haunter and Angron were both pretty much lost causes from the get go, Lorgar and Magnus probably were as well. Also, not every Primarch who got shafted turned against him. Corax doesn't seem to have spent much time with him and neither I think did the Khan, Guilliman or the Lion. Notably several of the loyalist Primarchs (Russ, Vulkan/Manus) did not accept the Emperor right away well several traitors (Night Haunter, Horus, Fulgrim) did. And ultimately it can't be ignored that the Primarch he spent the most time with is the one who orchestrated most of the Heresy (hint: it was named after him too). The Emperor did have other things that
Agreed. I did not count the other two because it seems like they didn't even make it to the point when all the other Primarchs were found. So when Alpharius was discovered and given the XX legion, there were already only 18.
Fair enough.
However, the Eldar Fall was an empire destroying event, I think the severity would have kept them weak and pliant for several millenia, more than enough time to proceed cautiously.
Well the Dark Eldar never really suffered from the Fall directly, and so remained a dangerous military threat from the get go, and likely one quite interested in regaining their former empire. Further it can be seen that the Eldar are already militarily active and scheming before the Heresy takes place.
Ultimately though I agree that the Eldar were unlikely to recapture there Empire at any point. That doesn't mean the thousands (if not billions) of other minor empires couldn't have expanded to fill the gap instead of humanity. Nor does it mean that Chaos wasn't already moving towards enslaving an empire of their own. It's quite likely that they wouldn't have been able to become galaxy ruling threats themselves but they would've posed a bigger challenge to the Imperium, particularly if they were human themselves (there posing a more existential threat by raising the question 'we were doing fine before they came, why do we need the Imperium?')
He outpaced the supply train(figuratively). The Legions kept conquering and conquering, without taking the time to consolidate their hold on these worlds.
Actually the Emperor did a remarkable job of keeping the supply chain going for his legions. And as Sangriento pointed out, it wasn't the Legions job to consolidate the Imperium's hold, just to expand it.
On another note, most of the Legions were competing with, instead of complementing each other.
Competition between equals is the best way to bring out the best in everyone involved. The Primarchs pushed themselves and their Legions to the absolute peak of their ability, simply to prove to the others what they could do.
The Emperor should never have allowed that to happen. As a leader, he should have made them shake paws and make up. Or at least be civil to each other.
The Primarchs are a diverse group, and a group were each individual member was raised to believe he was the only one of his kind and the only one capable of what he was capable of. To expect that the coming together of such a group would not spark disagreements is irrational. Equally, to expect the word of one individual to be able to change that is also irrational. The build up has shown time and time again that the Emperor saying something doesn't make it so. Telling people to be nice to each other won't make them change their opinion of that person. And finally, the Primarchs were all civil with each other. Even ones with major personal issues were never worse than distant until the Heresy forced everyone to pick a side.
Maybe if the Primarchs were together more, they would get along better, and there would be less bruised egos and bitter tears. Its awful hard to hate someone when you depend on them on a daily basis, especially in combat.
I really don't think that sticking some of the Primarchs together would've made their relationships better, in fact I think it would make some of them worse. By forcing them to co-operate on a single mission you are creating all kinds of mine fields for them to have to walk through. Who is in charge of the mission, and why? Who takes the lead, who gets mop-up duties, who takes the hardest target and who negotiates with the leaders? And again, why? And that's leaving aside all the potential for resentment that could come from having to wait for, or bail out, your ally. The Primarchs themselves wouldn't be forced to rely on, or even see, each other on anything approaching a daily basis in such situations. Look at
Feat of Iron for an example of how such co-operation might look, then imagine that stretched out through every campaign.
Respect would come in time, and respect is the death of hate.
Most of the Primarchs did respect each other, or at least they respected what they could do. Horus repeatedly talks about how much he admires Sanguinius, how much he respects Guilliman and Dorn and how much he fears Russ; but that only causes him to make harder death-traps for them. You can respect someone and still hate them.
However, keeping them together in task forces would slow down the pace a little.
Actually it probably wouldn't slow the pace much, it would just create more task forces that weren't headed by Primarchs. Whether or not that would be a good thing or a bad thing is hard to tell.
Wow. That was alot longer than it seemed at first. Sorry
No need to apologize. Massive posts are my specialty.
