(I had a meltdown due to depression and stupidity and deleted my Patreon. By sheer happenstance I am also currently totally out of imagination and invention. So now you get my Patreon shitposts, which, I am sorry ex-patreons, but at least you didn't get charged right?)
Listening to the Horus Heresy audio dramas on Audible. Leman Russ is one of those characters who, when you seem then through the palimpsest of different writers and books, I have gradually come to despise. He's cool essentially because the writers like to wank over him and in any particular scene they make him look good, but once you see his actions over a long period of time, the momentary charisma wears off and he is gradually exposed as a complete tit.
- Likes to wank himself off over his role as 'executioner' - the only reason its him is because he was the second found, is mindlessly loyal and Horus was busy with grown up shit to do.
- Likes to wank himself off over his role as 'executioner' despite this meaning hes essentially willing to kill his own family (and he does refer to them as Kin in 'The burning of Prospero') even before the Heresy. And he gets mind-wiped after each one it seems.
Seriously, imagine boasting "I'm totally willing to kill members of my own family and positively eager to be mindwiped after doing it!" - that's Leman Russ.
- Own legion is mutated to fuckery as in will actually turn into werewolves, but sees no hypocrisy in wanking himself off over being 'The Executioner' of other Legions for 'being corrupt'.
- Was easily manipulated into the Burning of Prospero and single-handedly lost Mognus to chaos even though Magnus reeeaally didn't want to fuck off to the eye of terror.
- Pulled that crap with Angron where he lost a fight to put Angron in position to lose the battle, hoping to 'teach a lesson', too fucking stupid to realise that he was dealing with a deeply traumatised nihilist and that Angron got his meaning full well, he just didn't care because he fucking hates himself and his own legion.
- Genuinely thinks he can take every other Primarch outside Horus, despite only beating Magnus because he was in the middle of a Schtizo breakdown, only really drawing with Angron, getting knocked out by the Lion. Is he fuck certain to take them all out.
- Keeps his home world as illiterate savages cause it makes his legion 'better', despite that being more hypocritical even than usual for the Great Crusade.
Sacrificed almost all of his Legion (who could have been chilling on Terra, protecting Big-E who Russ supposedly luuurves) in order to stab Horus with a magic stick, once.
- Oh and that time he blundered into a fight the Lion was having during a compliance and, pissed at being left out and not willing to wait for answers, opened, fire, accidentally killing a bunch of 1st legion Astartes, and the Lion didn't even lose his shit with Russ *quite yet*.
- Own legion happily uses Rune Priests despite Russ supporting banning the Librarius at Nikea. He says its ok because they 'come from a tradition', well so do the Khans Stormseers and the Khan (sane motherfucker that he is) supported the Librarius as a good solution. Russ didn't just want no-one to have psykers, he wanted no-one but him INCLUDING the Khan, to have them.
What a complete tool. Russ is a massive chad. He coasts on charisma and a general assumption of his competence despite, when you analyse his record, clearly not being that good.
In all these ways, he is the perfect exemplar of his legion.
ReplyDeleteHe is the worst! Which audio dramas have you been doing? I'm in the middle of a committed chronological "but only the good ones" run at the Heresy books, and just finished Wolf King, which was extremely dull. People banged on about Chris Wraight, but I thought Scars was tedious too (despite having some fun ideas). Just started Vengeful Spirit which I'm enjoying a lot more, despite not ever having liked a Graham McNeill book. It has a marvellous bit towards the beginning where Russ plays a weird board game he's invented with Malcador, which I feel definitely backs up your argument here.
ReplyDeleteAll warhammer Audio books listened to;
DeleteBlack Legion
Helsreach
Scars
The Carrion Throne
The Path of Heaven
The Talon of Horus
The Warmaster
Watchers of the Throne
The Lords of Silence
Leman Russ; The Great Wolf
Praetorian of Dorn
Old Earth
Blood of Iax
Fabius Bile: Primogenetor
Fabius Bile: Clonelord
Wolfsbane
Slaves to Darkness
The Damnation of Pythos
Vengeful Spirit
Tallarn
The Solar War
I liked Scars and chris wright generally.
Interesting! Maybe I should give some of Wraight's other stuff a shot. The Carrion Throne appealed to me in principle. How was Path of Heaven? Slaves to Darkness was a maybe on my to-read list too, how was that? Of the Heresy stuff you've not mentioned there, I really enjoyed the First Heretic/Know No Fear/Betrayer trio. Know No Fear is a very Spielbergy thrill ride, and the other two made me dig Lorgar.
DeleteTo possibly answer my own question, I'll look on your goodreads. I really enjoyed the Crimson King review you put up here.
DeleteWell I liked Scars so if you didn't you may not like Path of Heaven since its basically Scars II.
DeleteI *think* I read First Heretic, Know No Fear and Betrayer ages ago. Recall liking Know No Fear a lot. Dembski Bowden is usually good but I tend to read his books at an emotional angle if that makes sense.
I have only read the Eisenhorn trilogy. Is Leman Russ supposed to be a "good" character, or is it relatively clear that the author (Dan Abnett?) intended for him to be awful? It is a huge pet peeve of mine when I think a character is awful not because they were intended to be awful, but because it's a reflection of the awfulness of the author.
ReplyDeleteHe's been handled by so many authors, I'm not sure there's an answer to that. The Horus Heresy series isn't so much a continuous narrative as it is a series of vignettes that are mostly chronological (over like 50 novels and 100-odd short stories) Most of the writers are bad, so Russ has ended up being the generic goody boss he's always been in the background of the game, and (unlike some of the other generic goody bosses) a good writer hasn't gone to the effort of making him interesting yet (though I thought Abnett did a pretty alright job in Prospero Burns, the one book he's written featuring Russ).
DeleteTo maxcan - Well, no-one in 40k is 'good' but he is generally a figure of positive reader identification.
DeleteDan Abnett definitiely likes him, but I do not think Dan Abnett is awful.
Ya I usually like Dan Abnett so I would be disappointed if this character reflected poorly on his personal values or worldview. Well, I'll have to read it myself someday I guess.
DeleteI refuse to read fiction about the Space Wolves because of the wank fest that is the Space Wolves. Their fluff hasn't been cool since the 2nd edition, which was unfortunately marred by the stupidity of their army list.
ReplyDeleteFuck the Wolf Time.
All I can think of is Story time with Bjorn the Fell Handed.
ReplyDelete