"Am I the only one here who gives a damn about the rules?!"
- Constantine Valdor (attributed)

Magnus' Folly is the ultimate in "this could have been an email".

Magnus is the living embodiment of "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

The general attitude of the custodians throughout the Heresy us "well you lot have your family arguments, some of us are trying to be professionals!"

Magnus did nothing wrong.

As in, Magnus was told to do nothing. He did that wrong.

Amon: "Magnus, whatever you do, don't fuck with the warp"
Big E: "Magnus, whatever you do, don't fuck with the warp"
Magnus, 0.314 seconds after being left unsupervised: "Now it's time to fuck with the warp!"

"ADEPT! Bring me my observing robe and the tincture of observance! Arbitor Ian has released another big video!"

At least two ways this could’ve been avoided:
1. If Magnus tried to warn the Emperor by non-physic means.
2. If Magnus had simply responded to and accepted the censure demands when the fleets arrived over Prospero.
But you know, Magnus decided to let everyone die because he screwed up catastrophically. A tragic reminder of the danger of arrogant smart people who think they’re better than everyone else and therefore can do whatever they want.

These videos are slowly but surely expanding my familiarity of the lore of a franchise I've never played but am deeply fascinated by.

It's crazy how The Thousand Sons and The Word Bearers get told they can't do what they're born to do and then you look over at The World Eaters...

The fact that 40k is willing to have contradictory lore and say "no they both are canon" is one of my favorite things about the setting. Real history has the same problem where there are sources about an event that should agree and have no reason to be contradicting each other (like propaganda from different sides) but don't anyway. You will get Government document A saying thing 1 and the same Government produces document B that says thing 2 which can't be reconciled with thing 1. And historians have to figure out if they can know which is correct or just throw their hands up and say the truth is actually lost to history.

I think the incident at Shrike is also an important part of the story. It is Tzeentch's trigger on his plot - the moment that gave Russ the evidence he needed to force the Emperor to call the Council of Nikaea. One of my favorite scenes in the Heresy. The Horror of the TS marines seeing the flesh change return when they believed it was gone forever, in the middle of the tense confrontation with the Space Wolves... just excellent.

First ten minutes of reading about the Horus Heresey - I feel bad for Magnus, he didn't deserve that. Two months later, after reading 1000 Sons - Magnus did everything wrong.

The wolf shirt matching the Space Wolves is an excellent touch. And in the exact colors that would annoy Leman Russ.

Horus: "I wish my fellow traitors were as useful as Leman."

Imagine sending a psychic email so badly it ends ups breaking a galaxy spanning empire

24:22 "Their rememberancers dismissed so they might not witness the bloodshed" Space Wolves turned their bodycams off 🤧

That’s always the issue I have with this. While the ideas in the novels CAN work, in practice they have to reduce every character to such a giant manbaby that it verges into grim derp. Like Magnus. Magnus LOVED his sons. Instead of SHOWING us what would make him think that his mistake was so great that he’d rather condemn his legion to death, he just, gives up. Without good reason. And there were PLENTY of good reason. It’s implied that seeing the destruction of the emperors life’s work broke him in a way, but it just doesn’t go into enough detail. Like imagine if he physically saw the daemons for the first time breeching the webway, or if his spell also caused Daemons to invade Prospero. Meaning he and his legion finally see the TRUE nature of the powers they are using and the malicious gods who had tricked him. What if he realized that the pact he made with Tzeentch to stop the flesh change had already long damned his legion; he just didn’t know. That would make some sense as to why he felt they NEEDED to be destroyed. He just couldn’t bear to watch that in the end. Then to the TS not knowing that the SW were coming. Super weird. Sure; silent sisters what not; but it’s just LESS INTERESTING than the space marines KNOWING that the SW are coming and choosing to defy their father. Like they start to know that their use of psychic powers has damned them, but they choose to go down fighting rather than go quietly. I think this is the IMPLICATION, but it just doesn’t work in practice. I feel like the killer is Leman Russ. He needed a better reason to bomb Prospero. Like imagine if Magnus had actually responded to him in his entreaty, and what does Magnus say. “Horus has betrayed the emperors” something do unreasonable so blasphemous that Russ knows it MUST be a lie. Something that would drive him to pull the trigger because it CANNOT be true. Some subtle things like this would have made the difference

It's crazy to think about how different 40k might be if Magnus had just answered Russ's phone call and agreed to surrender. Him and his legion would have been taken to Terra where they likely would have joined the defense against Horus's invasion and never fallen to chaos. With Magnus by his side, the emperor probably wouldn't been mortally injured and trapped on the throne for 10 millennia. The Thousand Sons easily could have stayed loyal and been redeemed.

Last time I was this early, Prospero wasn’t on fire.