Did Horus regret it in the end?

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**TheAngrySquig**

KilroyKiljoy wrote:He died in the end.

We gathered

**Jihadnik**

@Pacific - I read your block of text and I thought it was a very good point! Damn, now I'm annoyed at the books again!

**English Assassin**

Pacific wrote:The older fluff in the Space Marine (Epic) and Chaos Codex left it more open-ended. It said that Horus lowered the shields at the point the Imperium was pretty much done for, but it speculated whether it was Horus wanting to witness his father's death, or perhaps that he felt some last vestige of regret over what he had done.

The other suggestion (I don't recall whether it was in Space Marine 1st ed., but it was definitely in the Bill King story accompanying the original 1993 Horus Heresy board game) was that Horus realised that he could not take the Imperial Palace before reinforcements (the Space Wolves and Dark Angels) arrived to reinforce the loyalists, and lowered his shields as a deliberate gambit to allow him one last chance to kill the his father, whom he knew would be unable to resist teleporting aboard to face him in person.

Otherwise, however, I agree with your sentiments.

**Durza**

@Pacific.Horus is indeed under-written... but I'd imagine his pride contributed a lot to his downfall. We have someone that has been overshadowed by his father for the majority of the Crusade. He can accept this, loving his father as he does. Then his father elevates him above all his brothers and leaves, which makes him arrogant. Then he is shown a vision in which his father betrays him. The only problem is that he believes it far, far too quickly, as you said. He wasn't even being constantly manipulated like Fulgrim (and to an extent, Magnus).

**SisterJoey**

Pacific wrote:One of the oldest story telling tropes - the ill-treated slave turning against their master due to the inherent strength of the human spirit. Something similar could have been done for Horus - a gradual braking down of his spirit, or a succession of F-ups by his creator and enemies at the gate which meant that he took that course of action for genuinely conscionable reasons. It would have contained human drama, something that will always be far, far more evocative, more epic, than otherwordly concepts of anathaema swords and whispered promises by Daemons. Certainly, when the book series finally reaches the end, I think whether Horus regrets or not when he is finally destroyed is meaningless. He has already been removed from causality, from any kind of emotive connection to the reader, and that in my view represents a rather large failure of story telling.

Another old story-telling trope is the rebellious son who sees how wrong he was in the final moments. This is intended to return the son (Horus, in this case) to being a sympathetic figure after a decent into madness for pursuing "good intentions". Darth Vader in Star Wars and Arthas from WoW are two other examples. Doesn't work for me, personally, but I can see the appeal. We want to see people gain redemption or forgiveness.

(YES, I know DV wasn't Lukes son, but think of him as Obi Wan's son, and it works.)

**Durza**

I think that the rebellious son trope is to emphasise how right the father figure was all along in this case. Horus was kind of beyond redemption by that point.

**SisterJoey**

Durza wrote:I think that the rebellious son trope is to emphasise how right the father figure was all along in this case. Horus was kind of beyond redemption by that point.

OK, forgiveness, then.

**LoneLictor**

I'm a big Chaos fan, but I think he regretted it and the Chaos Gods left him when they realized he was no longer patriotic to their cause. At that point, well... Redemption in Death. He was too messed up to ever be a Loyalist again.

**TheAngrySquig**

I'm a Sanguinius fan myself, so I can't say I mind his death