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It is hard to tell whether Dorn or Guilliman was more of an idealist. We have had less fiction that gets inside Dorn's head and none post-Heresy. Guilliman have been a POV character in both DI and Plaugue Wars so we have spent plenty of time inside his head so it is not really a fair comparison. Guilliman is an idealist, he wants to make life better for humanity in general. He told Dante is was time to stop the tribes of Baal living as impoverished nomads just for the sake of tradition. Guilliman's faith in his father has been pretty much demolished but he still retains his faith in the vision of a better future for humanity (however hopeless it may be to actually achieve it). Ironically, the Emperor would probably approve of faith in his vision far more that faith in him.

We know a lot less about Dorn's mindset but the little post-heresy fiction there is paints him as a morose figure and it is not hard to see why. He crafted some impressive defenses in the Sol system but between Alpahrius's infiltration and Chaos sorcery, the traitors pretty much bypassed them, hastening their landing on Terra by several weeks.

Dorn was responsible for the fortification of the Palace but ultimately it fell to Perturabo. Even when the loyalists were reinforced by the White Scars and Blood Angels (who had not been on Terra when he started planning his defenses), it was not enough to hold back the tide of Traitors. 7 years of preparation and 2 additional Legions and Dorn still failed.

Then there was his personal failure to protect the Emperor on the Vengeful Spirit. Dorn regarded himself as the Emperor's Champion and Praetorian yet he was not at his side during the crucial battle. By the time he reached the bridge, the battle was over and the Emperor was mortally wounded.

Lastly there was his failure to avenge himself on the Iron Warriors. He led his legion into what turned out to be a trap and ultimately had to be rescued by Guilliman. The aftermath saw his Legion broken up into Chapters while Perturabo ascended to Daemonhood.

You could easily argue that none of these were Dorn's fault. At every turn he was undone by the powers of the warp, powers that he understood poorly and hence could not defend against. But Dorn was not a particularly forgiving person and I suspect he was even harder on himself than on those around him.

He failed to keep Horus away from terra. He failed to keep the traitors out of the Palace. He failed to reach the Emperor's side in time to protect him and he failed to take revenge on those responsible.

No wonder he was bitter and morose after the Heresy. He may not have lost his faith in the Emperor but I am pretty sure he had lost his faith in himself.

Bran Dawri wrote:
Huh? Failed to keep them out of the Palace? AFAIK, the White Scara defended a big airport, IF and BA defended the Palace, and held it long enough for Russ and Johnson anfmd their Legions to come close enough for Horus to feel forced to enter his gambit of letting the Emperor teleport onto his flagship.

If the Palace had already fallen, there's no need for Horus to expose himself, and, as has happened so often in the series, the narratuve falls flat on its face.

The main walls had fallen and the enemy were at the Eternity Gate. The traitors had breached the Palace and only the inner Sanctum Imperialis remained. In terms of a medieval castle, the invaders had breached the walls and taken the baileys while the defenders were now trapped inside the keep. The White Scars had retaken one of the Spaceports, halving the traitors' supply lines to the Palace. If not for Sanguinius and the BAs, the Eternity Gate might have been taken before it could be sealed.

I am not bashing Dorn. Horus had marshalled overwhelming forces and also called on powers beyond Dorn's experience. However I am pretty sure that Dorn would have felt like he had failed.

 Tyzarion_Kronius wrote:
Had the Emperor not gone to face Horus, could BA+IF+WS + Imperial Army have held long enough for Guilliman and Ultramarines to arrive to rescue the situation?

In the current fluff we don't know as the Siege series has not got that far yet. In the older fluff (where it was the DAs and SWs racing to the rescue) the answer is "yes". Had Horus not goaded the Emperor into a face-to-face confrontation, the siege would have failed.

Now the final siege began. Through great breaches in the outer walls more and more armaments and reinforcements were brought to bear. The Warmaster himself prepared to teleport down to the surface and supervise the destruction of his former lord. Then a daemon from the Warp whispered to him the words that he had dreaded. A loyalist fleet under Leman Russ and Lion El'Johnson bearing a fresh army of Space Wolves and Dark Angels was only hours away. It would take days to break Humanity's last citadel, even with Horus leading his troops. It seemed that time had run out for the Warmaster, that his gamble had failed.

Horus was first among the fallen, with the power of a god and the cunning of a daemon. He resolved to try one final desperate gambit. He could still kill the Emperor. He ordered all comm-net communications blocked so that the defenders would get no word from their rescuers and then he used his psychic powers to the full to prevent the Emperor becoming aware of this. Finally he dropped the shields of his command ship. It was an invitation and a personal challenge that he knew the Emperor could not resist. He was being offered a chance finally to smite the foe who had harried him for so long.

I wouldn't call Dorn unstable. His problem is that he is utterly inflexible with a serious temper. When confronted with news of Horus's treachery, his first reaction is to nearly kill Nathaniel Garro for insulting his brother. He is the kind of person who keeps all his anger pent up until he can't hold it and he lashes out (Garro, Sigismund etc).

Guilliman on the other hand is more adaptable and flexible. He is also a lot better on the people skills front and is better at getting the best out of people. Guilliman's weakness is that being less impassive allows more room for self-doubt. This is particularly acute following his resurrection at the end of the 41st millennium. He really has no one left he can talk to on his own level. Malcador and his brothers are gone, his father is almost incommunicado. Probably the only being close to his own intellectual level is Bellisarius Cawl and Guilliman doesn't trust him enough to confide in him.

Bran Dawri wrote:
Pretty sure DA and SW being on the way to force Horus' gambit goes back as far as 3rd edition. Maybe even 2nd.

I think it was first mentioned early in 2nd edition. This short story was published in WD in 1993 (I think). I quoted the bit about the DAs and SWs previously.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/514769/battle-holy-terra-short-story

Bran Dawri wrote:
Because the HH writers don't like the SW, they've been replaced with the Ultramarines, but the basic structure stands.

I think the HH writers saw the SWs as too "nice". A bunch of heroic, beer-swilling Space Vikings who always help the underdogs were felt to be just a bit too NobleBright. So they went out of their way to darken them in the GC and HH with the whole "Executioners" theme. The idea being that it would then show their evolution into the more idealistic SWs we see in 40K.