Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-6078851-20130130174042/@comment-184.88.215.62-20130317202047

Given that the Emperor was FAR from being perfect I kind of suspect that the Primarchs would have had their problems even if they hadn't been stolen and scattered. I mean look how the son in whose upbringing His Maj. had the most input (Horus) turned out!

The Emperor clearly loved his 'sons' but he was indeed a LOUSY father. Given that they were made entirely from his dna and nobody else's he may have more excusably than most fallen into the common parental error of thinking his offspring would be just like him. Obviously they weren't. And he seems to have totally failed to understand that point, or address the dangerous emotional problems of Angron, Konrad Curze, Mortarion and Perturabo or manage a meeting of minds with Logar on the subject of belief (letting the kid go his own way for the better part of a century and then cracking down was clearly not a good strategy!).

His response to finding a new Primarch seems to have been along the lines of 'Hi there, I am your father. From now on you do everything I say and I say we are  going to conquer the Galaxy together, you, me and your bros - won't that be fun? And look - here's your very own army of super-soldiers made from your DNA so they're kind of like your kids, how cool is that? Okay, see that star over there conquer its planets in the name of the Imperium for your Dad, good boy.

He doesn't seem to have grasped that different strategies might be appropriate with different sons. For example beating him in a contest seems to have worked great with Leman Russ and Vulkan, but was conspicuously less successful with Mortarian. Konrad Cruze's first words to his dear old Dad absolutely CRIED out for careful thought and some serious therapy and where to begin listing his mistakes with Angron!

Emps seems to have been so focused on conquering the Galaxy that it never occured to him to take some time (your immortal - all you've got is time!) and spend it nurturing his sons.