Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-26165786-20150304163255/@comment-6078851-20150420142623

i can think of a couple who would have been a better warmaster than horus. horus had a serious issue after becoming warmaster in that anytime he did something that wasn't perfect, or blew up in his face, he began to question himself regarding his abilities and his fitness for the role, and by extension he also began to question emps' wisdom in appointing him warmaster. the more he questioned the more his confidence took a knock and the easier it became for the gods to manipulate him.

horus himself said that guilliman or jonson would have been a better warmaster (which i think too), and though sanguinius didn't want the post i also think he would've been a better warmaster. and yeah, maybe not corax but i do think dorn would have been a better choice. those that i think would've been better isn't based on just their comparitive abilities but also their loyalty - guilliman, jonson, dorn, and sanguinius are/were the most loyal primarchs of them all (russ' loyalty is also ranked here but in all honesty i think he would've sucked as warmaster :P), and though the gods would've caused a heresy regardless, it would've been far less severe had horus not been warmaster. i also think a large part of emps choosing horus wasn't strictly for his ability but because he was emps' favourite.

but as i said earlier this is retrospectively, which, as we all know, is 20/20 vision :)

regarding your theory, there is much that says emps was a very unforgiving fellow, and even if the alpha legion destroyed a couple of traitor chapters i doubt emps would consider the legion or their primarchs as anything but traitors.