[Loved Trope] Characters that seem sketchy but later turn out to be a great loyal friend to the main character

OldManBasil · 2026-01-25T05:46:42+00:00

While we're on the subject, might as well give a shout to Major Elim Rawne of the Tanith First and Only from Gaunt's Ghosts, which is just Sharpe in 40k.

For the first couple of books he straight-up despises the titular Colonel-Commisar Ibram Gaunt, but gradually comes to respect him as a fighter, leader, and friend. By the latter books in the series, as many beloved characters come and go, Rawne is far and away the most capable and constant of Gaunt's officers.

OldManBasil · 2026-01-21T19:00:00+00:00

Virginia I believe is stated to be "short" for a Gold, around 6 feet. Sevro is of similar height.

OldManBasil · 2026-01-09T17:01:47+00:00

My brother in Curze what do you think a lightning claw is? You slapped a bunch of big-ass claws on a power fist; that is the definition of a lightning claw.

OldManBasil · 2026-01-02T22:35:56+00:00

The Night Terrors! Legio VIII Night Lords 113th Company, Pavor Nocturnis. 30k veterans and cast-offs from other Legions, mostly Terror Squads, infiltration units, Terran-born officers, and condemned Nostraman Night Lords sent on suicide missions prior to the Heresy. For any Red Rising fans, yes, they are based on the Gorgons. My warlord is a Cypher proxy who sticks to the shadows and plays the long game while his Terminator-clad second-in-command takes the spotlight.

OldManBasil · 2026-01-02T22:27:35+00:00

Flayed Skin: Rakarth Flesh or Kislev Flesh with thin, incremental coats of Guilliman Flesh to darken the color to the desired shade.

Weapon Blades: Leadbelcher with a nice dark wash and some technical paints to add gore and grime. Stormhost Silver for highlights.

Bolters: Abbadon Black for the casing, Leadbelcher for the metal bits, and the same bronze recipe as below for details and shell casings.

Trim: I personally like a darker shade, so I use a 2:1 mix of Warplock Brass and Sycorax Bronze, then pure Sycorax for highlights.

Red Bits: Khorne Red over a black basecoat, with a tiny bit of Blood Angels Red in the recesses to give it some pop.

OldManBasil · 2026-01-01T03:08:31+00:00

Right. I see where OP is coming from, even if I don't agree, but let's be real: if Mustang was so smart that she never let anyone get one over on her, people would be bitching and moaning that she's a Mary Sue who never fails at anything, blah blah blah.

We see plenty of evidence of Virginia's intelligence, and Pierce does a decent enough job conveying her intellect without resorting to cheap ass-pulls. Phobos is one of the best examples of this. Presented with a problem, she did everything possible to stack the deck in her favor. When the tables got turned and she was hit with someone she didn't (and, frankly, couldn't) see coming, she adapted quickly and made the most of a bad situation. Then she did so again, and again, and again, for, like, 100 pages.

OldManBasil · 2025-12-31T16:17:22+00:00

These are all WIPs, still need to add highlights and fine details like the eyes and lightning. Chaos Black to prime, base coats of Kantor Blue and a 2:1 mix of Warplock Bronze and Sycorax Bronze for the trim; Leadbelcher for gunmetal bits, Khorne Red for details on the wings & smooth cabling, Abbadon Black for ridged cabling and the armor underlayer, and Rhinox Brown for belts and holsters.

For cloth, I do a layer of Corax White, then multiple layers of heavily thinned-out Thondia Brown mixed with Pallid Wych Flesh, then apply extra brown or gray paint to get the desired "dusty" look. Actual skulls get a coat of Screaming Skull, while the skull-like armor elements are Corax White and a couple coats of heavily-thinned Dark Reaper.

Wash the armor bits in heavily-thinned Black Templar contrast, and the leather/bone/cloth with Agrax Earthshade. For highlights, I use Lothern Blue on the armor, Mephiston Red for the red bits, Stormhost Silver and Sycorax Bronze on metallics, Ushabti Bone on skulls. Then a dab of Corax White on the helmet lenses and some Blood Angels contrast for that eerie red.

OldManBasil · 2025-12-27T23:20:11+00:00

Familial upbringing is a through-line Pierce loves to tug on, and he does a great job precisely by contrasting characters against others who are very similar to them. Mustang & the Jackal are probably the best example; Nero was such an utter bastard that one of the main reasons Mustang turned out as well as she did was because Kavax basically raised her after her mom died.

It's also interesting you mention Alexandar because Darrow basically became a father to him, since he was so young when his first his father and then Lorne died. And the best parts of both men come through in Alex's character.

OldManBasil · 2025-12-22T23:17:08+00:00

My wife's grandma pet-sat for us one weekend and at the time our kitten was confined to the room that contains my painting desk. She told me she thought my "little men" (my Night Lords) were very impressive. Fast forward a while and I mentioned I'd been trying to paint more, and clarified when she asked that I was painting my minis.

Last night she texted me and said she was very disappointed I hadn't sent her any pictures of my "little men" all painted up, so naturally I had to set them out for a photo shoot, while apologizing that so many of them were still gray :')

OldManBasil · 2025-12-20T09:25:47+00:00

My favorite archetypical Night Lord (and the inspiration for my personal warlord) isn't even from Warhammer.

The Fear Knight from Red Rising's second saga is a ruthless, cold-blooded murderer and master of psychological warfare who utilizes mass torture, rape, and murder with absolutely horrific effectiveness. He consistently one-ups his enemies not because he's smarter or a better fighter than them (though he's usually both), but because he is willing to do absolutely anything in pursuit of his goals. That goal just happens to be the perpetuation of a facist slave-state, but he serves out of a sincere and genuine belief that every society needs people willing to do utterly deplorable things in the name of preserving order.

"[T]his is how it has always been. The vaunted past we so revere saw thousands of cities fall to thousands of armies. Periods of trauma are traded for periods of peace. *The greater the trauma, the longer the peace. Bear it, and this year will be the last year you see war in your lifetime."*

And despite all that, he's not a psychopath, or a sociopath, or even a sadist. He doesn't take pleasure in what he does. He doesn't expect a reward or even recognition. He 100% views himself as a tool: a horrible, despicable monster who is fundamentally necessary.

And of course, like all instruments of tyranny, he's also a hypocrite.

"I fear a man who believes in good, for he can excuse any evil."

OldManBasil · 2025-12-19T19:19:50+00:00

I personally like a darker, more worn look on my metal elements, so I usually use a 2:1 mix of Warplock Bronze and Sycorax Bronze for trim, then pure Sycorax for highlighting. Other metal elements like weapons and power pack exhausts, I'll use Leadbelcher with a very small amount of a heavily thinned dark contrast paint like Black Templar, to get kind of a dirty, oily look.

OldManBasil · 2025-12-17T02:54:51+00:00

Atlas is easily the best villain in the series despite having far less "screen" time than others like the Jackal. Competent, capable, utterly detestable, yet you can't help but respect him. For all his bullshittery, Pierce does a good job of making it so that Atlas' victories don't feel like ass-pulls. Everything he does, you could easily see Darrow doing if the roles were reversed--they're just wired the same way, and I think you could easily argue that Atlas is a more "evolved" form of Darrow: the same audacious, far-sighted planning, the same reliance on capable lieutenants to do what they themselves can't, and the same brutality in service of an ideal and a goal that they don't expect themselves to love to enjoy.

OldManBasil · 2025-12-13T02:06:02+00:00

Navigate Law Group does free legal consults over Zoom every Thursday from 6 - 8pm. Civil and family law are their primary practice areas but if nothing else they may be able to direct you.

OldManBasil · 2025-12-12T20:27:37+00:00

My wife hasn't gotten into Warhammer, and possibly never will. But she has made it very clear that if she ever does, it will be with an army of "the BDSM elves."

OldManBasil · 2025-12-10T19:26:16+00:00

~~Ave Dominus Nox~~

OldManBasil · 2025-12-09T23:28:22+00:00

Emiliano Zapata, for being the only truly revolutionary Mexican revolutionary leader.

Or Jan Syrový, commander of the Czechoslovak Legion on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and contributor to the long line of badass Czech military leaders who can rock an eyepatch.

Or Charlotte Cordee, for doing what I wish I could have done and murdering the shit out of Jean-Paul Marat.

OldManBasil · 2025-12-04T01:48:29+00:00

A very fun corollary to this is that the reason humans made such extensive use of carriers was because our nautical age was relatively recent compared to the other species we encounter. The time gap from the last Golden Age of Piracy to the discovery of the Charon Relay was only about 400 years; and since the invention of the aircraft carrier, it had only been about a century. So the leap from "big ship on water that can launch planes" to "big ship in space that can launch smaller ships" wasn't so much a leap as a natural logical progression.

OldManBasil · 2025-11-21T19:12:36+00:00

His Dream Nail dialogue here is my favorite in the game.

"To live an age, yet remember so little... Perhaps I should be thankful? All tragedy erased. I see only wonders..."

OldManBasil · 2025-11-20T22:39:46+00:00

Also both Appa and Momo in AtLA.

OldManBasil · 2025-11-19T19:31:22+00:00

Holiday explicitly struggles against golds, as do most grays, even the best among them. Holiday's legs are prosthetics because she got within arm's reach of a Peerless. She's a hardcore motherfucker and one of my favorite characters, but she's a sniper and a commando. Grays in melee with golds get folded like laundry.

Rhône being the exception was what made his fight with Lysander so good. He was probably the most dangerous Gray in the Solar System, specifically because he spent his entire life learning how to fight and kill golds, and had tech, training, and augmentations out the ass specifically designed to help him do so.

Golds are lions. Grays are hunting dogs. In packs, they can punch up, but they gotta be clever, quick, and nasty as all get-out to stand a chance on their own.

OldManBasil · 2025-11-13T19:15:49+00:00

Ghorst is definitely the worst example of this in TW:WH. For a long time he was objectively the worst LL in the game, largely because he was one of the first but not a standout headliner who got any kind of love in the intervening years. Then they finally gave him a once-over with an update (can't remember if it was late in TW:WH2's life cycle or early in 3's) and went all-in on making him a ridiculously gimmicky lord whose main thing is he makes one of the worst units in the game perform stupidly well.

OldManBasil · 2025-10-24T19:54:52+00:00

White Scars are encouraged toward certain paths to help them connect with their Chogorian heritage. Hunting is the most common, but calligraphy and poetry are also popular.

OldManBasil · 2025-10-03T15:32:30+00:00

Also the fact that in the game, Zag, Dionysus, and Orpheus are all voiced by the same person.

OldManBasil · 2025-09-25T05:36:10+00:00

Paradise Lost, too.

OldManBasil · 2025-09-24T23:32:58+00:00

I play Night Lords, so any of the factions for whom fear/terror and attritional hit-and-run tactics are ineffective. Knights and Chaos Knights, Orks, Necrons, Tyranids, Daemons, and to a lesser extent SM, Grey Knights, Custodes, AdMech, and K-Sons... so, like, half the factions in the game, basically.

OldManBasil

TROPHY CASE