I've been watching the Angels of Death animated series on Warhammer+. This post is a review of the series, from the perspective of someone who's mainly read Horus Heresy books, along with the odd rulebook here and there. There are minor spoilers here.
The previous series ended with the beginning of the story. This episode returns us to current events, resuming with the death of the Rafael, the Skeletor-looking bloke. In the meantime, the Sword of Baal is rammed and boarded, and things are looking pretty dire for everyone.
Everyone except Tech Priest Magos Domina Castia Theta 9, that is.
In the previous episode, we learned that an Adeptus Mechanicus had been on the planet, although it wasn't clear when or whether she was still here. As it turns out, Tech Priest Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 has been biding her time somewhere in the undercity, and she starts putting her carefully calculated plans into action.
The voice of Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 is almost certainly the same voice as the Tech Priest in Kill Protocol of the Hammer and Bolter series. Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 has an augmetic left hand, but a flesh right hand, as did the Tech Priest in Kill Protocol. Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 does have flesh on the upper portion of her face, though, while the Tech Priest of Kill Protocol did not. I want these to be the same people, but obviously if Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 dies in this series then that doesn't quite work because if anything this has to be an earlier version of her (due to the flesh on her face).
Further data is required.
This episode is the previous episode, over again. Really, all that happens is that we hang out with Tech Priest Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 and shoot up some baddies with the Blood Angels. It's fine, but you could actually skip it and miss nothing.
"I am the death of foes."
Things start to ramp up, now. All the forces have assembled, both planetside and aboard the Sword.
On the planet, everybody's in position for the final battle. There are some reinforcements on both sides, and a few new players altogether. The ship is still tethered to the station, unable to break away (which seems like particularly poor space station and ship interface design). But the one space marine still on the Sword of Baal is Adeptus Mechanicus, and he's got a few tricks up his ceramite sleeve.
This is a rousing episode, appropriately enough, and I'm really not sure how many Blood Angels we're going to have left by the end of it all.
This is the final episode that's not quite the final episode, and it's very satisfying. Space marines go in and do their space marine thing. It's quick, methodical, and ruthless. This is it. This is the last stand.
One of the things I've loved the most about both Angels of Death and Hammer and Bolter is the score by Jonathan Hartman. In this episode, bizarrely, there's almost no score. Now, it's a relatively "obvious" trick to drop the soundtrack during key moments. The theory is that the absence of music will feel suddenly stark, and hyper-realistic (after all, there's no soundtrack in real life). It's a risky technique. I often find that it doesn't work as intended.
I think this episode gets away with it, but only barely. I watched it twice, once as produced and then again with some tracks from other episodes playing underneath. I didn't do anything fancy. I just opened the soundtrack (available in Warhammer+) in one window, and played the episode in another. I found the second viewing more satisfying, personally, but I do respect what they were going for.
The cold ruthlessness of the fight, soundtrack or no, comes through the strongest in the battle between Ancaeus and the Priestess. Ancaeus walks into a room, and she's standing at a balcony, looking over the city. No words are exchanged. She turns, lifts her gun, and shoots at him. It's a little shocking, because you usually get a pithy one-liner, whether you want it or not, in an action show, but there's no conversation here. This isn't a conversation, it's not a personal battle. The priestess had a plan, and the space marines are shutting it down. There's nothing to say, no script to follow, no sound bite to produce. She just needs to get a shot off, and hopes for the best.
It doesn't end well for her.
There are lots of losses on both sides, though. The episode's not called "Slaughter" for nothing.
This is the actual final episode, and it's really just tying up the loose ends. I'm glad it exists, because it provides a lot of closure.
We get to see Ship Mistress Livia Solken resume normal ship operations, which is refreshing. She keeps getting the best lines, too. I hope I see more of her in either other series or in other media, because she's an amazing character. I'd absolutely watch a series with her zipping around the galaxy, exploring brave new worlds and all that.
The Blood Angels deal with their losses and say a bunch of noble-sounding things about death and sacrifice.
And we get to see more of the dynamic between the human crew and the space marines, which I really really enjoy. The social nobility of the Astartes is fascinating to me, and I think about 70% of the appeal of Warhammer is exclusively in job titles. Ship Mistress, My Lord, Tech Priest Magos Domina, Adeptus Astartes, it just goes on and on. Everything feels so significant when you hear Solken and Ancaeus or Orpheo speak to one another.
The real treat in this episode, at least from my perspective, is the stinger at the end. Tech Priest Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 (who did not die, so it's definitely in my canon that she's the Adeptus Mechanicus in Kill Protocol has been brought back to the Sword of Baal with her artefact. She sends a message to her order on Mars, revealing that she has confirmed that the artefact is a Blackstone. As a fan of both Adeptus Mechanicus and a new player of Blackstone Fortress, this was a particularly exciting reveal.
This series is great sci fi. Space battles, mutants on the ground, a tech wizard, secret plots and subversive plans, exciting melee combat. What more could you want?
I guess this might qualify as sci fi horror, because there's a lot of kind of icky aliens and death scenes. I have a high tolerance for horror, so it's hard for me to predict how someone might interpret this.
This is great Warhammer. We get to see the early days of the Cicatrix Maledictum and how it affected at least one system. There are exciting space battles, boarding actions (like the game!), great ground combat (like the game!), unique characters, and it's dripping in Warhammer 40k atmosphere.
This is easy to recommend for any Warhammer fan, and I think it'd be a good series for a sci fi fan as well. Not everything is explained or given context, but things in sci fi often aren't. You don't need to know why there are space marines fighting aliens. As long as you accept it, you can enjoy the show.
All images in this post copyright Games Workshop.