The Raven Guard are a little cringe

I don't know if I should be surprised, or wholly unsurprised, that a Night Lords fanboy doesn't like the Raven Guard that much.

The Raven Guard aren't edgy, they're angsty. The Night Lords are edgy. Corvus and the XIX's dower demeanor comes from the fact that they're noble souls fighting for good in a setting where all nobility merits is a painful death; along with the hypocrisy of their legion wanting to be liberators but having to fight for the greatest human tyrant in history. As opposed to the Night Lords who do... Night Lord stuff for laughs

Corvus Corax is truly one of the most based primarchs for saying "fuck we ball" and pursuing lorgar to the point of transcending his own mortal form

I simply like Raven Guard for a few simple reasons: snipers, stealth, the color black, and spookiness. They’ve always been my main army

I love the ravengaurd because they actually get shit done. As a huge military nerd myself, all of space marine legions are usually aren't vary tactical or realistic in terms of how you fight wars. The ravengaurd actually fight in ways you could actually see being practical aside from the double lighting claw look but hey you can't have everything. They feel more like special forces for astartes then regular marines which I love. The green berets of astartes which is a awesome concept.

I personally love the aesthetics of the Raven Guard, especially the beak helmets. Black is also one of my favorite colors, so there's that. And I like the idea of a more stealthy legion that focuses on guerrilla warfare and hit n run tactics as oppose to the typical space marines charging into battle while autistically screeching "FOR THE EMPEROR". From a lore standpoint I also love how they'll often prioritize rescuing civilians above all, while also remaining one of the more humble chapters despite their accomplishments. At the end of the day though, if we can have pretty boy vampires (Blood Angels) and edgy Batman wannabes (Night Lords) then we can have goths in power armor.

Ravenguard to me epitomise an old phrase i hear tossed around the 40k community from time to time, "a squad of marines can take over an entire planet", and i think the Ravenguard are that in a nutshell. No excessive displays of military might, no ego driven charges into the enemy's frontlines, just a squad of dudes, silently and efficiently dismantling the power structure of a planet without even being seen, with armor strong enough to make killing them a near impossible task for normal humans. Now, are they edgy? Fuck yes, but nobodies perfect

As a ravenguard and night lords enthusiast, i for one enjoy the edge I do love how there are a few moments in lore where corax goes "oh shit im kinda acting like really similar to curze, yikes that dudes gross" and then in some of curze's lore hes like "fuck that raven bitch were so similar yet all my brothers fucking hate me"

Corax backstory about rallying his prison colony for rebellion is one of the best upbringings of the primarchs.

The irony of a Night Lords player calling the Raven Guard edgy

I don't care how bad of a cut I could get on all this edge, the 9 foot tall man who just jetpacked into the battle with dual claws and a silenced pistol is badass, I'm also just a bit of a hoe for phobos armor

not one of the better factions, but definitely one of the more underrated primarchs

The raven guard is literally the only legion that acts like real special forces

If Corvax gets a model in his new feathery form, I want someone to paint him like big bird

40k vet here: The thing with Raven Guard is the literal emo aesthetic didn't really exist until the Primaris upgrade sprue, which seemed like a literal joke. Raven Guard have clear gothic elements (literally the Raven by Edgar Allen Poe is kind of the visual and grim-dark theme they inherited), you can argue being pale with dark hair as being literal "goth" as well - but that was never my view early on. Early on the Raven Guard kind of had this almost Italian vibe to them, with their names being very Italian - thus the dark hair and pale features isn't far off from people of Italy and south-eastern Europe. A couple guys in the heresy novels had south Slavic sounding names which fit this physical aesthetic too. The chapter are the ambush, assassination, saboteur marines. They had kind of a partisan vibe going, which made sense because Corvus basically led a guerilla war on Deliverance iirc. And again, Yugoslavia, Italy, France, etc, had massive partisan movements (and generally are pale with dark hair as the norm). To me the gothic vibe was the undertone, an ode to classic horror that gave its influence to 40k as a whole. But Raven Guard are not an army of emos. If anything they are as close to real life U.S Marines, Navy Seals, Spec Ops, as we get. They use infiltration to get close without the enemy knowing, then eviscerate them before they can respond. They use all the tactical gear at their disposal, they are cunning, they are ruthless to their enemies. They ARE the MARINE in SPACE MARINE. But like many chapters the Raven Guard never had the theme fully hammered down. So different people write or design them in different ways. The Forge World guys did a good job and understood the practical, realistic vision of tactical Space Marines. George Mann wrote a lot of their short stories back in the day, and he made them somber marines, rather than anything close to angsty or emo or whatever. But yes you had guys at GW who knew the emo joke and for whatever reason ran with it to give us the comical heads and names for gear and weapons. So really it's up to you how you view the Raven Guard. Are they Spec Ops who have a gothic undertone? Or are they Space goths who have a space ops undertone? For me it's always been the former, I don't even recognize the later except as a joke. If I ever return to Raven Guard you can bet my marines will be militaristic looking with the odd death imagery here and here. Kind of like how US marines frequently wore the Punisher logo in desert storm.

I like the Raven Guard a lot, because they are one of the few chapters that actually fight like what they are. Special Forces... No frontline assaults d-day style shit. But using thier marines the smart way without losing half of them every time (looking at you black templars).

I think the benefits of the raven guard like the ultramarines at times are seen in their successors than the main chapter itself. For example the raptors (raven guard successors) are basically Spartans from halo, while the silver templars focus on the more aristocratic and “proper” elements of the ultramarines focusing on duels and more focused warfare (very emperors children of them if I am being honest). The raven guard are neat, if I a bit goofy, and like the blood angels they need to tone down some of the gimmicks in my opinion.

Ok Arthur asked for our thoughts so I'm going to gush for a while: Raven Guard are probably my favorite loyalist chapter. Part of this is admittedly just the fact I like their armor and bird motif, and the nostalgia I have for them from the McNeill Ultramarines series where they're portrayed really well I feel. That being said, they also aren't COMPLETE goth edgelords. Their mindset is actually fairly interesting, and most of their assassination and stealth tactics come from the fact that they don't like killing civilians and innocents and want to minimize casualties. They often attach small units to Imperial Guard or other mortal forces because they want to protect them, and their command structure is pretty loose because each individual marine is expected to make their own tactical decisions, meaning the average Raven Guard marine needs to actually have a functioning brain as well as common sense...which is more than can be said for a lot of chapters. They're honestly a lot like the Salamanders, but significantly more socially awkward so it doesn't come across as easily. I also find it kinda funny that some of them can actively hear the voices of their dead brothers, but instead of being tormented by them the ghosts of their friends generally just offer encouragement. TL;DR, they have a very edgey exterior but an oddly wholesome interior. Still, whoever did their head sculpts at GW needs to have a serious think about their life choices.

I play Raven Guard and I want to clear some stuff up 1) Emo≠goth, very different cultures 2) Raven Guard most certainly are not listening to emo rock. They’re going to be blasting Flesh God Apocalypse on the battle field with the aftermath consisting of vibing to Type O Negative and training to Nine Inch Nails 3) Corvus Corax is not a warp daemon. That’s a misconception/meme. He is still primarch/human, he’s just using warp magic to enhance his abilities with the magic being presented in a raven like way. You can read the short story yourself, it’s not long. 4) Fuck Lorgar

If I recall correctly, the Carcharadons are listed as a successor chapter of the Raven Guard. And I do love my Space Sharks, which means I have a certain fondness for the Raven Guard. They roll in, get the job done, and leave. Exactly how a stealth force operates.