History YMMV / CiaphasCain

** The Perlian PDF is almost an inverted example. The Planetary Defense Forces on Imperial worlds are often disparagingly referred to as the "Imperial speed bump", a force that ''hopes'' it will hold long enough against any attackers for the Imperial Guard, Space Marines, or Sisters of Battle to show up and turn the tide. In ''Death or Glory'', however, when separated from his unit by a mishap with an EscapePod, Cain and Jurgen form up a convoy of refugees protected mainly by the remnants of destroyed PDF units, including a lone Leman Russ main battle tank and Earthshaker self-propelled howitzer, and leads them for months on a successful fighting retreat to Imperial lines.

** The novels are also some of the few 40K works that manage to juggle presenting ''all'' of the main factions as badasses. The one exception is the Eldar, which haven't been featured except for Cain's mentions of his time as a prisoner of the Dark Eldar, which he still has a bit of PTSD over. The Craftworld Eldar finally show up in ''Chose Your Enemies'', where they are indeed deadly opponents.

** The Orks are a more... interesting case. While they are more often than not the "Original Antagonists" that Cain is sent in to fight only to later stumble upon the real threat (Necrons or Tyranids), they ''are'' considered the comic relief army in 40K, and the 597th are considered experts at fighting Orks, so it gets played with a little. They get their DayInTheLimelight in ''Death or Glory''. In the beginning of that book he mentions that Orks are considered a bit if a joke in-universe... but then he notices the veterans are taking the threat very seriously indeed.

** The novels are also some of the few 40K works that manage to juggle presenting ''all'' of the main factions as badasses. The one exception is the Eldar, which haven't been featured except for Cain's mentions of his time as a prisoner of the Dark Eldar, which he still has a bit of PTSD over.

* MemeticMutation: One of the few memes originating from Wiki/TVTropes: it has become tradition to write '''[[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE]] [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame IMPERIUM]]''' after Cain's name whenever he appears on another page.

* HilariousInHindsight: In the novel "Caves of Ice," Cain makes reference to a myth going around that at the dawn of the forty-second millenium, the Emperor would get up off his throne and resume command of the Imperium. This was released in 2004. 13 years later, Eighth Edition has just been released and while the Emperor did not get off the Throne, His son, Roboute Guilliman, ''has.''

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

** It ''is'' possible to interpret his monogamy post-''For The Emperor'' as simply his self-defense instincts kicking in: "When dating an Inquisitor, it ain't over till ''she'' says it's over!" (His comment about only having room in his life for one lethally dangerous woman comes to mind.)

* TakeThatScrappy: In ''The Last Ditch'' the Tyranids deploy a number of Pyrovores, a notoriously badly designed unit which is highly likely to blow itself up and destroy a good chunk of it's own army (not actually that common, but more common than it doing something useful). Cain exploits this fact by killing them when they're near the Hive Tyrant, and they end up winning the deciding battle of the war for the Imperium.

** The Orks are a more... interesting case. While they are more often than not the "Original Antagonists" that Cain is sent in to fight only to later stumble upon the real threat (Necrons or Tyranids), they ''are'' considered the comic relief army in 40K, and the 597th are considered experts at fighting Orks, so it gets played with a little. They get their DayInTheLimelight in ''Death or Glory''.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: If you read in continuity order; an InternalHomage in publication order. In ''Death or Glory'', Jurgen is [[HardHead mostly uninjured by a blow to the head]], and Cain says, "It would probably take a bolter shell to crack that thick skull of his." In ''For the Emperor'', Jurgen's skull is fractured near-fatally by...a bolter shell that glances off his helmet.

* IronWoobie: Issues of self-esteem are the least of humanity's worries in the Warhammer 40K universe and so it's never emphasized in the books, but Cain has enough trust issues and paranoia to disturb [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]], and a self-esteem so low that it should be measured in the negative. He goes through his entire life convinced that no one could or should care for him personally, unable to connect with people on any meaningful level, unable to ever credit that he's a remotely decent person or so much as pat himself on the back for the ''billions'' of lives he saves, and terrified to trust anyone with his thoughts, lest he be shot for cowardice and deceit. The closest this ever gets to a LampshadeHanging is when, at their second meeting, Amberly gently implies that she isn't fooled by his facade and suggests that he could try being himself. He practically shits his pants thinking that she's a psyker and is going to have him killed, and he never actually takes her into his confidence even after a century of romance. That's ''sad.''

* TakeThatScrappy: In ''The Last Ditch'' the Tyranids deploy a number of Pyrovores, a notoriously badly designed unit which is highly likely to blow itself up and destroy a good chunk of it's own army. Cain exploits this fact by killing them when they're near the Hive Tyrant, and they end up winning the deciding battle of the war for the Imperium.

* MemeticMutation: One of the few memes originating from Wiki/TVTropes: it has become tradition to write '''[[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE]] [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DrinkingGame/TVTropesWiki?from=Main.TVTropesDrinkingGame IMPERIUM]]''' after Cain's name whenever he appears on another page.

* MemeticMutation: One of the few memes originating from Wiki/TVTropes: it has become tradition to write '''[[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE IMPERIUM]]''' after Cain's name whenever he appears on another page.

** The Orks are a more... interesting case. While they are more often than not the "Original Antagonists" that Cain is sent in to fight only to later stumble upon the real threat (Necrons or Tyranids), they ''are'' considered the comic relief army in 40K, and the 597th are considered experts at fighting Orks, so it gets played with a little.

** The Orks are a more... interesting case. While they are more often than not the "Original Antagonists" that Cain finds (only to later stumble upon the real threat (Necrons or Tyranids), they ''are'' considered the comic relief army in 40K, and the 597th are considered experts at fighting Orks, so it gets played with a little.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot / WhatCouldHaveBeen: Fairly early in "The Greater Good", Tau ambassador El'hassai suggests an exchange of observers between the allied Imperial and Tau forces and suggests Cain to be the human representative in the Tau fleet. Instead of agreeing and the book being about Cain fighting alongside the Tau, he nominates ambassador Donali to go instead and sticks with the Imperial force for the rest of the book. As a result, the scene on the cover of Cai back-to-back with a Fire Warrior facing down a swarm of Tyranids [[CoversAlwaysLie never happens]] and the Tau go on to play almost no part in the rest of the story.

* MemeticMutation: One of the few memes originating from Wiki/TVTropes: it has become tradition to write '''[[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE IMPERIUM]]''' after Cain's name whenever he appears on another page.

* IronWoobie: Issues of self-esteem are the least of humanity's worries in the Warhammer 40K universe, but Cain has enough trust issues and paranoia to disturb [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]], and self esteem so low that on a scale of 1-10 it probably has to be measured in the negative. He goes through his entire life convinced that no one could or should care for him personally, unable to connect with people on any meaningful level, unable to ever credit that he's a remotely decent person or so much as pat himself on the back for the ''billions'' of lives he saves, and terrified to trust anyone with his thoughts, lest he be shot for cowardice and deceit. The closest he ever comes is when, at their second meeting, Amberly gently implies that she isn't fooled by his facade and suggests that he could try being himself. He practically shits his pants thinking that she's a psyker and is going to have him killed, and he never actually takes her into his confidence even after a century of romance. That's ''sad.''

* IronWoobie: Issues of self-esteem are the least of humanity's worries in the Warhammer 40K universe, but Cain has enough trust issues and paranoia to disturb [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]], and self esteem so low that on a scale of 1-10 his probably has to be measured in the negative. He goes through his entire life convinced that no one could or should care for him personally, unable to connect with people on any meaningful level, unable to ever credit that he's a remotely decent person or feel good for doing the right thing, to say nothing of the ''billions'' of lives he saves, and terrified to trust anyone with his thoughts, lest he be shot for cowardice and deceit. The closest he ever comes is when, at their second meeting, Amberly gently implies that she isn't fooled by his facade and suggests that he could try being himself. He practically shits his pants thinking that she's a psyker and is going to have him killed, and he never actually takes her into his confidence even after a century of romance. That's ''sad.''

** While I happen to be firmly on the side of "Cain is madly in love with Amberley", it ''is'' possible to interpret his monogamy post-''For The Emperor'' as simply his self-defense instincts kicking in: "When dating an Inquisitor, it ain't over till ''she'' says it's over!" (His comment about only having room in his life for one lethally dangerous woman comes to mind.)