History YMMV / DawnOfWar

** The fact that quite a number of them is depicted without [[BaldOfAwesome ISO Standard baldness]] lead to a meme of it's own, Force Commander [[CanonName Aramus]] is the [[ShonenHair worst offender]], leading to a FanNickname of Force Commander Vanilla Ice and Captain Hairgel.

** Kaptin Bluddflagg, the Ork SpacePirate in ''Retribution'' quickly became popular due to his similarities to Gorgutz and generally being ridiculously CrazyAwesome. Having the Ork accent crossed one of a stereotypical pirate accent also helps, along with being perhaps one of the smartest members of his species that's ever been seen.

** The entire Ork campaign in ''Retribution''. It's widely considered to be the best campaign in the game, and between the immensely likeable CrazyAwesome protagonists, insane battles, frequent injections of dark humor and one-liners, it's not difficult to see why the fandom holds this view.

* CrazyAwesome: '''''The fucking Orks''''' in general, throughout the entire game trilogy!

** [[spoiler:The pre-ascension speech from Azariah Kyras in ''Retribution'']] cranks this UpToEleven, where he talks about slaughtering billions of people in Khorne's name. The passion and fury he puts into it makes it even scarier, [[spoiler:moreso quoting the Arch-Traitor Horus Luprecal with total aplomb at the end thereof.]]

* CrazyAwesome:

** Hell, '''''the fucking Orks''''' in general!

%%*** [[ImageBoards Cultist-chan!]]

** The sadly underused [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-6dKVNt1C4 Chant]] from the first game.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxdplQMLwKU Retribution's first Eldar mission.]]

* EnsembleDarkhorse:

** Eliphas, Sindri and the Chaos faction in general.
** ''The Orks'', '''especially''' Gorgutz.

** "SINDRIIIIII!!!" (Two-fer from the same voice actor above: Scott [=McNeil=] voices '''both''' Lord Bale, the one talking; and Sindri Myr, the one being talked to.)
** "HWEE CAHP-TOORED IT FOAR KAY-OHSS!!!"
*** [[ImageBoards Cultist-chan!]]
** "YAAAAY FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!" And honestly, Crull in general. He's basically the Chaos equivalent of Boreale with his [[LargeHam hamtacular,]] mushmouthed delivery.
** The Inquisitor has many... 'questions', to ask.
** Mister Nailbrain's classic Ork Flash Git accessory, known as the 'gitfinda' has been subject to this.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypgltnMSTvw Noise Marines Dubstep!]]

-->'''Eldar Announcer''': Let the power of the Eldar wipe our enemies away.
-->'''Space Marine Announcer''': Orbital batteries, fire!

-->'''Boreale:''' We have failed... *overly long {{beat}}* The Emperor...

-->'''Shas'O Or'es'Ka:''' Aun'Ro'Yr! Noble Ethereal! Oh, we have lost you--we have lost all!

-->'''RAISE OUR STANDARD! LET IT STRIKE FEEEAAAAR!'''
-->'''HOIST THE FLAG OF KOMORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!'''
-->'''IT IS OOOOOOUUUUUUUURRRRRRRSSSSSS!'''
-->'''MMMAAAAIIIMMM! TORTURE! KIIIIIILLLLLLLLL!'''

-->'''Diomedes:''' IT IS THE BAAANEBLAAADE!

** "YAAAAY FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!" And honestly, Krull in general. He's basically the Chaos equivalent of Boreale with his [[LargeHam hamtacular,]] mushmouthed delivery.

** "YAAAAY FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!"

** Soulstorm itself was the butt of many jokes over the game's writing and acting as well as the inherent balancing issues due to it being rushed (to the point that the outsourced developers were defunct when the game's released). Many years after its release, it is used as the base for overhaul mods ([[https://www.moddb.com/mods/unification-mod-dawn-of-war-soulstorm such as this ambitious Unification mod]]) as Soulstorm has the most content of the first Dawn of War series, not to mention apart from several balance issues introduced by the new races, the game still maintained the solid Dawn of War gameplay.

*** The Tau Stronghold in ''Dark Crusade''. It has a stronger early game rush than the other maps, the army of Fire Warriors throughout are all fully upgraded from the start and there are two command posts on opposite ends of the map that will spam high level units if you leave them alone and can render the map unwinnable if you do.

* MemeAcknowledgment: One level has an ork referring to the invading army as magpies, the FanNickname for the Blood Ravens due to their large collection of non-Literature/BloodRavens wargear.

** One speech [[spoiler:Azariah Kyras]] gives, where he talks about slaughtering billions of people in Khorne's name. The passion and fury he puts into it makes it even scarier.

*** Codes Astartes calls this maneuver "[[JustForPun Steal Rain]]".[[labelnote:Explanation]]A frequently found comment that combines two memes: the Blood Ravens' pillaging tendencies and Boreale's glorious voice lines.[[/labelnote]]

** There is also an Eldar Warlock from ''Soulstorm'' with a very thick and very obvious OopNorth accent.

** Dawn of War II occasionally has corpses float up for no reason, eventually leaving for high orbit.

* HarsherInHindsight: During the epilogue for the Blood Ravens in ''Dark Crusade'' (that is to say, the canonical ending), the Narrator mentions that the "darkest days of the chapter" were to follow their victory on Kronus. The ''Soulstorm'' expansion, which chronicled the next campaign for the Blood Ravens, was a [[OldShame low point in the series]] that [[FanonDiscontinuity players]] and [[DiscontinuityNod in-universe characters]] alike won't acknowledge.

* StupidStatementDanceMix: Someone made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfORh9cFDU8 one]] for Boreale's quote-unquote RousingSpeech.

* WatchItForTheMeme: Pretty much the main reason to play ''Soulstorm'' is to watch Stubbs [[WhatTheHellHero lose 100 Baneblades]], Boreale give his [[SpaceMarine SPESS MEHRENE]] speech and [[EpicFail FEHL THE EMPRAH]], and Carron rant about [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier METAL BAWKSES]].

** Indrick Boreale's voice acting in ''Soulstorm'' was variously considered {{Narm}} and SoBadItsGood. Relic acknowledged this by canonically stating in ''Chaos Rising'' that he had lost the war for the Kaurava System and perished as a result.

** The Tau stronghold defeat cutscene in ''Soulstorm''.

* [[WatchItForTheMeme Play It For The Meme]]: Pretty much the main reason to play ''Soulstorm'' is to watch Stubbs [[WhatTheHellHero lose 100 Baneblades]], Boreale give his [[SpaceMarine SPESS MEHRENE]] speech and [[EpicFail FEHL THE EMPRAH]], and Carron rant about [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier METAL BAWKSES]].

** ''Dawn of War II'' held its own quite well, followed up by the decent expansion ''Chaos Rising'' and the fantastic ''Retribution''. Unfortunately, this meant that when ''VideoGame/DawnOfWarIII'' finally arrived, it was saddled with the rather difficult task of living up to the standard set by ''II'' and its predecessors.

* VindicatedByHistory: Two months after its release, the general consensus among fans is that ''Dawn of War III'' has been decried as a base-breaking failure that lacks the engaging strategy and entertainment value that the first two games had. In fact, ''Dawn of War III'' is so bad that it makes ''[[InsultToRocks Soulstorm]]'' look like a great game.

** '''''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO3MttgvHUY METAL BOXES! METAL BAWKSES!]]''''' and '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbRGg3e1b68 SPESS MEHREENS!]]''' Both originated from ''Soulstorm''. Brought to you by Firaeveus Carron and Indrick Boreale respectively. [[Creator/ScottMcNeil From the same voice actor, no less.]]

** Diomedes is now the spiritual successor of Boreale due to hammy speech patterns and pronunciations.
** From ''Retribution's'' second campaign mission as the Space Marines: [[ChewingTheScenery IT IS THE BAAAAAANEBLAAAADE!]]

* CrackPairing: Die-hard {{shipp|ing}}ers have been known to pair up Farseer Taldeer with a Vindicare assassin, Gorgutz with the Living Saint, and Farseer Idranel with Administrator Derosa.

* LateCharacterSyndrome: Flash Gitz in the first game. Oh sure, they're the best shooters in your arsenal, and can probably turn the tide of a serious battle, but you only get them in ''Tier 3''. You could have whole mobs of Shoota Boyz out by then, and upgraded with Big Shootas they can do comparable levels of damage while being infinitely available for a fraction of the overall cost of ''two'' Flash Gitz squads, who cost more to train and reinforce in Requisition, Power ''and'' Population. For that manner, the Warboss and Mad Dok take their sweet time getting out as well, but it's downplayed for them because they fill niches that another unit isn't already doing better than them. Mitigated by the fact that Flash Gitz combine the firepower of multiple Shoota squads in a few Orks each, making them much more manageable (especially with the game's iffy pathfinding), and having only 14 of them around can take full advantage of a Big Mek's force field and Warboss' WAAAGH cry for defence and attack buffs, respectively, turning Flash Gitz into absolute murder machines at long range, where Orks are otherwise terrible. It also helps that their damage type and amount will rip ''anything'' but vehicles apart in seconds.

* HypocriticalHatedom: Many fans bash the Sisters of Battle for being crazy religious zealots while ignoring that the entire Imperium is a theocracy and giving a soft pass to the Space Marines and Imperial Guard simply because they're less obvious about it, never mind that ''both armies'' have ChurchMilitant {{Hero Unit}}s in their rosters.