Yep.

I always liked the Blades until Skyrim.

I lost all respect for them when

My next character is going to be a Paladin of Akatosh...

I hate the blades, they cannot accept the fact that not all dov are bad.

Once I get the PC version, I will make them unnessential and purge them from the world after the main quest.

After they told me to go do the dark deed, I was done with them.

No need in using a spoiler mark on your lower title when you're giving away the spoiler of a faction from the MAIN quest in the main title.
What's up with people now a days? sigh.

Yes, yes there is reason to do so. Note: This is the Skyrim general section. It belongs in the spoiler section.

This. I miss Cloud Ruler Temple.

I don't see how mentioning the Blades is a spoiler.

They are almost always involved in the MQ, and they are also part of the Lore. Nothing about the title gives anything important away.

I really enjoyed the story about how they got into their current situation.
I thought that was ridiculous and stopped talking to them.

I liked em up until they got bossy. Then I was only mildly irritated until they told me to...you know.

I feel very much the same. I was very much looking forwards to meeting Max (I cant get used to calling him Esbern for some reason) during the main story. And thought he would be an excellent mentor character for the Dragonborn. But as it turned out, the mentor is an unexpected character called Paarthurnax.

I really enjoy Max Von Sydow's voice work, he's a great guy and could have contributed a lot to this game. I really feel like he got sold a bum part, since almost nobody likes to take the option to side with him since it requires you to be a DB

Spoilers ahead!

You don't need to be a Dark Brotherhood member to side with them.

Edit: And damn these forums for not automatically figuring out where the thread is if it's moved while you're typing a reply ><

Through out your quests (SQ) some npcs mentions the blades (that they are no more). You have books about the rise and fall.

So if anyone for some reason (their own reasons) skip the MQ and just doing SQ, this is a major spoiler for them.

Cause in their minds (some of them, can't speak for all) the blades are gone.

EDIT :

And as you might have noticed, this thread has been moved to the spoiler section.

Kia Ora

I didn't like the way the held their hate,.. 10000 years hey get over it,. over all I was disapointed at the number of time
PC is forced to take action without question, to many time there bad/nasty choices and/or worse than nasty.

The blade just hit top of the list for blind vengence gone astray.

would have like to see more ablity to reason and input from PC (We'er gonna do this, what do you say PC?) type
options

The Blades? No, I will never acknowledge those two bloodthirsty cowardly haters as The Blades

They ashamed reputation of The Blades.

I helped them so much and at the end they say my deed is nothing until I slay Paarthurnax!

Fine, I will not help them anymore. I just take Blades armor set and Dragonbane as compensate and walk away

> What I'm saying is, just because some notorious bad guy decides to change his ways, it doesn't change
> his past, it doesn't atone for his crimes. That's a debt he owes somebody, a debt that needs to be repaid.

That's what he's spend the last few millenia doing with the Graybeards!

The blades came off as illogical and internally inconsistent.

Kill Paarthurnax because he is no longer useful against Alduin , Justice is apparently also unreasonable and ignores circumstances (Opposite of current definition of justice), (F in ethics)(What happens when your job is done?)
No amount of reason can change their minds as said by themselves, and they just look right over that call dragon shout bringing one that they logged in as dead in their books (F in logic)(They give you his name but will overlook his crimes because he is a command related NPC)
Go break into a Thalmor embasy to find out what they have to do with the dragons returning (nothing!, F in Planning)(Exposing an insider for something they could have found by going to riften)

And all they do is command you to go do their bidding as (As Delphine says she will "explain what I want when I want, got it? You'd already be dead if..." ok you don't sound all that trustable)
As a plus though someone in Bethesda seems to have realized this and after a point you can have minimal contact with the Blades if you so desire.

They are also terribly buggy with random lack of voice, no door opening, reverse walking away from destination, torches forever held, bugged dialog, broken dialog, vanishing from existence could not even be summoned via ~ magic normally... (The last bug was good though)

In Morrowind and Oblivion I felt somewhat honoured to be part of the Blades. It was a very much a "You're going to save the world, do what you need to do" situation. I liked them.

In Skyrim now it seems that they don't realize the world has changed. They have had no Dragonborn Emperor to guard, but that was not the only thing they did. They helped protect Tamriel from dangers.

So yes Paarthurnax was on Alduin's side initially. He changed sides and helped mortals send Alduin off. Since then he's been sitting on top of a mountain meditating on what he's done. He is not the same dragon that killed all those ages ago. He's going to try leading the other dragons with new ideas.

The Blades are stuck in the past and are in a time where their original purpose doesn't quite fit anymore. Not all dragons are bad. They don't need to be killed. Wake up.

The only thing I don't like is how small their group is. I was expecting a Skyrim version of Cloud Ruling Temple and all I got was two people in a dark, depressing cave (until recruitment expanded it to five - wow).

I thought this was one of the best parts of the story, because there are nuances.

For example, Paarthunaax makes a good case that even Alduin is a noble creature, who has merely been corrupted by his own power.

AFAIK there's no option to spare or redeem Alduin. Arguably, he's gone beyond the point of no return.

Equally, the Blades are not entirely wrong to regard Paarthunaax as a risk (he will tell you as much himself). Sparing him (which was my instinct) means judging that the risk is small.

You can discuss this with the Greybeards. Predictably, they advise against killing Paarthunaax, but it was a helpful clue that you have a choice.

So, for me, the Blades were too extreme, but I respect their position.

Pragmatically, it's not easy to kill Paarthunaax anyway, if (like me) you complete the main quest at a relatively low level.

I don't respect the Blades, because they have such a twisted, narrow vision of what it means to be a Dragonborn. Dragonslayer? Yes, but it's only because they're actually your blood-kin that you can absorb their life force after they are slain. Something to think about.

My first character, after finishing the MQ, packed a few belongings into a knapsack, hiked back up to High Hrothgar, and remained there, meditating upon the Thu'um with the 'Beards and Paarthurnax.

It actually makes it hard to do the MQ again, knowing that the Blades end up being such narrow-minded A-holes.

I don't like the Blades period. <--- thats another period following the word period. But I like Baurus from Oblivion though. Hes ok in my books.

Probably trying to end the world and killing everything twice count as crossing the moral event horizon. (Big Bads usually cross this by default and become complete monsters)

The Blades throughout the Third Era concerned themselves with serving and protecting the Dragonborn, who were pretty much the Septim line of emperors, so the whole dragonslaying thing was a historical footnote.

I, too, liked the Blades as presented in TES IV, but they were righteously purposeful in 3E 433... preserving the Septim line of emperors and getting the Dragonfires re-lit.

Now that the Septims are gone, they're having some trouble re-inventing themselves. And none of my Dovakhiin will be particularly inspired to rehash their tropes of bygone days.