This rather ticks me off as I thought the Blades were better then this... The fact that I have to kill him to be able to even help gets on my nerves. If it wasn't for Paarthurnax Alduin would never have been brought down in the first place, and there would be noone to learn the way of the voice from. Despite what he has done, he did save the entire human race from extinction/enslavement, that shows his repentance more then anything.

What should I do, though, just tell the Blades to shove it somewhere?

In Dragon Age, how many people killed Flemeth? Without her, the Warden would have died and the blight wouldn't have been stopped, but most people kill her because she's evil and wants to kill people. Well, Paarthurnax is exactly the same. He may be fighting his evil nature and his desire to kill people, but he still wants to. If the dragonborn does nothing and then dies, and Paarthurnax loses his constant struggle, then you are solely to blame for all of the people he kills.

Flemeth is evil, trust me I talked to Morrigan about it and Flemeth is worse then some Demons IMO. Her motives are much darker once you actually start looking at lore and stuff on her. You do know how shes able to stay alive so long, though, right? And I never got any of that from talking to Paarthurnax. Not to mention all Delphine said was "He killed my ancestors", thats not enough for me.

I've never played Dragon Age, but it doesn't seem like Flemeth calmed herself down by meditating for numerous years based on what I've read. Also, Paarthurnax vowed to teach all other dragons to be peaceful. His past is behind him.

The Blades approach to kill Paarthurnax is extremely shallow as they are only judging him based on his past. The help that he provided the dragon-born was invaluable. Now, if Paarthurnax was Alduin then the Blades would have a much more valid argument.

Both are just as evil. Paarthurnax got his name for a reason. He didn't just kill a few blades. He slaughtered countless innocents and was in every way just as bad as Alduin. He waited at the throat of the world for all of these years because he knew that Alduin would return, but with him out of the picture, nothing is holding him back anymore. All it takes is one slip - and he admits that it's a constant struggle - for him to relapse and go terrorizing people again.

He also wasn't planning to consume his daughters soul and inhabit her body... *Shiver*

If he had not betrayed his brother Alduin, we would not even have the opportunity to "decide" his fate in the first place, as the dragons would never have been defeated.

I agree. there is a narrative story with parthunarx, one that validates change and redemption. I can't kill the embodiment of that.

That last part could never happen in terms of lore.

And if you died, and there were no more dragons, couldn't the Blades do the same exact thing?

He was Alduin's younger brother; he had no choice. He was bound by blind-loyalty. It would be quite hard to rebel against your older brother when Alduin was as powerful as he was. Once again, Paarthurnax vowed to teach other dragons to be peaceful.

If Paarthurnax has trouble dealing with it, do you really think the lesser dragons will be able to accept it? He won't be successful. The dragons will drive themselves to extinction.

Annoys me that Delphine can be so blind as a member of the Blades...

If he truly had trouble dealing with it and had any temptation of becoming "evil" again, then would he genuinely help the Dovahkiin destroy his own brother? He was nothing but helpful to the Dovahkiin, and aided him in the first time the dragonborn fought Alduin. If there was ever a time to kill Paarthurnax, then it would have been during Alduin's rule or shortly after he was sent forward in time. Too much time has past for the same grudge to be held against him, and he has taken this time to right his wrongs.

I would assume all of the lesser dragons would be more than willing to accept Paarthurnax's guidance. He is an example to all other dragons that it is not acceptable to allow tyranny and that there is a chance of peace. He rose up against the face of evil; what more could you ask for in a leader or a teacher?

What good can come from killing him? None. There are no survivors of his reign of terror. Nobody remembers him. Why does his punishment have to be death? Isn't being bound to the Throat of the World good enough?

He admitted to the temptation. He said the blades were right to want him dead. And again, he sat on the throat of the world because he was waiting for Alduin to return. If Alduin had truly been defeated way back when, he may never have spent all those years in isolation.


Nope. Odahviing says at the end that he doubts most dragons will submit to the "tyranny" of the way of the voice. It goes against their nature, and nature can't be changed. Paarthurnax is fighting his nature, but he hasn't won.

Paarthurnax basically tells you he's the leader of the dragons and could possibly follow the same path as Alduin.

I don't trust him, but I don't fault him considering the mortal races are pretty much sworn to end dragonkind.

So P-nax helped you, was it to defeat Alduin or posturing?

We'll see.

The Blades on the other hand have taken a hard line stance, better to have no dragons than risk mortal enslavement.

Its a risk either way.

Is it evil for a dragon to kill a humanoid? Is it evil for a humanoid to kill a skeever? No. Its not about good/evil. Is it helping anyone to kill paarthurnax? Probably not. IMO the choice is purely about whether the future would be better with him alive or dead.

Ah, okay I understand your point now, which is a very valid reason to kill Paarthurnax.

He fights his nature on a daily basis. What happens on the day when (not if) he slips? No, he should be put to the sword, as should all dragons.

He is a dragon like any other. He can be killed without the dragonborn's intervation now that high cleric Alduin, the only guy with the resurrect spell is out of the picture. Since we have never seen dragon eggs, any dragon that dies is permanently dead. A soon to be extinct race can't really take over the world.

There is another reason FOR killing him that stands if you are more savvy to the nature of TES.

"Mantling", the best summary I'd seem goes something along the lines of "To walk like them until you become them". it seems odd to us, but in the TES universe when it comes to spirits, if something looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it becomes a duck. You've already seen it happen once - the Champion of Cyrodiil walked the path of Sheogorath until they were Sheogorath.

Now, let's look at paarthunax...

• He's a dragon, like Alduin - Check
  
• He wants to lead the other dragons like Alduin - Check
  
• He has a human cult who will obey his command (Greybeards), like Alduin did (The dragon priests) - Check
  
• He has an intrest in humans and dragons working together (like Alduin once ENFORCED) - Check

And there may be other details I've overlooked, but the key thing is Paarthunax has already begun to walk a path that is superficially close to that of Alduin. The Champion of Cyrodiil's path may have differed greatly from that of Sheogorath in the early days of his career (During Oblivion), but 200 years down the line, the CoC and Sheogorath are indstuinguishable, he has been mantled. In 200 years time might Paarthunax not have simply replaced Alduin? - The world is meant to be eaten, it needs it's Alduin, and there is an Alduin shaped hole waitting to be filled...


Either way i havn't killed Paarthunax personally, but from a lore perspective there is a very real danger posed by his existance if you are savvy with the physics of the setting

Good way of putting it. We may try to put down the skeever, but surely the dragons see us as skeevers.

He fights aganist his nature on daily basis and has not yet gone a rampage, since the Dragon War, thats a pretty good track record to me. The fact remains without him Nirn would've been destroyed and everyone, including the Blades, owes him a debt of gratitude. Only dragons who do not follow the way of the voice should be killed.

He was waiting because he knew Alduin was not defeated, and believed that when he returned, he would return to the spot where he had been banished - the throat of the world. Once Alduin got defeated, he talked about how young he felt and immediately started to fly around the world. He's no longer bound by his concern of Alduin.

An excellent post. Paarthurnax is probably my favorite character in the game. Would Paarthurnax need to assume the personality of Alduin for the mantling to occur? Would he need to want to be Alduin?