Skyrim is a much darker place then Oblivion, I don't think I consider any faction 'good" by are standards.

i disagree, being a werewolf is, in my book an act of evil. they are obsessed by daedroth!

This could all be solved by simply giving the player choice and options.

Why is it neccesary for me to become a werewolf to continue a quest chain? It's not.
Why can't I start a "good karma" quest without first agreeing to steal something for someone? (Bad karma, makes my character seem bipolar when his interests change literally in the same quest)
Why can't I find OTHER ways to track down the Dark Brotherhood or the like? For example why can't I get the random encounter where an assassin tries to kill me, talk to a guard, find the leader of the emperor's guard and do a few quests for him to help locate the Dark Brotherhood?

If by "dark" you mean "poorly written" then I agree.

Im not going into another writing war, so don't provoke me.

They should have done it like in Morrowind ( i dont often say that ) at the end of, let say, the Fighters guild, you can if you choose to exterminate the leaders of the thieves guild. that would of course mean that you can't join the thieves guild

Yeah, as much as I think that Morrowind is over-hyped, I strongly agree that this system is better.

On my werewolf charcter im good, I destroyed the DB and only eat on bandits,imperials, and Stormcloaks. Im doing the TG (planning on infiltrating it and destroying it but becomes the leader and changes its ways.) So...

There are FAR, FAR too many essential characters.

Mind explaining to me, then, why you feel Skyrim is darker than Oblivion? Having played both games I really don't see it, but I haven't done every single little quest in Skyrim either.

perhaps it is an illusion created by the colorful textures used in Oblivion? Oblivion had quite a few dark moments

The overall theme of war is present much more, "forsworn conspiracy" is a perfect example, instead of some creepy antagonist that eats children, we get two equally flawed men fighting for control of a city, with back stabbing, corrupt guards, death. There's also, "frostflow lighthouse" and "Siege of the dragon cult" that put some of Oblvions dungeon/quests to shame in darkness.

Im not denying that, I remember finding a random perfect chapel out in the wilderness, walking inside, and being overwhelmed with shock.

i would love nothing more then to put an axe right in brynjolfs forehead questline forcing assuming little SoB.

What was so good about the Siege of the Dragon Cult? To me it was just another dungeon crawl with a twist at the end.

Nice dungeon, but what about the quest?

The quest itself was...meh...but the dungeon it had you explore was so rich with background and atmosphere, that I view it as one of my favorite quests.

Why do the quest when you can just kill that painfully obvious Altmer and take his key so you can explore and take phat l00tz?

For my "Nord hero" playthrough, I RP'd that my character joined the Circle out of naivete--she looked up to Aela, Vilkas, Skjor and the lot as great warriors and wanted to emulate them. After making that choice, she ended up regretting it. A few deep conversations with Kodlak and a more thorough study of the history of the Companions made her determined to cleanse not only herself, but the Companions as an institution. And she did! This was the first character I roleplayed that I felt actually deserved the leadership of her main faction (I didn't join factions which would make no sense for her to join). She took her experiences and a desire to right the wrongs of the past and used them to put the Companions back on a more noble path.

I ended up putting this character on hiatus before she eliminated the DB, but that was definitely in her plans!

As far as the Thieves Guild goes, as someone already pointed out, as it stands, they're dying on the vine and their power is nothing like what it once was. It's only if the Dragonborn actually joins them that they become strong. So maybe the Dragonborn has plans to finish them off, but has a few other issues to take care of first...

Huh? HUH?!! I can just kill him right there? LOL Thanks, I'll do that for my Racist stormcloak character,

I did it to take his Stormcloak Officer Gear since I lost my other set.

As others have said you can stop the Brotherhood, but you have to murder an old lady to do it.

I would give anything for the Lioness and me to go in the Ratway and clean out the Thieves guild. I tried once buy half of them are essential. Love to take out Mrs. Black-Blair also.

I would love to join the Silver Hand and purify the Companions the right way. Course the SH needs to reworking so they don't just look like evil thugs themselves.

To be a pure hero is all but impossible in Skyrim.

Bah who wants to be a a knight in shining armor, due to how un-realistic a concept it is...

Ironically, I believe most knights aren't all too honorable to begin with. Then again, I read too much ASoIaF