I mean, c'mon! Rival A gives you a fake letter which makes Rival B give you a fake letter too if you show it to him. So why can't we then:

a) Tell Camilla that both of them tried to cheat, and let her decide. Or we could ask her which one she likes more and then decide on whom to tell.

Go back to Rival A and tell him about it (although it could lead into a loop) and he could go and talk it out with the other guy.

But my main issues are - since she's an intelligent woman, why should she immediately ignore one guy because of a letter? Surely the guy would go and ask her what's the matter and she would say that, and not just keep quiet about it? That way the guy would learn about the fake letter and another quest could appear, where he would want revenge on his rival, or that Camilla would suddenly detest the one who had tricked her and prefer the one whom she had disliked because of it? Or she could just laugh at both of them, that both try these tactics and decide according to her desires...

Although maybe the designers made it this way, that we choose whom she prefers, so that they don't have to choose if she really loves the Nord or the Altmer more...

What are you thoughts on this? I've just refused to end the quest because I want to tell her that both are willing to give her fake letters and don't want to stick with lying or telling her a partial truth. After all, both of them seem decent enough when you talk to her, the elf respects her for her intelligence and likes Skyrim, while the bard seems like a friendly, adventurous type, albeit a bit more self-assured than others.

Faendal is a Bosmer.

I don't understand this quest either. I wanted to tell Camilla both of them were trying to cheat, but there was no such dialogue option. Odd.

Whoops, my bad. The way they're all scowling in this game just made me think for some reason he's Altmer, even though it says he's from Valenwood in the fake letter...a temporary lapse.

But yeah, unlike the Altmer they are not so arrogant according to the lore (right? at least a century ago), so both letters now seem a bit easy to see through.

What's even sillier is when you play a female character. As soon as Camilla decides on a beau he stops speaking to her and follows me to the ends of the earth. He carries my stuff, watches me change clothes, hangs out in my bedroom while I sleep, and he never leaves my side unless I tell him to go.

Well you can marry her yourself if you want as revenge against the other two!

I helped Faendal and then married Camilla once. He visits ALL THE TIME.

Did the same to me....
One time, I returned home after adventuring, around 3am, and saw him leaving my house...Killed him right there and left his body in front of my house as a warning to Sven if he decided to "visit" too...

I marriaged her to get a house in Riverwood, then I moved us to Riften, but now Faendal has moved in with us! But hey I got the girl

I know, right? You'd think that would be the 'check' to get to marry her.

According http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:A_Lovely_Letter it's possible to make Camilla hate both Faendal of Sven. But I never tried it since I need someone to be presented to lord Boethia.

I'm against the mingling of the species so I ratted out Faendal. Then to my amusemant, a dragon swooped down on my next visit and ate Sven. I Fus'd his body into the river out of respect. Later that night I broke into Camilla's house and left a Dibella statue by her bed as she slept.

Wow, that's like some demented tooth fairy $*** right there.

It's possible to show Camilla both letters by pickpocketing the original letter. She'll react to both letters, but the game moves forward as though she'd only seen one (so one party becomes angry with you, and the other does not). I remedied the problem by making an offering to a certain cult's idol. They were both [censored]s.

You know whats funny that happened to me. I married that Camilla chick and after i was married for about 2 months in game i stopped by riverwood and that wood elf dude gave me the mission to give the fake letter to my wife so he can 'woo' her! So after buddy gives me the letter to my own wife, i pull out my sword and run him through in the middle of the street. But it was all right, i was a thane of whiterun..

On my Altmer mage I married Camilla, brought her to Riften to live in Honeyside, and never let her out. I just made very rare visits to get money from her little shop. I'm going to marry her again on my Breton Arcane warrior and then .....do the same thing...

Its pretty clear that she kinda looks down on both suitors before she even sees the note. Which helps explain whey she decides the dragonborn needs a "guide" in order to follow a road that goes in only two directions... and then goes just far enough to get out of view of town.

It is odd that quest. 2 options and no third to drop them both in it.
I cannot stand Sven. I always help Faendel.