I recently started playing Skyrim again with a new character after a long break, so I've been reading this and some other boards again.

Now my first play through I set out to kill as many Thalmor as I could, and I'm a little sad your not allowed to go back in the embassy and clean house after the main and the civil war quests. Yet I can see why other players could either care less about the Thalmor or even agree with them or want them as a optional group to join.

However what this topics about is all the "Thalmor are unbeatable" talk I've read. I know it's not a huge chunk of the fanbase but there seems to be allot of talk of how theres no way the Empire or Skyrim could beat the Aldmeri Dominion. I've even read some people talking about how fitting some DLC would be where the Thalmor invade and slaughter everyone in Skyrim and the Dragonborn meets a bitter end.

While they're completely in their right to think what they want and desire any DLC they seem fit I just don't get all the Thalmor praise. The Thalmor are spoken as if they're invincible when theres plenty to contrast that in game lore. Imagine if people had that mindset in our world
"O that Hitler guys too tough lets give up",
"we're doomed Rome will never fall"
"theres no way we can stop that Atilla the Hun Western Europe, lets not all unit and finally push him back."

As for the game lore
2E
-Tiber Septim uses the Numidium to bring Valenwood into the Empire and the Thalmor fade out.
4E
-Battle of the Red Ring, the entire invading Aldmeri Army is destroyed in Cyrodill.
-The Aldmeri Dominion withdraws from Hammerfell entirely after Hammerfell fights them to a stalemate.

My long winded point here being that there is in game historical sites of the Thalmor losing or failing to achieve their goals. They're not some unstoppable force that cannot be beaten. lets just assume the Dominion decides to invade Skyrim, do you think the nords will go quite like? What of the Dunmer, yes Morrowind is not what it was but do you think the Dunmer would ever bow to the Altmer? Or the Argonians? Do you really think they'd let the Dominion come into Black marsh? The Orcs, Hammerfells and the Reguards the list goes on and on with plenty of reasons why the Thalmor aren't as big and bad as they might seem.

Um because they're basically the Sith of Skyrim. Cunning, ruthless, always plotting, evil world-ending grand scheme, don't give a damn about any race but their own, constantly power hungry (See: Ancano and the eye of Magnus)

I do not know.They are excellent at making plans but not so much at implementing them.

I celebrate the arrival of the Thalmor.

how bout some DLC where they do invade, and my dragon born leads an epic quest to defeat them via spells, sword, and always trusted house carl/mercenary.

The Thalmor would be hard pressed to make an invasion of Skyrim nevermind sustain it

I only played Oblivion before playing Skyrim, but I was surprised to learn that Bethesda had actually singled out a playable race to be the big bad for their new game. Granted the Altmer in general are arrogant and condescending, but IMO it almost felt like playing as an Altmer in this game would be wrong just because of the war that happened between the Aldmeri Dominion and the Empire, and what the Thalmor are doing to the rest of Tamriel. I'm not bashing the game or the story in any way, it's an interesting turn of events, and it's definitely in-character for the Altmer race (those who know their lore). All I know for sure is that Bethesda in the next Elder Scrolls game better not sweep the whole Thalmor issue under the rug, from in-game dialogue you know the Aldmeri Dominion hasn't given up trying to defeat the Empire.

Because the Thalmor are a bunch of stupid ninnys....actually that doesn't make sense but to speak realistically noone wants to die. No one says omg the THALMOR ARE TEH BESTEST EVARS. But think of it as if the United States felt like bum rushing Canada and Mexico without warning and enslaved the populos. Thier probably won't be an immediate threat from other nations military since it was unexpected and no one would really be prepared. Countries won't get involved unless directly threatened or attacked, just like in WWII, countries only got involved unless being attacked by them. Because no one wants to see the blood of thier brothers and sisters shed in the name of glory or war because glory in death doesn't really exist its just death.

The Thalmor are arrogant [censored]s. I hope they invade Tamriel in the near future because my Dragonborn has a real bad itch to destroy as many Falmor as he can. They were lucky that a TES wasn't made in the last 200 years because I would have kicked their skinny yellow asses.

Bleh I hate them to. They're always so arrogant, so sure of themselves. So controlling and hawty about everything. Speaking as an English woman, they would be the British Empire during the American civil war.

I have never played as an Altmer, despite my preference for casting classes. I know a bit about the lore, but certainly no expert. I really didnt know much about the Thalmor or the Aldmeri Dominon before Skyrim. What I have learned of them from playing Skyrim, certainly hasn't helped me to like them. Arrogant, condescending, prone to bursts of violence simply for getting to close to a patrol. I'm a Dunmer, but they still go on about the "superiority of the elves." And they banned the worship of Talos, because a member of a "lesser race" ascending to godhood would ruin their whole claim of superiority.

You got your facts wrong there. Entire Thalmor forces in Cyrodil is defeated, but Thalmor's haven't failed to achieve what they set ou to do as White gold concordat is exactly the terms Thalmors put forward to the Mede Empire in the Ultimatum before the great war. So they actually got exactly what they wanted. Also Thalmors still have half of Hammerfell as well. Plus they have achieved independence from the empire in Summerset Isle and Valenwood as well as aiding Khajits achieve independence in Elsweyr. It sort of makes sense to help Ulfric and the Stormcolaks in the game as an Altmer, but then agian it also makes sense to side with the empire as the rebellion is started by the empire keeping their end of the bargain.

Most people who say they are unbeatable is making that assumption based on the current state of the Mede empire, and I agree. They don't even have full control of Skyrim.

Thalmor comes across as having superior military might -

1. in game, as even the lowest foot soldier may use magic and their death squad can destroy a far larger detachment of imperial or stormcloak soldiers

2. and in lore, as their defeat of the empire resulted in the WGC which resulted in the civil war in Skyrim

The Empire has not recovered since WGC. Infact it is weaker and losing more allies than ever since their betrayal of the Nords and Redguards with the signing of the WGC. Even the sacking of the imperial city and death of the Emperor, would not have weaken the Empire as badly as accepting WGC.

While at the same time, we have to assume the Thalmor has stabilized the regions they captured and are actively exploiting these region for resources to expand their armies. We also know the Thalmor breed goblins as foot soldiers, and goblins breed incredibly fast. They also have no "hang ups" with the use of conjuration, an extremely potent means of bolstering your numbers rapidly.

The Empire can not hope to match that kind of buildup. Just like agreeing to a peace treaty with the guy holding Asia in a Risk board game, the longer you wait, the worse it will end for you.

Yes...and no. Seems like they wanted to get a foothold on the northwest end of tamriel for future plans and that didn't work out. They definitely did not expect losing their entire Cyrodiil attack force(Which ended up being their main force after they switched focus to Cyrod). The thalmor fled hammerfell in 4e180 after the second treaty of Stros M'Kai. They have no forces left in Hammerfell.

If the thalmor had thought they could win, there would've been no WGC. There would also be no empire despite any attempts at a peace treaty.

remember not all Altmer are from the Aldmeri Dominion or support the Thalmor
Rising Threat claims the Thalmor assassinated Ocato who became Potentate at the request of the Council after the Oblivion crisis
the author of Rising Threat himself died mysteriously
the Imperial Legate at the Rift Imperial Camp witnessed a Thalmor attack on Altmer refugees in Hammerfall

theres very good reasons as to why an Altmer could hate the Thalmor

That's disputable (In My Time of Need), but even if it is absolutely true, southern Hammerfell is still a wreck and the same could be said for much of Cyrodiil.

My reason for believing in the superlative strength of the Thalmor is rather simple and has little to do with lore and much more to do with the open-ended Civil War questline. Tulius and Ulfric cannot both win, but for Bethesda to declare one as the victor, they would invalidate half the playerbase's choice. As a result, something has to interfere with the end of the war. Something has to come along and confuse things. The most logical method of acomplishing this is through Thalmor involvement, as the Thalmor have no love of either faction and have a strong presence in 4th Era Tamriel.

Or the issue could be resolved in a DLC

Every thalmor i meet in the wild ...will meet my sword...(well technically my spells) and i liberate every single prisioner i run into.....

The commoner of Skyrim has no access to an army of redguards or even nords. They are alone against an organized, militarized, and hostile cadre of thought police that have no power to answer to. To the every day person, to even be suspected of Talos worship is a death sentence, unless you live in an area densely populated with those of like-mind.

why do i hate them? i always hated the altmer, arrogant sobs. from morrowind to skyrim they always had this stupid attitude, now being worse than before.

so i kill any and all i find, but leave butchering the lot of them to another game and not some half-ass dlc

Im with you there ....and its is true im not sure if its coincidence but bethesda has always made sure that all the lines and dialogues comming from them are arrogant and despective..so i think next TES should be based in "WAR against the altmer from the thalmor"

So did I...

My Dunmer Assassin has killes scores of them, and their Elven Armored sorry excuses for bodyguards. Until they arrived in Skyrim, they were just a little out of reach for my Dunmer what with the calamity and subsequent rebuilding of my homeland.

But since the Thalmor were nice enough to come within striking distance for me, I only felt that I should return the favor and grant swift death to them as I see them.

This is a grudge that goes way back. Ever since they kicked the Dunmer (at that time we were known as the Chimer) out of their precious "Dominion" just because we wouldn't drop our Ancestor and Daedra worship. That's fine.

Tiber Septim and his army wiped out the Dominion once before. It took the death of two Gods, a series of natural disasters (the renewing of an asteroid's fall and then a massive volcano eruption), and a cowardly attack by an enemy when we were weakened by everything else to bring down Morrowind. And even after all of that, we survive and we are rebuilding. The Dunmer need nothing that the Thalmor can offer.

"Saviors of All Mer" my ash-colored butt... I think that the Dunmer have proven time and again that they are stronger than the Dominion. Morrowind was also the only autonomous Province in the Empire (meaning we ruled ourselves, the "Empire Province" thing was just a paper tiger title).

The Redguards got kicked out of the Empire for continuing to fight, and proceeded to hand it to the Thalmor and reclaim their freedom as a solitary Sovereign Nation. And that was after almost a decade of war when they were with the Empire.

I guarantee, should the Thalmor attack Skyrim, there will be no unity questions. If you have two brothers who constantly bicker and fight, nothing will pull them together into solidarity than an outsider picking a fight with one of them. Should the Thalmor attack when they think Skyrim is divided, they will find that they will come together as one force, defeat the Thalmor, and then they will go back to their dispute afterwards.

The Thalmor is nowhere near as strong as they would like everyone to believe.

What?

Saadia was lying straight to your face.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/great-war

-Legate Justianus Quintius

Seems like it would be easy enough to have DLC in which you are tasked with leading the charge to defeat the Thalmor permanently. Based on your previous choices in the game, you could either do it with the support of the Empire, the Stormcloaks, or even independently (maybe at the behest of the Jarl of Whiterun or Elisif, the presumptive High Queen) if you had elected not to choose sides in the civil war. Then in TES VI, they could simply refer to the Thalmor defeat at the hands of the Dragonborn without really addressing the issue of who won the civil war in Skyrim.

Thats what the French did