being a Jarl would be cool.

OK, since you double quoted and double posted I'm gonna' blame the spoiler tag malfunction on .

Edited for clarity.

I think her power is overrated and she doesn't actually has as much influence/hold over the Thief's Guild and the Dark Brotherhood as she believes. She manipulates the very gullible Jarl of Riften and owns a meadery business. What else?

In the TG, sure, at the start she is touted as an important client, but after two jobs, you and the Guild basically outgrow her and then none of the Vex and Delvin jobs are for her. With the Dark Brotherhood it is like she doesn't even exists. Not a single contract given to you by Astrid, Nazir or the Night Mother is for her or any of her relatives. Maven even has a letter in one of her rooms complaining to the DB about her target not being eliminated. So much for her having the DB under her power.

Seems the Night Mother does not considers her worthy of attention. Or as is my current character thinking, Maven believes the DB is just another business she can turn on and about with her money, but she is woefully mistaken about that and the Nigh Mother didn't answer to her performing the Black Sacrament because Maven doesn't truly believes in it.

She's a obnoxious biatch with far too much power.
SHe is a stain on the world who must die!

But the only thing stopping her death, is bethesdas stupid essential tag.
I wish I could mod PS3 games. Grrr.

I would obliterate every single member of the TG and ever Black-Brier except Ingun if I could.

FFS! You can't even sever ties and kill her when you run the TG!

What ruins her the most for me is the fact that her attitude towards you doesn't changes even after you become a member of the thief guild, do jobs for her, become guildmaster or even make the decision that eventually lead her to become the jarl of Riften. Even after you do all the Sookoma quests for her, she will still be telling you "Out of my way" or something of the sort. I wonder how she even maintains any kind of relationship with any one with an attitude like that. If her attitude towards you changed, making her see you more favorably if you do jobs for her, I would actually like her and even be willing to support her evil schemes.

I hated Maven's character. She wasn't all imposing or with any personality. She was just . . . bland. Insanely bland.

The Thieves' Guild I get, but the Thalmor and the Dark Brotherhood? Either way in canon, the connections don't last for long. Even if you do choose to save the Dark Brotherhood and win the Civil War against the Imperials . . . well, most of the members of the DB died off anyways and General Tullius hints at another war against the Aldmeri Dominion in the near-future. Maven's "power" really doesn't make much fictional sense. Riften's plotline on the whole was poorly-constructed.

With the wierd, overly aggressive and nasty, attitude to every single person, she has, you wonder how the hell she has any contacts at all.
If you went up to some people with that nasty attitude the entire time, you'd get thrown out by the guards or killed.

Indeed, I wonder how nobody has made the Black Sacrament to have her killed. She should have been the target of a DB quest. Forget the emperor, give me Maven's head on a silver platter

For a long time, I refused to take part in the Civil War, or even Season Unending, just because I could not abide the thought of giving more power to either Black-Briars or the Silverbloods. Finally, I decided that I wanted to see Sovngarde, and that handing over Markarth was a lesser evil than Riften.

She's no different in this than any other faction leader, or the faction itself....

LOL, if she became the empress of Tamriel, she would ban milk drinking and Blackbriar mead would become the official breakfast drink.

Has anyone talked to a certain Black-Briar in the Riften jail recently? No? Oh, yeah, I gutted him like a fish.

The thief guild has the problem that most of the characters there seem to be on autopilot and don't change their behavior at any point in the game (aside from how they address you before and after you join the guild). Delvin is the only one who calls you boss and the ones that are in the Cistern give you some sort of recognition. But Vex, Brynjolf, Tonila, Maul and Dirge all act like automations, not changing even after you become Guildmaster.

I did not find this problem in the Dark Brotherhood or the Collage of Winterhold. The NPCs there change their attitude accordingly.

With regards to Maven, it is only reasonable that after I do jobs for her, make the decision that leads her to become Jarl, do her quest to end the Sookoma operation, purchase property in Riften, gain the trust of her people and she makes me thane, that she would adopt a more favorable tone towards my character. That she doesn't is what ruins her for me.

That sounds perfect. Much better target than the Emporer.

She's such a snob, with bad manners and looks down on pretty much everyone she comes upon. I really wish that she wasn't essential, the old hag. She thinks she has power, but utterly fails when it comes to providing evidence of that.

It is quite annoying how much power she has and the amount at which she throws it around. But despite that her connections do make her useful to the DB and Thieves Guild I would say from a business stand point I wouldn't do anything to her until I had another connection that is equal to or greater than her.

I've really seen nothing in the game aside from her saying so which indicates that she has connections with the Dark Brotherhood. When you do the DB quest line, not a single contract is for her or any of her relatives. She is not even mentioned by any of the members. In her house she has a locked room where she was doing the Black Sacrament with a letter complaining to the DB about her target not being killed yet. Strange thing that the DB would respond to a little boy doing the Black Sacrament to kill a mean old lady at an orphanage in Riften but would not respond to the mighty Maven Black-Briar. They must not want to deal with her.

She clearly has a huge influence over the Thief Guild, as it's own members admit. But as far as I see, she has no significant connection with the DB and it is more likely that she simply throws the DB name about to intimidate people into doing her bidding.

I always start to laugh when she brings up the DB. I'll have to take her on a journey to a certain abandoned shack, and show her the rotting corpse from a certain someone, covered with failed contracts. Heh heh heh ...