My fifty bucks, my CHIM, my console. I setqueststage to 100 and strolled on into the future with both sides happy.

I am starting to really personally dislike some writer or writers at Bethesda, however. Don't know who yet as no one seems to be talking about who wrote which parts of the quests. But this was ugly and uncalled for and made me angry. Bad enough that the Blades seem to think you're some schmo and not the true Emperor. But to have them say you need to kill the dragon that saved them from the last kalpa and they're going to take their little toys and go home even if it means the end of everything is too much. I want to introduce Delpine's face to my ebony gaunlets until she sorts out her priorities and remembers what loyalty means.

Seriously, this was game-breaking for me. It ruined the immersion that the writers were such jerks.

I think most characters are jerks. At least more than half. It's just par for the course.

It was obvious that the gameworld, the illustrations were all labors of love from the artists.

The writers though, the writers obviously didn't bother to care. Or even have things make sense (and this stands for almost every quest in the game). I HOPE the DLC is better than what we were given. And Divines help me if they retcon anything else.

I don't believe all that bs about the Dragonborn being a Dragon slayer, infact alot of the blades descriptions and timelines just don't add up. the -AKAVIRI- may have been Dragon slayers, but I fail to see how they would even know about Dovakiin. Didn't AKATOSH, TIME DRAGON GOD bestow that power to you? the Blades, no no the blades are long gone and dead, I even recovered one of the last blades weapons. Delphine and Esbern can go kill themselves.

Think about it this way:

If Paarthurnax dies: you gotta deal with 100 angry dragons.

If Paarthurnax lives: best case scenario, he teaches the other dragons to be peaceful and they accept. Worst case: he betrays you, and... You have to kill 101 angry dragons.

I think the possible benefits of letting him live far outweigh the risks. That's just me though.

On playthrough two Delphine asked... I mean told me to kill Parth. Then she took several arrows to the face.

this argument...it is like siding with the empire, only without the third option

Civil War

• Join the Empire-you believe that Ulfric Stormcloak does not deserve a second chance because he murdered someone
  
• Join the Stormcloaks-you believe that the empire does not deserve a second chance because they chose to end the GW peacefully rather than fighting to the last man and risk more death than there was already.
  
• the only Neutral option-avoid the civil war in order to get the peace conference in a bid at ending the war peacefully

Kill/Spare Paarthurnax

• Kill him- you think the blades are right and that he is irredeemable
  
• Spare him-you believe the blades are dead and do not have a chance to be restored.

face it guys, the only reasons the blades listened to Tiber and avoided Paarthurnax is because Talos was the man to unite all of Tamriel and start the Septim dynasty of emperor. Your Character: the Dragonorn of the 4^th era and the harbinger of the companions/archmage of the college of Winterhold/Listener of the Dark Brotherhood/Nightingale&master of the thieves guild/Hero of the Skyim Civil war. compared to Tiber, you are not impressive, so of course the blades are going to boss you around, they have not seen anything that would convince them to listen to you. that, and the fact that the "blades" were sworn to protect and follow the "Emperor", you are all thinking of the original blades, the Dragonguard how were in the service of the Dragonborn.

Probably the ONLY time I ever have or ever will agree with you.

Personally, I would not join the empire for that reason. I would join it because he's a drama queen and religious nut who doesn't need to be running things. I'm not totally against him murdering someone. There are characters I make that murder people and still don't like Ulfric. I could even join the empire, believe it's basic presence is good, but murder the emperor myself.. taking upon the Stormcloak cause, from the inside. I could even be following Talos' footsteps in doing this. There are stories that say he was an imperial soldier, who killed his own emperor too.

Not to nitpick about the empire, but the sky's the limit on why one does anything in these choices. Be it Paarthurnax, Blades, Ulfric, whatever.

they were just basically saying what each side's reason is: Tullius(spelling?) believes ulfric needs to die, and Ulfric thinks the empire needs to leave Skyrim and is using the WGC to prove that the empire is dead, and people believe his side of things.

same thing with Sparing Mr.P-you are basically saying that the blades are dead. killing him is basically saying that the "blades" are in the right and that P is like ulfric and deserves to die

I got that quest on the " back patio" wing of that temple so I Fus Ro Dah'd those two. They flew pretty far. Made it to the river. Now they just stand in that river all day.

I think in the latter case, people merely wish that the Blades are dead, if you side with P. There's nothing stopping them from rebuilding a dragonguard, without your help. I wouldn't be surprised if, for example, there was a future playthrough where the PC is minding their business, when suddenly they're dragged into a fight with a dragon, and before you got the last kill, some Blades come out of nowhere and take care of it. Then Delphine comes out of the fog, and you have an uncomfortable, tense moment. This kind of stuff happens in stories often.

Paarthurnax, otoh, you can kill. This is a fact.

What makes the blades so [censored] important in the second half of the story? Maybe theirs something that Im missing out here. Delphine is one of the most annoying charecter in skyrim. I would've liked to have the option of turning Delphine and esburn to the Thalmor at their Embassy location. You don't have to be on their side, just collect the bounty that they have on these 2.

Storywise, they're the only organized faction set up for killing dragons. Of course, not everyone wants to do that. I kind of wonder why they bought Skyrim. Everything about the game, even that brutal looking dovahkiin dude on the backdrop of these forums is staring you in the face, telling you to kill dragons, and stop meditating.

"Oh, but I'm a paladin!!1"

No, you're not.

my point is that there was no middle ground in the Kill/Spare Mr.P quest since the "Blades" won't listen to you if you spare him, even though the only thing you did that was remotely worth them listening to you was being the dovahkiin, and even that is not much, not even worth listening to in my opinion.

Seeing as the empire turned the Blades over to the Thalmor as a bargaining chip, that seems pretty hypocritical.

"Organized faction set up for killing dragons"

No. In Skyrim they are, for the most part, useless in that regard.

"Organized faction set up for killing dragons"

No. In The Elder Scrolls series as a whole, they were secret intelligence agents and Septim Imperial bodyguards.

"I kind of wonder why they bought Skyrim"

Because they're fans of TES and the FREEDOM it used to have?

""Oh, but I'm a paladin!!1"

No, you're not."


You missed the point of an RPG.

Sorry. *shrug*

Oh dear. Here I am agreeing with you again. Hmm. Gonna have to watch that!

[I AM joking.... even if it's not exactly immediately apparent....]

That's very extreme. Delphine and Esbern are the last of their kind and people like that tend to be zealots. Beside the fact that you're not really emperor and they see you as their dragon-slaying ally more than as a restoration of the empire. The empire threw them under the bus and basically doesn't exist any more. They're trying to go back to their roots, not restore the Septim dynasty.

Korr.... killing dragons is the LEAST of the reasons I bought this game. Sorry you don't get it.

In Skyrim, yes, it's relatively meaningless. So most are things.

I'm talking from a narrative perspective, they would probably be a welcoming sight. Regular townspeople like Alvor and Ysolda can only do so much. Speaking through pure game mechanics, sure, Alvor doesn't need help. He'll bring out his warhammer and manage to get a killing blow on a dragon, if he tries hard enough. But if this was a novel instead of a game, Alvor would be dead. Those with a little "ummph" to call themselves dragonslayers would probably save him.

That's not how the developers intended it, is what I'm saying. They explicitly say they all hunkered down and said we need to make a game about Dragons and Nords. They thought it was a long time coming.

I don't give a rat's patoot what the devs "intended". I bought the game, I will play it my way for as long as I want to play it (probably at least as long as I've been playing Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion.... a VERY LONG TIME....)

Blizzard can in some ways enforce how people play WoW. SPMR companies like Beth can only "suggest". And if I and millions of others choose to thumb our noses at their suggestions.... what do you think they're going to do about it?

From a narrative perspective, Esbern and Delphine (and any other Blade or former Blade) would be unable to directly kill a dragon. If they killed a dragon, or directly helped in killing a dragon, that would attract the attention of the populace. That would include the Thalmor that live in Skyrim. If this were a novel, the Blades would be captured.

I'm pretty sure it'd take them awhile to find recruits anyways, at least until the Civil War was finished with. This way the issue of Thalmor is more up in the air. Hell, they might even recruit veterans from that war. It'd definitely be the most accessible pool for them to draw from.