I'm just stating the obvious, I don't care either way.
Since the Blades as a faction lead to essentially nothing, I dislike them.
Since keeping Parthy alive leads essentially to nothing, I think that's lame too.

There should have been some sort of concrete crossroads:
You spare Parthy and in turn gain access to several meaningful quests with him and/or the deadbeards.
You slay him, opening up the Blades as a decent faction with tons of interesting quests and content.

Having neither was pretty neglectful, and I'd imagine that by the time Beth actually releases patches that fix stuff and DLC's that really rock, I'll be enjoying myself in Mass Effect 3 and Resident Evil 6.

The Paarthurax Quest was made for roleplaying reasons, really. That is prolly why they didn't add other quests.. They just made it real quick for the RP and actually give the player a tough choice.

The other quests are not for role playing?

All quests are Roleplaying but I am talking about a different type of RPing. RPing when you can RP as the actually character you want and have a choice between your views of Evil and Good. The first Dark Brotherhood Quest is like this.

I'd rather experience something real within the game, rather than leaving it to my "RP imagination."
You're just excusing their shortfalls with quest development.

I prefer to let my imagination run wild.

No. You want less consequences, because someone stole your sweet roll.

You seem to have an obsession with the word consequences.
I don't blame you, some words are cooler than others.

Are you suggesting there must be consequences to killing or sparing Parthy? Sure, okay that makes some sense.
Spare him, maybe he becomes the next Alduin and you're responsible for all of that.
Kill him, and... I don't know what consequences await... the deadbeards ignore you, and they get boring? Oh noes.

There should have been more to it, and if we were supposed to make pretend what the rest of the game is like, something has gone very, very wrong.

I have no obsession with the word. I thought I made my point clear a few posts earlier.

Are you obsessed with blame? You blame Bethesda, you do not blame me, ...

Start by blaming yourself. It is one quest of many and whatever you feel it lacks should get covered by one of the many other quests.

Good point! My gosh, you're so good at getting your point across.
This whole time I was anolyzing it wrong:it's actually my fault!

How could I have been so stupid *phew*
Yes, I should turn a blind eye to empty quests and allow them to be covered up by the other glitched & broken quests.
That'll make everything better. Thanks for the precious insight, man.

So you hate Skyrim, but you hide it behind cynicism. Is this fun for you?

Ask yourself, how can a quest like the one around Paarthurnax be emtpy when it spawns threads like this one and create emotions in players to the point where they want to kill the Blades? Explain to me how this can be called empty.

Perhaps you were expecting something else and did not find it, but that does not make it empty.

Not innocent, but repentant, and he demands more of the dragonborn as a person than the Blades do. As long as dragons are exterminated, they are happy, the Greybeards and Paarth don't expect the Dovahkiin to be completely pacifist, but to show some understanding that their actions affect everything, so it might be good to think about the actions he/she takes.

When I meet Paarthunax, I will attack him on sight and force him to BECOME Alduin II.



Seriously though, he's not fooling me. He's just waiting for Aldy to be killed, so he can make his big move.

It see no remorse or guilt in Paarthurnax. Instead, when confronted with the Blades' demand to kill it does Paarthurnax not object, but it agrees! Paarthurnax can barely contain its mockery and disrespect for the Blades.

The Blades are certainly not happy and have no reason to be happy. They are worried. They are being hunted by the Thalmor as bad as Talos worshippers or worse.

One might as well accuse the Greybeards of being happy, seeing how they get free food up the hill, while in the land below the dragons rage against all living.

pointless flame removed

The Greybeards preach the "Way of Peace", which isn't even a real way of Peace, it's just, "Don't use Shouts other than to kiss the posterior of the Aedra."

I mean, if the Greybeards preached a way of Peace that involved actively using the Voice to mediate fights, neutralize threats, and showing true equality, I'd be fine! But they don't! Seriously, all the Greybeards do is...not what matters! Great, they helped the Dragonborn. But before that, did they help Skyrim when it was ravaged by war? Did they intervene when the Aldmeri Dominion committed genocide?

For that reason alone...I'd like to cut the head off of the big boss man of the Greybeards...which is Paarthurnax. But there are a few other reasons as well.

1. Paarthurnax is the younger brother of Alduin. This makes him directly related to the World Eater. While he's not as god-like, there's still World Eater blood in him. Unlike normal brother bonds, this leaves a loose end. Paarthurnax may become the next World Eater, even if he keeps his urges in check. At the very least, he's a figure that the other dragons will rally towards.

2. No matter if Paarthurnax alone keeps his urges in check, his dragon followers won't. The dragons become more organized with a central leader and soon, Paarthurnax will either have to give in to the urges of his followers or his followers will rebel and cause great destruction.

3. Let's just kill Paarthurnax. He's not a regular dragon. He's the strongest dragon around after Alduin died. What creature can resist that?

And to think your post count raised for that reply. You need something better.

and this contributes to the discussion how? Besides raising the post count, of course.

Ancient dragons > Paathurnax in damage and ferocity, Paarth doesn't even have any unique shouts like Alduin. Also if you talk to the little girls in Rorikstead they say, "I had a dream that there was a good dragon. He was old and grey but he wasn't scary." It's 100% conjecture to say he'll turn out bad or good either way, but between this bit of dialogue and the fact that he hasn't in fact done anything "bad" in over 5,000 years (rather, he's saved the planet twice), the weight favors him being changed for the better.

Sorry Role-players, you can write all the fan fiction you want about him being Darth Vader V2.0. How Bethesda sets him up is what will matter, and dollars against dimes if he's ever featured in more DLC/the next release, he won't be who you want him to be (stereotypically evil).

That would be perfectly fine with me.... I have no bones to pick with Paarthurnax.

Defend the point if you think it is a valid one.

I did, I defended Dagoth_Jeff's point that there is no sense in killing or not killig Parthurnax. Blades are the most lightheaded pricks ever and you can't be expected to kill someone who practically tutored you, and for what? A couple of "benefits" that are actually totally lame at the time you get there. More quests would be expected but alas, you're stuck with a bunch of selfish, selfprizing morons and joy of chilling in an old cave. Same goes with not killing him, all that happens is that greybeards don't talk to you, as if I'm dealing with a child, so I'd rather not kill Parthurnax.

I've spared Paarth on my latest playthrough. I guess it doesn't make a difference. I hope it does later.

There's one thing I don't like about being too soft though.

If you read up on the lore, I think it might be partly the ancient Nords' fault in the first place for dragons to control their lives the way they did. They came from Atmora, with their own pantheon of gods - one that was similar to an 8/9 divines set up. Except it was centered on animal figures. The animal symbols you see in the tombs. The Wolf, the Whale, the Bear, the Owl, etc.. And at the top of that totem is the Dragon. Their main god was a dragon (I suppose you could say the same for Akatosh, in a sense). They had a sort of "peaceful" arrangement with dragons, apparently. Dragon Priests oversaw the people, Nords willingly revered these dragons, etc.. Then Alduin went overboard and actually started thinking of himself as a god. And behaving like the worst kind of god.

My opinion though is that it was a bad situation even before Alduin. That they revered dragons so much in the first place is lame. And I think this attitude sort of lingers with the Greybeards, even if unconsciously. They really are some leftover dragon cult, I think.

The Akaviri mentality makes more sense to me. They see dragons as another race that stomped them into oblivion. Not gods. Not something at the top of their totem poles. Instead of reverence, they have an urge to kill. It makes sense to me.

You are not making a lot of sense. You say there is no sense in killing and not killing, you call the Blades "lightheaded pricks", something is lame, you want more, some people are being selfish and "selfprizing" morons, etc.

What I do get is that you have difficulty with killing someone who you see as your teacher. I guess what you are saying is that you like to have all that power, because it makes you strong and lets you kill dragons, but you have not really an idea what to use all this power for. All you like to do is to receive lessons and follow instructions and want everyone to be nice to you. Is this about right?

Please stay on topic; leave out the personal sniping attacks.

My apology, I tend to get personal when I see vague smartassing. Won't happen again.