I know that they both have good and bad people within their ranks. The guy who you met near the cages in the tutorial is a good example of a bad guy.

Anyway I normally think anything dealing with guards gotta be the overall "good" but after doing a quest in Markarth which involve me going into a mine because of a conspiracy and somewhat forclly join the overall "good guys" with the task of killing every guard in town I kinda start to wonder.

That quest just ended badly regradless of what I did. It seem like the player was not given the choice of "solve this yourself while I leave peacefully". You can either side with the guy controling the city or side with the guy who want to kill every corrputed guard in the city. The most I could do is watch as people from both sides die and just loot and stand on the sidelines until it was over.

So would the Stormcloaks/Imperial Legion be the same kind of bloodbath or is there a slightly better side?

Things aren't really all that black and white in Skyrim, or any Elder Scrolls game, for that matter. I personally see the Stormcloaks as idealistic, but short sighted. Short answer, there's the same level of fighter either way.

It depends on who you think has a better means to accomplish the same long term goal. It isn't really Imperial vs. Stormcloak so much as both of those factions are opposed to the Aldmeri Dominion, and disagree with one another on how best to combat that enemy. Siding with the Imperials means Skyrim remains part of the Empire, with High Rock and Cyrodiil. Stormcloaks winning means Skyrim is it's own highest authority, answering to no foreign power. Now, as each faction desires the same thing (downfall of the aldmeri dominion), why is there a fight going on? Well, because the Empire folded to the dominion, and is currently biding it's time until it can effectively combat the dominion, even if for the time being it means giving in to the dominion's demands. Skyrim wants the "right here right now" option of not surrendering and fighting to the bitter end with the dominion. Other provinces favor this as well (Hammerfell). With the Empire crumbling, but all human-based provinces opposing the Thalmor, I think it's only a matter of time before Cyrodiil, High Rock, Hammerfell, and Skyrim all unite to fight this common foe. However, it will NOT be as an Empire. A new empire may very well arise from the ashes, but for all intensive purposes, the mede dynasty will fall. Either a new alliance of humans will win, the dominion will win, or a diplomatic solution between men and mer will be found.

So I can pretty much expect the same thing, they both in the gray area.

I think I will go with the Legion even if it only just for the guy helping me at the start and the free ingots that come with helping a blackmith's son.

That's one of the things I like about the civil war: it's all shades of gray. there's no clear-cut good guy, so it all depends on who you think has the moral high ground

Bad in that they're misinformed, naive, xenophobic and being led by a megalomaniac.

I don't have much sympathy for anyone who takes up arms against his countrymen, especially in such difficult times.

There are no good or bad guys in this war, no heroes and no villains. The main difference is that the Stormcloaks want to defy the Thalmor now rather than later and put Ulfric on the throne, while the Emire wants to wait until they are ready to defy the Dominion and put Elisif in the throne.

In the beginning it is all a lovely shade of gray. The leader of the strormcloaks ends up being a slightly darker shade of gray after you find out a few things about him. Still…. there really is no black or white in this mess.

they got the power, strength, will, determination, but lack the brains.
If ulfric was smarter, he would have known that the empire is on the same side too. If he HAD teamed up with the empire..if only....
such a waste

Ulfric wanted to lead Skryim, having Skyrim break off and start a war with the Thalmor would not have been good enough if he wasn’t the leader.

I do not think the Stormcloaks themselves as in the basic soldiers are either good or bad, they believe that Skyrim/Talos has been betrayed by the Empire and TBH to some degree I must agree with them,
it is Ulfric who is the Bad Guy if anyone is. I decided to talk to him prior to deciding about doing the Civil War side of the game, he is not doing this for the Nords or Skyrim he is doing it for himself.

I would like to see the Nords take the fight to the Thalmor and help the Empire push them out, but that could never happen with Ulfric around.

You know one thing for sure, Nords will never rule all of Tamriel. Too biased. They'll probably get undone by the elves, just like Shor was undone by elven gods.

That's what I like about the story: both sides are right and wrong. Just as in real life (mostly).

The Legion is trying to preserve status quo. That is a noble goal. The Legion's only goal is to restore peace and order and then get back to the real problem - preparing for another war with the Dominion.

They allowed the Thalmor to hunt, imprison, torture and kill people for arbitrary reasons. That's not good, whether they had a choice or not.

Yes I very much feel that in the game, I want to join the rebellion because of the Thalmor banning Talos and of course I am the Dragonborn in a way of the same blood as Talos himself.
Then I look and see how the Empire has kept the Thalmor mainly out of Skyrim and I feel I should join the Legion and help prepare for the eventual re-match with the Dominion.

Of course there is the third option to settle for peace but that does not sit right with me either, damn to many choices I just wanted to go adventuring, He He

I circumvented morality problems by deferring the decision to my characters. My Orc is a loyal fighter for the empire and my Breton is a hot-headed separatist.

There is no bad guy in Skyrim. There is no good side or bad side. Both sides have justifiable reasons for what they are doing. The Nords feel that the empire is weak for kneeling down before the elves at the end of a sword and refuse to give up their ways of life to a race of elves who feel they are superior and are the rightful rulers of Tamerial.

The empire on the other side understands the strength in numbers. They did what they had to do in order to bring peace to their people. They didn't not want to bow down to those rules set forth by the Thalmor but had they not they would only have continued the war. The treaty was something that many people were willing to deal with for the greater good. Now that they have lost ties with Hammerfell and soon to be Skyrim that is a bad thing. They are losing some of their best warriors if Skyrim recedes from the empire and they see and understand that the only way to defeat the elves is to remain as one. Something that most likely wont happen if Ulfric gets the throne so they are fighting with the larger picture in mind, while the Nords are, rightfully so, fighting with just themselves in mind.

The bad guys are the Thalmor. Not the Empire, not the Stormcloaks. The Thalmor are doing whats called, a divide and conquer tactic.