Skyrim: Empire or Rebels?
Miss Kris
2012/09/13 18:30:44
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21 votes
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22 votes
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10 votes
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I played through both story lines and felt much better about being a Stormcloak than an Imperial. The empire already gave up to the Aldmeri Dominion. So in my mind they were just puppets of the Elder Scrolls' version of the Nazis.
Top Opinion
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Michelle 2012/09/13 19:14:12Stormcloaks (Rebels)!
+3Don't get me wrong, I think Ulfric is a power-hungry dick... but the rebels didn't start the game off assuming I was their enemy and then proceeding to attempt to behead me "just in case". The more I play, the less I like Stormcloaks-- in the context of my play, though, they're a lesser evil. Hey, I-- a Khajiit-- marched into Windhelm to join the rebellion dressed fully in imperial light armour (because I was working on my light armour skill and that was the best available at that point) and they let me join. That was better than the Empire, who dragged me off and sentenced me to death for being in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Have you played the Dawnguard expansion?
'JUSTICE!'
Further, after the mission in the Thalmore embassy, you learn that he is an inactive agent of theirs...
RPG does, after all, stand for "roleplaying game".
The Thalmor can be dealt with later after the present crisis is resolved.
What's also funny: If you have read the dossiers that the Thalmor keep in their embassy (they can be found during the "Diplomatic Immunity" chapter of the main quest-line) the Thalmor consider Ulfric to be an asset of theirs. It seems that during the Aldmiri/Empire war Ulfric spent some time as a POW of the Aldmiri and the Thalmor were able to corrupt his mind in subtle ways. Ulfric is now doing precisely what the Thalmor want him to do: keeping Skyrim politically unstable and further draining the recources of the Cyrodiil Empire. And that is according to a secret Thalmor source, not a public Imperial or anti-Stormcloak Skyrim source.
Also, whether or not he intends it, the Thalmor are happy with what Ulfric Stormcloak actually is doing. The Thalmor regard him as a 'Useful Idiot' rather than as a puppet.
Now, this is the third Elder Scrolls game that I have played, so maybe I have a slight Imperial bias. As the 'Main Evil' of the games is always directly opposed to the Empire, you usually find yourself 'throwing in' with them at some point. What I like about Skyrim is you can side with the good ole' Empire yet again and continue to hunt Thalmor on the side. (Heh heh heh)
I must have spent 1000 hours playing Morrowind. It was the first game I'd ever seen that was remotely like it. I picked it up when it first came out and it seemed like the game I'd always been waiting to play! Of course, after Oblivion and Skyrim it seems downright primitive, if you go back and look at it.
So, like I said, the game doesn't level up as you do, so most of the game world will be 'too hard' because it's designed to challenge players at different levels and you just have to stay in the 'shallow water' until you are strong enough to proceed.
Unfortunately, it WAS kinda up to you to figure out when the water was getting too deep!
Still, I'm an 'old hand' at Elder Scrolls game so I kinda have a bias in favor of the Empire. It wasn't perfect but it was occaisionally a force for good.
And no Imperials ever object when I go Thalmor hunting on the side. They are the real enemy, in my estimation.
And as far as the Empire being righteous...well, I don't really need them to be. I play a guy who kills and loots bandits and occaisionally goes on a spot of Thalmor hunting just because...neither of these things make me righteous either. (As a student of History I have a sort of skeptical view of "righteousness").
I practice, in game, a kind of enlightened self-interest. It is not in my self interest that the world be overrun by dragons, demons from Oblivion, mad gods who live in volcanoes, etc. Aligning myself with a powerful force that opposes such things is a rational choice.
The Empire of Cyrodyyl is far, far from perfect. But every other alternative is even worse.
The folks at Bethesda games have done a masterful job at taking a form that has been a mere entertainment/diversion and brought it closer to...being everything it could be! Games can do things movies can't, like place you in an environment and let you write your own story. When I first played "Morrowind" I thought "this is the closest I've seen to being the game I always wanted to play!"
I hear a lot of that, these days....o_o
Chin up Miss Kris...it will get better...at some point :-)