Okay guys heres the thing, I may be a little late but this is advice to you guys out there confused about joining the Stormcloaks or Imperial Legion. Think of it this way if Ulfric wins and Skyrim is disbanded from the Empire then that gives the Thalmor rights to go and invade Skyrim and have The Great War v2 (this one is shorter) and soon Skyrim turns into Elven land. And the Empire is the only thing preventing the Thalmor from completely taking Skyrim over. Bethesda makes you think on situations like this, either go with the people who almost cut your head off (who are the only thing protecting Skyrim from the Thalmor), or go with the people who seem like the good guys but it turns out being the blind leading the blind. SPOILER ALERT: Also a side note if you complete the Imperial Legion Story, General Tulius says "The Thalmor won't be pulling the strings for much longer..." or something in that nature. So the Empire is acting like the puppet on the strings so that they make the Thalmor think that they control everything where in the near future the Legion is going to unite the allying countries and kick the Thalmor's yellow asses