Kayyyleb Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 (edited) 1) The Emperor tried to give half of Hammerfell to the Thalmor, the Redguards said f*** off, seceded, fought another five years, and beat the Thalmor 2) The Emperor gave the Thalmor the right to Police the Empire ( especially Skyrim ) hauling off his subjects without appeal to Imperial Law 3) The Emperor banned the worship of the Founder of the Empire, and a Nord to boot.Since your post is longer than the fricking bible, I'll just address these. 1) The Redguards fought to a temporary draw with half their country still under Thalmor control. They didn't win by a long shot. They seceded from the Empire but ended up with the same result as if they had stayed. Except now they don't have any allies. Brilliant. Now the Stormcloaks want to pull the same idiotic stunt. 2) He didn't have a choice. The Empire won a Pyrrhic victory against the Thalmor for the Imperial City and destroyed an entire Thalmor army but that left them bleeding badly. They had to accept the truce to live to fight another day. The Stormcloaks are too emotionally irrational to understand that the truce is temporary and only an Imperial ploy to buy time to win the second war. Instead they're sabotaging the Empire from the rear and only strengthening the Thalmor's position in the big picture. All the Stormcloaks in Skyrim are angry because the Emperor isn't as stupid as they are. There's a reason why Imperials dominated Tamriel for as long as they have: intelligence. Something Stormcloaks severely lack. 3) Yeah well tough. The Imperials are planning for the future engagement while the Stormcloaks are just whining about not being able to do what they want in the short term and killing off the very people whose help they'll need to win an ultimate human victory over the Thalmor. Let the Empire win the next war with the Thalmor and the White Gold Concordat will disappear instantly. Or just stab the Empire in the back while the Thalmor hit the front then get enjoy being in the hot seat with a hostile Thalmor army on your border. Edited February 10, 2013 by Kayyyleb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilikecheese1337 Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 (edited) That's Neville Chamberlain style action - yes, the Thalmor are omnicidal quasi-Nazis, but we can reason with them! The Thalmor are the biggest threat to every sentient being on Nirn with Alduin, Ancano, Harkon and Miraak out of the way, and their actions, when compared to real-life history, are simply too dangerous to sit back and let happen, despite the Empire's incapacitation. About the only possible political solution is for all other factions to unite against the Thalmor, and fat chance of that happening. It can't be done, but my favourite the creative solution for the enterprising Dragonborn is to challenge the Emperor to a duel, come to an "agreement" with Ulfric (which may or may not involve threatening to feed him to various dragons) and use your reputation as the Slayer of Alduin to enlist the dragons against the Thalmor. It's far from perfect, but as the Empire recuperates, so does the Dominion, and I can't think of another way to crush the Thalmor before they destroy reality. Edited February 10, 2013 by ilikecheese1337 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraquar Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 (edited) If the Imperials are planning for a future engagement with the Thalmor and can't even suppress a rebellion in Skyrim, those plans have to be court jester material. Seriously. The direction this Empire has and continues to take cannot support an uprising - impossible. You don't alienate the very allies you desperately need if you are planning any type of future engagement. In fact, if anything you start to take a little bolder approach in the political arena - and as we see the Empire has basically give the Thalmor carte-blanche to do whatever they want in Skyrim. Edited February 10, 2013 by fraquar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kayyyleb Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 If the Imperials are planning for a future engagement with the Thalmor and can't even suppress a rebellion in Skyrim, those plans have to be court jester material. Seriously. The direction this Empire has and continues to take cannot support an uprising - impossible. You don't alienate the very allies you desperately need if you are planning any type of future engagement. In fact, if anything you start to take a little bolder approach in the political arena - and as we see the Empire has basically give the Thalmor carte-blanche to do whatever they want in Skyrim.There's only a single Legion in Skyrim to suppress the rebellion because the rest are on the border with the Thalmor. General Tullius says this himself. Conversely, if the Legion "can't" suppress the rebellion, likewise the Stormcloaks can't seem to oust a single Legion from Skyrim yet talking to Ulfric and his annoying housecarl whose name I forget seem to think they can just march through the Legion and wipe out the Thalmor. If that isn't the definition of stupidity, I don't know what is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraquar Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 My point stands, if they have to bring half the Imperial army just to deal with the Stormcloaks, they stand no chance in hell vs the Thalmor. Might as well not even bother planning for any future engagement. This is a litmus test for where the Imperial army is 30 years later - and it's not looking good at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kayyyleb Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 My point stands, if they have to bring half the Imperial army just to deal with the Stormcloaks, they stand no chance in hell vs the Thalmor. Might as well not even bother planning for any future engagement. This is a litmus test for where the Imperial army is 30 years later - and it's not looking good at all.Half? HALF? The Empire has at least 18 numbered legions mentioned in canon and likely more. They sent a single legion to Skyrim and the Stormcloaks are struggling to defeat just that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sajuukkhar9000 Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 and the Stormcloaks are struggling to defeat just that one.Hell, at the very beginning of the game, the Legion had WON, Ulfric was captured, and about to be executed. Had Alduin not shown up, The Empire would have been done with the civil war in just a few months time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kayyyleb Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 (edited) and the Stormcloaks are struggling to defeat just that one.Hell, at the very beginning of the game, the Legion had WON, Ulfric was captured, and about to be executed. Had Alduin not shown up, The Empire would have been done with the civil war in just a few months time.The rebellion would've continued without him, but yeah losing Ulfric would be the nail in their coffin in the long term. At the start of the game the Empire controlled the most land and 3 of the 5 major holds (counting Whiterun since Balgruuf is generally Empire-leaning). I would even say it's likely Alduin intentionally saved Ulfric to keep the Civil War going because it keeps them distracted fighting each other instead of focusing on the dragons. Which is also ironically the same result the Thalmor wanted. Edited February 10, 2013 by Kayyyleb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sajuukkhar9000 Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 (edited) Alduin's destruction of Helgan was to kill you, the Dragonborn, if anything. Alduin had just come out of being stuck outside time for nearly 6000 years, he wouldn't know jack about Ulfric, or anything like that. Edited February 10, 2013 by sajuukkhar9000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kayyyleb Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Alduin's destruction of Helgan was to kill you, the Dragonborn, if anything. Alduin had just come out of being stuck outside time for nearly 6000 years, he wouldn't know jack about Ulfric, or anything like that.How would he know about the Dragonborn if no one else including the Dragonborn him/herself didn't know? And why would he stop the execution literally 2 seconds before you died? Then proceed to completely ignore you and attack everyone else in Helgen while you escaped? Makes no sense to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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