Was all of this pointless?

[McclaudEagle]

Well, with the Thalmor idea. It'd be a bunch of quests set after the Legion/Stormcloak main questline. You'd be sent to push the Thalmor out of Skyrim, leaving it open as another storyline for either a DLC or another TES, a war with the Thalmor.

[sedeslav]

If we make historical parallele, Vikings (Nordmen) wasn't racist or hater at all! His religion was just theirs, and they were not hate other religions till christianity came in Scandinavia. They was really first haters there. Vikings was admire to heroic enemy and make a laugh of their own cowards. They don't hate anybody but strongly disdane a cowardice of any kind or side.

 

(I hope that I wrote this gramaticaly correct. ...ummm)

[Cyrotek]

Well, i think, the ending of the mainquest IS a real ending. Why exactly something needs to be destroyed for good to "achieve" something? After all, Alduins fate is foretold. If i remember right Paarthurnaxx says something about that. The ending of the world can maybe delayed, but never stoped. The only other logical way woud have been, if the Dovahkiin himself woud become Alduin. But ... what exactly did he achieve then? Nothing also if you want to see it from that point. But the Dovahkiin managed it to delay the ending of the world. I woud say, he achieved something.

Also Alduin is just doing, what he was createt for. Its not like, he goes on rampage, because he thinks it woud be a great idea or that he is a traitor to his "father". At least i think so.

 

Oh, and please a "destroy the Thalmor" DLC or addon. U can feel, that even the imperials dont like them much and i personally think, they are a bunch of arrogant a**holes.

Edited December 25, 2011 by Cyrotek

[Iv000]

Indeed, the ending of the MQ is very weak.

It isn't epic or emotional and overall it just doesn't feel good. After Alduin died, I felt so empty I had to start a new character and didn't touch the MQ with him.

But, is it just me or do I feel a connection with Fallout 3?

The ending is somehow, similar.

In FO3 you couldn't continue playing, here it feels like there's more, a lot more.

I'm hoping for some epic DLC and expansions, mainly Broken Steel 2.0

[Khorak]

Alduin was unstoppable because he was able to set his soul snare in Sovngarde to gain power and also to retreat there at will. Such power is how he would have been able to bring other dragons back from the dead, with only the Dragonborn able to stop him because he would actually consume the souls of those dragons....can't raise something again after some mortal tool of fate tears out and destroys their soul.

 

Alduin can come back, and it won't truly mean jack s***. He has been defeated and no longer has the unconditional fealty of all the other dragons, and he no longer has the power to consume souls in Sovngarde, so it's unlikely he could go about raising dragons again. Oh sure he could try going into Sovngarde, but it seems likely that Shor didn't allow the souls present in his hall to go forth and murder the f*** out of Alduin because the Elder Scrolls had already mandated the events to come. That's not going to be the case anymore. Alduin tries going back to Sovngarde, and he's not just going to be squaring off against the Dragonborn who slaughtered him last time round, but thousands of years of heroes who want to know what dragonmeat tastes like and are still pissed off that they were forced to sit around letting the damned lizard munch on lost souls.

 

Without being able to abuse Sovngarde, Alduin is a powerful but ultimately very, very killable dragon like any other who can't afford to try and take on the mortals in open combat anymore. And that's even if new dragon leaders and factions don't tear him to pieces for messing up their status quo with his inability to change to the new world.

 

I was damned happy to have smeared that fool across the head of my warhammer.

Edited December 25, 2011 by Khorak

[AbleGnome]

I find the conquests very satisfying and recognition next to nothing and very disappointing.

 

This happens at every turn, in virtually every quest.

 

The majority of that has to be lack of editorial control over the stories and just inept storywriting. That much is obvious. But how could they let that slip through? They must have tested this a thousand times, and story integrity and player immersion had to have been major areas of focus. So, didn't the testers test the game in a universal way? I mean, a computer could have compared the storylines for integration, progression, and keywords leading to immersion (praise, rewards, etc.).

 

I'd love to see a post mortem report from Beth on this and the reviews and feedback they've received.

[Dambuster]

Of course in TES lore the civil war is going to be inconsquenutial because otherwise Tamrielic history would change depending on how what you did in this game. The way I see it the Bethesda's either planning that despite the possibility of the empire controlling Skyrim again they will collapse anyway and Ulfric's uprising will be mentioned as one of the things that bough this about and following him another leader will of taken control of Skyrim OR the Empire will gain control of Skyrim again and Ulfric's uprising will be told as one of the many insurrections the empire had to overcome at this time. Because of this the ending of that particular storyline could hardly be definitive.

I admit I was slightly dissapointed at the end of the main quest though in a way pleased as it felt like the beginning of something massive rather which is quite interesting for the rest of this game and future ES's.

[xlr8films]

I'm betting it will be written that Ulfric dies. In the next game, of course.

[Lachdonin]

I'd like to point out that the Thalmor, and more specificly the Aldmeri Domminion, are not some all powerful enemy. They were butchered in the Great War. They gambled on a fullscale invasion of Cyrodiil, hoping to force the Empire into surrender, which resulted in their utter and total defeat at the Battle of the Red Ring. The problem was that the battle heavily depleated the Imperial Legion, which did not have a single full legion left, and thus they lacked the manpower to launch an invasion of Summerset. In principal, the Domminion is just as battered as the Empire, though considering the Empire is predominantly human, and thus has higher birthrates and shorter life spans, i would assume they recover more quickly. Still, its been almost 30 years, they should be ready to go by now...

 

As for the Alduin thing. There is ALWAYS something trying to destroy the world in the TES universe. Is it pointless to stop it? Was it pointless to stop Dagoth Ur only to have the Oblivion Crisis follow a few years later? Was it pointless to stop Dagon only to have the Thalmor and Alduin come back and try to destroy the world (Each in their own ways)?

 

The TES world is about struggle. Nirn means, quite literally, 'Grey Maybe'. Maybe the world will be destroyed this time. Heroes are the ones who make the decision, but it is never absolute. Otherwise, there would be no 'maybe' to the world. Eventually, a Hero will fail, and the world will cease to be, but until that time the ever present question is the cornerstone of Nirn.

[Khorak]

I'd like to point out that the Thalmor, and more specificly the Aldmeri Domminion, are not some all powerful enemy. They were butchered in the Great War. They gambled on a fullscale invasion of Cyrodiil, hoping to force the Empire into surrender, which resulted in their utter and total defeat at the Battle of the Red Ring. The problem was that the battle heavily depleated the Imperial Legion, which did not have a single full legion left, and thus they lacked the manpower to launch an invasion of Summerset. In principal, the Domminion is just as battered as the Empire, though considering the Empire is predominantly human, and thus has higher birthrates and shorter life spans, i would assume they recover more quickly. Still, its been almost 30 years, they should be ready to go by now...

 

This is what boggles my mind with the argument people make that the Empire is supposedly the only thing that could stop the Thalmor, as an argument against the Stormcloaks. The Aldmeri Dominion is a single province that's pinning down a lot of territories that in at least one case are being actively 'purged' (unlike the Empire, quelling dissent by at least having sacks of money and trade opportunities available for anyone who could make trouble). They started the Great War expecting a more normal conflict with the very modest strategic objective of gaining southern Hammerfell. But they caught the Empire completely flatfooted and achieved such crushing initial victory that they tried for the whole lot. They can't just swallow the complete and total obliteration of their entire main force, then the grinding, losing attrition trying to defeat Hammerfell, without a problem. Whoever the Emperors advisors are, they're cowards or idiots. The Thalmor couldn't possibly have been in a position to continue that war any more than the Empire could, but the Emperor blinked first and accepted simply insane peace conditions. When two sides are that beaten up, it's the defenders who are going to be able to carry on more than the aggressors.