Let's talk about politics

[SnowyJess]

I went with the Imperials but that didn't stop me from going after the Thalmor at every opportunity, never liked those arrogant prats.

[Damian Cunliffe]

I haven't played Skyrim in a long time and I won't be playing it (or any other TES games) in the future due to how badly they've been dumbed down and gutted of anything resembling a challenge or a soul to appease a casual audience, however from what I remember I stood firmly with the Imperials.

The Empire was more or less destroyed during its war with the Thalmor, not just militarily but in almost every way. Most territories lost, the best of its armies lost in battles, bankrupt, political/social chaos, capital sacked and so forth. But crucially, the Thalmor suffered the same fate.

The peace treaty which basically submits to most of what the Thalmor want is just a tactic. The Empire is buying time (as are the Thalmor) to recover their strength and fight again. As much as banning the worship of Talos, or Thalmor inquisitors imprisoning and executing Talos worshippers inside the Empire, may sting... it's a tactic for buying time. The emperor is literally only tolerating it temporarily whilst he gets his house in order to eliminate the Thalmor in the next war.

So, the next war is coming - both sides know it, everybody knows it. The Nords, if they gained independence, would never be able to defeat the Thalmor. The Empire without Skyrim and the Nords would not have the manpower or the tough Nordic soldiers to defeat the Thalmor. What's left of the Empire absolutely has to remain united if the Thalmor are to be beaten.

If not, the Thalmor win and do their funky weird religious ritual that consumes the planet in fire or whatever the hell happens when they do their funky weird ritual.

So yeah, Empire all the way.

[Blushing_Geisha]

Honestly I mostly avoided the Civil War questline because I found it to be the most boring in the game. I ended up siding with the Empire because....I escaped with Hadvar? Really that’s about it

[FlameHeart979]

I chose Stormcloaks but I abandoned that questline entirely when I realised how unimersive it was, and unresponsive to player choices.

The real question is: Nod or GDI?

HA!!! YES!!!
I'm gonna have to say Nod because of the sweet sweet Obelisk. I about had a heart attack when I first saw this:
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...ght_Ingame.png

So I'm marching this enormous army down to a Nod base (as GDI, during the campaign, of course) and all of a sudden my lead dude just spontaneously combusts as he gets hit by a laser and he's screaming bloody murder as he dies "AHHHGGGHHHGHHHGHAAAGGGHHHHH" and my heart jumps into my chest and I look over and there's one little spot in the black, past the fog of war, where that showed for a split second, and my ENTIRE ARMY was immediately in reverse, high tailing it back to my base, like "RUN AWAYYYYYYY" and as soon as the fog of war came back over that one little hole in the black I just sat there staring at it thinking THEY HAVE A LASER TOWER WHAT NOW.

Needless to say I was immediately hooked to Command & Conquer.

[Smackems]

Stormcloaks because I like the armor.

[Imnotanybody]

Stormcloaks, cause Talos is a god (oblivion proves this) and the last thing you want to do is piss off the aedra (look at the dwemer with their brass god and what happened). I don't care much for their nationalism, but I would rather fight with the gods than against it.

[Whiskycat]

Imperial Legion. Stormcloaks are just adrenaline-pumped idealists&populists who only think with emotions. They have no plan, they have nothing Stormcloaks are the dudes that are usually used in RL to conduct a coup.

[ethansito]

Yeah, not about to join the people who tried to behead me at the start of the game.

[Alexrd]

The peace treaty which basically submits to most of what the Thalmor want is just a tactic.

If the Thalmor are as fragile as the Empire, then there's nothing to gain by submitting to the conditions of the treaty. The Empire is only hurting their own people and giving ruling power to their enemies for the sake of time that both factions need.

So, the next war is coming - both sides know it, everybody knows it. The Nords, if they gained independence, would never be able to defeat the Thalmor. The Empire without Skyrim and the Nords would not have the manpower or the tough Nordic soldiers to defeat the Thalmor. What's left of the Empire absolutely has to remain united if the Thalmor are to be beaten.

The Nords can have their freedom and independence and still ally themselves with the Empire to fight the Thalmor. One thing doesn't exclude the other. Instead, the Empire in their arrogance wants to fight their own people to keep the power they have over their land instead of letting them be and help each other when the time comes.

[Tom]

Autism Cat

[Commissar Alexer]

Imperials.

[Fexel]

Who cares, more blood for the blood god¡ /s

Probably Imperial though.

[Damian Cunliffe]

If the Thalmor are as fragile as the Empire, then there's nothing to gain by submitting to the conditions of the treaty. The Empire is only hurting their own people and giving ruling power to their enemies for the sake of time that both factions need.

The Thalmor are zealots though. They will fight to the very last death. Temporarily giving in to their demands is the only way to get them to cool it for a while so the empire can regroup and attack again. Also they breed very slowly. So the empire can refuse any kind of peace and fight to the death with the Thalmor (and maybe lose) or temporarily give in to some Thalmor demands for the greater good. A ceasefire for even just a few years will put the empire ahead again as the races that make up the empire breed much faster than High Elves, so there's a constant trickle of boys (and girls in this universe) reaching conscription age. The Thalmor, on the other hand, don't have that luxury. It's very slow for them. But they're zealots, and zealots don't think straight. They just want to mutilate people who are worshipping the wrong God (Talos in this case).

The Nords can have their freedom and independence and still ally themselves with the Empire to fight the Thalmor. One thing doesn't exclude the other. Instead, the Empire in their arrogance wants to fight their own people to keep the power they have over their land instead of letting them be and help each other when the time comes.

The Stormcloaks aren't the type of people to work together with "others" for the good of anything. And they keep killing each other in duels to be the king. Rapid changes of kings like that will lead to constant civil wars. They'd end up being no use whatsoever in the coming war.

Also the Nords ARE the Empire. Most of the emperors were Nords. It's nonsense.

[Elmo]

I've always chosen Stormcloaks.

[Omegapyrate]

Neither- I install a ton of sex mods from LL and become a monsterous vampiric slaver.