Who to Side with in the Skyrim Civil War

[VolnuttHeroP64]

Would you side with the Imperials or Stormcloaks & what's the Difference? The Imperial Legion tried to behead the Dragonborn Player on Death Row while the Stormcloaks killed the king of the Imperials.

Are the Imperials Good and Stormcloaks Bad?

[Lackapenos Maximus]

In general what is to be kept in mind is the following, yes the Empire sucks off the Thalmor, sometimes a bit too much and they enforce a ban on worshipping Talos, however, the best choice is the Empire, maybe not gameplay wise but lore wise. The Thalmor profit the most from this Civil War and it's even rumored that they support Ulfric, since the war draws away from Imperial Gold and Manpower. Keep in mind the Empire and Thalmor are not friends, they're just preparing for another war between one another, similar to the cold war-ish. If Skyrim becomes independent it'll stand alone against the Dominion which would mean, Skyrim would just fall, because a war weakend and unstable region stands 0 chance against the Thalmor.

[SpeedFreak1972]

well according to the thalmor dossier Ullfric is an uncooperative asset

[AJYXQ]

Whoever you assist has a bad outcome because of the white-gold concordat and the Thalmor. Both sides are weakened and either one is a puppet or the other's vulnerable for a
direct takeover,

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by VolnuttHero64:

Originally posted by worm_master:

not a matter of good or bad... The Imperials tried to cut my head off, the stormcloaks helped me escape and offered me shelter and aid.... So that's who I signed with.

Well, the Imperials had a mix up since I was NOT listed on Death Row

You were caught trying to illegally cross a border during a civil war, if the situation had been reversed you ca bet the stormcloaks would have tried to execute you as well....

[Ihateeverybody]

Originally posted by heinous reptile:

It's not the Empire, it's that one bitchass legate who I'll beat up in a barfight if I see her again.

People keep saying that but Hadvar goes along with it, theres another, There are multiple other soldiers nearby and even Tullius should be within hearing distance.

So...yeah going to go with #(*$ the empire. And before you ask #($* the Stormcloaks too. It takes literally 5 seconds or less to cut my bindings. #($* Ulfric, #($* them all.

[jedi7000nathan/sevenbillionjedi]

For me its obvious the Legion. For a number of reasons, the first being that they won't treat you like crap for not being a Nord the Stormcloaks are very racist and treat anyone who isn't a Nord like crap Ulfric himself is either supporting or apathetic to this treatment and considering the fact that he makes the Dunmer live in a slum and doesn't even allow the Argonians into Windhelm at all I'm going to say that he is a supporter of the policy.
Second the Legion has better armor in terms of stats and aesthetics I'd rather back the side that looks cool if nothing else.
Third they tend to be more aware of the big picture, Ulfric does NOT realize that if he were to break away from the Empire successfully the Thalmor would invade and clap Skyrim within a matter of months, also given that the Dominion would be waging a war of extermination they'd go out of their way to destroy the food supplies and starve the population to death.

The fourth reason I don't actually blame the Empire itself for the execution, that blame belongs to a single Imperial Officer who made an impulsive decision that I'm fairly certain her superiors would have NOT have allowed if they were paying attention.

Fifth reason alternate start mods, I'll let you know that there are plenty of mods in that regard and most of Skyrim's player base plays with them and if someone chooses any start that isn't the vanilla start then they are going to have entirely differant motivations for a side they pick in fact most of them offer you the choice to pick one side or the other from the start.
Sixth reason the people that support him are for the most part bad people: I need only look at Dawnstar where Skald is an utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, Riften where Lalia is a coward who can't control her own city, as well as Winterhold where the Jarl is an utter jerk to anyone who practices magic and indoctrinates his children in hate to see that, but it also applies to his choices for Jarls in other holds: Thongvar Silver-Blood actively supports and backs the Forsworn in their campaigns of murder and terrorism not to mention strongarms local businesses into being his, Dengier is old and paranoid where he'll distrust a man who was his loyal bodyguard for years, the only decent people are the Graymanes but thats one diamond in a pile of coal.
The last reason: Ulfric would be a terrible king, if you just look at how Windhelm is run you can tell immediately that he's more focused on his own ego then on the people he is Jarl of, as a King you have to focus on the people you are governing, if Ulfric had his way I think its safe to say most of Skyrim's cities would look like Windhelm and he'd basically have to deal with revolts from Skyrim's non-nordic inhabitents for how he treats them
So end of it all I firmly back the Empire and will never back the Stormcloaks, also the Empire stands the best chance at fighting the Dominion, the Concordate is only a temporary treaty that both sides will throw away and start a second Great War over soon enough and the last thing Nirn needs is the only force strong enough to be oppose the Dominion being weakened by infighting

[ForevaNoob Wonemorturn]

Well, I don't like being carried away to my own death sentence.
Therefore there is no more of a choice really.
Choice has been made already.
Roleplaying.

[jedi7000nathan/sevenbillionjedi]

Originally posted by SpeedFreak1972:

well according to the thalmor dossier Ullfric is an uncooperative asset

It does not matter whether he is uncooperative or not, his actions only benifit the Dominion, he's wasting the lives and resources of people that would if they were unified would be needed in a Second Great War, the Nordic Legions played a crucial part in the Battle of the Red Ring which stopped the Dominion from flat out conquering the whole of Tamriel, not to mention that if Skyrim were to break away High Rock would be cut off from Cyrodill and thus reinforcements would not come to protect it from a Dominion invasion, the Dominion could attack both weakened provinces and attack Cyrodill from all sides, then the Dominion would go full genocide of all humans. Basically Ulfric's rebellion only helps the Dominion by weakening both the Empire and its provinces from the inside thus making it vulnerable to a take over, I mean the Dominion's game is to draw the Legions at the Border to Skyrim to stop Ulfric's revolt and thus allow them to invade once more.
Also lets remember that just because he is uncooporative doesn't mean that the Dominion wouldn't use that information to cause descent, I mean seriously they could reveal that information and it may cause a large revolt against him by the non-Nordic peoples and any Nords who aren't fond of him already causing an addition conflict.
Point being Ulfric winning only benifits the Dominion and screws everyone else over, he's a pawn of the Thalmor without even realizing it even if he isn't actively supporting them his actions benifit them.

[jedi7000nathan/sevenbillionjedi]

Originally posted by ForevaNoob Wonemorturn:

Well, I don't like being carried away to my own death sentence.
Therefore there is no more of a choice really.
Choice has been made already.

To which I reply how many people still play with the vanilla start as their go to? I mean come on think of the fact that you could easily be playing a character who wasn't even at Helgen when this all went down. By the way that's a rather short-sighted approach considering you're willing to side with a racist faction of Nordic-Supremicists who by the way thought it would be a good idea to have you leap into a burning building and incidently are the only reason you are in the mess to begin with, if the Stormcloaks were not at Darkwater Crossing your character would have not been roped into the mess to begin with, simply by being there they screw you over hell they don't even make a serious effort to tell the Imperials you were NOT with them instead they go with the we're all brothers in bonds ♥♥♥♥. By the way just so you know Skyrim was actually the founding province of the Empire and you are really only enabling the Thalmor to conquer it by joining the Stormcloaks

[Sep]

Originally posted by Abusive Teletubby:

The Empire is hardly weak. I mean Tullius ambushed the Stormcloaks in their own region, months only after his arrival. Besides the fact that not even all Nords stand by with Ulfric just shows how weak he is... now yes the Empire binds to the Thalmor a bit too much but I'm assuming only as long as the treaty is still up and both sides prepare for another war against each other, the empire hates the Thalmor as much an anyone else

It only means the Empire have competent general but a useless politician to lead the government. If the government is as competent as Tullius, they won't submit to the Thalmor.

It remind me of General Yamamoto, the guys was soo hell bent against the war on United States. What did Tojo do? Hey Emperor, let's attack the American; what can possibly go wrong?

Proceed to see 2 sun at the end of the war.

[Freeman]

Here we go again...

OP, the side you join does not matter. Some jarls, banners and guard outfits change, but that's literally it. You can still do every single quest and you do not miss out on any content, aside from maybe a few pieces of dialogue.

Side with whoever you feel like siding with. Your choice does not matter in the end. There's no consequence for picking one side over another.

[лучший в мире]

Originally posted by VolnuttHero64:

Would you side with the Imperials or Stormcloaks & what's the Difference? The Imperial Legion tried to behead the Dragonborn Player on Death Row while the Stormcloaks killed the king of the Imperials.

Are the Imperials Good and Stormcloaks Bad?

imperials tried to kill you before, but they seem more nice past helgen incident ( im sorry if it happened in different town, im just not sure).

[Pro gamer]

Stormcloaks are dumb because they don't realise that the Imperials are saving Skyrim from the Altmeri dominion as Tullius said. they are also very racist as they hate anyone who isn't a Nord. imperials signed the white-gold concordant to save Tamriel from the fascist regime of the Altemri dominion. Also, they are far from weak and tactically they are very smart, with Tullius being a strategic genius. Ulfric is just a guy who has a loud mouth and hates elves.

[лучший в мире]

Originally posted by buttered penis:

Stormcloaks are dumb because they don't realise that the Imperials are saving Skyrim from the Altmeri dominion as Tullius said. they are also very racist as they hate anyone who isn't a Nord. imperials signed the white-gold concordant to save Tamriel from the fascist regime of the Altemri dominion. Also, they are far from weak and tactically they are very smart, with Tullius being a strategic genius. Ulfric is just a guy who has a loud mouth and hates elves.

yeah, ulfric doesnt deserve to be jarl in my opinion. I stick to imperials each playthrough

[steventirey]

Originally posted by Sep:

I always side with Stormcloak. Imperial look tough but they are weak cause they submit to the Dominion.

And ban worship? F that.. none of their business.. if he or she want to worship Talos, let them do it in peace.

You mean exactly what everyone in Skyrim was doing just fine with despite the ban, at least until Ulfric decided to open his mouth and draw attention to it, causing a greater amount of attention being put on Skyrim and causing the Empire to crack down and actually start enforcing the ban in order to maintain the peace with the Dominion?