This always irked me and was the reason why in the vanilla skyrim experience I never, ever did the quest to kill Parthonax, even if it meant I could conscript people I liked into the Blades.
I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to kill Delphine but…I think she’s an immortal NPC.
i dunno man, it seems weirdly contrarian to disregard all of the evidence we have, even if some of it is hearsay, in favor of saying “maybe the fascists aren’t actually that bad?”
things we know the thalmor do via in-game evidence: torture prisoners, suppress religious freedom, send out hit squads on dissidents, destabilize imperial provinces with obvious intent of conquest, disparage the other races as inferior
things we can assume the thalmor do through in-game dialogue: purge populations, exile any and all dissenters
also, i think we’re meant to assume that the thalmor are lying about stopping the Oblivion Crisis since we KNOW the protagonist from ES4 is the one who ended it, plus they claimed credit for restoring the moons (also doubtful) in order to force Elsweyr under their thumb
like i get that the Elder Scrolls universe has a lot of gray morality, but nothing involving the thalmor really seems to be gray. they’re a fascist regime trying to overtake the world with a mission of racial supremacy. just because the empire is flawed doesn’t mean the thalmor are good for trying to dismantle it, and everything in skyrim suggests that a thalmor-led coalition would be significantly worse for just about everyone
Oh, no no no no. I’m not trying to come across as saying I think the Thalmor/Dominion aren’t “that bad”. I’m just saying the Empire - and especially the Stormcloaks - are no better.
Sorry, after 9 years of discussion I get lost in the contrarian position because otherwise it feels like people just get stuck in the old rut of Empire vs Stormcloak and forget the Thalmor are kind of looming over everything (and they do ultimately end up “winning”, as they’re the only group that emerges stronger post-game).
ah, my apologies for misunderstanding then
i’m not a huge fan of the Empire or Stormcloaks either so i can see that, i’m interested to see if the Empire is even still around by the time ES6 hits
I have to imagine the Empire will be around in some form or another, but we’re either going to move under the umbrella of the Dominion or be in a “Free” Province like Hammerfell. I can’t imagine they’ll find a means of keeping us within the Empire proper unless we revisit post-Dragonbreak Daggerfall.
Frankly after seeing them blow Vvardenfell up and the razing of Cyrodiil, I’m more scared to learn what terrible fate has befallen Skyrim by the point of TES6 that ensures our choices remain strictly personal (Which means neither the Stormcloaks or Empire are canonically going to be declared the victors).
You know I stop looking at this thread for 3 days and it suddenly has over 800 replies.
Do I even want to know
This is now a Skyrim thread.
Do you have time to talk about the Lord and Savior of Mankind Talos?
As a Mer, I find your talk of what was just a man–and not a god who stomped the original Dominion with a giant mecha he got from the Dunmer–to be highly offensive.
I am reporting you to the Thalmor, sir. Good day.
hahahahahahahaha
I am the Thalmor.
Does a 360 horizontal spin starting from a stationary, sitting position
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
Lower body twists and starts moving before the face breaks eye contact.
Also stands on a stair, so the leg starts spasming up and down
I download a mod that lets me shout at the Blades until they obey me and spare Paarthurnax’s life 
It’s called the Paarthurnax Dilemma.
Yeah agreed. Altmer are cool and interesting. The Thalmor are pretty blatantly baddies.
My thread was hi-jacked by Todd Howard. WTH
I used to have dramatic threads like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee.
As your lawyer I advise you not to apologize to 200 people for something only 5 people know about.
the aldmeri dominion from ESO, which sure seems like the predecessor to the Thalmor, also set the precedent that elves are willing to eat argonian babies.
Does that still happen in third person view? Or is third person not your thing?
Is that the guy in shadowfen or are there more people from the dominion going around eating babies? That’s the only faction I’ve played to near cap so I haven’t seen their less great moments targeting the other factions.
Also interesting to note that ESO has the Thalmor as less of a fringe faction and more of the entire government, so part of me wonders if there was a restructuring between ESO and Oblivion times that changed that up.
Unfortunately the only Elder Scrolls media I find myself regularly engaging with is a hilarious fanmade webcomic called “Prequel” about a very earnest but unlucky Khajit.
I definitely recommend it for anyone whether or not they are familiar with Elder Scrolls lore. It does have some saucy/nsfw jokes though so don’t let your kid read it, but its overall story is rather inspiring and fun!
I don’t recall, only that it was explicitly stated that they were eating babies and not like, unfertilized eggs. Because argonians don’t do that.
My favorite bit of Elder Scrolls lore is the An-Xileel Daedric resistance in which the Imperial Legion abandoned the Argonians and the An-Xileel rallied the natives and took the fight to the Daedra on their own turf and started beating them so badly, the Dremora Lieutenants closed the gates and retreated from the Black Marsh. Something unheard of anywhere else.
And that’s what we call a whoopin’.