Skyrim - Stormcloak or Imperial?

[Deleted]

Skyrim has been out for some time now and alot of you guys have probably played it. I am sure alot of you have also enjoyed it.

As you know, very early in the game you're given the 'hint' of being pushed into the civil war which begins as early as when you have to choose who to follow into the Helgar keep. I just figured i'd go with who seemed like the most good-guy character and went with the Imperial at the time, despite the fact they had just tried to chop my head off, and was positively suprised at how the game developed around such an early choice.

I know you don't HAVE to stand by the first choice, as you can get a chance to join any side you desire by just talking to random travellers aswell, so your first choice is not set in stone, but it still led me to think..

Your first character and/or main character. What side did you choose and why?

I chose to go Imperial. I can understand the Stormcloak point of view very fairly, however, that they want Skyrim to be ruled by Nords, but at the same time their ways of trying to achive it seemed too power hungry to me. The fact they would start a civil war, killing both Imperials and fellow Nords, aswell as throw 'racism' at any elf in the process to achive their goals was too.. evil for me.

On the other hand, the Imperials are far from stained either and I love how the game does'nt put them as 'good' or 'evil' by standard, but let you explore through your own morals and believes, who is what.

But yeah, placing the poll because I'm curious to see how you guys interpret the story aswell as what your choice was and why, since I figured it could make interresting debate.

Please refrain from trolling and/or flamming!

[MegaKeeperMan]

Stormcloak. I always see the Imperial around escorting slaves around on the roads shouting at me to fuck off, they seem like some political tea drinking assholes.

[Kisho]

I think my main issue with the game is how it portrayed that initial choice. The Imperials are about to kill you, so why on Earth would you follow them? At least, that's what I was thinking. Of course I'm going to go with the guy who was chatting to me on the cart ride to my doom, and who helped me escape. It's a very one-sided decision.

That said, maybe it was intentional? Because as I progressed through the Stormcloak quests, I got this increasing feel that I was on the wrong side. The utterly xenophobic attitude of the Stormcloaks was rather sickening, and I found myself siding with the Imperial more often than not. Maybe this was intentional?

It's quite clever, really. They present to you this situation where, from your personal point of view, there is a very clear good and bad guy. The bad guys are trying to kill you, the good guys are helping you escape. So if you make the split second decision (that really, anyone would make under those circumstances) to stick with the Stormcloaks, you later get the sense of dread that maybe the Imperials WERE right. They really should have killed Ulfric when they had the chance. I mean sure, your own character has gotten caught up and would have been killed for the wrong reasons, but for the most part the Imperials seem to be doing the right thing.

I don't know how it is on the Imperial side. I'll probably make a new character and give it a try later. This is just how I've seen it, and now that I think about it I have to give Bethesda credit. Pretty darn good story telling, IMO.

[Bluey111]

I think my main issue with the game is how it portrayed that initial choice. The Imperials are about to kill you, so why on Earth would you follow them? At least, that's what I was thinking. Of course I'm going to go with the guy who was chatting to me on the cart ride to my doom, and who helped me escape. It's a very one-sided decision.

That said, maybe it was intentional? Because as I progressed through the Stormcloak quests, I got this increasing feel that I was on the wrong side. The utterly xenophobic attitude of the Stormcloaks was rather sickening, and I found myself siding with the Imperial more often than not. Maybe this was intentional?

It's quite clever, really. They present to you this situation where, from your personal point of view, there is a very clear good and bad guy. The bad guys are trying to kill you, the good guys are helping you escape. So if you make the split second decision (that really, anyone would make under those circumstances) to stick with the Stormcloaks, you later get the sense of dread that maybe the Imperials WERE right. They really should have killed Ulfric when they had the chance. I mean sure, your own character has gotten caught up and would have been killed for the wrong reasons, but for the most part the Imperials seem to be doing the right thing.

I don't know how it is on the Imperial side. I'll probably make a new character and give it a try later. This is just how I've seen it, and now that I think about it I have to give Bethesda credit. Pretty darn good story telling, IMO.

i got that feeling too, especially on the last quest where the guy says this is what they want kinda wished i chose the imperials at that moment

it also broke my heart when i had to take over whiterun i liked the jarl there

[Fibby76]

I think my main issue with the game is how it portrayed that initial choice. The Imperials are about to kill you, so why on Earth would you follow them? At least, that's what I was thinking. Of course I'm going to go with the guy who was chatting to me on the cart ride to my doom, and who helped me escape. It's a very one-sided decision.

That said, maybe it was intentional? Because as I progressed through the Stormcloak quests, I got this increasing feel that I was on the wrong side. The utterly xenophobic attitude of the Stormcloaks was rather sickening, and I found myself siding with the Imperial more often than not. Maybe this was intentional?

It's quite clever, really. They present to you this situation where, from your personal point of view, there is a very clear good and bad guy. The bad guys are trying to kill you, the good guys are helping you escape. So if you make the split second decision (that really, anyone would make under those circumstances) to stick with the Stormcloaks, you later get the sense of dread that maybe the Imperials WERE right. They really should have killed Ulfric when they had the chance. I mean sure, your own character has gotten caught up and would have been killed for the wrong reasons, but for the most part the Imperials seem to be doing the right thing.

I don't know how it is on the Imperial side. I'll probably make a new character and give it a try later. This is just how I've seen it, and now that I think about it I have to give Bethesda credit. Pretty darn good story telling, IMO.

I was about to response with the same, but the post above said it best. I went with imperial for the reasons above. My knee-jerk reaction was to side with the stormcloaks. But as I got deeper into the game and lore, I leaned more toward the imperials.

[Deleted]

I completely agree with you, Kisho, except I'd just like to add, that the Imperial guy also is part of helping you escape from after you jumping out of the Tower and untill you reach the keep

But you're very right on the way it's portrayed. I really enjoyed the way it was served to you at the start of the game and I think you're absolutely right, that you're meant to be a bit 'errr you're evil!' towards the Imperials, but as you progress realize they're not all bad (Granted, they're not all good either!).

[Ticklebutt]

See, initially I chose Stormcloaks, but after reading the posts above I'm not so sure anymore. I'm lvl 38 atm, but I haven't done any part of the main quests, so I guess I can still choose Imperials......hmmm.....gonna need to think about this one.

[Bluey111]

See, initially I chose Stormcloaks, but after reading the posts above I'm not so sure anymore. I'm lvl 38 atm, but I haven't done any part of the main quests, so I guess I can still choose Imperials......hmmm.....gonna need to think about this one.

if you follow the main storyline far enough, you have to option to call a truce between the 2 factions

[Azuri]

Please use the Skyrim megathread.