The Skyrim Civil War - Imperial Legion, or Stormcloak Rebellion?

[Kyng's Old Account]

A few rules before this gets started: No cussing or profanity, nor words expressed in all caps (unless required) as this does not convey a professional attitude towards the debate; also, be respectful towards people's opinions. Furthermore, if someone has incorrect facts, please supply them with a source feed in order to correct them. It is crucial the distinguished natures between facts and opinions are recognized here.

This thread has two purposes: to spring up good debate on YCM, as well as to answer the two questions that are in the Topic Poll, as this thread is also for the good of research in terms of potential Creative Works.

The two questions are:
1 - Which faction of the Skyrim Civil War do you support: The Imperial Legion, The Stormcloak Rebellion, or neither?
2 - Which faction of the Skyrim Civil War do you believe would likely be the victor: : The Imperial Legion, or The Stormcloak Rebellion?

In your responses, please give a reason why in order to help research purposes!

Now, my own response:
1 - My allegiance in terms of the Civil War rested with Jarl Balgruff the Greater. I respected the individual to a great degree, and saw him to be a very strong leader and ruler of his hold, despite his impatient nature. He shows tolerance to the ways of his people, and allows the worship of Talos in Wind District without repercussion, but favoured the Imperials due to their support. I believe that the Imperials, if they could, would not have abolished Talos' worship as per the White-Gold Concordat, but until they can fight the Dominion again, they had to make sacrifices which, evidently, did not pay off so well. Nonetheless, I feel that, if Skyrim truly wanted to pull out of the Empire, they should have followed the appropriate legislative process to announce this, rather than causing such an unnecessary civil war. Henceforth, while I am neutral, I lean towards the side of the Empire more so than the Stormcloaks.

2 - Regarding who would win, ignoring the role played by the Dragonborn, I think that Ulfric Stormcloak could very well take Skyrim. I think that he has much more charisma than the Empire and, knowingly, would be able to inspire his soldiers for their course. That, plus who doesn't want to be a rebel these days? Anyway, the Imperial Legion is likely not to be able to reinforce Skyrim without the further loss of support in order to content with the Dominion, and as such I think Ulfric would be able to claim Skyrim, much to my own dismay.

[Aix]

I only played on the Imperial Legion cuz I just happened upon the area and joined them on the spot, and as an Imperial, I heard the Imperial side of the story from Balgruff and co., telling me that Ulfric was a merciless, self-serving bastard, and the alliance with the Empire was had lots of benefits so I suppose I wouldn't support the Stormcloaks. I haven't gotten very far in Skyrim though.

 

The second, I haven't gotten far enough to be sure.

[Madsen]

YAY, Skyrim discussion! I have hundreds of hours in, this'll be fun :3

 

Which faction of the Skyrim Civil War do you support: The Imperial Legion, The Stormcloak Rebellion, or neither?

Imperial Legion. By a long shot. What people don't think about in this match-up, by people I mean of course the people of Skyrim and your friendly neighborhood Dragonborn, is that this started in wake of 2 things: Ulfrics racist attacks, and the White Gold Concordat. I'm not going to talk about the overtaking of the Reach, rather the Treaty. Consider this: a weakened Legion, without a leader, is intimidated by an Elven kingdom strongly rising to prominence and power. They can ban Talos worship and earn themselves some time to sort a rebuttal for the future, or reject the offer and be conquered, having Skyrim become an Elven continent.

Which faction of the Skyrim Civil War do you believe would likely be the victor: : The Imperial Legion, or The Stormcloak Rebellion?

The Legion. However, the war'd cause the Legion to be very weakened, opening them for attack - they don't need fights from withing. Although this argument is quite pointless considering whichever side MR. OP Dragonborn joins can do whatever they very well want to.

[ListenToLife]

1)

I dont support either the Rebellion or the Empire, as each has their merits and flaws. The Rebellion seems to have the more noble goal, and seems to have people that are a lot more honest and natural than the Empire, and is surrounded less by lies and half-truths - it's all about the honour and straight up fighting, rather than backstabbing. However, I do not support Ulfric in the slightest. I disagree with almost everything he has done, and - while it might be an extreme analogy - liken him sort of to Hitler. He has the racist views against Elves (not good for my Bosmer character), has much charisma and is able to make his people like him easily, wishes for nothing more than power for himself, without regard for his people really, and does not comply completely with a democratic system. While his initial goal might be noble, it does not justify the killing of Torygg, who himself was leaning towards that sort of goal anyway. I view Ulfric as very impatient in this manner.

If the Rebellion was led by Ralof or Balgruuf or someone similar, I'd be almost all for it.

 

The Empire is a lot trickier, but no more or less good. It's just more complex. It's under the control of the Aldmeri dominion, which is not something I like about it. But, it has no choice in the matter. It is doing so for its own survival, while it waits for its power to grow. Hence why the entire war is a bad idea, and a union between the empire and rebellion would be much better for mankind as a whole. The Empire seems very logical about the whole thing as well, as opposed to the rebels, and I'm heavily sided with Torygg's wife.

And yet, the backstabbing in the Empire is not something I want to be a part of, and what happened at the beginning of the game gives a large bias towards the Stormcloaks.

 

All in all, it's less of me not liking either, it's more of me not wanting to fight either of them. I support both causes, and while the Stormcloaks are better for an immediate future, the Empire has a better long-term plan.

(It's also explicitly stated at some point that the Thalmor do indeed plan to keep the war going, and the dossier on Ulfric labels him as an Asset, so it is obvious that the Thalmor are using the war to weaken both sides. Tricky situation.)

 

2) Again, a difficult position. Technically, the Empire has more 'power', and also has formal support from the Thalmor, even if there is little of that in practice. But the Stormcloaks have much higher morale, and the Nords mostly favour Stormcloaks as a race, and given the location, they then gain somewhat of an advantage.

Though, to be fair, it mostly relies upon two factors. One: The Side of the Dragonborn. As shown in the game, that decides the entire fate of the war.

But number 2 is often overlooked. The position of Whiterun in the war. While officially speaking, it is a Empire-sided state, the City itself seems to be undecided, with Balgruuf accepting no help from the Empire for the Dragon Problem, and with little returning support for the empire, as well as the open worship of Talos within the city. Should Whiterun fight for the Rebellion, that could be a rebellion victory. Should it fight for the Empire, probably an Empire victory. Either way, the side with 5 holds will beat the side with 4.