User blog comment:AveryWood/Reasons Why Going With the Empire is Better/@comment-1218590-20120816180231/@comment-2022867-20120817031526

Same here. There is not a snowball's chance in oblivion that any of the provinces could defeat the Thalmor by themselves, and the only way to stop the dominion is through defeat. I seriously doubt the Summerset elitists would negotiate again.

Hammerfell is keeping the Thamor at bay for the moment, but its only a matter of time before the redgaurds are all slaves unless the Empire gets itself together and strikes back. Ulfric is naive to belive an independent Skyrim has a chance. Sure they may keep the Thalmor out for the time being, but Skyrim would be in the same situation as Hammerfell. Besides the trade and other benefits of being part of the empire offers. However without all the anti-dominion provinces together it won't be long before the're all Thalmor slaves.

Plus did Ulfic forget just who founded the Empire? Yes, I know the Septim line is dead but it is still the Empire of Talos. Ulfic's efforts would have gone a lot farther if he would of been smart and used guerilla tactics to weaken the dominion with his Stormcloak army.

The Empire does have its problems, like the fact they were perfectly okay with chopping off my head when they don't even know who I am or if I did anything wrong to deserve visiting Sithis really early. But just like real politics take the lesser of two evils.