Board Thread:Skyrim/@comment-110.168.240.168-20140424104245/@comment-28252216-20160819222356

I don't kill him for a few reasons:

1. He helps you fight Alduin.

I didn't see Delphine trudging up that mountain.

2. He lets you meditate on words of power making 1 of 3 shouts more powerful.

3. He's been living on the top of a cold rock for over a thousand years, teaching the greybeards the way of the voice, and has been waiting for Alduin's return just so he can try to stop him.

I personally think that more then makes up for his crimes.

4. He seems to be one of the few npcs who is actually trying to be your friend.

5. I'm with Bilthis, I want to give Paarthie a hug even if it kills me, and i want to make Delphine jump off the mountain (i might Fus'Ro'Dah her on her way down).

6. The Greybeards can help you find shouts that you are missing.

7. He never orders you or tries to control you.

Delphine refuses to stop "helping" you (her idea of helping you seems to be having you help her) if you don't kill Paarthie.

8. He is one of the few peaceful Dragons. I kind of like having the ability to talk to an immortal, powerful ancient being.

Some of the reasons to kill him:

1. He was Alduin's Lieutenant.

The key word for me is "was". He spent centuries waiting to stop Alduin and how can we be sure that he was Alduin's only lieutenant.

2. He has to pay for his crimes.

My problem wiht these crimes is that they took place over a thousand years ago and Delphine never really said what they were. "They inform the Dragonborn of Paarthurnax's former position as the lieutenant of Alduin during the Dragon War and claim he was responsible for many unspecified atrocities against humankind" is how it is described on the wiki. When words like "claim" and "unspecified" are used I wonder how accurate the charges are. Also he didn't do anything that the other dragons didn't do and none of them tried to attone after being ressurected.

3. He might be helping just so he can take over in Alduin's place.

Maybe he is. But just because he takes over doesn't mean that he's going to be like Alduin. He might teach them to be like him, he did say that he would try to teach them the way of the voice.

4. I want to do the blades quests.

You can do them before getting to the Paarthurnax quest, and the only repeatable one has you go to kill a dragon with any blade members you recruited (and you can only get a few souls). The blessing that Esbern provides is meh in my opinion.

5. I want Dragon souls/loot.

Souls can be found on almost any dragon and bones/scales can be found on every dragon (excluding Alduin). Killing paarthie to get 1 more soul and some more bones/scales (which i always wind up having plenty of) isn't something that makes sense to me. If you are wanting to farm dragon loot then you can go to winterhold and get a repeatable bounty quest to kill a dragon at a raidiant location, but you won't get souls.