User blog comment:Hippogriff12/The Scarcity of Racists in Skyrim/@comment-5302371-20120728161339/@comment-166.82.245.89-20120728180931

For me, Elisif never seemed lazy, just very inexperienced, after all, if you have no idea how things are done or the reasons why you can't just send several troops to one cave, I would leave it up to my advisors to be honest, it's not like she's been doing this for a long time, its rather recent because a certain someone killed her husband. I don't know of any examples of Ulfric showing genuine care for his country, though I'm open to examples.

I don't see Ulfric as a jerk but from where I stand he seems a bit power-hungry, regardless of whether you like or hate General Tullius, he seems right when he said Ulfric "Plunged Skyrim into chaos". I'm perfectly fine with Skyrim being free and whatnot, but given the Empire's current record, and how Toryyg supposedly felt towards Ulfric, it seems this whole Civil War could have been avoided in the first place. For one thing look at the Empire's record when it comes to nations seceding, does it try and reconquer them? No, it lets them be and leaves it at that, sure its because it isn't exactly at its prime, but I don't see that happening too soon The other thing is what I think a prime example of Ulfric's lust for power. It's stated that Toryyg had a positive view of Ulfric and would have put serious consideration into leaving the Empire should he have simply asked, instead well, you know, Ulfric challenged him to a duel that while I believe is perfectly legitimate from a Nordic point of view. From my outside view just seems one-sided at best, and downright dirty-fighting at worst. So while it seemed there was a chance Skyrim could have seceded peacefully, Ulfric was the one that started it. As a result I see him as either stupid, or power-hungry. After all, if he cared about his country, surely he would have tried talking first, not only could he have gained a powerful ally to his cause, but it would have resulted in a free Skyrim that wasn't weakened by bloody civil war when its already weak from the Great War just 25 years ago.

I would like to correct you that Tullius doesn't give the order to execute you, it was that infamous captain instead. Tullius just didn't care because, you know, he had the leader of the rebellion right there in front of him, he could have weakened or completely stopped the opposing side right there. I don't especially like Tullius and find him to be a rather bland and uninteresting person, but I like more than Ulfric.