User blog comment:AveryWood/Reasons Why Going With the Empire is Better/@comment-1218590-20120816180231/@comment-5423369-20120818202009

Actually I think the Stormcloaks have a even better chance of fending of the Thalmor than Hammerfell mainly because geographically Skyrim would be the second farthest province from Summerset isle and Hammerfell by comparison is their front door neighbor and how can the Thalmor gain entrance into Skyrim if there would no longer be any Empire presence to allow them to enter Skyrim with ease so they would have to enter by force and with no port to land in if they travel by ship and geographically the closest Thalmor controlled territory would be miles from Skyrim and arriving by ship from said territory would take most likely months to sail to just fight an enemy that already has the home field advantage just like Hammerfell does.

I don't think the Thalmor would want to just take Skyrim while the Empire is still around I mean why would they spend the effort to conquer something that gives no advantage to them in anyway they would have to take care of the Empire first.

Skyrim greatly benefits from trade with the other provinces yes but they stood very well on their own from the fist era up till the late second when they were independent before they joined the Empire and also the Emperor is dead by the end of the Dark brotherhood quest line so yeah the Empire has no leader at the moment so...yeah the Thalmor are going to take advantage of that most likely.

The empire started the war with four provinces and nearly lost because they failed to prepare for an attack after a Ultimatum was presented warning them prior to the attack. now they only have three provinces and one province just had a civil war and lost a lot of potential soldiers and another didn't really do anything in the war that i am aware of or any war for that matter just a lot of feudalism I think and the Empire lets the Thalmor just wander around their provinces with ease allowing them to most likely give them a edge by giving them knowledge of their territory so yeah the Stormcloaks don't have a chance in invading them but have a chance in defending themselves from them but does the Empire have a chance in any of these if they had all of this before the war and nearly lost and they have considerably less now and also no Emperor at the moment.

The Empire has a lot of problems problems, like the fact that a Captain a high ranking member of the Imperial legion was perfectly okay with chopping off my head, a minor criminals, and General Tullius was there and look me right in the eye and couldn't care less that I look nothing like a Stormcloak when they don't even know who I am or if I did anything wrong to deserve visiting Aetherius, Sovenguard, (insert daedric plane here) or Sithis (or the void because that is what it kind of is) really early and some guy who opened the door when Ulfric was leaving solitude suffered the same fate, and allow the Thalmor to kidnap and torture anyone who is considered a Talos worshiper without any sort trial or investigation and gave them apparent diplomatic immunity to kill any one they don't like. But just like real politics take the lesser of two evils your choice I guess.