Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-15888551-20130830024027/@comment-28787967-20180104014136

What gets me the most about the Blades is not just their ultimatum about Paarthurnax (though that definitely didn't help hardly any players warm up to them either) but just how utterly USELESS they are as a whole in Skyrim to both the main plot and to the Dragonborn despite the game constantly insisting otherwise with no strong reason to....Here's why IMO:

1) Main Plot Derailment and bad attitude (though this applies more to Delphine and bad writing than anything else)

If Delphine had just left well enough alone with the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, the Dragonborn could have just gone back to the Greybeards as planned and would not have had to storm the Thalmor Embassy for no reason. Delphine just assumes the Thalmor are involved with no real evidence to support her claim. As the whole thing is executed, it's just by complete chance that you discover Esbern's Dossier in the embassy. Instead of her hyper focus on dragons here, it would have made more sense for her to tell you to inflitrate the embassy to find information about any other Blades that might have survived (since you end up finding that information anyway).

Not to mention, that she gives you crap when you demand for her to get to the point about why she lured you to Riverwood by taking the horn in the first place. She demands you trust her implicitly and that "you're a fool to come down here in the first place" if you don't. However, what she fails to realize (and that the game doesn't give you an opportunity to call her out on) is that if SHE thought that YOU were a Thalmor spy and has been hiding from them for years and yet lured you right to her, then she's JUST AS FOOLISH if not more so. The burden of trust falls to her for interfering with your mission to retrieve the horn and yet the game treats YOU in the wrong and forces you to deal with her with no real compelling reason to do so. Why do I have to prove to her that I'm Dragonborn? I don't even know what her deal is at this point and so far the game hasn't given me a reason to want to know or care.

2) The Dragonborn can literally never speak to them again after completing Alduin's Wall and making it to Skyhaven Temple and STILL complete the main quest AND complete their quest line without them even mentioning Paarthurnax and killing him.

Seriously...the minute you make it to Skyhaven Temple and Esbern gets done yapping about the Akaviri, before rushing off to High Hrothgar to start "Throat of the World" you can immediately speak to Delphine and ask her "This is all there is to the Blades? Just two members?" and she'll give you the quest of rebuilding the blades (it's not marked so some people don't think to do so). Then just bring three random followers to her, Esbern then will give you the Dragon Hunting quest (where you go with the three Blade recruits you picked) to slay a dragon in a random radiant location.

You kill the dragon, loot its corpse, fast travel back to Skyhaven Temple and Esbern will mention his potion that gives you the permanent Dragon Infusion perk and he needs a Dragon Scale and Dragon Bone to make it. Well, you already have it so give it to him, he fixes the potion and gives it to you. Drink it and you have the permanent perk. Then there's also a complete set of Heavy Blade Armor as well as the sword Dragonbane (does 40 points of extra damage to dragons). Loot those things and say peace out to the Blades (seriously you never have to go back here for any reason) and I think they still give you the repeatable radiant quests of killing dragons at this point (they just don't help you do it which is fine).

At this point, everything that follows in the main quest line you can either ask the Blades OR Paarthurnax/Greybeards. You shouldn't even have to go back to Skyhaven Temple period (unless you gave them a follower you like to use). And yet the game treats them like a vital asset that you just can't function without when in execution its the other way around. They need you more than you need them.

With my current character, I'm about to make the final push to Skuldafin and defeat Alduin and I haven't been back to Skyhaven Temple since completing Alduin's Wall (first arrival) and that was a while back for me.

3) They are in NO position to give you any Ultimatums and yet the game treats them like they are. Nevermind the fact that this ultimatum (should the player choose not to do what they want) effectively hinders THEM from rebuilding their order or killing dragons permanently which is stupid really.

As a player, I felt more like a glorified errand girl for the Blades than anything else (and I wasn't going to let my current male Bosmer be manipulated by the Blades any more than the game forced it). They try to push their ideals and beliefs onto you and then shun you if you don't follow their orders. Nevermnd the fact that YOU'RE supposed to be the one in charge here and that YOU'RE the one that's been doing most of if not all of the legwork in rebuilding their more or less dead order. It really feels like they're just using you for their own ends like the Greybeards say and it really bites that the unmodded versions of the game have no option to put the Blades in their place.

Contrast the Blades ungratefulness with the Greybeards that welcome you with open arms and train you after you show them that yes you are the Dragonborn, help you find words of power scattered all across Skyrim, are more than willing to explain their beliefs but don't force them on you (aside from one emotional outburst from one of them that another is quick to correct him on) and outright say that because you're Dragonborn you're the exception to their beliefs and only shun you after YOU betray them first by killing their leader (who at this point has done nothing but mentor you and help you).

Not to mention, the way the game plays out even after killing Alduin, there's hardly any indication that killing Paarthurnax is justified beyond just assuming that he'll go mad and return to his old ways. That's not to say that it isn't a possibility, but in the present it doesn't seem to be the case. As long as Parthy decides to just chill out on his mountaintop, I have no qualms with him being alive (which is all he does in the game anyway).