Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-76.97.80.106-20130811163656/@comment-17114085-20140625040716

Still, it's not like the Empire wants to appease the Dominion, it just has to get it's stuff back together. What sense does it make if they decide to go to war unready and end up getting slaughtered and get THEMSELVES enslaved by the Thalmor, of course they don't want a war yet. The Stormcloaks are willing to fight the Thalmor, but whether or not they will succeed is different. The Empire will do whatever they can to appease the Dominion, like I said they don't want a war. The Empire is never going to get a change to get its stuff back together because they lost Hammerfell, have had a few rebellions (Ulfric's is not the only one, Tullius mentions that he has stopped other rebellions before Skyrim's), has the Thalmor walking freely in it. The Thalmor are doing everything in their power to secretly undermine the Empire, and the Empire can do nothing about it. The longer the Empire waits the weaker it will become.

The Imperials have a better chance of succeeding since they have a larger amount of resources and manpower (in fact the only reason they were doing so badly before was a lack of morale since the Oblivion Crisis and the Thalmor taking them by surprise early on, crippling their ability to wage war). When the Great War started it was more than a hundred years after the Oblivion Crisis, they didn't have a lack of moral because of it. The Thalmor did surprise them, because the Empire didn't expect the Dominion to declare war and then invade Hammerfell and Cyrodiil at the same time.

And as for your freedom, people don't get to rebel just because they can't do a certain thing that people were already doing long before they appeared (worshipping Talos, everyone was doing it in secret and when it became public no one cared until the Empire [and by extension the Thalmor] had to crack down) Yes they do. If a government takes away your freedom you have the right to rebel and fight against that government.

PS.: The Thalmor have been kidnapping people for no reason than because they feel like it, the Empire is aware of this and doesn't do anything. In fact the Empire has been shown to help the Thalmor kidnap people, Eorlund Gray-Mane's son. That is another freedom that both the Empire and the Thalmor have taken from the Empire's citizens, their personal freedom (aka their human rights). The Empire has lost all right to rule the Nords if this is how they treat their citizens, by oppressing them, the Nords have every right to fight for their independence and freedom.