User blog comment:Zippertrain85/Why the Stormcloaks are right./@comment-9156240-20130508231622

You know, at first I joined the stormcloaks because Ralof was so nice to me at the start and because they seemed to really want Skyirm's freedom. I joined their ranks and did all the quests up to The Battle of Whiterun. I had delivered the weapon to Balgruuf eagerly hoping that he would take sides with the Stormcloaks just because I had joined them. But he didn't. He sided with the Imperials.

I was actually very upset. I considered him my friend becase of how nice he was to me during the beginning stages of the Main Questline. He is one of the few actually GOOD characters in the game- the kind of characters who wholeheartedly want to help those around them and protect those they love. (I also consider Alvor one of these people, and he was an Imperial.) I reluctantly went back to Windhelm and then proceeded to attack Whiterun. I made it all the way to Dragonsreach, and the minute after Balgruuf was replaced with Vignar Gray-Mane, I shook my head and said "NOPE."

My dad actually got mad at me for going all the way back to a save before I joined the Stormcloaks. After I joined the Imperials, I realized why I shouldn't have joined the stormcloaks in the first place. In all honesty, I do believe that Ulferic just wants to be High King. He may have had some justification for the Markarth incident, but her certainly did not need to start another war after all of the clood that had been spilled from the Great War.

When talking to Alvor about his opinion on the rebellion, he talks about how when he was young, nobody actually cared about the worship of Talos. The Thalmor didn't actually enforce the law as much as they do in Skyrim. Alvor says that everyone he knew had their little shrine to Talos in their home. It wasn't until Ulferic started his campaign against the Empire that the Thalmor actually started punishing people for worship.

Here's another thing. If it's so bad to worship Talos, than why does EVERYONE WORSHIP TALOS OPENLY?? There is a Talos shrine in Riften outside, there is a Talos shrine that has its own building in Markarth, and Heimskr preaches about Talos every single day in front of a Talos shrine without even getting punished. If the Thalmor were really that bad, they would have torn down/closed these shrines and put Heimskr in jail or something. Ulferic's cause is a waste of resources and lives for this very reason.

I'm not saying the Imperials are 100% right about everything- both sides have their goods and bads, but in all, I feel that the Legion had the betterment of Skyrim in mind for the long-term. People lost their lives in the Great War everyday, and they had to put an end to it. It wasn't as though they had much of a choice.

Now to argue a few of your other points- mostly just the racism thing. Simply because no city in Skyrim allows Kajiit doesn't mean that Ulfric can't allow them in. He is completely negligent to those in need. The Argonians are forced to live on the docks, and the Kajiit haven't done anything wrong that can be proven. They're merely kept out of cities because people pin stereotypes on them that they're all theives and skooma addicts. My Nord is a theif, and there are plenty of other Nords in the game who are skooma addicts, yet they are allowed in the cities? If Ulfric really wanted to get my support, he'd be different than "everyone else" by allowing the Kajiit and Argonians live in Windhelm.

And the reason that the Dunmer are all confined to the Gray Quarter is because it is all they can afford. Being Dunmer, they are discriminated almost everywhere, and they can't get proper jobs. They are actually forced to live in the Gray Quarter. Perhaps not my Ulfric, but by their own financial need. If Ulfric would try creating more jobs for the Dunmer or even renovating a few of the buildings, then the Dunmer wouldn't have to live in such poor conditions.

That's all I have to say. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm also not saying you're right. What I like about Skyrim is the fact that you can look at all these situations and have a different opinion about them. For example, in the Dragonborn DLC there is the Thrisk Mead Hall. You can either choose to help the Nords who owned it beforehand or the Rieklings who took it over. I help the Nords because they're people like myself, but they were also very lazy, and didn't necessarily deserve my help. The Rieklings, however, managed to overtake the Mead Hall on their own, and they've even developed intelligence in the sense that they can speak english. Would you rather destroy the evolved Rieklings who aren't totally hostile to you (which could mean future Rieklings could learn to be docile), or kill off lazy warriors without giving them a chance to redeem themselves. It's a choice that you have to make yourself, and netiher one is wrong or right.