User blog comment:Draevan13/Ulfric's suspicious Thalmor Dossier/@comment-5558140-20121209052441/@comment-26474238-20121210172039

I don't believe he ever wanted to become a true leader of the Nords. Here's the way I see it: As a veteran who was led to believe that he was the main reason for the final defeat at the Imperial City, he became disillusioned after his escape and eventually settled down as a Jarl in his homelands. Once the Thalmor started setting their sights on the other provinces after the White-Gold Concordant, the Thalmor saw their chance to emotionally blackmail Jarl Ulfric into helping them gain a foothold in Skyrim. (It would be easy, as they could just expose his cowardice that was seen during the Great War if he refused to cooperate.) So the original rebellion was started, and once Markarth was taken over and Ulfric had his army and devote followers, he saw his chance of grabbing as much power as he could, which would help protect him in the up-coming conflict with the Thalmor. The Thalmor could no longer blackmail Ulfric at this point and they all knew it, as Ulfric had updated the StormCloak's priorties with the defense for free Talos worship. So if the Thalmor tried to discredit Ulfric, his followers would already be blinded to the truth and just accuse the Thalmor of trying to stifle Talos worship again. (As the Thalmor had no other real reason to interfere with such a small civil war.) The only thing that doesn't add up in this theory is that if Ulfric is killed, he is still considered as a true Nord by Shor, and is allowed to prove his worth in Sovngarde.