User blog comment:Saratje/The Great Paarthurnax Conspiracy/@comment-69.146.244.153-20120417220853/@comment-69.146.244.153-20120420042453

In theory, then, Parthurnax would want a weak dragon force, to prevent what he did to Alduin from happening to him. On the other hand, the dragons are only killable by a Dovah, but are vulnerable to people, and while not "killable" can be put into a "coma" like the blades did without the leadership of a Dragonborn, hence why they were able to be revived by Alduin. Now, with a large enough coup, Parthurnax could be toppledl; he's old and probably not necessary of fighting a small army of dragons that may revolt (as is their nature). We don't know if Dragons, actual dragons, are capable of learning the Dragonrend shout, but say they weren't; Parthurnax would be greatly advanatged to have an order well trained in the Thu'um and capable of learning such a powerful shout. However, in doing so, he would run the same risk as maintaining a dragon army, except for the fact that he is the grandmaster of the greybeards, and in a way they are indebted to him, and thus a "revolt" occurring from the greybeards is much less likely. Granted, the greybeards are pacifists, and are unwilling to even learn shut a horrendous shout as Dragonrend, unless Parthurnax were to "restructure" the orders tenets and use them almost like protection, which could fall under their pacifist ideals. And as you said, he controls who learns it, and can select exactly who he wants, furthering his control. He doesn't have control over his army, and if he were to enact any cruelty to the dragons to "strengthen" his grip, he would most certainly be met with a coup. Even if he was kind, Dragons are kniving, and surley someone like Odhaviing (?) could plot as Parthurnax did. However, unlike Alduin, Parthurnax would have his own order of protection, capable of downing any dragon. So, in a way, I'm saying it is more likely he was responsible for the Greybeards, rather than seeing a convenient opportunity. Sorry for the rambling.