User blog comment:AveryWood/Reasons Why Going With the Empire is Better/@comment-1967485-20120818180540/@comment-2022867-20120820004459

The wuss way? More like the survive to fight another day. Its only the wuss way if your even or have the upper hand. You can be damn sure if the Empire had the upper hand after the battle for the imperial city secceding part of Hammerfell and banning Talos worship would not of even been negotiable. The Thalmor still had the upper hand. It took everything the Empire had left to take back the city. My impression is they took every soldier from every province they could spare just to taek the city, and still took about half in casulties. And every province includes a unified Skyrim and loyal Hammerfell. What chance does any province have on their own when the Thalmor come in force again?