68 Votes in Poll
By the… eight, you say, elf lover?
^ Hehe, was wondering how quick someone would catch that!
Nah, Talos is a god, but quite a terrible person, so not someone worthy to have a place among the real Aedra. But that's another subject!
^Don't tell Catholic Crusader lol.
There's no denying that Tiber Septim was actually kinda bad, but I worship Talos (or st least I would if Aurbis existed)... I suppose I don't really have a much valid reason. Kinda makes me feel weird.
Was definitely not expecting this 😄
^ Yeah, it seems I am not alone :p
Not surprised. I never minded Heimskr much and Ulfric is a beast. Delphine’s idiot narcissism really shines with Parthuunax. There’s nothing remotely impressive about her but her ability to hide for a long time.
I answered in terms of character writing, to which I chose Delphine as the worst. I've addressed this before, but I like Ulfric even as a staunch imperial, and both Heimskr and Nazeem have quite a bit of character despite their ultimately small roles. Delphine, however, is a major character in the major questline, and her motivations are inconsistent at best.
The beginning sees her hoodwink the prospective dragonborn, only to immediately put them to use in a dragon fight—an alright start, as it shows initiative and a desire to protect the greater good. Then, out of nowhere, she tells the Dragonborn that the Aldmeri Dominion are either behind the dragons with no information, merely mentioning how it would benefit them. She sends you to do her dirty work and infiltrate the party, which goes south because it inevitably would—this is a highly dangerous area, after all, and you aren't briefed that much about how dangerous the Thalmor really are. When you learn about Esbern, she sends you to Riften alone, without giving justification; at least with the embassy, she's a known enemy of the Thalmor, but here, she just sends you on another important mission to find an ally of hers, which you'd think she'd want to do herself...
During this time in the main quest, it becomes clear that although she claims she wants to serve the Dragonborn like in the past, it's not exactly true. The whole "following" part doesn't really hold up, outside of her actions in Kynesgrove and Karthspire. After that, she shows up to the peace council unannounced, claiming to have set the Dragonborn on the right path—a rather arrogant take, and not exactly a side of Delphine made clear until now. Immediately afterward, she changes course from completing the main quest, now wanting Paarthurnax dead or else. I don't need to really explain why this makes no sense; the priority switches to killing an aligned dragon rather than protecting the countryside from hostile ones. She helps setup dragon-slaying groups if you do kill Paarthurnax, but if you don't...the Blades shut down, and they don't hunt dragons out of spite (at least, that's how it seems).
Overall, I enjoy characters with flaws. Heimskyrs a zealot with rose-tinted glasses for the Empire of old. Nazeem is an arrogant noble who looks down upon the common folk, of which he could have been used for more quests in Whiterun, but I digress. And Ulfric is actually a well-written character with clear lore, so I have no issue there, either; his flaws are clearly defined, of which there are several, but he also has enough leadership qualities that he inspires half the fanbase to join the Stormcloaks. Delphine, on the other hand, had inconsistent motivations; she is willing to lay major plans, but she also makes sudden snap judgements that do not favor the Dragonborn. While the Thalmor might be an understandable element of bias, Delphine has no history with Dragons until the Dragon Crisis begins, so her hatred for Paarthurnax comes out of nowhere. Not to mention that she changes from serving the Dragonborn to ordering them around real quick, and not in a way you'd expect from a game where you are the POV character (she doesn't specify that you're the "most qualified" or anything, as far as I can tell). The skeleton of an interesting character is there, but ultimately, many of her flaws are mishandled, culminating in an ultimately unpopular maneuver in killing Paarthurnax—with terrible reasoning, mind you.
Heimskr, but I also hate Delphina
Why do you like her? She just sits in Riverwool, too afraid of Thalmor, if they kill me, it's will be very bad... But if they kill Dovahkin, it will be fine... Skyrim is full of Dovahkins, why not? (Sarcasm)
And of course "I'll brake the Oath until Paarturnax is dead". Very good, get out of my temple!
^There have been a few things that have kept her away from being my least fave. I first started playing Skyrim as an innocent little girl, mind you, and I still remember sticking around Riverwood a lot during the early game. And when I found out that Delphine was this cool warrior lady in disguise, it obviously made me "ooh" and "ah" in amazement. Some of my earliest headcanons included Delphine being good friends and a kind of mentor to my first LDB. I never really saw how bad she was other than her demanding I kill Paarthurnax. Nowadays, I know what a ridiculously horrible character she is, but I don't really have any strong emotions towards her.
I always get the mod that lets you talk her down on Paarthy. It’s not voice acted but I don’t care, dumbass choice.
What do you think?