Again another bad take on the stormcloacks unlike conservatives claims about Christianity talos worship is really being repressed they are more like an extremely flawed colonial liberation movement than anything else.
You know, believe it or not, Skyrim was one of the games that radicalized me. Realizing, “Wait a minute… why are there only two choices when both of them suck! This is a lose-lose situation! The only ones who win are the Thalmor!”
That was when it hit me; why are they fighting each other and not the Thalmor?
Nah fam, racists are still racists.
Religious oppression is definitely bad, but in the Skyrim scenario your choices are terrible.
Support the Empire and oppress a religion, or support the Stormcloaks and condone the abuse and slavery of 3+ races.
I won’t choose religious persecution willingly, but I will always choose NOT putting abusive racists in power.
except by supporting the empire you are supporting literal thalmor occupation. When the government helps the thalmor roam your country hunting “heretics” that is an occupation.
You’re exactly right, it’s still the less terrible choice because it leaves an opportunity to fight back in the future.
Rather than leave the empire to fall easily to the Aldmeri Dominion and Skyrim with less support, as well as Racist Ensalver Hold Leaders.
Both suck.
Ideally you’d have the Dragonborn reunite Skyrim under the empire, challenge the High Queen for the position and defat, not kill, her, become high king, and then claim the position of Emperor of the empire (oh look, someone in the Dark Brotherhood killed the emperor) due to Divine Right of Dragon Blood, kick all Thalmor (not high elves) out of the empire, decree the illegality of Racism and Challenge anyone in Cyrodill to 'Disagree with me via combat. ’
But then we run into issues of “absolute power corrupts absolutely” and/or “what happens when Dragonborn no live no more”
Yes, but I think it’s also to remember that ulfric was funded by the thalmor. The whole point of the Skyrim secession movement was just to weaken the empire and ultimately make both territories easier to invade in the future.
No he wasn’t that literally never happened they may have let him escape and felt his fight weakened everyone but them but he wasn’t funded by them or anything like that and also far from the reason the succession movement existed. That’s like claiming Lenin was a German puppet and the bolshevik movement as a whole invalid because they let him return to Russia to do what he did.
The White-Gold-Concardat lets the Empire recover from the war. Humans breed faster than elves, so waiting benefits them. But a civil war makes the Empire too weak to fight the Dominion in the next war.
Also Heimskr was fine until the Stormcloaks got him caught. Nobody cared that he was worshipping Talos. The law wasn’t being enforced.
I’m really tired of this document being given this much attention its just they may have let him escape their prison and also believed constant conflict was useful. But dismissing the storm cloaks because of this is like completely dismissing the bolsheviks because the Germans at least for a time believed the same with them and also let Lenin return.
Eh, Skyrim had been part of the empire for ages without much issue. I don’t think the problem is directly with the oppression of Talos worship as it is about what it stands for. Talos was a Man (vs a Mer) who became a Divine, a deity. The Stormcloaks is a rebellion of people who already didn’t like the armistice coopting nationalism and religious dissatisfaction over the only Man-god being pulled down.
It’s very racial, as evidenced by them focusing on Nord-centric populism, and discriminating against ancestries that aren’t even part of the Aldmeri Dominion like Dunmer and Argonians.
okay and the empire betrayed those it “ruled” when it surrendered any sovereignty to protect its heartland against the majority of its population. Hell when the thalmor are roaming around skyrim arresting people with the blessing of the empire if they worship the gods they have worshiped for centuries the thalmor are occupying skyrim and the empire are nothing but collaborators that isn’t an exaggeration.
You are right that the Cyrodiilic Empire is a indoor house cat instead of a lion, in Skyrim. Letting your enemy patrol your lands to emforce their demands isn’t the posture of a rival in a truce, but of a loser.
But that doesn’t mean Ulfric and his Stormcloaks are not racist conservatives. It can be both. That seems to be the point of Skyrim: choosing between two shitty politics.
Again another bad take on the stormcloacks unlike conservatives claims about Christianity talos worship is really being repressed they are more like an extremely flawed colonial liberation movement than anything else.
You know, believe it or not, Skyrim was one of the games that radicalized me. Realizing, “Wait a minute… why are there only two choices when both of them suck! This is a lose-lose situation! The only ones who win are the Thalmor!”
That was when it hit me; why are they fighting each other and not the Thalmor?
Nah fam, racists are still racists. Religious oppression is definitely bad, but in the Skyrim scenario your choices are terrible. Support the Empire and oppress a religion, or support the Stormcloaks and condone the abuse and slavery of 3+ races.
I won’t choose religious persecution willingly, but I will always choose NOT putting abusive racists in power.
except by supporting the empire you are supporting literal thalmor occupation. When the government helps the thalmor roam your country hunting “heretics” that is an occupation.
You’re exactly right, it’s still the less terrible choice because it leaves an opportunity to fight back in the future. Rather than leave the empire to fall easily to the Aldmeri Dominion and Skyrim with less support, as well as Racist Ensalver Hold Leaders. Both suck.
Ideally you’d have the Dragonborn reunite Skyrim under the empire, challenge the High Queen for the position and defat, not kill, her, become high king, and then claim the position of Emperor of the empire (oh look, someone in the Dark Brotherhood killed the emperor) due to Divine Right of Dragon Blood, kick all Thalmor (not high elves) out of the empire, decree the illegality of Racism and Challenge anyone in Cyrodill to 'Disagree with me via combat. ’
But then we run into issues of “absolute power corrupts absolutely” and/or “what happens when Dragonborn no live no more”
Yes, but I think it’s also to remember that ulfric was funded by the thalmor. The whole point of the Skyrim secession movement was just to weaken the empire and ultimately make both territories easier to invade in the future.
No he wasn’t that literally never happened they may have let him escape and felt his fight weakened everyone but them but he wasn’t funded by them or anything like that and also far from the reason the succession movement existed. That’s like claiming Lenin was a German puppet and the bolshevik movement as a whole invalid because they let him return to Russia to do what he did.
The White-Gold-Concardat lets the Empire recover from the war. Humans breed faster than elves, so waiting benefits them. But a civil war makes the Empire too weak to fight the Dominion in the next war.
Also Heimskr was fine until the Stormcloaks got him caught. Nobody cared that he was worshipping Talos. The law wasn’t being enforced.
Literal elf Nazis, and if I remember right the nativist guy was their unwitting agent per: their file on him you can steal in the embassy quest.
So annoyed there wasnt a ‘stealth archer murderhobo’ option
I’m really tired of this document being given this much attention its just they may have let him escape their prison and also believed constant conflict was useful. But dismissing the storm cloaks because of this is like completely dismissing the bolsheviks because the Germans at least for a time believed the same with them and also let Lenin return.
Even so; I would have liked a prestige ‘kill em all’ ending.
Also: Lenin wasn’t an ethnic supremacist and fascism wasn’t even a thing in 1917.
Eh, Skyrim had been part of the empire for ages without much issue. I don’t think the problem is directly with the oppression of Talos worship as it is about what it stands for. Talos was a Man (vs a Mer) who became a Divine, a deity. The Stormcloaks is a rebellion of people who already didn’t like the armistice coopting nationalism and religious dissatisfaction over the only Man-god being pulled down.
It’s very racial, as evidenced by them focusing on Nord-centric populism, and discriminating against ancestries that aren’t even part of the Aldmeri Dominion like Dunmer and Argonians.
okay and the empire betrayed those it “ruled” when it surrendered any sovereignty to protect its heartland against the majority of its population. Hell when the thalmor are roaming around skyrim arresting people with the blessing of the empire if they worship the gods they have worshiped for centuries the thalmor are occupying skyrim and the empire are nothing but collaborators that isn’t an exaggeration.
You are right that the Cyrodiilic Empire is a indoor house cat instead of a lion, in Skyrim. Letting your enemy patrol your lands to emforce their demands isn’t the posture of a rival in a truce, but of a loser.
But that doesn’t mean Ulfric and his Stormcloaks are not racist conservatives. It can be both. That seems to be the point of Skyrim: choosing between two shitty politics.