I always side with paarthurnax, you can still recruit people into the blades if you leave him be.
The only gain from killing him is esberns crappy potion and some misc quests to kill dragons.

Killing Paarthurnax on my Dragonborn character is the only thing I regret. I just wanted to see what happened with the blades. Was disappointed. Unfortunately I went and did other things and forgot about it, and had gone too far for me to consider a reload.

I went up to the top of the mountain the other day to find Paarthurnax's skeleton still twitching on the ground.

I felt like dropping to my knees and screaming to the heavens: "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!!"

I love you, Paarthy. I'm so sorry.

I've never killed Paarthurnax nor would I ever. Atrocities aside, he poses no current threat, has demonstrated that he will not, and has also demonstrated that anything he does will be towards altruistic (ie, good) ends. He demonstrates as well that he has seen the evil of his past and has learned from it; not too many NPCs in any TES game ever demonstrate this. By any higher morality, Paarthurnax doesn't deserve to die, as the guilt he carries and the good he does now are how he atones for his crimes.

Delphine put me off from the first moment she told me to "mind my own business" when I tried talking to her en route to the top floor of Dragonsreach to listen to the Whiterun guard give his account of encountering Mirmulnir. She comes off as bossy and self-righteous, and is all too eager to exact death and judgment on Paarthurnax for a past for which he is still atoning. That makes Delphine a far more dangerous person than Paarthurnax, since she could conceivably order the death of any given person if she comes to see that person as a significant enough threat regardless of all other facts and considerations.

I wish we were able to tell her off mod-style on the Xbox; ignoring her just isn't satisfying enough. Grabbing all the available Blades stuff before telling the little chit no and leaving the Sanctuary for good is the best I can hope for. Even so, none of my characters ever kill Paarthurnax and none ever will.

My friend who played before me warned me not to kill the dragon in the Blades Quest Line so I got a heads up before I even started playing this game! Lolz. This is probably the most controversial quest in all of Skyrim. I think I would loose her as a friend in real life if I side with the Blades. Under no circumstances am I allowed to kill that dragon!

Agreed. You are the Dragonborn. They should serve you and follow your commands, not the other way around.

While I'd love for there to be an option to smack around the Blades and say, "I am the ****ing Dragonborn, you will respect my authortay."

I can't say I actually disagree with the decision by the developers to make sure there's no third option. In Skyrim, everyone is falling over themselves to hitch their star to your Chariot of the Gods. It's not so much that you are meant to be the Archmage, Listener, Guildmaster, Harbinger, and so on so much as you're a Demigod and where you go things happen.

Delphine, on the other hand, is not a woman so easily impressed. She and her companion compromise the ONE group for which the Dragonborn is not the be-end-all-of-everything. Having been on her own for as long as she has, she is unwilling to surrender control to the PC and obey him. Instead, the Dragonborn is supposed to submit to THEIR idea of what they're supposed to be--the exterminator of the dragons.

The only reason this is questionable is the Blades are SUPPOSED to be obedient to the Dragonborn. However, the game is all about people saying, "**** that" to the way things are supposed to be.

I still help the Blades recover by bringing them new members but my Dragonborn ignores their requests because, really, that's the best revenge. They're effectively unable to do anything without your help.

I always kill both of them who are they to boss me around what i should do and what i shouldn't do with attitude like that. I'm My Own Boss, its really fun killing them at sky heaven temple last of them killed at their sacred temple

I always saw Delphine's ultimatum as being less about her outrage over Paarthurnax's past crimes and much, much more about her desire to cut the Dragonborn off from what she sees as the pernicious influence of those no-good peacenik Greybeards.

She wants another Tiber Septim.

And none of my LDBs want to be a Tiber Septim, so the Paarthurnax/Delphine deal fits in with my beliefs perfectly.

Yep. Too bad about Esbern, though, as I did rather like him.

I really hope the Blades die by the next take and perhaps take the Empire with them. It's so annoying to see the same two well-worn and boring organizations take part and play such a major role in every single TES game, although at least in Skyrim you could defy both.

Hard saying. Probably we get the answer from a novel than VI.

I agree. Throughout the series the Blades have been as effective as Inspector Clouseau and as bumbling and inept as the Keystone Kops. From the shirtless drug addict who gets himself recalled to Cyrodiil to the witless buffoons who failed to protect the Emperor, it's amazing that no one in power has shut them down long before the 4th age ever arrived.

And the less said about the Empire the better.

That she can control.

To be honest, I don't think she wants another Tiber Septim, she simply wants a competent warrior she can control to accomplish her dreams.

Glad to see I'm not the only one.

The Blades are inept fools that failed in their prime directive and honestly come across as an odd Talos cult masquerading as a top-line secret service and protection agency. In Oblivion they were the ultimate generic secret service and in Morrowind I became the [censored] of a shirtless skooma addict for the first quarter of the game. Why I would ever want to join a group of such inept fools is beyond me, especially in Skyrim where you have an organization consisting of a likeable but relatively senile old man and a pig who doubts my ability and puts me down the entire game. If they were a sideshow and in only a couple of the games I would be fine, but it's so incredibly annoying that this same relatively useless organization plays such a big role in every TES game I've played except Redguard.

Hmmm... Beth has kinda fumbled The Blades in the last three games, haven't they.
But if the Thalmor hate them, then I like them...

You may or may not agree with their agenda, but Delphine and Esbern do personify a lot of wisdom, history and ancient knowledge.
One must try to milk the good (and disregard the bad) from them.
Personally I won't kill Paarthy - but that doesn't mean Delphine and Esbern are useless!
The knowledge and experience of the ancient are precious, and irreplaceable once lost...
Obviously a deep thinker, heheh...
Yeah you go get 'em, tiger.

Delphine's severe distaste for you is obvious from the start isn't it? I never quite understood why but she resents you from the very beginning. Like, "How dare you be the chosen warrior of destiny, you newcomer you."

There is one more (suspected) blade in that Inn where you find Gourmet. The grouchy guy had a blade's sword

To give a more sympathetic take on Esbern and Delphine than others in this thread, I think their focus on Paarthurnax makes sense. It's not them nursing a millennium-old grudge, it's them attempting to reclaim a sense of justice for themselves. Delphine, in particular, has been completely and utterly [censored] by the institutions she's revered her entire life. The Empire, which she is a fanatic for, has turned against her and the Akavari samurai code she follows has more or less made her a Ronin.

How must it feel that she's basically sitting across the table from a Thalmor at the conference, a Thalmor who is PART of the Imperial delegation?

So, basically, the pair are focused on trying to bring a little justice back to their lives. In this case, it's about discovering that the Greybeards are headed by Darth Vader.

A redeemed Darth Vader but the Blades records are quite clear was part of Order 66 and god knows what else. They project their revenge on Paarthurnax because they can't strike at their REAL enemies.

They were all right in Morrowind. They pretty much stayed in the background and occasionally gave your character guidance, and your main contact was thoughtful enough to get lost once the MQ was advanced far enough. In Oblivion, on the other hand, they were nothing but incompetent buffoons. And then we have Skyrim - where the Blades are written to be some of the most unlikeable and illogical characters in the game, AND they're still incompetent. (I do kill Parthy to irk the treehuggers. )

The Blades in Oblivion were pretty much Tamriel's version of the Keystone cops except a little less competent.

The Blades were twice the guard that Penitus Oculatus is. Now, the PO is a pretty terrible guard to begin with, so that dosen't put the Blades very high. Regardless, they didn't deserve the fate they received. I like Esbern, but after Delphine's ridiculous order, I could care less if she dies by Thalmor forces or not...

This is pretty much my opinion of the subject at hand.

In other words... They got screwed and can't fight back their true enemy so they target someone else while using "Look we are allow to" papers?

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I only did the MQ once, but doesn't Esbern also issue the order, or at least support Delphine fully and insist her order be carried out?

I may not be remembering correctly, but I thought Esbern was also able to issue the order; I know I reloaded and replayed an earlier save after finishing the MQ, and I swear I remember Esbern also getting pretty bossy with me about Paarthurnax...