I'm not talking about all the essential NPCs. (The general thing was probably an oversight...)

I'm talking about Esbern and Delphine. Multitudes of other quests have given the player the option to betray the quest giver. Why wouldn't this quest do the same when it's an OBVIOUS thing to be desired.

Number 2 is redundant if you use shouts regularly - an unnamed friend sends letters pointing you in the direction of the next wall.

I had a few qualms about killing parthurnax, I thought "well if you want him dead then YOU kill him!" but after reading through this thread, "I" might kill him...it svcks though, can't we all just get along?

Apparently not.

I would gladly kill the Blades before that Dragon. I don't care how much of a legacy or knowledge that they have.

They could have done a better job at something that might help flashback to what Paarth has done. I don't think it was the intent of writers to pay millions of dollars to two actors only to make their sense of justice seem "petty". Some players only take in information on the surface, as it is given to them.. they need to be shown things. Not just told. It's a visual medium, after all.

Think of it this way, what if someone like Pol Pot or Napoleon, for example, had become placid, and lived under house arrest, grew more thoughtful about their old ways. What if you were just an interviewer who just met them and dealt with their behavior in the here-and-now sense? You'd probably not be so alarmed. But these dudes were tyrants. And guess what? That's exactly how they lived in their later years. Both lived under house arrest, both could be spoken to in a civil manner. In the end though, they died from assassins. Some people don't forget.

I had no difficulty making this choice. I didn't like the Blades in Morrowind, I didn't like the Blades in Oblivion, and the more I found out about the current Blades the less I liked the Blades in Skyrim. I spared Paarth and was glad to have the choice to do so.

QFT.... I repeat, they've ALWAYS been a bunch of useless gits.

That's a better reason than "Paaarthy is so cute. He's my best friend in Skyrim!"

I prefer clear hate and bias.

I'm honestly rather disappointed we can't ask Odahviing to tell us what exactly earned Paarthurnax such a reputation in the first place. Even something as simple as "all of my deeds pale in comparison to his" would be enough to give some pause, or thought.

Paarthurnax isn't "cute" any more than any Nirn dragon is "cute". I felt sorry for him. He's ancient, he can be killed yes, but if he's not killed he's functionally immortal. An immortal who's seen his brother become something - antithetical - through an intervention of humans in a distant age.... and a brother who's the image of what a young virile dragon can be.

Puff was cute.... Paarthurnax is far more than that.

Learn all the shouts first then kill Paarthurnax to see what happens. I was hoping you could destroy the Blades, but unfortunately the game only provides you with the choice to kill him or not to kill him.

actually i got the conclusion of point 2 that was explained with point 1 AND 3. Yes wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back in the day the blades were dragonslayers BUT that is not even thier main focus or reason of existence. their main focus is the survival and protection of the dragonborn....then kill dragons is offtime or if one shows up BUT hey that was over a thousand years ago..

Anyone let me say again.....the blades pretty much have no idea about thier identy because of

A. The Blades are the bodyguards and advisers of the DragonBorn...their sole existence is to serve, protect, and advice ME the dragonborn, noooooottt the other way around.
B. Why is the "Blades" gonna not help or do their job with the DragonBorn when lets say he/she refuses to kill Paar...the same dragon who met and adviced Tiber Septim of going south to form his empire ans such ANDwhen pretty much EVERY emporer/dragonborn they served REFUSED the Blades to go and kill Paar BUT now that thye have found a reason for thier order to exist again they gonna throw it all away IF i choose to follow the same path?
C. How are the Blades even gonna think about giving the dragonBorn an ultimatum??
D. yes this couple of "blade" pretenders have forgotten ro never even knew what thier order stood for, ALL they seem to knwo is that WAYYYYYYY back in the day they killed dragons but careful omitted looking at what the Blades did before that AND the thousand years AFTER the dragon wars of what they did and what thier purpose was.........soooo ya either the blade members are trying to change what they were and foundation and have the dragonborn serve UNDER them or they pretty much never knew what the Blades were to begin with.

The only "help" I get from the Blades is showing me why Alduin was a larger threat than I thought at first. Oh, and they let me get into two locations I had already discovered, but which were not really essential to moving the story, but must be done in order to advance to the next mission. So could it be done without the assistance of the Blades? Sure, except for the "I'm the writer and I said it must be done this way" part.

It's not that i wanna kill him and I probably wont, but I like that I can send sum of my peeps off to be part of a faction other than my own... I am running low on dragon souls though.
It's a toss up.

I thought the Blades were dragonhunters before any of this stuff about serving emperors or even knowing a dragonborn existed. Akaviri dragonhunters to be specific. Their mentality with dragons is traced back to that (dragons are akavir too.. just oppressive ones). Arngier still sees them as "Akaviri barbarians", so it's not just the Blades redefining themselves.

Yup.

It's too bad we can't have both, tell the Blades off with an intimidate check or convince then with a persuade check that Paarthurnax doesn't need killing just yet. I like their organization and would welcome some help fighting the evil dragons after having rebuilt the Blades, but I can't kill Paarthurnax with most good characters (Lawful Neutral maybe, but I couldn't do it with my Lawful Good). Mods to the rescue, I suppose.

Korr is right, just so you all know. If you want to call any type of blades pretenders, it should be the blades of Morrowind and Oblivion, as they went away from their original oath, to wipe the dovah off the face of Nirn. they were forced to serve as the emperor's agents when Paarthurnax was Declared protected by Talos, then all of the Septim line was Declared Dragonborn, when the only True DragonBorn of that line were Talos and Martin (that we know of)

An oath, once sworn, can't be ignored. Their oath to the dragonborn still binds them, just as much as any oath to kill dragons.

You know what?

Screw the blades!

They demand that you kill something for their past mistakes.

A creature who is trying to atone and has done nothing but help you and lead you on your path to greatness.

He even created an order devoted to peace.

For what? An age old vendetta that did not even involve the Blades nor their predecessors, the Dragonguard, they didn't exist until well after the dragons were long gone.

If anything, the Blades should be killing off the damn Thalmor, since they pledged themselves to Cuhlecain and put Talos on the throne. Not to mention that the Thalmor are actively seeking to destroy them.

For Blades, Delphine and Esbern surely don't know their own history. You should be the leader since the dragonborn is the only one who can restore the Blades, and the dragonborn is the only one who can truly slay dragons anyway.

They need you more than you could ever need them, if they decide to snub the dragonborn then they are too stupid to continue to exist.

It is also ridiculous that they say that they are sworn to aid the dragonborn, but they will refuse to anyway?

Tbh I really don't see any objective/clear right here. Two other things come to mind, that Redguard woman in Whiterun, and the Civil War. I think no matter what we choose, Bethesda has set it up that there will be consequences to some choices.

At least I hope so. It'd be kind of lame to get random DLCs that have nothing to do with any of the storyline in the main game.

If morality choices simply come down to "she's so mean!", "he's nice!", I'm going to be pissed. I hope nothing is ever that simple.

Amen to that! Leave that BS to Bioware. I really dislike how the MQ was written - if Bethesda really wanted to insert some faction conflict here, they should have implemented a branching questline, instead of this "Kill Parthanaax - oh noes, the apathetic hermits won't talk to me anymore!" garbage. I'll be pleased as punch if a DLC comes out where sparing Parthanaax ends up being far from a "lawful good" decision. I really wish that alignment garbage would just disappear.

On a final note - just from where do we learn that Parthanaax was so helpful during the Dragon Wars? I think that tale should be taken with a very heavy dose of salt.

LOL, are you serious? He taught the hero nords to shout thus enabling them to teach themselves dragonrend thus enabling them to use the elder scroll against alduin thus enabling the safety of the ENTIRE WORLD. Think I made my point.

I'm quite serious, that's part of the tale that's in doubt.

How is it in doubt? It's in the game read the tablets on the way up the mountain.