I just talked to Delphine and Esbern and they told me to kill Paarthurnax. Normally, I would have said no, but I read that if you kill him, you can have three followers become Blades.
So if you kill him, you get cool stuff from the Blades. But what does Paarthurnax grant me if I choose not to kill him?

In short: which is (aside from who is the cooler character) the best path to choose?

It all comes down to a moral choice in the end.

Not this arguement again.

Here is a link to the same topic. http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1326770-paarthurnax-vs-blades-mq-spoilers/page__fromsearch__1

I killed Pathorex. He was such a long-winded old fool. I was glad to kill him.

I decided to keep Paarthurnax alive. To me the Blades only seem in it for their own fame and some stupid, 1000-year-old argument in which I don't want to participate. If Paarthurnax was some annoying NPC like Cicero I'd kill him in a second, but he seemed to much like a nice guy to kill.

three things,

1. welcome to the forums!

2. please dont tag random thigns that have no relevance to the question ( im not even going there...)

3. im sorry but this argument has been done so many times, if you typed it in on the search box you will find about 100 serches on it, the same goes for when peopel ask " stormcloaks or imperials?" in the end there is no correct nswer, its a matter of personal preferance and character personality

The only disadvantages are

1. You can no longer change your meditation on shouts(You'll keep your existing meditation though.)

2. The greybeards will no longer tell you how to locate words of power.


The ethical side of it is up to you.

Also, three followers become Blades but they cease to be available as personal followers. They will only appear to aid you in fighting a dragon that Esbern has sent you off to fight.

Not true. They can all stiil be followers individually. Even better, the Followers that require a fee no longer will charge you a fee as a Blade, when they are dismissed and rehired.

I've done it both ways.

Note the armor your followers get for joining the blade can not be removed, so if you are making your choice based on that, well it won't work.

In retrospec I think the blades are the worse choice morally, if that matters to you. There is just no reason to kill the dragon who it trying to help you, and all the Blades are concerned about are the Blades, plain and simple. They just want more Blades and want to kill dragons. After you join and get three followers to join you can get some quests to kill some more dragons (usually at walls), but you could have found these without the Blades "help".

This made me mad when they told me to kill Paarthurnax. I wanted an option which talked about justice with no mercy. The blades kept talking about the justice of killing him. I wanted to ask them why the dragon got no mercy. Is everyone who made a mistake or commited a crime subject to their form of justice? How many heroes in various stories have had jaded pasts?

Killing thousands of people is a little more than a mistake.

for me i spared Paar, because of a couple of choices that the "blades" alrdy made for me.
1. Im the Dragonborn, i do not become a "Blade" the blades serve,protect and advise me...the dragonborn does not become a blade nor does he take orders fromt he blades. thats like being the manager but having ur employees tell u what to do and make u do their work.
2. To me there wasnt any "blades" in the game at all yet, i only meet a senile old couple who "thought" they were the blades due to their actions and choices.....silly old people
3. Couldnt get past the fact that pretty much every dragonborn emporer all the way back to tiber septim himself forbade the Blades of going after Paar....and they still served and did what the dragonborn did.....why is it now they forsake their oaths and traditions with me when i have killed over 20 different dragons PLUS Alduin the bad bastad himself....but because i dotn killl paar ur gonna disown me? the answer goes back to point 2.

I can't find a clear answer to this....

The only reason I want to kill Paar. is because I want more Blades armor. I haven't made any decision yet, but I can still bring followers to the Blades and they become members of the Blades... But they don't get Blades armor. Does this only happen after you kill Paar. and then bring the Blades followers?

And a post above said that when they are initiated into the Blades, they receive Blades armor but you can't take it from them. Can you kill them and loot it off them??

The writers get to say who Blades are, not the players. We can hate them, but I don't see the point in looking for that kind of rationale to do so.

I've done both, I really don't care either way. The first time when they told me to kill him, I thought it was BS. But so long as they didn't demand I have to kill my homeboy Odahviing, whatever.

Yeah, sparing one dragon is enough. Besides, he's red. Which is cool.

I killed Paarthanax, only because Esbern and Delphine appeared to be immortal, and one side had to die so I could fill my pockets under the ruse of helping.

This is something that needs to be considered. There are only two options to this quest. You can literally refuse to speak to esbern and delphine, sparing Paarthunax. Or you can kill him.

Why can't I kill Esbern and Delphine? What if I don't really want to do the main quest with them? what about after? Can my player refuse the assistance of the Blades?

Two words: Plot armor.

We never had to deal with this in Morrowind. Hell, not even in New Vegas.

Well, it's either that or Bethesda simply forgot/didn't care to include an option to kill the Blades. I'm hoping it's plot armor.

What exactly do you mean by plot armor?

It's Parthunaax that taught the first human how to shout according to one of the monument's writings on the 7000 steps path to High Hrothgar .
I wouldn't kill him , he was more helpful than the Blades to me and Skyrim in general (by helping defeating Alduin , keeping peace with the Monks ) , and we might even need him in the future against the Thalmor

Oh, Look! That topic is LOCKED! Sweet.

Anyway. To the OP:

Kill Paarthurnax. You're Dragonborn. As Dragonborn, you kill dragons and take their souls. Paarthurnax is a dragon... so...