I'm replaying Oblivion and after several failed characters and several runs through the beginning, I can't wrap my head around something. Why did the Blades take the Emperor through the sewer? It just seems to me that he was far better protected in his castle, with an army at his disposal, instead of running through a sewer with only three men. At the very least, after they ran into the first batch of Mythic Dawn and lost their senior member, shouldn't they have just turned around and went back to the city since there was then only two Blades left? As soon as you escape the sewer you can go to the city and everything is fine. Tons of guards. So I can't figure this one out. And it's not like they had a boat waiting outside to take the Emperor to safety or anything, so I'm not sure what their plan was.

I know the Emperor knew he was going to die. Maybe he suggested it knowing that, but Emperor or not, I doubt they would let him run off on a suicide mission just for the sake of it.

I tried searching to find possible explanations for this, but my Google Fu is weak and I keep getting unrelated results.

They knew assassins were in the Imperial City, which is why they chose to leave through a supposedly secret escape route.

And if I remember correctly, the secret door closes and can't be re-opened from their side.

If the Emperor ddnt die we would not be playing Oblivion.

I just checked and the door does get closed. The thing is, the Blades say they are going to leave it open. It doesn't seem like anything closes it except for a gameplay script, and it certainly doesn't impact the story. After they realize there are assassins in the sewer, they don't even discuss the possibility of turning back. None of them know that the door has closed at that time. I know it wouldn't make for the most exciting story if you had to follow the Blades back up to your cell only to find that the door was closed, but it still seems illogical for them to just mosey on through the sewer like nothing happened.

And even then, with an army, I think he would have been safer just getting a three dozen man escort down the main street.

That's it exactly. Although the Blades said that they better not close this one, as it cannot be opened from the other side. Guess they decided to take the sewer route because they thought they couldn't protect the Emperor in the city. For all they knew (and we know), there could've been assassins even among his inner circle. Hence only the three most trusted Blades agents available, I'd imagine.

I am convinced the Blades were involved in the plot. This has all the earmarks of a classic coup d'état. They saw the Empire falling apart and had lost confidence in the Septim line to do anything about it. Tired of taking orders from a senile old man and with no faith in his sons, they were easily swayed during the initial meetings with emissaries from the Mythic Dawn. They set up the ambush themselves, sacrificing a few low-level Blades members to make it look good. In return they were promised a larger role in running the Empire.

If you ask me, it's the only way to explain what happened. Either the Blades were part of the plot or else they are the most incredibly inept organization since the Keystone Kops. Take your pick.

Or perhaps the...

The...

Huh.

I was going to suggest sleeper agents suddenly revealing themselves and cutting the Emperor and his bodyguards off from the rest of the city, but if that was the case how did they even make it to the dungeons? And it's not like their secret escape route took them that far out of the city. Ugh, the only answer I can think of is separation of gameplay and story mechanics.

I can't buy the "Blades were in on the plot" idea. It's not that I'm against the idea; it would've been a pretty interesting twist. It's just that nothing else in the game supports this theory; if you say they're incredibly inept for letting the Emperor die on their watch, I'd say they're equally inept for working with the Mythic Dawn and never at least trying to get what's coming to them in return.

Okay, I think I figured it out. The Blades' escape plan failed so badly because they were still struggling with the sudden shift from intelligence agency to heavily armored bodyguard corp. That's got to be a logistical nightmare, right?

Could it be that they had a master backup plan to get the Emp. to a safe house in just such an emergency, it seems unlikely to me that they would know of the escape route and start to use it without any idea what they were then going to do.

As in escape from tunnel and now lets have a meeting to discuss what we do next?

To use a secret escape route out of the city only to go back into it? i think not otherwise why leave at all.

No the plan had to be to get him out and then somewhere safe (obviously) maybe Cloud Ruler Temple but that route might have been a little too obvious.

No i think the planned safe house or location remains unknown unless you count Weynon Priory but i think it safe to assume that was their reasoning, get him out of immediate danger, that after all was their primary role.