Eh, I think that was simply an excuse to rid himself of another wife who provided no sons.

I never felt like I was pushed into siding with either of the CW factions personally, but I did a lot of the Whiterun and Riften side quests before even starting to choose a side on my first play through. Both are represented in a mostly balanced light if you don't rush into it, though I will admit, losing my head seemed a little biased right from the word go.

Part of the reason the CW is still my favorite questline though, is that no matter what side I chose, for whatever reason I made up for the character, and how closely I stuck to those reasons, it always felt like I was making the wrong choice. The CW is so terrible (in the game world). It has just enough reasoning from the Stormcloaks (despite Ulfric, can't stand the man), that I sympathize and want to make Skyrim independent. Adversely you can see how Skyrim seceding will likely cause long term suffering for the Nords and beyond. It is easily one of the best quests in the game to me, because it hits so close to home, and nobody is right.

when you gotta Kill you gotta Kill

when you gotta Kill you gotta Kill

When I first killed him, I was just like "hey no worries buddy, my next character is a nord stormcloak and you'll be the high king someday!"

If I don't treat everything in Skyrim just as variables among my 3 characters, I won't be able to do a lot of things, especially the DB quests.