I was wondering what I was to do with the Blades if they continued to serve me (even if I didn't kill Paarthurnax), or if I killed Delphine and Esbern and assumed control of any Blade recruits I may've recruited. I would likely focus away from killing Dragons and focus attention towards the Thalmor. What would YOU do?

The Blades won't help you unless you kill Paathrunax. As the Dragonborn, you are not part of the Blades. None of my characters have killed Paarthurnax yet and they simply abandon the Blades.

I know that. But if you could seize control of the Blades....what would you do with them?

I would leave them be. Only the emperor can decide if he wants them, and the order of Talos, to be restored. And the empire has abandoned Talos, so...

Tell everyone to go home.

Leave them alone.

If they are supposedly going back to the original purpose of the Akaviri Dragonguard and hunt dragons, then they need to stop trying to order around the Dragonborn. If they are going to try to go back to the Emperor's spy service, they still have no reason to order around the Dragonborn.

If they decided not to be Akaviri barbarians and refuse my rightful leadership, I'd likely use them as counter-spies against the Thalmor to ensure the security of independent Skyrim.

...And take out any troublesome rogue dragons if the Dovahkiin's hands are full.

If I could actually take control of the Blades, I'd do the following.

Buy Esburn some new clothes. He is a very wise and knowledgeable man and I could listen to him talk for hours. but those rags he wears. The man deserves better.

Delphine... She'd have two choices. Leave on her own or be shouted off the edge of the mountain. Her choice.

I'd rebuild the Blades. Recruit as many who were willing into the organization. But we would strive for the honor we had in the old days. None of this mindless dragon slayer puppets Delphine would have desired. In fact those who were willing I would allow to study with the Greybeards in the way of the voice. Maybe even take a select few to the Throat of the World and talk with Paarthurnax.

I'd also make it up to the forsworn I was forced to slaughter to get into the temple. I believe there is more to the forsworn then the mindless savagery we see because of poor programming within the game. Why they thought we would want to fight everything that was outside a city wall is beyond me.

Nothing more to say... After this I would raise an army of followers and start a war against the thalmor.

I would have disbanded the Blades back in Morrowind, before they had the chance to embarrass themselves in Oblivion.

If we had put these bumbling Keystone Kops of Tamriel out of their misery in the Third Era we wouldn't have to deal with them two hundred years later.

After getting more people for them, I would leave them alone. No reason to bother with the delusional.

Rebuild them into a society of spellswords and nightblades that work to my own accord, my word is law and they must follow. I'd force them to abandon that silly armor they wear and any notions of serving dragonborns, dragon-slaying or worshiping Talos.

Essentially I would rebuild them into a completely different faction.

Pretty much this.

I'd disband them. They had a hand in the Oblivion crisis by failing to protect the Emperor from the Golden Mythic Dawn - a bunch of fundamentalists with daggers. They don't deserve to exist.

Invent an airliner, put them all into it and then program the autopilot to fly them into the side of a mountain.

If it were possible, I'd kill them all to keep them from further embarrassing their once noble legacy. Sadly, Delphine has eviscerated the memory of what they once were.

Yes, I was greatly saddened to see them still popping up in Skyrim all this time later and with the Septim dynasty long laid to rest. As far as I'm concerned, their story played out quite some time ago, though, I feel the same way about a Tamriel united under any banner, especially an imperial one.


Personally, even with the help of mods, I never seem to take much interest in the Blades. They're supposed to swear allegiance to the Dragonborn, thus they are essentially my servants for life. However, I have little use for such an entourage, and unfortunately there are no real opportunities in the game to assemble such a force in order to take on any specific threat. I mean, I can take out an entire fort of bandits single-handed.

Now, I would have liked to see them be employed as spies and/or covert guardians in various cities across the province, snooping out threats and relaying the information back to HQ, where I can decide how to proceed.

I'm kinda fond of Esbern, because he's got that whole absent-minded professor thing going and would probably be a source of endless fascinating information if you got the chance to sit down and talk to him for a good long while. And while I disagree with their stance on Paarthurnax, he makes a better argument for their side because at least he seems rational and somewhat thoughtful about it.

Delphine, on the other hand, is just so hateful and contemptuous towards anyone awho isn't doing what she wants them to do, because she thinks HER way is the only right way and if you don't agree then she has no use for you whatsoever. What is it that makes her so impossibly certain that she's right about anything and everything? Her gut? The same gut that told you the Thalmor were absolutely for sure the ones behind the return of the dragons? Thanks, but no thanks.

I use the Paarthurnax Dilemma mod which lets me refuse to kill Paarthy and then tell the Blades exactly what to do with their ultimatum about it. Pretty sure that after that they are all nice and cosy with the Dragonborn again, but even so I still have no use for them... just like they had no use for me when I stopped asking "how high" every time Delphine told me to jump. They only things they can do at that point, I don't need from them. I can find and kill dragons all by myself, if that's what I want to do, without their guidance or assistance.

And I don't help rebuild them because I don't want people who are my friends or in my service to be subject to Delphine's BS, or to have to choose between me and their oath to the faction. If Delphine wants new recruits then she and her all-knowing gut can go out and find them instead of sitting around in the new digs I provided for them and doing nothing all day long.

Ideally my Dragonborn would be able to bring Esbern around completely on the Paarthurnax issue through conversation and persuasion, and arrange for the two of them to meet and become friends if possible. Considering that Esbern is a historian and particularly devoted to the history of dragons in Tamriel, for him it would be a gold mine. And for Paarthurnax, he'd finally have someone who was willing to climb that mountain every now and then just for some tinvaak with an old dovah.

I killed Parthanax on this playthru and took 3 flowers to the blades including Jordis the Sword madien my favorite housecarl...

But now Pars skelly follows me around thw world. I killed him at of course at the throut of the world, but I have seen his bones on the road to helgen, in flakreath, outside of the darkbrotherhood sanc. and right in front of my home at Lakeview manor.

Is those supposed to happen? Are these old bones haunting me?

Yes.......

My one character who has finished the main quest does not buy anything Parthanax is selling and has killed him twice without remorse and will do so again (and she really hates the Greybeards). That said, she would still like to shoot Esbern and Delphine into the sea by cannon while doing a rude dance in their general direction.

The blades are a relic of the past.

So are the greybeards.

I would disband them. For real this time. Let's be honest: katanas can't do crap against a dragon's natural armor.

A bow does wonders in-game. and naturally, nothing should be able to harm a dragon.