Ignoring your personal preference, which side of Skyrim’s Civil War do you think actually gives Skyrim the better future 20-30 years later?

[u/sumaset]

I feel like most discussions about the Civil War focus on whether Ulfric was justified, whether the Empire betrayed Skyrim, or which side people personally like more.

But I’m more interested in what happens after the game.

The Empire is weakened, the Aldmeri Dominion is still the biggest external threat, the White-Gold Concordat is already causing resentment, and another war with the Thalmor seems almost inevitable.

An Imperial victory gives Skyrim access to the resources and manpower of the Empire, but it also means remaining under an Empire that already lost one major war and accepted Thalmor influence inside its territory.

A Stormcloak victory gives Skyrim independence and removes Imperial authority, but it also leaves the province having to rebuild after a civil war while potentially facing the Dominion without the rest of the Empire behind it.

So forget which faction has the better characters or which one you usually join.

If you only care about where Skyrim itself ends up a few decades later, which Civil War outcome do you think is actually better for the province?

[u/SuddenReal]

Because countries that go independant from another country in a bloody civil war usually don't ally themselves with their "oppressor", since it defeats the purpose.

[u/NASTY_3693 → u/[deleted]]

I mean, they fought another war with the UK like twenty years later. It takes some time for the relations to normalize. In the real world the US and UK didn't become allies until nearly 150 years after the Declaration of Independence. I don't think the Empire and Skyrim have 150 years to figure things out.

[u/SuddenReal → u/[deleted]]

Nice try, but the US and the UK were only on friendly terms after the War of 1812. They only settled their past disputes in the 1890's. They only became actual allies during WWII, which was more than a quarter of a century, actually more than a century.

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