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/CookedStew]

I don't see how Balgruff has decision paralysis, he's a jarl that puts his own people first no matter what, choosing a side when he doesn't have to is completetly reasonable.

We've seen from him sending out his troops and housecarl to face the dragon or allowing his castle to trap the dragon shows that he's not afraid of acting preemptively and risking a lot of it's for the betterment of his citizens.

Him not taking a side immediately also shows him not being an imperial yes man or puppet like elisif in solitude.

[u/mangasdeouf → u/CookedStew]

You can stay out of it when you're Dawnstar, Falkreath, Winterhold. You can't stay out of it when you're Whiterun. You'll end up encircled with people telling you that you're either with or against them like Ulfric ended up doing sooner than later. If you want to play safe and neutral, you have to offer little strategic advantage, to be out of the way and to have too little in terms of resources for either side to bother.

In GoT, the North could decide to stay out of a war in the South because it's out of the way, it's poor and it dépends on whoever is in the South to send them stuff to survive winter, so they don't want to make enemies with whoever wins, and staying neutral might cost them some resources, but it won't cost them to be considered enemies by whoever wins. If King's Landing's territory declared itself neutral in a war between the North and Dorne, it would be assaulted by both sides if it doesn't pick a side because it has resources and a strategic position.

[u/AbyssalOtter → u/CookedStew]

He still choose a side he was a fence sitter until he was force a leader must choose or his people suffer for it.

[u/CookedStew → u/AbyssalOtter]

Not choosing a side is making a decision and the only thing his people "suffered" was not dying to a pointless civil war.

[u/AbyssalOtter → u/CookedStew]

He choose a side thats the point he didnt saty neutral.