In My Time of Need: Kematu or Saadia? (possible spoilers)

They just paralyze her

The dominion still tries for Stros m'kai since it was the whole point of the great war, they just don't make it public

Even if this were true, it's irrelevant to the observation that the Dominion completely withdrew from Hammerfell when it signed the Second Treaty of Stros M'kai, which tends to undermine the credibility of what both Kematu and Saadia tell you.

Dunno about you but i belive the honorable redguards over the racist murdering altmer

LOLwut? Saadia is a Redguard not an Altmer and she hasn't murdered anyone. Kematu on the other hand is more than willing to kill you, is in it for the money, and, as stated before, is employing bandits who in all likelihood are murderers. Those aren't the characteristics of an honorable man.

I meant the dominion, you were implying they dont still spy and strike in hammerfell

Those actually all seem like fairly honorable things by Skyrim standards

No, I merely pointed out that it's completely irrelevant to this thread topic, i.e. the credibility of Saadia versus Kematu.

I know, my point is someone said because the second treaty was formed years gone Kematu was lying, i was pointing out the Dominions intentions in the current day on the TES universe

It's still not relevant to what Adam Warlock was saying. Kematu claims that Saadia sold out the city of Taneth to the Aldmeri Dominion and, if not for her actions, Taneth would not have fallen to the Dominion. This refers to the fall of Taneth to the Dominion which occurred somewhere between 4E 171-173 so actually we're talking about over 30 years ago not 20.

That makes Kematu's claim ridiculous because Saadia would have been a child around the age of 5 or so when she supposedly "sold out" the city. He never specifically says what it is she did to sell out the city, but come on, what could a 5 year old possibly do that would be pivotal to the Dominion's military success (refuse to eat her vegetables)? That's his point. It's a completely incredulous claim.

Went with Saadia first time around. Kematu second cause I didn't feel like doing all that work again.

At first, I wanted to help Saadia then when I went to the cave, I decided to help Kematu. At the stable, when Kematu attacked Saadia and left, I pickpocketed Kematu and found cool looking swords. So I killed him after it was written "Mission Completed". Saadia suddenly woke up and my follower finished her off.

So you sided with homicide

Wolferine she has probably tricked a lot of people to try and kill Kematu that's why if you help him he says " Not everyone can be seduce by you". BlackArrow has some extremely good reasons to help Kematu

They're not persuasive reasons given that most of what he relies on is based on the incorrect presumption that the Redguards and the Aldmeri Dominion are still at war or at least were recently still at war. Some of his observations are simply incorrect. There are no "Hammerfell official uniforms" and Kematu is simply wearing standard generic Alik'r garb. The Alik'r are mercenaries and Kematu openly acknowledges that he's a mercenary who is offering to split his take on Saadia's bounty with you. The Alik'r mercenaries harass every female Redguard citizen of Skyrim to the point of almost kidnapping them, and they never apologize to any of the women they question. Instead they make a threatening warning to every woman they question to stay out of trouble. Kematu's dialogue is only indicative that Saadia is manipulative not that she did what he claims she did, which, again, is an incredulous claim given the timeline.

It's far more probable that they are both lying. It could have to do with political intrigue in Hammerfell among the noble houses as Saadia is descended from one noble house and Kematu is supposedly under the hire of another noble house. We'll never really know with the limited information we are given but, like several choices in the game, it's designed to be morally ambiguous to allow players to role play it either way.

Well, I thought I was going to get to kill the girl in the end. So I had an open spot for a soul in my "Black Star", but since he just parlyzed her. I settled for taking his soul and swords ^^.

Ofc, she got hostile afterwards. So they all died and I went home happy and rich ^^.

I have always sided with Saadia. So I have yet to see what exactly happens when you aid Kematu. Thats rare for me as I usually do both options on missions like these. But whenever I walk into their cave, all my characters get knife happy, plus I love collecting those curved swords.

The evidence was overwhelming against the Al'akr mercs. They were harrassing every redguard woman in sight, they took up with bandits, and even one of their own threatened that to speak to Kematu would mean your life. They were scumbags.

The only reason Kematu wants to speak to you at the end is because you've carved your way through his cave full of outlaws, and he's not completely certain he can kill you - if he was sure that you weren't the angel of death come for him he'd have never drawn breath to parlay. That's how bullies work. They appear strong because they prey on the weak. The dragonborn isn't weak.

It's always easy for me to make this quest choice. I don't care if I'm playing a noble paladin or an evil bastard with a skewed sense of decency, it always comes to this: A small army of bullies wants to do harm to a waitress.

I don't like bullies. Whether Saadia is lying or telling the truth never factors into that simple equation.

I helped saadia because i dont trust alik'r... they were banned from the city for some good reason!