This is a great post. I agree with it and think that Bethesda did an amazing job with Ulfric and the Stormcloaks. With a few minor tweaks, Ulfric would have been the landslide choice, but with clever twists showing the uglier side of war and rebellion, they created a much more polarizing character and a much more interesting moral choice for the players. It's incredible how worked up it gets the fans. Very cool.
I play a Nord and believe that the Stormcloak side is what's best for my character, and so I defend it. I'm being intentionally antagonistic about it in this thread because I feel the Stormcloaks lack support on these forums, but in reality choosing a side for me was very tough. There are things that I felt terrible about, morally. Sacking Solitude and executing Tulius was awful and unseating Jarl Balgruuf the Greater, who I loved and respected as a character was unsettling, as well. I felt very similar to him with his indecision about the war, and his interactions with Ulfric were awesome. I put off choosing a side for some time.
Oddly enough, the segregation in Windhelm didn't bother me as much as it does most players. While the bulling by the townsfolk was out of hand, an Ned took care of it, protecting the Dunmer and beating a foolish nord in the process, I found the segregation natural and understandable in the context of what is going on.
Hey, thanks! It is something that I muse about often. I'm very into characterization (I fancy myself a writer) and delving into the figures Beth created is always a fascinating exercise for me. There's so much to work with and scrutinize. Especially when it comes to Ulfric, there's even an ongoing debate among players as to the level of his personal sincerity and real motivations for everything he does and has done. I tend to believe there is cause to be skeptical about him honestly, ha. I feel also that (based on my observation) the divergence in fans' allegiance in this game is informed at least in part by whether one has played the previous installments - particularly Oblivion. I may well be an exception to my own hypothesis since Skyrim was my first ES game and I've since begun to work my way backward with play-throughs of the older games - and I wound up siding with the Legion from the outset. But it seems to be a trend I've witnessed. Your first exposure to the Legion in Skyrim is of course when they attempt to behead you - rather, when one careless captain refuses to follow up on your absence from the "list". Obviously if the slate was totally blank for you when it came to the Empire and the Legion up until that point, that could well have sealed your fate as a Stormcloak. And yet, we're shown a sympathetic Hadvar who emerges in direct contrast to the captain and you're then confronted with the chaos of all that's going on.
On the other hand, fans who have been familiar with the Empire and what it has stood for and accomplished through ES history (again, here's looking at you, Oblivion) perhaps seem to be more inclined to support it despite the opening sequence and its circumstances. Obviously this is not true for everyone or maybe even most players. But in talking to people on this forum about it at least and in reading reviews, it has been a recurring theme. When it comes to RPing aspects, my main character is a Breton/Redguard from Cyrodiil who is the daughter of a proud (and late) Legionnaire and someone who has always been exposed to a crossroads of cultures, as well as Imperial allegiance. Like her father, she bears no malice toward any peoples of Tamriel based on race alone. She is wary of the Thalmor and resentful of them for all that they've done, and essentially wants to see the Empire restrengthened, so that all can live in peace and as they desire. And so for those reasons and others, siding with the Legion was inevitable. And even though I argue for the Empire vigorously, it doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the general sentiment of the Stormcloaks. Seems to me, anyway, that at the end of the day both sides want the same thing. It's but a divergence in timing and approach to achieve the common end.
I guess all of the above rambling is to say that I agree with your assessment, there are many things to pull you in opposing directions throughout the campaign. It's all written brilliantly; I only wish the civil war questline itself went on longer and had some more tangible results. For me, after the Imperial victory, seeing the beginning of changes in Windhelm via the new optimism of Dark Elves and Nords alike was uplifting. While I can understand the context we are operating in when it comes to the situation in Windhelm, the racial issues always have been and will be a sticking point for me and it's one thing I just can't write off. But of course it's going to be engaged differently by everyone who plays and it's interesting to hear/read people's varied reactions to it.
I have to say, though, I'm legitimately surprised when I read that people think the Legion/Empire is the more popular choice in the civil war. It has long seemed to me that the Stormcloaks were the so-called "fan favorite".
Really though, our main civil war thread goes back and forth enough of the time (and has, for over 200 pages) that it seems like loyalties are roughly evenly split - not unlike the in-game factions themselves.
/novella ...Yikes, that was long.
