“Last I checked, Delphine, I was doing all the work around here while the most you ever did was kill a couple of Forsworn I missed and held up a torch in the middle of a blizzard while I killed a newly resurrected dragon.”
Exactly. Esbern was doing all the important stuff. She just stood in the back nagging. Nagging about you being the dragonborn, nagging about working with the greybeards. If Esbern would have given the quest to kill parthunax, calmly explaining why, describing what he did in the past, understanding that it is hard for you and giving you time. More people migt have killed parthunax.
@Scott's Precious Little Account I agree with this to an extent but I'm struggling to recall works of communist genius. Think they have the same issues as heirarchical corporations. So be a capitalist, vote with your wallet and buy indie.
Did the player really even need her help? At the end of the day, the Dragonborn could have just consulted the Greybeards about Alduin, and set them on the path to Paarthurnax anyways. Sure, the discovery of Alduin’s Wall may have accelerated that timetable a bit, but only because the Dragonborn isn’t allowed to inquire about that humongous black dragon that’s wiping out entire towns for some reason.
Delphine +helps you accidentally save a village by fighting a dragon once by tricking you into it to prove you're DB -impede DB's progress by taking the windcaller horn for no reason -threaten DB when they get acquainted -says wanna rebuild blades but done jack for it but still felt entitled -never actually help the DB against alduin -never actually try to help the locals with their dragon problems Partysnax +politely greets you and assures you he meant no harm on first encounter +teaches you to BREATHE FIRE. +gives DB buffs for their shouts +helps you with the elder scroll +actually helps you fight alduin -is a war criminal
I love how Paarthurnax literally says something along the lines of “Yea I can understand why you’d want to kill me”, but then proceeds to tell me about how he: 1) rebelled against his living family 2) abandoned his people 3) created the tool to defeat his brother 4) tells me the most profound piece of advice I’ve ever seen in a game. My first time ever playing and I knew in my heart that I couldn’t kill him. Delphine is just…off. I couldn’t figure it out until I started talking to Arngeir more and then I was like ohhhh so she’s just crazy. Also. I thought she was supposed to serve me?? Why am I being ordered around, and even more so, ordered to kill our (arguably) most powerful ally????
the fact that he rebelled against his own people and abandoned them, worse actually *fought* against and killed some of them... yeah those are reasons to kill him off, actually... If he'd do that to his own kind, he'd _definitely_ do it to us, over time.
@@J0ECRAWF15H , so what you mean to say is if you have a psychopathic fucked up cannibal family like in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you should pick their side instead of turning them in.
"The Blades! Of course. They specialize in meddling in matters they barely understand. Their reckless arrogance knows no bounds. They have always sought to turn the Dragonborn from the path of wisdom. Have you learned nothing from us? Would you simply be a tool in the hands of the Blades, to be used for their own purposes?" Arngeir tried to warn dragonborn.
@@Adixx1998 my boy parthy actually teaches me stuff, encourages wisdom and patience. Delphine is a psycho control freak that doesn't understand redemption or forgiveness. Pretty crystal clear what is the better option and it's annoying how Bethesda doesn't give you a choice beyond just ignoring them
😆 yeah, first of all, the dragonborn is the thuri, aka the master not her, so she needs to know her place. Second, what atrocities did he commit to you ? He was alduin's right hand but has no proof of anything?
I love how by having played the game, watching this video, and reading the comments, most if not all the community as a whole's reaction to Paarthurnax is "I've only known this dragon for a few hours, but if anything happened to him, I'd kill all of the blades and then myself".
Well it's not just about how much we love him, but also in how Delphine just treats those who help her. Paarthurnax gives humanity Dragonrend, turns against his kin and his instincts, exiles himself for thousands of years teaching the Voice to monks and helps the Dragonborn get Dragonrend and tell him how to get to Alduin yet the moment Alduin is finished she wants him dead. Despite doing more help to save Skyrim and the world than the Blades, despite genuine regret for the sins he's committed, despite the time in between the first dragon war and the second, as soon as he's not useful he has to die. Makes her untrustworthy, since she could easily turn on the Dragonborn.
Most of us have played through Skyrim many times. To many fans of the game Paarthurnax is one of if not them most memorable NPCs. Killing Delphine, who by that time in the game is issuing ultimatums to our characters, who she is suppose to serve, makes a hell of a lot more sense. "Kill the dragon that gave us the only way to fight back against his fellow dragons or we have nothing more to discuss?" Terrible writing.
That made me pretty mad. Literally used MY OWN BLOOD to open this place up, and this useless do-nothing bitch has the balls to tell me I can't come back to it?!
Dragonborn: sucks, his blood back in his body from the pedestal and the door closes: The blades : Dragonborn, can you help us open the door it’s locked Dragonborn: oh, I’m sorry it’s not my home anymore You deal with it
Exactly! That's why in my headcanon *I* kick *them* both out instead (used Disable command on both and set ownership of the cell, so that the items in there are not "stolen").
What is more, if he truly sought evil then, why would he tell the Dragonborn about Dragonrend? Sure, he could wait for the Dragonborn to grow old and die, but I’d rather keep him alive and kill the user Delphine who used us to further her own crusade against dragon kind!
@@ekathe85 The unknown number of souls devoured by Paathurnax would undoubtedly have preferred the first option over the second. One is a great achievement yes and should not be disparaged but the latter option is definitely more preferable to everyone else involved
100% agree just give the dialog option to say no and if she insists on this you'll have to fight her. Or just tell the graybeards and say you won't and kick her into exhile
That's just one of many reasons Fallout: New Vegas was better than any other 3D game in either of Bethesda's prime IPs since 2006. I'm not saying Obsidian should be the ones doing TES6, but perhaps I am saying that.
It's one thing to read about the horrors in an old book to so simply condemn him but it's another to realize that Paarthurnax has been serving a self-imposed sentence for thousands of years to become the only reason Alduin loses. Twice.
I tried it once just so I could do the Blades quests and I legitimately felt like I murdered my friend. It was so gut-wrenching and Delphine was just like, "Cool...so here's what I want you to do now..."
You already know Hermaeus Mora would have stepped up to the plate with knowledge of Dragon Rend, offers you can't refuse and forbidden knowledge are his MO. That would have been a really interesting alternative actually, wished they added that in the DLC.
Except no, he wouldn't have. Because Akatosh would have reeled his ass in one way or another. Alduin is a shard of Akatosh, and so is the Dragonborn. The entire reason the MC Dragonborn exists is because there's two unruly children who need to have their buttocks spanked, and you happen to do both. Alduin WILL consume the world when the time is right that he do so, and not before. He does not have agency.
I didn't realize this until recently, but Isran is actually a pretty good foil to Delphine. Watching how they both change(or don't) as a result of ineracting with you is super interesting when looked at side by side. Starts out with a (admittedly annoying) grudge against one specific species( dragons/vampires ) bosses you around a fair bit, is an arse to your favored companion( Parthurnaax/Serana ) and generally views things from a very pragmatic, cynical place. It's actually pretty satisfying to see when Isran shifts his attitude, bit by bit, because, despite being a stubborn git most times, he does in fact realize that he isn't always right. While we watch Delphine pretend to be the protagonist of the story, Isran regularly(if grudgingly) puts his pride aside multiple times to ask for help from people he openly admits are better qualified for the work that needs to be done. Delphine demands you kill Parthurnaax because of past crimes and because he's outlived his usefulness, threatening to abandon the fight against the dragons until you comply. Isran does threaten Serana to keep her fangs to herself, but doesn't threaten her safety, but the Dragonborns good standing with the Dawnguard, because he's not foolish enough to jeopardize their fight against the vampires. Further down the road, Isran even mentions to Serana that he's aware that going against her father can't be easy, and that he's sorry she had to make such a difficult choice. I know I'm rambling, but I just really enjoy examining the dichotomy between these two characters that started out with such similar backgrounds, and yet diverged into such different paths of thinking; one assured enough in their bias and necessity that they think they can strong-arm the Dragonborn into killing an incredibly useful ally, and the other willing to put his own ego aside for the greater good over and over until he could really see what Serana put herself through to do the same. Idk, I just think Isran is pretty neat.
Isran bosses you around? IMO Isran is stern but kind. he sees a farmer boy come stuttering about and hands him a crossbow and teaches him how to be a vampire slayer. I see him as a father figure. his interactions with you are "hey new guy, go check this crypt" hey turns out this and this happened Isran "we are gonna need more people, go get these two experts i used to work with while I get the rest of the fort in shape" (he actually sets up barricades and takes scared people in) then he begrudgingly accepts the help of an schizophrenic priest of arkay even tho he hates him.
@@CallMeMimi27 come to think of it, I'm willing to say that Isran might be one of the most delightfully complex characters in the game. Y'all make some pretty good points, Isran acts pretty standoffish and almost mean, but I can't say I'd be any different if I knew a vampire Armageddon was coming and no one listened to me. And like I said before, the way Isran grows throughout the quest line is my favorite thing about the whole story, watching his empathy and kindness become more prevalent is just 🤌
Imagine having the honestly very realistic dialogue option telling Delphine to shut the fuck up because you're the dragonborn. So many missed opportunities in this game.
I wanted to kill her SO bad man, so I was pissed I wasn't given that option. Like I'm not just gonna kill grandpa Parthanax after he helped us SAVE THE WORLD.
Hey, I like ya name. But yeah, I've been wanting to tell her to fuck off since she stole the horn of Jurgen Windcaller. The fact that we have to go kill a dragon to prove to her we're the dragonborn instead of just shouting near her like the whiterun guards was kinda lame. It could've been fixed by doing that and her going. "Sure you can use the thuum, but can you absorb a dragon soul?" Kind of like how the Greybeards test you, but leaning more into the warrior side to show their parallel views like with Paarthurnax.
That was about my reaction when she asked me to kill Parthonax. Her: "Until you've killed him, the blades have nothing further to discuss with you." Me: *Never returns to the blades*
"We serve the Dragonborn and since you are dragonborn, we are sworn to serve you. Now you must do this one thing that we are ordering you to do or we won't help you anymore."
Delphine comes to an insane conclusion that the thalmor are reviving dragons. When she's wrong she just straight up tells you to go find a dude that actually knows what's happening.
and in the process of sending you to explore her insane theory she gets her contact, who she’s known for years, apprehended and killed by the thalmor. doesn’t even mention him after the fact
Which in the process more than likely puts you and one other person on the thalmors shitlist for life, given they KNOW your name from the guest list, and your face too. How she evaded the thalmor for so long with incompetence like that is beyond me.
"It's just every time you talked all i heard was "KILL ME, KILL ME, KILL ME". Something with my auditory, think it's gone now though" - Android 17, ADBZ
"Kill Parthanax, hes a bad dragon, hes commited atrocities" "Bitch I've slaughered every living thing from Helgan to here. My path of destruction has left bodies piled so high, you would fill multiple dungeons easily. Half the time I don't know if I'm killing bandits or villagers, and to be honest I dont really care, all I care about is seeing what they have in their pockets. My disregard for life knows almost no limits. But this is where I draw the line. I will not kill the good boy. He is worth 50 of you. Infact, suggest it again, attempt it, even look at him funny, and the only thing i'll be doing is finding a dungeon to dump your corpse."
you can't kill delphine since she is essential. but do you know what you could do? set up a resto loop glitch and enchant a weapon with Paralize for 384856284639462947393648592636485959572 to the power of 9 secs and leave her paralized for 7 million years on the floor of skyhaven temple.
My immediate thought was to be a smug prick to her and say "you know, you're right delphine. But seeing as Parthurnax is immortal, and he defected, we'll be lenient and sentence him to... let's say 3000 years exile on the peak of a mountain. Welp, looks like his time's just about paid up."
The fact is that, without Phaarturnax, all humanity would have died, because he was the one who taught the first humans how to speak the language of dragons. Then the first heroes deformed that tongue to create dragonrend, with which not only they managed to banish Alduin, but later the Dragonborn managed to defeat him. In conclusion, without him the blades and all humans would have been slaves of dragons forever. The thing is that Phaarturnax helped the humans just because he wanted, he was feeling guilty. But a Dragon and a human are soo different, it is like a human and a dog, it was normal for dragons to abuse of the other creatures. So, he was like a very good being. Killing Phaarturnax is the most stupid thing that a human could do.
I have no strong opinion on Partysnacks. But just the fact that Delphine thinks she has any power to issues ultimatums to the fucking Dragonborn is hilarious. I "needed" her help. Now I don't. She dies.
Uhhh did we actually ever need her help in defeating Alduin? Everything we have done for Blades was to serve the Blades (or rather Delphine). We even got on bad with Thalmor cause "surely thalmor is using Alduin". We did get Paarthurnax's help though. He told us about Dragonrend and Elder Scrolls.
@@hugo3627 they made me go through Ustengrav all the way to the fucking Riverwood Sleeping Giant Inn for their fucking filler arc. Maybe Alduin had a point.
I think this choice would have had a little more weight had there been more evidence of Paarthurnax's crimes. Showing us what atrocities he committed, and how it affected history, would have made the choice less one-sided. The audience can easily forgive Paarthurnax because we aren't shown anything, we just get told by an NPC that he's bad and did bad things that "are still remembered thousands of years later," but she's the only one who seems to even know about the supposed crimes. If Delphine didn't say he committed crimes, I would argue nobody knew about them at all.
Paarthunax is cannonically pretty much also a war criminal like Alduin, he just got cold feet about fulfilling his destiny at Alduin's side as he devoured everything to end this era and kickstart the next. So he betrayed his own kind and sold the people who hated them most a weapon to facilitate their genocide so that he could mope around on top of a mountain for a couple centuries.
@@jazzy4830 millenia. The dragons were defeated thousands of years ago, not hundreds, and all of Tamriel's history owes a debt to Paarhturnax. There would be no works of men or mer or kahjiit or argonian were it not for Paarthurnax betraying Alduin. Framing that as cold feet seems to be a long way to go to justify following Delphine's orders
Eh, crimes committed literally thousands of years ago seems pointless to punish someone for. Especially given that the person who committed them has changed in those thousands of years.
Honestly, this is the most accurate representation of why players don't respond well to this quest line. All the information we have as players is what's in the game. For Paarthurnax, we have Delphine's dialogue, the general history of the dragons, and Paarth's actions in-game. If you weigh all those together, no shit Paarth comes out looking like a pretty cool dude. There's literally nothing to support the notion that killing him is a good thing, besides Delphine's claims about events she could not have possibly witnessed (backed by zero goddamn observable evidence) and the general knowledge that dragons tend to be shitheads. It's not like it would be impossible. There's so many existing structures in the game the devs could have used to make this seem more sensible. Bards' songs about the great & terrible Paarthunax. Ruins or locations with names like "Paarthunax's Devastation". Ghosts wailing about Alduin's fearsome right-hand. Books cataloguing myths that might give a glimpse of his supposed atrocities. But instead all we get are like two lines from Delphine and a quest marker. Sure, I'll get right on that.
For me what's even funnier is that when I played, the Graybeards didn't even leave the room when I got this quest They're telling me how I need to kill Paarthurnax and I'm sat looking at Arngeir like: "You hearing this shit?"
Wait, so Delphine told you to kill Paarthurnax while his most loyal and devoted followers (as in following him out of respect rather than being told to) were within earshot? Math ain't mathin. @@littlemissstrange7427
Paarthurnax served his sentence when he dedicated his life to cultivating the Thu'um on the lips of mortals. He found redemption in the snows on High Hrothgar, bound in exile to the summit of the mountain. He found new purpose in creating, rather than destroying. He's changed, and it was neither easy nor painless. When people put in the time to change after committing wrongdoings, when they dedicate themselves to mitigating (and even overturning) the damage they've done, the concept of punishment is redundant and wastefully hedonistic. No one owes anyone forgiveness, but pain for pain's sake is not justice; it's spite. Sometimes, it's important to let the past die, so the future can grow strong. In simpler words, Delphine is being an asshole.
Those people would have no power if idiots would learn to not give a fuck about ancient tweets. I'm sure I have said some pretty fucked up things when I was an asshole teenager, but I'm not that person anymore, and I would treat others as I would be treated on that question.
Delphine: “you need to kill parthanax” Me: “funny, sounds like you just said I should go to the thalmor and tell them about these blades members I just met and their new base at sky haven temple and invite them over for tea and cake” Delphine is giving off Astrid vibes and we all know how that ended.
Holy shit, it all makes sense now. She literally feels like Astrid's bitchy sister. Both control freaks, both constantly trying to convey control and dominance over those around them when its obvious they arent supposed to be in charge, but while Astrid uses the friendly persuasion route of manipulation, Delphine uses direct displays of dominance and wilfully withholding information. And when it becomes clear to both that you can't be controlled/are a threat, they want nothing to do with you and effectively shoot themselves in the foot. Astrid sends you on a suicide mission but in doing so gives away the Sanctuary location, destroying her "family" as a result. If you refuse Delphine, then she says you are basically banished until Parrthurnax is killed. And if you're like me, that's fine because we no longer need the Blade's help fighting Alduin, and unlike everyone else we cannot only kill dragons alone, but do so permanently. The Blades cannot, so Delphine effectively neuters them by alienating you.
I'll be honest, I often mistake Delphine and Astrid for eachother. Mainly I just can't remember if Astrid is the Dark Brotherhood lady or if Delphine is. They're basically the same character. And, strangely enough, they both order around their superiors, as if they're in charge. The Dragonborn leads the Blades and the Listener leads the Dark Brotherhood. Both Delphine and Astrid try to order you around. Delphine succeeds, in the end. Unless you download The Paarthurnax Dilemma. Then you get to yell at her and still continue doing stuff for the Blades.
@@VoidZeroNothing i dropped the blades and killed the DB. Astrid acted like she didn't remember sending people after me and Delphine thinks she's important. 🥴
I'm sorry, are you the leader of the blades? Are you the dragonborn? I'm pretty sure I'm the one that decides these things. You're just a cosplayer who tried to revive a long dead organization that wouldn't even exist if I never stopped in your inn.
Best friend? Parthurnaax was more like a mentor guy. Will pop in once in a while make you a cup of tea, and will never ask you any details about how you're doing but will understand your situation and will give you wisdom which you can use in your life. Basically he's like a mentor, who gives you wisdom without invading your privacy
@@ncr_official_2189 An old mentor guy who's living in Argentina but has never lost his German accent. You admire for his knowledge but for some reason, you never asked why he chose this godforsaken village in the Andes over his birthplace.
@@strangelic4234 what's internet's obsession with Hitler? Why does everyone have to be Hitler? Parthurnaax is more like Schindler (not really but it's the closest comparison). Both of them were very close to the evil power, both of them at the end helped the good guys to save people and both of them were initially thought to be evil when the good guys were winning
@@ncr_official_2189 Hitler didn't go to Argentina, so I don't see how you'd think I meant him personally. Neither is Paarthunax Schindler. Schindler was a party member but he never was the right hand in any atrocities. P is more like a fictional Werner Best, where Best, not Duckwitz, was the one that warned the Danes about what would happen in October 1943. As for the obsession - I can't speak for the internet but as I'm an older German, I did have relatives that I adored as a child before I learned that they had a past. I'm sorry if that tires you.
@@strangelic4234 who did you mean as the argentinian german grandpa with a heavy german accent? Because as far as I know, the internet and the History channel loves to believe that the dead body of Hitler was a decoy and he fled to Argentina Edit: on further research I realised you didn't mean H. You maybe meant Eichman and such. Sorry for the confusion I created
Delphine: "That's fine. We needed his help. But now we don't." So what you're saying is that I can never actually trust you for any reason ever again, because if the time ever comes that you think all of the dragons are gone, you'll turn on me. Ok. Me: "Blades recruits. The time has come. Execute Order 66." Them: "Yes, Dragonborn." edit: [REDACTED] edit 2: I did this to me. I did this to me. I wish it was your fault, I wish it was your fault, but how could it be, oh, how could it be? Oh, I did this to me.
It's worse than that. Skyrim up and retconed the dragon born and the blades into being far more generic and boring. The more games they make the worse everything seems to get.
Yeah that one line, I've never been more disgusted with an "allied" npc than when those words past over her lips. I despise that kind of psychopathic, exploitative betrayal bullshit.
I'm gonna play devils advocate here and point out that the dragonborn isn't actually a dragon, there's no reason to suggest that delphine would turn on the Blades most effective weapon
@@lawyitkazuki5768 Yet our dragonborn also never helped institute and maintain Alduin's rule of power. If Heinrich Himmler somehow escaped to America and became a hippy in his old age, I sure as shit would still want him executed for his crimes.
“That’s fine, we needed his help, now we don’t” On top of electing to kill someone for things they did countless years ago and have gone through the effort of righting those wrongs, admitting to keeping someone around until they’ve outlived their purpose just makes me genuinely sick. In storytelling and in real life. And I can’t help but notice how Delphine doesn’t bring this little fact about Paarthurnax until AFTER the Dragonborn helps them get into Sky Haven Temple. Now that we’ve fulfilled our purpose, Delphine doesn’t need us anymore. As if we really needed Delphine to begin with.
Delphine instantly blew any trust I had for her out the window with this. Yeah, Paarth did some awful stuff but remember it was also him who gave mankind the ability to fight back and eventually stop the end of the world. He himself hasn’t forgiven his crimes and remained in exile to atone. If we can’t forgive him then there is no retribution in this world.
Yeah, like he said, there was no option but to side with Alduin at the start. The idea of being against him was not a matter to consider until Paarthurnax first thought of the idea. Humans were livestock to the dragons
Exactly. Bad writing choices from Bethesda that could have been great. Whatever happened to RPGs that offer multiple choices and consequences. Oh, and Bethesda must have forgotten what it means to "serve' as Delphine would be insubordinate. That would be another great option. Having Delphine on the chopping block at the Thalmor embassy after I tell them where to find her. No that would be memorable game story.
I never trusted her since I met her. The way she was hiding, manipulating behind the scenes and putting herself in charge very clearly from the very beginning just pissed me off. I'm so fucking glad there's a mod that changes this bs. I just let paarth live and never went back to her again the first time.
I hate how Bethesda didn’t think to include a “nah bro paarthurnax is my ride or die” option. Like wtf did they think that every player would just be like “yeah this makes sense”
I’m pretty sure you can refuse if you talk to her again, then she goes off in a huff and refuses to work with you until you kill him. Nothing of any particular value is lost.
@@sleazypolarstill, the fact that the quest stay there on your quest tab is annoying af. Even if you complete every single quests, there's still that one quest that just stay there haunting you to finish it
Delphine: He committed atrocities so infamous they are still remembered, thousands of years later. Dragonborn: Such as? Delphine: .... uh, .... yeah, he's a dragon. He, you know, killed lots of people.
Lol right all she said was he was alduins right hand, but he never said what kind of crimes he committed for all we know he just told alduin to destroy stuff
Letting everyone know, the best ending is when you don't kill Parthanaax. He greets you after Alduin's defeat and tells you he's going to take the current dragons under his wing.
@@windrider2190Paarthurnax said "But willing or not they will listen" without alduin Paarthurnax is the strongest dragon lorewise hence why he was Alduin second in command. and with the help of the dragonborn the dragons will bend to the way of the voice or get their souls sucked. there is no in between. ofc lesser dragons will not like it since it will be like trying to get a Chihuahua to stop being so angry all the time
There is a stuffed dragon on my desk who has served as my mascot for nearly my entire adult life, a gift from an otherwise long-forgotten girlfriend in 2000. He would never, ever forgive me if I killed Paarthurnax. So I never have.
So in her eyes, once you mess up, no amount of time or effort spent doing good deeds will ever make her not want you dead. At this point in the game I wasn't all that surprised she wanted to kill the dragon that helped me save the world. I was surprised that Esbern agreed with her, right after giving a grand speech about how we should cast aside our animosity with each other to deal with a bigger threat. And when Alduin is defeated, would he then happily let the civil war resume as normal? Skyrim's story writing has problems.
First off, your name makes me uncomfortable somehow, I can't quite put my finger on it but it makes me uncomfortable. Secondly, yep. She is the worst written character in all of Skyrim, arguably all of elder scrolls. Why on earth should I listen to her when I am the leader of the blades. She is a cosplayer. She was never a member of the blades ordained by a dragonborn. I literally AM the dragonborn. Why on Earth does she think that she can boss around her own leader?
This sidequest gets memed on hard, but it could have been a really interesting moral dilemma and an exploration of justice in the context of passing millennia if the writers had devoted more than three minutes to writing it.
It would actually be quite the statement to have a human sized glass box on your mantle filled with cubes of someone who wronged you. You'd have to completely drain and dry the body, then freeze and cut into cubes, then re-arrange the cubes in a neat stack and then craft a completely air-tight glass box which fits the exact volume of the cube stack. That involves a few skills and a lot of work and dedication to be done right.
For those who don't want to see this convo, you can just finish the Dragon Rising first, run through all Civil War Quest line, it'll take you at most 2hrs, then come back to the main quest, remember to not choose any dialogue option that mention Delphine or Esbern, and ALWAYS go to the Grey Beards map marker for when Parthunaax ask you to do anything, that way you'll never hear about Delphine trying to kill Partysnax ever again
Its very in character for the dragonborn to have a skin collection. He can (and does) rip the pelt off of just about any animal he encounters in seconds, sometimes he can even retrieve their bones. The whole thing is much more grisly when you consider that in-universe there is no inventory or looting system, and every item you pick up is being retrieved manually. You watch Dovakiin kill something and before you can even thank him you watch him stick his hand straight into his victims chest to rip out their internal organs and shove them into his bag. His arms and body completely drenched in blood and viscera. Then he yanks their skin like a waiter taking off a tablecloth, and to your horror it simply detaches completely leaving only a skinless mass of miscellaneous tissues. You want to scream, you want to run away, you want to vomit, but before you can do any of that his predatory draconian eyes lock onto you, and he begins _sprinting_ toward you with the same hands you just watched part flesh like water. There is insanity in those eyes, constantly shifting as though looking at something that wasn’t there. His weapons are still drawn and remembering an old legend that said Dragons could only see motion, you stand very still hoping that he won’t kill you. But when he gets within a few feet of you he suddenly stops, and remains quiet for a while, brow furrowed in concentration, then his face suddenly changes and he speaks in a normal happy tone that wouldn’t have been out of place were it not for the blood still dripping off of his skin, and the blatant lack of emotion on his face before he decided to start talking. You’re now sure that he’s a psychopath, and regret discarding the stories about the Dark Brotherhood as mere rumor, oh what a fool you were. He asks you if you have anything to sell. And you stutter out a reply, a shell-shocked thousand yard stare on your face. He offers you a pile of bloody coins he clearly dug out of a carcass, along with a sheet of skin, a pile of bones, and several organs. Its all you can do not to scream as he piles them into your arms, covering you in rot. The smell is going to give you nightmares. In exchange he takes all the food your family had saved up for winter and eats it in front of you, then he leaves as quickly as he appeared. Leaving you to wonder how your family will survive the harsh nord winters when safe travel to the cities will become difficult. And you will recall your brush with the surreal horror of the dragonborn’s existence for the rest of your days,
Years later he comes to your house. You are still in terror of what happened and start shaking. This is just another nightmare, you say to yourself. He wouldn't have anything to do in this corner of the world. You watch him approach your house from the window and get in. The moment he enters, he crouches in a weird position, as if he's a predator stalking his prey. The old planks on the floor creak as his weight sets upon them. Everything is coming back again. The terror of Dragonborn. It's fine it's fine. If I just ignore him again it must be fine. You watch him your family's only valuable possession, a pink gemstone of your wife. As he starts taking things your daughter returns from playing in the village. "Out of my way dork." She tells Dragonborn. Immediately after a voice rumbles in your head: "Game Quicksaved".
"He commited crimes that are still remembered thousands of years later". She's the only person who knows the least of information about Paarthurnax outside the Greybeards, because not a single character mentions him. Man, I always wondered what were the devs thinking when they made this quest forced upon the player with no option to counter Delphine, it's like they had no idea what the players would think at this point.
This isn't forced, it's an optional side objective for the main story, you can finish the questline and never do this and all you lose out on is rebuilding the blades. And let's be honest, who the fuck cares
"Optional" "Locks you out of content" Pick one. I want to restore the blades AND put Deltard in her place by telling her I am the dragonborn and thus her boss.
It was so jarring even back then. Thats like the knights of nine in oblivion barring you from their faction because you did a quest for meridia because Umeril commands her daedric minions the aurorans.
@@Zwijger Alright class, today we're going to learn what optional means, and more importantly, how to use it. Our running example is going to be this guy not understanding what the word means. So I said killing Paarthurnax was optional, but some of you might be saying "but wait you don't have to play the game, so all quests are optional!" That is true, however anyone that speaks English as their first language intuitively knows that it is not that precise, you can have the word only apply within a certain context. And that's where my comment came in. It was referring to the original comment that said the quest is "forced upon you" so we're already narrowing our use of the word 'optional' to within the game, and from my interpretation, within the main quest, because if we aren't talking about the main quest then the comment doesn't even make sense, since you can play any other questline. So that is where we can understand my comment. Assuming you know you want to live, play a game, play Skyrim, and play the main quest, the question is can you do all those things without also killing Paarthurnax? The answer of course is yes. Therefore the comment I made was correct: killing Paarthurnax is optional "FOR THE MAIN STORY" That is what my original message said, word for word, bar for bar. The fact that it is optional for that purpose is not mutually exclusive with being nonoptional for other purposes such as, I don't know, "rebuilding the blades" as anyone with the reading comprehension of a third grader would understand. Sorry to waste everyone's time since I know none of you could possibly be so stupid as to need this explanation.
The total audacity of Bethesda to put in a wise fatherly figure who is never anything but nice to you, have you bond over the course of the entire main quest, and then expect you to happily kill him at the end for crimes he committed thousands of years ago that neither you nor anyone else have ever seen.
They seem to always be happy to cater to the "kill everything" players, the ones who click through every conversation and just murder their way through the game.
"From now on, I the Dragonborn himself/herself decided that The Blades are no longer needed to serve the dragonborn and starting today i will hunt down every single last one of you till the blades are nothing but a history. And that's an oath"
At least PartySnack teach us that with wisdom, patience and a bit of common sense even the dovah can be more than destructive beasts of the end times, while Delphine is basically the human equivalent of Alduin
Her only memorable contribution to the dragonborn was getting the invitation to the thalmor embassy. Memorable because that's where I start avoiding the quest line every playthrough
1. download any of a the myriad of prison mods 2. arrest and imprison delphine forever. her god given immortality will serve as her curse, for she shall now be in chains until the end of time
Until the end of time? You mean when Alduin returns to devour the world? The same Alduin the Dragonborn killed? 🤣Your plan is extra sadistic... I love it!
Paarthunax had committed too many crimes at Alduins side and even if he had since repented still needed to be punished. We don't forgive Hitler for the holocaust just because he killed Hitler.
@@jazzy4830 you know what? That’s a good point, i didn’t think of it that way But is it really fair to hold a dragon to human morals? Plus, we probably wouldn’t have been able to defeat Alduin without his help, I’d say that’s a redeemable act Besides, the last dragonborn also killed a lot of people, especially if they partook in the war. We also have blood on our hands based on disagreements that wouldn’t necessarily require this much violence
@@that_sarcastic_bxtch7609 I mean fighting in a Civil War with both Grey sides is quite a few steps below "Was the right Hand of Alduin and helped enforce the Dragons rule over humanity for millenia" and the even bigger hint (literally in his name big hint) is that Paarthunax didnt rebel to helps humanity, but rather to ursup Alduin and take his place (which if you leave him alive he does).
personally I would keep a dragon around. this is not about punishment or justice. its her trying to to solidify power and remove future threats. are cant conflate the two concepts and act like one outweighs the other.
It's so bizarre to me that there's no way to argue her down. Aside from the whole "Blades serve the Dragonborn" thing, Tamriel would've never been freed from the oppression of the dragons if it weren't for Paarthurnax. She literally owes her life to him.
I always like characters like Paarthurnax. Characters that have done atrocities but they are the ones that are responsible for ending up saving everyone. It leads you to realize how grey the world is. Nobody is 100% good or evil. Hell, you could argue that the dragonborn has done some atrocities. But if the characters do alot more good than evil then I think they can be forgiven for their crimes. Especially, if they are genuinely upset about said crimes they did and try to do everything they can to make up for it.
Parthunaax is a hero just like the Player. A prisoner of fate, given a second chance by the Divines, and given choices to make. And Parthunaax chose to no longer be a tyrant and free all Men from the Dragon Cult, and founded a new peaceful religion for all surviving dragons to live by. To slay Parthunaax in cold blood is to doom all dragons to a cycle of hatred and arrogance.
Knowing history I'm pretty sure the "atrocities" might be just one person hearing a that he burned a village and got turned into him eating children while sitting on a skull throne.
You can finish skyrim without completing this quest. All you have to do is tell the greybeards that the blades want you to kill paarthurnax after they give you this quest and you won't have to kill him anymore.
@@AzzyGG what I do is I disable her with console commands as soon as the meeting ends, I've never ran into issues for the rest of the main quest line and I don't have the permanent reminder in my journal because she never gave me the quest.
or you can just finish the Dragon Rising first, run through all Civil War Quest line, it'll take you at most 2hrs, then come back to the main quest, remember to not choose any dialogue option that mention Delphine or Esbern, and ALWAYS go to the Grey Beards map marker for when Parthunaax ask you to do anything, that way you'll never hear about Delphine trying to kill Partysnax ever again
It amuses and baffles me how this game spends so much time making you develop some bond with Paarthurnax, and then expects you to contemplate (maybe even proceed to) killing him based on nothing more than the words of a character who sent you alone on a few missions and spent her little on-screen time being strictly professional towards you
_bethesda during marketing: "yeah this is a great, in-depth RPG with tons of choices and consequences from your quests!!"_ bethesda during development: "hehe yeah dont forget to remove all the players choices and auto accept horrible quests, god forbid we have to make an extra quest line branch for when they disagree with how the quest we forced them into goes...oh and steve! make me twelve more variants of the radiant quests, no butts mister! i want this game to be as action-adventure as possible!"
Atrocities Delphine? You mean like, the time where the blades went to tamriel and went on a killing spree? And serve emperor reman just so no one would ever attack you?
I don't know why I really like the idea of the dragonborn (or any Bethesda protag really) being like a completely unhinged sociopath that still attempts to maintain appearences as the hero. So when you ask them something in private sometimes they just snap and go off on a tangent or kill someone in cold blood, then the second someone else walks in the room they're all normal and personable.
Meanwhile me: "draws Wabbajack" "Listen here, Delphine. If you change into a sweetroll, I'll eat you. If a rabbit, I'll off you, skin you and make a rabbit stew. If you change into a horker. Same thing. If you change into something else, the result will always be me somehow driving a dagger into your gut. So, what will it be, peach? You taking back what you just said, or me trying my luck?"
Fun Fact: Delphine is the only npc in the game in which, if she gets turned into a sweetroll with the Wabbajack, she will instead turn into a SourRoll, due to the high concentration of salt and acid in her system.
@@QilleWolf Sadly I haven't played Skyrim in years, and I do not know if it's possible in the Anniversary edition. I remember it working in 32-bit version (though it maybe because it was modded) I just wanted to test it out, and it worked. The only quest I wanted to fail anyway...
@@QilleWolf im pretty sure when it comes to Unkillable NPC's the only wabbajack effects that can occur are the ones which just cause Generic Destruction Spell effects
"If you don't kill him, I won't help you!"
"You were helping?"
“Last I checked, Delphine, I was doing all the work around here while the most you ever did was kill a couple of Forsworn I missed and held up a torch in the middle of a blizzard while I killed a newly resurrected dragon.”
LOL this
@@windrider2190 she didn’t even solve the puzzle to get into the home!
And taking the horn was just a hindrance in the grand scheme of things.
Exactly. Esbern was doing all the important stuff. She just stood in the back nagging. Nagging about you being the dragonborn, nagging about working with the greybeards.
If Esbern would have given the quest to kill parthunax, calmly explaining why, describing what he did in the past, understanding that it is hard for you and giving you time.
More people migt have killed parthunax.
I love that Delphine is just universally hated by all of us
and Paarthurnax is universally loved
Same for delphine defenders
Because Paarthurnax gave us the way to beat the final boss. Not that idiot Delphine.
Yes, I don't like someone lesser than me telling me what to do, so I never did the mission
Death to dragons!
@Scott's Precious Little Account I agree with this to an extent but I'm struggling to recall works of communist genius. Think they have the same issues as heirarchical corporations. So be a capitalist, vote with your wallet and buy indie.
"You know, Delphine, you make an excellent point. I needed your help, and now I don't. So clearly there is only one option left to me."
Did the player really even need her help? At the end of the day, the Dragonborn could have just consulted the Greybeards about Alduin, and set them on the path to Paarthurnax anyways. Sure, the discovery of Alduin’s Wall may have accelerated that timetable a bit, but only because the Dragonborn isn’t allowed to inquire about that humongous black dragon that’s wiping out entire towns for some reason.
@@AredelI mean technically she really didn’t helped us
Delphine single handedly ruined my respect for the blade.
"I've only got one more thing to say to you... And that thing consists of three words of power."
Delphine
+helps you accidentally save a village by fighting a dragon once by tricking you into it to prove you're DB
-impede DB's progress by taking the windcaller horn for no reason
-threaten DB when they get acquainted
-says wanna rebuild blades but done jack for it but still felt entitled
-never actually help the DB against alduin
-never actually try to help the locals with their dragon problems
Partysnax
+politely greets you and assures you he meant no harm on first encounter
+teaches you to BREATHE FIRE.
+gives DB buffs for their shouts
+helps you with the elder scroll
+actually helps you fight alduin
-is a war criminal
I love how Paarthurnax literally says something along the lines of “Yea I can understand why you’d want to kill me”, but then proceeds to tell me about how he:
1) rebelled against his living family
2) abandoned his people
3) created the tool to defeat his brother
4) tells me the most profound piece of advice I’ve ever seen in a game.
My first time ever playing and I knew in my heart that I couldn’t kill him. Delphine is just…off. I couldn’t figure it out until I started talking to Arngeir more and then I was like ohhhh so she’s just crazy. Also. I thought she was supposed to serve me?? Why am I being ordered around, and even more so, ordered to kill our (arguably) most powerful ally????
What's the advice he gave you?
@@bombomos Don't simp for e-thots
@@bombomos Probably "Is it better to be born good, or to be born evil and overcome your evil nature through will?"
the fact that he rebelled against his own people and abandoned them, worse actually *fought* against and killed some of them... yeah those are reasons to kill him off, actually... If he'd do that to his own kind, he'd _definitely_ do it to us, over time.
@@J0ECRAWF15H , so what you mean to say is if you have a psychopathic fucked up cannibal family like in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you should pick their side instead of turning them in.
She must've forgotten that the blades serve the dragonborn, not the other way around
Because its convenient
Bethesda just kind of forgot
"The Blades! Of course. They specialize in meddling in matters they barely understand. Their reckless arrogance knows no bounds. They have always sought to turn the Dragonborn from the path of wisdom. Have you learned nothing from us? Would you simply be a tool in the hands of the Blades, to be used for their own purposes?" Arngeir tried to warn dragonborn.
@@Adixx1998 my boy parthy actually teaches me stuff, encourages wisdom and patience. Delphine is a psycho control freak that doesn't understand redemption or forgiveness. Pretty crystal clear what is the better option and it's annoying how Bethesda doesn't give you a choice beyond just ignoring them
Yeah but she's such a big idiot that she dosen't belive that the player is a Dragonborn.
"He committed atrocities" *proceeds to not name any of them*
Who says It's-A-Me Paarthurnax committed atrocities? Bowser?
😆 yeah, first of all, the dragonborn is the thuri, aka the master not her, so she needs to know her place. Second, what atrocities did he commit to you ? He was alduin's right hand but has no proof of anything?
Paarthanax misgendered Delphine.
Now imagine we said those atrocities, since we can't think of any
As a Blade, those things worry me
Average Twitter user
I love how by having played the game, watching this video, and reading the comments, most if not all the community as a whole's reaction to Paarthurnax is "I've only known this dragon for a few hours, but if anything happened to him, I'd kill all of the blades and then myself".
Why would you kill yourself? You have the power to revive him.
Starting with Delphine, of course, and moving down the list as necessary.
Well it's not just about how much we love him, but also in how Delphine just treats those who help her. Paarthurnax gives humanity Dragonrend, turns against his kin and his instincts, exiles himself for thousands of years teaching the Voice to monks and helps the Dragonborn get Dragonrend and tell him how to get to Alduin yet the moment Alduin is finished she wants him dead. Despite doing more help to save Skyrim and the world than the Blades, despite genuine regret for the sins he's committed, despite the time in between the first dragon war and the second, as soon as he's not useful he has to die. Makes her untrustworthy, since she could easily turn on the Dragonborn.
Yup, we're all Rosa
Most of us have played through Skyrim many times. To many fans of the game Paarthurnax is one of if not them most memorable NPCs. Killing Delphine, who by that time in the game is issuing ultimatums to our characters, who she is suppose to serve, makes a hell of a lot more sense. "Kill the dragon that gave us the only way to fight back against his fellow dragons or we have nothing more to discuss?" Terrible writing.
Always found that odd that they kick you out of your home that you used your blood to open the door because you didnt want to kill Parthy.
That made me pretty mad. Literally used MY OWN BLOOD to open this place up, and this useless do-nothing bitch has the balls to tell me I can't come back to it?!
Dragonborn: sucks, his blood back in his body from the pedestal and the door closes:
The blades : Dragonborn, can you help us open the door it’s locked
Dragonborn: oh, I’m sorry it’s not my home anymore You deal with it
@@kidbuumajin7315 that’s one way to change the locks I suppose
Exactly!
That's why in my headcanon *I* kick *them* both out instead (used Disable command on both and set ownership of the cell, so that the items in there are not "stolen").
Ironic
“What is better - To be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?
~ Paarthurnax
What is more, if he truly sought evil then, why would he tell the Dragonborn about Dragonrend? Sure, he could wait for the Dragonborn to grow old and die, but I’d rather keep him alive and kill the user Delphine who used us to further her own crusade against dragon kind!
The first one. The first one is obviously better.
He's basically the main character Dragon and Delphine as the sidest of side characters really thought she could @ him 🤣
@@Null_Vampyrr Why? What's the achievement in being good if it cost you nothing?
@@ekathe85 The unknown number of souls devoured by Paathurnax would undoubtedly have preferred the first option over the second. One is a great achievement yes and should not be disparaged but the latter option is definitely more preferable to everyone else involved
The worst part of skyrim was the fact that they made her unkillable. Like as soon as she gave you the ultimatum, she should have been killable.
Unkillable NPCs have always been BS
100% agree just give the dialog option to say no and if she insists on this you'll have to fight her. Or just tell the graybeards and say you won't and kick her into exhile
That's why i praise modders so much who legit creating a mod where you can take Paarthurnax side and kill her.
That's just one of many reasons Fallout: New Vegas was better than any other 3D game in either of Bethesda's prime IPs since 2006. I'm not saying Obsidian should be the ones doing TES6, but perhaps I am saying that.
ikr, like make legit every person killable but then give us a genuine "revive" spell, not just a reanimate spell lol
It's one thing to read about the horrors in an old book to so simply condemn him but it's another to realize that Paarthurnax has been serving a self-imposed sentence for thousands of years to become the only reason Alduin loses. Twice.
I don’t think anybody has ever killed Paarthurnax and been like “I made a good choice”
I tried it once just so I could do the Blades quests and I legitimately felt like I murdered my friend. It was so gut-wrenching and Delphine was just like, "Cool...so here's what I want you to do now..."
"I don’t think anybody has ever killed Paarthurnax"...
Let me stop you right there friend.
The Paarthurnax Dilemma mod lets you basically say “I’m the Dragonborn, so as the de facto leader of the Blades I say we are not killing Paarthurnax.”
You say the blades are dragon slayers? Good luck permanently killing any dragons without me to collect their souls.
I also like when she tries to start back talking me I threaten her with my shout and I shake the area
literally the first mod i install in every playthrough
@@sweetpeaches6957 skyrim isn't an RPG its an action adventure
@@Gingerninja800 I'm sure they know that. Saying "Bethesda RPG" is to say a foux RPG bc Bethesda claims their games are RPG based.
The crazy part to me was, if not for Parthurnax, Alduin would have won
You already know Hermaeus Mora would have stepped up to the plate with knowledge of Dragon Rend, offers you can't refuse and forbidden knowledge are his MO. That would have been a really interesting alternative actually, wished they added that in the DLC.
Its kind of like the Nazi SS officers that became scientists for America, should the pay for their crimes or not
@@Meteor2022 No he wouldn't. Or else Mirak would have done it long ago.
Except no, he wouldn't have. Because Akatosh would have reeled his ass in one way or another. Alduin is a shard of Akatosh, and so is the Dragonborn. The entire reason the MC Dragonborn exists is because there's two unruly children who need to have their buttocks spanked, and you happen to do both. Alduin WILL consume the world when the time is right that he do so, and not before. He does not have agency.
Hitler wasn't a cool ass dragon, piss-stain
Delphine: "That's fine. We needed his help. But now we don't."
Me: *Pulls out Uno Reverse Card*
Well I needed your help (not really, other than the game said so), and now I don't.
I didn't realize this until recently, but Isran is actually a pretty good foil to Delphine. Watching how they both change(or don't) as a result of ineracting with you is super interesting when looked at side by side. Starts out with a (admittedly annoying) grudge against one specific species( dragons/vampires ) bosses you around a fair bit, is an arse to your favored companion( Parthurnaax/Serana ) and generally views things from a very pragmatic, cynical place. It's actually pretty satisfying to see when Isran shifts his attitude, bit by bit, because, despite being a stubborn git most times, he does in fact realize that he isn't always right. While we watch Delphine pretend to be the protagonist of the story, Isran regularly(if grudgingly) puts his pride aside multiple times to ask for help from people he openly admits are better qualified for the work that needs to be done. Delphine demands you kill Parthurnaax because of past crimes and because he's outlived his usefulness, threatening to abandon the fight against the dragons until you comply. Isran does threaten Serana to keep her fangs to herself, but doesn't threaten her safety, but the Dragonborns good standing with the Dawnguard, because he's not foolish enough to jeopardize their fight against the vampires. Further down the road, Isran even mentions to Serana that he's aware that going against her father can't be easy, and that he's sorry she had to make such a difficult choice. I know I'm rambling, but I just really enjoy examining the dichotomy between these two characters that started out with such similar backgrounds, and yet diverged into such different paths of thinking; one assured enough in their bias and necessity that they think they can strong-arm the Dragonborn into killing an incredibly useful ally, and the other willing to put his own ego aside for the greater good over and over until he could really see what Serana put herself through to do the same. Idk, I just think Isran is pretty neat.
Isran bosses you around? IMO Isran is stern but kind. he sees a farmer boy come stuttering about and hands him a crossbow and teaches him how to be a vampire slayer. I see him as a father figure.
his interactions with you are "hey new guy, go check this crypt"
hey turns out this and this happened
Isran "we are gonna need more people, go get these two experts i used to work with while I get the rest of the fort in shape" (he actually sets up barricades and takes scared people in)
then he begrudgingly accepts the help of an schizophrenic priest of arkay even tho he hates him.
@@CallMeMimi27 you're welcome to your interpretation of his character :)
@@CallMeMimi27 But it's heavily implied that he's kind of an asshole going by what Sorine, Gunmar and the vigilants say.
@@abdmzn to be fair, you'll be an asshole too if you where constantly proven to be right and everyone just kept blatantly ignoring your advice.
@@CallMeMimi27 come to think of it, I'm willing to say that Isran might be one of the most delightfully complex characters in the game. Y'all make some pretty good points, Isran acts pretty standoffish and almost mean, but I can't say I'd be any different if I knew a vampire Armageddon was coming and no one listened to me. And like I said before, the way Isran grows throughout the quest line is my favorite thing about the whole story, watching his empathy and kindness become more prevalent is just 🤌
Imagine having the honestly very realistic dialogue option telling Delphine to shut the fuck up because you're the dragonborn. So many missed opportunities in this game.
Todd were so focused to make many side quest even he forgot he doesn't play test the main quest
I wanted to kill her SO bad man, so I was pissed I wasn't given that option. Like I'm not just gonna kill grandpa Parthanax after he helped us SAVE THE WORLD.
Hey, I like ya name.
But yeah, I've been wanting to tell her to fuck off since she stole the horn of Jurgen Windcaller. The fact that we have to go kill a dragon to prove to her we're the dragonborn instead of just shouting near her like the whiterun guards was kinda lame.
It could've been fixed by doing that and her going. "Sure you can use the thuum, but can you absorb a dragon soul?" Kind of like how the Greybeards test you, but leaning more into the warrior side to show their parallel views like with Paarthurnax.
One word, Bethesda.
@@irvancrocs1753 damn Bethesda, they ruined Bethesda.
That was about my reaction when she asked me to kill Parthonax.
Her: "Until you've killed him, the blades have nothing further to discuss with you."
Me: *Never returns to the blades*
I made the same choice. The blades were supposed to serve the dragonborn and not the other way around.
The Blades are a boring, useless faction. No great loss to head out and never return. Esbern's Dragon-Slayer's Blessing? Who really needs it? =9[.]9=
she really said that like we were supposed to care
Tbh they were completely useless to me anyway lol
Same. I never went back
"You need to kill Paarthurnax."
"Well you need to go suck an egg."
"We serve the Dragonborn and since you are dragonborn, we are sworn to serve you. Now you must do this one thing that we are ordering you to do or we won't help you anymore."
Serve the dragonborn except all they did was make me do their every bidding and be passive aggressive the whole time.
Delphine comes to an insane conclusion that the thalmor are reviving dragons. When she's wrong she just straight up tells you to go find a dude that actually knows what's happening.
Complete waste of time lmao
I kill Thalmor anyways because they kinda rude.
and in the process of sending you to explore her insane theory she gets her contact, who she’s known for years, apprehended and killed by the thalmor. doesn’t even mention him after the fact
Which in the process more than likely puts you and one other person on the thalmors shitlist for life, given they KNOW your name from the guest list, and your face too. How she evaded the thalmor for so long with incompetence like that is beyond me.
she's the worst written character in the game and that says alot because this is bethesda we're talking about
Dragonborn: “Hey Delphine! Have you ever flown from the top of the Throat of the World??”
Delphine: “No..?”
*_WOULD YOU LIKE TO??!!_*
FUS RO DA!!!
Giving her up to the Thalmor has always been the way I would have liked to see that play out. I like your way as well :)
This actually made me laugh really hard
Guess she got to the cloud district then.
Here's the thing though, exile is a punishment for crime, Paarthurnax absolutely did pay for what he had done
"It's just every time you talked all i heard was "KILL ME, KILL ME, KILL ME". Something with my auditory, think it's gone now though" - Android 17, ADBZ
"Kill Parthanax, hes a bad dragon, hes commited atrocities" "Bitch I've slaughered every living thing from Helgan to here. My path of destruction has left bodies piled so high, you would fill multiple dungeons easily. Half the time I don't know if I'm killing bandits or villagers, and to be honest I dont really care, all I care about is seeing what they have in their pockets. My disregard for life knows almost no limits. But this is where I draw the line. I will not kill the good boy. He is worth 50 of you. Infact, suggest it again, attempt it, even look at him funny, and the only thing i'll be doing is finding a dungeon to dump your corpse."
1 Delphine times 50 is still worth nothing, and we both know Parthanax is worth tens of thousands of gold coins.
@@shibainu2528bro his worth way more than coins
you can't kill delphine since she is essential. but do you know what you could do? set up a resto loop glitch and enchant a weapon with Paralize for 384856284639462947393648592636485959572 to the power of 9 secs and leave her paralized for 7 million years on the floor of skyhaven temple.
@@CallMeMimi27 I like the cut of your jib!
This is why kill mods are essential. Just for Delphine.
My immediate thought was to be a smug prick to her and say "you know, you're right delphine. But seeing as Parthurnax is immortal, and he defected, we'll be lenient and sentence him to... let's say 3000 years exile on the peak of a mountain. Welp, looks like his time's just about paid up."
Oh! Look at that! A free dragon once again!
Gotta love the Dragon justice system.
Heh, time served.
"It's either me, or the dragon."
Is there really even a choice?
The fact is that, without Phaarturnax, all humanity would have died, because he was the one who taught the first humans how to speak the language of dragons. Then the first heroes deformed that tongue to create dragonrend, with which not only they managed to banish Alduin, but later the Dragonborn managed to defeat him. In conclusion, without him the blades and all humans would have been slaves of dragons forever.
The thing is that Phaarturnax helped the humans just because he wanted, he was feeling guilty. But a Dragon and a human are soo different, it is like a human and a dog, it was normal for dragons to abuse of the other creatures. So, he was like a very good being.
Killing Phaarturnax is the most stupid thing that a human could do.
I have no strong opinion on Partysnacks. But just the fact that Delphine thinks she has any power to issues ultimatums to the fucking Dragonborn is hilarious.
I "needed" her help. Now I don't. She dies.
Uhhh did we actually ever need her help in defeating Alduin? Everything we have done for Blades was to serve the Blades (or rather Delphine). We even got on bad with Thalmor cause "surely thalmor is using Alduin".
We did get Paarthurnax's help though. He told us about Dragonrend and Elder Scrolls.
@@bartudundar3193 Yea, the main quest would have played out the same if Delphine and the blades did not show up. Its just longer, with filler.
@@hugo3627 they made me go through Ustengrav all the way to the fucking Riverwood Sleeping Giant Inn for their fucking filler arc. Maybe Alduin had a point.
Partysnacks 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
@@isamal-abssi4412 from the comment above partysnax I love that they kept it going
I think this choice would have had a little more weight had there been more evidence of Paarthurnax's crimes. Showing us what atrocities he committed, and how it affected history, would have made the choice less one-sided. The audience can easily forgive Paarthurnax because we aren't shown anything, we just get told by an NPC that he's bad and did bad things that "are still remembered thousands of years later," but she's the only one who seems to even know about the supposed crimes. If Delphine didn't say he committed crimes, I would argue nobody knew about them at all.
Everything about the main quest was lackluster and felt impactless. Easily the weakest questline in the game.
Paarthunax is cannonically pretty much also a war criminal like Alduin, he just got cold feet about fulfilling his destiny at Alduin's side as he devoured everything to end this era and kickstart the next. So he betrayed his own kind and sold the people who hated them most a weapon to facilitate their genocide so that he could mope around on top of a mountain for a couple centuries.
@@jazzy4830 millenia. The dragons were defeated thousands of years ago, not hundreds, and all of Tamriel's history owes a debt to Paarhturnax. There would be no works of men or mer or kahjiit or argonian were it not for Paarthurnax betraying Alduin. Framing that as cold feet seems to be a long way to go to justify following Delphine's orders
Eh, crimes committed literally thousands of years ago seems pointless to punish someone for. Especially given that the person who committed them has changed in those thousands of years.
Honestly, this is the most accurate representation of why players don't respond well to this quest line. All the information we have as players is what's in the game. For Paarthurnax, we have Delphine's dialogue, the general history of the dragons, and Paarth's actions in-game. If you weigh all those together, no shit Paarth comes out looking like a pretty cool dude. There's literally nothing to support the notion that killing him is a good thing, besides Delphine's claims about events she could not have possibly witnessed (backed by zero goddamn observable evidence) and the general knowledge that dragons tend to be shitheads.
It's not like it would be impossible. There's so many existing structures in the game the devs could have used to make this seem more sensible. Bards' songs about the great & terrible Paarthunax. Ruins or locations with names like "Paarthunax's Devastation". Ghosts wailing about Alduin's fearsome right-hand. Books cataloguing myths that might give a glimpse of his supposed atrocities.
But instead all we get are like two lines from Delphine and a quest marker. Sure, I'll get right on that.
What's great about this is Paarthurnax is sitting a couple hundred feet away while Delphine is saying we should kill him.
For me what's even funnier is that when I played, the Graybeards didn't even leave the room when I got this quest
They're telling me how I need to kill Paarthurnax and I'm sat looking at Arngeir like: "You hearing this shit?"
Wait, so Delphine told you to kill Paarthurnax while his most loyal and devoted followers (as in following him out of respect rather than being told to) were within earshot?
Math ain't mathin.
@@littlemissstrange7427
Paarthurnax served his sentence when he dedicated his life to cultivating the Thu'um on the lips of mortals. He found redemption in the snows on High Hrothgar, bound in exile to the summit of the mountain. He found new purpose in creating, rather than destroying. He's changed, and it was neither easy nor painless.
When people put in the time to change after committing wrongdoings, when they dedicate themselves to mitigating (and even overturning) the damage they've done, the concept of punishment is redundant and wastefully hedonistic. No one owes anyone forgiveness, but pain for pain's sake is not justice; it's spite. Sometimes, it's important to let the past die, so the future can grow strong.
In simpler words, Delphine is being an asshole.
Delphine is deffo one of those people who goes years down someone’s twitter to find a controversial tweet and cancel them
Those people would have no power if idiots would learn to not give a fuck about ancient tweets. I'm sure I have said some pretty fucked up things when I was an asshole teenager, but I'm not that person anymore, and I would treat others as I would be treated on that question.
Imagine if that tweet turned out to be
"Why monkeys throw rocks at people there are spears around them for my father's sake I must teach them lesson"
Delphine: “you need to kill parthanax”
Me: “funny, sounds like you just said I should go to the thalmor and tell them about these blades members I just met and their new base at sky haven temple and invite them over for tea and cake”
Delphine is giving off Astrid vibes and we all know how that ended.
Holy shit, it all makes sense now. She literally feels like Astrid's bitchy sister. Both control freaks, both constantly trying to convey control and dominance over those around them when its obvious they arent supposed to be in charge, but while Astrid uses the friendly persuasion route of manipulation, Delphine uses direct displays of dominance and wilfully withholding information. And when it becomes clear to both that you can't be controlled/are a threat, they want nothing to do with you and effectively shoot themselves in the foot. Astrid sends you on a suicide mission but in doing so gives away the Sanctuary location, destroying her "family" as a result. If you refuse Delphine, then she says you are basically banished until Parrthurnax is killed. And if you're like me, that's fine because we no longer need the Blade's help fighting Alduin, and unlike everyone else we cannot only kill dragons alone, but do so permanently. The Blades cannot, so Delphine effectively neuters them by alienating you.
I'll be honest, I often mistake Delphine and Astrid for eachother. Mainly I just can't remember if Astrid is the Dark Brotherhood lady or if Delphine is. They're basically the same character. And, strangely enough, they both order around their superiors, as if they're in charge.
The Dragonborn leads the Blades and the Listener leads the Dark Brotherhood. Both Delphine and Astrid try to order you around. Delphine succeeds, in the end. Unless you download The Paarthurnax Dilemma. Then you get to yell at her and still continue doing stuff for the Blades.
Bethesda literally just used the same female character and changed the face a bit, they're exactly the same.
@@VoidZeroNothing i dropped the blades and killed the DB. Astrid acted like she didn't remember sending people after me and Delphine thinks she's important. 🥴
I'm sorry, are you the leader of the blades? Are you the dragonborn? I'm pretty sure I'm the one that decides these things. You're just a cosplayer who tried to revive a long dead organization that wouldn't even exist if I never stopped in your inn.
Delphine: "until you've killed him, the blades are of no help to you"
Everyone: *that's fine by me*
They really should have added more “oh is that right? Then I guess the atrocities I commit will have to be even worse, let’s begin with you.” Options.
delphine: I'm gonna boss you around, put you on a wild goose chase, and force you to kill your best friend
dovakiin: 🖕👁👄👁🖕
Best friend? Parthurnaax was more like a mentor guy. Will pop in once in a while make you a cup of tea, and will never ask you any details about how you're doing but will understand your situation and will give you wisdom which you can use in your life. Basically he's like a mentor, who gives you wisdom without invading your privacy
@@ncr_official_2189 An old mentor guy who's living in Argentina but has never lost his German accent. You admire for his knowledge but for some reason, you never asked why he chose this godforsaken village in the Andes over his birthplace.
@@strangelic4234 what's internet's obsession with Hitler? Why does everyone have to be Hitler?
Parthurnaax is more like Schindler (not really but it's the closest comparison). Both of them were very close to the evil power, both of them at the end helped the good guys to save people and both of them were initially thought to be evil when the good guys were winning
@@ncr_official_2189 Hitler didn't go to Argentina, so I don't see how you'd think I meant him personally.
Neither is Paarthunax Schindler. Schindler was a party member but he never was the right hand in any atrocities.
P is more like a fictional Werner Best, where Best, not Duckwitz, was the one that warned the Danes about what would happen in October 1943.
As for the obsession - I can't speak for the internet but as I'm an older German, I did have relatives that I adored as a child before I learned that they had a past.
I'm sorry if that tires you.
@@strangelic4234 who did you mean as the argentinian german grandpa with a heavy german accent? Because as far as I know, the internet and the History channel loves to believe that the dead body of Hitler was a decoy and he fled to Argentina
Edit: on further research I realised you didn't mean H. You maybe meant Eichman and such. Sorry for the confusion I created
Delphine: "That's fine. We needed his help. But now we don't."
So what you're saying is that I can never actually trust you for any reason ever again, because if the time ever comes that you think all of the dragons are gone, you'll turn on me. Ok.
Me: "Blades recruits. The time has come. Execute Order 66."
Them: "Yes, Dragonborn."
edit: [REDACTED]
edit 2: I did this to me. I did this to me. I wish it was your fault, I wish it was your fault, but how could it be, oh, how could it be? Oh, I did this to me.
It's worse than that. Skyrim up and retconed the dragon born and the blades into being far more generic and boring. The more games they make the worse everything seems to get.
Yeah that one line, I've never been more disgusted with an "allied" npc than when those words past over her lips.
I despise that kind of psychopathic, exploitative betrayal bullshit.
I'm gonna play devils advocate here and point out that the dragonborn isn't actually a dragon, there's no reason to suggest that delphine would turn on the Blades most effective weapon
@@eskinor7655 hes not a dragon in body but he literally has the soul of one
@@lawyitkazuki5768 Yet our dragonborn also never helped institute and maintain Alduin's rule of power. If Heinrich Himmler somehow escaped to America and became a hippy in his old age, I sure as shit would still want him executed for his crimes.
Too bad for you Delphine, I have the creation kit and you are no longer essential. Yeah that's how you made Paarthunax feel. Sucks doesn't it.
“That’s fine, we needed his help, now we don’t”
On top of electing to kill someone for things they did countless years ago and have gone through the effort of righting those wrongs, admitting to keeping someone around until they’ve outlived their purpose just makes me genuinely sick. In storytelling and in real life.
And I can’t help but notice how Delphine doesn’t bring this little fact about Paarthurnax until AFTER the Dragonborn helps them get into Sky Haven Temple. Now that we’ve fulfilled our purpose, Delphine doesn’t need us anymore.
As if we really needed Delphine to begin with.
Delphine instantly blew any trust I had for her out the window with this. Yeah, Paarth did some awful stuff but remember it was also him who gave mankind the ability to fight back and eventually stop the end of the world. He himself hasn’t forgiven his crimes and remained in exile to atone. If we can’t forgive him then there is no retribution in this world.
What amazes me is that you had trust in her to begin with lol.
Yeah, like he said, there was no option but to side with Alduin at the start. The idea of being against him was not a matter to consider until Paarthurnax first thought of the idea. Humans were livestock to the dragons
Exactly. Bad writing choices from Bethesda that could have been great. Whatever happened to RPGs that offer multiple choices and consequences. Oh, and Bethesda must have forgotten what it means to "serve' as Delphine would be insubordinate. That would be another great option. Having Delphine on the chopping block at the Thalmor embassy after I tell them where to find her. No that would be memorable game story.
@@briankriens5645 I'm looking forward to the Skyrim story overhaul mod that's meant to be coming out next year.
I never trusted her since I met her. The way she was hiding, manipulating behind the scenes and putting herself in charge very clearly from the very beginning just pissed me off. I'm so fucking glad there's a mod that changes this bs. I just let paarth live and never went back to her again the first time.
I hate how Bethesda didn’t think to include a “nah bro paarthurnax is my ride or die” option. Like wtf did they think that every player would just be like “yeah this makes sense”
I’m pretty sure you can refuse if you talk to her again, then she goes off in a huff and refuses to work with you until you kill him. Nothing of any particular value is lost.
You do get this option.
@@sleazypolar yeah but in a mod
@@gotmemes7090 No. You could always just not kill him. It literally changes nothing significant to the end game.
@@sleazypolarstill, the fact that the quest stay there on your quest tab is annoying af. Even if you complete every single quests, there's still that one quest that just stay there haunting you to finish it
“That’s fine. I needed you and your Blades. Now I don’t.”
**walks away**
“You have to kill Paarthurnax.”
“That’s bold talk for someone that’s on a mountain.”
Delphine: He committed atrocities so infamous they are still remembered, thousands of years later.
Dragonborn: Such as?
Delphine: .... uh, .... yeah, he's a dragon. He, you know, killed lots of people.
"Who hasn't", said the dragonborn who wiped a town for a cheese wheel.
@@zubbworks I turned Riverwood into a graveyard accidentally. Stormcall shout while fighting a dragon.
@@devinwhite5064 Woops.
Lol right all she said was he was alduins right hand, but he never said what kind of crimes he committed for all we know he just told alduin to destroy stuff
@@zubbworks Or kicked a chicken accidentally and now half the population of the country is wormfood.
Letting everyone know, the best ending is when you don't kill Parthanaax. He greets you after Alduin's defeat and tells you he's going to take the current dragons under his wing.
Any dragons willing to listen to the idea of peace anyway. Otherwise, there would be a lack of dragon souls after the main quest lol.
@@windrider2190Paarthurnax said "But willing or not they will listen" without alduin Paarthurnax is the strongest dragon lorewise hence why he was Alduin second in command.
and with the help of the dragonborn the dragons will bend to the way of the voice or get their souls sucked. there is no in between.
ofc lesser dragons will not like it since it will be like trying to get a Chihuahua to stop being so angry all the time
There is a stuffed dragon on my desk who has served as my mascot for nearly my entire adult life, a gift from an otherwise long-forgotten girlfriend in 2000.
He would never, ever forgive me if I killed Paarthurnax. So I never have.
So in her eyes, once you mess up, no amount of time or effort spent doing good deeds will ever make her not want you dead.
At this point in the game I wasn't all that surprised she wanted to kill the dragon that helped me save the world. I was surprised that Esbern agreed with her, right after giving a grand speech about how we should cast aside our animosity with each other to deal with a bigger threat. And when Alduin is defeated, would he then happily let the civil war resume as normal?
Skyrim's story writing has problems.
"I swear you'd be of more use to me, if I skinned you and turned your skin into a lampshade." Is in the same vein as, "You'll make a fine rug, cat!"
“You haven’t thought of the smell, you bitch!!”
Or "I'll wear your tail as a belt"
😂😂😂
The worst part is if you go through with killing Paarthurnax basically all you get is a “good job” from Delphine
First off, your name makes me uncomfortable somehow, I can't quite put my finger on it but it makes me uncomfortable. Secondly, yep. She is the worst written character in all of Skyrim, arguably all of elder scrolls. Why on earth should I listen to her when I am the leader of the blades. She is a cosplayer. She was never a member of the blades ordained by a dragonborn. I literally AM the dragonborn. Why on Earth does she think that she can boss around her own leader?
Forbidden knowlage
@@christhe2001 u made my day with this comment :')
Whos good boy whoof woof
Why do you know this 🤨
This sidequest gets memed on hard, but it could have been a really interesting moral dilemma and an exploration of justice in the context of passing millennia if the writers had devoted more than three minutes to writing it.
It would actually be quite the statement to have a human sized glass box on your mantle filled with cubes of someone who wronged you. You'd have to completely drain and dry the body, then freeze and cut into cubes, then re-arrange the cubes in a neat stack and then craft a completely air-tight glass box which fits the exact volume of the cube stack. That involves a few skills and a lot of work and dedication to be done right.
"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement."
Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand.
Great quote
For those who don't want to see this convo, you can just finish the Dragon Rising first, run through all Civil War Quest line, it'll take you at most 2hrs, then come back to the main quest, remember to not choose any dialogue option that mention Delphine or Esbern, and ALWAYS go to the Grey Beards map marker for when Parthunaax ask you to do anything, that way you'll never hear about Delphine trying to kill Partysnax ever again
Or just download the mod that gives you the option to take paarthurnax' side and help him kill her. c:
@@pineapplepizzasandwich1974 i wish that mod could become a CC content
Why would you want the mod which is free to be something you have to pay for?
@@garythejanitor probably so they can still get achievements or because the device they use doesn't have the mod available
or just download the mod the "killable delphine", and kill her instantly
Best part? You can straight up ignore her request. "I needed you but now I don't" straight back at you, Delphine.
Delphine: Im in charge!
Dragonborn: *do you feel in Charge?*
Its very in character for the dragonborn to have a skin collection. He can (and does) rip the pelt off of just about any animal he encounters in seconds, sometimes he can even retrieve their bones. The whole thing is much more grisly when you consider that in-universe there is no inventory or looting system, and every item you pick up is being retrieved manually.
You watch Dovakiin kill something and before you can even thank him you watch him stick his hand straight into his victims chest to rip out their internal organs and shove them into his bag. His arms and body completely drenched in blood and viscera. Then he yanks their skin like a waiter taking off a tablecloth, and to your horror it simply detaches completely leaving only a skinless mass of miscellaneous tissues.
You want to scream, you want to run away, you want to vomit, but before you can do any of that his predatory draconian eyes lock onto you, and he begins _sprinting_ toward you with the same hands you just watched part flesh like water. There is insanity in those eyes, constantly shifting as though looking at something that wasn’t there. His weapons are still drawn and remembering an old legend that said Dragons could only see motion, you stand very still hoping that he won’t kill you.
But when he gets within a few feet of you he suddenly stops, and remains quiet for a while, brow furrowed in concentration, then his face suddenly changes and he speaks in a normal happy tone that wouldn’t have been out of place were it not for the blood still dripping off of his skin, and the blatant lack of emotion on his face before he decided to start talking. You’re now sure that he’s a psychopath, and regret discarding the stories about the Dark Brotherhood as mere rumor, oh what a fool you were.
He asks you if you have anything to sell. And you stutter out a reply, a shell-shocked thousand yard stare on your face. He offers you a pile of bloody coins he clearly dug out of a carcass, along with a sheet of skin, a pile of bones, and several organs. Its all you can do not to scream as he piles them into your arms, covering you in rot. The smell is going to give you nightmares. In exchange he takes all the food your family had saved up for winter and eats it in front of you, then he leaves as quickly as he appeared. Leaving you to wonder how your family will survive the harsh nord winters when safe travel to the cities will become difficult. And you will recall your brush with the surreal horror of the dragonborn’s existence for the rest of your days,
Nice
Reading this at 3 AM while trying so damn hard not to laugh out loud like a madman. You sir just made my night.
*slow clap*
Babe wake up. New copypasta just dropped
Years later he comes to your house. You are still in terror of what happened and start shaking. This is just another nightmare, you say to yourself. He wouldn't have anything to do in this corner of the world. You watch him approach your house from the window and get in. The moment he enters, he crouches in a weird position, as if he's a predator stalking his prey. The old planks on the floor creak as his weight sets upon them. Everything is coming back again. The terror of Dragonborn. It's fine it's fine. If I just ignore him again it must be fine. You watch him your family's only valuable possession, a pink gemstone of your wife. As he starts taking things your daughter returns from playing in the village. "Out of my way dork." She tells Dragonborn. Immediately after a voice rumbles in your head:
"Game Quicksaved".
"He commited crimes that are still remembered thousands of years later".
She's the only person who knows the least of information about Paarthurnax outside the Greybeards, because not a single character mentions him.
Man, I always wondered what were the devs thinking when they made this quest forced upon the player with no option to counter Delphine, it's like they had no idea what the players would think at this point.
This isn't forced, it's an optional side objective for the main story, you can finish the questline and never do this and all you lose out on is rebuilding the blades. And let's be honest, who the fuck cares
"Optional"
"Locks you out of content"
Pick one. I want to restore the blades AND put Deltard in her place by telling her I am the dragonborn and thus her boss.
It was so jarring even back then. Thats like the knights of nine in oblivion barring you from their faction because you did a quest for meridia because Umeril commands her daedric minions the aurorans.
@@Zwijger Alright class, today we're going to learn what optional means, and more importantly, how to use it. Our running example is going to be this guy not understanding what the word means.
So I said killing Paarthurnax was optional, but some of you might be saying "but wait you don't have to play the game, so all quests are optional!" That is true, however anyone that speaks English as their first language intuitively knows that it is not that precise, you can have the word only apply within a certain context.
And that's where my comment came in. It was referring to the original comment that said the quest is "forced upon you" so we're already narrowing our use of the word 'optional' to within the game, and from my interpretation, within the main quest, because if we aren't talking about the main quest then the comment doesn't even make sense, since you can play any other questline.
So that is where we can understand my comment. Assuming you know you want to live, play a game, play Skyrim, and play the main quest, the question is can you do all those things without also killing Paarthurnax? The answer of course is yes. Therefore the comment I made was correct: killing Paarthurnax is optional "FOR THE MAIN STORY"
That is what my original message said, word for word, bar for bar. The fact that it is optional for that purpose is not mutually exclusive with being nonoptional for other purposes such as, I don't know, "rebuilding the blades" as anyone with the reading comprehension of a third grader would understand. Sorry to waste everyone's time since I know none of you could possibly be so stupid as to need this explanation.
@@thothrax5621 You didn't have to rip the man in half
Gotta love how there's a discussion about this after 11+ years.
Biggest flaw is that you cant side with parthanaux and the dragons instead of the blades
Delphine: "That's fine we needed his help, but now we don't..."
Dragonborn: "Delphine...........are we the baddies?"
More like "Delphine..... Are you the leader of the dragonborns? Or am I the leader of the blades?"
Hm, well I needed your help, but now I don't. So you're saying it's OK for me to kill you?
on my next playthrough, ill make sure to remind Delphine that she's a bird
Larry Bird.
@@linksbetweendrinks7032 I doubt she be ballin
This one got me. Like well deserved
I'm Delphine and the jokes on me
The total audacity of Bethesda to put in a wise fatherly figure who is never anything but nice to you, have you bond over the course of the entire main quest, and then expect you to happily kill him at the end for crimes he committed thousands of years ago that neither you nor anyone else have ever seen.
They seem to always be happy to cater to the "kill everything" players, the ones who click through every conversation and just murder their way through the game.
"From now on, I the Dragonborn himself/herself decided that The Blades are no longer needed to serve the dragonborn and starting today i will hunt down every single last one of you till the blades are nothing but a history. And that's an oath"
At least PartySnack teach us that with wisdom, patience and a bit of common sense even the dovah can be more than destructive beasts of the end times, while Delphine is basically the human equivalent of Alduin
PartySnack? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@DarkOmegaMK2 Some people call him it sometimes. Most probably because of autocorrect, but some because it's a god tier name.
@@dragonseatcheese8727 It really is a good name, yeah.
Don´t insult poor Alduin, he is useful/(somewhat) sane.
“I’m not killing Mario, Delphine.”
Edit: For context, Charles Martinet, voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi, voices Paarthurnax.
Never knew that. Thank you.
In that case:
New shout: Agile Movement (allows you to jump higher for a short time)
Full shout: LET SA GO
Let - Jump
Sa - Agility
Go - Weightless
@@jacksongibbs8998 this comment deserves CZcams Hall of Fame recognition
Her only memorable contribution to the dragonborn was getting the invitation to the thalmor embassy. Memorable because that's where I start avoiding the quest line every playthrough
“I won’t help you if you don’t kill parthurnaax”
“Oh, ok. Good luck slaying dragons then.”
1. download any of a the myriad of prison mods
2. arrest and imprison delphine forever. her god given immortality will serve as her curse, for she shall now be in chains until the end of time
Setessential ID 0
@@TheDizeazedKiller Goddamn I wish I could use that in real life sometimes.
Until the end of time? You mean when Alduin returns to devour the world? The same Alduin the Dragonborn killed? 🤣Your plan is extra sadistic... I love it!
thats so much better than killing her and trapping her soul in the soul cairn, then teabagging her both in the mortal realm and the soul cairn.
@@Dosko i mean, nobody is essential in real life. so no need to use that unless you mean you want to turn people immortal
Delphine wants to cancel Paarthurnax for something he did thousands of years ago.
Paarthunax had committed too many crimes at Alduins side and even if he had since repented still needed to be punished. We don't forgive Hitler for the holocaust just because he killed Hitler.
@@jazzy4830 you know what? That’s a good point, i didn’t think of it that way
But is it really fair to hold a dragon to human morals? Plus, we probably wouldn’t have been able to defeat Alduin without his help, I’d say that’s a redeemable act
Besides, the last dragonborn also killed a lot of people, especially if they partook in the war. We also have blood on our hands based on disagreements that wouldn’t necessarily require this much violence
@@that_sarcastic_bxtch7609 I mean fighting in a Civil War with both Grey sides is quite a few steps below "Was the right Hand of Alduin and helped enforce the Dragons rule over humanity for millenia" and the even bigger hint (literally in his name big hint) is that Paarthunax didnt rebel to helps humanity, but rather to ursup Alduin and take his place (which if you leave him alive he does).
@@capablanc that's what we have the champions of twitter for
personally I would keep a dragon around. this is not about punishment or justice. its her trying to to solidify power and remove future threats. are cant conflate the two concepts and act like one outweighs the other.
Her: "Until you've killed him, the blades have nothing further to discuss with you."
Me: Fus, Ro, Dah
"We needed his help, now we don't" - every villain, ever.
Atrocities that are remembered thousands of years later yet no one has mentioned any of them
Besides these 2 😉
It's so bizarre to me that there's no way to argue her down. Aside from the whole "Blades serve the Dragonborn" thing, Tamriel would've never been freed from the oppression of the dragons if it weren't for Paarthurnax. She literally owes her life to him.
Speech skill is useless in Skyrim.
Definitely a good "Shut the fuck and go guard the entrance Daphne!" moment.. and "Bring some wine before you do!"
I always like characters like Paarthurnax. Characters that have done atrocities but they are the ones that are responsible for ending up saving everyone. It leads you to realize how grey the world is. Nobody is 100% good or evil. Hell, you could argue that the dragonborn has done some atrocities. But if the characters do alot more good than evil then I think they can be forgiven for their crimes. Especially, if they are genuinely upset about said crimes they did and try to do everything they can to make up for it.
I'll never forget my words verbatim when I first hear her. "Bitch,you need me,not the other way around!"
Missed opportunity for Dennis to let out a Thum when he shouts “bitch.”
I can’t believe she would want you to kill Mario
The real injustice in this game is not being allowed to take out The Blades after all this
I know it’s a little thing but I love that Dennis calling Delphine “Dee” works so well
Dennis refers to Delphine as Dee which still makes sense LOL
Keep the always sunny/ Skyrim mashups coming bro. That's gold, Jerry, gold!
Skyrim be like:
"NoOOoOo yOu cAnT kIlL ThAt NpC, tHeY'rE eSseNtiAl"
Meanwhile Fallout New Vegas:
"You want to kill the annoying NPC? Sure go ahead"
Parthunaax is a hero just like the Player. A prisoner of fate, given a second chance by the Divines, and given choices to make. And Parthunaax chose to no longer be a tyrant and free all Men from the Dragon Cult, and founded a new peaceful religion for all surviving dragons to live by. To slay Parthunaax in cold blood is to doom all dragons to a cycle of hatred and arrogance.
The Dragonborn: "Remember Delphine. The Blades are nothing without me. Best you remember that."
Knowing history I'm pretty sure the "atrocities" might be just one person hearing a that he burned a village and got turned into him eating children while sitting on a skull throne.
That was my brain when she said I had to kill him. Like no, I'm way too emotionally attached to Grandpa Parthurnax!
This is why I love The Paarthurnax Dilemma - it makes Delphine and Esbern non-essential once this quest pops up. 😈
I will probably never finish skyrim because of this quest.
You can finish skyrim without completing this quest. All you have to do is tell the greybeards that the blades want you to kill paarthurnax after they give you this quest and you won't have to kill him anymore.
@@AzzyGG what I do is I disable her with console commands as soon as the meeting ends, I've never ran into issues for the rest of the main quest line and I don't have the permanent reminder in my journal because she never gave me the quest.
or you can just finish the Dragon Rising first, run through all Civil War Quest line, it'll take you at most 2hrs, then come back to the main quest, remember to not choose any dialogue option that mention Delphine or Esbern, and ALWAYS go to the Grey Beards map marker for when Parthunaax ask you to do anything, that way you'll never hear about Delphine trying to kill Partysnax ever again
There is a way to get rid of the quest just go to angri or whatever his name is and tell him about it and say you aren't killing him
Theres a mod that lets you take paarthurnax' side and fight delphine with him. :)
It amuses and baffles me how this game spends so much time making you develop some bond with Paarthurnax, and then expects you to contemplate (maybe even proceed to) killing him based on nothing more than the words of a character who sent you alone on a few missions and spent her little on-screen time being strictly professional towards you
Professional? She was obessesive, paranoid and reckless sending you to run errands for her and making you a permanent and known enemy of the Thalmor.
No, not professional. She was just a bitch.
_bethesda during marketing: "yeah this is a great, in-depth RPG with tons of choices and consequences from your quests!!"_
bethesda during development: "hehe yeah dont forget to remove all the players choices and auto accept horrible quests, god forbid we have to make an extra quest line branch for when they disagree with how the quest we forced them into goes...oh and steve! make me twelve more variants of the radiant quests, no butts mister! i want this game to be as action-adventure as possible!"
Delphine: we need to kill parthanax
My kahjiit s: you been hitting the skooma haven’t you?
Atrocities Delphine? You mean like, the time where the blades went to tamriel and went on a killing spree? And serve emperor reman just so no one would ever attack you?
Paarthunax is a bro. And he is Mario. You don't fu**ing kill Mario!
I don't know why I really like the idea of the dragonborn (or any Bethesda protag really) being like a completely unhinged sociopath that still attempts to maintain appearences as the hero. So when you ask them something in private sometimes they just snap and go off on a tangent or kill someone in cold blood, then the second someone else walks in the room they're all normal and personable.
Dragonborn: so you're telling me I can have a army of 2 OR have a dragon as a best friend ... yeaaaahh well it's been nice knowing you!
Meanwhile me: "draws Wabbajack" "Listen here, Delphine. If you change into a sweetroll, I'll eat you. If a rabbit, I'll off you, skin you and make a rabbit stew. If you change into a horker. Same thing. If you change into something else, the result will always be me somehow driving a dagger into your gut. So, what will it be, peach? You taking back what you just said, or me trying my luck?"
Hold up, does the Wabbajack actually work on her? Like, the transformation part? Because if so, that would be PERFECT
Fun Fact: Delphine is the only npc in the game in which, if she gets turned into a sweetroll with the Wabbajack, she will instead turn into a SourRoll, due to the high concentration of salt and acid in her system.
@@QilleWolf Sadly I haven't played Skyrim in years, and I do not know if it's possible in the Anniversary edition. I remember it working in 32-bit version (though it maybe because it was modded) I just wanted to test it out, and it worked. The only quest I wanted to fail anyway...
@@DarkOmegaMK2 This needs to be a mod.
@@QilleWolf im pretty sure when it comes to Unkillable NPC's the only wabbajack effects that can occur are the ones which just cause Generic Destruction Spell effects
Paarthurnax was such a bro. Probably my favorite NPC in Skyrim, and it was such a great cherry on top for the journey up the mountain
I wish there was an option to tell Ondolemar where sky haven temple is.