Sadly no, and that's a real problem because as racist as the Stormcloaks are... They do seem to be the lesser evil given that the Empire is actively working with the Thalmor and will even force changes to major world religions just to appease them, and the Thalmor are far FAR more bigoted than the Stormcloaks, going full mask off on wanting to enslave anyone who they can't genocide away.

The Stormcloaks do not like foreigners in their country and if you're an Argonian or an Elf they REALLY don't like you.... But their main point, that the Thalmor want to criminalize their very culture and kill them are, is valid, if it wasn't then the Stormcloaks would be the clear villain.

I kinda wish the Thalmor weren't part of the plot, because the twist of the underdog rebel group being evil and the big scary empire being good is actually a genius subversion of expectation.

Edit: I want to underline the whole "The Empire bans aspects of major world religions because the Thalmor told them to." part, because I feel like it's easy to overlook that as a big detail. In real life, it's still fucked up, but at the end of the day "So what, customs change over time and it's not THAT big a deal."

But this is a Fantasy setting where the reason for the major religion being major is because you can literally prove it, and even go to the Nord afterlife and meet Talos, the guy they banned the worship of, and find he does live up to what the good book says about him.

Meaning it's less "Tone down the religion because aspects of your practices are offensive to elves", and more akin to "We will kill anyone who acknowledges the Law of Gravity."

[–] scholar@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

Removing the Thalmor would make Skyrim a much less nuanced game, it's better off for not having easy moral choices.

[–] Famko@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

While it's bad that the Empire basically outlawed a major deity due to losing so bad to the Thalmor, I still find them the correct choice to pick during the civil war questline due to them trying to work against the Thalmor and build up their strength for a counterattack, so to speak.

What the Thalmor wants in game is for the civil war to drag on and be a drain on the Empire's resources, however a Stormcloak victory is also acceptable to them due to Ulfric being a useful idiot and that the Empire's power would wane and be easier to conquer later (y'know, divide and conquer).

And Legate Rikka, one of the higher ranking members of the Legion, worships Talos and prays over Ulfric's body when you kill him. So it's more of a case of banning Talos worship but not fully enforcing the law.