This topic contains spoilers, consider yourself warned!

First off, on my first playthrough I decided the civil war in favor of the Stormcloaks. I did this before completing the main quest. I regret this for two reasons. If you don't decide the civil war before the main quest is through, you get the coolest quest ever, which basically revolves around negotiating a truce between the Empire and Stormcloaks for the duration of the dragon crisis. Some of the voice actors get some much needed screen time during this meeting, such as Max von Sydow. The other reason I regret siding with the Stormcloaks is because Ulfric's a dick. Go figure.

But it's what happens after the truce negotiating that is of the essence. When Delphine approaches you with the ultimatum of either killing Parturnaax or never getting any aid from the Blades, I was kinda shocked. First off, it seems like a dick move to force me into doing a thing by putting an ultimatum like that, after I've been helping them for several quests. If they want him dead, then go ahead and kill him. That, combined with the fact Parturnaax is a real cool dude, pushed me in the direction of siding with him on my first playthrough. But as I've said, I'm on my second playthrough now, and I'm wondering what to do. Did you guys kill Parthurnaax or let him live? If you killed him, is there any reward from the Blades, and do they have a storyline beyond the main quest?

Thanks for reading my rambling, and hopefully you answer my questions.

A merry christmas, and a happy new year to all!

I found myself not wanting to kill Paarthurnax because he's a cool dude. Although at the end it almost sounds like he could end up as a bad guy or something.

I didn't want to kill Paarthurnax, but eventually found myself running out of things to do and took his soul. The Blades allow you to recruit three people of your choice into their order, giving them Blades gear. They'll also tell you where Dragon Walls in the wild are (white dragon head symbols on the map), which are guarded by dragons. You can however, request that your recruits meet you there to help you deal with the dragon.

Why you would need their help is beyond me, but to each his/her own.

Also, you'll be able to get a potion that will permanently grant you the Dragon Infusion perk, which gives you a 25% resistance to Dragon Melee Damage. All of that said, after doing all that, I came to the conclusion that the Blades were useless and might as well be dead. The Thalmor did their work well: the Blades aren't even a shadow of their former selves, and the idea that they could recuperate is laughable.

I regret killing Paarthurnax.

Also, if you kill him, the Greybeards will no longer help you or speak to you. That means they'll no longer tell you the locations of dungeons which contain unread Word Walls. Since I'd found all the words, this wasn't an issue, but for you, it may be. So keep that in mind. And obviously, you can't meditate on a Word to empower it with Paarthurnax dead. If you have already meditated on a Word, it will still stay after his death, permanently. You won't be able to switch it out.

@sthusby: My decision not to kill Parthunaax locked me out of doing *any* of the optional Dragon slaying with your recruited blades members, but I stuck by it. He did nothing to me. In fact, without his help they'd have never solved the situation to begin with. The Blades seem almost as big jerks as any of the other factions in the game.

But as to what I'll do on my second playthrough... well, I also had the issue of missing out on the peace treaty mission, so I'm going to finish all that rot after the main quest as well. I will probably kill Parthunaax because this character is going to be all about wiping all dragons from the face of the world, and, of course, because I want to see all that content I missed in the first run through. Of course, I know it complicates things equally. See the post above me.

Killed the dragon and feel terrible for doing so.......sniff

I didn't kill Paarthunax. I run this shit, Delphine is just a meat shield.

Parthunaax, is a straight up bro and a repentant pacifist to boot. I also found it highly ironic how Blades committed genocide against the dragons, but are all yoh he did that too, but he's got to pay for that cause he's dragon so it was mad evil Dovaduder, but when we do it's ok yah hurd. I'm not saying put on a scale it'll weight out equal, but the fact that it's completely unacknowledged makes them seem like dicks.

Basically without Parthunaax originally helping humans Nirn, or at least a good portion of it, might still be ruled by Tyrannical dragons.

Dude's earned his retirement as far as I'm concerned.

@Xolare: I thought the same thing. Especially when he said something like forcing other dragons to see that he was right now that Alduin was gone.

And I never knew this. I guess I have something to do for my next playthrough.

Delphine is a bitch, Parthurnaax is my bro. Not a hard question/

I'm roleplaying as a fascist asshole, so imma kill that dragon!

@BelligerentEngine "Dovaduder" is the greatest word on the internet. Thank you for making my day.

And yeah, I spared Paarthunax, because he's badass. Also, that Truce stuff sounds badass, kind of wish I hadn't sided, but heard from everyone that I needed to choose.

I'm not going to kill him, I like the guy. We're cool as far as I'm concerned and the Blades can shove it.

The blades were a disappointment on the whole, actually. Finding the temple was actually amazing, I really like the place, but then that whole line is pretty much over and relegated to small side-stuff. Only being able to bring three people in? Missed opportunity. I wanted to build them up to some former glory, track down and induct as many recruits as possible, get our base up and running into something impressive. Then all together take on some great challenge, it would have been great.

I didn't kill him, but out of curiosity, I saved and then tried to kill him. Crazy thing is he just stood on his perch doing his crooked look. Didn't even bother to attack and his health was regenerating. Was it because I talked to him before hand about how the Blades wanted him dead? Anyway after he was healed up, it was like nothing happened. I could have just kept throwing fire at him all day and he would have been totally cool with it.

@drag: After you've taken down Alduin, what great challenge is left for a group of professional dragonslayers?

No way was I going to kill Parthurnaax. He taught me a lot and was very wise. 
 
Decided to put a spoiler tag below.
 

Parthurnaax is my friend....  I would never kill him...  Thinking about this makes me want to kill off the blades........

@VilhelmNielsen: DON'T DO IT!!! Biggest regret of my life...in video games

@sthusby: Support Ulfirc or die trying! I regret nothing, but now knowing about the quest you metioned does make me interested when I decide to do another play through.

Also Parthurnaax is more my kin then stupid Delphine and that other dumb old Blade. They act like they helped me but I don't owe them shit! I was hoping that Parthurnaax would ask me to kill the blades for him cause I would of done that without hesitation.

Bros before hoes, man.

yeah i couldn't believe what i heard coming out of delphine's mouth, go kill the one dragon that is helping us out and doesn't want to chew on me, good idea bitch! Needless to say i refused to do it, delphine can rot in hell for wanting me to do such an evil thing.

@Nightriff said:

@VilhelmNielsen: DON'T DO IT!!! Biggest regret of my life...in video games

Oh, you mean like killing Dwayne instead of Playboy X? That guy was a dick, just like my racist Skyrim character!

@VilhelmNielsen said:

@Nightriff said:

@VilhelmNielsen: DON'T DO IT!!! Biggest regret of my life...in video games

Oh, you mean like killing Dwayne instead of Playboy X? That guy was a dick, just like my racist Skyrim character!

Oh you always kill Playboy, you get the apartment over cash, money wasn't a problem in the game just like dragons aren't a problem in Skyrim

I did the main quest before choosing faction sides and was able to make both reasonably happy at the negotiating table. However, I care not for the petty squabbles of mortals. They all seem like dicks so I'll probably end up putting them on my "find a way to kill this jerk" list right next to the Blades. I'm all for dragon murder but it seems like a shame to off the one dragon who gave me my powers. The Greybeards are wimps but at least they follow my orders.

I've heard a lot about Delphine demanding that you kill him, but I haven't talked to her since I finished the main quest. I don't think I'll kill Parthurnaax though since talking to him for the first time was one of the coolest things in any video game this year for me.

Did you know that the guy who voices Parthurnaax is none other than Charles Marinet? So essentially, when you're killing the cool dragon, you're also killing Mario. Annnnd everyone knows killing Mario isn't cool. There's even laws against that I believe.

@VilhelmNielsen said:

@Nightriff said:

@VilhelmNielsen: DON'T DO IT!!! Biggest regret of my life...in video games

Oh, you mean like killing Dwayne instead of Playboy X? That guy was a dick, just like my racist Skyrim character!

Oh you always kill Playboy, you get the apartment over cash, money wasn't a problem in the game just like dragons aren't a problem in Skyrim

@the_OFFICIAL_jAPanese_teaBAG said:

@Nightriff said:

@VilhelmNielsen said:

@Nightriff said:

@VilhelmNielsen: DON'T DO IT!!! Biggest regret of my life...in video games

Oh, you mean like killing Dwayne instead of Playboy X? That guy was a dick, just like my racist Skyrim character!

Oh you always kill Playboy, you get the apartment over cash, money wasn't a problem in the game just like dragons aren't a problem in Skyrim

Dont you get a better apartment though?

You don't get any apartment from killing Dwayne if that is what you are insisting, just 20000 cash

@Nightriff said:

@the_OFFICIAL_jAPanese_teaBAG said:

@Nightriff said:

@VilhelmNielsen said:

@Nightriff said:

@VilhelmNielsen: DON'T DO IT!!! Biggest regret of my life...in video games

Oh, you mean like killing Dwayne instead of Playboy X? That guy was a dick, just like my racist Skyrim character!

Oh you always kill Playboy, you get the apartment over cash, money wasn't a problem in the game just like dragons aren't a problem in Skyrim

Dont you get a better apartment though?

You don't get any apartment from killing Dwayne if that is what you are insisting, just 20000 cash

What you do get, is a dickish phone call from Playboy X, which makes you want to kill them both.

Don't you also get those awesome GTA III clothes? Dwayne is such a bummer, though.

I wish the choices in Skyrim, the ones ya'll are talking mostly about, were nicer. I hate having to choose between to dicks... I end up not choosing at all. I've put over 100+ into the game and haven't chosen stormcloaks or imperial, and I left the dragon alive cause I'm not a dickhead... the dragon is clearly not evil, or at least as clear as anything can be and the blades just say he must die cause he did should hundreds of years ago or whatever?... real dumb, that sort of thing breaks immersion for me in the game, because my 'answer' to these choices is simple. I force the blades to talk to the dragon WITH me, bam logic either happens to the blades or doesn't in which case I kill them cause they are stupid. Also sitting down with ulfric and the imperials and talking some anti-racism and some BACKBONE into both would solve both those issues.

In Skyrim I feel so powerless, dicks be dicks and I have to chose without any player input besides not choosing at all? Ok then couldn't I have chosen a third option like the way of the voice and got more than just 'nothing happens'? Some way of the voice quest lines? :( Video Games.

It was really surprising when the Blades told me they wanted him dead. The way they told it didn't feel to good either, it didn't feel like a proper conversation; they just threw it out there out of nowhere like "Oh, and if you're interested, why don't you kill off that dragon over there?"

Of course I didn't want to kill Parthurnaax, he's just too cool.

Delphine wanting to kill Parthurnaax is just pure self-righteousness. I have a big problem with that, so I did not kill him.

My problem with that quest is that you don't have the option to tell Delphine to shove it. You are the Dragonborn, and the Blades serve you. People like Delphine shouldn't be calling the shots.

I'm not saying she should back down, hell I wouldn't mind having to fight and kill the Blades. If I'm either for them or against them, fine, her choice. I'll choose "against." You should be given that option. But, of course, that would go against the tradition of the player character in these games being no more than an agency-less errand boy.

The only good thing about the Blades is Dragonsbane, which disappears whenever I get arrested.

Bethesda should have gave more dialouge options in this situation, i gave two of my best followers throughout my 70+ hours of gametime to the Blades as new recriuts, and was gona recruit my wife into them lool, the Blades were my fav faction and i was more then happy to rebuild the faction, but now they suck my dragontail! i wanted to the option to start a fight so i can kill all the few remaining damn blades and finish what the Thalmor have been doing...then kill the Thalmor.

I let Parthurnaax live. I saw no reason for killing him other than the Blades trying to assert some sort of control over me, which does not fly with me. I also didn't do the Civil War until the VERY END of the game (literally). I put int about 100 hours and did every quest I found before finally siding with the Stormcloaks. Why the Stormcloaks? Easy, no matter how much of an asshole Ulfric is, no sovereign people should ever be ruled by outsiders. Plus, the Thalmor are the actual bad guys.

Here's hoping for some Thalmor DLC. I can't wait to rid those guys from Skyrim and get Talos worship back to being legalized.

TLDR, didn't read everyone's post.

After finding Alduin's wall, I didn't continue the questline. Instead I went and talked to Delphine and she gave me the sidequest(misc) to find 3 recruits and kill a dragon with them on a mountain somewhere. After that Esbern gave me the dragon infusion potion(dragons do 25% less melee damage to you) from the bone and scales I colected. After that no more sidequest from either of them. Then I continued the questline. Meaning, I didn't exchange all of the Blade benefits for Paarthunax' life. I got both Paarthunax alive, and the dragon potion and the recruits. Not to mention I also got to do the peace treaty.

Just saying. No need to sacrifice anything.