Keep in mind: I'm basing the following on them being the best available options that the games give you, not that they're objectively the best conceivable choices ever.
For Skyrim: Fuck the Stormcloaks. They're basically medieval Nazis.
For New Vegas: Fuck Caesar's Legion. They're basically Neo-Roman Nazis.
But even with the independent New Vegas routes, whether it be with Mr. House or you at the helm, I feel like the NCR is still overall better. They're by far the most organized, have the most resources at their disposal and are arguably the best hope for humanity's collective survival/recovery post-apocalypse.
Counterpoint: The NCR may be better organized, but it's also riddled with the same corruption and imperialism that led to the Great War in the first place. You go with them and they smother the people with taxes and heavy-handed policing
Mr. House is a Autocratic Techno-Fascist, the people thrive, but are yoked to an automated police force that will just as gladly ventilate you for littering as for trying to rob a casino
The Legion are fascist slavers, it shouldn't be hard to grasp why they're terrible.
An independent Vegas, operating with a unified populace is definitely the best outcome. The Kings, the Followers, the Brotherhood, the Khans, the Boomers and the Casinos can be made to see working together is the best path. They might not be as organized, but with the Securitrons providing security from outside threats, it's the option that allows the most self-determination and control over the means of production.
Can you tell I've put like 800 hours into New Vegas?
Also, an independent Vegas with the courier at the helm has the advantage of hi-tech R&D from the Think Tank and an incredible abundance of resources from the Sierra Madre vending machines. If the courier plays it right they could create a post-scarcity world out of a post-nuclear one.
Mr House is a tyrant who doesn’t care if his people suffer. It’s all about getting into space. It’s like siding with Jeff Bezos/Elon Musk
New Vegas at least has the out with the "No gods, No masters" ending allowing you to roleplay any result you want.
I found Caesar's Legion really interesting, and Caesar himself had a pretty good point that just replicating the same political economy as the old world would only lead to destruction again - just like it did before. Of course, he then opted to copy an even older political economy that was eventually destroyed so it seems like he didn't take his own advice, lol.
The whole central theme of FNV is that humanity needs to let go of the past and chart a new path for the future. NCR, House, and Caesar are all attempting to recreate some idealized past vision of civilization, and as a result are all critically flawed and doomed to repeat the same mistakes that ended civilization the first time around. Independent Vegas is the only good ending.
I hate colonialism, but I am enjoying playing the assimilating machine hivemind in Stellaris.
Sad fact about Civ4: 9/10 of the time if you're not running slavery early-game, you're going to lose.
Okay, I get that the Stormcloaks are a bit sus, and clearly nationalistic but they're not Nazis. I'm just saying, the only side that has random citizens get sent to camps and prisons are the Empire.
They even let you join if you're a non-Nord so long as you respect their customs. And Ulfric himself is smart enough to not spark a race war in his city despite a huge population of Dunmer and Argonians.
Not to say they're good but more that they're just sort of a weird ideology and can't be reduced to "they're Nazis".
The actual Nazis though, the Thalmor, are given free reign to harass, torture and murder innocent civilians by the Empire. The Empire wags their finger but ultimately cave to their every whim. Several religious individuals go missing after an Imperial victory and are not seen again.
Despite their victories over the Thalmor they decided the war was too costly to their core regions and caved to grossly imbalanced demands. Hammerfell didn't cave and managed to win against them despite the whole-ass empire claiming they can't. Weird that.
Going past that the Empire are also horrid racists themselves. The moment they're given access to the holy Island of Vvardenfell they immediately plunder its resources and attempt to convert the locals to their own religion. Then, despite their membership in the Empire, the people of Morrowind are given no aid when the Oblivion crisis occurs and are left to defend for themselves. The Empire actively pulls legions out of Morrowind back into Cyrodiil during this crisis. Then the Red Year occurs and the Empire gifts Solstheim to the Dunmer... Oh wait no. That was actually the King of Skyrim. Weird that.
The Stormcloak holds of Riften and Windhelm even have accepted and integrated refugees from Morrowind as well.
tl:;dr Despite their reputation, the Stormcloak are not only less horrid than the Empire, but are honestly less xenophobic than most other of the provinces, despite some of their shortcomings.
I've tried to play all of those routes, but I never could stomach completing Caesar's Legion, I always end up just deciding to flip out and kill all of them in the main tent and typically get picked off by one of the assholes outside when I try to escape.
The Legion is so outrageously hypocritical (enslaving women and rejecting all technology and except that which benefits them militarily or their leaders personally) and obviously a dead end for humanity that I could never bring myself to even attempt their path. As interesting as Caesar is as a character the Legion path is basically the "Stupid Evil" path. You have to be a serious sucker to think they would have any ending other than disintegration after Caesar's death.
The funniest thing is watching fascists worship the Legion, while completely ignoring the fact their legion, as Ulysses puts it, will simply collapse back into anarchy the day they reach the pacific. And even if they survive the NCR, what the fuck are they gonna do ? Make a "slavocracy" ? Worked out pretty well in history lmao.
There's zero chance the Legion could win a prolonged war against the NCR. The NCR has an exponentially better logistical situation than the Legion.
Honestly the incompetence of the NCR started to piss me off. It seemed less like a natural criticism of their politics and more just like they were being written as dumb.
Like, I'm sorry. They can apparently afford to send a hitsquad after you but can't break through a barely fortified squatting "camp" like Nelson. To the point where morale dropped heavily but only on the NCR side for some reason.
Legion excel at guerilla warfare. It's why they lose Hoover Dam, because NCR had an actual plan and why it takes like 4 years to even try again.
That was usually my main issue, they were just absolutely heinously shitty to the point that they just seemed like raging goobers. There was no way that I could effectively role-play wanting that shit, and I deliberately played a stupid and misanthropic character with like, 2 or 3 intelligence and he still seemed like he would be too thoughtful not to just have contempt for their whole project.
The NCR "could" make life better for the people of the wasteland, so the choice is understandable. Probably wouldn't, but there's potential.
But the nazis in Skyrim are the Thalmor, not the Stormcloaks. The Empire is something akin to Vichy France, and while the stormcloaks have a horrible leader (and racist tendencies), they are a slightly better alternative to the Empire, at least for Skyrim.
The games are products of a liberal world so naturally their "good guys" are just less worse than the bad guys. Hardly anybody worth cheering for in any of the "good" factions in those games. People think its due to good writing - grey characters, moral ambiguity, forcing harsh choices, but the choices are all quite narrow in the end because of the horse blinders of liberal ideology.
