*SPOILER* Choice in the main quest finale

hecksly

***Spoilers***

So at the end of the main quest

when your given the optional choice to free Mannimarco from his imprisonment by Molag Bal

Why is this an option? The guy killed you, thousands of others, clearly doesn’t show any sign of repenting or changing his ways, all your allies are satisfied with him in this state. What reason would you have to let the guy go?

I did it on my character thinking that it must have had some pay off like he’d try to fight you (for a satisfying third beatdown on him), or some divine force would strike him down, something to rationalise the decision so picked it out of curiosity. Turns out its a "what did you think was gonna happen?" situation, he mocks you for it, swears revenge, Tharn questions your sanity and Lyris gets a "bad feeling" about the decision.

Instant regret, since it wasnt a character-driven decision, just picked it out of player curiosity. Yeah he escapes either way, but surely a good character wouldn’t let a mass murderer walk freely into the world again.

The question is why would any of your characters release him?

RaddlemanNumber7

It's a completely gratuitous gesture, not transactional in any way. It's the most humiliating thing you could possibly do to him. From now on Mannimarco will know that everything he does is thanks to the Vestige, and not to his own greatness.

You also deprive Molag Bal of a resource and give Bal one more active enemy to contend with.

NordSwordnBoard

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

It's a completely gratuitous gesture, not transactional in any way. It's the most humiliating thing you could possibly do to him. From now on Mannimarco will know that everything he does is thanks to the Vestige, and not to his own greatness.

You also deprive Molag Bal of a resource and give Bal one more active enemy to contend with.

Huge agree with you here. Kenobi spoiler lol:

Like Vader giving the 3rd sister her saber back after disarming her (insulting her prowess), but also wise ole' Kenobi using her as a wildcard against Vader.

No need for spoiler on this one though: Saruman and Grima at the end of LoTR. This problem could take care of itself.

Another take is you're a Necromancer yourself, hoping to use him or serve him at some point.

hecksly

Turns out there are plenty of reasons to release the guy after all, shared a few other people suggested in other discussions about it:

1) morally against torture no matter who
2) doing anything that annoys molag bal
3) genuinely curious how he would react to being freed
4) In the necromancer class/sorcerer class and want his knowledge/tutoring
5) just to annoy your allies (if you can’t stand them)
6) reverse psychology, as he tells you several times to let him suffer
7) assume you may be ruining some unclear plan of his
8) your vestige is a clutz and did it by accident
9) showed mercy but instantly regretted it and play into the idea that your vestige would be following leads to track him down and correct this mistake
10) bruise his ego that his enemy aided him - thanks RaddlemanNumber7
11) released him expecting a fight and give him a merciful final death but not expecting him to teleport out
12) thought you could exploit him for the ritual as a sacrifice
13) morally believe everyone should get a second chance
14) your vestige is chaotic and freed everyone in the room
15) you just wanted to push any button you saw
16) did it to make molag bal look even weaker to the other daedric princes - thanks RaddlemanNumber7
17) assume he might go onto hinder molag bal in vengeance (or vice versa, either way not your problem) - thanks RaddlemanNumber7/NordSwordnBoard
18) it would have been out of character for your vestige to have walked away coldly from the situation
19) your vestige wants violence, chaos and mayhem and takes what they consider to be the evil choice by letting him go
20) Tharn approves of the torture and you wanted to annoy him in any way possible

Hopefully this might be of use to anyone who picked the option to release him, regretted it and now need a way to justify it.

VaranisArano

Lore-wise, it doesn't matter. He eventually escapes either way and becomes a major figure in TES Daggerfall and Oblivion.

Knowing that, as a player, I decided I wasn't interested in torturing the guy when that's really the only thing that would be accomplished.

So Varanis Arano, who was going on to fight the Daedric Prince with a penchant for torture and other things basically said, "Nope, not playing along with Molag Bal's sick games. Everyone goes free whether I like you or not. Mannimarco, don't push your luck unless you're ready for Round Two."

Pretty sure he waited until she was safely dead to pick his fight with Vanus Galerion.

Ratzkifal

I'm pretty sure they only gave us that choice because they wanted to show us what had happened to him, but also let players take pity on him if they wish, or in the case of players who know what will happen in the future, allow us players to be sort of responsible for that if we want to be. Not that it would actually make a difference.