So you're arguing that the good citizens of Whiterun just decide to hold a funeral for the missing Saadia and place an urn of her belongings in the crypt and that she's not really dead? That's thin. That's really thin. She is executed by Klematuu.
@dragonlordx20 This is trying to force real-world logistics into what's developed in a video game engine. If I grab a follower from Whiterun and then murder them in the bowels of Saarthal, who delivers the body? If I marry Ysolda and take her to my home and then "divorce" her, who moves her body? The game engine registers the death and creates an urn. Now, although I insinuated that Saadia is executed, one could argue that her death was from escape or self deletion rather than be returned as a prisoner. These could be possible alternatives. The game engine simply does not account for corpse retrieval nor holding memorial services for the unaccounted for.
@@GoddamnBatman1Yeah fair but wouldn't that also mean we should just say the urn appears (if it actually does) because on a gameplay level the character is no longer in the game? It doesn't require a real world explanation such as her execution, it's just a mechanic of Skyrim for when npcs are removed from the world permanently
I think another really subtle clue (at least for me, since I also take this thing into consideration) is Saadia's way of speaking compared to that of Kematu. Saadia always had that uppity vibe to her, which I didn't like. Kematu, on the other hand, is like "Dude, let's just get this done with so we can go home."
Great video laid out very well. I think the age point is moot because yeah no good source on her age and you are correct to dismiss this. On the point of the thalmor not helping her or giving her help in skyrim. We know the thalmor and presumably those at embassy are elven supremists. I think its plausible they used her in the great war and helped her and they immediatly provided no help or rewarded her for siding with them. So think it makes sense for them to leave her even after she helped. I think ultimately saadia is lying for the reasons you have laid out especially because we have no evidence to suggest the thalmor are actively hunting her or would even care about her. Kematu's story makes way more sense and to capture and punish saadia would be a big political win for the redguards. Both domestically and beyond. Could say they brought traitor to justice and could stretch the truth by saying she fled to skyrim as it was occupied by the thalmor and they were helping her evade justice. Which stretches the truth a bit, but is arguably true given they werent allowed to actively seek and capture her in whiterun, she was to some degree protected by the White-Gold Concordat. So they score points against the thalmor by implying they helped or rewarded her post war. Saadia probably assumes you are a citizen of skyrim and by extension assume you have anti thalmor beliefs and just tries to use that to manipulate you. Her life is more at stake than kematu's. It makes sense she will say anything to survive.