So I decided to play a two handed, heavy armored Nord juggernaut of a character, and I spent about 50 hours faffing about doing side quests and discovering all kinds of shit. Leveled Smithing to 100 and made some Legendary Dragonplate, which, when combined with heavy armor perks, makes literally no physical attack in the game short of possible Alduin's bite any concern at all. At some point in there I did the Civil war, siding with the Empire because of the choices present, that's the one that's the worst for the Thalmor, and fuck the Thalmor.
I'm only level 35, but basically nothing can hurt me, I do absolutely stupid damage with my weapon (god help you if I combine it with Marked for Death for which I have all three words). So I figure, might as well go see what the ending is like. Maybe if I do that people will actually act like the civil war is over, or the dragons are gone, or like I've had any major effect at all because I fucking have, but no, not even a Ron Perlman recap of the state of Skyrim after the Dragonborn did his business before I'm dropped back into the sandbox. I'll admit becoming king of the dragons at the throat of the world was pretty awesome, but then it's like "oh yeah, that bitch wanted potatoes" and I'm like "I think I'll start a mage".