Apparently you can stop the Blades from killing Paarthurnax while still progressing their questline, it just takes a lot of effort.

You could make the quest easier by just installing a mod but as one found out you can actually do it through in-game activities alone, you’ll just have to jump through a few hoops to make it work.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a lovely little RPG that presents so many options to the player for how they’d like to progress.

You can play the game for days and probably still not find everything without a guide, but something you’ll come across naturally is the mighty dragon Paarthurnax and The Blades, a faction who despise dragons.

The Blades are pretty cool, they have a nice history and some awesome weapons/armour so doing their questline is recommendable, the only issue is Paarthurnax is just a chill guy so when they ask you to kill him for them things get a bit awkward.

If you want to keep the dragon who’s voiced by Super Mario (yes that’s real look it up) and finish the Blades questline you can, but only on PC, by following the guide on the game’s fandom page.

It involves you following the questlines as usual, but when it comes time to choose between your fire-breathing bestfriend or the gang of idiots who want to see him dead you’ll have to input some commands to spare him his gruesome fate.

Or you could just do what most people do, tell the Blades to shove their swords where the sun doesn’t shine and murder them all, before returning to Paarthurnax and swearing you’ll never let a soul hurt his precious little head.

If you’re the type of player that kills him instead, I’m sorry but I don’t think we can be friends and you should be put on a watchlist.