Before anyone says I’m hating on Skyrim, I love this game. I’ve loved it since I first started playing in Oct. 2021. It gives me a certain kind of comfort, happiness. Here, I’m talking about if you think as yourself as actually living in Skyrim, whether as an NPC or the MC, it’s kind of depressing either way. I’m looking for a good, civil discussion on what I’ve written :)

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You’re on the way to somewhere when you get caught up in an Imperial ambush. Then you get taken to the block where a dragon, one you’re meant to kill and one that wants to kill you, happens to save you. You have to choose which side of the war you’re on. Endless dragons, endless draugr. The seasons don’t change. Each area does have a pattern of what kind of weather you’ll see but that’s as far as it goes. Then there’s that thing with the Dark Brotherhood and how it went with Astrid. The Argonians have to live outside Windhelm.

Living in the Gray Quarter as a Dark Elf is hardly any better because Rolff Stone-Fist comes along to shout racist things. Sure, you have your good Gift of Charity moments and have been good friends with people, and your fate is yours. You can answer Serana how you like about your relationship with your parents, but if you think about it, no one is really with you. Companions are great, don’t get me wrong, they provide company and have your back, but they aren’t family. The Dragonborn is all alone in this part of the world and away from home, if you play as a non-Nord race.

You do task after task and, sure, its rewarding, but it’s got to be draining as well. Mammoth tusk for Ysolda? Alright, not a big problem (unless you were Lvl. 7 like me and had no idea what Giants did when you came too close), but crypt after crpyt? Dragon after dragon? Contract after contract? There’s got to be something inside telling you killing Narfi and Anoriath is wrong. But you do it because you can, because someone’s told you to and you can do it. It’s cold in Skyrim. Perhaps colder in your mind.

Things don’t really get better if you’re an NPC either. Not with the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild. Your luck’s twisted in Skyrim: either pull plants, mine, be a bandit, be a vampire and try to get in good with the vampires in Volkihar Clan, or something else dreary. You can always live a good life in places like Solitude and perhaps become a noble, but then there’s the toil if you’re not. The fed-up NPCs are right to want to leave Skyrim: the Dark Elves aren’t being treated well, there’s a civil war going on, the Argonians break their backs to make sure everything’s smooth for the East Empire Company for such little pay, and dragons have returned.

Thoughts?