Skyrim is massive and has never lost its popularity since its release in 2012. I don’t just mean that Skyrim is huge in terms of popularity though, the game is just plain huge. Players typically spend hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of hours on a single character. The world is unending, and there are so many NPCs you probably could play for a week straight, and still not meet them all, no matter how long you have played.
However, this huge sandbox world comes at a cost. Perhaps it is part of the reason that I’ve stopped playing, since the cost is actually in Skyrim’s story depth. Some of the stories, characters, and quests feel like runarounds. In a game with so much freedom, you begin to recognize your limits after a couple hundred hours.
There are corners of the game where you might see a story, but you cannot do anything about it. It could be a lost child or someone with amnesia, and as much as you want to help them, no quest appears. There are no details, and you’re confused.
There are also times when you do something that feels important, or potentially world-changing, but the world itself stands still. The characters around you don’t recognize the war has ended. You can affect someone that seems essential to the world, but nothing changes, which is odd!
Here is a list of moments where the storylines of Skyrim felt cut short and unresolved.
25 The Blades
The Blades give you the quest “Paarthurnax”, in which you have to attack the dragon of the same name. Doing this will end your relationship with the Greybeards, but not doing so will make you no longer associate with The Blades. First of all, the quest is optional but always there, glaring at you like in this piece by SPARTAN22294.
It makes you want to do it just because you can, it’s like a weird psychological test.
Challenging a really cool dragon seems like a big deal, especially considering he has this whole backstory of being a bad guy in the past, and now is attempting to be different. Yet when you do find Paarthurnax, a lot of players were not happy with the outcome. All that happens is The Blades like you and you get repetitive quest-lines that are easy to get bored of. There is nothing rewarding story-wise. Did Blades content get cut or something?
24 Aventus Aretino
This child from the quest “Innocence Lost” was very memorable for the fact that he contacted the Dark Brotherhood by performing the Black Sacrament. This was so they could get around his mean headmistress, who was ironically named Grelod the Kind.
Of course, you take up the challenge and complete the Black Sacrament. But what then?
But what happens to this poor child? He ran from the orphanage and back to his old home but after Grelod the Kind is finished, we don’t get any news on Aventus Aretino. He just gives you your reward and then we never hear from him again. We don’t get any closure on this child! Even with the Hearthfire DLC where you can adopt children, Aventus is not adoptable, much to everyone’s dismay. It’s a real shame since you can adopt any other child from Honorhall, once Grelod is gone.
23 Sapphire
The Thieves Guild has many mysterious characters, to be sure. Before the Dragonborn DLC, an NPC named Sapphire was one of these thieves. She was unconnected to any quests, and all you could ask her was about her name.
She tells you a tale of being taken from her home, and that’s it! Sapphire just existed, and nothing more.
If you wanted any plot or resolution to her story, you had to buy the Dragonborn DLC. It’s a pity you have to pay extra for more good stories in games nowadays.
If you buy the DLC (which I heard was pretty good) it is revealed that Sapphire is Delvin Mallory’s niece and the daughter of the Raven Rock blacksmith Glover Mallory. If you bring a letter from that the Glover quest to Sapphire, you get some closure and she rewards you with: A sapphire.
What else?
22 “Missing In Action”
Do you like peaceful resolutions and alternatives? Well too bad, because that particular option was cut from this quest.
“Missing in Action” is about Fralia Gray-Mane being convinced that her missing son, Thorald Gray-Mane, is still alive and being held captive. She asks you to visit her home to speak privately about the matter.
You can try to convince some Thalmor guards to release Thorald, but they don’t let up. This heavily implies that there is a way for a peaceful resolution, but it’s frustratingly out of reach. As evidenced by the ability to “console” in the PC version, there was supposed to be a peaceful resolution available that got cut from the game. But they also failed to clean up the evidence that the possibility of resolution ever existed in the first place. Great!
21 Neverending War
You may be able to end the Skyrim civil war, but you cannot end it for most of the NPCs. They don’t go, “Oh yay! The war is over!” A lot of them really just don’t do anything. For instance, if you sided with the Stormcloaks, you meet NPC Ralof. He is like the first character you meet in the game back in Helgen, once you escape captivity. But if you end the war and return to Riverwood where your journey sort of began, Ralof has nothing to say to you.
Well, that’s rather unrewarding when beating one of the biggest quests in the game, isn’t it?
It almost leaves the impression that the game was never meant to be completed. It’s a big shame! If you end Ulfric, there is very little dialogue and change in the world despite him being such a huge character.
20 Maven Black-Briar
Maven was not a humanitarian character, to put it very lightly. Some would say she’s the most disliked woman in all of Skyrim due to her elitism, and her ability to get away with anything simply because she has money.
This particular character really got players seeking out for ways to end her reign of power in Riften.
But there was no way to end her power in Riften! In fact, there is no way to end her or influence her life in any way. The reason is because the developers made Maven an essential character, and she is someone who plays a part in more than one quest (some related to the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood). To make matters worse, Maven can become the Jarl of Riften, if it goes to Imperial rule, making her pretty much immortal.
19 Nightingales
The Nightingales were a very cool faction in Skyrim, but they were sold short in a couple places once you look past their awesome armor. At the end of the Thieves Guild quest-line, Karliah mentions that, as a Nightingale yourself, you will be called on to defend an ancient Nordic tomb called Twilight Sepulcher against any threats.
As cool as all that sounds, it never happens. It’s just a statement to boost some of the game lore, I guess?
One idea that would’ve been fun is building the Nightingale hall up, and running extra quests like you do for the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary! We know the Nightingales would need it! It would’ve been better than just stealing the same item from the same house every week for the Thieves Guild.
18 Ungrateful Forsworn
This whole faction left a bad taste in my mouth, and I didn’t even try to partner up with the Forsworn. Apparently if you side with Madanach and help the Forsworn escape their prison, that’s it. You’d think that after saving them, you could join their faction, get a Forsworn follower or some more quests from them.
But no, instead if you meet some Forsworn again, they still attack you despite what you thought was a prison-break bonding experience.
This means Forsworn anywhere will attack you on sight, except those found at Druadach Redoubt. The Forsworn are supposed to be big deals, but based on how the story goes for the Dragonborn, how are they different from ordinary bandits? I suppose allying with Forsworn would give too many quest branches for Bethesda to handle.
17 Dawnguard Choices
So what’s the deal with Dawnguard? Most of Bethesda DLCs introduce new areas, so a lot of fans were unhappy with this DLC, because it really only inserted a couple more dungeons. But I heard that the choice of topic and poorly written story were what really sank this DLC. It’s the whole “vampires versus everyone else” choice.
You are forced to make a big choice too early on in Dawnguard.
Once you have to make this choice, you’re still very uninformed about the factions you are choosing between. Did something get cut? I’m told the Dawnguard have a better story, so did stuff from the vampires get cut? It also seems that the second half of quests after the decision are nearly the exact same anyway, no matter the faction you choose to side with. So what’s the point of the decision? Something here got sold short.
Art was done by aameeyur.
16 Rune’s Backstory
The Thieves Guild is rather a strange guild, as a lot of people still don’t know who they are or where they came from. All we know about Rune is that he washed up after a shipwreck as a kid, and that he does not remember his past.
He had a strange rock on him though, which explains his name. Rune’s whole goal in life is to discover who he is and where he came from. You can say “I’ll keep an eye out for anything,” but you never find anything.
There is no quest, only questions. It does not appear to be an unmarked quest either, as the internet shows no such discovery. It appears Bethesda had something planned that never came to fruition. Now Rune is just a ghost of a story we’ll never know.
15 No Marrying Serana
When comparing Skyrim to games made by companies like Telltale and BioWare, the characters of Skyrim have personalities about as interesting as cardboard. However, lot of players found Serana from the DLC Dawnguard to be different. First of all, she’s arguably one of the prettiest characters in the game.
Secondly, you can talk her out of being a vampire and seeking a cure to become human. That’s a big deal!
She confides in you a lot and it’s pretty easy to see her stand out of the crowd of Skyrim NPCs. However she is one of the few companions that you can’t marry. Why? Temples make her uncomfortable. Unable to accept this, a lot of gamers have used mods to marry Serana. Why did Bethesda do this? Taking this possible romance away from us almost feels spiteful.
Art was done by Grunt45.
14 Becoming Rulers
After everything you do in Skyrim, it’s pretty hard to believe you still haven’t really gained any political foothold. Sure, you do get to decide who wins the civil war, you can save everyone from dragons, and you’re connected to so many factions.
But you are always going to be near the bottom of Skyrim’s political chain.
You become a god in their past game, Oblivion. You get your own palace, servants, and entire land to look after. So why is Skyrim feeling like a big step down? With the civil war going on, you could have pulled the Yes! Man path trick from Fallout: New Vegas, and took the throne for yourself. Bethesda has given their players tons of political power and choices before, so why were we sold short in Skyrim?
Art was done by michaelfirman.
13 Hircine’s Hunting Grounds
In my opinion, “Hircine’s Realm” is one of the most awesome pieces of lore the Elder Scrolls franchise has. It is an afterlife for hunters, where they can hunt prey for the rest of eternity. Hircine specifically is into werewolves, so when werewolves go to the afterlife, they hunt with her for eternity.
Why wasn’t this part of the Elder Scrolls lore explored more in Skyrim, since vampires get their own DLC?
It could have possibly been the best DLC for Elder Scrolls since the Shivering Isles in Oblivion. We even get a quest that involves Hircine called “Ill Met By Moonlight”, but all we get for it is a ring. We get a cool quest and nothing is wrong with it but there are no Hunting Grounds. There is very little of lore involved, beyond the Lycanthropy disease you can contract on one quest.
Image by lupusmagus.
12 Poor Haming
Haming is the first child you meet in the game, as he notices your wagon in Helgen while you are on your way to your execution. Once Helgen falls due to a dragon, Haming’s parents disappear, and the next time you see him is in a shack with his grandfather, Froki.
Froki’s shack is in the middle of nowhere so this kid really does not have much. According to the child, Froki can’t cook and there is no one to really talk to. With Froki in his old age, what’s in store for this poor kid? He is not adoptable! The old man is also not a permanent character, as you can meet him in Sovngarde, which means he’s not in Skyrim anymore.
It’s too bad that we can’t help Haming out.
Screenshot is from SPARTAN22294.
11 Only Two Kids
So when did Skyrim become part of the Among the Hidden series? You can have, like, ten houses but only two kids with the Hearthfire DLC! That’s a waste, isn’t it? 90 percent of your homes are probably just storage. You could probably house every child in Skyrim if Bethesda allowed it.
It’s kind of a shame that you can only adopt two kids, and then all the rest of the kids still beg you to adopt them.
There was even a thread by someone who accidentally realized they could only adopt two children after adopting two boys, but they wanted a boy and a girl, and now they are trying to figure out how to undo their adoption of one of the boys. That’s kind of weird.
Art was done by Demicus-Maximus.
10 A Dragon’s Will
To put it basically, the Dragonborn has the body of a mortal, but the soul of a dragon. That specific aspect of being Dragonborn is very little discussed in the game, which is weird, because that sounds awesome. However there is a lot of dialogue and lore about dragons in general, which a lot of fans have translated to mean the soul of the Dragonborn.
A lot of in-game dialogue discusses how it is a dragon’s will to dominate and rule.
We especially get that for the “Paarthurnax” quest-line. Since the Dragonborn is technically also a dragon, where does that leave us? Where’s the in-game story or dialogue about ourselves and how dragon souls desire to dominate and rule? It felt like the game was building up to something about that, but instead it’s never explored.
Art was done by DragonSpirit469.
9 No Emperor, No Consequence
In the “Dark Brotherhood” quest-line, you actually get to lose the Emperor of Tamriel, Titus Mede II. That’s huge! That’s probably game-changing for the civil war, game-changing for how involved the Dark Brotherhood gets in politics, and has dire consequences for the player.
But wait, there are no consequences without the Emperor of Tamriel? Then what’s the point?
This whole “Dark Brotherhood” quest boggled mine and many other gamers’ minds. We aren’t even certain who called the Emperor’s hit! After it happens, we aren’t even sure if we made the right decision or not. We never know, because there is nothing about it afterwards! It had such great mystery and build up, but then just flat-lined. We don’t even get to know who would replace this guy.
8 Narfi Gone?
Is it just me or is Skyrim full of either weirdos or conspiracies? Who the heck would want Narfi gone? This guy just seemed like Nobody from Nowheresville. He’s a poor beggar living in the ruins of his family home. What weird person wanted him gone in that one Dark Brotherhood contract? The Dark Brotherhood is an elite group of skilled warriors, so why?
Why go through all that trouble to get rid of a beggar who is not doing anything?
Maybe Narfi isn’t exactly what he seems? But without knowing, this contract felt stale, pointless, and it had no rewarding story. Compared to the Dark Brotherhood quests in Oblivion, which encourage doubt and guilt while also giving an emotional payoff, the story of the Skyrim guild fell short in many respects.
7 The Ebony Warrior
From the Dragonborn DLC, the Ebony Warrior is shrouded in mystery. Any trait or backstory for this guy is just a guessing game. Whoever or whatever they are, they are one the toughest enemies in the game. They also only come to you once you are a very high level, and only at level 80.
Maybe they are the one adventurer who didn’t take an arrow to the knee.
What we do know is that this enemy knows how to shout, a rare trait only you and Ulfric seemed to have mastered. Did the Ebony Warrior train with the Greybeards as well? They aren’t Dragonborn, because you cannot absorb their soul when they are defeated. It’s too bad. The mysterious Ebony Warrior could possibly have the most interesting backstory of them all.
6 Letters From a Friend
You get a lot of letters in Skyrim. I kept all my letters, to the point where I forgot what most of them meant or where they came from. If the Elder Scrolls does one thing right in their franchise, it’s the literature. You can spend all day just reading their books or looking through notes in NPC draws to learn weird things about them.
The Dragonborn does get a particular collection of letters that are signed by “a friend.” Who? We never find out! Greybeards? The Ebony Warrior? Your long lost mom? A dragon? A savant child? The possibilities are endless!
Who is sending these letters, Bethesda? Tell us!
Some fans have put so much thought into finding out who it is that they got rid of every non-essential character in the game and still received the letters!
