History YMMV / TheElderScrollsIVOblivion

* CommonKnowledge: Many players think Mankar Camoran's speech made when entering Paradise was an intentional case of UnreliableNarrator, as he gets many details about the realms of Oblivion wrong, and makes statements that seem either shallow, or incorrect. Although Bethesda is known for using the UnreliableNarrator a lot in the series, Bethesda has never truly stated this was true or not for Mankar, as one of the writers for the game explained that said speech was something he made on the fly via email, and was used anyway, suggesting it was not an attempt at UnreliableNarrator, but a mistake that slipped through.

* FountainOfMemes: Due to the popularity of Bethesda's open world games, naturally memes will ensue. However ''Oblivion'' in particular reserves special recognition as a meme machine, even decades after its release. ''Oblivion''[='=]s NPC AI is infamous in gaming culture for its stupidity, bugginess and just odd logic coded into the game, often having humorous results. In fact ''Oblivion'' was one of the first games to really help create YouTube Poop.

** "Taxonomy of Obsession" is a CollectAThon of the expansion's alchemical ingredients and local fauna, some of which won't spawn until you get to a high enough level. The former isn't the real kicker for the quest; the latter requires you to use Illusion spells to command monsters to follow you to the quest-giver. This means enjoying the AI's path-finding, hoping no NPCs get aggro'd to them as you escort them to the northern tip of the Isles. And if you can't use Illusion spells to command the monsters? Your only bet is kiting them, all the way there.

** The Society for Concerned Merchants is an organization in the Imperial City formed by the Market District's shop owners, to promote a "nice, fair economic balance in town." A quest started by the society's chairperson, Jensine, has the players investigating a new business owner, Thoronir, who's merchandise is suspiciously inexpensive. [[spoiler:It turns out that he'd been unwittingly getting his stock from a grave robber.]] The quest ends with Thoronir vowing to be more careful about his suppliers and joining the Society, and the game treats this like a happy ending, but it doesn't take much twisting to interpret the Society for Concerned Merchants as a group of price-fixers that sought to oust Thoronir for undercutting them. Not helping at all is the fact that Jensine refuses to testify as a witness when you are looking for somebody willing to do so to in order to remove the corrupt city watch captain Audens Avidius from his post.

** Agronak Gro-Malog, the Grand Champion of the Arena. Agronak's level isn't scaled to the character level so at mid level and above he is easier than the mooks you just fought in the Arena. Of course, all the [=NPCs=] still react to the fight as if beating him was a huge accomplishment. You can even beat him at low level [[spoiler:if you do his quest.]]
** Erandur-Vangaril, a lich with a backstory that has a bug that causes it to always have only 15 Health, and you can only fight it if you're at least level 23, at which point you can almost certainly kill it in one hit.
** Mannimarco. Despite being built up as a threat, he's a complete joke of a boss due to just bad design. In theory he has the tools needed to be a dangerous foe thanks to having unique spells, being scaled to the player's level so he remains a threat, and having a unique birth sign making it harder to be killed, but his magicka caps out at around 350, and all of his unique spells require at least 243 to use, and he opens the fight casting a paralysis effect that costs 332. This means he is unable to use his unique spells, or any of the random leveled spells he has, forcing him to fall back on a melee weapon, which he has no skills in because he's classified as a Necromancer, meaning even at the highest difficulty and level, he does almost no damage and isn't even a threat.
** Jyggalag. He isn't necessarily easy, but because he is designed to be the final boss of the Shivering Isles expansion, the player will be so strong by that point (as the DLC is encouraged to be done when you're at a higher level) that even on the highest difficulty setting, he can go down super quickly.

* DesignatedHero: One reason the Necromancers from the Mages Guild questline are considered a DracoInLeatherPants is that the Mages Guild come across as incompetent and self-righteous to some players, that it makes them not feel like the heroes of the story. The Mages Guild is supposed to be seen as the good guy magical faction who outlawed Necromancy due to it being evil, and are working hard to keep things orderly, on top of the player supposed to be rising through the ranks and seeing the characters as allies. The issue is that the Mages Guild members are all incompetent at their jobs, often doing idiotic things like being fooled by easy to understand puzzles or falling into obvious traps, or outright lying to the player character to get them to do something reckless, all while they decry anyone using Necromancy as morally wrong and treat as a "slave to the dark arts". Due to this, instead of being the clear-cut "good guys", they instead come across as overly judgmental idiots that some players question how they could even get their positions, which results in the Necromancers coming across as looking better by sheer accident.

** Vicente Valtieri, despite being more ugly than the rest of the people in game due to his extreme vampirism, [[VampiresAreSexGods has his own fans]]. Perhaps it's his VillainousCheekbones, or his handsome voice.

* FountainOfMemes: Due to the popularity of Bethesda's open world games, naturally memes will ensue. However ''Oblivion'' in particular reserves special recognition as a meme machine, even decades after its release. ''Oblivion''[='=]s NPC AI is infamous in gaming culture for its stupidity, bugginess and just odd logic coded into the game, often having humorous results. In fact ''Oblivion'' was one of the first games to really help create Youtube Poop.
* FranchiseOriginalSin: The guilds in ''Skyrim'' have been criticized for featuring relatively few scripted story quests, instead relying on radiant quests to pad out content. ''Oblivion'''s Thieves' Guild questline, while reasonably beloved for its writing, only had half as many scripted quests as the other guilds (about ''Skyrim'' level) and did much the same with its "Independent Thievery" system. ''Oblivion'' also started the trend of guilds having no minimum skill requirements for advancement, thus allowing pure warriors to become head of the Mages' Guild (in case of the Mages' Guild, it was justified that due to the decentralized management of the guilds, corruption is rampant, including Bruma's incompetent moocher serving as a guild leader and an outright harmful Cheydinhal guild leader, and thus recommendation tests mostly don't require skills) and the like, but the sheer amount of content managed to somewhat obfuscate the fact by at least making it feel reasonable in that you've been with your guild for quite some time and have done a lot for it.

** Since Martin seems to develop a crush on the player, this happens if you're playing a male character.
** The blacksmith in Mania will hit on the player if you're a male character. It's worth noting that he's a male Orc who thinks he's a young human girl.
** Implied Les Yay with the blacksmith in Dementia as well... she'll hit on the player after becoming Sheogorath, even if you're female.

* ItsPopularNowItSucks: Oblivion received this reaction from the rest of ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' fanbase upon its success.

** [[Film/{{Hook}} Rufio]] from the Dark Brotherhood. Throwing the [[HateSink Adoring Fan]] off of Dive Rock, among other executions. "I saw a mudcrab the other day." And, of course...
---> "'''''[[LargeHam STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM]]'''''! Nobody breaks the law on ''my'' watch! I'm confiscating your stolen goods. Now pay your fine or it's off to jail."

** The [[http://theminttu.deviantart.com/art/Oblivion-Character-Creation-66134367 character creation]] is a common joke, mostly because it's much easier to create a terrifying mutant than an actual human being.

** "You're the one from my dreams" [[labelnote:Explanation]]Uriel's first line to the player is to identify them as the protagonist, which he knows through his prophetic dreams. Given that the player is just some random prisoner, and the Emperor is now saying that he's [[AccidentalInnuendo had dreams about them]], they must be ''very'' confused. An additional meme is to draw/design the Hero of Kvatch as ugly or weird as possible, meaning that poor Uriel must've had some very strange dreams.[[/labelnote]]

** The ending of the Arena faction involves fighting the Gray Prince, who has crossed the DespairEventHorizon after learning he's half vampire, and [[SuicideByCop won't fight back]] due to this. Obviously it is supposed to be tragic, given he was a nice person who was broken by the truth of his heritage, but the moment is made silly because Bethesda didn't adjust his HP to make him easy to kill, meaning the player ends up having to spend a good amount of time whaling on the Gray Prince until he finally dies. This makes the "fight" comical due to this, as the player just stands there trying to kill the man, and his voice lines play over and over as you do so.

** The Dark Brotherhood questline contains a very, ''very'' nasty example of this. By the end of the quest line, [[spoiler:every single member that you knew at the beginning is dead]].

* {{Squick}}: One alchemist asks you about the punishment for [[ILoveTheDead necrophilia]] in Cyrodiil. "No reason, just curious." She'll be very happy if you tell her it's just a fine, even for repeated offenses. What makes it even worse, however, is that she makes the comment that the punishment is "much lighter than Morrowind," leaving the impression that she may be in Cyrodiil because of her... habits. There's even a line from an NPC about seeing a Dark Elf walking out of the graveyard at night with "a silly smile on their face." Come to think of it though, how does ''your'' character actually know what the fine for necrophilia in Cyrodiil is?

** It's very possible that you will contract Porphyric Hemophilia when fighting vampires, often without realizing it. Only to realize three days later that the disease has advanced and you've become a vampire. Forcing you to either reload an older save or go on a lengthy quest to cure it. [[VampireVannabe That is unless you desire to play as a vampire.]]

* ThatOneBoss: Umbra (the person) is always Level 50--about as high as the player character can get by maxing out ''all'' of their major skills--making the fight against her a nightmare at low levels. She wields the weapon Umbra and wears full Ebony Armor, deals INSANE amounts of damage, and you fight her in a small closed area where she can easily corner you. Unless you've been power-leveling, it's advised that you get yourself plenty of followers (such as the Jemane brothers, Erthor from the Skingrad Recommendation quest, etc.) to back you up--along with the best weapons, armor, and spells you can possibly get your hands on.

** "Seeking Your Roots": Once you make the mistake of picking up one of those intriguing, chiming, fernlike plants called Nirnroots, there are only two ways to clear this quest: either 1) cheat like a maniac, or 2) methodically search the entire game map in search of the 100 individual Nirnroot plants you will need to finish the quest. [[spoiler:The good news: it's not quite as hard as it sounds -- there are over 300 Nirnroot plants in the game (they are quite a powerful alchemical ingredient), so finding 100 isn't too straining. Three of the DLC add-ons include extra Nirnroots too -- and the one in Deepscorn Hollow respawns every 3 days as it's a "collected" food object on a desk, rather than a plant. The bad news: unlike every other alchemical ingredient, most Nirnroots don't respawn.]]

** Speaking of Oblivion, "Taxonomy of Obsession" is a collectathon of the expansion's alchemical ingredients and local fauna, some of which won't spawn until you get to a high enough level. The former isn't the real kicker for the quest. The latter requires you to use illusion spells to command monsters to follow you to the questgiver. This means enjoying the ai's pathfinding, hoping no npcs get aggro'd to them as you escort them to the northern tip of the Isles. And if you can't use illusion spells to command the monsters? Your only bet is kiting them, all the way there.
** Finding a cure for vampirism. When you see the words "you have contracted Porphyric Hemophilia" show up on screen, you better hope you have a Cure Disease in your inventory. Otherwise (unless you ''want'' to play as a vampire), you're gonna be in it for the long haul. After the Count of Skingrad directs you to a witch who can help you find the cure, she'll send you to every corner of Cyrodiil to find various ingredients for said cure. This alone is commonplace, given the quests listed above, but there are two restrictions that make this quest especially egregious: sunlight deals damage if you go past stage 1 of your vampirism, forcing you to avoid daylight as much as possible. If you go too long without feeding, your appearance will become more monstrous and most townsfolk will be too scared to hold a conversation with you, making it nearly impossible to acquire any ingredients they might be selling through legal means. Suffice to say, if you don't cure it right away, you're probably better off accepting your fate as a vampire.

** ''Oblivion'' has two features that were meant to improve [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief immersion]], automatic lip-syncing and facial expressions reflecting the [=NPCs=]' disposition towards the player. The former is rather wonky, while the latter is on all the time, even when the NPC speaks. Most [=NPCs=]' disposition goes up pretty quickly, so the result is a rather disquieting image of somebody laboriously trying to speak through a stiff, creepy grin.

* DesignatedHero: One reason the Necromancers from the Mages Guild questline are considered a DracoInLeatherPants is that the Mages Guild come across as incompetent and self-righteous to some players, that it makes them look like they don't feel like the heroes of the story. The Mages Guild is supposed to be seen as the good guy magical faction who outlawed Necromancy due to it being evil, and are working hard to keep things orderly, on top of the player supposed to be rising through the ranks and seeing the characters as allies. The issue is that the Mages Guild members are all incompetent at their jobs, often doing idiotic things like being fooled by easy to understand puzzles or falling into obvious traps, or outright lying to the player character to get them to do something reckless, all while they decry anyone using Necromancy as morally wrong and treat as a "slave to the dark arts". Due to this, instead of being the clear-cut "good guys", they instead come across as overly judgmental idiots that some players question how they could even get their positions, which results in the Necromancers coming across as looking better by sheer accident.

* DesignatedHero: A reason the Necromancers are considered a DracoInLeatherPants is that the Mages Guild come across as incompetent and self-righteous to so many players. The Mages Guild is supposed to be seen as the good guy magical faction who outlawed Necromancy due to it being evil, and are working hard to keep things orderly, on top of the player supposed to be rising through the ranks and seeing the characters as allies. The issue is that the Mages Guild members are all incompetent at their jobs, often doing idiotic things like being fooled by easy to understand puzzles or falling into obvious traps, or outright lying to the player character to get them to do something reckless, all while they decry anyone using Necromancy as morally wrong and treat as a "slave to the dark arts". Due to this, instead of being the clear-cut "good guys", they instead come across as overly judgmental idiots that some players question how they could even get their positions, which results in the Necromancers coming across as looking better by sheer accident.

** Mannimarco. Despite being built up as a truly terrifying threat, he's a complete joke of a boss due to just bad design. In theory he has the tools needed to be a dangerous foe thanks to having unique spells, being scaled to the player's level so he remains a threat, and having a unique birth sign making it harder to be killed, but his magicka caps out at around 350, and all of his unique spells require at least 243 to use, and he opens the fight casting a paralysis effect that costs 332. This means he is unable to use his unique spells, or any of the random leveled spells he has, forcing him to fall back on a melee weapon, which he has no skills in because he's classified as a Necromancer, meaning even at the highest difficulty and level, he does almost no damage and isn't even a threat.

* {{Narm}}: The [[ArtificialAtmosphericActions NPC conversations]] as produced by the much-touted Radiant AI isn't exactly perfect. Witness [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fd8s4onL1o this conversation.]]

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** A common complaint from newer ''Elder Scrolls'' fans introduced to the series via ''Skyrim'' or ''Online'' is that Oblivion's mechanics are much more obtuse and obnoxious than later games.
** The infamous Horse Armor DLC. Back when the game came out, DownloadableContent was rare and usually contained an entire ExpansionPack, so a DLC pack for a single-player game containing only a single cosmetic item was widely criticized and mocked. Years later, in an age of {{Allegedly Free Game}}s, Microtransactions, RevenueEnhancingDevices and LootBoxes, buying additional skins in all kinds of video games is commonplace, and what was once a big deal is now much less notable.

** Mannimarco. Despite being built up as a truly terrifying threat, and those who played past games would likely go OhCrap at the idea he has to be fought, he's a complete joke of a boss due to just bad design. In theory he has the tools needed to be a dangerous foe thanks to having unique spells, being scaled to the player's level so he remains a threat, and having a unique birth sign making it harder to be killed. The issue is that his magicka caps out at around 350, and all of his unique spells require at least 243 to use, and he opens the fight casting a paralysis effect that costs 332. This means he is flat out unable to use his unique spells, or any of the leveled random spells he is given, forcing him to fall back on a melee weapon. That has issues too because his class is Necromancer, an enemy class that does not have ''any'' blade skills, meaning he will do almost no damage with his generic knife, as he lacks a unique weapon to potentially fall back on. Overall he's one of the easiest foes faced in the game period.

** Viranus Donton and Eduard of the Fighter's Guild. In his journal, Viranus writes about Eduard keeping him company. He also writes "I fear he [Eduard] is as naïve as he is beautiful".

* VindicatedByHistory: While ''Oblivion'' was critically acclaimed on launch, it fell into the usual Bethesda cycle of "Loved on release, disliked by many as flaws become apparent." However, among the older members of the ''Elder Scrolls'' fandom who weren't fond of the changes to ''Skyrim'' that they saw as dumbing down, this game has gotten a re-examining by fans who enjoy it more now. It also helps that over the years, the game has accumulated a truly staggering amount of [[GameMod Game Mods]], many of which do not exist in the same way and quantity for ''Morrowind'' and ''Skyrim''.

* WhatTheHellCastingAgency: Linda Kenyon and Catherine Flye had the voices of middle-aged women at the time of recording, which makes it jarring to hear them from all the female elves, Imperials, and Bretons regardless of the age of the NPC. Ralph Cosham also has the same problem as he was in his late 60s when he voiced all the male Bretons, even the younger ones.

** The opponents faced in Boethiah's Tournament of Ten Bloods are supposed to be among the toughest in the game, but unfortunately, they seem almost magnetically attracted to the lava the whole combat arena is covered with...

* EvilIsSexy: There's no other way to explain Lucien's popularity.

** M'raaj-Dar, the Khajiit mage living in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, spends most of his time in the Dark Brotherhood questline being a complete {{Jerkass}} to the player for no clear reason. Come "The Purification", he starts acting nicer towards the player ([[spoiler:just in time for the quest where is killed along with the rest of the sanctuary]]). But was he really starting to lighten up, or was he just covering his own ass so that [[spoiler:he wouldn't be killed like the others]]?

* ThatOneSidequest: Collecting 100 Nirnroot plants. "You must have turned every stone in all of Cyrodiil". [[spoiler:Though it's not quite as hard as it sounds- there are over 300 Nirnroot plants in the game (they can be used in alchemy) so finding 100 isn't too straining. Three of the DLC add-ons include extra Nirnroots too- and the one in Deepscorn Hollow respawns every 3 days as it's a "collected" food object on a desk, rather than a plant.]]
** Shadowbanish wine. All you're told is that it is found in abandoned forts around Cyrodiil. There are over fifty forts, only about a dozen of which have the wine in them. And one of those, Fort Grief, isn't even accessible unless you're doing the associated quest.

* ThatOneBoss: Umbra (the person), is always Level 50--about as high as the player character can get by maxing out ''all'' of their major skills--making the fight against her a nightmare at low levels. She wields the weapon Umbra and wears full Ebony Armor, deals INSANE amounts of damage, and you fight her in a small closed area where she can easily corner you. Unless you've been power-leveling, it's advised that you get yourself plenty of followers (such as the Jemane brothers, Erthor from the Skingrad Recommendation quest, etc.) to back you up--along with the best weapons, armor, and spells you can possibly get your hands on.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The guilds in ''Skyrim'' have been criticized for featuring relatively few scripted story quests, instead relying on radiant quests to pad out content. ''Oblivion'''s Thieves' Guild questline, while reasonably beloved for its writing, only had half as many scripted quests as the other guilds (about ''Skyrim'' level) and did much the same with its "Independent Thievery" system. ''Oblivion'' also started the trend of guilds having no minimum skill requirements for advancement, thus allowing pure warriors to become head of the Mages' Guild (in case of Mages Guild, it was justified that due to the decentralized management of the guilds, corruption is rampant, including Bruma's incompetent moocher serving as a guild leader and an outright harmful Cheydinhal guild leader, and thus recommendation tests mostly doesn't require skills) and the like, but the sheer amount of content managed to somewhat obfuscate the fact by at least making it feel reasonable in that you've been with your guild for quite some time and have done a lot for it.

* DesignatedHero: A reason the Necromancer's are considered a DracoInLeatherPants is that the Mages Guild come across as incompetent and self-righteous to so many players. The Mages Guild is supposed to be seen as the good guy magical faction who outlawed Necromancy due to it being evil, and are working hard to keep things orderly, on top of the player supposed to be rising through the ranks and see the characters as allies. The issue is that the Mages Guild members are all incompetent at their jobs, often doing idiotic things like being fooled by easy to understand puzzles or falling into obvious traps, or outright lying to the player character to get them to do something reckless, all while they decry anyone using Necromancy as morally wrong and treat as a "slave to the dark arts". Due to this, instead of being the clear-cut "good guys", they instead come across as overly judgmental idiots that some players question how they could even get their positions, which results in the Necromancers coming across as looking better by sheer accident.