Line #107 YMMV/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
2	** Archmage Hannibal Traven is intended to be a kindly and heroic guildmaster who ultimately [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself]] to protect the Mages Guild from utter destruction by the Order of the Black Worm, but some players see him as an incompetent leader at fault for almost everything that goes wrong for the Mages Guild, namely because the entire series of events arguably traces back to him banning necromancy and antagonizing said Order in the first place. Traven's reason is that he concluded that the risks of necromancy outweigh the benefits, but again some players interpret this (along with over half the council of mages resigning in protest, as well as the Guild's refusal to deal with anyone who practices necromancy) as the actions of a Draconian ruler trying to force his personal agenda across and stamp out everyone who disagrees.
3	** 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 Player 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.
4	** [[InformedAbility According to lore, the Blades are extremely competent spies]], yet the Emperor is assassinated on their watch, all of their important secrets have been leaked to the Mythic Dawn, the [[MacGuffin Amulet of Kings]] is stolen because the Grandmaster left the room to ''pray'', Baurus abandons the Player for no good reason during the most important part of the investigation, and their agents spend most of the game safe at [[HomeBase Cloud Ruler Temple]] while relying on [[OneManArmy the Player]] to complete dangerous missions (the success of which determines the very fate of Tamriel) without any help.
5	*** Their fanatic devotion to the Septim dynasty, and ''only'' the Septims (with Jauffre even stating that the Blades would never be loyal to a non-Septim like Ocato), is also cause for concern. This last part is explained, if not necessarily justified, come ''Skyrim'', with the remaining members of the Blades stating that their true purpose is to serve the various [[GodInHumanForm Dragonborn]] throughout history. In other words, the only reason they ever aligned themselves with the Empire in the first place was because it was ruled by the Septims, a line of Dragonborn rulers. Once the Septims are no longer ruling, the Blades as an organization don't care what happens to the Empire.
6	** Bleaker's Way is a small community shared by Nord and Dunmer families - two races with a great deal of bad blood between them. They ''seem'' to be able to live in perfect harmony, as friends and neighbours, generally happy with one another... yet all it takes is an extremely transparent FrameUp for the swords to be drawn and battle to the death commencing, with none of them even considering just how suspicious it is for the heads of both families to die at the same time, suspecting the involvement of a third party, nor attempting to parley in any way. One has to ask, just how happy ''were'' they with their lot? Just how deep had they ever buried their ancestral hatred? Or was it all simmering right under the surface all along? As the quest-giver Mephala herself puts it, pluck but a single thread, and the weave unravels.
7	* AnticlimaxBoss
8	** 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.]]
9	** 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.
10	** 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.
11	** 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.
12	** 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 [[ArtificialStupidity magnetically attracted]] to the lava the whole combat arena is covered with...
13	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: See [[AwesomeMusic/TheElderScrolls here.]]
14	* 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 that it was ''not'' an intentional attempt to hint that Camoran was lying, but that the writer himself got the Daedric Princes' realms mixed up and nobody caught the mistake before it was used in the game. So while it's entirely ''possible'' for him to have lied and doing so would be entirely in-character, he wasn't meant to be a KnowNothingKnowItAll about Oblivion.
15	* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/TheElderScrolls here]].
16	* CrossesTheLineTwice: Gogron Gro-Bolmog's story of murdering a five year old girl at her birthday. So horrible, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6S6D46Mp3o yet so funny.]]
17	* DemonicSpiders: See [[DemonicSpiders/TheElderScrolls here]].
18	* 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.
19	* DracoInLeatherPants:
20	** To some extent, many of the exiled Necromancers of the Mages Guild. Many fans who put an AlternateCharacterInterpretation on Hannibal Traven will paint them as simply disgruntled mages trying to push for reform against unfair rules. If they acknowledge how ObviouslyEvil Mannimarco is, they'll claim that he and the Order of the Black Worm are just a a small niche and nothing like most necromancers. This ignores, of course, that virtually every necromancer in the game appears to be a member of the Order of the Black Worm, attacks you on sight and/or massacres a chapel full of innocent people for no reason, and those that speak before attacking say nothing but sadistic taunts about how they're going to mutilate your corpse after killing you.
21	** [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8431658/1/A-Single-Nightshade Lucien Lachance]]. A lot of romance fics seem to conveniently forget that he's a wholly devoted, bloodthirsty Dark Brotherhood assassin.
22	** 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.
23	* EnsembleDarkhorse: See [[EnsembleDarkhorse/TheElderScrolls here]].
24	* FanNickname: "The Annoying Fan" for the Adoring Fan, to the point that most videos about killing, injuring or otherwise humiliating him will label him as such.
25	* FanPreferredCouple: While ''Oblivion'' lacks the marriage mechanic of [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim its successor]], that doesn't stop players from shipping the Hero of Kvatch with [[TheGoodKing Martin]] or [[EnsembleDarkhorse Lucien]].
26	* 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.
27	* 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.
28	* GameBreaker: So much that it takes up half [[Gamebreaker/TheElderScrolls the page]].
29	* GoddamnBats:
30	** Scamps, rats, wolves, and bandits.
31	** Mudcrabs do little damage and have very little health despite being extremely aggressive. They are more of a nuisance than an actual threat.
32	** Not only Wraiths make the most annoying screech, but they can also silence you and knock you down.
33	* GoodBadBugs: See [[GoodBadBugs/TheElderScrolls here]].
34	* HarsherInHindsight: At the time, the infamous Horse Armor DLC caused a ''massive'' fuss and attracted much ridicule for trying to make players spend $2.50 on a single cosmetic item. A mere ten or so years after it came out, microtransactions have become so normalized that such a thing wouldn't even raise a single eyebrow these days.
35	* HilariousInHindsight:
36	** [[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:Xedilian Xedilian]] is a dungeon designed by a mad god to lure adventurers to their doom. And if you read some of the lore you'll learn that is was constructed [[VideoGame/DwarfFortress "under pain of fun"]].
37	** The Madness Cuirass in ''Shivering Isles'' has a picture of a grinning face carved into the front of it. Wearing it makes your character look like the Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann. Even better, the anime began airing in Japan just ''four days'' after the release of the DLC.
38	** There's a two-letter difference between the real name of the Gray Fox and the name of [[VideoGame/{{Dishonored}} another masked, stealthy character]]. [[spoiler: Corvus and Corvo, respectively.]]
39	** The concept of a badass hero fighting interdimensional demons invading his/her homeworld, and even going through portals to the demons' realm to [[OneManArmy single-handedly]] fight them on their homefront, gives the game more than a passing resemblance to ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', and to its SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/{{Heretic}}''. Three years after this game's initial release, [=ZeniMax=] Media (Bethesda's parent company) acquired Id Software, the company that developed ''Doom'' and published ''Heretic'' and [[VideoGame/{{Hexen}} its first two sequels]].
40	** A character voiced by Creator/SeanBean is ''protected'' by a person named Jauffre. In another [[Series/GameOfThrones series]], a person named Joffrey has Sean Bean's character beheaded. More hilarious was that Sean Bean's character plotline in [=GoT=] was about discovering that Joffrey was the bastard son of the queen while in this game, Martin was the bastard son of an emperor. It gets even funnier considering Ned Stark’s alleged bastard ends up being the (trueborn) dragon themed heir to the throne in the series.
41	* HoYay: From ''Knights of the Nine'', Sir Berich and Sir Caius. Despite having been killed by the former, Sir Caius seems oddly eager to clear Sir Berich's name and enter Afterlife with him. Sir Berich seems equally excited about it.
42	** Since Martin seems to develop a crush on the Player, this happens if you're playing a male character.
43	** 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.
44	** Implied Les Yay with the blacksmith in Dementia as well... she'll hit on the Player after becoming Sheogorath, even if you're female.
45	** Mythic Dawn sleeper agents Jearl and Saveri Faram in Bruma have some subtext indicating they are [[DepravedLesbian evil lesbians]]. They live in the same house and are assigned to the same bed, which they would sleep in together if not for an oversight (it is a single bed, so one character is forced to wander around while the other sleeps). During the quest that involves rooting out the two spies, people around town are more concerned with spreading gossip about the stranger they saw at Jearl's house than any suspicious activity they may have noticed.
46	** 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".
47	* InferredHolocaust: As pointed out on [[https://www.cracked.com/article_20673_5-video-games-with-disturbing-implications-you-didnt-notice.html Cracked]], doing the math on the Imperial City Arena leads to a FridgeHorror moment of realizing that it's basically its own genocide engine. Yes, you "only" directly kill about 30 people to become Grand Champion. But the combatants only face enemies of the same rank, rank is determined by kill count, and battles are always to the death. Meaning each opponent you faced along the way themselves was responsible for some 1-30 kills. And each of ''their'' opponents, too. Thus, just ''one'' person rising to Grand Champion is indirectly walking over roughly 16000 corpses, and considering there have been many Grand Champions, not to mention the countless failed hopefuls, the Arena seems to have sent ''millions'' to the meatgrinder purely for sport.
48	* ItsPopularNowItSucks: Oblivion received this reaction from the rest of ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' fanbase upon its success, due to its stream-lined, curated design.
49	* MagnificentBastard: See [[MagnificentBastard/TheElderScrolls here]].
50	* MemeticMutation:
51	** [[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, the various arrest quotes from the City Guardsmen, such as...
52	---> "'''''[[LargeHam STOP! You violate the Law!]]'''''
53	** To forget the Dark Brotherhood's five tenets... is to invoke the Wrath of Sithis.
54	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVODm-OfkV0&feature=related Powdered]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fKsnNoWYYM deer]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu9XpPYW4Vs penis]].
55	** From ''Shivering Isles'', [[http://fav.me/d22a4tw CHEESE FOR EVERYONE!]]
56	** 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 humanoid being.
57	** "[[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/elder-scrolls-npc-dialogue-parodies Oblivion NPC dialogue]]" has increasingly been used to refer to surreal or awkward conversations in real life or in other media, in reference to the game's infamously awkward dialogue (see {{Narm}} below).
58	** "You are 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]]
59	* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Mannimarco destroying the Bruma guildhall]] in the Mages Guild questline, [[spoiler:The Blackwood Company killing the guildmaster's youngest son]] in the Fighters Guild questline, and [[spoiler:Umaril slaughtering multiple Chapels]] in ''Knights of the Nine''.
60	** The protagonist can cross this in multiple ways, the most obvious choice being almost any quest offered by the Dark Brotherhood.
61	** Fixing Xedilian normally doesn't sound bad... but consider this: Its standard MO is to either kill off greedy adventurers, or [[MindRape render them irreversibly insane.]] Points for the creativity of said Mind Rapes. [[spoiler: Hallucinating into believing that the rat you just taunted is now going to murder you, searching a hundred duplicate keys to see which one works, and worst of all, a forced temporary and literal out-of-body experience.]] But hey, the Shivering Isles always needs residents...
62	* {{Narm}}:
63	** 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.
64	** 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.]]
65	-->'''Valus Odiil:''' Hello. You haven't seen my sons, have you? They went off into the forest to fight those monsters, and I'm worried about them.\
66	'''Gaturn gro-Gonk:''' I don't see a problem with it. Perhaps they're in love.\
67	''[Beat]''\
68	'''Gaturn gro-Gonk:''' I'm through talking to you.
69	* NarmCharm: For how goofy the ArtificialAtmosphericActions can be and how bad the ArtificialStupidity can get, it's been said that it wouldn't be ''Oblivion'' without them.
70	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: The Horse Armor DLC was subject of much mockery back in the day, since the idea of paying extra for cosmetics was unheard of outside of [=MMOs=]. Nowadays, it'd be more unusual for a big-budget game to lack such DLC.
71	* ParanoiaFuel: Some may be uncomfortable if you don't know what the "Your killing has been observed by forces unknown" means.
72	** By the time you're done with the Shivering Isles questline, you'll have become very wary of corpses in case they're not quite dead.
73	* PlayerPunch:
74	** 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 — killed by your hands]].
75	** [[spoiler:Martin's HeroicSacrifice]] at the end of the main quest.
76	** Discovering that you [[spoiler:slaughtered an entire town - including your prior ally, Biene Amelion - while under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug]] in the penultimate quest of the Fighters Guild.
77	** Sheogorath's [[spoiler:DeathOfPersonality [[ThatManIsDead via his transformation into Jyggalag]]]] near the end of the Shivering Isles expansion pack.
78	** [[spoiler:The Bruma guildhall, and everyone in it, getting ''blown up'' by Mannimarco during the Mages Guild questline]].
79	* TheScrappy:
80	** Farwil Indarys. His irritating [[ArtificialStupidity gameplay-related]] "qualities" are even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by the Count of Cheydinhal, Andel Indarys, ''his own father''.
81	** Mannimarco because of his VillainDecay. The mod "Mannimarco Revisited" makes him much more fearsome as does ''[[VideoGame/THeElderScrollsOnline Online]]''.
82	** [[UpperClassTwit Voranil]], who is pretty much Oblivion's [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Nazeem]].
83	* ScrappyMechanic: See [[ScrappyMechanic/TheElderScrolls here]].
84	* ShockingMoments:
85	** Your first sighting of a Land Dreugh. Sighting the unicorn in the wilderness. [[SceneryPorn Looking back down from the first mountain you climb.]]
86	** [[spoiler: The entire ending of Shivering Isles. Player characters have done some crazy things in the series before, from causing a reality bending Warp in the West, to Cyrus killing a legendary dragon (and later the Dovahkiin killing tons, including Alduin) to the Nerevarine killing a god (although, admittedly, a depowered one), but becoming Sheogorath himself and straight up actually fighting and defeating a Daedric Prince is another thing entirely.]]
87	* SpiritualAdaptation: Between the medieval/fantasy setting and the demonic invasion, this game is practically a crossover of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. It was also the closest thing gamers would ever get to a WideOpenSandbox title of either series, at least at the time of its release. These also make ''Oblivion'' the closest thing we have to a fifth ''Heretic''/''Hexen'' game.
88	* SpoiledByTheFormat: The identity of the people behind the Emperor's assassination were meant to be unknown at first to the characters. But TheReveal that the Mythic Dawn are behind the Emperor's death is lessened somewhat by the fact that the outfits worn by the assassins are explicitly called "Mythic Dawn Robes". It's very jarring because it wouldn't have been impossible to make their outfits unobtainable, or assign them a generic name like "Red Robes".
89	* {{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?
90	* ThatOneAttack
91	** The Fire Turrets in Oblivion Gates and Dark Welkynd Stones in Ayleid Ruins are subject to the game's LevelScaling and do ridiculous amounts of damage at higher levels. The former gets an area of effect that makes them hard to dodge and the latter deals over 100 points of damage at their strongest.
92	* 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.
93	* ThatOneLevel: The Plane of Oblivion with the main tower on top of a large mountain. The level design is very long and linear and the fact that the tower is on top of a mountain and you start from the bottom means that bypassing most of the intended route requires a high Acrobatics skill, which is not as easy as it sounds.
94	* ThatOneSidequest: Several.
95	** "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 three 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.]]
96	** "A Venerable Vintage." Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find six bottles of Shadowbanish Wine and bring them to the innkeeper in Weye. All you're told is that it is found in abandoned Imperial forts around Cyrodiil. There are over fifty such forts, only eight of which have the wine in them (two bottles each), and all are infested with monsters. One of those, Fort Grief, isn't even accessible unless you're doing the associated quest. Oh, and Shadowbanish Wine is a useful potion in its own right, so you may want to hold on to it. On the up side, each fort's wine respawns when the dungeon is reset. Of course, the monsters do too.
97	** In a similar fashion, the Museum of Oddities in the Shivering Isles expansion. You're better off ignoring it until you stumble upon an item for it, since the oddities either drop from inconspicuous and obscure places, or they randomly appear in item caches all through the Isles.
98	** "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.
99	** "Speechcraft Training" has the Player speaking to ''nineteen beggars'' before Tandilwe trains you. There are five in the Imperial City; two in every other city. Since the quest doesn't supplement the Player with any quest markers, you'll have to search for each of these nineteen beggars yourself. This might not seem like much, but the game doesn't give a tally of how many beggars they are, how many of them occupy each city, and how many of them you've already talked to. That's what makes this quest as tedious as it is. The worst part? The quest log doesn't even get updated when you've tracked down and spoken to every single homeless, poor NPC in Cyrodiil, so this is most definitely a GuideDangIt situation.
100	** 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.
101	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Cyrodiil was previously described to be a very Oriental and Mesoamerican inspired Roman Empire, or to put in other words: The Romans [[JustForFun/RecycledINSPACE IN THE JUNGLE]]![[labelnote:Note]]Specifically, the Nibenay (eastern Cyrodiil) was said to be a vaguely Oriental/Mesoamerican rainforest, whereas Colovia (western Cyrodiil) was a Latin/Slavic mix.[[/labelnote]] While the more Oriental and Mesoamerican aspects of Cyrodiil were being downplayed and the Roman ones emphasised in ''Morrowind'', this game completely disregards all of that and turns Cyrodiil into a very standard MedievalEuropeanFantasy, with only vaguely Romanesque bits and minimal hints of jungle-y swampland in the southeast of the province. Not everyone was happy.
102	* UnintentionalUncannyValley:
103	** Some of the [=NPCs=] stare at you bug-eyed throughout every conversation. Without mods, almost every human face looks blotchy and blurry, like they paired high-poly models with Voodoo-era textures. Zooming in for conversation with any non-Argonian (especially Redguards) immediately reminds you that you're playing a videogame.
104	** ''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.
105	* VillainDecay: It hits Mannimarco rather hard. Throughout the Mages Guild questline, he's set up as the ArcVillain of that story, having characters become unnerved or outright terrified by knowing that he's reappeared; there's a pretty good poem-style book about his history to find which sets him up as a powerful evil; at one point, he deals a scarily effective, unexpected blow to the Mages Guild and the only survivor of the attack is terrified and tells you how he, concealed by magic, watched Mannimarco rip out his friend's soul and how he believes the guy actually could see through his magical disguise and pretty much just spared him for fun. Then Mannimarco effectively manages to corrupt and disrupt the Mages Council. By the end of the questline, you seriously get the feeling that everything's going to hell for the Mages Guild if you don't stop him quickly. So, after finding his hideout and slaughtering your way through his minions, [[spoiler: he's a moderately powerful Altmer wizard whose spells might be slightly threatening at the very worst]].
106	** It also hits him in relation to ''Daggerfall'', in a more visual way. Compare the King of Worms there with the Altmer of ''Oblivion'': http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:King_of_Worms.
107	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: In the book "The Eastern Provinces", the author gives a very disapproving critique of the Empire's costly occupation of Morrowind and the Black Marsh, citing how wasteful it is to spend taxpayer money on troops stationed there and how, rather than putting an end to the despicable human right violations (slavery), the Empire is only interested in the valuable, black natural resource it can exploit from the lands (ebony), and how keeping on this track will lead the Empire into financial ruin. And by the era of [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim the Stormcloak rebellion,]] [[HarsherInHindsight the Empire is a crumbling remnant.]] The question is whether it's supposed to be England or America.
108	* TheWoobie:
109	** Hirrus Clutumnus in the Shivering Isles DLC, whose whole existence seems to be laced with soul-crushing misery. He can't even bring himself to commit suicide because being a ghost on the Hill of Suicides would be even worse than the life he leads right now.
110	** Even Sheogorath gives you reason to just run up to him, offer him some cheese and hug him. All he wants is to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt stop the Greymarch]] and spare his people, and by proxy the Shivering Isles, the pain and suffering from each Greymarch, and he can't even do that because [[spoiler:he ''is'' Jyggalag]]. By the time he returns, [[DarkestHour it's too late]] and [[VillainousBSOD he has to pick up the pieces and start over]]. This has happened ''for millennia''. He's not even that violent or dangerous a Daedric Lord. [[CreepyGood He's a genuinely nice guy when you get past the insanity.]] The beginning of "Symbols of Office", when Sheogorath tells you that it's too late, sends shivers up your spine thanks to outstanding voice acting and an honestly grim atmosphere. He is counting on Haskill ''[[AllUpToYou and you.]]''
111	-->'''Sheogorath''': [[AndIMustScream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!]] [[DespairEventHorizon THE REALM]] [[MyGreatestFailure IS DEAD!]] [[ThatManIsDead SHEOGORATH IS DEAD!]]

Context YMMV / TheElderScrollsIVOblivion