!!!YMMV examples of the whole franchise:
* [[Monster/TheElderScrolls Complete Monster]] %%Please do not add any examples. If you believe someone qualifies, please take it to this forum first: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=6vic3f9h1cy5qivsenw8llok
* [[DemonicSpiders/TheElderScrolls Demonic Spiders]]
* [[EnsembleDarkhorse/TheElderScrolls Ensemble Darkhorse]]
* [[GameBreaker/TheElderScrolls Game Breaker]]
* [[GoodBadBugs/TheElderScrolls Good Bad Bugs]]
* [[MagnificentBastard/TheElderScrolls Magnificent Bastard]]
* [[Memes/TheElderScrolls Memetic Mutation]]
* [[ScrappyMechanic/TheElderScrolls Scrappy Mechanic]]
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A to F]]
* AccidentalInnuendo: Do you have any idea how much mileage certain sections of modders have gotten out of "Believe, believe, the Dragonborn comes"? ''VideoGame/AmorousAdventures'' turns it into a RunningGag!
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** The Empire of Tamriel. Is it the last bastion of goodness against the Aldmeri Dominion? Is it an oppressive foreign power that doesn't belong in Skyrim? Or is it just a fractured shell that deserves to collapse until someone worthy can reunite the continent?
** Is the Emperor a craven appeaser, who doesn't care what happens to his people as long as he can hold some power for himself? Is he a good man and a political realist, who signed the White-Gold Concordat to buy time for the Legion to recover? Is he simply an unremarkable person in an age that demands heroes? [[spoiler: His [[FaceDeathWithDignity behavior during the final mission of the Dark Brotherhood plotline]] shows that, whatever else he may be, he's ''definitely'' not a coward.]]
** Is Ulfric Stormcloak a revolutionary hero who wants to restore Skyrim to its former glory, a power-hungry tyrant interested only in taking the throne, or a StupidGood rebel who doesn't realize the long-term consequences of his actions? Just how controlled was he by [[spoiler: the Dominion]]? Is he the kind of guy who thinks that, for anyone who died fighting the Thalmor, it was their own fault for being too weak and un-Nord-like to survive?
** The Dunmer of Windhelm:
*** Do they live in such conditions because they are being mistreated and forcibly segregated, or because the Nords have no pity to spare for them and they have been sitting on their hands since they came from Morrowind waiting for someone to take pity on them instead of trying to improve their conditions?
*** According to Faryl Atheron, the Dunmer who complain about the way they're treated in Windhelm effectively ostracize and condemn those Dark Elves who try to make their way in Skyrim by working for Nords, despite the fact that that's the only way for the majority to make ends meet. While he himself admits that a Dunmer in Windhelm doesn't have many good opportunities, he also expresses a great deal of exasperation over what he considers his brothers continually harping on "injustices" as he puts it, and being ashamed of him and his sister for working for the Nords. So there's also that to add fuel to the debate.
*** All of the Dunmer the player character meets in Windhelm have jobs and contribute meaningfully to Windhelm's economy and society: one Dunmer woman works as a secretary for the Shatter-Shields, one is a Nord child's nanny, one Dunmer man is a shopkeeper and another a market stall trader, several Dunmer work at the New Gnisis Cornerclub, the minstrel working at the local inn is a Dunmer, and several Dunmer work crappy minimum-wage jobs for the Nords even if their kin ridicule them for it. Also, there is a rich Dunmer who owns and works one of the local farms.
*** This is exacerbated by the books ''The Dunmer of Skyrim'' and ''The Scourge of the Grey Quarter''. The former is almost a BastardlySpeech of ridiculous MasterRace ideology, proclaiming the Nords to be dumb animals and threatening to kill all of them in their sleep, even considering the Grey Quarter itself a conquest of Dunmer superiority, and the latter explains the Grey Quarter was ''a perfectly fine place to live'' until the Dark Elves went and squatted there, doing nothing as it fell into squalor. It should also be noted that the Dunmer '''really''' have no room to talk when it comes to racism, given their long history with slavery and their exploitation of Black Marsh.
** Connected to the Dunmer of Windhelm example, it's possible to make this case for Brunwulf Free-Winter. Is he an overly soft-hearted old fool who's trying too hard to uplift the new minorities in Windhelm by affording them special status in spite of few of them barely doing anything to truly uplift themselves and contribute meaningfully to Windhelm? Or is he simply a reasonable, good man trying to afford basic dignity to every resident of his city?
** Are the Argonians being left at the docks of Windhelm because of pure FantasticRacism, or because Ulfric is trying to keep peace by not letting the once enslaved race into Windhelm, where they could come face to face with their former slavers?
** Amaund Motierre. [[spoiler:Is he, as Astrid suggests, trying to get the Emperor assassinated to better his own position within the Elder Council or could it be a more collective feeling calling for desperate measures in desperate times? The Emperor seems to be aware of harsh opposition among his political elite. Is he really ruling ''that'' badly? And after the deed is done, Motierre seems to genuinely believe that the Emperor's death has "saved" the Empire.]]
** Paarthurnax. [[spoiler:Is he a genuine [[TheAtoner atoner]] who will (attempt to) lead the dragons to a peaceful future, or a very patient and manipulative [[TheStarscream Starscream]] with a MeaningfulName? (Paarthurnax means Ambition Overlord Cruelty in the dragon language.)]] Is this a case of BlueAndOrangeMorality, or perhaps of a [[DeathbringerTheAdorable forsaken namesake]]?
** This trope also counts for Paarthurnax's arch-enemies, the Blades. Are they indeed the heroic order they used to be, or are they just an embittered remnant of an age long gone? Is their hate for Paarthurnax reasonable, or are they just too narrow-minded to see beings can change?
** For that matter, Arngeir raises the question as to whether or not the Blades serve the Dragonborn, or if the Blades direct the Dragonborn toward their own ends under the pretense of support. Delphine and Esbern's comments, actions, and tone make the matter even more difficult to discern.
** The Greybeards. Indecisive wishy-washies who sit out every conflict, or overly cautious guardians of a power that is too dangerous to let be abused, but too useful to not use at all? [[spoiler:Jurgen Windcaller, the founder of the Greybeards, argues for the second point if the Dragonborn talks to him in Sovngarde.]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Jurgen Windcaller''': My disciples still follow the difficult path - the Way of the Voice is neither wide nor easy. But if you stray from wisdom, then to Sovngarde, you will not return.]]
** The Psijic Order. Are they a collective of wise [[AncientKeeper ancient keepers]] who safeguard magical artifacts because TheWorldIsNotReady? Or are they a bunch of [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative bastards]] who used the Dragonborn to retrieve the Eye of Magnus for them, all the while [[CrypticallyUnhelpfulAnswer never really bothering to explain]] exactly what the Eye ''is'', what it ''does,'' or what they actually ''want'' from it? Though the latter has died down following the events of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset]]''
** Ralis Sendarys in ''Dragonborn,'' at the end of his questline. [[spoiler:Was he genuinely BrainwashedAndCrazy? NotBrainwashed? Genuinely brainwashed but [[HydePlaysJekyll playing Jekyll]]?]]
** If you choose to play ''Dragonborn'' last, you've slain multiple Dragons, amassed an army of loyal followers and have, on several occasions, proven that you're not afraid to screw over a Daedric Prince. Besides him being openly malevolent (and you can choose to be that too), what exactly makes you any ''different'' from [[EvilCounterpart Miraak?]]
** Miraak himself is prone to a lot of different interpretations by the fanbase, due to how much is unknown about him. Is he a FallenHero who was corrupted and seduced by Mora into becoming his champion? Or is he simply a monster, whose fall was caused by his own hubris? The game only gives hints.
** Is Aela the Huntress really just a proud warrior who wants to maintain the traditions of the Circle? Or, is she a [[spoiler:daedric cultist]] first and honorable Companion second, who places very little value on human life? While she does care about the people close to her, regardless of how many innocent townspeople [[spoiler:the Dragonborn kills, if they kill any, during their initial transformation]], she merely describes the event as "difficult" and expresses no remorse for any deaths for which she is indirectly responsible.
** Is Ondolemar simply a SmugSnake who uses his standing with the Thalmor to throw his weight around? Or is he an unwilling participant in their schemes? Keep in mind that he won't arrest Ogmund if you prove the latter's Talos worship, can be persuaded to help you sneak through the Thalmor embassy, and ''may even show up at your wedding'' if you complete his quest.
** Estormo. Even though it's clearly a bug, you can yield to him and he will accept it. Does he really want to work with Ancano? Did his fear of Elenwen exceed Ancano - considering that what would Elenwen would've done to Estormo if she knew about the Eye of Magnus incident? Did he know how screwed he was if he fought the Dragonborn? Did he realize what destruction the Eye of Magnus would have caused?
** Sibbi Black-Briar in "Promises to Keep". He sold a horse to Louis Letrush then got sent to jail before delivering said horse, and answered Letrush that his imprisonment cancelled the deal; turns out the horse he "sold" didn't belong to Sibbi himself but to his mother Maven. When visited in jail, Sibbi tells he actually didn't want to cross Letrush and explain how to steal the horse, Frost, to deliver it to Letrush yourself. Since Sibbi is largely considered as the worst member of an already infamous family, did he really tell the truth? On one hand, him explaining how to steal Frost may indicate he actually planned to do it himself and only got stopped by his imprisonment. On the other hand, his apparent remorse may not be sincere and his deal may just had been a scam, then explaining to the Dragonborn where to find the horse didn't cost him anything.
** Alduin himself. While there is no question he is a raging egomaniac, could it be partially fueled by him having a [[EverybodyHatesHades thoroughly thankless job?]] Is he angry at mortalkind for spurning him despite his DestroyerDeity duties being largely for ''their'' benefit? Does he wish to conquer Nirn instead just so he can get the same [[DudeWheresMyRespect respect the other divines get?]] Perhaps during the days of the Dragon Cult he ''did'' get that respect, and he (along with many other dragons) feels betrayed. None of that is an excuse for what he's done, but it's at least a little understandable. He doesn't particularly care to give the Dovahkiin a MotiveRant, so all we can do is speculate.
** Thongvor Silver-Blood. He is set up as a blustery thug and the Stormcloak counterpart to Maven Black-Briar in Riften, as no one is especially thrilled to see him as Jarl should the Stormcloaks take over Markarth, and neither of his advisors (Reburrus Quintilius and Yngvar) inspire much confidence in his rule. However, there are several instances indicating that he is not in the know about Thonar's business practices, [[spoiler:including his control over Madanach; if you side with Thonar, he knows only that you did his brother "a service,"]] and when he learns that silver yields are down by more than half, he makes vague mention of sending Thonar to sort it out. He is also inconsistent in his stance regarding the Forsworn; to the Dragonborn, he is very anti-Forsworn (except when covering up the murder in "The Forsworn Conspiracy") but indicates to his advisors that the Imperials are the true threat. Notably, Igmund completely blows him off, [[spoiler:and it's Thonar's influence that allows you to be pardoned if you side with him]], suggesting that the influence of the Silver-Bloods is not quite so strong, at least without Thonar. Finally, Moth gro-Bagol, the smith in Understone Keep, served with Thongvor in the Imperial Legion and thinks highly of him, irrespective of his politics. All of these taken together, as well as some comments by Thonar, paint a picture of Thongvor as a capable warrior and loyal Stormcloak who is propped up as the face of the Silver-Bloods while Thonar is responsible for the skull-duggery that cultivates their influence.
** Sybille Stentor, the vampiric court mage of Solitude. Is she more or less a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire, who is overall loyal to the court of Solitude? Or does she see her position only as a convenient way to keep herself fed without drawing negative attention? When Varnius tries to warn Elisif of suspicious activities in Wolfskull Cave (which turn out to be tied to a cult attempting to resurrect [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Potema]]), Sybille attempts to brush his concerns off as "superstitious nonsense". Is she genuinely unaware of what's happening... or does she perhaps ''want'' Potema resurrected? We know Potema had vampires among her court. Interestingly, once "The Man Who Cried Wolf" is completed, Sybille start sleeping all the time. Just a weird glitch, or is she perhaps mourning Potema's second demise?
* AngstWhatAngst: Serana was turned into a vampire lord (it's implied that this was accomplished through her being raped by Molag Bal), caught up in a family war between her parents, and sealed away for centuries with an Elder Scroll, and when she wakes up her parents are more concerned with their respective plots against the other than with her safety or her wishes. All things considered, she takes it pretty well outside the handful of moments she calls out the relevant parties for their behavior. It might be that she's just gotten used to her messed-up family life, to the point that she's past the point of giving much of a damn anymore. Also, the centuries she was locked away passed her by in her sleep, and once awake once more she seems to look on the bright side of it by enjoying the chance to rediscover Tamriel basically from scratch.
* AnnoyingVideoGameHelper:
** Barbas can be a potential companion, and makes for a reasonably effective tank, especially as he can't be killed. However, he stays extremely close to you, often pushing you around, and as long as he's in your party you can't do anything stealthy, ''and'' he reports crimes you commit. Seeing as how he's Clavicus Vile's conscience and wants to be reunited with him, this makes sense.
** Almost every follower is this to a stealth-based character.
* AnticlimaxBoss:
** Bethesda Boss Syndrome hits twice in during the main quest. The only plot relevant Dragon Priest (extremely powerful undead sorcerer) is easily the weakest of them all, and Alduin only appears to differ from the elite Ancient Dragons by having a few more hitpoints. It's even worse during the final battle [[spoiler: in the afterlife]], since you are assisted by [[spoiler:the souls of three legendary Nord warriors]]
** The final battle with Alduin is disappointing because you recently already defeated him once in a one on one battle at the top of a mountain. That the rematch should [[spoiler:give you back up]] makes it much less exciting. Beyond that, Alduin is outright weaker than [[spoiler:Tsun, the guardian of Sovengarde that you have to defeat shortly before the rematch with Alduin. Tsun feels like the true final battle with how strong he is.]]
** At the end of the ThievesGuild questline, a big deal is made about how powerful Mercer Frey is and why you won't be able to fight him alone. But the final battle ironically ends up as a one-on-one fight against someone who's no different than any regular old mook, aside from the ability to briefly turn invisible. [[spoiler:Then again, he did waste the Agent of Subterfuge power on Brynjolf, so he couldn't use it on you.]] And all of that's before factoring in that, much like Vyrthur as mentioned below, [[spoiler:the design of the room he's fought in makes it ludicrously easy to administer Mercer a healthy dose of [[OneHitKill instant-death fall damage]] via Unrelenting Force just by climbing the stairs on either side of the statue.]]
** True to form, it happens again in ''Dawnguard''. [[spoiler:The fight with Vyrthur in the penultimate quest (during which he's sending ''dozens'' of Falmer at you and tearing the building apart around you) makes the final confrontation with Harkon seem less cool by comparison, no matter how many of his Vampire Lord abilities he tries to use on you.]]
** Again with Vyrthur, who can be defeated without as much as readying for battle: [[spoiler:He stands atop a balcony. With proper positioning and Unrelenting Force, he can be tossed off. This ends [[DisneyVillainDeath exactly as expected]], and his remains can be gathered below after defeating Naaslaarum and Voslaarum.]]
** Also in ''Dawnguard'', the fight with Durnehviir. Despite him being a {{Dracolich}}, the battle plays out like just another dragon encounter, the only difference being the waves of minor undead spawning, which are a mere nuisance.
** There's also the Dragon Priest Morokei. He holds the Staff of Magnus, which has a very interesting spell tied to it that he casts through the battle. It's pretty much ''all'' he casts through the battle. The spell? Well, it [[ManaDrain drains all your magicka]]. This is really only a nuisance to mages - but then, when the magicka is completely drained, it starts sucking away at your health. Normally, this would be formidable, as a mage wouldn't be able to cast, and a warrior or rogue wouldn't have enough magicka to act as a shield from the health drain. However, if you are a mage, there is an easy solution. Equip high level robes or enchantments which regenerate magicka at over 75% or so, have a high total magicka [[spoiler: (which you should, since this encounter is part of the questline for the College of Winterhold)]], and equip a melee weapon. Then just run up and whack at the guy who keeps plucking away at a stat that won't stay down. It's basically a CurbStompBattle, which is a shame because it was built up pretty heavily. Even worse, [[spoiler:equip a good bow and have a decent archery skill, and you can bring Morokei down with a few arrows before he ever even reaches the platform where you confront him.]] It also doesn't help that the Staff of Magnus is bugged and [[https://youtu.be/84PuKDVb4WY?t=1310 doesn't drain health properly]], making the fight an absolute joke; even if you're playing as a pure mage and have no weapons whatsoever, you can just punch Morokei to death without being put in any danger.
** The FinalBoss of the Companions questline, Kodlak's Wolf Spirit, is simply a wolf (one of the very first, and also one of the most common, enemies you face throughout the game) with beefed-up stats. If you think that alone makes the fight a joke, you also happen to be assisted by an essential NPC.
** Ulfric and Galmar, should you decide to follow the Imperial Legion quest line. Ulfric has a large chunk of HP, but wears almost no armor and he is armed only with a steel war axe with an awful enchantment that has absolutely no effect if your character is level 8 or higher. Granted, he has the [[BlownAcrossTheRoom Thu'um]], which can be annoying, but it does almost no damage by itself, so you'll only have to endure a lengthy sequence, where your character gets up back on his feet before you can control them again. Galmar at least wears a full suit of armor, but he is armed with only an iron battle axe and his weapon and armor skills are completely mismatched (he prefers one-handed weapons and heavy armor, when he wields a two-handed weapon and wears light armor), so with a little luck even a SquishyWizard can tank his hits. The generic unnamed Stormcloak soldiers and Windhelm guards, who have very good offensive stats and can be carrying around steel battle axes and war hammers, are significantly more challenging than either one of them. On the other hand, if you decide to pursue the Stormcloak forces' quest line, you'll also discover that General Tullius is significantly less challenging than his subordinate, Legate Rikke (who has great stats, a very large HP pool and a PerfectPlayAI).
* AssPull: Late in the Companions questline, the Silver Hand manage to get inside Whiterun and kill Kodlak while the Dragonborn and Aela are away, despite not only the city having guards, but the guards outside the city make a point that the city is basically in lockdown by order of the Jarl, meaning the Silver Hand somehow got into a semi-locked down city without any guards noticing or doing anything about a decent number of heavily armed people making their way towards Jorrvaskr.
* AwesomeEgo:
** J'Zargo. He's arrogant, but also [[InsufferableGenius one of the most competent companions]].
** Master Neloth in the ''Dragonborn'' DLC fits. The hilarity of his arrogance is sure to amuse, but he really is willing to get his own hands dirty (as demonstrated by his sojourn with you into the nearby Dwemer ruin Nchardak), and is no slouch in a fight.
** Miraak from ''Dragonborn'' as well; despite being arrogant and prideful, he's one of the most powerful enemies encountered, and can back up his claims.
** Marcurio is an arrogant InsufferableGenius whose dialogue consists of nothing but snide remarks. At the same time, his arrogance is so over-the-top that it goes back to being funny, and he's also a powerful mage and one of the stronger followers available.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** The main theme, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDEYpgpfp1c&hd=1 Dragonborn]]''. Yes, they're singing in the Dragon language. Lyrics [[http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Skyrim_Soundtrack here]].
** [[http://youtu.be/1sx02mAkLLc All hail the glorious dead.]]
** Hell, even the [[EpicRocking 40-minute plus]] piece titled "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Skyrim Atmosphere]]" is really, really good.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BHKLVr_Cxw Under your voice they will cower!]]
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL4vR3PB2oY When we raise our flagon to another dead dragon, there is just one drink we need: Nord Mead!]]''
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqEVCTMkBnI Khajiit like to sneak!]]
** It's got the usual remixes of varying quality, but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z9TdDCWN7g this one]] stands out, combining one of the tavern songs with the main theme... and the singer, Music/{{Malukah}}, has a voice that's about as beautiful as the [[SceneryPorn graphics in the game]]. Here's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNDT7EInclo another]], by the same singer.
** When it comes to remixes, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50u0zUeCmU this]] takes the cake.
** Another cover of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL5K09mqwZc the main theme]]... with an electric violin.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He1NSJGiPHo Far Horizons]]" is just ''gorgeous''.
** [[https://youtu.be/BSLPH9d-jsI Peter Hollens]] performs the ''Skyrim'' theme as an entire chorus, plus sound effects, with the only actual musical accompaniment being provided by Music/LindseyStirling on violin.
** Here's a gorgeous vocal and guitar cover of ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj-MDRkh4x0 Tale of the Tongues]].''
** Here's ''Tale of the Tongues'' again, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeIw6lZlaww&feature=related combining two of the best bards in the game into an awesome duet]].
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTUFdPJeukY&ab_channel=Aramil One They Fear]]'' is a song that has gotten many a player killed, simply because they got ''so pumped'' while it was playing that they attacked the dragon in question head-on.
** There's also the equally-epic ''[[https://youtu.be/XJDyv-YVPgw Watch the Skies]]'', which also plays during dragon encounters. Bonus points if ''One They Fear'' leads into this during the fight.
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4KXYIWrydA music]] they play when you learn a Word of Power or slay a Dragon and absorb its soul. They gave you your own ThemeMusicPowerUp for this game.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSLPH9d-jsI Two artists cover the game's theme song]].
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65MkUVBYpcM&feature=relmfu Unbroken Road]]."
** The DarkReprise of the main theme used for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRmdXDH9b1s&feature=g-u-u the Dragonborn trailer]] is just epic. Even better, the Dragonborn DLC will feature a return to Solstheim, once the setting for ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'''s expansion Bloodmoon. A chanting portion of the Skyrim "main theme" from the original game is a remix of the [[CallBack "Morrowind]] [[LeitMotif leitmotif"]] that became recurrent in all TES games from the third onward, including ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]''. Guess which part of the ''Skyrim'' "main theme" turned up for the trailer? And if one listens to the lyrics they are chanting, instead of being about the Dragonborn and their heroism, these same words are now being twisted and warped to reflect Miraak's [[EvilCounterpart menace]].
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_CKeCXys8w Dawn]]". Listen to this at dawn and enjoy.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ieYd0SjpbA Standing Stones]]". Highly recommended for those dark, moonless, nights.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEGGl6gtsP8 Secunda]]". Perfect for snowy nights where the skies are graced with auroras.
* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** The Civil War campaign is the catalyst for a few of these. Jump into ''any'' forum topic about it (or this very wiki, where Ulfric Stormcloak has been compared to both UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington and [[GodwinsLaw Hitler]]) and expect to see a FlameWar. Is the Empire the last, best hope for ensuring humanity's prosperity and survival against the genocidal [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor]], or are they brutal [[TheEmpire oppressors]] holding on to a [[TheRemnant shadow of their former glory]] who [[WhatTheHellHero crossed the line]] trying to [[StupidSurrender appease the Thalmor]]? Are the Stormcloaks a bunch of [[LaResistance heroic freedom fighters]] pushing a [[VestigialEmpire now-impotent empire]] out of their land and the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Men]] who know [[ScrewYouElves the only real way to deal with the Thalmor]], or are they a [[IdiotHero bunch of bull-headed]], [[FantasticRacism racist]] idiots that are [[UnwittingPawn unwittingly]] giving the Thalmor [[DivideAndConquer exactly what they want]] and ultimately are just as bad [[HeWhoFightsMonsters as the Thalmor]]? [[TakeAThirdOption Were they all developed enough or no?]]
** Cicero has many fans for his hilarity and sad backstory. However, there are just as many who find his antics extremely annoying instead, and refer to him as "the marmite of ''Skyrim''". Very rarely will you find someone who is truly neutral about him; odds are that if you do, they probably haven't actually done the Dark Brotherhood questline.
** In a similar vein, Heimskr. At least half the playerbase finds his preaching so annoying that they're willing to kill him just to shut him up, but some players find his preaching entertaining and/or consider it part of what makes Whiterun unique in the first place. Indeed, a number of players that killed him off in their game admit to finding Whiterun too quiet in his absence. It should be noted that a patch has caused his speech to be removed.
** While Delphine's reception is overwhelmingly negative, Esbern has divided a lot of fans regarding his character. In particular, fans can't quite agree whether or not he should be held just as accountable as Delphine for [[spoiler:ordering the Dragonborn around including slaying Paarthurnax]], or if he is only doing what Delphine told him to do, on account of him being far more civil and polite to the Dragonborn than she ever is not to say that he's clearly not in the best mental state due to his isolation and paranoia. Part of this can be attributed to giving a more detailed argument about why [[spoiler: you should slay Paarthurnax]], which elevates him from being outright hated the same way Delphine is, but he still remains divisive for doing so.
* BestBossEver:
** Say what you will of [[BigBad Alduin]]'s [[AnticlimaxBoss anticlimatic battles]], but you can't deny how epic their atmospheres are, given that you, [[TheDragonslayer the Dragonborn]], is dealing with a [[DragonsAreDemonic Demonic]] DraconicAbomination that's also the son of Akatosh. The first battle takes place on top of a giant mountain called The Throat of the World and the battle comes with a dash of CainAndAbel, as [[spoiler: [[BigGood Paarthurnax]]]] helps you whittle down Alduin to the point where the latter shows his [[DirtyCoward cowardice]] by escaping, casting doubt on his authority from the other dragons. The second and final battle takes place in the [[SceneryPorn stunningly beautiful]] [[spoiler: Sovengarde, where the Nordic heroes]] help you battle the diabolical dragon, and the battle is accompanied by the appropriately called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfylJop4Dxg Final Battle]].
** The base game also has Ancano, the FinalBoss of the College of Winterhold questline. He is a powerful magic user, and for most of the fight is invulnerable, requiring you to use the Staff of Magnus to make him vulnerable. He also disables any followers you try to take into the fray, and summons [[DemonicSpiders Magic Anomalies]] to aid in the fight. He himself is quite a GlassCannon when not invulnerable, preventing this fight from being [[NintendoHard too difficult]]. Between being a PuzzleBoss and a FlunkyBoss with a unique invulnerability mechanic, he is one of Bethesda’s best and most memorable bosses.
** The ''Dawnguard'' DLC has [[BigBad Lord Harkon]]. The atmosphere leading into the fight is epic in and of itself, as you face him in a partially ruined gothic cathedral. Harkon himself is an entirely unique enemy, darting around the battlefield throwing Gargoyles and health draining spells at you, and tearing into you with his claws if you get too close. You also get the satisfaction (if you kept Auriel’s Bow) of preventing him from healing himself.
** Also from the ''Dawnguard'' expansion, Arch-Curate Vyrthur. He’s an ancient Falmer vampire whom you fight in an ancient chapel, as he sics a horde of Chaurus and Falmer at you and tears down the building around you.
** The final fight with Miraak in The ''Dragonborn'' DLC, who serves as a near-perfect {{Foil}} to the PlayerCharacter as both Dragonborn struggle against each other with the fate of both Solstheim and all of Tamriel hanging in the balance. The fantastic atmosphere given to their arena and SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic only makes it all the more epic.
** Also in ''Dragonborn'', there's the [[OptionalBoss Ebony Warrior]], a MetaGuy who can be argued as the TrueFinalBoss to all of Skyrim, being a NighInvulnerable adventurer who has SeenItAll and [[DeathSeeker wants you to kill him]] so he can go to [[WarriorHeaven Sovngarde]]. The fact that you fight him in an inevitably awesome duel atop the Throat of the World and that he has Dragon Shouts just like you is just the veritable icing on the cake.
* BestLevelEver:
** Blackreach. An absolutely ''huge'' underground cavern (approx. four square miles) home to an abandoned Dwarven city and some of the most unique and breathtaking environmental design in the entire game. It even comes with its own OptionalBoss! You'd have to spend several hours exploring the vast compound to find everything ([[spoiler:including the secret dragon]]), but you'll love every bit of it.
** Dwemer ruins in general are pretty fun. They're full of unique badass construct enemies, you can stock up on good loot like soul gems and other crafting agents, and the general {{Magitek}} {{Steampunk}} aesthetic makes them considerably more memorable than the caves and tombs where you'll spend the rest of your time. This continues into the [=DLCs=], where the developers come up with increasingly creative puzzles involving Dwemer technology, and each ruin in turn begins to feel more unique.
** The Black Book levels in ''Dragonborn''. They're just so... so... ''[[EldritchLocation alien]]''.
** The Soul Cairn, for the same reason as the Black Books. It's easy to get lost in there, but there's so much stuff to explore, you don't care.
** The Forgotten Vale of ''Dawnguard'' is almost as massive as Blackreach, has some of the most beautiful visuals in the game, and even has two {{optional boss}}es that are actually quite challenging and fun to fight. It also has unique side quests involving Frost Giants and Falmer books.
** "Bound Until Death," the Dark Brotherhood quest to assassinate Vittoria Vici. As it turns out, it's ''[[VideoGameCrueltyPotential a lot of fun]]'' to murder a woman at her own wedding in front of half of Solitude, followed by most likely fighting your way out of the city with a couple dozen guards on your tail.
** Forelhost. Many years ago, the fortress was held by dragon cultists. After they were attacked by a force of Nords they could not defeat, they - under the orders of the [[OurLichesAreDifferent Dragon Priest]] Rahgot - [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled poisoned themselves and their children]]. The fortress is sprawling, easily two or three times bigger than the average dungeon, and filled with nightmarish setpieces. A bedroom full of skeletons on beds, vials of poison on their bedrests. A note from an alchemist [[DefectorFromDecadence protesting Rahgot's cruel orders]]... [[YouHaveFailedMe and the body of the same alchemist, pinned to his chair by swords and arrows]]. A garden full of poisonous plants, doubling as a graveyard for [[DeathOfAChild many tiny embalmed corpses]]. Besides having a fantastically creepy atmosphere, the dungeon is unrelentingly difficult, packed with countless traps and swarms of draugr. As a final challenge, the Dovahkiin comes face to face with the monster behind the cult - Rahgot, who, in addition to wielding formidable [[KillItWithFire fire magic]], is also backed by an elite guard of four powerful draugr (if you're high enough level, they may all be [[DemonicSpiders Deathlords]]). There's a good reason that one of the rewards for completing this dungeon is access to a Word Wall with one of the words for the [[WeatherManipulation Storm Call]] Shout.
** As far as {{Game Mod}}s go, ''[[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/70219/ The Forgotten City]]'' ([[VideoGame/TheForgottenCity with tropes page here]]) is generally considered one of the best modded questlines due to its combination of lore-friendliness, deep mystery and investigation, interesting characters, and exploration, along with multiple endings which make the GroundhogDayLoop storyline fun, challenging, and engaging.
** For another example of an almost universally-praised GameMod, the ''[[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/67103/ Vigilant]]'' series, [[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/83876/ along with its voiced English translation,]] is praised by many players due to its gigantic size, challenging boss fights, deep exploration of Elder Scrolls lore, [[NightmareFuel horrifying atmosphere]] (after all, it is a ''Dark Souls''-inspired mod that deals heavily with Molag Bal), and epic scope.
* CatharsisFactor: At the end of "Season Unending", the major Civil War leaders as well as the Blades are leaving High Hrothgar: Tullius, Ulfric, Balgruuf, Elisif, potentially Elenwen, Delphine, and Esbern. These are the major players in the main storyline and, taking into account the player's political alignments and the personalities of the characters, there are probably least two members in their number you don't care for... all walking down the mountainside. [[BlownAcrossTheRoom You know what to do]] -- be sure to have a quicksave ready so you can repeat it until satisfaction is had. Bonus fun because if you attack any of them normally, they're all essential so it's a puny 40 septim bounty, and any of the others who turn hostile will keep walking if you sheathe your weapon.
* CommonKnowledge: It's well-known that the Skyrim guards [[WelcomeToCorneria constantly]] say "I used to be an adventurer like you, [[MemeticMutation and then I took an arrow to the knee]]," and that when they say that, they're talking about how they found love, because Nordic slang referred to marriaage by saying "taking an arrow to the knee" to liken it to kneeling to present a wedding ring. [[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/took-arrow-knee-marriage/ Except no, not even remotely true.]] The line was added to give the guards a little bit more character than just faceless robots who arrest the player-character (as well as poke fun at the game's removal of leg armor). As for kneeling to propose marriage, its origins are murky at best, but it is clear that it didn't originate in Norse culture at all, seeming to rise out of southern European displays of submission, including for displaying courtly love.
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
** Stealth archers. It's a RunningGag that has reached MemeticMutation levels in some ''Skyrim'' fan circles that no matter what a player starts as, they will always accidentally create a stealthy archer. ''Skyrim'' overhauled the Stealth system which has been in place since the series' inception, taking it from near UselessUsefulStealth levels and buffing it to damn near GameBreaker levels. At high skill levels and with the right perks, it becomes difficult for [=NPCs=] to [[StealthExpert detect you at all]], which added to the [[BackStab stealth combat enhancements]] the game brings, makes it a devastating CriticalHitClass. Additionally, for many encounters, it is damn near suicidal to charge into a group of enemies using melee or blasting spells without first clearing out some of the enemy mooks, which stealth shots allow you to do easily without aggroing the others. And hey, since you've already cleared out ''some'' of the mooks with stealth shots, you might as well clear out the rest too, right?
** If someone's not playing a stealth archer, it's probably because they're a Breton spellsword. Bretons start with innate magic resistance, and they also start with bonuses in Restoration and Conjuration. This in turn makes them easily the tankiest race in the game when equipped with a good set of armor, letting them shrug off almost anything while easily healing huge amounts of health and conjuring meat shields to take enemy aggro, and a strong weapon will offset the poor damage scaling on Destruction spells that gimps a pure mage build. When all of these factors are taken together, a Breton spellsword is easily the best direct combat build in the game.
** Applies to other skills as well: Alchemy and Enchanting are skills that almost every experienced player will level on almost every character, because they have GameBreaker status at higher levels (especially if used in tandem), any character build can make use of them and, even if not directly beneficial, are always a good source of money. Conjuration is another very widely exercised skill, because Soul Trap, the spell to fill soul gems, is a conjuration spell, and SummonMagic in this game is actually both practical and highly potent at higher levels, and works with both physical and magical builds. Lockpicking is the game's DumpStat and almost nobody will fill out any perks in the skill tree, unless they have already maxed out most of the others, because lockpicks are both common loot and weightless, and with the lock picking minigame, even Expert- or Master-level locks will only take so many attempts to open.
** Need perk points? Get Illusion to 100 (itself easy to do by abusing the hell out of Muffle, which gives a sizable amount of Illusion experience whenever you cast it, regardless of whether you're in combat or not), then purchase the spell Harmony. Make Illusion legendary, resetting the skill level but keeping all your spells. Stand in the middle of a highly populated city, such as Whiterun, and cast Harmony over and over again. Because of Harmony's massive range and Master spell status, you can affect a huge amount of people and rack up enough experience to hit 100 Illusion in about a minute. Rinse and repeat until you have all the perk points you could possibly want.
* CrazyIsCool:
** Neloth in ''Dragonborn'' may be mad, dangerous, and perhaps a bit unstable; but the spells he creates and teaches you are some of the best in the game. His own ego is practically the reason he's the only non-Skaal character who is unaffected by Miraak.
** Festus Krex, a Mage in the Dark Brotherhood, is an offscreen variant of this. His favorite assassination technique is, in his own words, to "Walk up to them, introduce yourself, melt their skin off, then run like the wind. Works every time."
* CreepyAwesome:
** Cicero. His jester outfit, dances, and giggling are all very unnerving, but he's one of the best followers in the game.
** Miraak. The MadnessMantra — in addition to his mask — spoken by his brainwashed slaves building shrines to him give him more than a few Cthulhu vibes. Adding to this, he is so immensely powerful [[spoiler:that it takes Hermaeus Mora to finally put an end to him.]]
---> Here in his shrine\\
That they have forgotten\\
Here do we toil\\
That we might remember\\
By night we reclaim\\
What by day was stolen\\
Far from ourselves\\
He grows ever near to us\\
Our eyes once were blinded\\
Now through him do we see\\
Our hands once were idle\\
Now through them does he speak\\
And when the world shall listen\\
And when the world shall see\\
And when the world remembers\\
That world shall cease to be
* DisappointingLastLevel:
** While the actual location where the FinalBoss is fought, [[spoiler:Sovngarde]], is very atmospheric and impressive, the final dungeon to get there is this trope. It's a Nordic tomb full of Draugr and a handful of Frostbite Spiders, with a Word Wall, some of the spinning block puzzles, and a claw puzzle door. In other words, there's nothing that makes the final level any different from the many other Nordic tombs in the game you've raided by that point other than the boss waiting at the end.
** The final level of the ''Dawnguard'' DLC. For the Volkihar side, there isn't even a level; you just return to Castle Volkihar and fight the final boss. For the Dawnguard side, you [[spoiler:besiege Castle Volkihar]]; but that amounts to just fighting a lot of vampires at once, and they're the same vampire-type enemies you've fought throughout the DLC, [[spoiler:plus you have the entire Dawnguard helping you]]. If the attack happens at night, you don't even get to use the MacGuffin around which the questline is centered, because its powers can only be used when the sun is out. You can even run past the vampires and head straight to the final boss room; once the final boss is killed, all the other vampires will be found dead anyway.
* DracoInLeatherPants:
** Despite all that the quest/story designers did to make you want to hate the Thalmor (see ANaziByAnyOtherName)... some people still inexplicably like them, and not in a "love to hate" way.
** Speaking of the Thalmor, Ancano is often depicted as a gentleman scholar with a cold demeanor in Website/{{Pixiv}} community rather than an ambitious fanatic in-game, and he's often shipped with J'Zargo for some reason.
** A lot of people seem to think that the Silver Hand are a heroic organization fighting against werewolves. In-game, there is no evidence of this beyond a Creation Club item of dubious canonicity stating that the Silver Hand were linked to the Vigilants of Stendarr, being little more than a bandit group that are hostile to the player even if they aren't a werewolf, and make no attempt to find any lawful recourse against the Companions. They go so far as to attack the Companions openly in Whiterun, and their actions only earn them scorn from the city guards as a result.
** Many players feel that the Forsworn are misunderstood freedom fighters working for a just cause to overthrow a government that demonizes them, and wish that they could join ''them'' in the Civil War. As a group that practices raiding, genocide, cannibalism, hagraven worship, and CrueltyRichLeather, the most we are going to say here is "two wrongs don't make a right". You ''can'' actually join the Forsworn by [[spoiler:helping Madanach to escape from Cidhna Mine]], but as seen above under Audience Apathy, this has its own problems. [[spoiler:Madanach]] claims that all he wants is the peace they knew before Ulfric put down the previous Forsworn rebellion. The problem with this is that the guy himself is an admitted ManipulativeBastard, and has been using rhetoric to radicalize young, impressionable Bretons into suicidal terrorists for nearly ''25 years''. While Ulfric is a polarizing figure himself, all information on the previous Forsworn rebellion comes from The Bear Of Markarth, which is essentially Imperial propaganda, or from the Forsworn themselves.
** Regarding the Civil War, expect around half of the player base to do this for the side they support while invoking RonTheDeathEater on the other. Ulfric in particular gets hit with this trope, since he's a much more interesting and developed character than his Imperial counterpart, Tullius. Expect many official Bethesda Games forum users who are pro-Imperial to {{facepalm}} upon remembering the popular "[[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Official Ulfric Fangirl Thread]]."
* EpilepticTrees:
** A few players who joined the Imperial side erroneously believed Legate Rikke and the Imperial Captain at Helgen were the same person.[[note]]Both are female [=NPCs=] who share the same voice actor and wear the same uniform, and the Captain's fate is not known if you follow Hadvar (you'll have to fight her if you follow Ralof, but won't see her for long or at close range if you don't), so there are some legitimate reasons for the mistake.[[/note]]
** There's a humanoid skeleton floating under Dragonsreach's drawbridge, Jarl Baalgruf has children but no wife appears ingame, and the infamous Ebony Blade is hidden inside the castle. Some gamers have speculated that it's his wife's corpse and he killed her with the Ebony Blade.
** [=NPCs=] are only supposed to send Hired Thugs if you harm them or their relatives. Hrongar has been reported to send Hired Thugs after you if Lydia joins the Blades, which may be just a bug but has also been interpretated by some gamers as Lydia being his daughter.
* EscapistCharacter: A master archmage, master craftsman, and master swordsman/archer; you fight dragons for a day job; you're probably unspeakably rich; you likely have high political standing in at least one hold, potentially all holds; and you can either be a NiceGuy beloved by all for your heroism, or a SociopathicHero who steals from and kills anyone because you're so strong and influential that no one can stop you. Being the Dragonborn ''kicks ass''.
* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Being such a controversial character, Ulfric Stormcloak has been compared to practically everyone from UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_the_Bruce Robert the Bruce]] to Adolf Hitler and in some cases even Donald Trump.
* EvilIsCool:
** Alduin, the BigBad of the game, a [[EvilSoundsDeep deep-voiced]] DraconicAbomination whose very power [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt threatens to end the entire world]].
** Ulfric Stormcloak, if you're under the belief that he's [[AntiVillain actually evil]]. Besides being the charismatic leader of his own army, [[AFatherToHisMen whom he genuinely cares for]], he's one of the [[RankScalesWithAsskicking fiercest warriors]] in all of Skyrim and has a BadassLongcoat to go along with it.
** Miraak, a former Dragon Priest with a cool design who can [[CompellingVoice bend people to his will]], as well as the very ''first'' Dragonborn.
** Hermaeus Mora is a [[EvilSoundsDeep menacingly voiced]] EldritchAbomination reminiscent of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos who desires to learn all knowledge in existence and is more than happy to [[TheChessmaster manipulate events]] to get what he wants, all while never dropping his [[AffablyEvil affable tone]].
* FanNickname:
** "Odie" for Odahviing.
** "Paarthy", "Paarth", "Partysnax" and "[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]" for Paarthurnax.
** Gallus Desidenius has earned the nickname of [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Amazo]] from some due to how similar the former's mask and the latter's face look.
** The infamous physics glitch that causes giants to [[HomeRunHitter launch people into the stratosphere with their clubs]] is affectionately known as the "Skyrim Space Program."
* {{Fanon}}:
** A commonly expressed belief among the fans is that the Dragonborn has claim to the Imperial throne. This is generally due to a misunderstanding of how the Dragonborn Emperors operated; just because one is Dragonborn does ''not'' mean that they have any claim to the Ruby Throne. The player Dragonborn isn't clearly defined as being a member of the Septim bloodline, thus not having a claim via lineage. In fact, if anyone in the game has a proper claim to the Throne, it would be [[spoiler:Karliah Indoril, due to her possible descent from Tiber Septim himself]][[note]]Karliah's maternal grandmother is queen Barenziah. However, the question remains if her mother was the child that Barenziah had with Tiber (which was aborted according to all historical records) or if she was fathered by some other man.[[/note]]. Further, the ritual by which each Emperor took the Ruby Throne, lit the Dragonfires, and maintained the Covenant of Akatosh no longer exists after the events of ''Oblivion'', so the traditional mechanism by which a Dragonborn Emperor is named no longer is valid. Because of this, the player Dragonborn's claim to the throne is no stronger than any other mortal's. This hasn't stopped the fandom from coming up with countless scenarios as to how the Dragonborn can "legally" claim the throne of the Empire.
** In fanfiction, it is occasionally parroted that Lydia is Hrongar's daughter, which would make her Jarl Balgruuf's niece. The only evidence for this is that, reportedly, stealing from or killing Lydia (or having her inducted into the Blades) will cause Hrongar to send hired thugs after you.
* FanPreferredCouple:
** The Dragonborn and Serana is a minor one, due to the loads of ShipTease between the two despite the fact that she's not a romance option. The Dragonborn can actually propose marriage to her, but she turns you down, stating that though she does care very much for the Dragonborn, she believes she doesn't deserve that kind of blessing.
** Teldryn Sero gets almost no ShipTease with the Dragonborn, but is still shipped with them simply for being cool and [[EnsembleDarkhorse likable]]. The same can be said for Brynjolf.
** Ulfric and Miraak both have quite the fan followings as potential spouses for the Dragonborn, even though not only are they not followers, they're (potentially for Ulfric) ''enemies''! It probably has something to do with [[MemeticBadass their]] [[EvilIsCool badassery]] and [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation faceted characters]].
* FranchiseOriginalSin: Complaints about ''Skyrim'' being "simplified for the average gamer" are rife, but one point often repeated is that the game is supposedly too easy especially at higher levels. The difficulty curve of ''Skyrim'' admittedly isn't great, but then again, ''none'' of the mainline Elder Scrolls games have managed to have a "good" difficulty curve - ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Arena]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' and of course ''Skyrim'' - all start off at varying levels of difficulty that drop a tad too quickly for peoples' liking once you level up enough; the only real difference being how fast it becomes easier. The sole exception - ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' - tries to fix this by more closely matching enemies to your level, but ironically enough is now infamous for having the ''worst'' difficulty curve out of all five.
* FriendlyFandoms:
** Interestingly for a while after its release, the ''Skyrim'' fandom was [[FandomRivalry rivals with the]] ''Videogame/DarkSouls'' fandom, with arguments as to which game was better setting off some impressive arguments across the internet (despite the fact that the games were very different beyond the vaguely comparable point of both having medieval fantasy settings). As time passed, however, both fandoms mellowed, with many ''Dark Souls'' fans even admitting that they like the ''Elder Scrolls'' games, and "Dark Souls-style" mods for ''Skyrim'' have practically become their own category among the modding community.
** A few part of ''Videogame/GenshinImpact'' fans are also ''Skyrim'' fans, to the point that they declare Nazeem to be RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap into a LoveableRogue when his [[Creator/KeithSilverstein voice actor]] voicing [[BigGood Zhongli]] from ''Genshin Impact''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G to N]]
* GeniusBonus:
** See if you can find a copy of the book ''Palla'' lying around somewhere - the opening lines are a reworking of Nabokov's ''Literature/{{Lolita}}''.
** A book called [[http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/N%27Gasta!_Kvata!_Kvakis! "N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis!"]] often confuses players by being complete gibberish. If you know [[UsefulNotes/EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage Esperanto]], it's a simple cipher with certain letter sequences swapped for others. Once deciphered, the text either [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall]], or it's an ancient Sload necromage magazine article that highlights some of the issues between print and Internet-based magazine versions, like image copyrights. In fact the topics and mannerisms are written in a way very familiar for those who lived during the internet era of Bulletin Boards. Say whatever criticism you may have about the Sloads, but for them, the UsefulNotes/EternalSeptember never came.
** [[GiantSpider Frostbite Spiders]]: One wonders why they deal regular poison damage, instead of frost damage. Well, you know what happens when you get a severe enough case of frostbite? [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrosis Necrosis]]. You know what else causes necrosis? [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loxoscelism Brown recluse venom]].
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
** Apart from getting a 40/40 from ''Weekly Famitsu'' (the very first western game to get it), ''Skyrim'' has held a steady fanbase in Japan since its release, to the point where the Dragonborn was included as a DLC Mii costume for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate''.
** Conversely, quite a number of western gamers like the Japanese dubbed voices of the game (which for the PC can easily be had by a simple language change), particularly that of [[spoiler: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIhgWaHuUlY Paarthurnax]]]].
* GoddamnedBats:
** Necromancers. It isn't that they toss frost spells or summon skeletons, that's easy. It isn't that they come in packs, though that is more worrisome. No, the frustrating thing about necromancers is that they can ''revive each other''. And you always seem to miss ''one''.
** Lesser draugr in general (the Scourge and Deathlord variants are DemonicSpiders). They're more annoying than hard, since many dungeons have a lot of them. They also drop very few valuables and their rusty weapons are heavy and aren't worth much when sold.
** Skeletons for similar reasons as lesser Draugr. They're especially common in caves and tombs, often mixed in with the Draugr, and are about as dangerous as a wet noodle given that they die in one hit to everything.
** Bandits. At high levels they can be [[DemonicSpiders surprisingly deadly]], but most are more annoying than lethal. Especially around large encampments and fortresses they are numerous and you'll often find yourself dealing with pesky archers on the walls or balconies taking cheap shots at you while you're dealing with the melee bandits charging at you.
** Wolves are fairly weak, even at the start, and even if they ambush you (which happens a lot) they don't do much damage. What puts them in this category, however, is that they transmit Rockjoint, which will cut down your melee damage by 25%. And it's almost impossible to stop them from getting at least one hit in, so you'll be traveling back to town a lot to get it cured. This can somewhat be remedied with Cure Disease potions, but they are fairly expensive early game and all but one the ingredients to make your own are very uncommon. ''Hearthfire'' remedies this, sort of, by letting the player bake garlic bread which has Cure Disease as an effect. You have to build a house and then build a house with a garden, a kitchen, and a butter churn first, and building all those things will cost you back quite a bit of gold for having the meal on hand for cheap. Fortunately, you can become a vampire or a werewolf fairly early in the game and then you don't have to worry about diseases anymore.
** [[RodentsOfUnusualSize Skeevers]] can be problematic for similar reasons. And on rare occasions, there is a glitch where you [[spoiler:have become a werewolf]] yet nevertheless get the disease anyway, even though logically you ''shouldn't physically be able to do so''.
** Nothing is more comically annoying than a mudcrab with zero self-preservation instincts that scuttles up behind you while you're fighting a dragon and starts stabbing away. Sure, you can turn around and one-hit kill the thing, but you have to take your eyes off the dragon to do it. By the same token, ''dragons'' can get distracted by the little pests and fly off from your battle to deal with them, which forces you to [[GetBackHereBoss chase the dragon]]. It's also worth noting that, for their relatively low level, mudcrabs [[GlassCannon can pack a hell of a punch]]. They're trivial to outrun, sure, but a low-level character with poor armor that gets caught in a bad spot can go down in just a few swipes from those '''[[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants big meaty claws]]''', especially on higher difficulties.
** Frostbite Spiders. Only the biggest version is dangerous, but like wolves these things just show up when you aren't expecting anything. Worse, while the wolves warn you, the spiders announce themselves by poisoning you when you aren't paying attention.
** Falmer are weak, but they are pretty common in the game and tend to fight in packs. The fact that they're replacement goblins fits this trope to a T. Stronger variations can be DemonicSpiders to an extent, as they can be surprisingly tough, use virulent poisons, and many cast ice spells.
** The Magic Anomalies from the College of Winterhold questline. They're tiny little wisp-like creatures that fly around randomly and are a nightmare to hit. Offensively, they're kind of a joke -- they don't hit really hard, and the worst they can really do to the Dragonborn is an ice bite. However, what they lack in power they make up for in resilience. Anomalies are the '''only enemy in the entire game''' to level up with the Dragonborn '''indefinitely'''; specifically, their level will always be '''75%''' higher than yours (for reference, ''[[FinalBoss Miraak]]'' will only be 10% higher leveled than you, and he caps out at 150). This means they get ''harder to kill'' as you level up due to the level disparity. Oh, and when you're fighting them, you're either fighting a whole '''horde''' of them running rampant, or they're spawning to pester you during a boss fight where it's quite hard to damage the boss in the first place (thankfully, they pester the boss, too). Luckily, once you're done with that quest chain you're done with them forever; just don't ask Tolfdir if there's anything you can do to help the college, and he won't send you to find any more of them. There is one upside to them, though; you can Soul Trap them for Grand Souls, making them one of the two farmable sources in the game. They also drop filled soul gems, all the way up to black.
** The slaughterfish are considered this for a number of reasons. They are zero threat to anyone since they can't leave the water and they do absolutely no damage even if you're in the water, but they count as enemies so you can't fast travel with them alive. Unless you have the Detect Life shout, you won't be shooting them from a distance since they're almost impossible to see in the water. And since you can't fight in the water, you have to lure them to shore to kill them or blindly Shout into the water until you hit them.
** Once you've been playing long enough, ''Dragons'' degrade from being [[MiniBoss Mini-bosses]] to a mix between this and an BossInMookClothing. They can appear out of nowhere, are tedious to fight at best with high level equipment and after a while there's literally ''nothing'' you can use their souls for (''Dragonborn'', at least, lets you use them to shuffle your perks around to experiment with different builds). On top of that, the most valuable loot they give you, their bones and scales, are ''stupidly heavy,'' requiring you to travel lightly if you want to actually get anything out of the fight, and you can't actually do anything with the stuff other than selling them until/unless your Smithing is maxed out. What was once a terrifying fight for your life gives way to an irritating dragon-shaped ''speed bump.''
* HarsherInHindsight:
** In the Treasury house in Markarth you can occasionally witness young clerk Rhiada expressing her concerns towards kindly and elderly housekeeper Nana Ildene that the Forsworn could break into the city and massacre the inhabitants, and Nana in turn assures her that if the Forsworn were to come, she will immediately let Rhiada know. [[spoiler:Nana Ildene is an undercover Forsworn agent who makes herself known by killing the lady of the house and will likely kill Rhiada as well, if you don't intervene quickly enough.]]
** You may occasionally overhear Olfina Gray-Mane shopping sausages for a meal for a special friend from huntsman Anoriath at the Whiterun market. Anoriath will teasingly ask if that friend happened to be Jon Battle-Born. Olfina replies brusquely that such knowledge could be dangerous to one's health. [[spoiler:Anoriath is a Dark Brotherhood target.]]
** Innkeeper Jonna in Morthal occasionally [[DeadpanSnarker informs]] her customer Lurbuk that if he continues singing like that somebody will eventually come around to kill him. [[spoiler: Not only is he also a Dark Brotherhood target, but so many people requested his death that a lottery had to be held for which contract to honor. In fact, it's at least theoretically possible that Jonna was one of the people who put out a contract on Lurbuk]].
** Lisbet, proprietor of Arnlief & Sons in Markarth, has a sad story about falling behind after inheriting the business from her husband after his tragic death. [[spoiler: Turns out, she's a self-made widow...she's part of a cannibal cult, and ''ate'' her husband.]]
* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct:
** Creator/CharlesMartinet's role as the wise dragon Paarthurnax has been very well received, especially by fans of his [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros most well-known role]] in which he's little more than a cheerful [[TheEveryman everyman]].
** Most characters with Creator/KeithSilverstein's "Male Condescending" voice like Nazeem and Siddgeir live up to the label, but quite a couple others (particularly Savos Aren) can actually sound quite sympathetic. Contrast with Creator/AprilStewart's "Female Condescending" voice, which far fewer characters use and almost always just sounds hateful.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** An in-game book describing the events of ''Oblivion'' takes special care to mention that it was the Mythic Dawn, and not the Dark Brotherhood, who assassinated Uriel Septim. The author even points out that it would have been suicidal for the Brotherhood to have taken out a contract on the Emperor, since it would have brought the whole of the Empire's forces down on them and destroyed them. [[spoiler:Guess what you get to do after joining the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim?]] Also possibly HarsherInHindsight, [[spoiler: because merely ''attempting'' to assassinate the current Emperor does indeed bring the Empire's forces down on them and almost destroys them]].
** Imperial-aligned characters often claim that Ulfric shouted High King Torygg to pieces - something that Ulfric constantly denies, since Unrelenting Force can only ragdoll people. In the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, you ''can'' actually use Unrelenting Force to disintegrate enemies [[spoiler:thanks to an upgrade you can get from Hermaeus Mora]].
** When the game was released in 2011, it became a rival to ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' for the best game of the year. Come 2017, not only has ''Skyrim'' has been ported to the Nintendo Switch but it also has Link's Master Sword, the Hylian Shield, and Champion's Tunic.
** Early on, quite a few mods aimed to recreate the island of [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Solstheim]]. Take a wild guess what the setting of the ''Dragonborn'' DLC was.
** Solitude and Windhelm are, in essence, the two capital cities of their respective claimants for the position of High King. The Greymoor chapter for ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' reveals that this is not the first time the two cities have been in opposition; however, ESO's situation is an ''inversion'' of the Skyrim time, where Windhelm is the seat for Jorunn the Skald-King, leader of the Ebonheart Pact alliance with 4 of the 5 Dunmer Great Houses, and some of the Argonian tribes of northern Black Marsh. And rather than being the cosmopolitan city it is 1,000 years later, ''Solitude'' is the capital of High King Svargrim of Western Skyrim, an independence-minded segment of Skyrim not at all welcoming or fond of outsiders.
* HypeAversion: Due to its insane popularity, some hardcore gamers vilify ''Skyrim'', feeling it is too casual.
* HypeBacklash: Since its release, ''Skyrim'' is regarded as one of the best [=RPGs=] ever created. While it has the sales figures to back this up, gamers point out the game's various flaws and shortcomings, especially when it comes to story and characters. Some are irritated that ''Skyrim'' is treated like the second coming of lightsaber-wielding mecha Jesus, mostly by casual gamers who found ''Skyrim'' far more accessible than ''Oblivion'' or ''Morrowind''. And don't even try discussing ''Skyrim'' on /v/.
* IronWoobie: Knight-Paladin Gelebor. His entire race was destroyed save for his brother, who is BrainwashedAndCrazy, and he's spent thousands of years resolutely guarding the ruins of their temple. Nevertheless, he's a NiceGuy and remains dedicated to his god.
* ItsShortSoItSucks:
** Some of the games' major subplots could be finished in an afternoon, and the main quest will take about 20-30 hours. Given that only one or two of these hours is DisappointingLastLevel compared to others in the series... it's probably a bit better that they didn't decide to lengthen the story. Once you finish, however, there are a ''ton'' of sidequests available, ranging from questlines like the College and Companions to just retrieving an item for someone, and there's also finding all the Words of Power. Even if you don't have a quest to do, the game world is just so deep that you can pick a compass direction and head off into the unknown, where you're bound to come across a new tomb or cave you haven't explored yet. Thus, if you're planning to plumb the game for all it has to offer outside the two main story quests, you're going to be spending a lot of time in Skyrim.
** ''Skyrim'''s guilds all bit gets rid of the older games' SkillGate mechanics where you need to be of level X in a skill or have done a few random quests before you're allowed to progress in the storyline. As a result, although there's the same amount of quests as previous games, it's possible to breeze through all of them one after the other, causing the whole thing to feel rather short. This is particularly obvious with the Companions questline, where one gets to join their Circle of most trusted veteran warriors literally after the initiation and then doing one quest (though there is some justification here as Kodlak, Skjor and Aela fast-tracked you through, Kodlak because he [[spoiler:recognizes you from a prophetic dream]] and Skjor and Aela because [[spoiler:the debate in the Circle about the matter of being werewolves), and Skjor and Aela made you one basically to try and weigh Circle opinion in their favor]].
** Many reviewers feel the main questline of ''Dragonborn'' was too short, at least compared to ''Dawnguard''; they usually say the amount of other quests make up for it, though.
* ItWasHisSled: Alduin has returned, and the dragons are returning because he's reviving them.
* JerkassWoobie:
** Ulfric Stormcloak. Yeah, he might be indifferent to non-Nords and slightly frosty, but [[spoiler:his torture at the hands of the Thalmor]] was completely undeserved and he honestly feels that Skyrim's plight cannot be resolved in any other way apart from Civil War.
** Delphine and Esbern may be rude and impolite, and [[spoiler:few fans condone their attitude towards Paarthurnax]], but the fact of the matter is that they've been hunted for decades, with most of their friends murdered in cold blood.
** Braith in Whiterun earned the playerbase's ire for being a rude, aggressive bully to everyone. Talk to her and listen to her conversations with her parents, and you learn that she bullies a boy her age [[LovingBully because she has a crush on him and can't figure out how to express it]], and isn't getting any help from her mother (who ignores her) or her father (who tries to help but is pretty clueless about how). Suddenly she seems less like an archery target and more like an ordinary confused kid.
** Torbjorn Shatter-Shield in Windhelm. He may be a CorruptCorporateExecutive that treats his Argonian workers like dirt [[spoiler:and hires pirates to attack his competitors]], but the man's also depressed from the murder of his daughter, has to support a grieving wife who took said murder even ''harder'', and to top it off, his family's AncestralWeapon was stolen [[spoiler:by a family friend who pinned the blame on another family friend]]. It gets even worse if you [[spoiler:choose to kill his remaining daughter, who is an optional target for the Dark Brotherhood questline; his wife will be DrivenToSuicide, leaving him all alone]]. The man ''cannot'' seem to catch a break. There isn't anything you can do to help him, either, since even if you recover that family weapon the game doesn't let you return it.
** Sapphire in Riften. She may be rude and dismissive toward the player at first, but she UsedToBeASweetKid whose family had a pig farm. Her family was killed by bandits, then Sapphire got [[RapeAsBackstory repeatedly raped for two weeks straight]]. With all this crap, it's hard to blame her for her unfriendly demeanor.
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: The Dragonborn, obviously. It helps that there's canonically over 50 characters in Skyrim they can marry regardless of race or gender, but to list everybody who has been shipped with them would take up way too much space.
* MemeticBadass:
** Lydia quickly became one. Though housecarls in general are pretty tough, Lydia is the one almost every player has. She can survive being hurled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJhDoX9yf3o&feature=related off a mountain.]]
** [[AutomatonHorse Horses]] can scale any mountain, no matter how steep the climb. [[GoodBadBugs Physics? What's that?]]
** Giants, too, due to a GoodBadBug that lets them [[HomeRunHitter knock players into the sky with their clubs.]]
** Ysgramor, in-universe. He could eat soup with a ''fork''.
** For most people, slaying a dragon is the most awesome thing you can do in your life. For the Dovahkiin, it's all in a day's work.
** While they're more well-known for their annoying lines, the hold guards actually scale with the player up to level 50. It's amusing when the battle music blares up in a town because a wild dragon decided to attack and the guards then proceed to annihilate the poor bastard before the Dragonborn can show up.
** Many fans have declared Neloth the only NPC who has earned the right to brag about himself.
** Jarl Balgruuf has also become one of these, thanks to his extreme competence as a ruler and warrior while remaining entirely polite and benevolent towards his subjects. Quite a few players were surprised and disappointed to discover that they couldn't support him as High King of Skyrim over the two canonical candidates by beating both sides into submission. This has led to claims such as that the reason he can't become High King would be because he's destined to be Emperor.
* MemeticMolester:
** Unsurprisingly, Hermaeus Mora, due to his tendency to get rather... physical with his [[NaughtyTentacles tentacles]]. The voice doesn't help.
** There's also Belethor, the General goods store owner in Whiterun, for his creepy jokes (or are they?) about buying and selling relatives. It's especially weird because he has the same voice actor as Lucan Valerius in Riverwood, whose sister is his business partner; imagine those same lines coming out of Lucan's mouth while Camilla is in the room.
** Aerin, in Riften, is better known as the guy who follows Mjoll the Lioness everywhere she goes and stands next to her bed watching her while she sleeps. The ''Amorous Adventures'' mod had a field day with this.
** Farengar for his treatment of Odahviing by taking samples from the non-consenting dragon.
* {{Narm}}:
** The marriage dialogue.
--->'''Player:''' Interested in me, are you?\\
'''NPC:''' Well, yes. Why wouldn't I be? Are you... interested in me?\\
'''Player:''' Yes. Yes, I am.\\
'''''[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: *Wedding* ]]
'''''
** Gormlaith shouting "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Skyrim WILL! BE! FREE!]]" Or anything she says, really, due to her [[LargeHam excessive hamminess]].
** All [=NPCs=] have combat lines that relate to their position and race. Normally this isn't a problem, but hearing Lydia yelling "Skyrim belongs to the Nords!" while fighting mudcrabs is a bit narmy. Hunters have it even worse, since you'll probably be hearing them shouting things like "That it? That all you got?!" while chasing harmless wildlife like bunnies.
** There is a lot of overlap between helping out an NPC via a favor or miscellaneous quest, and possibly going against them in another sidequest. For example, after completing both "Taking Care of Business" and his miscellaneous quest, the waiter at the Riften inn will be admonishing you for defeating in a brawl/intimidating the innkeeper one moment, and singing your praises for helping him make his wedding ring the next.
** The overly dramatic tone in Karliah's voice when, near the end of the ThievesGuild questline, she warns you that once you've chosen your [[spoiler: Nightingale power]], you can't change it for ''at least a day''.
** The cutscene of the three Nord heroes defeating Alduin in the past comes off as funny rather than epic, since it uses the same animations and framing as a normal battle. It makes it where it feels like watching actors swing their weapons around clumsily while screaming fearsome battle cries instead of an intense battle.
** The female Argonians in the game have voices that make them sound much older than they actually are. Because of this, it's ''really'' hard to take a heartwarming moment like marriage seriously.
** When assassinating Vittoria Vici in the Dark Brotherhood questline, one of the guests' responses is, "Oh no no no this is so wrong." It ''would'' be appropriate for the situation...if the line wasn't delivered in a ''complete deadpan''.
** When you're about to land a killing shot with a bow and the camera cinematically shows the arrow about to land its target... before promptly failing to do so, whizzing past their head. Or, better yet, landing the shot and getting to see a close-up of the arrow as someone gets shot in the butt and flung over a hill.
** The Dragon Aspect Shout does not give you spectral wings or a tail, like you would expect. It instead gives you spikes, which run down your body to your ''crotch''. It looks as silly as it sounds. As if that wasn't enough, [[ArcVillain Miraak]] uses this Shout too, which might make you snicker when you're supposed to be intimidated.
** The "thief and hunter" random encounter where a thief passes you a stolen item and threatens to kill you if you snitch. His pursuer will show up a couple of seconds later, and you have the option of either giving the item back or lying and keeping it. It's hard to decide what part of the encounter is the narmiest: the hunter buying your blatant lying so easily, the hunter inevitably catching up with the thief a couple seconds later even if you point him in the wrong direction, or the fact that the hunter defaults to the basic NPC lines and never cares about his stolen property again after beating the crap out of the thief.
* NarmCharm:
** There is something about Neloth's idiosyncrasies that makes him seem both so over the top and a complete badass.
** Bandits in general are this:
--->"Die already so I can take your stuff!"\\
"You are so much easier to rob when you're dead!"\\
"Use your smarts, Da said... go to the college... how am I supposed to figure out which college he meant..."
* NauseaFuel:
** Peryite's quest, "The Only Cure". You can meet a passive Afflicted early in the game, which indicates to you that TheVirus in this example ''rots your skin'' somewhat. In the quest itself, [[spoiler: you encounter aggressive Afflicted who can attack you [[Film/TheExorcist Linda Blair-style]] with ''streams of vomit''.]] Oh, and the condition is a "blessing," according to Peryite.
** [[spoiler:Namira's Daedric quest]], where you slaughter a man in cold blood on a rather disturbing-looking altar and then shovel gobs of his raw flesh into your mouth with your bare hands. Then [[spoiler:Namira]] speaks to you and congratulates you for your actions. Notable in that, if you want OneHundredPercentCompletion, doing this is ''mandatory''. The fact that the cannibal eating animations amount to tickling alleviates it somewhat, though.
** A tamer one comes at the very beginning of the game, after the guy before you has his head chopped off. You are placed on the chopping block next, with a perfect few seconds before Alduin shows up in which you can clearly view his severed head right below you.
** The Frostflow Lighthouse mini-quest ends with you [[spoiler:killing a Chaurus Reaper and then looting it for a man's remains, leading to the [[SarcasmMode pleasant mental image]] of you ''cutting the beast open and extracting a mostly-digested corpse from its belly''.]]
* NightmareRetardant: The Revered dragons are a little too goofy looking to take seriously.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:O to Z]]
* OneSceneWonder: Roggvir only gets a few minutes in one scene to [[ChewingTheScenery chew the scenery,]] and he makes a ''meal'' of it.
* {{Padding}}: The ''Dawnguard'' DLC adds two major locations, one on either end of the map. Of course it makes sense two factions that hate each other wouldn't be neighbors, but gameplay-wise this means you'll find yourself having to trek across the entire province to get to your quest destination. And given the popularity of [[SelfImposedChallenge no fast-travel runs]], the large physical separation seems to be [[InvokedTrope a deliberate choice]] by Bethesda to make the DLC feel just a bit longer.
* PanderingToTheBase:
** Probably the main reason the Spectral Assassin, aka [[spoiler:Lucien Lachance,]] was added to the game, [[spoiler:because he was an ''extremely'' popular character in ''Oblivion'', and players sorely missed him after he was killed at the end of the Dark Brotherhood questline.]]
** The return to Solstheim in ''Dragonborn'', getting a check-in on the Dunmer, and the return of some of the best musics of Morrowind was a huge bone to throw to ''Morrowind'' fans peeved about the off-screen destruction of Vvardenfell during the TimeSkip since ''Oblivion''.
** A good amount of Creation Club content qualifies. How did so many legendary artifacts, which one would have previously found in Vvardenfell, Cyrodiil, and even the ''Shivering Isles'', end up here in Skyrim? No idea. But hey, they're cool pieces of nostalgia.
* ParanoiaFuel:
** Dragons can attack you ''anywhere'' as long as the sky is visible, even inside cities. Half the time your only warning that a dragon is about to attack is when it suddenly roars and drops down on you. The other half of the time, they don't even do that. Even in the courtyard of the mage college, in the middle of a thick snow storm. And sometimes, they ''don't'' attack, but just keep flying by, buzzing you over and over without making any hostile moves.
** Wondering why you can't fast travel when you have no enemies in sight? Keep your eyes open and checking the skies and your ears expecting a loud roar, a dragon might come down breathing fire/ice on your head soon enough.
** Hired thugs are even worse; they can show up inside dungeons, and have tendency to attack you in towns while you're doing things like using a smelter or arcane enchanter.
** A specific plot instance is [[spoiler:Alduin's soul-snaring mist in Sovngarde. You can't see him, and it is quite possible to come up to a random anonymous soldier who barely has time to tell you to run before he gets snatched away and his very soul devoured.]]
** When you kill Grelod the Kind, Aventus gives you the reward, all's well and good, right? Wrong. A courier shows up with a message from someone. Whoever sent it was pretty eager to get it to you, apparently. So you read the note. Wanna know what it says? [[spoiler:"We know" below a black handprint.]] Sleep tight[[spoiler:... on second thought, ''[[NeverSleepAgain don't]]''! That's how they get you!]]
** In barrows, the mummified corpses that rise up to attack you and the ones that just sit in their tombs and sarcophagi look very similar. In an early playthrough, it's almost impossible to be sure which ones are undead and which aren't. It gets better as you become more savvy and level up, but then you run into the problem of enemies and sarcophagi that don't "trigger" because your Sneak is too high, and suddenly find yourself surrounded because you made just a ''tiny bit'' of noise...
** During the quest "A Cornered Rat," you might notice an oddity in Riften; there's a Khajiit named Shavari wandering around the city proper, something you won't find anywhere else. Other than that, she doesn't seem very noteworthy, doesn't have much to say, and isn't particularly friendly. But if you pay special attention to her, you'll notice she's both watching and following you from a safe distance. [[spoiler:When you escape the Ratways with Esbern, you'll find out she's working with the Thalmor.]] You can also [[spoiler:pickpocket her and find a note that basically says she's there to assassinate ''you''... although it's made somewhat [[NightmareRetardant less impressive]] by her [[BullyingADragon attempting to murder you with an iron dagger while wearing plain clothes]].]]
** [[GaiasVengeance Spriggans]] appear literally out of nowhere, right next to you, and hit hard when they do. As a result, you'll never feel safe in wooded grottoes.
** The fact that players can be killed by the [[OneHitKill kill-camera mechanic]] makes combat into a tense affair for all the wrong reasons. It doesn't matter if the player has made themselves into an unstoppable juggernaut clad in the best armor in Skyrim; the game causes the kill-cam if the enemy's attack could reduce the player's health to zero in one strike ''without'' taking armor, blocking, or resistances into the equation. The only defenses against this are to pump health up, immediately chug health potions as quickly as possible, or download mods specifically meant to prevent this mechanic from affecting the player.
** Have ''Dragonborn'' installed? Finished your initial business at High Hrothgar? Keep an eye out for some oddly-dressed fellas wandering around. They've been sent by Miraak, and they're looking for you. [[spoiler:You'll have to talk to and fight them to begin the DLC quest, but if you spot them in any of the cities, ''run'', because otherwise half the town could end up dead.]]
** With ''Dawnguard'', vampires will randomly attack people on the streets in cities at night (unless you're playing with mods or on the Platform/NintendoSwitch). You'll also encounter a "mysterious traveler" who is actually a roaming vampire who will attack people at night. You can stop them from killing someone, but you have to ''spot'' them first. Better keep those detection spells handy...
** Also in ''Dawnguard'', you can also encounter Vampires [[MuggedForDisguise pretending to be]] Vigilants of Stendarr. There are also bandits dressed as Imperials, who attempt to shake the Dragonborn down for money.
** Frostbite Spiders can drop down off of the ceiling to attack the player. While most of the time you can anticipate it and see the enemy icon before they drop, if you're sprinting under the spot where they drop... ergh.
* PlayerPunch:
** If you decide to kill [[spoiler:Paarthurnax]], you'll find that he doesn't try to fight back until you chip off 50% of his health. He constantly says "[[spoiler:Su'um ahrk morah]]" in what may be an attempt to plead with you, as he's trying to remind you to [[spoiler:follow the Way of the Voice]]. Perhaps worst of all, he's only level ''10'', no stronger than the early-game dragons, so he hardly seems like the threat [[spoiler:the Blades]] make him out to be. It really feels more like a murder than a battle... especially when [[spoiler:you absorb his soul]]. And to make matters worse, he clearly is throwing the fight. He's strong enough to hold his own against ''Alduin'', so the only reason he's such an easy opponent is that he doesn't want to kill you.
** For Imperial-aligned players who nonetheless have a degree of sympathy for the Stormcloak point of view, [[spoiler:killing Ulfric]] can be one of these. The contrast between Rikke and Tullius's attitudes is especially jarring: Rikke clearly finds the whole thing tragic, while Tullius [[spoiler:simply mentions that they'll put his head on a pike]].
** The end of the Stormcloak quest line. Tullius, completely defeated, admits that what the Empire did in the past may not always have been right, and basically begs you to at least respect that he fought for his cause as valiantly as you did, while Ulfric and Galmar unmagnanimously mock him as a loser and asserting that because MightMakesRight he deserves nothing, before killing him. Also, even if you are of the opinion that Tullius had it coming, poor Rikke certainly didn't deserve to die; but you have to cut her down to get to him, and she gets no such fanfare as Ulfric does.
** Also for Stormcloak players, having to fight Jarl Balgruuf certainly counts.
** Narfi's side quest leaves you with one hell of a SadisticChoice. You can either tell him the truth about his sister's death and crush his spirit, or feed him false hope by telling him she'll be back soon, which is likely to just crush him ''even worse'' in the future. [[spoiler:It gets even worse if you continue through the Dark Brotherhood questline, as you eventually have to ''kill'' him (albeit with some evidence that his contract is meant to be a MercyKill). And all but one of the responses is talking down to the poor man. The only respectable reply you can give him is silence before you do the deed. To add insult to his injury, if you killed him with the Ebony Blade, it actually counts as a charge. In other words, he genuinely treated you as his OnlyFriend, and you kill him in cold blood and (potentially) reanimate him with Dead Thrall 18 times for the sake of feeding your ArtifactOfDoom? WhatTheHellHero]]
** In ''Hearthfire'', there are four orphans living on the streets, in addition to the ones in the orphanage and whoever's on or falls on hard times in the base game. [[SadisticChoice You can only adopt two of the whole lot]].
** Visiting the Soul Cairn. [[spoiler:All those poor bastards whose souls you stole to make that awesome enchanted armor you're wearing (or whatever you chose to do with them)? This is where you sent them. Of course, if you only trapped evil people like, say, Grelod the Kind, then you might not feel as bad knowing they're most certainly suffering.]]
** Your first major contract for the Dark Brotherhood contains the optional choice to murder Nilsine Shatter-Shield. [[spoiler:If you do this and then later return to the Shatter-Shield home (which is likely because the home contains one of the stones of Barenziah), you will discover the dead body of Nilsine's mother Tova alongside a suicide note.]]
* PortingDisaster:
** While the Xbox and PC versions were relatively stable for a Bethesda game, the Platform/PlayStation3 version of ''Skyrim'' was plagued with massive slow-downs on release, almost to the point of being unplayable. This was especially frustrating for gamers who utilized larger saving files, since they had to wait months for Bethesda to finally release a patch.
** While the PC version does not suffer many technical problems (well, no more than the Xbox version -- this ''is'' an ''Elder Scrolls'' game, after all), the UI is very console-adapted, to the point that it has caused problems with using a mouse for many users (as in, the game doesn't properly register that you clicked on something). Bethesda has said they have no intention of modifying the UI themselves, but luckily this is one porting problem that can be (and already has been) fixed by modders. Meet [[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3863/ SkyUI]].
** The VR versions stop having further updates by the time Creation Club came out, and thus underlying bugs in the version were left unfixed, and modders have to fragment their version of mods to make it work on the VR version.
** The GOG version inexplicably changes file pointers unlike previous ''Fallout'' and ''The Elder Scrolls'' games released on GOG, making several mods, mod managers, and custom launchers incompatible. It also, at least for the backup installer version that doesn't require GOG Galaxy, installs all language voice files to the game, bloating the installation size (something that the GOG version of ''Videogame/Cyberpunk2077'' and the original Steam ''Skyrim'' installer didn't do.)
** The Switch version of the Anniversary Edition is too much for the console to handle, resulting in marginally terrible performance compared to the first launch Switch version.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
** Bosmer in general seem to have gotten out of the scrappy heap for people have more or less accepted the current look of the male Bosmers over the previous game's comical, dwarflike appearances, and a few characters (such as Enthir and [[DiskOneNuke Faendal]]) are well-liked among the fandom. If anything, people are upset that you can't marry a Bosmer in the game. Having them as WoobieSpecies by forcefully becoming indentured servants to the Thalmor probably gives them sympathy points.
** Originally known as "the guy who just gives you 10 gold for giving him a powerful item in ''Morrowind''", fans have been much more receptive to Neloth for his mad, rude, yet humorous personality. Having him give you much better rewards such as useful spells and the ability to create staves as well as helping out the player in ''Dragonborn'''s main quest with no strings attached has helped him as well.
* RonTheDeathEater:
** It's mind-numbingly common to see either side in the Civil War storyline demonize the other whenever it's brought up. For example, go to any popular [=YouTube=] video that is about the Imperial Legion and count how many "Hail Stormcloaks!" comments there are. And while some Stormcloaks certainly have a xenophobia issue, you'd think the entire army was one step away from outright genocide if you listened to some Imperial fans.
** The Blades, especially Delphine. They're allies for a good portion of the main quest, provide you with a lot of information and aid critical to stopping Alduin, and later will go hunting dragons with you. However, once their role in the main quest is over, they order you to kill [[spoiler:Paarthurnax]], and will refuse any further aid to you unless you do. Given how popular he is, the mere suggestion caused many players on turn on them. You can thus expect many to label the Blades {{Jerkass}}es subject to FantasticRacism who order the player around like a servant.
** Many fans equate the Vigilants of Stendarr with a real-life Inquisition who oppress, murder, and torture daedra worshippers. In-game, all they do is patrol the countryside, occasionally fight vampires and werewolves and wild atronachs, and in one case investigate a house with a dangerous shrine to Molag Bal, and don't really express the extreme fanatical views and violent behavior that many fans ascribe to them; in fact, they're known to kick people out for being ''too'' fanatical. The one "fanatical" thing they do is attempt to forcefully confiscate any Daedric artifacts the player has obtained, and even then that was DummiedOut so its canonicity is questionable. And considering how a daedric cult nearly caused the end of Nirn in the [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion previous game]] or how daedric quests often involve fairly unscrupulous acts like ''murdering someone who considers you a friend'', the Vigilants would have a point.
* TheScrappy: Delphine. A rude {{Jerkass}} who orders the player around, hates dragons (even benevolent ones) and has [[VanHelsingHateCrimes no interest in them beyond killing them]], considers the Greybeards untrustworthy cowards and has no respect for them or High Hrothgar, and she'll coldly refuse to aid the player if they don't kill [[spoiler:Paarthurnax]], accusing them of going soft. Little wonder there are mods out there to let the player [[WhatTheHellHero put the Blades in their place]] either verbally (remind them ''you're'' the Dragonborn; the Blades serve you, not the other way around) or physically (make them killable). Even the scant few players who support killing [[spoiler:Paarthurnax]] out of pragmatism don't care much for her.
* SidetrackedByTheGoldenSaucer:
** As before with ''Elder Scrolls'' games, you can spend ''so long'' reading books.
** And as with a lot of freeform exploration games, it is absurdly easy to get sidetracked while en route to a quest. Something as simple as stopping to investigate a curious landmark while en route to another quest site can result in the player ending up on the far side of Skyrim engaging in another questline entirely unrelated to the first one. Note that Skyrim has about 400 locations to visit.
** The ''Hearthfire'' DLC will make you spend time building your houses and forget everything else.
* SignatureScene:
** The cart ride as your character wakes up at the very beginning of the game. The MemeticMutation of the scene has only popularized it further.
** The Greybeards shouting "DOVAHKIIN" to call you to High Hrothgar after your first dragon fight. ''All of Skyrim hears it''.
* SpiritualAdaptation: The Reach's hold has some similarities with ''Film/TheThirteenthWarrior'', since the game is set in a Norse-inspired setting and the Reach is home of a war against tribes of cavemen-like warriors wielding primitive weapons and dressed in beast pelts. You can try to create a Redguard Dragonborn as an expy of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, but sadly scimitars are low-tier weapons and the unmodded game doesn't feature any Arabic-style chainmail armor. Interestingly, Ulfric Stormcloak is played by Vladimir Kulich, who played the leader of the Viking warriors in ''The 13th Warrior''.
* SpoiledByTheFormat: [[spoiler:Delphine. Her importance to the plot is supposed to be hidden until a good bit into the main quest; but observant players may notice before then that she's one of the rare characters with a unique voice, which would be an oddity for an unimportant innkeeper.]] This is easy to overlook on a first run, though.
* {{Squick}}:
** Awesome, yet totally horrifying for some, is a werewolf's double-swipe power finisher; they grab their foe, lift them off the ground, and ''pop their head off like they're crushing a grapefruit''.
** Wear the Ring of Namira, and guards will comment on how rotten your breath smells and ask what you've been eating. The answer, if you have the ring, is, of course, [[spoiler:human flesh.]]
** Cicero talking about oiling the Night Mother "... get all the hard to reach places..."
** Eating alchemy ingredients to learn their properties. Find a sardine in a burlap sack in the bottom of a thousand year old tomb? Gulp it down to figure what kind of potion you can make with the next one you find! Insects, giant's toes, human and inhuman hearts, the list goes on...
** As noted under NauseaFuel, the Linda Blair-style mode of attack employed by some of the Afflicted in Peryite's quest. That whole questline in general has made some people want to take multiple showers to feel clean again.
** If one hangs around the orc stronghold of Narzulbur and listens for long enough, it becomes clear that the elderly orc sisters Yatul and Bolar, aunts of the current chief, are responsible for poisoning his wives. The squicky part comes from the uncomfortable ambiguity of why they did it. It's unclear whether they did it solely to preserve their own power and influence or because their interest in their nephew is more... carnal. The chief's daughter even tells you that her brother (implicitly) suspects the aunts of sleeping with their own nephew.
* SpecialEffectFailure: There are several mods that exist solely to address the fact that the water troughs used by the blacksmiths have ''no animation whatsoever'', looking more like they hold blue-colored gelatin instead.
* TakeThatScrappy:
** Several for Nazeem:
*** His own ''wife'' snarks to anyone within earshot about him stuffing himself up the Jarl's backside.
*** One of the possible targets of the Companions' "Hired Muscle" radiant quest is Nazeem, and it’s pretty satisfying to give the smug Redguard a good beating.
*** The ''Dawnguard'' vampire radiant quest "Deceiving the Herd" involves assassinating an NPC in a town, with an option to choose someone "high-profile"; killing Nazeem will ''fail'' that objective.
** If you go into Maven's house and into her basement you'll find a locked room where she's attempted to perform the ritual to contact the Dark Brotherhood, and a letter angrily ranting about how they've repeatedly ignored her summons. It's a bit cathartic to see her futile and pathetic rage... not much, mind you, but probably the best one can expect a borderline-CreatorsPet like her to get.
*** A FridgeLogic extension to the above: once you're the Listener and the Night Mother starts handing out contracts, at ''no point'' does she ever tell you to visit her. Either Maven didn't perform the Sacrament at the right time, or the bride of Sithis doesn't think any more highly of her than you do. And given that the Brotherhood learned of Black Sacraments through word-of-mouth before getting another Listener, it's entirely possible that they heard about it but didn't care enough to deal with her.
** [[IronicNickname Grelod the Kind]], who [[WouldHurtAChild bullies and tortures orphans]]. She absolutely cannot be reasoned with no matter how strong and intimidating the Dovahkiin may be, and goes down in one hit. The nice, ''actually'' kind Constance is the only one who is upset; for everyone else, [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing there is much rejoicing.]]
--->'''Runa Fair-Child:''' Kill one person and you can solve so many problems.
** If the Imperials win the battle for Whiterun, Heimskr, the annoying preacher, will no longer be rambling in the streets; he will instead be serving time in jail. Also, if the Stormcloaks win, he'll still be making sermons, but at the cost of his house, which was smashed by errant catapult fire (granted, now he sleeps near the statue of Talos, but it's still a form of karma).
** If you adopt a son and have him live in Whiterun when it's not under Stormcloak control, he will occasionally complain about how awful Balgruuf's children are.
** Similarly, adopting a daughter and raising her in Whiterun will have her complain about hating playing with Braith.
* ThatOneAttack:
** ZUN HAL VIIK, the Disarm Shout used by Draugr Deathlords. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's easy to miss the "You have been disarmed!" notification since you're, well, busy trying not to get your head smashed in. That said, it's still frustrating to hunt down the weapon that was taken from your grasp while again you're busy trying not to get your head smashed in, but due to the buggy nature of the game, more often than not, the weapon will simply clip through the ground and will be unobtainable. This is especially bad when this happens to weapons with superb enchantments.
** The giants' attack where they smash their clubs into the ground, which deals a metric ton of damage and has a tendency to punt victims into the sky if it hits. Which, while admittedly pretty funny, also makes them ''extremely'' dangerous at low levels.
** Magic users for a character not specifically geared toward thwarting it. Magic does a lot of damage to an unprotected player, and it's especially bad with the lightning-throwing mages that cannot miss so long as they're in range. They make the early game hell in certain places. There's a reason why the ingredients for magic-resistance potions are extremely abundant in the areas you start in, and a number of quests offer gear or permanent perks to give you magic resistance.
** Ice Storm, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard when used by enemy cryomancers and magic traps]], because it deals continuous damage and moves very slowly, and enemy mages get damage boosts as they level up, meaning that you'll likely be annihilated unless you act quickly. And it slows you for a few seconds. The one bit of good news is that frost-resistance potions are very easy to make with abundant materials around Skyrim, so if you know you're about to face frost-wielding mages you can prepare ahead of time. For extra fun, the Dragon Priest Dukaan from ''Dragonborn'' has an ''even more powerful'' version.
** FUS RO DAH is both useful and a barrel of fun, especially when cliffs are involved. Not so much when it gets used against you by Draugr, since it'll at best stagger you and make you briefly vulnerable and at worst send you flying across the room, leaving you completely exposed for several seconds as you get back up. Thankfully, fatal drops are rare in the tombs that Draugr tend to inhabit, but when it's used on you by a Deathlord with an Ebony Bow, you still won't be getting up.
** Enemies that can use [[OneHitKill kill-moves]] against you. As noted elsewhere, the system that governs when it happens takes no regard for resistances. Armor rating, shield up, behind cover... none of that matters. When it wants to kill-cam you, it will kill-cam you.
** Dragon breath. While a dragon's bite attacks are bad enough and can easily killcam you, the beast needs to land to use those, and a grounded dragon is slow, clumsy, and generally a sorry sight. Breath attacks, on the other hand, don't have the same limitations. Similarly to Ice Storm, above, it's a continuous stream of pain that is hard to get out of (since the dragon will angle it to pursue you) and harder still to find cover from (considering dragons fly and can attack you from anywhere). And yes, the ice variety will absolutely shred your stamina. High level dragons have '''extremely''' powerful breaths that can melt even well-geared players with a lot of health effortlessly, especially on difficulties above Adept. Best hope you've capped out your magic resistance by the time you start running into Revered and Legendary dragons. There's a reason why the Atronach stone is considered one of the best in the game - it essentially cuts the power of breath attacks in half.
* ThatOneBoss:
** The ghost of Sigdis Gauldurson, during the "Forbidden Legend" quest. He's a Doppelganger boss where you have to play Whack-a-Draugr to find the real deal, they're all archers (and hurt a ''lot'' when they hit), and each one, doppelgangers and all, pack an Unrelenting Force shout powerful enough to send you flying. Even if you whack a few of the doppelgangers, the remainder will shout you onto your ass, and you take forever to get back up, meaning he resets his doppelgangers all over and you probably didn't land a single hit. By that time you'll be frantically restoring whatever health was lost when you were a sitting duck getting pincushioned by arrows after being shouted over. Of course, you can always just hide behind a pillar and take pot-shots. You even have to fight Sigdis ''twice'' during the quest. And the second time he is part of a BossRush along with his brothers.
** The Dragon Priests. In particular, Krosis, one of the masked Dragon Priests, is entombed at the summit of Shearpoint... with a dragon! Hope you killed the dragon before getting to the Word Wall, because it's a nasty surprise for players that don't know better. There's also Zahkriisos and his [[ThatOneAttack Lightning Storm]] spell, which he can cast [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard while moving and with only one hand]]. And his mask boosts the damage of lightning spells even further. If you've been neglecting your magic resistance (or even if you ''haven't''), you will die very quickly.
** The battle against Rahgot is another one of the hardest in the game. It's not because he himself is particularly powerful (though he is, like any Dragon Priest). It's because [[FlunkyBoss four Draugr spawn along with him]], and at decently high levels they will '''all''' be [[DemonicSpiders Deathlords]]. If fighting against two or three Deathlords at once is a challenge, try taking on four in addition to a Dragon Priest.
** Ahzidal, another Dragon Priest, is a tough customer due to multiple factors, the biggest being his [[ThatOneAttack Fire Stream]], a spell [[SecretArt unique]] [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard to him]] that creates an all-consuming wave of fire that covers a wide area, deals a ton of damage, and can be cast quickly enough to be [[SpamAttack spammed]]. And oh boy, does Ahzidal ever love to spam the hell out of it. If you're playing on high difficulties, even with adequate fire resistance, this spell can chew through the average player's health in a couple of hits. The other issue is that his room contains an almost limitless supply of miner and draugr corpses that he can reanimate - multiple at a time. While he usually doesn't have Deathlords assisting him like Rahgot does, even the lower-level draugr can be a pain when you're trying to focus your attention on Ahzidal. If you face him head-on instead of sniping him from stealth using the pillar in his room for cover or backstabbing him for 30x damage, you '''will''' learn why his name translates to "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Embittered Destroyer]]". Thankfully his Fire Stream does not discriminate between allies and enemies, so he's prone to toasting his own draugr in the crossfire.
** Malyn Varen can be pretty nasty. He sics three Daedra enemies on you before fleeing to his chamber, they're fond of powerful fire spells, you have very few places to hide, and because of where it takes place you can't flee and come back when you're stronger, meaning that aside from loading an earlier save the game can be genuinely [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable unwinnable]]. If you're unlucky, all three of them will gang up on you at once. Hope you brought some fire resistance and healing potions.
** Malkoran is considered this not because of his shades, but because of his [[ThatOneAttack extremely powerful dual-cast Ice Storm that can potentially kill in]] ''[[OneHitKO one hit]]'' even in the ''lowest'' difficulty. He’s much easier in his shade form, however, as he trades Ice Storm out for lightning attacks.
** Movarth has several vampire servants that can cast powerful ice spells and heal themselves as well. Combined with Movath's own powerful spells and tendency to decapitate in melee, many players will be seeing the same loading screen over and over again.
** Captain Hargar of Broken Oar Grotto. Sure, he's easy enough to stealth and his men are very weak, [[spoiler:and you don't even have to kill him to finish the "Lights Out!" quest]]; but if you try to face him head on, expect to see what it's like on the wrong end of a two-handed finishing move.
** Hamelyn can be a big surprise if you proceed through the Thieves' Guild questline for the first time. While most of the quests involve just stealing and doing hits on targets, the last thing that a new player expects is fighting a fireball-happy madman who can kill you in a few hits and automatically knows you're there because his skeever buddies will almost certainly spot you on the way in, thus warning him. You can even confront the quest giver about this afterward.
** Potema can be hard, but is even more confusing than anything. Once you enter her room, she will be invulnerable in spectral form and will continually toss lighting spells at you while at the same time making you fight various Draugr (and there should be at least one Deathlord among them). Once you kill them once, she will resurrect them and make you fight them again (so loot them as you kill them to weaken them). Once you wipe the room clean, you will then finally fight her physical form which is much easier, but still capable of killing you, especially if you have been weakened from the earlier fight.
** The Boneyard Keepers in the Soul Cairn all wield Dragonbone weapons and armor, which is the strongest material in the game. The one redeeming factor is that, if your level is high enough, you get to loot their weapons after defeating them.
** [[spoiler:Falx Carius]] is very tough, as his weapon "The Champion's Cudgel" does massive damage that can likely 2-3 hit KO the player; also, the weapon randomly shocks, freezes or burns you. Adding to that, he has three Ash Spawn in the battle which are also quite tough.
** Vals Veran in Hillgrund's Tomb, especially if your level is high enough. Before he can be killed, you must deal with waves of Draugr he summons, which, on higher levels, will include ''several'' [[DemonicSpiders Draugr Deathlords.]] You also have to contend with Vals himself throwing the occasional frost spell at you and, if you want a good sum of gold for your efforts, you have to keep the [=NPC=] tagging along you alive. The good news is that he can't be killed by enemies, but the bad news is that ''you'' can kill him if he's close to death, and the fight can understandably get so hectic that it's perfectly possible to accidentally murder him.
** The penultimate boss of the main campaign, [[spoiler:Tsun, the guard of Sovngarde]], is '''much''' stronger than the final boss. If you aren't prepared, he can kill you with just a few blows, and he is immune to stuns, staggers, or any other effects that would stop him from being able to attack you. Really, if you can defeat him, Alduin doesn't stand a chance (especially since the rematch with Alduin gives you back up compared to the first fight where you are alone).
* ThatOneComponent: Daedra hearts. They are required in order to make daedric weapons and armor, but *finding* a heart can be a royal pain because of their rarity. Only a select few spawn in certain locations, and enemies rarely drop them. To farm them reliably one could always find daedra to hunt, since they always drop hearts as part of their loot. However they only spawn in one or two locations, and in small numbers. That combined with how long it takes them to respawn makes trying to craft daedric gear extremely time consuming and at times tedious. Especially because ebony ore can be a chore to find as well especially if one doesn't have the Dragonborn DLC.
* ThatOneLevel:
** The penultimate dungeon, Skuldafn, consists of the same Draugr enemies you've seen in every ruin and tomb up to that point; the only catch is this time you have no follower and the dungeon is a lot longer. In addition, unlike most Nordic tombs, it's a big open area instead of a constrained underground labyrinth. This is '''not''' good news for you - unless you are a stealth user and it's the dead of night, the moment you walk into the ruin, you will immediately have all of its inhabitants on your tail. Depending on how much you've leveled, this can mean either a swarm of standard Draugr, or Scourges who may have shouts (and will destroy your stamina with frost spells) and Deathlords who wield Ebony weapons, take a lot of abuse before going down, and like to stagger you with Unrelenting Force or make you lose your weapon ([[GameBreakingBug often permanently by way of clipping through the ground]]). At particularly high levels, many of these Deathlords will be archers. They will be posted on walls to prevent you from easily reaching them (while they don't have any issues turning you into a pincushion while you try). Additionally, unlike that of their lesser brethren, their Unrelenting Force '''will''' [[BlownAcrossTheRoom ragdoll you]], which will '''at best''' make it even harder to reach them and give them several seconds to fill you with arrows, and at worst hurl you off a wall or a cliff to your death. It bears repeating that if you're high level enough and you've been neglecting your stealth, you'll be faced with an absolute '''swarm''' of Ebony arrows and full-force Fus Ro Dahs from every side as every single Deathlord in Skuldafn simultaneously comes for your sorry hide. On the other hand, the Dragon Priest guarding the exit is surprisingly fragile and [[AntiClimaxBoss will probably feel like a pushover]] once you've gotten through all this. The game also throws a couple of dragons at you there... but they ''don't'' level-scale, so they'll probably end up as the easiest to kill for you.
** The CorridorCubbyholeRun in Labyrinthian. Have fun getting pelted to death by magical traps in a hallway too narrow to dodge effectively, with safe spots placed far enough that you may not get to them without getting hit. And may the Nine help you if you brought a follower, because they're not smart enough to take cover and ''will'' cause you to take a boatload of splash damage as a result.
** Darkfall Passage in ''Dawnguard''. Unlike most caves in the game, this one is ''pitch-dark'', to the point where night vision or some form of lighting is basically required to see three feet in front of you. It's also crawling with Falmer and Chaurus, which are much more comfortable in the dark and often go unseen until they're right on top of you. It's also in the running for one of the longest dungeons in the game, and even after you manage to get through, you still have to brave the Forgotten Vale, which is ''[[MarathonLevel even longer]]''. By the time you're done with the DLC storyline, you'll probably never want to see a Falmer again.
* ThatOneSidequest:
** The ThievesGuild questline, for numerous reasons of both story and gameplay. Story-wise, many feel the questline is idiotic, find the members of the Guild except Brynjolf to be boring {{Jerkass}}es, dislike that the player spends most of the questline as an errand boy for Maven and then Karliah, and don't like the ButThouMust of the third act where the player ''has'' to sell their soul to Nocturnal in order to proceed with the questline. In terms of gameplay, the main questline doesn't actually involve stealing anything, more infiltrating places to question people or beat them up; and while the sidequests revolve around stealing, the player has to complete dozens of them to actually restore the Guild to power and gain tangible benefits for their membership. Finally, there is no option to remove [[TheDon Maven Black-Briar]] from power, nor any option to bring the Guild to justice (even just killing them all won't work, most of them are marked as Essential), so a player who wants to roleplay as a good character has to skip out on the entire questline and just let the Guild keep operating. Oh, and one Word of Power in the game is ''only accessible during the questline''; so if you're not willing to put up with them, you'll have to live with never getting all the words for Disarm.
** Getting Azura's Star, a reusable soul gem. No matter which side you take in the quest, you're ultimately sent inside the gem to take out the wizard who trapped his soul in there. Said wizard is Malyn Varen, who siccs three Dremora mages on you before fleeing to his chamber, and they're fond of powerful fire spells. If you're unlucky, all three of them will gang up on you at once. Hope you brought some fire resistance and healing potions.
** Taking on Lost Tongue Overlook, a dragon lair south of Riften. Why? There's a spell trap on the narrow mountain path that casts Ice Storm, which, for some bizarre reason, does much more damage than you could ever hope to cause with it. So, of course, you'd try CuttingTheKnot by knocking the soul gem out of it, right? Sometimes, that might not be enough to turn the damn thing off. Not even ''picking it up and putting it away'' may help, meaning you better be '''''fast as hell'''''.
** Autumnwatch Tower, another dragon lair near Riften, due to its tendency to spawn ''two dragons at once''. Better call Odahviing or Durnehviir to even the odds.
** "No Stone Unturned," because there is absolutely ''nothing'' telling you where the 24 stones are. Starting this quest is very easy (a few stones are in plot-important locations). Finishing it without a guide or mod to tell you where the other stones are? It will take so long that the reward (a crown that gives you increased chances of finding gems in containers) is not worth it by the time you finish it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the most popular mods on the Steam Workshop for the game is one that simply adds quest markers to all 24 stones. In addition, the only person in all of Skyrim capable of "appraising" the gems is Vex of the Thieves' Guild, meaning you ''must'' be a member yourself in order to complete the quest (although you can simply do the very first quest in their questline to gain entry and subsequently ignore them from then on). You also ''must'' join the College of Winterhold and the Companions, become the Thane of Haafingar, and either join or destroy the Dark Brotherhood to get the entire set. And if that wasn't enough, the final part of the quest after obtaining all the stones requires you to retrieve the crown itself from Tolvald's Cave, [[MarathonLevel one of the most expansive Falmer dens in the game]].
** "A Return To Your Roots" requires you to find a whopping '''30''' Crimson Nirnroot in Blackreach. With no quest markers, in an expansive area that does '''not''' have a map. While there are a few more than 30 Crimson Nirnroot in Blackreach, allowing you to miss a couple, they're still sparse enough that you need to explore basically the whole area and every building in it (and the whole place is crawling with [[DemonicSpiders Falmer and Dwemer automatons]]) to have a shot at completing the quest. At the very least, the Nirnroot still make their signature humming sound, making it harder to miss one nearby.
** "Impatience of a Saint" is basically the ''Dawnguard'' version of "A Return To Your Roots", except '''far, far worse'''. The same elements that made the former quest so [[SarcasmMode fun]] are still there (no quest markers, massive unmapped area). Instead of looking for relatively well visible plants that announce their presence with a humming noise, you need to find unremarkable scraps of paper on the ground, and you have no margin for error - unlike with the Crimson Nirnroot, there are '''no''' extra pages if there's one you just can't find. Unlike Blackreach, the Soul Cairn is a very monotone place where all the landmarks look similar, to the point that '''even with the help of guides''', [[GuideDangIt let alone without]], the locations of some pages can be hard to find, and remembering where you've already been and what you've yet to explore is a chore. Oh, and if you're fond of explosive spells such as Fireball, it is entirely possible to accidentally dislodge one of the scraps from its resting spot during a fight. Akatosh help you if that happens - even if the page by some miracle '''doesn't''' clip into the ground or the walls, making the whole thing UnintentionallyUnwinnable, good luck finding it again. As a final insult, unlike "A Return To Your Roots", instead of offering a unique and powerful effect as a reward (a chance to duplicate any potion you craft), "Impatience" awards nothing but [[PowerUpLetdown an expensive book and a necklace with effects that can be replicated by any high-level enchanter]], though perhaps this is for the best as it means that this hellish sidequest can be quite harmlessly skipped. If it weren't for the existence of "A Stone Unturned", this would probably have been by a very wide margin the absolute most annoying quest in the game.
** "Destruction Ritual Spell" requires visiting three locations strewn across Skyrim, and as with many of the other infuriating quests on this list, there are no quest markers. Your only directions are the cryptic clues provided by the book "Power of the Elements", and good luck figuring what any of this means [[GuideDangIt without a strategy guide]].
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
** This can be said for the tiltular Dawnguard in the expansion named for them. While joining them is an initial requirement no matter which side the player takes, it's clear that Bethesda wrote the Volkihar side of the storyline first (with some lines from Serana even referring to her and the player as 'two vampires' regardless of the player's side or status). Serana and the drama surrounding her family takes over the plot midway through, and while it feels like a more natural transition if the player sides with the Volkihar (as the player regularly interacts with Lord Harkon and his court), it feels jarring when taking the Dawnguard side, as their role in the plot completely drops off until the final assault on Castle Volkihar. As a result, this leaves characters like Isran and the other Dawnguard members feeling underdeveloped.
** Despite being the most prominent of the Thalmor in Skyrim, Elenwen doesn't get much of a chance to shine. The most you get out of her are two conversations either in the embassy or in the Greybeard's temple during the peace conference where all that's established is that she's very much holding back a lot of information about herself or just outright lying to your face. It's implied that she's a bit of a [[TheChessmaster mastermind]] and is using Ulfric Stormcloak as a sleeper agent but that can only be gleaned from reading some notes found in the embassy. Indeed, she shares this with the rest of her group as the Thalmor are easily the least developed faction in the game, only existing to be a HateSink for the players.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** A common criticism of the Companion's storyline is how wasted the Silver Hand are as a faction. The Silver Hand are treated as generic bandits who always attack you no matter if you join the Companions or not, they have no characters you can talk to to learn more about them, and the fact you are forced to fight them leaves them as a flat and incomplete aspect of the Companions questline. What little lore they have only seems to indicate that they are hunting the Companions because the Circle has werewolves, and nothing else. Combined with the fact the game forces you to become a werewolf to progress, and can't join the Silver Hand if you don't want to, made many feel they were wasted as a plot idea and only made to serve as generic enemies for the player to kill with no repercussions.
** To some, the CivilWar plotline was underutilized. [[StoryBreadcrumbs The in-game story clues and documentation]] reveal a long and complex backstory involving war and political intrigue between many nations and factions leading to the start of the civil war. The war itself has distinctive factions with heaps of GrayAndGreyMorality associated with them, [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation many ways to interpret all sides]], and an overarching conflict with the Thalmor. However, the civil war itself takes a backseat to the main quest centering around Alduin, and while the civil war questline is one of the largest in the game, it generally involves similar missions across Skyrim, just in different locations depending on faction, and DummiedOut assets indicate that there just weren't enough resources available to finish the questline as intended by release. You can actually discuss this with the head of the Bard's College in Solitude, who comments that the war in Skyrim is just another war in history, and that kings and empires rise and fall regularly, but that the conflict between the Dragonborn and Alduin is something much more unique and noteworthy, but it doesn't change how fairly shallow many players felt the conflict was handled.
** Some also bemoan that the ''Dragonborn'' DLC leaves you with no choice but to fight Miraak. Given his MysteriousPast, [[EvilCounterpart similarities to you]], and [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation different interpretations]], the option to ''team up'' with him would have opened up much more possibilities, both in terms of questlines and characterization. Instead, the only thing you can do is [[spoiler:play into Hermaeus Mora's tentacles and become Miraak's "replacement".]] The fact that Miraak has cut dialogue saying he's glad the Last Dragonborn is here indicates [[WhatCouldHaveBeen this actually would have been possible]], which only adds fuel to the fire.
** The [[ChurchMilitant Vigilant of Stendarr]] are universally agreed by fans to be underutilized, serving only as thugs who attack the player if they meet certain conditions. Unlike the Silver Hands you actually do get to interact with one as a part of Molag Bal's quest but [[spoiler: the only way to progress that quest at all is to kill the man]]. Considering their entire deal appears to be going around stomping out Daedra worship and fighting monsters, many players would've liked a questline where we join them properly and help in their endeavors.
* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The [[InherentInTheSystem Forsworn quest line in Markarth]] falls into this trap. The only way to finish it is to align yourself with either [[spoiler:a bunch of genocidal terrorists]] or [[spoiler:an exploitative and oppressive CorruptCorporateExecutive who previously used said terrorists as his private assassination squad]]. Do the latter and you [[spoiler:perpetuate the hold of the Silver-Bloods on the city]], and nothing changes. Do the former, and [[spoiler: the Forsworn indiscriminately massacre their way through the city, with you squarely to blame]]. There is a good reason fan mods exist that make it so you don’t have to assist either side.
* UglyCute:
** Your adopted daughters may try to take on rabbits or foxes as pets, which is ordinary cute. A son, on the other hand, might opt for a mudcrab or a skeever or even a frostbite spider, which falls into this trope since they're tiny and more adorable than their bigger, annoying cousins. Similarly, you can also keep a skeever as a pet yourself named Skritch, and he also falls into this.
** The Rieklings from the ''Dragonborn'' expansion, particularly those you can befriend in the Thirsk mead hall.
* TheUntwist: While he does a valiant job of hiding it, it shouldn't come as a surprise that [[spoiler:Ancano]] is every bit the bad guy the rest of [[spoiler:Winterhold]] suspects him to be.
* UnderusedGameMechanic: Attempting to build on their popularity in previous entries in the series, Bethesda took great strides to offer more options and freedom regarding [[AHomeOwnerIsYou Player]] [[PlayerHeadquarters Housing]], including the ''Hearthfire'' DLC, which allows the player to build a new house from scratch with immense freedom in designing its layout, storage options, and more. This ''still'' wasn't enough, as once again, housing mods which further expand these options have proven to be some of the most popular. In particular, many of the housing mods (including in the Creation Club) make a point of including space to store the Dragon Priest Masks, which are otherwise easily {{permanently missable|Content}}.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Skyrim looks ''amazing'', especially the landscape, which is very rugged and treacherous, and full of forests, mountains, snow and seas to behold. [[http://images.eurogamer.net/2011/articles//a/1/4/1/1/5/7/0/NorthernCoastAuroraPanorama01.jpg.jpg This screenshot]] contains some amazing SceneryPorn, and is really in-game effects. And for the rest of the game, the characters, weapons and locations are finely detailed.
* TheWoobie:
** Any of the orphans, but particularly the four added in ''Hearthfire'', who don't live at the orphanage and are variously required to sleep on the streets, in a stable, or in the nearby mine. [[SadisticChoice Even sadder is that you can only adopt two orphans.]] No OrphanageOfLove for you!
** Karliah. [[spoiler:She lost Gallus, the love of her life, to Mercer Frey and has had to go on the run for twenty-five lonely years, with very few people she could trust, after Mercer slandered her name to the rest of the Thieves' Guild and led them to believe that she was the one who murdered the Guildmaster. Not only that, but she has had to live with not only her failure to protect Gallus from Mercer, but her failure to protect the Twilight Sepulcher, her responsibility as a Nightingale, and prevent its defilement by that same bastard, which greatly displeased her goddess Nocturnal]]. Let's just say Karliah has every reason to despise [[spoiler:Mercer]], and by the time you finally meet her [[spoiler:and have been betrayed by Mercer as well]], you will have plenty of reason to share her feelings, even before you find out [[spoiler:what Mercer has done to the Guild he was supposed to lead]].
** Knight-Paladin Gelebor. [[spoiler:He's the last untainted Snow Elf, with little hope of any others being in Skyrim or the rest of Tamriel. The only other untainted Snow Elf is technically a vampire, and ''his brother'', whom he feels is now too dangerous to be allowed to live]]. May also be a case of IronWoobie, owing to the fact that he's reasonably composed about the whole thing and somehow manages to remain a NiceGuy with an unshakable faith in his god.
** Malborn. His family were killed by the Thalmor, he winds up working at their embassy for ''years'' in an attempt to slow them down, [[spoiler: and in the end he accomplishes nothing against them - and unless you have lightning reflexes, they kill him, too.]] If you save him, however, [[UngratefulBastard he'll be rather coarse towards you]], making him more of a JerkassWoobie, though he does [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] it by pointing out that [[spoiler:he's just scared out of his wits that the Thalmor are out to get him. He'll be much more polite if you [[PetTheDog kill the assassin on his trail]], allowing him to safely flee to Morrowind and out of the Thalmor's grasp.]]
** Laila Law-Giver. She's fully aware that Riften is a WretchedHive and wants to clean up the city and protect her people, but she's so incompetent and naive that she has no idea how deep the corruption truly runs, trusting her advisers when they're all in Maven's pocket; and if you side with the Imperials, Maven takes her seat and exiles her from Riften. As foolish as Laila is, she's pitiable for it.
** Paarthurnax. He did the best he could to atone for his misdeeds by helping the Nords to rise up against the dragons, but in spite of this he's aware that he could give in to his primal instincts and has to isolate himself away from most people. And after that, [[spoiler:the Blades ''still'' want him dead.]]
** Durnehviir made the mistake of conducting a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with the]] [[JerkassGods Ideal Masters]] for power, dooming himself to [[FateWorseThanDeath an eternity in the Soul Cairn]]. His greatest desire is to return to the skies of Tamriel, except he's been sealed away for so long that departing the Soul Cairn would kill him. In fact, he teaches you to summon him in the hopes that you can allow him to fly the skies once more, however briefly.
* WoobieSpecies:
** The Falmer, once you learn about how they became who they are now. [[spoiler: The last untainted Snow Elf reveals that they were mainly a peaceful race who simply wanted to pray to their gods before the Nords came and claimed Skyrim as their ancestral land, simultaneously causing population problems and forcing them out. Most of the Snow Elves allied with the Dwemer out of desperation to avoid extinction, only to be turned into the Falmer (or the Betrayed, as he calls them). The only reason Arch-Curate Vyrthur wasn't turned into a Betrayed is because his chantry was isolated from the rest of the Snow Elves' community underground.]]
** Although not to the extent of the Falmer, since the time skip, a lot of the races in Tamriel have it pretty rough. The Nord way of life is under attack by the Thalmor-directed Empire leading to a bloody war, and the Imperials have been whittled down to a VestigialEmpire under the Thalmor's thumb and are being forced to wage a war they didn't want. The Dunmer have lost half of Morrowind to the Argonians, and the other half was destroyed by Red Mountain after the Oblivion Crisis; they have only recently begun to rebuild Morrowind. Orsinium has been destroyed yet again and the Orcs are now scattered across Skyrim and Hammerfell while building another Orsinium. Valenwood has been forcefully annexed into the Aldmeri Dominion and Bosmer are being treated as indentured servants. The Khajiit were tricked into joining the Aldmeri Dominion, are barred from entering most cities outside the Dominion, and there are plenty of Khajiit who are unhappy that Elsweyr’s slaves to the Thalmor. The Redguards are currently the only race who are openly defying the Thalmor yet with Hammerfell declaring themselves independent, they have practically no allies to help them and it’s clear they can’t handle another invasion of any kind. Even Altmer who are [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch openly against the Thalmor]] are being hunted down by them, and those who aren't so open are scared of them. The only races who haven’t been any worse are the Argonians and the Bretons and even then, they aren’t any better overall either.
* {{Woolseyism}}: A minor thing from the French version, the Colovian Brandy is called "Colodvie", a portmanteau of "Colovian" and "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eau_de_vie ''eau-de-vie'']]".
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