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| Perhaps, Philosoraptor, but let's not get in too deep just yet. |
I’m still enjoying Skyrim, warts and all. It plays rather like I imagined Daggerfall would in my pre-release fantasies circa 1995. Others have noted the unlikely omnicompetence of the Dragonborn and I agree the whole setup is thoroughly ridiculous when viewed objectively. It takes effort for me not to obsessively nitpick over some of Skyrim's painful implausibilities. I've uncorked many ancient crypts sealed and ignored for centuries, finding every one lit up like a circus with torches and braziers. Have the restless dead spent the decades of their shuffling afterlife tending the fires for my eventual convenience?
Still, I continue to suspend my disbelief. Like most stories and all high fantasy Skyrim overflows with unlikelihoods and if you want to play, you just have to play along. You can’t enjoy magic, amphibious lizard men wearing clothes or soul-powered cutlery if you can’t make peace with the attendant silliness. Star Wars wouldn’t be very interesting if Luke Skywalker grew up to be moisture farmer after all, and a fantasy RPG wouldn’t be much fun if the protagonist were a dashing, moustachioed NPC and the player a bowlegged, muck-ranching peasant with ringworm who struggles to raise turnips and taxes. No, the hero of a story needs to be remarkable in some respect, even if flawed in others. If Skyrim wants to remove all doubt by making me remarkable in every conceivable way, a demigod who shouts people off mountains, summons cabbages by the thousands and craps critical hits, well that’s cool—I always wanted to be the life of a party.
Still, I continue to suspend my disbelief. Like most stories and all high fantasy Skyrim overflows with unlikelihoods and if you want to play, you just have to play along. You can’t enjoy magic, amphibious lizard men wearing clothes or soul-powered cutlery if you can’t make peace with the attendant silliness. Star Wars wouldn’t be very interesting if Luke Skywalker grew up to be moisture farmer after all, and a fantasy RPG wouldn’t be much fun if the protagonist were a dashing, moustachioed NPC and the player a bowlegged, muck-ranching peasant with ringworm who struggles to raise turnips and taxes. No, the hero of a story needs to be remarkable in some respect, even if flawed in others. If Skyrim wants to remove all doubt by making me remarkable in every conceivable way, a demigod who shouts people off mountains, summons cabbages by the thousands and craps critical hits, well that’s cool—I always wanted to be the life of a party.
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