The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Difference between revisions

The game served as a guinea pig of sorts for the Xbox Live Market place, receiving a significant amount of new content, ranging from player homes, to a whole new story arc in the form of Knight of the Nine. A full expansion, called Shivering Isles, dealing with Sheogorath, the daedric prince of madness was released in 2007.

 

* [[Abandoned Mine]]: The Player Character can enter several of these around Cyrodiil, including the [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Abandoned Mine]].

* [[Aborted Arc]]: In the vicinity of the Black Horse Courier offices, you are given the new topic "Do you need couriers?", which was obviously part of an intended quest. However, the question never appears in your dialogue options.

* [[Ambiguously Brown]]: Or perhaps Ambiguously Blue, in this case. There are a few [[NP Cs]] running around which either had their races incorrectly flagged in the CS, or are showing signs of mixed heritage. One noteworthy example is a guard seen in Anvil(who guards the chapel and warns people of the scene inside with KOTN installed) who is definitely a Redguard in skin tone and appearance but has an Imperial voice. Cutter, the emo Dementia blacksmith in Shivering Isles, looks to be a Dunmer, but has yellow eyes(the CS lists her race as Bosmer). There are also two female Dementia residents, both Imperial, who have blue skin tones.

* [[An Axe to Grind]]: For some reason, governed by the Blunt skill. The official explanation is that the act of swinging an axe is more akin to using a club than a sword.

* [[An Interior Designer Is You]]: With the construction set.

* [[Announcer Chatter]]: Sometimes the mysterious announcer guy in the Arena can do this.

* [[Anticlimax Boss]]: If you complete the [[Badass|Gray Prince's]] quest. When you finally get to fight him for the title of Arena Grand Champion, [[Suicide By Cop|he just stands there without ever attacking or trying to defend himself]], even [[Get It Over With|begging you to finish him off]].

** Archers used to sneaking around sniping their enemies may be surprised to get this from the supposed [[Badass]] Manimarco (as his gear, while technically unique, is almost identical to standard Necromancer dress).

** You can also go right past this, straight into [[Villain Protagonist]].

* [[Anything That Moves]]: The Khajiit bandits, the Renrijra Krin, urge others to do this.

{{quote| ''"Life is short. If you have not made love recently, please, put down this book, and take care of that with all haste. Find a wanton lass or a frisky lad, or several, in whatever combination your wise loins direct, and do not under any circumstances play hard to get. Our struggle against the colossal forces of oppression can wait."''}}

** Can also apply to the player, if you stole a pear from someone's table and got seen doing it expect that to show up on your list of charges even if you've also killed a dozen guys.

* [[Artifact Title]]: Averted... in a manner of speaking. It is the first Elder Scrolls game since ''[[The Elder Scrolls Arena (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls Arena]]'' where the actual Elder Scrolls are seen, but they still don't play a part in the ''Main'' Quest, but rather in the [[Sidequest|Thieves Guild quest line]]. {{spoiler|You get to steal one!}}

* [[Artificial Atmospheric Actions]]: Oh so much. In particular, [[Procedural Generation|procedurally generated]] [[NPC]] conversation can be a bit vapid.

{{quote| ''"Everyone is talking, but no one has anything to say." }}

* [[Artificial Stupidity]]: The Radiant AI system is commendably ambitious, but it does fall flat very frequently and very visibly. Part of the problem is that [[NPC]] behavior is driven by ''motivations.'' One quest involving vampire hunters can be botched if the vampire hunters get too jealous of each other's inventory items, whereupon they'll start pickpocketing one another until they're all angry enough to draw weapons. In some cases "good" characters will murder unarmed innocents simply because they've been [[Dronejam|Drone Jammed]] into a corner.

** Some characters have a bad habit of forgetting they need to unlock a store's front door in the morning, even if they have the appropriate key and locked it the night before. Others will end up [[Suicidal Overconfidence|trying to pick fights with]] ''[[Too Dumb to Live|daedra]]'' [[Too Dumb to Live|who just spawned from an Oblivion portal]].

** Start a fight with one NPC in the marketplace or resist arrest for picking up an apple. In a matter of seconds the whole market district will erupt into one giant gang war, with Citizens attacking guards, citizens attacking each other, and guards slaughtering citizens AND EACH OTHER left and right.

* [[BFS]]: Claymores, and the [[Katanas Are Just Better|Akaviri Dai-katana]].

* [[Big Bad]]: Allegedly Mehrunes Dagon, but Mankor Camoran is the one who's really the active villain.

** Also Umaril in Knights of the Nine, {{spoiler|Jyggalag}} in Shivering Isles, Mannimarco in the Mages Guild questline, Ri'Zakar in the Fighters Guild questline, Hieronymus Lex for most of the Thieves Guild questline and {{spoiler|Mathieu Bellamont}} in the Dark Brotherhood questline.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|Mehrunes Dagon is defeated but the Empire now has no heir.}} It is clear the Empire is not out of the water yet and this will likely lead to an interesting future.

** There's also the Uderfrykte Matron at Dive Rock.

* [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]]: quite a few of the [[DLC|DLCs]] are borderline cheat mods. (A quick and easy way of curing vampirism, a garden that supplies almost every rare ingredient, etc...)

* [[Bring It]]: Attempt to/Fight an ogre with your bare hands and it may make this gesture.

* [[Bury Your Gays]]: There's one gay character in the game. You find this out shortly after you find his decaying corpse. {{spoiler|Viranus Donton, the son of the Fighters Guild's grandmaster.}}

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: In the form of [[Useful Notes/Swords|weapon weights]], making them insanely heavy. Further, all "better" materials are much heavier, even when they have no reason to be (Steel is a mixture of iron and carbon and carbon weighs less than iron, making it unexplained why steel items weighs about a 6th more than iron. In Morrowind the two weighed the same amount)

** Iron vs. Steel errors are found in many [[RPG|RPGs]]. One material that is uniquely peculiar in almost every way is glass, especially the armor.

* [[Different As Night and Day]]: The friendly, helpful Dark Seducers and the arrogant, antisocial Golden Saints.

* [[Disc One Nuke]]: One of the common complaints is that level scaling produces a lack of these (and [[Beef Gate]]), though [http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Best_Non-leveled_Items some can still be found]. OOO, as a result of removing level scaling, has many more, particularly if you understand the lock picking minigame enough to open very hard chests and steal them.

* [[Drunk On the Dark Side]]: The Necromancers.

* [[Dual World Gameplay]]: Between the mortal realm and the realm of Oblivion.

** It's even worse when you've beaten the Shivering Isles and {{spoiler|become the new Sheogorath.}} Everyone and their mother still treats you the same in Cyrodiil and in Oblivion, including certain types who should know what you are now. Mankar Cameron especially should know, and if not him, certainly the Dremora. However, this would have required much more extra dialog recording and time to implement and would have heavily altered much of the game as a result, which no doubt would have pushed the expansion beyond the deadline.

** Voranil. In the words of the [http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Voranil UESP Wiki]: ''He throws the best parties every weekend, and anybody who's anybody in the city goes there. Unfortunately, that doesn't include you, and it never will. It doesn't matter if you're the Grand Champion of the Arena, the Arch-Mage of the Mages Guild, and head of every other faction in the game. It doesn't matter if you own the nicest, most beautifully-furnished house in the city, or in Cyrodiil for that matter.''

* [[Eternally Pearly White Teeth]]

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: The Dark Brotherhood might kill almost anyone, but even they seem to draw the line at the thought of killing the Emperor himsef... though this might be because his death is actually quite bad as far as keeping the barriers to Oblivion in place.

** [[It Gets Worse|It gets worse!]] Some horrible person did the unspeakable crime of {{spoiler|growing a BEARD.}} He was executed for his heinous crime.

*** Which is why {{spoiler|Sheogorath is the only person you ever see with one.}} Probably the dev team [[Leaning On the Fourth Wall]] there.

** The Prophet in ''Knights of the Nine''

** The Stranger in Anvil

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: The Order of the Black Worm, to Necromancy in general. The Blackwood Company is essentially what the Fighters Guild would be like if they didn't have a shred of morality or decency.

* [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]]: There's a shop called Rindir's Staffs. It's owned by Rindir. He sells magical staffs. Imagine that.

* [[Faceless Goons]]: Dremora, Aurorans, and Knights of Order tend to wear face-concealing helmets.

* [[Fake Difficulty]]: Dependent on the difficulty you're playing on.

* [[Forest Ranger]]: The Imperial Legion has rangers roaming through the woods. Also, apparently the [[Our Elves Are Better|Bos]][[Nature Hero|mer]] are really good at this sorta thing.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: {{spoiler|Bellamont,}} the assassin who betrays the Dark Brotherhood has one in the form of his dead mother. It's a bit more justified than most Freidian excuses simply because {{spoiler|it was, in fact, the Dark Brotherhood who killed his mother.}}

** [[Nehrim]]: [http://www.nehrim.de/indexEV.html At Fate’s Edge] by [http://www.sureai.de/ SureAI] is one of the better ones, expansive enough to warrant its own page here.

** Some of the more renowned mods include Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (removes leveled enemies in favor of hand placed, as well as other tweaks), Deadly Reflex (A complex combat overhaul), Martigan's Monster Mod (adds literally ''hundreds'' of new monsters, many of which are hand made) and The Lost Spires (Lengthy quest mod with a complex story about the ancient history of Tamriel).

* [[Gladiator Subquest]]: The Arena.

* [[Godiva Hair]]: The mermaid statue in Anvil.

* [[Gonk]]: It's evident that the developers tweaked the face generator a little far to produce Kalthar and the inhabitants of Hackdirt.

* [[Hacking Minigame]]: The improved lock-picking system. Arguably the Speechcraft system as well, raising some interesting existential questions.

** [[Senseless Sacrifice]]: An example of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], it's just an oversight but if the player skips taking the Colossal Black Soul Gem, there is absolutely no difference in the fight with Mannimarco. The point of the gem is so that Mannimarco cannot instant kill you by turning you into a thrall (if you watch, he tries this by casting several spells at you with no effect at the beginning of the fight), the game itself however, does not have that effect.

* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: There's actually nothing stopping you from going out and ''killing everyone that can be killed'', leaving Cyrodill a desolate wasteland populated by a handfull of people before [[Big Bad|Mehrunes Dagon]] is even mentioned.

** [[The Lord of the Rings (Film)|Boromir]] is Martin Septim.

** [[Superman II|General Zod]] is Mankar Camoran.

** This is taken to extremes due to a bug that effects the Duelists in the Shivering Isles. Each one carries up to several THOUSAND copies of their weapon in inventory with no ill effects, though trying to take all those weapons for yourself(pickpocketing/character death) can either leave you over-encumbered, or glitch the game severely. The Unofficial Patch fixes this.

* [[I Am Dying Please Take My Macguffin]]: The plot that is presented to us at the beginning of the game plays out this trope to a tee. With the Amulet of Kings being the [[MacGuffin]].

* [[If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten]]: The final step to being initiated into the Mythic Dawn is to murder a prisoner as as sacrifice to Mehrunes Dagon. {{spoiler|If you try to infiltrate them, you'll be presented with an Argonian they've captured. It's up to you if you want to save him and blow your cover, or [[Shoot the Dog|kill him to keep the ruse]].}}

* [[I Know You Know I Know]]: Both the Paranoia quest in Skingrad and being the Duchess of Dementia's "Grand Inquisitor" in the Shivering Isles.

* [[Impossible Thief]]: The Dark Brotherhood agent that asks if you want to join will ''always'' appear when you rest, even if this rest will take you into a dream world that needs a special amulet to enter.

* [[Indestructible Edible]]: Many of the places you visit, from caves to ancient dungeons that have been abandoned for hundreds of years, will have perfectly edible food stashed away in containers. Then again, this is a world that seems to lack any stort of refridgeration or food preservation yet all foods you find will be perfectly fresh, even stuff found on the floor.

** Umaril's Sword: A ridiculously powerful two-handed sword that can be looted from the final boss of ''Knights Of the Nine''. {{spoiler|twice, if you're fast enough.}}

** And, of course, the trademark Daedra Prince Artifacts (Azura's Star, Wabbajack, etc) are available upon completing their Prince's quest.

** The entire skooma-dealing Orum gang in Cheydinhal except Borba.

** M'raaj-Dar, the Khajiit merchant in the Cheydinhal Dark Brotherhood sanctuary is extremely rude and hostile torwards the player... but he apologizes torwards you just in time for the mission that demands that you kill him.

** Mazoga the Orc, [[Character Development|at least when you first meet her]]. She takes an exceptionally rude and peremptory manner with you and Weebam-Na, and [[They Call Me Mister Tibbs|insists]] that you address her with her self-given style of "Sir Mazoga".

* [[Jerkass Gods]]: A few of the [[Our Demons Are Different|Daedra]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Lords]], namely [[Person of Mass Destruction|Mehrunes Dagon]], [[The Chessmaster|Boethiah]], [[Lawful Stupid|Jygg]][[Light Is Not Good|alag]], and [[Blood Knight|Mo]][[God of Evil|lag]] [[Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil|Bal]]. However, not all of them: most of them are [[Blue and Orange Morality|just really weird]] rather than evil, and some like Azura and Meridia actually seem [[Dark Is Not Evil|nice]]... [[Good Is Not Nice|Sort of]].

* [[Just Before the End]]: The end of the Cyrodillic Empire to be exactly. The Septim bloodline is gone and the empire itself in a weakened state. Npc's in the game already talk about the High Elves planning to go against the empire and, after finishing the main quest, they tell some of the provinces plan on seceding. {{spoiler|Turns out that in [[The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim (Video Game)|Skyrim]], the High Elves formed their own Empire, slowly picking away territory. And, like the NPC's said, 2 of the other provinces did indeed secede. By the time Skyrim's story starts, the Empire is only a shadow of its former self.}}

* [[Karmic Death]]: In one ending of the Umbacano questline, {{spoiler|[[Hoist By His Own Petard|Umbacano is killed by the evil Ayleid powers he sought to control]].}} In the other, ''you'' kill him.

** Played straight in the Who Dun It quest.

* [[Kleptomaniac Hero]]: Optional for the player, but not profitable unless you either a.) join the Thieves Guild, b) have the Thieves' Den [[DLC]] installed and have bought yourself the fence at Dunbarrow Cove, or c.) use stolen ingredients to manufacture potions.

** But considering that quest items typically have a weight value of 0, it's not really a big deal anyway

** This isn't always true. Most quest items have their quest flag turned off (allowing them to be dropped and also giving them weight) when they are no longer vital to their relevant quest, but occasionally the scripting isn't set properly. One or two items that aren't ever vital to a quest are incorrectly set with the flag, making them undroppable and weightless as soon as they're given.

* [[Lady Land]]: The Shivering Isles' Daedric population is almost entirely female. Male Aureal/Mazken are a rare sight.

** Inverted with the Deadlands' population of Dremora, which are almost exclusively male, with only a few females existing anywhere (they are found as archers of the Markynaz rank) in the entire game.

* [[Moral Guardians]]: There was a huge controversy shortly after the game was released when a nude mod was released that used textures present on the game's DVD. This prompted the ESRB to re-examine the game and re-rate it from T to M, though the nude mod was not the reason for it; they apparently missed some of the prominently displayed burning hanging corpses and other images they deemed "disturbing." Remembering how Take-Two suffered from Hot Coffee, it's surprising they didn't take measures to prevent. <ref> There are now twenty competing female nude mods, three male nude mods, and at least three mods that add actual full-blown sex. If the Moral Guardians ever looked in the Adult section of the modding community, they'd have a heart attack.</ref>

* [[Mordor]]: The appropriately named Deadlands, Mehrunes Dagon's realm of Oblivion.

* [[My Grandma Can Do Better Than You]]: When you first join the arena, the Blademaster tells your character that his grandma could beat you. And she's dead.

* [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]]: {{spoiler|Count Janus Hassildor}} is pretty much the only vampire that ''doesn't'' want to kill you and drink your blood.

*** Considering his "favor" involves {{spoiler|releasing an [[Ax Crazy]], insanely brutal Xivilai and letting him butcher countless innocent civilians who had ''just'' managed to seal him in the first place}}, killing him may be the preferred option.

*** "Innocent" may be subjective there though... after all, they ARE Mythic Dawn members, who will often be bragging about killing the Emperor and how they think it's great that Mehrunes Dagon will soon be invading Tamriel. Standing by and listening to their conversations may very well be reason enough to unleash the horrible monster upon them.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: Mehrunes Dagon, Malacath, Molag Bal...

* [[Never My Fault]]: After {{spoiler|the Fighters Guild guildmaster's son}} is murdered, she spends up until the very end of the questline putting the blame entirely on you and Oreyn.

** An earlier quest has another cave full of trolls that will probably get him (and you) knocked out instantly. It's considered a better idea to go into the cave beforehand and kill them one by one first.

** In the "Where Spirits Have Lease" quest, you end up playing right into the [[Monster of the Week|monster of the sidequest's]] hands. Thankfully, you're able to correct your error immediately afterwards.

* [[No Bulk Discounts]]

* [[No Ending]]: Aside from the fact you can continue playing after the game is over, the fact that the Uriel Septim line {{spoiler|has ended}}, the game finishes with a major question unresolved. {{spoiler|Who will be Emperor?}}

* [[No Gear Level]]: Happens during Sanguine's shrine quest, where you cast a spell on the Countess of Leyawiin and her company that causes them all to be stripped naked. It also causes the player to lose their equipment and entire inventory, so you've got to face the guards unarmored and unarmed.

** The females of the three Daedric races (Dremora, Golden Saint, and Dark Seducer) and other lesser Daedra (Flame Atronachs, Spider Daedra) have breasts, despite the fact that Daedra cannot produce life.

* [[Noodle Implements]]: At his shrine, Sheogorath asks for an offering of a lesser soul gem, a head of lettuce and some yarn.

* [[NPC Scheduling]]

* [[The Nudifier]]: In ''Oblivion'', there is a quest for the Daedric Prince Sanguine which requires the Player Character to cast the spell "Stark Reality" at a dinner party. The spell strips everyone in the vicinity to their undergarments. The Ring of Disrobing in Shivering Isles has a similar effect.

* [[Oh My Gods]]: "By the Nines / Nine Divines!"

** [[Most Annoying Sound|"By Azura! By Azura! By Azzzzura!! It's the Grand Champion!!"]]

* [[Omnicidal Maniac]]: Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedra and the Mythic Dawn.

* [[Omnicidal Neutral]]: An option for the player.

* [[Only Mostly Dead]]: Umaril's main ability. {{spoiler|You have to do this to ''yourself''}} in order to kill him for good.

* [[Only the Worthy May Pass]]: At the end of the Mehrunes' Razor DLC.

* [[Rare Candy]]: Hermaeus Mora's [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|''Oghma Infinium'']], and to a lesser extent Sigil Stones.

* [[Real Is Brown]]: Notably averted, but moreso if your system can run with HDR enabled.

* [[Red Sky Take Warning]]: When you get close to an Oblivion gate, the sky turns blood red and a thunderstorm rolls in.

* [[Religion of Evil]]: Rhe Dark Brotherhood and the Mythic Dawn Cult.

* [[Ruins for Ruins Sake]]: Outdoors, unless the woods are dense, you are rarely out of sight of one set of ruins or another.

* [[Rules of the Game]]: In the Arena.

* [[Saving the World]]: From an army of apocalyptic demon monsters. You know, the usual.

* [[Scary Impractical Armor]]: Daedric armour.

** Disected and explained by fans - the script for the arrow (which immediately kills Philida) doesn't activate until a split second ''after'' the arrow hits. Unless you're completely invisible, Philida will recognize he's under attack and will immediately report the crime before he croaks.

* [[Sociopathic Hero]]: Relmyna Verenim. ''So much''.

* [[Spoiler Title]]: Several sidequests, including but not limited to the following:

** One sidequest has Reynald Jemane asking you to find out why someone has been impersonating him. This quest might have been interesting if it hadn't been named "Separated at Birth".

** Archmage Traven sends you to retrieve a book from Count Janus Hassildor... but he has an ulterior motive. Which probably won't come as a major twist, considering that the quest is named "Ulterior Motives".

* [[Stealth Pun]]: In ''The Shivering Isles'', the first place the player visits on the Isles is called the Fringe, populated by the kind of crazy people you'll expect to meet, making it the "lunatic Fringe".

* [[Sticks to The Back]]: Averted completely with bladed weapons (daggers, shortswords, and longswords), although instead it becomes "sticks to the ''side''", since the scabbard sticks to the character's hip with nothing visibly holding it in place. The same goes with maces and axes. Played completely straight, however, with two handed weapons, bows, and arrow quivers.

* [[Taken for Granite]]: {{spoiler|Martin's}} ultimate fate.

* [[Take That]]: The character M'aiq the Liar is a walking (well, running) take that at The Elder Scrolls' [[Unpleasable Fanbase]] {{spoiler|and [[Fable]].}}

* [[Take Your Time]]: With two exceptions, the Daedric invasion of Bruma and tracking down a fake vampire hunter also in Bruma, there's no quest situation that will get any worse if you ignore it entirely. This even includes major battles to defend cities. No, go ahead and play in the [[Wide Open Sandbox]]. The [[Legion of Doom]] will wait.

* [[Talking to Himself]]: An unfortunate side effect of Bethesda's decision to have the game be fully voiced, while hiring only a handful of actors to voice over 1000 characters. It's quite possible you'll be hearing two NPCs conversing to each other ''with the exact same voice!''

* [[Vendor Trash]]: Copious amounts of it.

* [[Vicious Cycle]]: The Greymarch. Also, the fate of the Ascended Immortals in Kamoran's Savage Garden/Forbidden Grotto.

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: The game allows you to kill any non-essential characters in the game (although this may result in you failing quests that you haven't even started), and essential characters can just be knocked unconcious over and over again.

** The sheer amount of videos on [[YouTube]] about killing certain people (or yourself) in Oblivion is astounding, but admit it, starting random rampages and mercilessly massacring the guards and citizens of Cyrodiil is ''fun''.

* [[Weaksauce Weakness]]: One Dark Brotherhood quest requires you to assassinate a man who's allergic to honey; your handler suggests tricking him into drinking a bottle of mead, which paralyzes him, making him easier to kill.

* [[Wham Episode]]: Through the last three games, the Emperor has been the [[Big Good]] who the player has been doing all the missions for. In this one? He dies. At the end of the tutorial mission.

** In-game, several quest-related [[NPC|NPCs]] are usually disabled and removed from the game once their related quest is finished. Often, this is done without any in-universe explanation whatsoever. The most egregious examples are J'Skar (the sole survivor of the attack on the Bruma Mages Guild), and Nelrene (the Dark Seducer involved in the conspiracy in the "Lady of Paranoia" quest, even though she ends up helping you in the end).

* [[Wide Open Sandbox]] - Larger than ''Morrowind'' <ref>By raw square footage anyways. Morrowind's design makes traveling in a straight line impossible without levitation, and it implements a large vertical component not present in Oblivion</ref> but still far smaller than ''Arena'' or ''Daggerfall''.