The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim/Tropes 0-G: Difference between revisions

** Not an armor, but the Tavern Clothes for women has an exceedingly low-neckline that obviously displays a whole lotta boob. Justified as many of the women who wear these are (as the name indicates) tavern workers who are probably wearing the clothes to help squeeze out better tips from customers.

** And that's just in the vanilla game. Then there's the crapload of skimpy and revealing armor and body mods, some of which can and will take this trope [[Up to Eleven]].

* [[Abusive Precursors]]:

** Dwemer weren't well-liked by other races in the distant past, and we see a few good examples of why in this game. They twisted the Falmer (Snow Elves) into the morlock-like forms you see today and used them as slaves. Whatever the Dwemer did changed the very nature of their souls: Sentient creatures (like the various races of elves, humans, etc) have black souls. Subhuman creatures and beasts have white souls. Falmer souls are white, meaning that they fall into the second category. All this was done because the Dwemer needed white soul gems to power their inventions, thereby providing a perfect renewable source of energy to power their society.

* [[Enemy Mine]]:

** Can happen when fighting dragons. Since they're free-roaming and hostile to everything that moves, the player can happen across them fighting anything from bandits to Mudcrabs to giants (which have a good chance of killing a low-level dragon on their own!) and team up with the dragon's prey to kill the marauding beast. Though once the dragon's dead, all bets are off...

** During a questline in Markarth, you can choose to ally with the Forsworn, who normally act as enemies. If you do, you get enchanted versions of their armor. When their leader says goodbye, he warns you that from now on, you should watch out for the Forsworn, meaning the alliance is over.

* [[Epic Fail]]: While doing contracts for the Dark Brotherhood, you get one for a bard that is apparently so bad, and so many people want him dead, that Astrid had to use a lottery to pick a client. At least, that's what Nazir tells you when he gives it to you.

** This is actually a [[Call Back]] to existing canon, which established the clan of vampires living in Skyrim as having an affinity with frost. They also have the power to phase through ice and frost, though it's never demonstrated in-game.

** Dragons can use ice breath in addition to the more traditional fire breath. The higher level dragons seem to prefer the former, such as with [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Frost Dragons]].

* [[Evil Is Hammy]]: In addition to slicing up your foes with their big ole daedric greatsword, conjured dremora will slice the ham.

** Alduin also counts, as does Sahloknir.

** {{spoiler|While the reward money for choosing to destroy the Dark Brotherhood rather than joining it ''is'' impressive, it just can't match up to a unique mount, dagger and summon}}. Though in the former route, it is possible to take the dagger in any case. So that may offset it somewhat.

** For a certain perspective of evil, the Black Star quest requires you to find Azura's Star, an artifact belonging to one of the few benevolent Daedric gods that is a reusable soul gem, but can't hold Black (humanoid) souls (which are always "Grand" souls, the strongest type of souls available for enchanting or weapon recharging). The reward for returning the star to Azura's worshipper gets her as a follower and lets you keep the star. On the other hand, you can complete the work of an insane necromancer by taking the gem to his student and turning it into the Black Star, which holds humanoid souls but gets you no follower. Black Soul Gems to hold humanoid souls are rare, so this item is also far more useful. You can also recharge your weapon any time by killing any humanoid enemy while soul trap is active, making all lower types of soul gem after Grand and Black Soul obsolete. The "necromancer" only went insane and all necromancy after Azura reacted to experimentation on her artifact with a curse of insanity, however, and the Student considers that to be the evil act.

** Bandits as well, they will always attack an approaching Dragonborn with impunity and only a select few are non-hostile at first.

** Ditto for the Silver-Hand who are Bandits that specialize in werewolf hunting. Unlike a small amount of non-hostile bandits none of the Silver-Hand members are approachable and are all hell-bent on murdering everything they see werewolf or not.

* [[Extreme Omnivore]]: One way you can discover one of an ingredient's uses in Alchemy (more with a Perk) is to eat it. Fair enough when it's plants and berries. Bug parts, weird-but-technicaly-edible animal parts and potentially poisonous mushrooms, ok, weird and a bit risky, but the effects wear off and don't really hurt you in the amount you use. Teeth and horns of various animals, the toe of a dead giant, or the oil that lubricated ancient Dewmer machinery? Falls squarely here and requires considerable application of [[Fridge Logic]] to suspend disbelief for (i.e. you would have to grind up horns and teeth to be able to ingest them without choking).

* [[Eye Scream]]: One of the finishers for 1H swords on dragons is to climb onto the head of the thrashing dragon, and then stab them right in the eye.

** Topping them all though is {{spoiler|The Emperor himself}}, whom you must kill at the end of the Dark Brotherhood chain, if you choose to join them. After welcoming you warmly and saying that this is just how things work, he would then calmly turn his back towards you, ready for his fate. He did ask for a final request, which you can fulfill or not: to kill whoever it is who commissioned his death. Even then, he does not expect it of you: he asks it as a favor, nothing more.

** The Old Orc. He is too old to take a wife or become chief, but not too old to serve in battle. He refuses to die of old age (saying that to keep something past the point it is useful is unseemly, even more so if it is one's own life), and thus sets out across Skyrim to find a good death. He says he has received a vision from Malacath that he would die a glorious death at a certain point in Skyrim, and waits there for someone (possibly you) to deliver it.

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: The High Elves, who not only seceded from the Empire, but also forcibly conscripted the Wood Elves into their new nation, manipulated the Khajiit into vassalisation and threatened to destroy the Empire unless they banned the worship of Talos because, partially due to their [[Fantastic Racism|believed superiority]], they don't like the idea of a human ascending to godhood, and also because his removal is necessary for their goals of escaping Mundus.

* [[Fake Crossover]]: An official mod places [[Portal 2|the Space Core]] into the game as an item. When you put it into the game, the poor guy falls from the sky ({{spoiler|guess where he was before}}), which makes one wonder if this really is a [[Fake Crossover]]...

* [[Fantastic Drug]]: Skooma is still around, though it doesn't have negative effects like it did in Morrowind and Oblivion; it's not even really illegal! One quest also features the more potent "Balmora Blue", which ''is'' illegal... and is supposedly priceless, what with there not being a Balmora anymore.

** If someone ever gives a reason for siding with the Imperials over the Stormcloaks in the civil war sidequest, this is often the main reason given. The Stormcloaks have very strong racist tendencies and they do ''not'' hide this fact. This darker side is easiest to see in [[Wretched Hive|Windhelm]]. Dunmer are forced to live in the filthiest, poorest part of the city, and abuse from the local Nords is an almost daily occurrence. The Argonian dock workers are paid a tiny fraction of what the Nord workers are paid, and are not permitted to live within the city walls, and are '''physically beaten''' if they try to. Ulfric Stormcloak will send guards to root out bandits if a Nord village is attacked, but won't lift a finger to help Khajiit caravans when they're harassed. On the other hand, they tend to make exceptions if it would be beneficial: non-Nord characters can ask when joining and be told that it's loyalty that matters rather than blood.

** The two [[Petting Zoo People|beastmen races]] get this the worst, by several lengths. Argonians are oppressed and hated throughout Skyrim, and if you choose Argonian, you can be sure that they won't call you by that name, preferring less charming terms such as "lizard". Khajiit will also be subjected to racial slurs, often stereotyped as thieves, drug-addicts and generally lowly scum. This makes [[Natural Weapon|clawing]] the offenders to death much more satisfying.

** Even though the [[Player Character]] is the [[Chosen One]], they don't entirely escape the racist abuse. This is sometimes intentional and sometimes unintentional, but always very awkward. For example, playing as an Orc, to hear Lydia swear undying loyalty to you in one breath and then say, "Die, you Orc filth!" to an opponent of yours in the next sort of makes one wonder...

* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]:

*** Nord culture is an amalgam of various Germanic cultures, especially Scandinavia, but with some Anglo-Saxon elements. The ancient Nords seem to have had a little bit of ancient Egypt sprinkled in their customs for a good measure, with elaborate mummification and entombment methods you get to witness close hand in approximately half of the dungeons in the game.

*** The Bretons are mixed. Those from High Rock are based on the French, especially in terms of names (Montiere, Mirabelle, etc...), while those from The Reach in particular are essentially based on the Celtic British, complete with a King Arthur figure in Red Eagle. Of course, Bretons is the French name for the people of Brittany: [[wikipedia:Brittany|as in the Celtic part of France]].

** The Dunmer are very Jewish when one looks at the lore and history, despite their British Accents.

** The Argonians are harder to classify, but have a certain Southeast Asian or Pacific Islander feel, given their homeland, treatment by the people of Skyrim (particularly in Windhelm), and skill in guerrilla warfare.

* [[Fast Forward Mechanic]]: There is a wait function, allowing you to wait for a number of hours of your choice. The current time should be somewhere at the bottom-left corner of the box.

** Particulary satisfying is one of the unarmed Finishers, {{spoiler|a chokeslam}}.

* [[Fire-Breathing Weapon]]: While its predecessor ''Oblivion'' only featured spells that fire a single bolt of elemental energy, ''Skyrim'' also features spells that fire a stream of energy. These tend to require less magicka than the other variety, but deal less damage.

* [[Fire, Ice, Lightning]]: Destruction magic has you covered for all three. Tactically, they have different uses: fire is cheapest and does after-burn damage, ice drains stamina and slows enemies, and lighting drains magic and is a [[Hit Scan]] projectile.

* [[Fishing Minigame]]: The 10th Anniversary Update adds the option to fish at select locations. As the only option given to the player is to yank back the line when you feel a bite, calling it a mini-game is a bit of a stretch, but technically qualifies.

* [[Foe-Tossing Charge]]: The top level tier for the Block perk tree allows you to go baddie bowling if you sprint with your shield up.

* [[Foreboding Architecture]]: Gets especially obvious in nordic ruins. Yes, the sarcophagi will bust open dramatically the moment you try to take the loot or the [[MacGuffin]], and yes, the [[Giant Spider|Frostbite Spider]] will drop down through the giant hole in the ceiling.

* [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampires]]:

** {{spoiler|The Circle of the Companions are Friendly Neighborhood Werewolves}}.

** The guests at {{spoiler|Namira's feast might count as Friendly Neighbourhood Cannibals if you choose to join them}}.

* [[From Bad to Worse]]: According to the plot it has indeed gotten worse during the 200 year gap between ''Oblivion'' and ''Skyrim''.

** Keep in mind that ''Oblivion'' involved an invasion from a hell realm with demons erupting out and causing mass death and destruction... those are now seen as the 'good old days'.

* [[Fungus Humongous]]: Blackreach has glowing mushrooms that reach all the way to the top of the cavern.

** Children cannot be killed in gameplay, in spite of the fact that there are several instances of minor storylines that involve children being murdered (offscreen, of course).

** The Skeleton Key. When {{spoiler|Mercer Frey}} uses it, it can open anything, including the sliding puzzle doors you need claws for, and {{spoiler|the Thieves' Guild treasure vault}}, which requires two keys to open. When you use it, it's just an unbreakable lockpick.

* [[Gangsta Style]]: A sneaking archer will hold, draw and fire his/her bow sideways.

** An attempt at handwave mentions how harsh the Nord style of life is in Skyrim, and people don't have time for nonsense such as "romance".

* [[Gendered Outfit]]: Every outfit in the game has a male and female variant. Armor becomes a [[Breast Plate]] when fitted onto a female character, and regular clothes have vastly different appearances between the sexes.