As one of the greatest open-world games of all time, there was (and still are, for some of us) many reasons to enjoy exploring the lands of Skyrim and progressing through the story of several quests and side-quests. Star Wars influenced gameplay, such as the electric shocks and the "FUS RO DAH!"-shout, headshotting the wildlife 400 feet away with your bow, climbing mountains in search for Dragons, exploring caves hoping to find valuable treasures, stripping off hot bandits, and much, much more that I don't have room nor time to type. Everyone found their way of maximizing their enjoyment in this masterfully designed sandbox.
Now, what I am going to do is to ignore all that, because among this pile of awesomeness there was one thing that I found very repellent. Namely; the complete lack of morals.
First things first. Most of the time, the lack of morals only serve as a fun factor of the gameplay. You steal some food or valuables from others and get chased by the guards. Next time you put an axe through some civilans head, again to be chased by the guards. All in good fun. Some hours later you will get to trick a priest into getting sacrificed so that you can eat from his flesh, that way you will progress through the story and get rewarded with the ability of eating other humans...wait, WHAT THE FUCK?
A couple of things here. 1) Holy shit, I just ate a dude. 2) ...What is this feeling? Is it...guilt?...From a video game??? Yup, that must be the first time I experienced guilt in a video game. Pretty awesome... I guess?
I moved on, eventually almost forgetting all about it. It is kind of hard not to, given all the awesomeness being thrown at you while you play this game. Everything was fine.
- "You must kill the dragon on top of the hill."
- "WHAT??? But...that guy helped me... In fact, he betrayed Alduin a long time ago and shared some words of wisdom, making it possible for me to even slay Alduin in the first place. Why should I kill him?"
- "He has been very mean in the past, killing millions of people by Alduins side. He deserve to die."
- "Aww... I... I guess I can do it. As long as I get to make story progression." (You guys know me, and how I always am the one to pick rehabilitation before punishment, so obviously this went straight against my morals.)
Eager to see more of the story unfold, I went to the top of the hill to talk to the dragon one last time to see if there was some sort of alternative story path to follow. Nope, instead I got this: "What is better - to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?" Well, fuck. That was the best possible counter-argument anyone could pull in that moment. Why would I kill him now that he is full of regret and even helped me slay Alduin?
*sigh*
I cut him once with my sword, no reaction. I cut him again, still no reaction. The third time he went airbound, defending himself from my blade of "justice". I don't usually get very emotional, especially not in video games, but this was actually a very painful experience.
It was done, but not only had I slayed the dragon: I had played long enough to see myself let go of all morals.
I had played long enough to see myself become the villain.
