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What Skyrim Quests Have You Still Not Completed?

    • 1595 posts
    December 17, 2015 7:06 AM EST

    Well that's hard to answer isn't it? For one he would have to be many millennia old. Also, wouldn't a human version of Paarth actually be worse? I mean at least a dragon has got an excuse for doing bad stuff - that's what they do because they're dragons. Much like a cat chasing mice you can't really blame the cat for doing cat things.

    But a human? We can chose and have very few excuses when being held accountable for our actions. So if Paarthy was a human he'd have more psychological disorders than any person alive (save maybe the player character) and so could also claim diminished responsibility. Following that the best place for him would be in a maximum security psyche ward. I certainly wouldn't trust a damn thing he said about overcoming his psychotic and homicidal tendencies through "great effort."

    • 295 posts
    December 17, 2015 7:11 AM EST

    a) - Not sure on this on. I've played this game for 3500 hours. Though I will say, that only very recently did I save Derheekus, that argonian trapped at Darkwater. If that counts.

    b)  & c) - Sort of go hand in hand for me. 

    No One Escapes Cidhna mine - I love the house in Markarth, but doing this quest messes things up in that regard. At least it has for me. So, I'll avoid this one. (have devised many clever ways to avoid that letter-delivering Breton), until I get the house and become thane. Then I go ahead, cause it's a great quest. 

    Paarthurnax - depends on how I'm roleplaying. But there are some things that really bother me about the quest, from both parties. This quest is doubly fascinating when you roleplay as an Altmer. Go look up what the Blades have done to the Aldmeri Dominion. Essentially, you end up choosing sides between a terrorist group and a bunch of Nords who, for all practical purposes, sort of worship a dragon. What did the draugr do? Umm, worship dragons? I know there are a lot of Paarthy defenders here, and believe me, I loves my meditations on the Thu'um like anybody else does and I understand that you can repent for your sins, but just think of if that way for a second and you can see the dilemma. 

    Destroying the Dawnguard - Have only done this once, as I usually side with them. 

    House of Horrors - something about killing the Vigilant really irks me, unless I'm playing a completely awful build. Usually this one is failed. 

    Taste of Death - usually I fail this quest too. Nobody accuses me of being a cannibal! Unless Imma Bosmer, then Imma like "Eola, sister!"

    No Stone Unturned - touch the pretty stone, touch it, so pretty glowy, pinky. NO! It'll be stuck forever in your inventory. Pretty turning pinky... NO! DAMN IT! 

    I usually roleplay heavily, so sometimes I'll have to avoid entire questlines. Have run around all of Riften avoiding Brynjolf. Wish though that you could do No Stone Unturned without the guild. I love tracking down the Stones of Barenziah, cause they're unmarked, and I don't think you need to be a thief to do it. Sometimes I join the guild after becoming Thane of Riften just for that quest and them leave them. 

    • 1595 posts
    December 17, 2015 7:17 AM EST

    Go look up what the Blades have done to the Aldmeri Dominion. Essentially, you end up choosing sides between a terrorist group and a bunch of Nords who, for all practical purposes, sort of worship a dragon

    Hmm. More like a counter-terrorism group. You're showing your Dominion colours Lissette

    • 393 posts
    December 17, 2015 7:21 AM EST

    Hmm, a dragon, unlike a cat, is sentient, and thus has a free will.

    And the reason as to why I asked that question at all is the fact that in Skyrim (and everythere, if you think of it) you meet a lot of characters who commited various atrocities in the past, but then changed and became good guys.

    Do you want to kill every one of them?

    Do you think that such a person doesn't deserve a right for redemption?

    Do you think that everyone who might pose a danger should be killed?

    I would say "no" to these questions, so I don't kill Paarthurnax.

    • 295 posts
    December 17, 2015 7:25 AM EST

    Is not counter-terrorism terrorism to the other side? It's all about perception. I just caught myself thinking this and on other matters when I roleplayed a certain Altmer Paladin that we all know. It was fascinating. Usually I am very definite in which side I choose, but never have I played a character that was so between a rock and a hard place on this particular quest. 

    • 1595 posts
    December 17, 2015 7:41 AM EST

    Free will is all well and good but dragons have a natural shared predisposition towards certain traits. It's as if an entire ethnic group had the Warrior Gene with the 2R variant and an unstable upbringing to boot. Paarthunax never hides this himself and is quite forthright about his will to dominate and his evil nature.

    If I look at it just on a war crime level then it becomes harder to answer. A 90 year old WWII veteran accused of war crimes when his only role was to follow the orders of a superior officer whom he dared not disobey muddies the waters somewhat. Do I think such a man should face justice? Probably. Do I think he deserves punishment? Probably not.

    Yet if that same 90 year old WWII veteran's officer was accused of war crimes and was also diagnosed criminally insane based on his genetic make up and the heinousness of his crimes then my answers change.

    I cannot give concrete answers to your questions without knowing the circumstances and mitigating factors of each case.

    Do you think that such a person doesn't deserve a right for redemption?

    I believe in rehabilitation. That was not an option in the Kill Paarthurnax quest.

    Do you think that everyone who might pose a danger should be killed?

    If I had to judge a known criminal psychopath with a history of murder and violence and my only two choices were to let him go free or have him killed, I don't think I could in good conscience allow him to walk the streets.

    • 393 posts
    December 17, 2015 7:44 AM EST

    Whoa, I've never thought about the Paarthurnax quest from such a perspective. For me it was never "the Blades vs. the Greybeards" choice, but solely "whether Paarthurnax deserves to die"...

    Brynjolf... oh, why, why can't you just lock this guy somewhere?... Lol))

    And what do you think about the Dark Brotherhood?

    • 1595 posts
    December 17, 2015 7:49 AM EST

    Why would an opposing side have a counter-terrorism group to begin with? Luckily for Blades supporters their actions were vindicated in the end. Delphine said that the Blades believed the Thalmor to be the biggest threat to humanity in Tamriel and it turns out they were right. I guess if the game was set a mere 30 odd years prior then the question would be a whole lot more uncertain.

    You're right about the rock and a hard place. One of the things I really liked about DA:I was that the story took the PC's background into account, changing the dialogue choices accordingly based on race. No TES game has managed that complexity as of yet.

    • 393 posts
    December 17, 2015 7:56 AM EST

    Paarthurnax doesn't seem like a psychopath to me. He is the only one who can help other dragons to stop being psychopaths. Yes, we don't know what will happen to him in the future, but does he deserves to die now, that he hasn't turned evil yet?

    Actually, some other characters, like Galmar and Ulfric, for instance, seem much more psychopathic to me, and they aren't even dragons.

    • 288 posts
    December 17, 2015 8:05 AM EST

    Well, I've tried to do most of the quests on different characters.

    On a) - if there are any undiscovered quests then I don't know them yet, obviously. I believe I've discovered all but who knows.

    On b) - I don't think there are any.

    On c) - Paarthurnax and Destroying the Dawnguard - they are so far beyond what I feel is "right" that I cannot force myself to do them, even on a "mean" character. Also radiant Volkihar quests, as I've never finished the Dawnguard main questline on their side, I hate vampires

    There are lots of quests that I've only done once or twice, but that should still count.

    • 295 posts
    December 17, 2015 8:06 AM EST

    No, I know and I think what I'm doing is instead of thinking about the quest from a neutral perspective, and you'd be right, I'm really trying to think of this particular quest colored what a certain character perceives. He existed for a good 200+ years before the Great War. The new activity of the Blades started soon after the Thalmor gained control over Summerset in 4e 22. Blah, but lol, I digress, a lot.  

    • 1595 posts
    December 17, 2015 8:09 AM EST

    The psychopath analogy was born from your "what if Paarthy was a human" question. The only way I could anthropomorphise his draconic nature and the deeds he committed was by giving him a severe sociopathic illness. Nothing else works because one must accept that dragons are inherently bad from a human perspective an then translate that handicap into human form.

    As a dragon of course he isn't a psychopath. He is a dragon.

    • 393 posts
    December 17, 2015 8:12 AM EST

    Did you do the Dark Brotherhood questline? I'd think it's much worse than siding with Volkihar and destroying the Dawnguard?

    • 288 posts
    December 17, 2015 8:20 AM EST

    Yes, I have several assassin characters. None of them delved much into the main questline, though. In fact, I've only completed the main questline on 2 characters and they both destroyed the Brotherhood.

    It's all down to personal preferences and morality. I create a lot of stories and settings in my head and there are characters (one particular) in those fictions of mine who are assassins; in that aspect, while my preferred classes in a fantasy setting are the power-obsessed warrior and the paladin, I can still relate to being an assassin enough to have such character as a secondary. I can never relate, however, to being a vampire, I have this inner....disdain let's call it for fantasy vampires. I've tried to play vampire characters but it feels wrong.

    • 393 posts
    December 17, 2015 8:25 AM EST

    Hmm, Alduin seems quite a psychopathic dragon, no?

    Then, there's Odahviing. Do you think he should be killed too?

    And a human doesn't have to be sick to do evil things, remember the Markarth incident? Why no one says Ulfric is a psychopath? Or any Daedra worshipper? They kill a lot of people too. Not to say the the Dragonborn him/herself can be quite a maniac too...

    • 393 posts
    December 17, 2015 8:34 AM EST

    I like assassins pretty much too, but the only time I tried to join the Dark Brotherhood ended with me killing Astrid, because in my mind being an assassin doesn't mean being a psycho who loves to kill, much less a fanatic Daedra worshipper.

    Actually I dislike vampires too, never have sided with them, but killing the Dawnguard is not the same as killing innocent people like that Bosmer in Whiterun, as I see it.

    • 321 posts
    December 17, 2015 8:47 AM EST

    I wouldn't consider the Dark Brotherhood questline more worse than siding with Volkihar.While both DB and Volkihar are a group of sadistic psychopathic murderers,DB kinda has that family feeling going on while Volkihar is....well disorganized.

    I played as a vampire once but even then I find it hard to join Volkihar since I always pictured my evil characters as anti-heroes.

    • 393 posts
    December 17, 2015 8:55 AM EST

    I never said that the vampires are better than the DB, I said that killing innocent peasants is worse than killing a group of warriors who would kill you otherwise (if you're a vampire).

    Also I strongly dislike the idea of killing as a religious act, so despite all the family feelings that the DB may have, I won't side with them. 

    • 295 posts
    December 17, 2015 8:56 AM EST

    Yeah, Aelberon's playthrough has sort of opened up this new perspective and it's not my perspective on the matter either, it's his. He does some things that I flat out disagree with . Interesting Factoid: did you know that the Blades for a time were searching for the fragments Numidium? Yes, THE Numidium that brought Summerset to its knees. Hmm, now why would they want to do that? And how would an Altmer respond to that, even if he wasn't Thalmor. It's a very complicated, fun mess and I've been having a blast. On a completely different playthrough, I was total "I love Blades" or "I'd never kill Paarthy, ever". This one has been very different. 

    Again, depends on what build I'm doing. When I play, I guess, because I often act on stage and assume different roles, I do not usually let my own personal views cloud a playthrough. I have had builds take the Dark Brotherhood down, and I have had builds that have happily become the listener and end up being more cooky than either Astrid or Cicero. 

    I like No Stone Unturned because part of me loves the challenge of an unmarked quest. Prowler's perk be damned. LOL

    • 321 posts
    December 17, 2015 9:05 AM EST

    Ahh...I see your point. But still between Volkihar and DB,which do you feel is a lesser evil or both of them are just the same evil.

    • 393 posts
    December 17, 2015 9:16 AM EST

    I think they are around the same. I kill them all.

    • 288 posts
    December 17, 2015 9:22 AM EST

    There is another aspect to consider. The only way to see what happens at the end of the DB questline / kill the Emperor is to do it. With Volkihar, their questline is essentially the same as the Dawnguard's, so you're not missing much.

    • 14 posts
    December 17, 2015 9:44 AM EST
    Believe it or not, I have completed the Dragonborn DLC. I've never even gone to his temple.
    • 288 posts
    December 17, 2015 9:49 AM EST

    I believe you missed a "not"

    • 168 posts
    December 17, 2015 9:58 AM EST

    If you think it's okay to kill Paarthurnax, so do me a favor and kill Runil, the priest of Arkay in Falkreath, because he was once a Thalmor Battlemage in the Great War and killed many people with his magic. If you think Paarthurnax deserves to die for his crimes, so does Runil, am I right?