It's Not a Plothole - It's Missed Details | A Response to TheEpicNate315's Video

As I've grown up over the years, I've come to accept that there's a lot of nuance to life, and that it isn't exactly wise to mentally tear into somebody just because their failure to meet your standards gives you the mental gymnastics to brand them an idiot... 

 

I mean, it was that kind of attitude 

that lead into a three month abusive relationship for me...

And all because she didn't know, 

nor cared to help me find out, that I had ADHD...

But oh, do I totally understand just how much easier it would be if I just did and be done with it!

If the title wasn't a big enough indicator, here's the thing: 

I was watching Skyrim videos and stumbled across TheEpicNate315, 

who had a video about five plot holes in Skyrim that made no damn sense...

 

...and to be honest, it pissed me off... at first...

Because the reality of the matter is that the one that stuck out to me did make sense...

 

But remember kiddies - nuance.  

Whether I liked it or not, there was a possibility (no matter how unlikely I thought it might be) that this individual either didn't play or watch any walk-throughs regarding Skyrim's predecessor - Oblivion.

So which of the five plot-holes do I essentially have a bug in my ass about?

The Dark Brotherhood encounters prior to joining said brotherhood. 

Basically, TheEpicNate said that it doesn't make any sense 

that The Dark Brotherhood would recruit you if you already have a contract against you...

Here's the kicker though: it does make sense.

 

While all of this can be chalked up to an obedience game for Astrid at the end of it all...

 

and I could be wasting my time due to Elder Scroll's natural ambiguity,

Astrid's general "fuck you", 

and nobody able say anything about it prior to the Dragonborn being revealed as the Listener...

 

I feel it is important to be enlightened on the spirit and parallels with the Dark Brotherhood prior to Skyrim.  Astrid may be an idiot for following her very specific idea of what the Dark Brotherhood looks like, but there are details that she (intentionally or not) follow through with that can be traced back to Oblivion.

Let's start with the Oblivion quest The Assassinated Man.

This is the one time in which you're not supposed to kill somebody: 

instead, you're supposed to help somebody stage a death... there own.

If you talk to Vicente Valtieri, he'll reveal a curious detail about the contract:

Francois Motierre offered his own mother for the Dark Brotherhood to accept his contract,

a detail that was handled by Lucien Lachance.

Why would the Dark Brotherhood do this? 

For the same reason Telaendril being able to join the Dark Brotherhood in the first place:

if you talk to her about it, she'll say this,

"Actually, Lucien did not try to recruit me. Not at first. He tried to kill me. My father wanted me dead, and he hired the Dark Brotherhood to do it. I escaped from Lucien, and paid my father back for his treachery. Lucien came to me again that night with an offer I just couldn't refuse."

Basically, there's a consistent theme of the value in souls.  Yes, even over gold.

Whether Astrid is doing this as some kind of power-play, or it's one of the rules she's cherry-picked into following as the leader of the Dark Brotherhood, there seems to be a general implication that implies what happened in Oblivion applies to Skyrim.

Now, while there isn't any definitive proof that Astrid cares about blood-price when she recruits you, the ambiguity of the game leaves it open as a possibility, and the laws established in the previous game cement this idea even further.  Top this off with your proof of value not only in killing Grelod, but every Dark Brotherhood assassin that's come after prior to starting the quest.

 

In fact, I'm convinced that the three hostages in the beginning Skyrim quest was deliberate: 

one to pay for your own blood price (the contract you had on your head),

two to cover the fact you "stole" Grelod the Kind as a target, 

and the third is more for shits and giggles, testing just how far the Dragonborn is willing to kill.

For those willing to sit down for about an hour, Camelworks did a video on this,

picking it apart down to the last annoying details, on top of what I mentioned already.

As I've said before, I chalk this up not to stupidity, but criminal neglect of details.  I checked his channel, and while most of his videos are about Skyrim or Fallout, I was under the impression that he would know better but didn't meet the mark. I mean, Camelworks was able to go in between games that are directly correlated with each other, I don't see how this would be a problem for TheEpicNate, who has done tons of videos on Skyrim.

At the end of the day, I suppose it's kind of funny... 

but funny in a lack of amusment kind of way.