Bret Devereaux

Great thread about how the Fallout series (and Bethesda in general) uses and abuses medieval imagery, often in quite troubling ways. Blog readers, check it out!https://twitter.com/tlecaque/status/1279068600364601344 …

I play so much Bethesda but it's soooooooo problematic.

The "do you prefer colonialism or ethnic cleansing" dilemma of Skyrim was particularly rough. It seems a more clearly pro-empire thing, but that's partially because the Empire appears to be a tributary-empire that doesn't extract any actual tribute?

I'm not sure they view the Stormcloaks as being wrong so much as manipulated, which is... worse?

Right? It's suppose to be one of these 'no right answer' dilemmas, which is just laughable when I'm playing as a Dunmer, the oppressed-to-be-cleansed population in this system and I can *join*the*Stormcloaks* - presumably to get murdered last?

RIGHT??? I was a Nord my first game and finished with the Stormcloaks. Started the next game as a Khajit and turned the recruiting meeting into a bloodbath.

The thing is, Bethesda used to be good at this sort of complex colonial narratives. Morrowind does this really well - imperial power is ambiguous; local authorities are too. It helps that all player characters, even Dunmer, are scorned as 'outlanders' so you are never an insider