User blog comment:Draevan13/Thoughts on TES IV: Oblivion./@comment-5046408-20130307130614/@comment-5709731-20130310094545

While I agree with the whole thing about the Dovahkiin title being forced upon you, you can still save the world, fullfill your destiny, and THEN be an evil, daedra-loving idiot. First of all, let's look at what it means to be dragonborn. It means that you alone have the potential to save yourself (and others, but meh, evil characters do not care for others, right?) from being destroyed along with the world. AND it means that you are a Hero (One with potential to re-write Elder Scrolls) and you have a means to great power, the Thu'um. Which all in all means, that once you've killed Alduin, which is as much a benefit to yourself as to others, you CAN in fact go murder every single citizen in Skyrim that is killable, join a mad court of vampires or steal every shiny jewel or gold coin in the country. Your only destiny is to slay Alduin, and as Arngeir puts it, after that it is up to you whether you will be a famed hero or a hated villain.

So, I do not really think being dragonborn restricts your freedom much. I mean, if you didn't slay Alduin eventually, he would kill you and destroy the world. So even for evil characters, killing him is a benefit. And then you are suddenly the most powerful individual in Skyrim! And the gods have given you free reigns to use your power as you see fit. An example of this, is my high elf daedra-crusader by the name of Tholanar. At the start, I rp'ed him as a morally good character. He was a daedric crusader of Meridia, and wielded her holy blade of Dawnbreaker, as well as restoration, destruction and conjuration magicks. Now, as soon as I had slain Alduin, I started championing every Daedra I encountered. (To get the Oblivion Walker achievement) And when Dawnguard came, my char screwed Meridia completely and became a vampire lord. I have raided tonnes of towns, killed legions of city guards and sucked dry innocent villagers of blood.

And still the greybeards think I am a generally fine person, who has done what he was destined to, and is now allowed to screw up the world as he sees fit. Which in my mind means, the gods think about the same. Yes, the gods made me do this and that, but in turn I was granted great power to do evil things with.

But I agree. When I first played Oblivion (at that time I had watched an entire LP of skyrim) I wondered what made me the hero, and not some stupid nobody, and I realized, as Martin Septim says: "It was not the gods that acted, it was me."