User blog:Draevan13/Thoughts on TES IV: Oblivion.

I made a blog post a few months ago on the subject of the apparent streamlining of the Elder Scrolls series. In the comments, noticed a reccuring theme: many seem to believe that the fourth game, Oblivion, was "generic" or "boring" or "Lore raping". Now, the first two are simply opinions, despite those commentors calling me "irrational" for not agreeing with their opinion, and "Lore raping" being just... odd. In this blog, I'm going to explore these statements. Now, when it comes to "generic", most people I ask says it's so in two fields: the setting and the storyline. Now, this baffles me, since Cyrodiil has the same setting as Skyrim does, i.e medieval european,yet when asked these people will say that Skyrim isn't generic, but Oblivion is.

So why, then, is it acceptable for Skyrim to have a medieval european setting and not be generic, but when Oblivion does it generic? I believe because of Morrowind. Morrowind, while having a medieval setting, didn't have a european one, instead having a mostly "other-wordly" setting which worked really well. So when Oblivion came out and it was back to the medieval european feel the series had used before, fans were dissapointed that they weren't getting another Morrowind and called it generic. And when Skyrim came out, sporting the same setting as Oblivion, fans were expecting it and therefore weren't dissapointed and didn't cry generic, even though it's the same medieval european setting as Oblivion has. Although this could be because of another Morrowind related reason: a book called "Pocket Guide to the Empire: Cyrodiil". In this book, Cyrodiil and the Imperial City were described as being quite different that how they appeared in Oblivion. Fans expected rain forests and dragon-like architecture, but instead found the usual medieval european stuff. BUT! What these fans fail to realise is that Oblivion was NOT the first time the Imperial City had been visited. In the very first Elder Scrolls game, Arena, you can visit Cyrodiil and the Imperial City, and they look quite similar to how they are shown in Oblivion, which mean the Pocket Guide book the generic people reference is the one at fault. Not Oblivion. Still Bethesda did make a mistake, true, but since most who call it generic say it's because it's different than how it was shown in Pocket Guide are wrong.

These people will also say that the rain forest being changed to arboreal forest and the architecture changed means that Cyrodiil was "Lore raped". Seriously? A tree and minor architecture change equals "Lore rape"? And once, again, I use Skyrim as a counter-argument: in Lore, it's described as a frozen wasteland. Yet in the game, it has lush forests, rolling plains, mountain plateaus and yes, a bit of frozen wasteland. But it's different than how it's described in Lore, yet it's not "Lore rape", even though it's the same case as Oblivion. So why is it that Skyrim can have a generic setting and "Lore rape" changes, but it's not called "generic and boring"? I personally don't know, but there's a lot of hypocrisy and inconsistensies in their arguments. And now the storyline. These same people say that Oblivion had a bland and generic storyline. Yet they also say that Skyrim had a great storyline. Let's compare the storylines of Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim: Morrowind: Dagoth Ur wants to use the Ash Blight and Corprus disease to control the minds of the Dunmer. He also wants to use the Heart of Lorkhan to power Akhulakan to drive the Empire out of Morrowind and secure Morrowind's independance. Oblivion: Mehrunes Dagon uses the Mythic Dawn to assassinate the Septim Dynasty. This causes the Dragonfires to go out, which allows the Mythic Dawn to open Oblivion Gates and Daedra to invade Mundus. Mehrunes Dagon wants to conquer Mundus and make it a new Realm of Oblivion. Skyrim: Alduin wants to destroy the world. And Oblivion is the bland one? Don't get me wrong, I love Skyrim, but it's storyline can pretty much be summed up in a single sentence. Another argument I've heard: "Oblivion is just demons trying to take over the world, it's been done before!" I'm sorry, and "The God of Destruction wants to destroy the world" hasn't? Please. To sum up, it seems to me that the generic and bland complaints aimed at Oblivion seems to stem from the high expectations Morrowind left. Morrowind was a great game, to be sure, but the fact Oblivion wasn't the same ground-breaking kind of game doesn't make it bland or generic. It's a great game that, like Morrowind and Skyrim, won Game of the Year and sold like hot cakes. And what do you think, Elder Scrolls wiki users? Why do you think people found Oblivion to be bland and generic? Note:  This post does not mean that I hate Skyrim, or that I find Oblivion flawless. Keep that in mind before you make a snide or rude comment.