User blog comment:Timeoin/I just worked out why the Guards keep getting hit in the knees.../@comment-3523404-20111209183645

You make a strong argument. Bethesda actually does this type of thing quite often: hinting at equipment that is missing in one game but present in other. Check out the Shivering Isles, for instance, which had a shop called "The Missing Pauldron", referring to the absence of that armor-type in newer games. Also, in Skyrim, we see "The Mortar and Pestle" and "Tolfdir's Alembic", which appear to be nods at the fact that Alchemical apparatuses have been scrapped for the Alchemy Lab station.