Best, most noteworthy or otherwise interesting Skyrim moment?

[FruitBird]

Like most gamers out there, I love Skyrim. I love its expansive map, its fun quests (though granted, some of them can be a touch samey) and I love the nature of its sandbox that allows for some amazing moments. Which ones were the most memorable for you? They can be funny, sweet, sad, or disturbing. I'm also going to allow glitches as well, as what's Skyrim without mammoths deciding to sail off into space?

For me, my best moment was in the volcanic tundras when I stumbled across a giant standing over a dead mammoth. Unlike most giants, I was able to walk right up to it without it getting aggressive. It had the saddest expression I've ever seen in a game, just standing there and mourning its lost pet. It really added a lot of depth to creatures that up till then I had avoided like the plague.

 

[RJ 17]

Off the top of my head, I'd have to go with the Skyrim Giant's Space Program. We've all seen it, either in a video or in our own game...a disgruntled giant runs up towards a hostile target and swings its giant club down in a vertical strike, slamming the ground so hard that the target blasts off into orbit. The first time I saw this - ever - was in my own game. I was doing a quest for one of the Daedric Lords that told me that I had to help out some clan of orcs. Well it turns out the chief of the clan was a lazy dick, wanting me to escort him to a cave filled with giants so that he can kill them all. You do all the hard work and heavy lifting all the way through the quest until you finally get to the giants in the cave. That's when he decides it's time to man-up and charges after them. At the time I was playing a sneaky little assassin and didn't want my cover to be blown, so I let him charge on ahead and just watched to see what happened, planning to maybe give him some supporting fire with my bow.

Never had a chance, though. The orc chief didn't even get to swing his axe a single time before a giant slammed the ground and *PEW!!!* the poor orc was launched clear through the ceiling of the cave...never to be seen again.

I laughed for 5 minutes straight.

 

[FruitBird]

Off the top of my head, I'd have to go with the Skyrim Giant's Space Program. We've all seen it, either in a video or in our own game...a disgruntled giant runs up towards a hostile target and swings its giant club down in a vertical strike, slamming the ground so hard that the target blasts off into orbit. The first time I saw this - ever - was in my own game. I was doing a quest for one of the Daedric Lords that told me that I had to help out some clan of orcs. Well it turns out the chief of the clan was a lazy dick, wanting me to escort him to a cave filled with giants so that he can kill them all. You do all the hard work and heavy lifting all the way through the quest until you finally get to the giants in the cave. That's when he decides it's time to man-up and charges after them. At the time I was playing a sneaky little assassin and didn't want my cover to be blown, so I let him charge on ahead and just watched to see what happened, planning to maybe give him some supporting fire with my bow.

Never had a chance, though. The orc chief didn't even get to swing his axe a single time before a giant slammed the ground and *PEW!!!* the poor orc was launched clear through the ceiling of the cave...never to be seen again.

I laughed for 5 minutes straight.

Talos bless the Skyrim Space programme.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Don't think this was really a funny moment but --- I had taken my bow and shot the yelling priest near the sapling tree in White run.

You know... I enjoyed the peace afterwards from that day on-ward.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

for me it's the quest with the daedric lord in Whiterun tavern. Just trying to puzzle out wtf I did before I passed out was hilarious. Especially the last part. Are we allowed spoilers in here OP?

 

[iamnotincompliance]

In my (thus far) one playthrough, I made the conscious decision to pretty much walk everywhere and essentially avoid fast travel. It's a little something I picked up in Oblivion days: see the world, work up skills the old fashioned way, and of course the little moments. Such is my tale.

Finally working on the civil war bit of the game (easily 100 hours in at this point), I'm walking my to High Hrothgar when, just around Helgen, I run into General Tullius, who's apparently also his own two feet are the only way to go. Nice touch, game. Being vigilant, as one should be, I keep an eye in all directions, even with my new travel companion. Gazing back down the road, who should I see but Ulfric Stormcloak and Jarl Elisif, both also taking a hike. At this point, purely for my own amusement, I start bothering Tullius with conversation so that the others might catch up. I don't expect anything to come of this, getting them together, but again, for my own amusement.

Then the Elder Dragon landed in front of us.

Now this was an amazing sight. Stormcloak, Tullius, and yes, even Elisif, start attacking the dragon. Nice to see they could their differences for a few minutes, but Elisif is what impressed me most. Unarmed, unarmored Elisif walking up and straight punching an Elder Dragon. Bad ass.

Then there was the time Serana used her necromancy to raise a fearsome rabbit in the heat of battle, but that's another story. Actually, that's the whole story. Rabbit survived, too. Made a nice undead pet for a while.

 

[Chris Moses]

I forget the quest but you are supposed to follow/escort this warrior lady and fight your way across this bridge. Well, ofc the lady goes running off and you have to stay ahead of her or she charges right into a swarm of enemies.

(Having learned this the hard way through various saves and restarts) I am on my horse trying to get to the bridge before her to thin out the bad guys so that we both might have a chance to live, when- oh shit!- a sabre cat jumps across the roadway! Hoping I don't have to slow down and fight him I keep riding. The cat is quickly followed by a skeever whose jump is a good 10 foot high arc over the roadway. A cat being chased by a very athletic rodent? I nearly fall off of my horse laughing so hard.

=^.^=

 

[DayDark]

First time I summoned a Deadra Lord. I was in the city of winterhold, I had just acquired the spell. A guard walks up to me, tells me I look familiar, and apparent I have to pay a price, I can't remember doing anything bad, so I decline. Before I know it, the deadra lord just IMPALES the guard in less than a second, BOOM, and then just stands there like it's a casual sunday. I was like "what...I...but...OVERKILL much??", I had built my fragile mage around conjuration so that was basically the time I decided to have double daedra lord bodyguards, just all the time.

 

[Zhukov]

Not long after starting my first game I found some lady living in a little shack in the hills to the west of where you begin in the game.

She had a little backstory about being a refugee. Also, she taught me some archery and gave me a bow.

It was the only time I felt remotely attached to an NPC in that game. I hung onto that bow for the whole game and hung it on a wall of my house.

Which reminds me, I also remember spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to line up my collection of lich masks. GOD DAMN IT SIT STRAIGHT! STOP BOUNCING!

 

[DayDark]

Not long after starting my first game I found some lady living in a little shack in the hills to the west of where you begin in the game.

She had a little backstory about being a refugee. Also, she taught me some archery and gave me a bow.

It was the only time I felt remotely attached to an NPC in that game. I hung onto that bow for the whole game and hung it on a wall of my house.

Which reminds me, I also remember spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to line up my collection of lich masks. GOD DAMN IT SIT STRAIGHT! STOP BOUNCING!

Man I met that woman when my archery was close to 100, and leveling in archery was just a pain, she took me all the way to 100 all for free.

 

[SoreWristed]

I was wandering about when i spotted a solitary giant just standing there. Having before only encountered these in groups, i decided to grab my chance for some revenge for the Giant Space Program.

I sneak up, buff up with every piece of magic and potions and poisons, and open hostility with a well aimed arrow to the ear canal. As expected, this did not slice his healthbar in two, but made him attack me. Over the hill next to him, i suddenly hear a roar as his two buddies and their mammoths descend to aid him in combat. Oh fuck, i think to myself whilst strafing away shooting arrows at eyeballs. But having resigned myself to doing this or dieing gloriuosly i continue combat.

The mammoths are giving me most trouble so i decide to kill them first. This just leads to more rage on part of the giants, and the continue their onslaught of hitting-spaces-i-was-just-in. Their swiping at mid air aside, i manage to kill the first one. He goes down with a satisfying thud.

Suddenly, i hear an ear splitting roar and see a collumn of flame arise around one of the giants. I look down and see the shadow of an enormous winged creature fly past along the ground. The giants stop their attack of me and look up solemnly.
The dragon makes a second pass and manages to hit the second one. Meanwhile, i have continued my attack on the second dragon, thinking he'll be atleast a bit weakened. He turns his attention back at me while his buddy lumbers off towards the dragon that just landed. I strafe over to them, thinking that the dragons stray flamebreath, might do some more of my work for me. It was also at this point i ran out of dwarven arrows and had to resort to my humongous supply of steel ones.

Having not payed attention to the second giant, i suddenly notice i've gained a dragon soul. I turn around and i see a giant walk out of a blazing inferno, patches of fire still on his tattered animal skins, his back turned on the now skeletal dragon. It was a sight they could have used on the cover of the game's box.

I run away a bit further to resummon my imps and armor, lost for a moment in contemplation why i'm using armor in the first place, since one hit will either firmly embed me in the soil or launch me into orbit. As i continue launching arrows at faces and strafing away from oversized clubs, i take a hit from something. I sprint away to see that a mudcrab has decided to join the fray. I use the dragon's words for 'fuck off' at it and it flies away satisfyingly.

Resuming my further uneventful battle, i down the second giant, and his last remaining friend steps over his corpse. I use the same tactics as before, almost relaxed now. When suddenly i am turned 180° and am locked in conversation with a dude in impressive looking armour. I quickly throw the first words that come to mind at him and run away. He takes this the wrong way, and unsheathes his weapon. Being much quicker than the giant, he get's some good hits in and suddenly i'm in panic mode.

I sit down amidst the battlefield and scarf down an entire cheese wheel, four sweetrolls and 3 tomatoes. Having been filled, i now turn my attention to the armour dude. I wreck his shit in a few arrows, and when i turn to face the last remaining giant my hand comes back empty from my quiver. I drop my bow, while muttering 'you've effing asked for it now' i equip my so long unused firebolts and proceed to murderise his ass.

Giantman does not put up a big fight anymore and he goes down. I quickly turn 360° to scan the battlefield, while still holding on to my firebolt, and after a solid minute i flame it harmlessly into the sky.

I almost fell to my knees with emotion and let the fatigue of the battle wash over me. I scream the dragon's words for 'FUCK YEAH' into the sky, while i notice on the clock on my stereo system that i've been engaged in heart pulsing battle for half an hour. My fingers hurt and my bum finally realises i've been sitting on the edge of my seat for the past half hour and sends a painful message to my brain. I loot everything that isn't too heavy, and finally leave the battlefield, content but with weak limbs from the fight.

TL;DR : In one single half hour combat session i downed three giants, a dragon, two mammoths, a mudcrab and what i assumed to be a bounty hunter of some sorts. I wanted to dramatise it a bit so you'd understand how proud i felt of that moment, while the game did nothing to acknowledge that.

captcha says 'i like humans', apparantly the giants do not.

 

[G00N3R7883]

Probably the part of the main quest when you arrive at Blackreach. Its a massive underground cavern filled with giant mushroom like plants and crazy lighting effects, lots of blues and greens and purples. The visuals were just absolutely breathtaking.

 

[uncle_yuri]

I'd have to go with the first time I played it with mods on. My three favorites were, in no particular order, (1) exploding chickens, (2) giving all the mudcrabs top hats and monocles, and (3) playing the Dexter sound clip "Surprise, Muthaf***a!" after every sneak attack.

Oh, and (4) replacing "Fus ro dah" with "Good DAY sir!"

 

[murrow]

Once when I got to Wolfskull Cave for the Potema quest I decided to take a sneaky approach. From the entrance platform in the ritual chamber I shot one of the necromancers conjuring the Wolf Queen. He didn't die, but they all started running around, and soon I heard sounds of battle. Before long I hear a Fus-Ro-Dah and there's a necromancer flying over the room. Next thing I know I get the "quest accomplished" notification. Apparently the draugr and conjurers are hostile to each other, and my timely intervention made the undead do my dirty work for me. It was fun.

Speaking of sniping, another great moment was when I managed to kill all the Forsworn in Karthspire by shooting from over the mountain. Made me really happy, because that's usually quite a tough battle to tackle head-on.

Being a huge Morrowind fan, the whole Dragonborn DLC was a joy for me. All the more because my Nerevarine was a Redoran retainer. Knowing that the Great House survived to become a beacon of hope for the Dunmer put a smile on my face.

I also second Blackreach. That place is amazing.... and scary in lower levels. You get your share of giants, dragons, chauri, trolls and what else. Kind of reminds me the Cavern of the Incarnate from Morrowind, with some Sixth House dungeons thrown in for good measure.

 

[Daft Ada]

I had a similar Space Program incident in my first few hours, on a quest where I had to guide some fella from Whiterun to one of the towns in the East. I was doing so well guarding him until a rogue giant came along, slammed his club into the ground and sent my charge in orbit. Laughed a good ten minutes after that!

I loved having the talking dog (can't remember his name, but he belonged to some dead daedric lord) along with me, so much that his side-quest was the only one I started that I didn't finish.

Other great moments: realising I could scale any vertical surface by hammering the jump button and running left and right quickly (even the biggest one with the monk's retreat on top, although it took nearly an hour); launching all the dragon remains into Whiterun using the fireblast spell; antagonising guards and wildlife and getting them to fight (so I could pick off the survivors); using my in-game wife as a personal baggage slave (too right you're sworn to carry my burdens); feeling genuinely guilty when I accidentally cheated on her too.

 

[Rayce Archer]

In my most recent playthrough I started a thief. Still on her, actually.

So I'm in the quest where you follow Mercer Fray through the Dwarven ruins, and everything is hunky dory. Then I got to Frey himself.

Frey is not specced as a thief. He's basically a Bouyent Armiger from Morrowind, all light armor and hard melee and a little sorcery. He has fuckgobs of hitpoints. His detect is through the roof. He has boundless potions of healing to chug. And me? I had the icesword I stole from his house, and a giant sack of poisons. And a glass battleaxe I found in the ruin because fuck yeah.

What commenced was a pathetic hour-long fight consisting of me pelting Frey with poisoned arrows until his fatigue was down, then chopping him a couple times and running away. He would heal most of it every time, and chase me up and down that big ice-elf statue where you fight him. Eventually, after the exchange of who knows how many blows, his morale broke and he began running from me. I busted out my axe and chased HIM around the room for another ten minutes slowly hacking him to death.

Then I got my useless Nocturnal power and moved on to the complete destruction of Windhelm via the medium of burglary.

 

[Zydrate]

There are plenty but whenever I see a question like this, one occasion always pops in my head.

It was a very simple matter, a mere oddity in the mechanics of inventory.

But I was fighting a Bandit Highwayman of some sort. I don't remember the exact rank but I do know he didn't go down from a single arrow shot which is what usually happens when I sneak attack bandits from ranged. I must have been in my lower levels too, because once I get an Elven Bow it's all over for bandits.

Either way, this encounter was notable because he basically pulled out a bow and fired upon me, and I eventually discovered he wielded the same orcish arrows that I had fired upon him.

That means that this mother fucker basically ripped two arrows out of his own body to fire them back at me.
In one of the most unintentionally badass encounters I've seen to date.

I almost wish the Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor existed, because I would have loved to see him come back as a named bandit boss for me to fight again.

 

[deathbydeath]

After spending ~500 hours of using house, companion, and crafting mods to play Digital Fantasy Dress-Up Dolls I took a step back and asked myself "What the hell am I doing with my life?".

On a more serious note when I was on a quest to collect every Daedric Artifact I started the Waking Nightmare quest (the Vaermina one that gives the Staff of Corruption). Waking Nightmare seriously is one of the few (maybe only?) quests I actually enjoyed in that game, and that was in no small part due to your companion for the mission, Erandur. He's one of the few characters in Skyrim that is actually a character and not a grouping of traits, and I fell in love with the guy. At the choice at the end of the quest (spoilers) when you have to choose between Erandur or the Staff I was legitimately torn. Either I give up the sole reason I came here, or I kill the only good character in the game.

Then I remembered I was on PC, saved Erandur, and console'd the Staff into my inventory. Then my heart was broken when Erandur ceased being a character when the quest was over and devolved into a generic NPC.

 

[Laughing Man]

For me it wasn't a defining gaming moment but a defining about about the game and the Elder Scrolls series as whole. You see Oblivion was my introduction to the Elder Scrolls series, I loved the game and played through it several times, yeah it had its faults but fully modded it was a truly outstanding game which I loved. My hopes for Skyrim where that it would be a more awesome versions Oblivion.

So anyway any time you visited a forum and spoke about Oblivion you would invariably get someone who would pop in to tell you that Morrowind was much much better, yeah Oblivion was functionally good but Morrowind was just much much better. I tried Morrowind a few years after I had played Oblivion, it sucked hard (more due to graphics and general age of gameplay etc)

Anyway Skyrim releases and I play it an part way through, specifically right as I complete the Thieves Guild quest line, I think to myself yeah this is alright but Oblivion is just a much much better game. BAM I've become one of those Morrowind is much much better guys.

I've since played through Skyrim again and yes I've modded it but it just doesn't feel the same as Oblivion did, it's technically and functionally better and in some respects looks better (HD graphics mods close the gap in all cases) but it just doesn't feel like home, does that kinda sound daft?