In Skyrim, is the Last Dragonborn actually a villain?

[InDarkestNight]

This is something I've been thinking about trying to play a paladin character.

Really, seemingly everything you can do in the game has some moral questionableness to it. There's the 'evil' questlines of the TG and DB obviously, plus maybe the Volkihar. However, seemingly even the 'good' questlines have some questionableness to it. They either force you to cooporate with the evil guilds, or interact with daedric princes, or even straight visit their realms!

Honestly, despite what it looks like, bethesda still seems to have a specific personality archetype in mind. You're supposed to be a character whose willing to do ANYTHING regardless of the cost. When a Thalmor asks you if you believe in Talos, the game oddly doesn't give you the option to say 'no', implying you do even if you're an altmer. If you go to join the Stormcloaks, Galmar will either ask you why you want to join when you're not native to Skyrim if you're a nord, or ask you why a non-Nord would join. In the case of the latter, you get to tell him that 'not only nords live in Skyrim'. The latter would sorta imply you do hail in Skyrim if you're not a Nord, but of course its not specifically about the character, just non-Nords in general. Besides, you have no family, no home at the start of the game, and several other npcs will assume you're an 'outsider' if you ask them lore questions like what the companions are or who specific deities are. Also, one priest npc bluntly tells you that something he's doing won't work on you unless you're 'unaffiliated' with any god, implying your character isn't a priest themselves. Strangely though, there is a rare dialogue where you can tell an npc you worship Molag Bal assuming you talk to them at a specific point after you've done his quest. Contradiction?

Either way, there's far more evil questlines in the game than there are good ones. If you try to play a goody-two-shoes character, you'll be locked out of just about all content. Besides, some people have argued that pursuing the main questline and defeating Alduin is wrong because you're making it impossible for the world to be 'reset' in case something goes wrong (like the Thalmor succeeding in destroying the world).

And of course, there's the fact that you're a murder hobo, but that's an old argument. There is also how you're often forced to use LP. No matter what you do, you're going to have to use it eventually just to progress. Hell, you may have to use it to leave some dungeons.

Really you think about it, you can't help but be a villain in this game. Oh, and if all this wasn't bad enough, its possible to justify ALL the questlines and content this game offers if you're a villain, but very little of it is avaiable if you're good. What does that say? At the very least you can purse the main questline, dragonborn, and even the CoW (the only major questline that doesn't have you doing anything questionable, until you take into consideration the use of soultrapping anyway, considering they use A LOT of enchanted gear and one guy there even claims to sell enchanted gear) purely for the power it grants. You never have to self-sacrifice for others, and every questline has some sort of tangible benefits for you, be it money, free skills, master trainers, more merchants, unique gear, shouts, spells, you get the idea. There's no questline that an 'evil' character would never ever pursue under any circumstance.

Of course, you could say that your character is meant to be a Conan-style anti-hero; a person who does good things but for selfish reasons. You stop Alduin not because you really care, but for the power it grants. You stop Miraak not to save Solstheim but simply because he's sending hitmen after you. You stick with guilds purely for the benefits, even if they force you to ally with daedra. Everything is a means to an end. Yeah, often times others do benefit from what you're doing, but perhaps that's not why you're doing it.

On the other hand, perhaps the developers didn't make this game with the idea in mind that people would be playing a character. They may have just assumed that everyone was going to run all the questlines and do everything, not even bothering to consider a narrative. Its obvious they didn't put much thought at all into any of the narratives they did put into the game. The game's shallow, filled with plotholes, and how some guilds are protrayed doesn't line up with their behavior (such as the famous arguments that despite the Companions being a bunch of 'noble warriors', in reality they're just a bunch of assassins, the Dark Brotherhood but with good PR).

Maybe then you're not a 'villain', you're supposed to just be a player playing a game, blindly going through the storylines regardless of what they are, like older games where you couldn't avoid playing through the game's singular story arc (assuming it even had one at all). Villain, or just lazy writing?

Edited May 7 by InDarkestNight
clarification, a bit more info

[HeyYou]

Do you considering killing dragons and stealing their souls evil? Or soul trapping in general? (wasn't there a thread about that? :) )

[ScytheBearer]

"There is no evil in the world, evil exists only in the hearts of men." - Ancient Chinese Philosophy

"The evil in every situation arrives in the soul of men". - Translated from Ancient Sanskrit

The natural world is innocent, free of evil and guile.  Evil and guile are the product of humanities attempts to rationalize and justify their behavior when such behavior is contrary to nature's innocence.

"Human beings are not rational animals.  Human beings are rationalizing animals." - Robert A. Heinlein

Humanities greatest gift is it's intellect, which allows human beings to make the best choice in any situation.  Humanities greatest curse is it's intellect, which forces human beings to understand that every choice has the potential to be the wrong choice. 

"There are no good choices.  There are no bad choices.  Only choices." - Tibetan Philosophy

Are your characters evil acts by design and intent, or is your character forced into evil action by circumstance.  You get to rationalize the choices.