Aventus Aretino, is it just me or....

[lazloarcadia]

At the very begining of the Dark Brotherhood quest line we encounter the young Aventus Aretino. He is a child whose parents have died and he was sent to live in the orphanage of Riften. Unfortunately the orphanage is run by a particularly sadistic head mistress and thus it is Aventus who offers you the first of the Dark Brotherhood assassination quests. Put and end to head mistress and her cruelty.

 

I've personally always held a soft spot in my heart for Aventus and his desire for vengeance against the cruelty of his oppressor. Maybe it is because of some of the challenges I faced in my own IRL childhood, but of all the quests in Skyrim I found his quest to be one of the most memorable. In my RP play throughs of the game (ie; all of them are RP focused) I tend to adopt the poor kid and teach him the ways of the shadow assassin, thus training the next generation to be better sooner than his teacher (me).

 

What about you? Did Aventus stand out to you? Or was there perhaps a different character or quest which really spoke to you at a personal level?

Edited April 29, 2020 by lazloarcadia

[anjenthedog]

To be honest, I met him and I walked away. Same for Boethia and a few other vectors. The only thing that stood out is that he reminded me of a few very dark people I knew when I was younger.

 

I feel sympathy for his situation, but his character doesn't seem redeemable. Am I mistaken?

[lazloarcadia]

Was there a different character or quest (even modded ones) which stood out to you more?

[Anselmp]

The boy misses his friends, so is probably redeemable. I'd like a mod where she is found already dead when one visits but DB still think their kill has been stolen. The whisking away to a shack is lazy plotting anyway and it would do no harm to rewrite that whole section.

The vanilla characters are mostly fairly basic or stereotyped. A lot more could have been made of the slightly lost characters like Arenea. I feel more at home with some of the mods. But one place with more character is the Riften marketplace, which is why the Thieves' Guild opening is so irritating.

I just enjoyed Rigmor of Bruma, which is being upgraded, so I shall have to do it again. Helgen Reborn also has that bit extra. For the rest, look up Anna/Anduniel.

[jjb54]

TDBH -

They were originally the NON-POLITICAL ' justice ' system, in a system where " justice " was measure by political ties and such.

 

Aventus was a victim and saw a wrong and ya, the head mistress was BAD. Justice for the kids had to be measured. Does that make Aventus ' bad '?

 

No - sad that a system puts a child into that situation, but they did. He went to the only ' people ' he knew who would ' take care of the injustice ' that was being done to him and his friends.

[lazloarcadia]

But did his character stand out to you at a personal level? It sounds like it did. Or was there a different character or quest line which really stood out as that thing you connected with?

[Tildy2]

The boy misses his friends, so is probably redeemable. I'd like a mod where she is found already dead when one visits but DB still think their kill has been stolen. The whisking away to a shack is lazy plotting anyway and it would do no harm to rewrite that whole section.

The vanilla characters are mostly fairly basic or stereotyped. A lot more could have been made of the slightly lost characters like Arenea. I feel more at home with some of the mods. But one place with more character is the Riften marketplace, which is why the Thieves' Guild opening is so irritating.

I just enjoyed Rigmor of Bruma, which is being upgraded, so I shall have to do it again. Helgen Reborn also has that bit extra. For the rest, look up Anna/Anduniel.

I might be wrong, but I think the whisking away might be a callback to Oblivion? IIRC the first time you commit a murder and have a nap afterwards, you wake up to find Lucien Lachance basically breathing in your face and welcoming you to the Brotherhood. Maybe Astrid just has slightly more or less subtlety than Lucien?

 

I always felt kind of bad for Aventus because he usually does the ritual for so damn long. Where the hell is the Brotherhood? He's obviously been doing it long enough for people to figure out what he's doing AND for word to spread to whatever inn I first hear the rumor at, and even then I spend a few months screwing around in the general area before I actually start the quest. He sounds so tired when you arrive! If it's really a Brotherhood job that I stole, why did it take so long for them to get back to him?

[Anselmp]

I always like to provide a home for the waifs and strays, which is why I look for a house with plenty of beds but minimum mannequins and displays. Also most of the vanilla warriors are just brutes. More of the mages (Aranea, Illia, a few in the College of W) are more interesting characters. The bards are particularly disappointing - one expected more of them. Even the ladies in Radiant Raiment stand out more. Probably Serana is attractive to many, and she is one that Bethesda did very well - I still prefer the original to any of the replacements I have seen. She even manages to look old-fashioned, which is right for one from a previous era.

I don't know what it says about the developers, but the more interesting male characters tend to be old - Jarl of Whiterun, Calcelmo, Esbern.

[Gunslinger808]

Children tend to think in black and white, I don’t think he was irreparably broken, just wanted vengeance for the treatment of the other orphans and himself and in his mind there was only one way to get it.

In a land where death is a commodity to be bought and sold, it’s not unthinkable that his focus would be to want her dead, and since he wasn’t capable of doing it himself, calling on mother not only fulfilled his need for revenge but also reaffirmed his beliefs in the old ways.