After complaints of Save file corruption (and Beth's track record of save file corruption in the last couple TES games) I had begun to only use "hard saves" and only loading them from the main menu; i.e. if you die, and the game reloads the last save automatically, I would exit to main menu and manually load a save, etc.

Anyway, even with these precautions (whether they are effective or not), I noticed that upon loading a save after an exit to the main menu, that the game cache had not been cleared and there were bugged animations still going on from the previous session.

Let me clarify - I was trying to stop the Execution in Solitude, and noticing the linear design of not being able to change the outcome of the execution (no spoilers here - you simply can't do anything to stop the execution - Rogvir dies whether you save him or not)... anyway, after killing several Solitude guards, and racking up a nice bounty for nothing, I EXIT to the main menu, reload a save from when I had just entered Solitude, and upon approaching the Execution "stage", I noticed blood spurting apparently from midair just behind the executioner. I can reload this same save game another time from a freshly started Skyrim and it doesn't show up.

So... apparently Skyrim doesn't clear the game cache even when loading from the main menu, which could be causing save bloating or mysterious crashes... even if it's just a 'fluke' it still indicates that there is a problem somewhere that allows this to happen.

Could it be the only 'safe' save game load is from first loading Skyrim?

Has anyone experienced something similar to this as well? Any thoughts on this glitch?

Just wanted to say I've seen similar. Such as selling to a merchant, running them out of gold, then loading an earlier save that was prior to me ever selling to the merchant in question, and yet they have the same exact amount of gold left as if I had sold them down to nearly nothing (cache not clearing). I only began to see this recently. I can only fix it by quitting the game, reopening, and then loading the save. After which they have the correct amount of gold again.

There're more examples where unrelated game states are carried over to a reloaded save.

Physics: Enter a room with items like plates, cups and whatnot on tables. Don't touch the items and save there. Then start making a mess, like walking over the table so the items fall off left and right. Reload at that moment and watch the items moving again, while they should just stay where they were at the moment you saved the game. If you reload again without messing the room up again the items stay at their place as expected.

Events/AI States: Sneak into a room with hostile NPCs sitting on chairs or benches. Do not get detected, get kinda close to them and save there. Attack or get out of sneaking mode. Reload and watch the NPCs either get up and draw their weapons ("what was that?") or even detect you straight away (the precise point of reloading seems to matter). Reload again and you find yourself undetected as expected.