"Are you still here? I thought you would be on your way to Bleak Falls Barrow by now. You should get going, the Jarl is not a patient man and come to think of it, neither am I". A rough quote by Farengar.

Why? You write prophetic, but he could have taken too much skooma, for all the player knows.

Also ... the player had the nice experience of the Emperors dungeon, so the player could, say, have a beef with the whole Emperor thing. And why should the player care who happens to become the next Emperor? Not to mention that those who participate in the Game of Thrones seem to have a short life expectancy and generally interact with a lot of people who can put you (or your loved ones) to death if you utter the wrong words. Better to go somewhere else.

As I said: "if they aren't abnormally dumb, nihilistic, or heartless". You'd let the whole Empire fall into another interregnum because you can't be bothered to find Uriel's last heir?

So it's hard to ignore dragons, but the ash storms and the rampaging ash-creatures are easy to ignore?

Having said that, consider the following scenario. Assume that someone knew that in some future, the Great Evil One would try to destroy the world, and that in order to stop the Great Evil One, someone would have to do a number of things. This could be written down in some book, or that person could make up a prophecy. A prophecy sounds more grand, and may give the future Chosen One more support than just being following the recipe in the book. Also, a prophecy may have a greater chance of being remembered than a book has of surviving. So, using prophecies make a lot of sense, even if they are bogus.

Why? You write prophetic, but he could have taken too much skooma, for all the player knows. Also ... the player had the nice experience of the Emperors dungeon, so the player could, say, have a beef with the whole Emperor thing. And why should the player care who happens to become the next Emperor? Not to mention that those who participate in the Game of Thrones seem to have a short life expectancy and generally interact with a lot of people who can put you (or your loved ones) to death if you utter the wrong words. Better to go somewhere else.

What is this fascination with being in prison

I think there is a simple flaw in your logic.

If people could truly see the future and write future events down then they would see what you would one day become and this tell about it.

It's hard to say that you can climb to power and not have it prophicized (that a word or at least spelled correctly).

Simply wittnising the events that transpire while the real hero does all the work?

Sounds like you guys should play Oblivion.

You overestimate simple folks' interest in politics. All my criminal scum knows is that her grandpa also spoke weird things at Uriel's age. For her, it's only logical to grab that lucky opportunity to escape prison and disappear, and delivering the amulet would be very foolish and asking to be captured again or even more trouble than simply ending up in prison. Heck, whomever I give the amulet, most likely will accuse ME for murdering the Emperor and his Blades. It doesn't take an ABNORMALLY dumb, nihilistic and heartless person to care about their hide first - it's just practical. In fact it takes an abnormally noble and reckless person to get involved any further, and why would such a person be in a prison anyway. I generally play good aligned characters in games, only very recently I'm finally trying out something evil or rather simply selfish, and I can tell you that even with a good character it's actually hard to roleplay having to do MQ in Oblivion which is why I haven't even completed it. To a good character, involvement with Septims business logically ends after escorting Martin to Sky Haven Temple, to a bad character - right after speaking to Baurus during tutorial.

Which comes down to the point of not having a dialog option to say no. They're getting impatient with you because as far as they're concerned you said you'd do it, and they expect you to be punctual about it... but there's plenty of reasons a "good" character could turn down the request if the game had simply provided the dialog option.

It's a lot easier to role-play that you did politely turn down their request, unlike Morrowind where it would be completely out of character for Caius to provide you with an easy out.

As far as I'm concerned, gamesas could have done away with the civil war and dragon crisis, and merely fleshed out the guilds as an alternative. Drop the character into a world in which they're not the savior, but rather just another adventurer seeking their fortune.

I would have gone a step further, and made the factions exclusive. Don't permit the character to join more than 1-2 guilds at a time, and increase the entry requirements significantly. Since the focus of the game would be on factions or guilds, might as well throw in the Forsworn and Thalmor as playable factions.

If Beth's idea was to provide us with a sandbox, then I say they should abandon the central story arch altogether. Alternately, make it optional at start up.

All you need to do is avoid the Main Quest and continue on with the hundreds of side quests and smaller quests and you can live your life in Skyrim as another random character. You do not HAVE to be the Dragonborn in Skyrim. On one save, I have an High Elf that is the leader of the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild and that's that. It is not hard and not as if you are thrown into a "Chosen One" role at the start of the game unless you get to the point in the Main Quest where you are seen as the Dragonborn.

Start a new game, create a random race, ignore Main Quest. Simple!

Totally agree. The whole chosen one theme is an old type of storytelling that basically tells that unless you are from a special lineage you should just shut up and witness the events unfold. After all, who wants heroes coming from the masses and challenging the order of things.

I know how you feel. Personally, in Bethesda's RPGs I try my best to play as some average Joe soldier or mercenary. In both Fallout's I pretended to be just another wasteland wanderer. In the Elder Scrolls games I have played, I always pretend to be just another thief or mage. I think this is one reason I like to play MMOs, because you can't help but feel like just one of the millions of would-be heroes running around, you actually have to work to make yourself above the norm.

As I said: "if they aren't abnormally dumb, nihilistic, or heartless". You'd let the whole Empire fall into another interregnum because you can't be bothered to find Uriel's last heir? You may have been in the dungeon, but it was the Emperor that let you go. The Blades were ready to kill you, but the Emperor told them to stand down and let you travel with them to safety. Also he says all his heirs were murdered, and he told you about his illegitimate son who could still take the throne.

Even if you didn't believe the threat from Oblivion and you being the only one that can stand against the hordes of Daedra, getting his last son on the throne would be far better for the whole of Tamriel than letting the Empire fall into another interregnum.

Don't get me wrong: I love Skyrim. I think there are many things that are an improvement on Oblivion. Followers, dual wielding, the new race designs...I could go on about all that for days. But this post is not about a love-fest. It's about the one thing I really, truly dislike about the game:

I do not like "chosen one" stories. No matter the format. Books, shows, films, games, whatever it is, I am always turned off by the protagonist being "destined" for his fate. (Note that some of this does not apply to Skyrim, but it is often found in other "chosen one" stories.)

Give me a story about someone working her way up from nothing. GIve me someone who is not written of in prophecy, whose destiny is not found in the stars, whose victory is not assured. A hero doesn't need a special birth or lineage or powers. She doesn't need to be marked for death by the villain Because It Is Written, but because she grows to be a threat to his plans. Allies shouldn't fall in line just because someone wrote it down centuries before. What about all the people who were fighting before you were? Why do they step aside for someone seen in a crystal ball?

It is far less thrilling to be a savior when you already are one. You can't escape destiny. You can't turn away from it, say no, because it's in the script. Not only that, it makes saying "yes, I will step up, I will do this" much less exciting. You were meant to play the part all along. You had no choice. Your cards are laid out for you. Your motives don't matter. You could be doing it for power, greed, spite, boredom, freedom, et cetera, but ultimately you are doing it to Be A Hero. Trust isn't earned, it's forced.

It also makes anyone who opposes the hero into a complete idiot from the get go. Enemies and naysayers don't have a point when they argue against you. They're either with you or against you (nevermind that they could be neutral or apathetic or any number of things). You could play as one of the most evil people around, even worse than the antagonist, but it doesn't matter because you're were chosen to save, to lead. You are right, ultimately, and that is that. Your motives don't matter. Your mistakes are inconsequential. Her flaws are scrubbed, her ends justify her means. The accomplishments you make and the accomplishments of others are diminished because you are Special.

This is often found hand in hand with the villain who has no motivation. The villain is bad Because. The villain eats kittens for breakfast and children for dinner so we know that he is Evil. He is so obviously evil that his wrongness is unquestionable, and, rather boring. The antagonist should have motivations too. Good points and bad points, flaws and good qualities. Black and white makes for a limited palette, and when you are the chosen one, those are often the colors you end up with.

A hero shouldn't be special because of what she, rather she should be special because of what she becomes.

Claims of divine right (or even outright divinity) has been pretty common in Earth history, but why should the player accept the claims of the Septims?

Also, I'd say that it was not the prisoner that let the "whole Empire fall into another interregnum". The rulers of the Empire let that happen all by itself.

And, as we see in Skyrim, the successful completion of the Main Quest did not save the Empire from falling.

However, if the evil plot had unfolded with out the player taking an active part, Jauffre still knew that the Emperor had a son and where he lived? Upon hearing of the Emperors death, Jauffre could have gone to Kvatch and rescued Martin, but he did not.

To my knowledge (I never finished the entire MQ), there is no reason that someone else could not have stepped up and filled the void left by the player. As Baurus knew that the player had the amulet, the Blades could send someone to find the player and get the amulet.