TL;DR: The topic title is the main subject of discussion, but I encourage you to read everything I had to say.


They give us the option to marry a person of the same six, and even of a completely different race; so as Maiq the Liar says, the people of Skyrim are indeed more open-minded when it comes to that. That's been established as a permanent fact about the culture and values of the region in this fictional world.

So... Where are the gay couples?

I look at this from the most important perspective:
What Bethesda can benefit the most from > What Bethesda originally wanted to do.

Most people like dragons, and we haven't had much in the series yet, so they figured 'let's make the next one's plot center around dragons.' Money.

But remember, this grab for money (assuming it is) is your next installment to your lore. You love your lore, right Bethesda? If it's in the game, it's now apart of your lore. No exceptions.

So okay, now there are dragons, and the NPCs in the game acknowledge that. I'm immersed.


But... I just had a marriage ceremony with someone of the same six, so THAT should be apart of the culture if they allow that so... Why has every married NPC interaction I've seen been between heterosixuals? Bethesda gave us a feature but designed the game world to act as if that feature wasn't canon. It was a market move for people who want that feature, as people wanted dragons, but it doesn't commit to it.


There are other questionable things about the people of Skyrim as well. Every 'marriable' NPC in the game can be married by either six, which means those NPCs are bisixual. Which leads me to believe that the majority of Skyrim culture is bisixual. And yet, I'm seeing husbands and wives arguing about their also-straight daughter. I'm rescuing the wife of a poor fool who thinks she's been captured by bandits. I'm helping a guy find the gems needed to make a wedding ring for his to-be wife.

So apparently, I'm the only REAL bisixual in all of Skyrim, because I'm the only one who can be proof to the supposedly-now-canon 'open-mindedness' of the region.

To be honest, I'm dissapointed. The Fable series (which once tried to compete with the Elder Scrolls) does a better job at committing to their LGBT customers by having actual variety and display of sixual orientation in its fictional setting, and I kind of hoped Skyrim would have tried a little harder in that regard.

You've got a LOT of deviant things in your games already, Bethesda. And despite that (and in some cases because of that), you still sell games like crazy and make game of the year to the point of it being expected of you. I'm one of your biggest fans and I was right there saying 'cool I can marry a dude,' seeing it as a bonus to what's already to love about something you created.

Why be afraid of homosixuality?

...

And now I'm about to blow your mind even further. Let's say that it's true that you truly are the only bisixual in all of Skyrim. You play as Dragonborn. You have the soul of a dragon. So really, in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim you play as a bisixual zoophilic dragon in a mortal humanoid body, forced to stay in the closet because the only evidence of the actual open-mindedness of the region you live in comes from a cat man known for randomly running about and being a liar.

Hell, maybe that explains it =/

You're trying too hard. It's just a game. I get your point, but honestly, Bethesda couldn't care less. They're too busy fixing the game right now than making actual NPC gay couples in their game. I know I married Farkas with my male Breton and wasn't impressed with the marriage system at all.

I'd say it was a feature put in at the last minute.
After all, could you imagine all of those angry people complaining to us, here on the forums if Bethesda had not put Gay Marriage in?

Its just not a big deal in Skyrim I guess

Ulfric and General Tulius?This explains why they hate each other soo much...because they had a break....LOL serilyous Molag Bal is bisixual too....

If I had to guess the fact that you can marry the same gender is more about them not bothering to put a limitation on it, rather than making it a playstyle directed toward people of different sixual preferences.

maybe the people of Tamriel just don't see any relevance in defining themselves based on what gender they make a life with. Maybe no one really cares or finds it relevant to their personal makeup. Like wearing a robe vs. wearing a pair of pants. If one is more comfortable, then do it, but there's no need to run around shouting about how great robes are and how people's expectations for you to wear pants is constricting and oppressing you.

Yes^

It would be more work to put a limitation on the gender chosen for marriage based on the characters gender, it's much easier to allow a set female npc's be married and a set male npc's be married then allow the player to choose.

Maybe there are some gay couples. They just don't go "Did we tell you "we are a gay" today?!"

Why do we get such silly questions?

In ancient times it makes a lot more sense not to be a gay couple, but to be heterosixual (even if you are gay), since being with the opposite six would help procreate your town or village which needs as much help as it can get. Also, many cultures will give you a hard time if you`re a gay couple. And if you were, you wouldn`t admit it.

Bah, I get tired of people putting 21st century agenda views on ancient ways of survival.

I wanted Bethesda to show me they had the balls to do that :3

I know it's just a game, but hell if some of us don't put time delving into the lore (which has two very large wikis covering it) and spending months of our lives living in it as if it were something more than just a game.

They didn't make them because then they'd have to create a whole new crime/punishment system because killing them would be much more serious than killing other townfolk since the murder would have to be considered a hate crime rather than just crime, so your jail sentence would be longer, fines doubled... NPC would be branded on your forehead because you're Not Politically Correct, which would completely destroy the forums because no one would know what anyone else is talking about when they say the saw an NPC with a gang of Bandits... it would be mayehm and would disrupt the very FABRIC OF SKYRIM SO-CI-E-TEY!!

I have two flaws in your theory (although I agree entirely that pushing 21st century bull crap into every form of media just makes it all one bland melting pot of awful):

A: A fantasy setting cannot be compared to our world in ancient times. Just because some things look the same doesn't mean they follow any of the same rules as we do. In fact, the reason most things look how they do in games is because we as humans can barely wrap our head around the idea that something that doesn't look human can have intelligence or the fact that if you are in a liquid you will run out of air.

B: Many ancient civilizations were fine with this like the Romans, and Feudal Japan. In many places being gay was the more honorable path until Catholic Britain started to spread it's influence.

Because just like in the real world actually occurence of deviant orientation is a very rare thing. So sure its possible, but its isn't normal. People like you always want to normalize your behavior and force the rest of us to acknowledge and accept it. The ONLY reason the option is even there is so that people like you wouldn't whine about "not being allowed to be gay in the game".

That doesn't mean they have to fully support the notion. Consider also that if they included multiple overt examples of homo behavior in their game, they "might" turn off some of their normal customers (who GREATLY outnumber the LBTG customers) and could stand to lose a lot of money.

Couples and marriage probably had very different meanings in ancient times;

On one hand, marriage could be thought of as a way to get rid of your daughters, and or as a bargaining chip for influence and money; as well as producing babies.

You could be married on one hand, and then have a dozen mistresses around, or multiple spouses; as long as you had the influence.

That said, "cultures giving gay couples a hard time" mostly only applies to judeo-christian cultures...

But applying that to TES might be a bit insane.

Yeah, totally rare. Except there is like a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_displaying_homosixual_behavior that display homosixual behaviour. Go figure what's normal and what's not.

Nazeem and the Jarl of Whiterun.

What you do sixually is your business and if you need a video game to show you that its ok you have some really big issues

There is racism in Skyrim, so it would be idiotic unrealistic that fierce nords and others allow gay marriage...

Hate here, hate there... But not having gay couples???
How dare you Bethesda??

But on a more serious note...
Yes, Of course there should be more gay couples in the game.
I would absolutely LOVE gay couples walking around.
Those deers are fast and "Two handed level: 100" is a loooong road.

The wife clearly states it.

I'm a rare thing in the real world, but I don't care about what's normal.

You and I are both gamers; we shouldn't EVER care about what's 'normal.'

If you could make a world that goes against reality (such as dragons existing), wouldn't you want those things be clearly depicted?

It's like in Morrowind and Oblivion; there was more TALK of dragons than there were actual dragons. If your game was Skyrim, wouldn't you want all of its features to flow with its lore, and do more than just talk about it (or in this case, only let the player show those features exist)?


I'm not saying I'm right and everyone else is wrong, nor do I want Bethesda to cater to me happening to be of the LGBT community. I'm just trying to point out what I think was a missed opportunity and explaining myself for what I think.

I was actually just about to get back to playing; didn't set this up to be my battle for the day, lol.

Seeing how every NPC tells me their life stories when i pass by them, i doubt it


No, she's saying her husband is kissing hthe jarl's ass, and not literally either

^ These are wise words people, HEED THEM!

I don't see this as being a big problem, really. I never even considered it. And there is nothing saying that there aren't gay couples in Skyrim but that they don't go around announcing it. sixual orientation just seems to be a non-issue in Tamriel. Anti-gay sentiment in the real world is based on religious views. In Tamriel though, this doesn't seem an issue. The temple of Mara will marry you to your same six partner without a complaint. Nobody seems to bat an eye when you get propositioned by same six people.

Assuming a similar ratio between straight/homosixual/other sixuality people from Earth to Nirn it is not surprising that there are more straight couples than gay ones. And to dig out the Earth history card, even in past societies where homosixuality was an accepted part of life, often they were expected to still take opposite six spouses to continue their family line. This was the duty to their family and clan. Marriages for political or family reasons were common, often more so than marriages for love. It wasn't usually considered a bad thing to take outside lovers/concubines. Especially if you were wealthy.

Because they have to play their cards as safely as possible on the surface to appeal to (and not be condemned by) "mainstream" society.

It's [censored], but that's how it is.