Wednesday, September 28, 2016

The Thalmor - The "unknowable Other" my ass

What struck me as rather stupid one time was when I read an AMA by Michael Kirkbride (MK), former developer for the Elder Scrolls series. He briefly talked about how the Thalmor were the “other”, the one you’re not supposed to understand. That they are "unknowable". And I am thinking to myself “what the fuck is there to understand?”

Going by only the confirmed canon stuff about them, they are a bunch of fascists with an open attitude of non-elves being shit that seeks to rule Tamriel. No great mystery there, really. Hunger for power coupled with racism and imperialistic tendencies. You know, the same things that has been part of pretty much every empire throughout human history. Though I doubt that is what he was thinking about.

Going by the stuff MK added to the Thalmor, they are still not hard to understand. In fact, I can sum them up in one sentence.

“The Thalmor are trying to end the world in their temper tantrum over not getting to be gods.”

For those of you who are connoisseurs of shit stories in RPGs, this probably reminds you of Final Fantasy 10 and Final Fantasy 10-2, where antagonists (Seymor and Meg Ryan) “are trying to end the world in their temper tantrum over people having to suffer.”

An even more apt example would be certain medieval interpretations in Christianity about Satan, where he is an angel who “tries to end the world in his temper tantrum over not getting to be god.”


So, yeah, not seeing what is so hard to understand about them. Being a dick doesn’t make you mysterious. It just makes you a dick.

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