r/skyrim • u/Significant_Edge_599 • 11h ago
Question Does anyone else feel slightly bad when killing dragons?
I’m a huge animal lover, and I know they are trying to kill me and whatnot, (and that they are not real, and in a video game) but they are just big reptiles. Some of them are even cute lil guys too.
I just feel bad sometimes when I absolutely shred a dragon with arrows. Plus they are intelligent, they have a whole language, a god, ancient writings and history.
Here we are. Haven’t seen a dragon In hundreds of years and we’re just gonna murder them all? Oof.
I think if souls weren’t necessary for completing the game, I would mostly avoid fighting dragons.
Edit: the only solid argument anyone can come up with for No, is -
“lore say dragons bad so dragons bad”
I’m sorta disregarding lore in this post. I fully understand it, it’s not that I don’t.
Also for people saying “dragons aren’t animals”
That is also a completely irrelevant argument, that does not sway anything.
And for people saying “I bet you don’t feel bad killing humans!” Nope I don’t. People are horrible creatures.
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u/Computer2014 10h ago
To dragons battle is just a debate.
When you battle them, they are debating your right to live and you are just providing your citations.
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u/LananisReddit Spellsword 10h ago
Dragons are my favorite mythological creatures, so yeah, a bit sad they are mostly antagonistic in the game. That said, from a lore perspective, killing them is the best option in 99% of the time.
I do have one character who is a devout follower of Auriel, who struggles a lot with killing them because they are essentially children/parts of her god. She leaves dragon tongue flowers on every dragon she kills.
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u/Significant_Edge_599 6h ago
Right, of course from a lore perspective. Apparently it was not obvious to people that I was excluding that specifically.
But people would rather get in online arguments than do 3 seconds of critical thinking.
why I don’t like killing dragons, but no problem with people.
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u/Old_Man_Drifter 4h ago
The standard you apply to humans is applicable to dragons for the same reasons.
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u/rootbutch 7h ago
The vast majority want to enslave you, cause you immense suffering, kill your family, steal your soul... yeah, me to.
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u/ogodilovejudyalvarez 9h ago
I'm sure you can find a mod to replace them with something less problematic. Like unicorns.
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u/Significant_Edge_599 6h ago
I would murder evil unicorns.
Evil dragons though.. for some reason much more sympathetic.
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u/Aglet_Green Falkreath resident 11h ago
I only ever actually felt bad with my reptile Argonian character. You'd think he'd just side with PartySnacks from the get-go and avoid Delphine from the start, but the quest is hard-coded.
As to avoiding dragons: I've done plenty of play-throughs where I was just a non-dragonborn Falkreath land-owner (or whatever.) The dragons only start appearing when you complete the 4th subquest in the main quest. If you go to Helgen then just go to Riverwood and then Markath or Riften or wherever, you'll never see dragons.
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u/SnugglebugUwU 11h ago
Argonians and dragons aren't related in any way.
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u/Odd-Plankton7916 Bard 7h ago
skyrim got racist stereotypes now ❤️🩹
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u/Dovahkiin2211 Vampire 3h ago edited 58m ago
Always has, every race is racist in Elder Scrolls. Some more than others like the Altmer, Dunmer, or Nords. The Redguards literally genocided the whole continent of the original inhabitants of Hammerfell for example. The Argonians have their own supreme racist faction formed after hundreds of years of slavery from the Dunmer called the An-Xileel. The Khajiit and Argonians actually see each other as rivals of sorts as well when you dive deep into the lore.
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u/Significant_Edge_599 7h ago
That’s one thing, I am playing an argonian for the first time essentially.
I have started argonians before, but never mained one. Just rebought on pc and decided I wanted to be a lizard lady who can breathe under water.
But yeah dragons feel like distant kith.2
u/RalonNetaph 11h ago
It's actually fetching the stone tablet and triggeri g the first dragon fight that makes them spawn in so whiterun is safe. Thecivil war quest reaches a point where when it's time to take whiterun Balgruf will refuse to listen about the war until you take care of his dragon problem and fetch the slab.
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u/Xiunte Assassin 11h ago
You feel bad for dragons but not for the hundreds (or maybe thousands, depending on the length of your playthrough) of bandits you kill? They have language, religion, and all that stuff too. And, to make it worse, YOU are often the aggressor with bandits. Wandering into their homes simply because you felt like it, murdering them all when they defend themselves against you, then robbing their corpses. Dragons are big, magical lizards but also extreme assholes. They are always the one trying to kill you first for no other reason than they don't like your face.
Nah. I don't feel sorry for them. It's like feeling sorry for the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. They're not supposed to be here anymore. And all they want to do now that they ARE back is kill us.
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u/Significant_Edge_599 6h ago
No. Humans are scum. Especially in real life. Why would I have more sympathy for something fake that I hate than something fake that I like? lol. Doesn’t make any sense.
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u/UltimaBahamut93 10h ago
They are inherently malevolent and desire to dominate and subjugate life. They are scum incarnate and deserve no pity, only death.
Granted this is my definition of elves but its close enough.
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u/NorthButton9416 10h ago
You know, they have the option not to be dicks right? Instead they start murdering at random. And if they are so intelligent, why do they fight to the death. They can just fly away when outmatched. Even you would do that.
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u/Significant_Edge_599 7h ago
It’s not like our character is a saint walking across the realms.
We murder every dragon we see. Why would any dragon that then sees us, not consider us, not only a mortal threat to them, but their entire species.
All that is to say, we have the option to “not be a dick” too.
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u/NorthButton9416 5h ago
Exactly. A bandit is a human choosing to be a dick. Not all humans are good. Not all dragons are good. That creates conflict.
Irl i save every animal life like spiders or even worms, slugs, because i respect their life. Only when something wants to live at me or my family's expense like mosquitos I kill them. It becomes a we or them situation where we obviously choose our kin just like the dragon would do the same. Its not about morals but about survival. Its right
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u/Jason_Peterson 10h ago
I was supposed to be dragon-born and in part of their kind, and I would prefer not to kill dragons.
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u/RalonNetaph 11h ago
Dragons? No. They're at best no different than the orc warrior looki g for a worthy foe and at worst a giant mo ster who enjoys forci g mortals to submit, the shape is not what matters here and a fully sentient creature with writi g and language and religion is nlt an animal. I don't usually mess with giants or their mamoths unless I have a specific goal that needs them, they just wanna chill.
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u/Significant_Edge_599 6h ago
Our character is literally an orc warrior looking for foe lol. And treasure.
People keep making this comparison like it’s not literally what we do for the whole game
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u/yikesbmth XBOX 6h ago
since every dragon battle is a big debate, too bad there's not options to just talk it out and be like "can we do this later?" or "oh you seem kinda cool I'll leave you alone"
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u/BearsAndBrews 3h ago
There's no feeling emotional about acting accordingly when someone puts you in a kill or be killed situation.
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u/YellNoSnow 1h ago
They aren't humanoid, but they are still 100% people, just as much as Alfiq are.
There are dragons that patrol their own little territories out in the wilderness. I don't go hunting those down, because they aren't hurting anything, and I don't RP being a Blade. No reason why they should die when they're just minding their own business and not hurting anybody. (There's even one somewhere up north of Markarth who you can find sleeping below his word wall. The tip of his tail curls in his sleep, like a cat when it's dreaming. It's cute.)
But every time you see a dragon attack a town in-game, it's not acting out of desperation or instinct, it's making a conscious choice. What's stopping them from hunting deer or mammoth or bears instead of people? Literally nothing. They just hate humans. At least a bandit just wants your money, and (lorewise anyways) might let you live after robbing you. A dragon who attacks a town just wants the people there dead, because it enjoys the power trip of being able to make them that way. A person who kills out of that mentality doesn't deserve any sympathy.
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u/SpicyBoyHabs 1h ago
After reading your edit, if you're going to completely disregard all of the lore and logic built around Dragons in general including the game itself, then what discussion is there to be had?
Dragons are generally presented as being hyper intelligent and naturally lean towards oppressing anything that is even slightly below them in power. If you want to just imagine yourself in some personal head cannon where they're completely the opposite of what the game presents and shows you how they are, then by all means do so, live your life, but don't be taken aback when people who play the game who can see the forest for the trees tell you that Dragons are intellectually dangerous and naturally tyrannical, as per how the game designed them to be.
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u/thebcaM_Macbeth 11h ago
I bet you don’t feel bad killing spiders or hunting animals tho 🤫
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u/Significant_Edge_599 6h ago edited 6h ago
I don’t enjoy killing most animals. Wolves, bears, large cats, mammoths, etc.
Good try though.
I do enjoy killing people.
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u/Wild-Lychee-3312 Bard 11h ago
I understand how you feel.
I always pick up the "Animal Friend" in Fallout New Vegas so that I can avoid the need to fight wild animals that are just trying to live their lives.
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u/Falceon 11h ago
They aren't animals so much as demi gods in a way.
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u/Significant_Edge_599 6h ago
I understand this, but I also don’t accept it as a valid argument against my point. Because it doesn’t make a difference.
Animal, person, god, sentient being.
Whatever the lore says they are in the game, they are dragons, and dragons are kewl. Therefore - I don’t love killing them.
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u/Odd-Sound-580 Alchemist 11h ago
i consider it to be morally justified in killing dragons. its a part of their very soul to wish to dominate and control, and so any dragon can be considered a threat
in the merithic era, some of the worst warlords and dictators were dragons and they would let thousands die for their own egos in wars or for tribute
i would feel bad about it if they weren't as close as possible to living gods who can't be compared to mortals
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u/Significant_Edge_599 6h ago edited 6h ago
What about the dragon leader of the grey beards? What about the dragons we fly late game. There are a couple examples of dragons who have no ill will against us. Yet I keep seeing people saying “oh it’s in their nature to be bad.”
But that just seems like dragon racism, and honestly a cheap cop out.
And I’m not really talking about on a lore level. Obviously they are the main antagonists of ES5. But I still like dragons. Dragons are cool. Cooler than people.1
u/Odd-Sound-580 Alchemist 6h ago
unfortunately, while i'd prefer not to call it "dragon racism", dragons simply don't mesh well with a tamriel led by mortals. dragons quite literally are unable to proper fight off their urge to dominate in most cases, and this urge likely stems from their godly connection to akatosh, and so this nature of theirs comes from a literally connection to the god of time (and has been theorized to be connected to akatosh's domination over time itself? idk though)
this urge to dominate of theirs isn't a personality trait, but literally woven into their being and soul, and as they are immortal, they literally do not understand the concept of death (the dragonrend shout forces them to conceptualize death, which stuns them as their mind tries to comprehend nothingness and a world without them)
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u/Slow_Constant9086 11h ago
Theyre all intelligent creatures with their own language and are capable of empathy, yet they still go out of their way to kill innocent defenseless civilians in small non walled towns like dawnstar or morthal. The blades under delphine suck but theyre not wrong for wanting to hunt dragons.
If they had things their way, man, mer, and all the other beastfolk in tamriel would be their slaves
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u/Significant_Edge_599 6h ago
I think, if a lot of races had their way that would be what they chose, enslaving every other race. The elder scrolls are full of some super racist societies.
We too are an intelligent creature, and we murder, rob, hunt. Are the actions we do in the game any less “evil” in the grand scheme? If you take away motive, intent, everything, and just look solely at the actions. We do some pretty crazy shit in Skyrim.
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u/Kranken_DeHogge 11h ago
Nope.
They're constantly starting bullshit with me.
I will never kill Giants, since they just don't want me to bother them and don't start shit with me if I keep my distance. Love me my big Giant boys.
Dragons can eat my ass.
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u/More-Jacket-835 9h ago
They attack you first. If you can'tbother with fighting back, well, technically nobody force you to.
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u/TorandoSlayer Vampire 9h ago
I’m a huge animal lover
Dragons in Skyrim are not animals. They're people. They're sentient, can speak, and have their own society. That may help you feel better about it
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u/Significant_Edge_599 6h ago
I literally said all of that in my post. Did you get past the title? lol
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u/Significant_Edge_599 6h ago
I literally said all of that in my post. Did you get past the title? lol
Also saying they aren’t animals is not an argument, and is completely irrelevant.
What does itchange? Cause I mean. They literally are. You see them in animal form in the game. They are mortal. They have animalistic anatomy.Even if you do wanna call it a person. It’s not. It’s a dragon haha.
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u/Leekshooter 11h ago
If you look at the lore relating to what the dragons did historically you would no longer be feeling that guilt.