Skyrim: 15 most annoying NPC quotes

Bethesda's worst one-liners. Nobody mention our Sweet Roll.

Diverse as Skyrim's offerings are, an element of repetition creeps in eventually. After 10 hours or so you'll start to see where Bethesda has economised, recycling level assets to pad out the game's umpteen dungeons and cities - a familiar Dwemer bust here, a reskinned Sabre Cat there.

Long before all that, though, you'll notice that certain NPC dialogue lines recur. Sometimes they stand the test of time. And sometimes they... don't. Here are fifteen bits of chitchat that make our knuckles whiten.

Got time for a Skyrim Story? We're all ears.

Click to view larger image
At least the loading screens don't speak.
1. "What you learn here will last you a lifetime. Several, if you're lucky." (Savros Aren)

We've been wizarding for twenty hours, Savros. We've picked through obscure tomes in dank cellars, exhausted the mysteries of arcane conjuring instruments, uncovered Dwemer artefacts and bent them to our will. But we still haven't found any spell or magical object capable of making your syrupy smugness any less insufferable. Next time you retreat to your chambers to gloat over your private herb garden, we'll cast a goddamn fire rune on the door.

2. "Let me guess - somebody stole your Sweet Roll." (Guards)

We're sure you think your harsh-accented cynicism is charming, Stormcloak #456, but to us, you just sound like something they edited out of Conan the Barbarian.

3. "I have a bad feeling about this." (Lydia)

Of course you do. We're in a f**king dungeon. They put bad stuff in dungeons. What were you expecting, shag carpets and naked butlers? Tell you what - let us know when you have a good feeling about this.

4. "I am sworn to carry your burdens." (Lydia)

This was funny the first time we heard her say it. Bless you, Lydia - you just sort of broke the fourth wall, alluding to the fact that you're basically a glorified pack-rat. A fine jest. But then we visited a few more Draugr crypts, accumulated a few hundred kilos of loot, and every time we passed her a lump of Ebony ingot or Dragon bone, she'd trot out the same line in precisely the same tone of weary almost-insolence. OK, Miss Passive-Aggressive. We get that being a human filing cabinet/arrow sponge has its downsides. Consider it punishment for walking in front of our fireballs.

Click to view larger image
Ad lib or die, stall-owner.
5. "Do you get to the Cloud District very often? Oh what am I saying, of course you don't..." (Nazeem)

Every time you patronise us, Nazeem, we make a little mark on our axe haft. And when there are 100 marks on our axe haft, we'll make a little mark on your head.

6. "I've never seen anything quite like this before." (Lydia)

Yeah you have. We saw one 10 minutes ago. You killed it, remember? Then we tore a bunch of chitin and alchemy ingredients from its stomach and shoved them down your top.

7. "I got to thinking, maybe I'm the Dragonborn, and I just don't know it yet." (Guards)

Sorry, but the position of free-roaming nuisance has already been filled. You can be our next victim, though, if you like.

8. "I must be hearing things." (Bandits)

Yes, and the thing you heard was us stabbing your friend in the epiglottis. Notice that you can no longer hear your friend. That's because he's now a corpse, right at your feet.

1 2 Next page

Comments

43 comments so far...

  1. YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE COME HERE

  2. Yeah, I should probably have said that when you were asking around the office. Sorry, it only just occurred to me

  3. The more of these articles Ed posts the more i'm starting to worry about his levels of repressed anger. I'm sure he's only a step away from turning up at the OXM office with a shot gun.

    Still, you've reviewed all the good games for the time being so there is plenty of time to hire your replacements before Mass Effect 3 needs looking at.

  4. I love the sweetroll comment...i love it sooooo much its driven me right back to fallout 3, where it belongs :)

  5. I'm just fed up with the guards telling me I smell like a wet dog , heard it three times on my way from the blacksmith to the pub and THEN I get the "Cloud district guy" save the game , hit the "Wolf out" button , and butcher the entire town!

    Who's a wet dog now bitch!

  6. Looking to protect yourself? Or deal some damage?

  7. Honest gold for honest work.

  8. "I should bash your face in after all you've done"

    Go for it

  9. Being a mage, all i ever hear is "Take care with those flames" or "Whoa whoa - watch the magic!"

    Ooooh the temptation to watch said flames go to work!! :evil:

    I hate it when shopping and someone close by repeats their one line over and over and ooooover again too!

    Kudos Ed, 6 & 14 almost cost me a laptop after i spluttered my drink over it laughing!! :D

  10. That bloody age of aggression song the bards sing!!!!!!!! :evil:

  11. I'm genuinely confused by all the bard rage from you lot.... :D

    If they existed in real bars then yes, i would gladly vomit and rub their noses in it, but skyrim wise, am i completely missing something? How long are you all spending in the bars to get so irritated by them - surely they're some of the dullest locations in the cities as bugger all goes on there!?!? (That git in whiterun aside!)

    I feel like there's a wicked scene in skyrim somewhere im missing out on - i imagine for you smug gits who've found it, it's rather like a 'reflex' in that they have dance edits of two songs played on repeat? The beer must be stella too, hence why you're all so bloody narky! :wink:

  12. @sidthesloth

    Haha i just like spending time in the towns. I basically like to use the towns for resources for a bit, then i migrate to the next town. Good way of not getting mixed up with Misc quests too early.

  13. "You look pale. Could be ataxia. It's quite a problem back home in Cyrodil."

    I get told this constantly, i feel like a leper :(

  14. At least theres no more " I have fought Mudcrabs more fearsome than you!"

  15. The game's install is 3.8GB, there's another 4GB of space on the disc they could have used for more voice acting. :(

    Arcadia in Whiterun just runs off at the mouth constantly while you're using her Alchemy table. I'm glad I bought Breezehome so I have my own and don't have to listen to her anymore.

    @golliwoza: The mudcrabs in Skyrim are about three times bigger than the ones I used to punch for fun in Cyrodiil, they're pretty fearsome.

  16. "have you tried mercenary work? It might suit you."

    Yes I have but I found killing my client and simply taking the money along with everything they own from their dead body was easier. Cut out the middle man... Literally. Oh I'm sorry were you offering me a job?

  17. "What are you hunting?... Actually I don't want to know."
    YOU!!!
    The amount of times I've had to reload my autosave after putting an arrow into the guy at The Drunken Huntsman in Whiterun.

  18. "We are on the hunt!" Orc hunter just after killing his hunting partner, and shortly before going after me with an axe. Maybe it was the Royal "we"? :lol:

  19. im 90 hours in and have yet to utilize a follower...

    ive hardly spent enough time in any populated location to notice any NPC repetition.

  20. At least theres no more " I have fought Mudcrabs more fearsome than you!"

    This was the best oblivion quote, particularly when the character saying it was actually fighting a mudcrab at the time XD

  21. #3
    funny as!!

  22. I came across a great one 'Yes, that's right, leave - like everyone else!'

    Bloody hell, way to play the lonely card. Felt really guilty as I was also trying to convince her daughter to run to riften at the time. Changed my mind and made this other bloke confess his love to her to stop her leaving.

  23. I think if I had to pick any annoying quote it would have to be one from the wizard follower you can get from Riften's pub, I forget his name but everytime you get him to carry stuff he says "I am an apprentice wizard not a pack mule ... oh very well". I mean come on if your gonna moan don't flake out at the last minute! Especially not every single time!

  24. "Another wanderer, here to lick my father's boots"

  25. WHAT IS IT? DRAGONS?


    Does it SOUND like a giant lizard bearing down on your little town to kill you all? NO, SO SHUT THE f**k UP.

  26. Oh god, after a day of skyrim and "hello my love" the injured miner woman i took pity on and 'married' (most pointless feature in skyrim for me?) is now lightly charred & hidden under my alchemy table... The 300 gold a day i've lost or whatever is most definitely money well spent (or not earned)!

  27. Oh god, after a day of skyrim and "hello my love" the injured miner woman i took pity on and 'married' (most pointless feature in skyrim for me?) is now lightly charred & hidden under my alchemy table... The 300 gold a day i've lost or whatever is most definitely money well spent (or not earned)!

    MURDERER!

  28. So there I am all bollocky buff (I'd just divested myself of all and sundry in an effort to get moving again) and this bloody woman says something like 'aren't you cold, put your unmentionables away at least'....I'm a Nord and used to the cold but I bet that right now she's in one of the many pubs in Whiterun telling anybody who'll listen that there's another flasher on the loose!
    AND my Lydia doesn't speak to me anymore, she's impaled on some spikes set up by those Stormcloak bastards, I was going to join them as well. Not now though...she was getting on my nerves a bit with her constant tutting behind me!

  29. AND my Lydia doesn't speak to me anymore, she's impaled on some spikes set up by those Stormcloak bastards, I was going to join them as well. Not now though...she was getting on my nerves a bit with her constant tutting behind me!

    In all fairness it's not really her fault she isn't talking to you. If you normally expect the dead to talk I think the fault may be yours, and suggest you seek medical help rather then sitting at home playing computer games.

    And I was thinking of joining the Stormcloaks as well, but in sympathy for your Lydia i may join the boycott.

  30. "Have you washed? You stink like a we dog!"

    And i cured my werewofl form 2 hours ago

  31. "So your the newest companion what do you do fetch their Mead" (or words of those effect) by every guard I've come across.

    Skyrim is now littered with the dead who mocked the Mead-Man. .

  32. Anybody know what a 'sweet roll' is. Some bloody guard asked me if somebody had stolen one from me. How would I know what one is...I bet it's a Yank thing!
    He's dead anyway, condecending bastard!

  33. Sweetrolls are in every Bethesda game I have played , Morrowind , Oblivion , Fallout 3 , Wet and of course Skyrim in fact they are the only food my Khajit Hitcat ever eats!

  34. Sweetrolls are in every Bethesda game I have played , Morrowind , Oblivion , Fallout 3 , Wet and of course Skyrim in fact they are the only food my Khajit Hitcat ever eats!


    AND.....'sweet rolls' are what?

  35. It's a food item, this is quite obvious - stop your lolligagging. :wink:

    It's probably a more cakey version of Brioche. It's got icing on anyway... roll implies savoury to me, so I reckon my theory is on the money.

  36. Sweetrolls are in every Bethesda game I have played , Morrowind , Oblivion , Fallout 3 , Wet and of course Skyrim in fact they are the only food my Khajit Hitcat ever eats!


    AND.....'sweet rolls' are what?

    It's food , I thought I made that clear when I said it's the only FOOD my Khajit Hitcat ever eats..............

    If I have to go a little more in depth , it looks like a fairy cake with a cherry on it , it's made out of moon sugar and skooma and when mixed with cheese and beer will make a fondue which will give you a magical boner!

  37. SOOoooo it's a 'kind of food' made out of various 'substances' that would get a seller lifted by the feds on planet Earth. 'Note to self....explore the possibilities of playing the role of a wandering drug pusher OR maybe a drug baron in a future play through of Skyrim'.
    Sweet rolls...I had them down as something like a Chinese 'pancake roll'...with chicken curry, egg fried rice and prawn crackers while in reality they are a class B drug substitute.
    Don't let Jeremy Clarkson in on this...he has enough controversy going on as it is!

  38. Spring rolls, sausage rolls, swiss rolls, sandwich rolls (don't get me started on them).

    I didn't know they were made out of skooma, makes me worried for that kid that hangs out with the Jarls son in whiterun.

  39. All the Skyrim children are hooked on Skooma , that's why they feel no pain and wander about repeating the same lines over and over again and don't so much as bat an eyelid when you set fire to the person standing next to them.

  40. That's why!! Of course, it all makes sense now!

  41. A lot of Skyrim's bugs can be forgiven if you just pretend they are all Skooma addicts , Dragon flying backwards - to much Skooma , guy melts into side of building - to much Skooma , the list is endless!

    Hell maybe we should give Wishface some!

  42. 'We're in control on this mine now, nooooooooo sudden moves.' I do kind of miss that since I got them to leave

  43. It cant just be me thats annoyed by the generic 'Arrow in the knee' ?