Why Skyrim RUINED The Thieves' Guild

Why the thieves guild in the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is superior to the thieves guild in the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Elder Scrolls Lore.

[iamslightlybetterthanyou]

Would've been pretty cool if they made the faction destroyable like the dark brotherhood

[twojastara]

Guild in skyrim: this guy killed my friend pls kill him
Guild in oblivion: you are not in the dark brotherhood so no killing just steal that apple xd

[redst]

The Thieve's Guild isn't a Thieve's Guild. It's basically a mafia that works under Maven. Which is fine tbh, but I think it would've been more interesting if they separated the actual Thieve's Guild / Nightingale Cult from the Black-Briar Mobsters into two separate factions, but still kept them vaguely connected.

[hermitfox]

It's a small detail, but I liked how random NPCs would say "shadow hide you" in Oblivion. It really made me feel like I was part of a secret cabal with members everywhere. Skyrim's Thieves Guild felt less secretive, more like an organised crime faction supporting corrupt businesses, which like you say was far less fun to be part of. I can't help but have affection for Brynjolf, though. It's the accent I think.

[HappyGravityDaze]

Skyrim needed a mission to destroy the Thieves Guild or kill Maven in the base game, but fortunately mods exist.

[Wepospalient]

Oblivion thieves guild: Rob homes and castles of their valuables
Skyrim thieves guild: go run some dungeons lol. here's a radiant quest to press e on a ledger.

[aysseralwan]

Imo every guild should have a rival guild. Some even had that but they weren't joinable. Like the silver hand. I mean killing werewolves? That doesn't seem very evil. It's like vampire hunters.
And some kind of necromancer guild as rival to the college/mages guild.
And with Mjoll there should have been a questline to destroy the thieves guild or at least some other rival thieves but they're more stealing to help the unfortunate rather than be mafia/thugs

[YugoslavGamer]

Make *Why Farkas Is A GENIUS* already, we all know it's gonna come eventually..

[Jack]

Oblivion actually MADE you be a thief. You needed to fence stolen goods to progress through the storyline. In contrast, Skyrim didn’t make you do much stealing.

[InvertedWIng]

Sad thing is, when I first started playing the Thieves Guild, I thought that the devs had finally taken it into an ideal direction. They were no longer some jolly band of loveable rogues and Robin Hood wannabes, they were a full-on Mafia organization who made most of their income not necessarily by stealing things, but by running protection rackets, fronting illegal operations behind legitimate business, and rubbing shoulders with the local power players. And they weren't very nice either; they were hardened criminals who could and would do some really scummy stuff to get what they wanted. That's something that I prefer from my fictional crooks. Having them be sympathetic or outright heroic only really works if the ruling government is itself a corrupt and/or evil entity, but since that was clearly not the case in Oblivion, I never can really buy into the impression that a guild of thieves could ever be righteous. More like it's something they just tell themselves to justify or romanticize their immoral actions.

But that's neither here nor there, because the Skyrim Thieves Guild got stupid real quick and ended on a boneless note that made me feel like I got conned. The Oblivion Guild, for all its trappings not being to my taste, has by far a better story, quest, and ending, and which does a better job at making you feel like a thief who got the last laugh on a Daedric Prince.

[IRUNASSULT]

I think Skyrim suffers the problem that most factions are deteriorated and on the verge of ruin.
Thieves Guild-can barely hold control over their own city they’re based in
Dark Bros-1 of only 2 sanctuaries in the entire continent and ends with only a half dozen members remaining and the night mother.
Blades- totally destroyed and only 2 members with no incentive to rebuild it
College of Winterhold-only a few students and teachers located in the ice boonies
Imperials-lost a huge war and on the verge of total collapse
Companions-a group that has no baring on the rest of the Provence, basically just glorified mercenaries with werewolves thrown in.
As much as I like Skyrim the factions within just don’t have that same grand and imposing feeling to them.
The closest I feel to how they should be is when you fully restore the thieves guild, allowing you to bribe and have power over the guards in all the holds.
Sure it’s great to have a small group and build it to a large force to be feared but it’s annoying when almost every faction has the same problems.

[ghostwarrior]

Simple answer it didn't make you feel like a thief you're more of a hired thug than anything else the radiant quests were more Thief based than anything else.

Oblivion the thieves guild made u feel like a thief and the grey fox at the end of it all.

[speedy]

I wish there was an alternate path to the thieves guild where you team up with Mjoll and go all vigilante hero and shit on the guild and the Black Briars, taking down Riften's criminal underworld.

[apocryphascholar]

One of the problems I had was that your character was forced to swear an oath to serve Nocturnal in the afterlife, even if your character serves other Daedric Princes and gods. My Dragonborn is far too accomplished to be sitting around an old crypt for an eternity after he dies.

[Spacefrisian]

Runs around killing dragons and gets reckognised as am honourable member of the Companions or a Wizard by the guards


He laddie, never did an honest day of work for all that gold you are

[worcestershirey]

I feel like Skyrim's Thieves' Guild makes a lot of sense for being how it is though. Riften is a broken down, corrupt shithole of a city, and as a result it's not farfetched to think a bunch of bad people who don't know much of anything about what the Guild really is would take power eventually and exploit the already established networks the Guild has. There's a lot of shady folk in Riften even without the Guild, and when society in general is kind of somewhat falling apart as it is in Skyrim, I think it does seem possible that a local chapter could lose its way in what other chapters may strive to be, going from a guild that fancies itself as a group of Robin Hoods to a guild that fancies itself exactly what the name suggest, a guild of larceny-loving-low-lives.



I dunno, it never seemed like the Guild was RUINED or anything, it just felt like Skyrim's local chapter just... was like that, and that the Guild isn't like something like the Mage's or Fighter's Guilds where the goals may be similar across provinces because they're official, important, imperial-sanctioned organizations, the Thieves' Guild has always been pretty autonomous between chapters, only sharing a name at most. While yeah, I'll admit it was kinda lame, it fit Riften and the state of various other crumbling guilds across Skyrim as well.

[StraightUpIrishJames]

That’s it Avarti, I told you if you went after my boy Brynjolf again I’d have to beat you up. 3 o’clock tomorrow, behind school and bring your lunchbox

[MizanQistina]

Skyrim theme is "the end of time", that's why everything is downgraded, I mean everything is not as what they were before.
- Dark Brotherhood isn't the real guild anymore, just a group of murderers
- College of Winterhold is just group of mages who want to stay away from the peoples who hate magic
- Thief Guild is just a broken gang of crooks and criminals do anything illegal
- The Companions is just a hired sword and werewolves
Everything is ruined because it is the end of time, the end of the world. But it being presented badly

[Sottoth]

Karliah: We need to sell our souls to Nocturnal so she can give us power to defeat Mercer!

Dragonborn: I don't want to sell my soul, but if there's no choice the I must do it

**After selling your soul**

Dragonborn: So, how I use my new power?

Karliah: Oh, no no, after we defear Mercer Frey she will give us the power

[orangeapples]

“This is the Skeleton Key. It will never break.”

Okay, but I have master picklocking so my picks don’t break anyway sooo...