Featured Image Credit: Bethesda
Topics: Skyrim, Bethesda, The Elder Scrolls
There are few tests of character quite as telling in video games than whether or not you choose to slay Paarthurnax at the end of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Allow me to give you a little background if it's been a while, or if you're one of the two people left on the planet that have yet to play Skyrim.
In the Bethesda RPG, fairly early on, you meet an ancient dragon called Paarthurnax (voiced by Super Mario star Charles Martinet, fact fans). Paarthurnax is notable for being the one dragon you've met that hasn't actually tried to kill you, though it's made clear he was a bit of a bastard in his day.
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Paarthurnax actually becomes a valuable ally on your quest, guiding you to ultimately save the day. However, by the end of the game you're presented with what is supposed to be a difficult choice. Another group of allies, The Blades, want you to kill Paarthurnax because of all the awful things he did when he was evil, and because their ancient code decrees thou must stick a sword into every dragon's head or something, I can't remember.
So! You can either head to meet Paarthurnax and kill him, or ignore The Blades and leave him be. The overwhelming majority choose the latter option, because we all know capital punishment is whack.
Except sometimes, players who are going through Skyrim for a new playthrough, get bored. One Reddit user recently decided not only to kill Paarthurnax, but to take his bones and forge an incredible sick and extremely powerful sword.
"This is on my 5th playthrough of Skyrim," they explained. "I've kept Paarthurnax alive in 3 of my save files before this, but I built my character to be an evil undead. So I couldn't just kill Paarthurnax and be done with it this time. This time I forged him into a great weapon capable of inflicting terrifying, chaotic pain."
I guess at least he kind of gets to live on fighting evil with the Dragonborn, though I'm not sure he'd be particularly thrilled about this fate.