A little while back I was talking with a couple of people on one of the DiD threads about those times when it seems that Skyrim is suddenly demon-possessed and totally committed in it's determination to kill the Player Character... or the Dragonborn, whichever you prefer. There are currently a couple of threads discussing some instances of this, such as the frost troll on the 7000 steps. This can be upsetting for any player, but particularly so for the Dead is Dead player... and new players, I suppose.

I have an example in Helgen that is new to me. Perhaps you have seen it before, but I've taken a couple of hundred characters through the escape from Helgen and this is the first time I have seen this behavior from Alduin.

Check it http://youtu.be/i79y7cU1eB4.

You don't see it in the video, because I edited it out for brevity's sake, but I backed off quite a long ways after getting knocked down, but Alduin wouldn't move. I was left with no option except to try to pass by him. The legion archer shooting me in the back of the head was really kind of adding insult to injury, I thought.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to see if others had noted moments when Skyrim turns almost demonic in its efforts to go homicidal on your characters. We all know Skyrim takes it's duty to kill us very seriously, but does it sometimes seem to go way above and beyond the call of duty in that endeavor? Do monsters and creatures you deal with on a regular basis sometimes seem demonically possessed?

Some people say Skyrim is too easy, even while playing on Master or Legendary, and some are saying it's too hard. Bethesda cannot win.

Most of my games are DiD, but I usually begin any TES (or Fallout) game with a non-DiD character, and then think of a way to explain this in roleplaying terms (like, my character has precognition, perhaps). Problem solved. I get to know the game. Then I play it on Apprentice or Adept difficulty, with my dead-is-dead rules going.

To answer your question more directly, yes I have noticed there are times when the game gets really difficult, there's some enemy (or enemies) who are real toughies. But I'm okay with this. This is how it should be, in my opinion.

Hmmm... well, I'm not complaining about Skyrim being too tough. That's not the point at all, eh? I'm just saying that there are times when the game is (or seems to be) determined that your character is going to die above and beyond any of its normal behaviors. Maybe a bandit chief is suddenly and inexplicably immune to fus roh dah, or a sabrecat appears directly behind you when you know there was nothing there a second ago...

It's a video game; it doesn't have a will of its own. Do you really believe in the Ghost in the Shell?

That weird bug where Chain Lightning passes through a target instead of damaging it happening at the worst possible time is one of my favorite ones. Thankfully it never ended in my character's death but holy dikes is it infuriating. Then there's whiffing ranged killcams. Repeatedly. Then there was an older character that was apparently delicious-looking since Dragons would go out of their way to do the bite kill-cam on him. Like, they would chase him on the ground instead of attacking.

I seem to catch the attention of multiple wild spawns on the road to Riften, near Largashbur. As if one bear isn't enough, it's often some wild combination of bears, wolves, spiders, and or trolls.

That's what I'm talking about! Strange behaviors at odd moments that seem particularly poorly timed for character survival.

@ ladyonthemoon I don't know of course if you watched that video I linked or not, but you cannot tell me that Alduin was not entirely focused onmy character while Hedvar stood safely beside him through the entire encounter... I kinda thought maybe Hedvar was saying "Look dude, I brought you lunch!"

Do you think maybe there was some intent involved in that situation? Was Alduin really out to get me, or was it just paranoia?

Love it when you get a killcam, but your opponent doesn't actually die cause you miss, or it wasn't lethal.

Died this way once cause I got frost breathed to death by a giant while I couldn't do anything...