Does anyone else get the feeling that the bards in this game aren't very good? They always seem to be trying too hard, or the subjects of the songs they sing aren't very personal, (it's all about Imperial or Stormcloak propaganda, or worse, the Dragonborn), or the lyrics themselves aren't too interesting. Or worse, all three of those things at once!

Katria....

Oops, meant Karita. Nice move Beth...

What? You were expecting them to have a mic and professional equipment? The sing songs you would sing at a campfire with a acoustic guitar, that's it. It gives a great mood. Mostly for Nords getting drunk. After a lot of drink, they'll sing along and applaud anything.

Oh, God, that was painful. We have to put her in a cryo-chamber (read: ice cube) until someone invents Punk Rock in Skyrim. XD

I wasn't expecting much. I got what I expected. Yeah, it makes the mood but it just irks me, y'know? I could be better.

Their voice actors were commonly used with other npcs in the game, so I wouldn't have expected for the bards to sing like a modern-day popstar. The voice actors were most likely given the lyrics and told to do their best. I was just happy that the game had actual bards, as it was a nice addition to the tavern setting.

I would have liked Viarmo to actually sing those lyrics to Elisif instead of "speaking" them, and the orc bard in Morthal didn't sing at all. I would have liked to have heard how bad he was that would have made him a target of the Dark Brotherhood. One would have to be a really bad singer for people to want to kill them over it.

The problem is that they can't sing at all and no amount of drink can drown out their horrible singing. I personally know of a few girls who can sing heavenly with no mic or mixing, just raw talent gifted by the gods. I swear the bards are random Beth employees like Jill from HR and Joe from QA

I felt they did an acceptable job. Though, what more can you expect from a bunch of blasphemous savages?

The Bards were basically a whole new faction type for ES. It's pretty obvious that the concept was given pretty short shrift during development though, perhaps they were added late in the game development cycle. Shame really, concept was sound, like most of the quest lines , but this one was too loosely structured. and just seemed like a mess in general.

I've seen some great mods with true period lyrical renditions created, with fantastic animations, hopefully Bethesda took notice. Some bards should stress lyrical song, others more the chant / poet styles. And like much of the game, much stronger writing and more variety is needed both in poetry and song.