Apologies for the grammatically-apocalyptic title.

When I first played Skyrim back in 2011, I was excited that I could hold a weapon in my left hand, because I thought that would mean that I could be a left-handed warrior (and seeing as I'm left handed, that was a +1 for immersion and stuffs). However, I was disappointed to see that holding just a weapon in the left hand was... bad at best. I could swing it slower than normal, there were only one or two different animations, I could not block and the power attack removed almost all movement. Then add to that the fact that for some reason my right hand was simply incompatible with shields because reasons, I was a sad little Ryan.

Anyone else think it would have been a cool little feature to be able to be left-handed? I know on the Halo forums one idea that got a lot of traction was the ability to be a left-handed Spartan, but Halo 4 was too late in development for that. And I'm sure that there's a mod (or a hundred) for it, but as a vanilla feature I think it would have gone down well.

I am still left-handed despite the fact that I am right-handed for most other things (basketball, archery, fa- erm... holding stuff) and it was only after severe nerve damage in my right shoulder which meant that I could not lift my right arm from the shoulder at all for six months that other things such as holding a rifle had to be done right-handed instead as my right arm could no longer be lifted up to hold the gun. Basically, now I'm right handed for most things but writing itself. However, it'd still be nice to be able to swing a sword with my left arm and block with my right, seeing as I still feel comfortable swinging a sword in my left hand. But alas, the persecution against my kind continues. First the Witch Trials, and now this?

It would have been cool, I suppose. Though I can live without it. I'm a left hander too. I write, draw and play the bass with my left. Other than that I can use both my hands pretty well.

I do RP some characters who are left handed, they just fight right handed. Hrafna, for example. She's my Necromancer/Warrior hybrid. I RP that she is naturally left handed, writing with her left hand and such. But she just uses her weapon with the right hand. I suppose she has some reasons, maybe to be in a more common ground with her enemy. Or maybe because that's just simple the way she learned it. Plenty of legitimate reasons that doesn't break the ''left handed'' RP element, I suppose.

*Dobby voice* There are...others?

OP, I'm not sure; that's a lot of extra effort for no real reward. Most lefties play the game just fine, there wouldn't be much point to a left-handed option.

But if you're allowing some things for the other hand, surely it's more effort to have to filter what's allowed, than to just make it all symmetrical. I suspect some of it is hangovers from the earlier games where the mouse buttons did different things, instead of the same thing with the other hand. So block versus attack, which makes sense for two-handed weapons, but not for dual- or inverse-handed.

I am ambidextrous. I write with my left, play guitar left but everything else is right handed. When playing Skyrim I never really think about those kind of mechanics. Maybe I think more right handed in that aspect. I always like to have a sword in the right while a spell in the left. Could never do it the other way around. That would feel too weird.

My husband and my youngest son are both left handed and were kind of disappointed in this. My son loved the Zelda games just for this very reason. I think it would have been a neat feature to have been included for the "lefties".

Being a lefty, I decided to try doing one of my battle mages lefty, sword in left hand, spell in the right. I guess I think backwards with the sword, cause I just couldn't seem to make it work. Of course I also have an easier time casting spells or using staff's from the left side..... go figure.

It's not so much that I want the option just added in now, I was just a little dissapointed that there were aspects of it, but not the full feature. If I could hold a shield in my right hand and maybe have just 1 or 2 more animations for lefty-weapons then I'd be happy. It's just that it's partially there - then why not just finish it off?

But I'm sure it's not as easy as that. :/

You can have just a weapon in your left hand, but isn't it just shields you can't have in the right?

No shields in the right, but you cannot block if you're holding a weapon in your left hand.

Imagine the fury of having Block at 100 and sprinting into Whiterun with the Stormcloaks holding two shields up.

Same. Doesn't bother me much, but even if I weren't ambidextrous I don't think it'd be much of an issue.

I'm imagining that most left-handers would still fight with their shield in the left hand, since most opponents are right-handed.

Protects the heart better too, right?