#versus a lot of other fictional worlds i enjoy spitballing about and exploring/expanding

[scrumptiouscthulhu]

i think it's essentially "solved" in that there is nothing new to bring up, and unlike in other old fandoms that still inspire discussion/analysis, there isn't enough in-universe info from reliable narrators to really take interesting spins on it without serious cherrypicking, making up a lot of stuff wholesale to fill in the gaps, and just writing fanfic in the guise of theorycrafting. tes does not have enough coherent, consistent lore nor narrative themes to support that kind of long term deconstruction.

compare to like star trek where any theorycrafting has a very sturdy foundation of...

real earth history

an entire alternate history woven into and branching off of that real earth history

databases of history for other planets/species largely divorced from unreliable narrators

an understanding of the limits of the universe in terms of magic and metaphysics

a coherent running theme of "a better future is possible but it takes constant work"

so it's way easier to cite your sources, so to speak, when theorycrafting for trek, and debunk bad faith interpretations from bad/lazy actors who are twisting things to suit their own biases.

something similar applies to tolkien's middle-earth, where although there's no real-world history to apply to it, tolkien was a very thorough and very well-read nutcase who was deeply committed to developing consistent histories. he was a linguist who wanted to have rich histories and cultures for his conlangs to have feasibly grown within, so he valued being able to trace the development of a culture and its language like a real anthropologist would do. his work also has a strong basis in real-world indoeuropean mythology and folklore to ground it and make it feel familiar to earthly readers.

tes, by contrast, is very much a "kitchen sink" type of fantasy where anything could happen and nothing really comes from the same place, so nothing can ever be ruled out (even the theology and magic system has a lot of unknowns and retcons). there's also no real consistent theme in the narratives (does fate really matter or can you make your own destiny? idk!) so you also can't rule out any egregious interpretations as being inconsistent for the intent/spirit of the fiction. what's more, tes has been largely designed by committee, from writers to programmers to modelers to texture artists to animators to concept artists to todd "seagulling" howard, and every link in that chain has had their own ideas about what tes is and how to interpret it.

so yknow. when you can go anywhere, it's hard to argue why you should only go somewhere in particular. :P

i get that it's a huge part of the game but i kinda think the civil war needs to be banned as a topic from skyrim subreddits because it's been the same argument for 13 years.