To the surprise of probably no one, Starfield has not one, but at least two references to Skyrim’s infamous “arrow to the knee” quote.
We’ve all heard it, we’ve all joked about it, we all likely felt sick of it at one point but it’s been riffed on for so long now it’s kind of funny again. It’s the iconic line from The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, “I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee…” That line will likely be remembered long after Bethesda stops making games, and Starfield certainly isn’t stopping from it being remembered. As shared over on the Starfield subreddit, players have already found references to the line, one coming from an NPC, the other coming from one of the game’s perks.
The NPC just seems to be a random Colonist NPC, who paraphrases the classic quote by saying, “I used to be an explorer too, but then I- No, never mind. It’s a long story.” I have no idea whether there are bows and arrows in Starfield just yet, but with this being a sci-fi game something tells me it’s more likely this NPC took a stray bullet.
You’ll find the other reference to the quote hidden amongst the perks screen, specifically when you hit rank four of the crippling perk. The perk starts out with a simple badge showing a skeletal look at a knee, but once you’ve achieved the final rank, the image instead shows an arrow having gone straight through said knee.
Whether Bethesda just thought the line is so nice they referenced it twice obviously isn’t clear, as game development at such a scale is so large there’s a chance two separate devs made the reference without even realising the other had done so.
The Skyrim reference isn’t even the biggest one in the game, as none other than Oblivion’s Adoring Fan is back, who’s somewhat useful as a companion now at the very least.
If you’d like to be an adventurer that takes a metaphorical arrow to the knee, then we’ve got a guide for just that (i.e., we’ll help you figure out how to get married in Starfield).
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Starfield will be launching exclusively for Xbox Series X/S and PC (Windows) on September 6th 2023. Pre-order your copy of Bethesda’s upcoming action RPG from the links below and get set for the new galactic adventure.
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