Ancano is actually a way better villain than people give him credit for

[DragonbornVet]

Hear me out. Everyone clowns on the College of Winterhold questline for being short and underwhelming, and yeah it's not great, but Ancano himself is genuinely more interesting than the typical "evil mage wants power" archetype.

The guy is actively sabotaging you the entire time. He's not just sitting around scheming - he's watching, testing you, making sure you don't get too comfortable. And the fact that he's

Spoiler

a Thalmor agent the whole time

adds this layer where he's not even doing it for the College, he's doing it for the Dominion. That's actually a solid motivation for a minor character.

Plus the Eye of Magnus questline forces you to interact with him constantly. You can't just ignore him or avoid the conflict. He makes the College feel like it has real stakes, even if the questline itself is rushed. Compare that to, say, Dawnstar where half the NPCs are just... there.

I think if the questline had another 3-4 quests and actually let you investigate his Thalmor connections earlier, it would hit way harder. As it stands it's still criminally short but Ancano carries what's there.

 

[RiftenWanderer]

I get what you're saying about the constant antagonism - that does set him apart from just sitting in a tower plotting. But I'd push back a bit on the motivation angle. The Thalmor agent twist is cool in theory, but the game barely does anything with it? Like, we find out he's working for them and then... he gets the Eye and we fight him. There's no real exploration of what the Thalmor actually want from the College, or why they care enough to plant him there in the first place.

Compare that to how Mercer Frey's betrayal actually lands because you've been working with him the whole time and it recontextualizes everything. With Ancano you kind of already knew he was sketchy from day one, so the reveal doesn't hit the same way. He's more of an obstacle than a character with actual depth, imo.

That said, you're right that he makes the College feel less like a joke questline. The problem is the questline itself is so thin that even with Ancano being present it doesn't matter much. Three or four more quests investigating him would've helped, but honestly I think the real issue is that the entire College arc feels like it got cut down in development. Ancano's just the most visible casualty of that.