Boethiah's Calling hits different when you realize what the quest is actually about

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced this quest gets completely misread. Everyone treats it like "lol evil Daedra makes you betray your friend" but the actual structure of it is way more philosophically interesting than that.

Like, Boethiah isn't just testing if you'll backstab someone. The whole thing is about whether you understand that loyalty itself can be a cage. The quest forces you to confront that the "good" choice - sticking with Rsilence or whoever your follower is - might actually be the selfish one. You're keeping them bound to you out of convenience, not because it's what they'd choose if they were free.

And then the final trial is you literally becoming Boethiah's champion by accepting that betrayal, ambition, and self-interest aren't moral failures - they're just... part of how power actually works. The Daedra isn't lying to you. He's just not pretending the world is nicer than it is.

Compare that to something like A Daedra's Best Friend where Sanguine is basically just "lol drink and cause chaos" or The Mind of Madness where Sheogorath is playing house. Boethiah's actually asking you something uncomfortable about how you relate to other people.

idk, maybe I'm reading too much into it. But I think if you play it straight as a "good" character, you're kind of missing what the quest designer was going for.

 

[NordOfSolitude]

I think you're onto something, but I'd push back a little on the framing. The quest does ask uncomfortable questions, yeah, but I'm not sure Boethiah's actually being honest with you the way you're suggesting.

Like, the whole "loyalty is a cage" thing - that's Boethiah's philosophy being sold to you. The Daedra of betrayal and ambition literally has an incentive to convince you that betraying your follower is enlightened self-interest rather than just... betrayal. It's a pretty classic move, right? Get someone to rationalize doing something awful by dressing it up in pseudo-philosophical language about freedom and power.

A genuinely free follower could choose to stay with you. But they don't get that choice in the quest - you literally poison them and stab them while they're helpless. That's not liberation, that's just murder with extra steps. The uncomfortable part isn't "maybe loyalty is bad," it's "am I willing to do something genuinely evil if a Daedra tells me it's actually enlightened?"

That said, you're right that it's way more interesting than people give it credit for. Most people just speedrun through it for the artifact. But I think the real discomfort is supposed to be about whether you'll rationalize evil, not whether loyalty itself is the problem. Boethiah's just really good at making the rationalization sound smart.