Just realized Frea's whole arc is about rejecting everything her culture taught her

[EbonyWarrior]

I'm replaying Dragonborn for the first time in years and it just hit me how much Frea's character is actually doing beneath the surface. Like, she's raised by Storn to be this traditional Skaal shaman, right? All the old ways, respect the spirits, don't trust outsiders. And then the Dragonborn shows up and she basically abandons all of that to follow you around.

But here's the thing - the game never really lets her talk about it. She just... does it. She helps you against Miraak, she goes into Apocrypha with you (which is insane, btw, that's not a normal person decision), and by the end she's basically adopted your whole worldview. And Storn dies defending the old ways while she's off doing something completely different.

I don't think the DLC is trying to say the Skaal way is wrong or anything, but there's something genuinely sad about how Frea just gets absorbed into the Dragonborn's story instead of having her own. She could've been this conflicted character torn between tradition and change, but instead she's just... loyal NPC follower material.

Does anyone else think they dropped the ball on her character development, or am I reading too much into it?

 

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

I think you're onto something, but I'd push back a little on the "absorbed into the Dragonborn's story" part. Frea doesn't really abandon the Skaal way so much as she redefines what it means - she's still serving her people, just not in the way Storn expected. The whole Skaal philosophy is about surviving and adapting to Solstheim, and Miraak is an existential threat to that. She's making a pragmatic choice that actually fits the culture, even if it looks like rejection.

That said, you're right that the game doesn't give her space to articulate that conflict. She should have more dialogue wrestling with it, especially after Storn dies. There's a real moment there where she could confront what his death means for her choices, but instead she just... keeps following you. It's frustrating because the setup is there - the tension between old and new, between duty to her father's memory and duty to her people's survival - but the DLC treats it as resolved the moment you defeat Miraak.

What bugs me most is that she's one of the few followers with an actual ideological grounding (unlike, say, Lydia who's just "I'm sworn to carry your burdens"), and they waste it. She could've been the most interesting follower in the game if they'd committed to the character arc instead of just making her loyal.