The Companions questline is aggressively mediocre and nobody wants to admit it

[WhiterunModder]

I just finished the Companions arc on my current playthrough and I genuinely don't understand why people defend it. You join, do some radiant jobs, fight some werewolves, and then suddenly you're the Harbinger. The pacing is bizarre. Vilkas and Farkas have maybe three lines of actual character development between them. Kodlak's whole arc about being cursed feels like it should matter more but the game treats it like a side note.

And the Radiant jobs are just... stealing stuff and beating people up in caves. There's no real progression. You're not building toward anything except "do more jobs." Compare that to the Thieves Guild where you're actually working to rebuild something, or the Dark Brotherhood where every quest is at least weird and memorable. The Companions just feel like they exist because Skyrim needed a warrior faction.

The whole thing wraps up in like three quests if you rush it. I get that it's supposed to be low-key compared to the Civil War or the main story, but it doesn't even have the depth of the College of Winterhold and that questline is like five quests long.

Am I the only one who thinks this? Or does it just get a pass because the Companions are likeable characters even though their actual questline is thin?

 

[TamrielTactician]

I think you're onto something, but I'd push back a little on the "nobody wants to admit it" part - plenty of people say exactly what you're saying. The Companions questline definitely gets more slack than it probably deserves.

That said, I think the radiant jobs thing is kind of the point? They're supposed to feel like actual work, not narrative moments. You're a mercenary doing mercenary stuff. It's repetitive because that's what the job is. The Thieves Guild works better as a story because you're dismantling a rival organization and rebuilding yours - there's a clear antagonist and arc. The Companions don't have that. You're just... existing in the group until Kodlak's curse becomes relevant.

Where I actually agree with you is Kodlak. His whole deal should hit harder. The fact that you can resolve his arc in basically one quest after finding the cure feels anticlimactic. And yeah, Vilkas and Farkas are pretty thin as characters - they're likeable but they don't really grow. The game tells you they're rivals but there's no real tension or payoff there.

I don't think it's a bad questline exactly, just an unambitious one. It's content that exists and it's serviceable. But comparing it to Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood? Yeah, those have way more personality and structure. Even the College, like you said, feels more purposeful despite being shorter.

Honestly on my replays I usually just do the main Companions quests and skip the radiant grind entirely. No real reason to keep doing jobs once you've hit Harbinger.