However, Skyrim NPCs often do things that don’t make sense in context, as many players noticed the first time Serana randomly started working a forge or swinging a pickaxe. Recently, a Skyrim player noticed another odd behavior, with a pair of smelter workers who appear to be faking their job.

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Reddit user CanadianAndroid was walking around the lower part of Skyrim’s city of Markarth when they spotted two NPCs working with the city’s ore smelter. However, “working” may be a strong word for at least one of them. While the man shoveling coal might be doing something productive, his buddy can’t be accomplishing much by striking the side of the smelter with a hammer. In fact, it almost comes across as a cartoonish attempt at looking busy. CanadianAndroid points this out themself, saying, “When The Jarl is around and you have to look busy.”

This is obviously the result of some oversight on Bethesda’s part, allowing the animation to play where it doesn’t make sense. For example, the man with the hammer isn’t even lined up correctly, leaning on thin air as he bangs on the smelter’s stone shell. It’s hard to tell if his hammer is even making contact. However, it is funny to imagine that the workers were slacking off and hastily grabbed whatever tools they could to look busy. One Reddit user commented that the smelter is right outside Markarth’s infamous Cidhna Mine, and the workers probably don’t want to be sentenced to forced labor for taking an unauthorized break.

A different Reddit user hypothesized that the worker was trying to use the smelter as a musical instrument. Another said that if the singularity comes, Skyrim NPCs will probably be the first to develop self-awareness. All joking aside, there is no denying that the game’s NPCs tend to engage in unusual behavior. The hammer animation seems to be particularly buggy, as in April, another player recorded two Skyrim NPCs taking turns hammering a mast.

Ultimately, between AI mistakes, pathfinding issues, and bizarre physics glitches, Bethesda NPCs have a knack for bizarre shenanigans. Still, there is something uniquely funny about the idea of non-player characters going off-script to slack off. Perhaps Bethesda might include some NPC’s “looking busy” when The Elder Scrolls 6 eventually comes out.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available on PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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