Highlights
- Shadowmere’s glitchy animation in Skyrim led to a hilariously absurd moment.
- Specifically, the horse was caught teabagging an enemy, something that several commenters found hilarious.
- With the upcoming release of Starfield, players can expect amusing animation glitches, although this time it may involve customizable starships rather than horses.
It’s not every day that a Skyrim player sees their noble steed glitch out to the point of imitating an old gamer taunt, and yet that’s precisely what happened in a video of Shadowmere tea-bagging a draugr corpse. While outdated (and arguably in poor taste) by modern gaming standards, there are few players – regardless of generation – who are unfamiliar with the concept of tea-bagging even today. From Counter Strike to World of Warcraft, this gesture of humiliation saw its heyday during the mid 00s, and somehow inexplicably found new life thanks to one of Skyrim‘s many mounts.
Familiar to Skyrim players, Shadowmere is the former steed of Lucien Lachance, the iconic Speaker of the Dark Brotherhood from Oblivion. While the Dragonborn can learn to summon the spirit of Lucien to aid them in combat by playing through the Dark Brotherhood storyline in Skyrim, it is his nightmarish mount that most players are after. Much like Arvaak and the Unicorn, Shadowmere is a popular choice of mount for the Dragonborn, albeit one avoided in a good-aligned playthrough due to the nature of its acquisition.
In a brief clip posted by ItsGehrke on the official Skyrim subreddit, the player character can be seen swinging their Dragonborn Sword at a Restless Draugr, felling it with a critical strike. However, being looted by the Dragonborn isn’t the end of its indignity, as Shadowmere’s animation breaks apart in trying to climb the stairs of the Nordic ruin, prompting the horse to furiously tea-bag the Restless Draugr for the remainder of the video.
This grimly, absurd sight garnered plenty of attention from other Skyrim fans from the community, who couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. Buried among the comments was a rather useful tip for Skyrim beginners, urging players to always collect arrows from enemy corpses. Unlike other loot (and weapons in particular), arrows in Skyrim have a weight value of zero, essentially representing free gold for the Dragonborn at no cost to inventory space.
With Starfield on the horizon, one can’t help but wonder if the upcoming Bethesda sandbox will fall prey to the eternally-amusing animation glitches that have come to define Creation Engine games. However, unlike Skyrim, the vehicle of choice this time around will be Starfield‘s very own fully-customizable starship, and though chances are it will avoid having any major bugs, it can be expected that players will create all sorts of cursed designs.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
