It’s really quite sad how underutilized this character was. As I was replaying Skyrim and its Thieves Guild questline for the 1,000th time, I just realized how much potential Sapphire had as a follower and how underused she really was in the questline.
When most people think of great followers, they almost always either say Serena, Lydia, Aela the Huntress, J’zargo, and the absolutely bonkers Cicero.
Of course, there are almost countless modded followers that the Skyrim modding community has blessed us with over the last eleven years (ex: Vilja, Sofia, Inigo, Serena dialog add on, the many followers from the Interesting NPC mod, Arissa the Wandering Rouge, Hoth, etc.), but since they aren’t in the base game and DLCs, I won’t include them in this discussion.
Yet, did you notice that my list didn’t include certain characters from a certain questline? That’s right, there’s nobody from the Thieves Guild.
Now, I’m not saying that the Thieves Guild was a worthless waste of time, because I actually quite liked the plot. It’s not nearly as good as the Oblivion Thieves Guild quest with the Gray Fox, the Imperial Watch conflicts, stealing and Elder Scroll, etc., but it’s also not as bad as some people may have you believe.
I actually really enjoyed the archeologist aspect of the quest when finding the Eyes of the Falmer, while the inclusion of the Nightingales and the Daedric Prince Nocturnal was also a really nice touch. Plus, the Ratway is infinitely better hideout than the odd hidden fence post the Thieves Guild quests would have the Champion of Cyrodiil go to in order to further/start the questlines.
I mean, why is the Gray Fox, the most notorious criminal in all of Cyrodiil and the 3rd Age, planning mission and hiding out from the Imperial authority behind a random, rickety fence post that is so conspicuous its obvious that there’s criminal activity happening around it.
Yes, I know Oblivion is nearly 20 years old and is nearly a perfect game, but that fact has always bothered me for some reason.
Anyway, there can be no doubt that the vast majority of characters in the Skyrim Thieves Guild are forgettable at best and laughably nonconsequential at worst. Aside from the main characters of Mercer Frey, Brynjolf, Karliah, Vex, and Delvin Mallory, there’s nobody else in that hideout that is even slightly interesting.
Well, except for Sapphire. But she is treated just as poorly as her boring Thieves Guild brothers-and-sisters-in-arms.
For a character that had such a horrific, troubling, and interesting backstory, she was given absolutely zero time to develop or grow as a part of the main quest or even a side quest. Seriously, the cold, ruthless Nord woman is so upset and brooding as we found her because her life was upended from an early age.
If you dig a little into her character’s backstory, you’d see that as a child she grew up on a small farm (presumably in Skyrim) and lived a normal, happy life with her mother and father.
However, one night when her father was away, bandits attacked her farm, killed her mother, and violated her repeatedly,
After eventually gaining the trust of these bandits, she murdered them in their sleep, ran off, and then briefly joined the Dark Brotherhood before being recruited by Brynjolf to become a member of the Thieves Guild.
What a backstory! She had all of the makings to be a great, interesting, and tragic side character/follower that started out as an innocent little girl, but turned into a cold, ruthless assassin/thief because she was damaged and hurt by the evils of the world of Tamriel.
I know I would have loved a whole side quest chain/plotline that dealt with Sapphire dealing with her past traumas and overcoming the hurt, grief, guilt, and sadness that brews within her. But we never got said story as Sapphire was treated as a glorified NPC in the Thieves Guild.
Seriously, Bethesda, all of that potential wasted on a glorified NPC? I love Skyrim and the work Bethesda has done in the past on the Elder Scroll games, but this character deserved more time to be developed and utilized as a follower.
And you know what makes this travesty even worse, I think Bethesda realized their mistake as they actually added her father into the game in the Dragonborn DLC.
What do I mean? In the city of Raven Rock on Solstheim, the Dragonborn can run into a blacksmith named Glover Mallery. Hmm, does that name sound familiar? Well, it should as he is the brother of Devin Mallory and is another member of the Thieves Guild.
Nonetheless, an even bigger revelation is that Glover Mallery admits (both in a letter and then in person) that not only is he the brother of Devin Mallory, but he also is the father of Sapphire. Yup, Devin Mallery is the uncle of Sapphire and also her boss in the Thieves Guild, but has not told or done anything with that information.
Well, actually the letter said he didn’t know, but I still find that hard to believe. Surely, he could have put two and two together about Sapphire’s backstory and his own brother’s misfortunate past.
What’s even more frustrating is that after telling Sapphire about her parentage, there’s no dialogue option or questline that spawns from such a monumentous revelation. Why even give us that revelation, Bethesda, if you didn’t have a questline to go with it?
Can you see why I’m so frustrated and saddened with the gross neglect poor Sapphire got? She deserved better.
Image Source: Featured Image: (Bethesda Softworks/Microsoft) (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
