The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is a legend in the gaming field and so is the Skyrim fan community, which is still churning out bizarre and creative visions a decade after the game's original launch. For a recent example, content creator Pertinax has been creating videos that place the characters and dialogue of HBO's classic television drama The Sopranos into the world of Skyrim. The resulting mash-up works surprisingly well, despite the occasional graphical glitch.
The Sopranos is a crime drama focused on the life of Tony Soprano, an Italian-American mafia head based out of New Jersey, which doesn't sound like it would mesh well with Skyrim's high fantasy setting. Despite the clash of genres, the characters remain recognizable and vivid when transposed into the game. Though each individual video is quite short, this mash-up of TV show and video game is every bit as intricate as the wood-burning Skyrim map another fan made.
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The first clip posted back in April is titled "Visiting Whiterun for the first time" and focuses on Tony Soprano stumbling outside in his bathrobe to retrieve the paper from one of the game's cobblestone robes. In the show, the first episode of every season usually featured a shot like this, but in this version, Tony Soprano is walking through Whiterun and is soon confronted by Nazeem, who asks if he gets to the cloud district often. Tony Soprano's outfit does stand out a bit against his surroundings, but future videos could potentially add Skyrim-appropriate live-action outfits like this excellent Daedric armor cosplay.
The next video takes a scene of Christopher Moltisanti and Paulie Gualtieri pursuing an escaping captive through the woods and turns it into a hunt for the White Stag. They shoot fruitlessly at the beast before it appears to elude them. This is far from the first time someone has gone on a murderous rampage in Skyrim, but Chris and Paulie's hunt is significantly more relatable than one Skyrim player's attempt to kill every NPC.
The third video focuses on a tense conversation between Tony Soprano and Bobby Baccalieri wherein Tony recommends that Bobby lay off the sweetrolls and consider salads while standing in front of a vending cart. The cart serves as an effective substitute for the car in the original scene, though the horse does make engine noises when Tony Soprano rides away. Skyrim fans are likely already familiar with modded animals, however, especially if they've played the Skyrim Species Randomizer mod.
The most recent clip has Hesh Rabkin and Chris sitting in a tavern, arguing over the skill of two of Skyrim's bards. Not only has the quality of the video quality improved since the original, but this clip also has live-action characters directly interacting with in-game furniture like tables and bartops. The audio has also been altered to change the topic of conversation from bands to bards.
The Sopranos may seem like an odd choice to cross over with Skyrim, but the results speak for themselves. Pertinax has done a great job bringing these two very different pieces of media together. Hopefully, they'll continue creating more entertaining edits.
Skyrim is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.