14 DAY TRIAL // By now the Internet seems to be flooded with Skyrim stories involving Lydia, the companion that the player character can get early during the game, and her apparent ineptness when it comes to combat, movement and most other activities.
Well, I am here to tell you that Lydia does have some problems but all the other potential companions have them all and she is the only one I have managed to form some sort of emotional relation to after using quite a few other sidekicks.
Bethesda should have tried to give the companions the same depth that they had in Fallout: New Vegas, where they had complex quests to accomplish and their behavior could be customized in many ways.
In The Elder Scrolls V companions just follow the player and fight alongside him, with the weapons they get and using some scrolls and potions, depending on the situation.
Their help is pretty important in the early game but as enemies become much more capable the companions are unable to keep up (I am not sure if and how they level up) and they soon become a liability in the harder dungeons.
They also have a bad habit of blocking all the doors they can, making exit from some rooms harder than it is to pick a Master level lock and their often buggy pathfinding does not take traps into account, which leads to explosions and shocks that often catch me off guard and sometimes result in death.
But despite her many failings Lydia is eager to help and it is nice to see her display some signs of personality, like marveling at the bigger monuments we encounter and muttering about how it's bad ideas to venture in some areas (she is often right).
And one of the phrases that Lydia repeats often is “I am sworn to carry your burdens”, which represents a mix of condescension, annoyance and loyalty that is perfect for the many occasions when we need to swap items.