There haven't been many games in the last decade (debatably in the history of gaming itself) that have the staying power of The Elder Scrolls fifth installment Skyrim. Released back in late 2011, this action/adventure RPG quickly became a colossal success. While the nit-pickiest of fans were able to find technical issues, there was little to complain about and more than enough about which to get excited.

The story brought its own charm to the already abundantly popular TES series, while still carrying on certain cherished aspects of the franchise. The story offered ample in the way of exciting combat while also forcing the Dragonborn to use his or her wits and smarts to complete tasks, along with plenty of characters and factions to keep things interesting. The graphics were something special back then and with each remastered/updated version of this iconic title, an already picturesque experience just keeps getting nicer to look at.

Part of what made this game such a success was the fact that one could/can sink 100 hours into a single playthrough and complete the game, only to restart with a new character and still have an absurd amount of replay value. A large part of this was the skill system, which was tweaked just right for Skyrim, allowing a player to play the game differently each time. With the skill tree system came brilliant meme potential, and the sharp, depraved, irreverent and downright disturbing minds of the internet took full advantage. Here are 25 of the finest Skyrim skill memes out there.

24 You Cannot Fast Travel when Enemies Are Nearby

This is something any Bethesda game fan has run into at least once. Whether you're loyal to The Elder Scrolls or a member of the Fallout faithful, we have all had the pesky message pop up on screen to let us know that no, we have not laid waste to everything in our immediate vicinity and therefore we can't use the wildly convenient game mechanic to get somewhere more interesting in a snap. While we like the overall message of this meme, we question why gent behind the chimney is being awarded a 100 in the Sneak skill. The officers clearly know he is there, and he likely isn't getting away. Then again, in most Bethesda games, breaking line of sight is usually a good start when it comes to losing enemies.

23 Doggo Has The Right Idea

While we have no way of really knowing, it must be some kind of living hell to be a dog and be brought to the vet's office. Most veterinarians are fantastic, compassionate people, and they obviously do everything they can to make things pleasant for their patients, but they can only do so much to creatures that just want to run around and receive treats (or in the case of cats, lie around and receive treats). This dog is playing the "if I can't see you, you can't see me game", and definitely deserves some treats for the cute attempt. If you're playing certain Bethesda games on easy, it is sometimes possible to avoid detection by just crouching and moving into the corner of a room, in which case, this dog has the right idea.

22 Quick Thinking

A few of these memes have centered on the dating world and relationships and most of them have dealt with some kind of embarrassment. Trying to escape the friendzone, as we said before, is often an act that opens one up to some serious humiliation (with the possibility of glory, of course). In this instance, our protagonist (in the blue text bubble) goes for it, and quickly gets an answer nobody wants to see. Rather than scrambling and looking like a fool, he adds a comma and manages to avoid any serious awkwardness. Whether avoiding an unpleasant conversation was his goal or he is hoping to try for this person again, the quick textual maneuver earned this guy a 100 in Restoration for sure.

21 In West Winterhold, Born And Raised...

We tried to come up with a title for this entry that would closely mimic the opening line to Yo Home to Bel-Air, none of the major cities in Skyrim had five syllables in their names so Winterhold was the choice. Much like the Agent Smith meme seen much earlier in this article, this meme is just a stupid pun, but also serves as a grammar lesson. No matter how stupid a sentence sounds, it may well be grammatically correct, even if the concept makes absolutely no sense. In this case, actor-rapper Will Smith could indeed create himself in a forge. While the idea of this is ludicrous at best, it would be a feat worthy of a level 100 Smithing skill and it makes for a half decent pun meme. Moving on...

20 We're All A Bit Jealous Of This

Some days if you scroll through your Facebook feed, it may seem like everyone is posting something to the effect of "I hate people, LOL how awkward am I?"Whether it is the painfully opinionated mouth-breather in class or an irritating joker at work who prevents everyone from getting anything done, there are plenty of reasons to not want to have anything to do with other members of the human species.

We should point out however, that this news article was later confirmed by multiple sources to have been satire, and therefore, as far as we can tell, pretending to be blind in order to not have to deal with people has not been tried yet.

19 *Groan*

None of us really like to admit it but there really is nothing quite like a good, terrible pun. Obviously, the iconic villain of the Matrix trilogy has next to nothing to do with Skyrim, but we have to chuckle and shake our heads at a meme like this. Were Agent Smith to enter Tamriel, we imagine he would transform into some ultra-fast Imperial guard, and instead of talking about unfortunate arrow related injuries, they would just go on about "Mr. Anderson." It is hard to say whether they would have more luck against the Dragonborn in than Neo, after all, arrows may be easier to dodge than bullets, but at the same time, these are two wildly different and ludicrously unrelated universes so the conversation is pointless.

18 A Moment Of Silence...

...For our fallen brother in the "friendzone". Most males have been there at some point, and plenty of females have as well. Just because you have romantic feelings for someone, there's no guarantee they share them. There are rare cases of dudes miraculously escaping the friendzone, but they are few and far between, and the picture above is not one of those cases. This person should be applauded for their attempt to leave the friendzone, because it takes a real set of "cojones" to even dare to try, but his or her execution was poor. If you already know someone, and are trying to be something more, a text is usually not the best choice of method for making intentions known.

But back to what is important, the person performing the block in this conversation is doing a brilliant job.

17 Are We Blind?

This is a painful meme that not only Skyrim fans will likely agree with, but video game enthusiasts in general. You don't become one of the biggest names in anything without making a few enemies, but it really seems as though nobody has been as thoroughly screwed by EA is video game fans in general over that past few years. The massive company has taken over numerous smaller studios (and produced very little entertainment), they have become synonymous with lackluster games with massive budgets, along with a nasty obsession with micro-transactions. But still, they keep getting our money. Like a Khajiit, damn EA always seems to get something from our pockets.

16 Interesting Perk...

Getting up to a weight of 400+ lbs is about as healthy as having two packs a day, but don't ever let anyone tell you that such an amount of girth doesn't come without a select set of perks. In this case, a gentleman who looked like he may have eaten a few dragons (as opposed to fighting them, if we are sticking with the Skyrim theme), found himself in the business of substances. Some use backpacks, others have secret pockets or hidden compartments in their homes, but this guy decided to use his gargantuan size to his advantage and hid his stash in his rolls. All we have to say about this is that it is meme gold but we do not envy the cop who had to carry out this arrest and go digging for more.

15 Don't Try This

This is an explosively bad idea regardless of how good at Skyrim one might be. It seems like these days it only takes about ten minutes on the internet to be reminded of how trigger-happy (some) cops are. Regardless of whether the clown in the white shirt is able to achieve his goal, however, what is the end game? If he is successful and is able to make off with the weapon, is he just going to hold on to stolen police property until further notice, and more likely, if he is caught in the middle of the act, is he going to run away shrieking, or just stand there pretending he was just joking around and hopefully charm the cp with his witty personality?

14 Learning From EA

An earlier meme took a jab at EA for essentially robbing gamers year after year with poor quality, overpriced games (not to mention micro-transactions), but with regard to milking certain titles for all they are worth and blatantly picking the pockets of your loyal fans, Bethesda can be considered guilty as well. Don't get us wrong, the game's newer editions looked awesome, but did they warrant the price tag? No, of course not, but many gamers made the choice to go spend that extra money (on the same game), and they have to live with it. Some die-hard fans of the series might think that 42 is a low rating for restoration, but nobody can disagree with the pickpocket skill being rated 100.

13 Call Of Duty Fans Know This...

This is somewhat of a departure from the majority of these Skyrim skill memes, but the format fits so we'll use it anyway. Anyone who plays any competitive game online can tell you that they have never died for any reason other than lag. Damn lag, right?? Nobody has ever passed because other players have skill or because they lost their concentration during a match. No, more often than not, a player has died because of lag or one of the other following reasons: other players cheated or other players have no lives. More often th, n not however, a controller that has been thrown through a wall can be attributed to lag. For those who aren't aware, a 412 ping rate is absurdly high and would likely render someone a hazard to oneself in any online session.

12 Natural Armor

Remember what we said about the previous meme and how being obese actually does bring some awesome perks? Well here is another one. While we applaud the ingenuity of the man who kept his stash in his fat rolls, we are also intrigued by the idea of a hefty gent being able to survive something like what is described here because of some extra body fat. This shouldn't sound like an endorsement of a lazy and gluttonous lifestyle, but we'd like to look at it as some kind of bloated, heavy-breathing sliver lining. Of course, diet and exercise is always recommended ... maybe you can outrun your problems that way.

11 That's Dedication

This series of pictures went viral back in 2016 so it is likely that some readers will have seen it before. There are a couple of obvious ways for underage kids to buy stuff they aren't supposed to, including fake ID's, and getting older friends or siblings to make the purchase. This kind of undertaking is something impressive and this young man deserves praise for his creativity and impressive dedication to the search for libations. Really though, this is the kind of ingenious stunt that we hear about in cartoons and sitcoms, but actually pulling this off in real life is something special. This kid's Illusion rating has to be in the 130s, maybe even in the low 140s. It's unparalleled in any event.

10 I Used To Be A Jogger Like You...

The criminal in this case was Richard Lee McNair, who had recently escaped from a Louisiana prison. Convicted of multiple crimes, McNair (who is now back behind bars) was serving a double life sentence at the time of his escape, which involved mailing himself out of prison in a mail crate. He was stopped and questioned by a cop while jogging to the nearest town later in the day, but kept his cool and convinced that hapless lawman that he was a jogger, in the area for a charitable campaign, and that he had no identification on him as he was just out for a quick jog. Richard McNair kept a cool head and outwitted a cop while in a situation that would have rendered most people incoherent and terrified. The man definitely has an impressive speech ability.

9 Cars Are Important

Back in 2013, a few news outlets reported that a man by the name of Mark Parisi had agreed to trade part of his genitalia for enough money to buy a car. The agreed upon amount of money was enough for Parisi to buy a Nissan 370z. This is a decent vehicle, but I can't imagine a lot of guys out there would agree to such a deal (while others would likely go for the cash equivalent or a much nicer car). The headline above does make it sound like this guy just had one he didn't need anymore and just decided to trade that bad boy in for a sports car. While there is a bit more to the story, it is worthy of this Skyrim meme.

8 More Impressive If It Had Worked

This is a true story of a kid who was pulled over by the police in Norway. Some readers are probably appalled by the thought of a 10 year old driving a car, while others may be wondering what kind of punishment he received. We, however, are just happy to hear a tale of a young man voluntarily visiting his grandparents. Respect for elders seems to be falling out of style these days, but grandparents are important family members and won't be around forever.

But getting off the soapbox and back to the meme, the kids gets high marks for stealing the car without his parents noticing (100 sneak for sure), but we disagree with the 100 for illusion and speech: if he had those skills maxed out, his lie to the cops would have worked.

7 Leave The Phone At Home

This is a tweet detailing the events of a crime back in 2015, and there are some inaccuracies, but the tweet does indeed get the point across. In reality it was actually two men who robbed their place of work, making off with some expensive saws with the intent of reselling them. While discussing the theft, one of them actually pocket-dialed their employer and they left a lengthy and detailed voicemail regarding their upcoming criminal activity. While plenty of the memes we have listed here involve a speech skill of 100, these hapless criminals not only came up with a stupid crime (come on, who steels used saws?) they also managed to tip off their employer in the process.

6 Disappearing Homer

The disappearing Homer Simpson meme is a popular one and has been around for years. The scene is from a 1994 episode in which Homer becomes obsessed with neighbor Ned Flanders. More often than not, you will see this meme with a sports team logo or political party symbol on Homer's white shirt, indicating that the team or party's supporters are quickly disappearing after a tough loss some other negative event.

In this case though, it's just a silly meme with a bit of a Skyrim edge to it. Breaking line of sight is always a good bet in any Bethesda game (while not a 100% escape plan) and in this case, Homer's magical ability to seamlessly move through a hedge is enough to earn him a 100 in the Sneak skill.

5 Cancel Those Plans!!!!

Considering this text at face value, we have to imagine that "Amanda" is a reasonably attractive woman, and that the dude responding about his other plans is some pathetic lunatic who is missing out on a sure thing. The implication is that buddy is turning down a chance with Amanda to stay home and practice his sword wielding. It makes for a great meme and we almost feel bad for the guy, but at the same time, we know next to nothing about his plans, nor do we know anything for certain about Amanda. His other plans could include a woman more attractive than Amanda. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that Amanda is even attractive; for all we know she looks like Paarthurnax and smells like the north end of a southbound Argonian.