The Starfield Reddit is aflame with discussion of the upcoming Bethesda RPG game, and who can blame them. It’s one of the most anticipated games of next year, and Bethesda has kept mostly quiet about what new mechanics and ideas we can expect from the space game. So naturally, the Starfield Reddit now thinks we might be able to kill our parents in the game, after the community did a little sleuthing.
Will we actually be able to literally kill our parents in Starfield? It’s unlikely, but the Reddit does make a compelling case as to how this could happen, and it comes straight from the mouth of game director Todd Howard.
In the recent ‘Constellation Questions video’, which also seemed to confirm that the adoring fan from Elder Scrolls will be back in Starfield, Howard talks about how we’ll be able to remove character traits through specific activities and quests.
“I love our trait list, it’s super fun, but each one obviously comes with some sort of negative as well and we have a way in the game – kind of an activity or quest you can do – to remove that trait as opposed to ‘I don’t like my character I want to start over’. Each of [the trait quests] are something that you can solve that removes the entire trait, for the rest of your playthrough.”
Without the prospect of killing your parents, as the Starfield Reddit has deduced, this sounds like a really interesting idea for an RPG. Tying quests and activities to the removal of traits adds another layer of depth that connects how you build your character to the world – or universe in this case – and that seems like a great idea.
Now then, how does this fit into killing your parents? Well as outlined in this Starfield Reddit post, Howard’s quote isn’t the only interesting snippet from the video. The trait ‘Kid Stuff’ appears in the footage, with a description that reads:
“Your parents are alive and well, and you can visit them at their home. But 10% of all the money you earn is deducted automatically and sent to them.”
That’s nice, funding your parents during space retirement and being able to go see them. The only issue is, if you remove this trait, that surely means you can’t go and visit your parents, so are they no longer “alive and well”? If not, you’ve essentially indirectly killed them, which is as terrifying as it is ludicrous.
Redditor OCIVIRO also commented on the idea, and what types of comedy-based quests Bethesda could implement that see you trying to kill your parents.
“That can be series of comedic quests about you trying to get rid of your parents with them always finding surprising way to stay with your problems becoming worse each time until the end of this quest line,” they write. “Like at first quest stage you decide to give them bloodthirsty alien monster as a pet, and to make them agree to let this alien come inside of their house you say that you are going to pay for food for it. Then turns out parents are perfectly fine and monster behaving as a nice pet (but doesn’t like you at all) and now you must pay more and parents have bodyguard.”
I don’t think we’ll actually be able to kill our parents with our own hands in Starfield, but if the removal of this trait means you can no longer visit them, it begs the question: what happened to your parents? It’s another fun thing for the folks over at the Starfield Reddit to think about, and I salute them for it.
If you can’t wait for the Starfield release date, why not check out our recent Starfield traits guide, which rounds up every bit of footage and details all the in-game traits we’ve seen so far. If that’s not your speed though, we’ve got a primer on Starfield ship builds, and what they mean for space exploration in Bethesda’s next game.
