The Adoring Fan was introduced inThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, an immortal stalker who would follow you around nonstop afteryou conquered the arena in Cyrodiil. you’re able to throw him off a cliff, burn him to death, or just cut him into pieces with an ebony greatsword - it doesn’t matter. He always comes back, worshipping the ground you walk.
It became a meme to mutilate and murder the Adoring Fan in sadistically creative ways, but as it turns out, the voice behind our favourite stalkerlovesthis reception.
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[Bethesda] was absolutely right, that people would enjoy hating the character," actor Craig Sechler tells TheGamer. “The different ways to say ‘goodbye’ to the sidekick became a thing to do and there were websites. I was just happy for the recognition. I thought it was great. Even today, I still have people who send me things, ‘What do you think of this?’ They say goodbye to their old pal in very ingenious ways. And it just cracks me up because I laugh my butt off watching, because they do it so well.”
Whenthe Adoring Fan was brought back for Starfieldas a starting trait, letting you enlist him as a companion and crew member from the get-go, that spark reignited. Fans jumped with joy at the opportunity to maim and massacre this poor, overzealous fan in all-new ways, now inspace.Kicking him off a cliff is pedestrian, kicking him off a cliff on a zero-gravity planet? Now we’re talking.
“There are a lot of people who wrote to me and said, ‘I can’t wait to eliminate you’,” Sechler says. “And I said, ‘You go right ahead, buddy. Whatever makes you happy. That’s what I’m there for. And I willstillworship the ground upon which you walk.'”
Sechler had an inkling that fans would hate the character, and it was something that Bethesda planned. You’d be rewarded for completing Oblivions’ arena questline with a nagging fan always on your heel, the true celebrity experience - of course, people would despise him. So, as expected, he became an Elder Scrolls icon almost immediately.
“[The Adoring Fan] sounded like the dumbest idea I’d ever heard,” Craig Sechler says. He credits audio director Mark Lampert for helping to shape the eccentricity of the role. “He was making me go further, ‘Take this one to a place that’s practically ridiculous’. And I did, and he goes, ‘Yeah! That’s it! Yeah!’ And I say, ‘Mark, I don’t understand it, if we do this thing and I do it the way you want me to do it, people are going to hate this character.’ And he goes, ‘Now, you’ve got it’".
17 years later and gamers still love to hate The Adoring Fan, using him as a willing punching bag to test all their different weapons and abilities. But it’s not just The Adoring Fan who doesn’t mind, the voice behind him is just as enthusiastic about it.
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