Skyrim Mercer Frey Character Analysis 

Another thing to consider is the math of when Mercer became a Nightingale. For easy math I'll use multiples of 5The story says Gallus was murdered 25 years ago, assuming Mercer was in his late 40s early 50s, I'll go with 50, that would mean he was 25 when he killed Gallus. Considering that he was pretty comfortable with the role so subtract 5 years as a Nightingale. And since he was a senior Nightingale, so longer than Karliah, subtract another 5 years. That would make him 15. (This is mentioned in Gallus' book , Nightingales Vol 2). it's also implied that Karliah had to be told about being a Nightingale when the time was right, which could basically mean when she was an adult and could make her own choice. Taking this into fact, Mercer would have been anywhere between 13 to 17 when he became a Nightingale, most definitely because he was convinced because something happened to one of the other members of the trinity and they needed to replace them quickly. Any age before 21 is way too young to even consider the consequences of long term. On top of this, the Nightingales were a rumor in the guild as stated by Brynjolf, imagine how insane he'd be treated if he came back, telling everyone about the Nightingales. Plus everyone loved Gallus, so it's easy to imagine they would either hand wave the choice of inducting Mercer as Nightingale or his fear of that, so he couldn't exactly tell them. And considering how Karliah then turns around and basically forces the player and Brynjolf to become Nightingales without really thinking it through, just rushing the choice, I think Mercer was lashing out against Gallus, Karliah and Nocturnal without being able to say anything.

you helped me come to an understanding about the thieves guild, so we talked about how they don't kill those who don't pay for their protection, well if you understand they basically work like the mafia or the mob, then you understand that the guild are really just thugs in organized crime. they are effective at it though, however coming from the understanding that ONLY YOU are doing anything when it comes to the guild, it makes everyone else seem lazy as shit and they only send their best to get shit done. i miss the guild from oblivion, at least when it came to the guild back then, they would pick up information in the city's from the homeless, the homeless were the informants and always praised and the guild would always pay them for the information like a business, it's sad they didn't offer them a job in the guild so they didn't need to be homeless but i guess we can change that with headcannon and say that they work for the guild and only pretend to be homeless while they gain intel about what's going on within the city. but not every aspect within skyrims guild is all bad. i personally like the ledger missions, they pretty much teach you everything the guild needs to know about a businesses finances and what they could afford to lose when the guild is concerned in the form of protection money. it's still a scam, but that's the role of the guild. i wish the ledger jobs weren't so individualized and instead you were given the mission to get every ledger within the city instead of one at a time.