A closer look
Skyrim speedrunners and casual players alike quickly discovered a legendary exploit where placing a wooden bucket over an NPC's head completely blinds them, allowing the player to openly steal everything in the room without consequence. Bethesda's highly touted Radiant AI system simply calculated that if the non-playable character's line of sight was physically obstructed by a low-resolution piece of household cookware, they could not report a crime. It is a staggeringly literal approach to object permanence that resembles the cognitive development of a human toddler, yet it exists in a massive fantasy epic that cost millions to develop. We all collectively accepted this broken mechanic as a hilarious feature rather than a bug, because the idea of robbing a haughty shopkeeper blind while he calmly breathes heavily into a wooden pail is deeply therapeutic. If only modern tax evasion could be solved by simply dropping a bucket on the head of an IRS auditor
