#the cause

Two seconds after Mick Davies is talking about a code, we see Ketch kill Madga, the girl Sam bonded with, and he shoots her in the chest.

Emma parallel????

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Emma parallel???? Emma parallel????

When Sam kills Emma, Sam is psychologically wounded, digging his heels into the dirt and making the job as black-and-white as possible. He's also, at the time, trying to pt a CODE in practice. Because it's easier.

He becomes obsessed with "not choking."

He accuses Dean of "choking" because he's become so afraid for all of their safety, especially with all that's happened...

...NOT TO MENTION Dean's grief terrifies Sam in the same way John's grief did.

Sam is a bit like Bobby in this regard. Im response to recent trauma, his psychological-wound-of-the-moment sways in the direction of, "Be ruthless, abide by a code, and whatever you do, don't die."

SAM: You know what? Bobby was right. Your head's not in it, man. When Cas died, you were wobbly, but now... DEAN: Now what? Oh, what, you're dealing with it so perfect? Yeah, news flash, pal – you're just as screwed up as I am! You're just... bigger. SAM: What?! DEAN: I don't know. SAM: Look... Dean, the thing is, tonight... It almost got you killed. Now, I don't care how you deal. I really, really don't. But just don't – don't get killed.

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔻𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕤

This contains spoilers for the Skyrim Anniversary Edition add-on, The Cause.

So stop now to avoid them.

Or keep reading because I'm very confused and am trying to figure this out! UESP doesn't say anything (that I can find) on it, and an initial perusal of Reddit and a few Google searches weren't helpful.

I've played vanilla and SE, and I don't remember ever experiencing a random world encounter where I ran into Dremora. Flame Atronach? Yes. Dremora? No. I just finished The Cause on the Nintendo Switch, and since leaving the Gate open, I've had like three encounters with Dremora in the wilderness.