A nod to the Zelda franchise?

[Evil-i]

I've been leafing through the UESP Skyrim Wiki, and found "Bee in a Jar" on the Miscellaneous Items page. Anyone who's played Zelda games (and who among us hasn't?) will be all too familiar with bees, and with being able to bottle them.

A coincidence of content, or is Bethesda hinting that Skyrim is the new Zelda for those gamers who've (hopefully) matured since their Zelda days? After all, your character, like Link, spends his time solving other peoples' problems.

[AeraDunmerMoon]

I remember bottling fairies and bugs and fish and poes, but not bees. Bee larva, perhaps, but not bees.

[Trelares]

Atleast you can catch bees in pots in A Link To Past .

[Utrechter]

I've only played Ocarina of time, but I can't remember bees. Maybe bees are in all games, except those two games. But I have an idea for a next character, thanks.

[OblivionDuruza]

I can also see Butterfly in a Jar, Dragonfly in a Jar, Moth in a Jar and Torchbug in a Jar. I don't know if it is an Easter Egg or not, but to me it seems that it's just part of the new system allowing you to catch insects. Perhaps the original plan was to actually catch them and place them in jars rather than pluck of their wings, etc. or perhaps you can catch them and trap them if you have a jar in your possession? (although there is no Jar or Empty Jar item in that list yet). My guess would be the former, there are other items there which I don't think will make it in-game, e.g. there are two versions of the Crown of Barenziah/Barenziahs Crown.

I'm not going to read too much into it as far as it being a message for people to pay TES instead of LoZ.

[urthdigger]

I've only played Ocarina of time, but I can't remember bees. Maybe bees are in all games, except those two games. But I have an idea for a next character, thanks.

Link to the Past (which was the actual origin for a lot of the tropes carried on through the remaining games that are often credited to OoT) had bees you could catch in bottles: Common bees which attacked indiscriminately, and a "good" bee in a certain cave that would only attack your enemies.

[Ethelred]

I'm shocked that I don't remember catching bees in LttP. Then again, it has been almost twenty years since I played it.

[Evil-i]

Somewhere in UESP's Skyrim Wiki I read that catching insects was do-able, but I can't seem to find that info now. It didn't say if the critters were used as Food or Alchemy ingredients, or for something else entirely. I don't see any empty jars, bug nets, fly paper or anything else that would allow for this; perhaps the bug collector thing didn't make into the final version of the game....maybe it'll become some unusual addition in a future DLC/expansion.

Could be that it was intended for some side mission story/quest line, where you had to collect examples of Skyrim's creepy-crawlies for some purpose that was left out of the game.

[ElusiveWhark]

i think they are just one of those collectibles/oddities that are oh so prevalent in TES

[Lord_Monkfish]

You can catch butterflies and some other glowing insects that look like fireflies. They are used in alchemy. All you need to do is approach one and interact with it, like picking flowers.

[AeraDunmerMoon]

I'm totally littering my houses with jarred bugs now.

[Trelares]

For a Link to past nerd, also the Lost Legends quest remembers a bit of the first three trials of Lttp(a green, red and blue amulet must be found to get an "epic" reward) the only thing is that you don't get the master sword^^.

[ElusiveWhark]

these are different from the bugs that you can catch for alchemy. there are only 5 in the game Butterfly in a Jar, Dragonfly in a Jar, Moth in a Jar and Torchbug in a Jar and Bee in a Jar. let me know if youd like their locations

[AeraDunmerMoon]

Butterfly in a Jar is in the Alchemists Hut that can be found on the path between Ivanstead and Helgen.