"Dragonborn, Dragonborn
Whatcha gonna do?
Whatcha gonna do when Skyrim cops come for you?"
Whatcha gonna do?
Whatcha gonna do when Skyrim cops come for you?"
— The "translated"note lyrics of the theme song
"All suspects are guilty until proven innocent in a court of law"
COPS: Skyrim is a Machinima based on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It was created by adjacentGAMES and hosted on the Nerdist
YouTube channel until the end of its fifth season in 2014. In 2017 it was resurrected on the adjacentGAMES' channel and given a Soft Reboot.
It is a parody of the long-running series, COPS, except this time featuring Imperial Guards handling similar crimes. By the end of its third season, it has evolved from a light-hearted parody of COPS into a dramedic crime drama featuring Officer Jenkins and his sidekick, Belford, though it still occcasionally focuses on various other unnamed and often expendable guards.
Officer Jenkins has his own Facebook page
COPS: Skyrim includes examples of:
- The Ace: Hrothgar the Dragonborn lives a life of Hookers and Blow with a Screw the Rules, I Have Money! attitude.
- Affectionate Parody: A parody of both COPS as well as Skyrim that includes many nods to both.
- Anyone Can Die: Belford, the Jarl of Riften, and Captain Parsons all are killed by Officer Jenkins at the end of Season 5.
- Bait the Dog: Season 4 sees Jenkins suspended from the force while he attends anger management classes, and he gets back on the force in Season 5. Then he really goes off the deep end and becomes a murderous Villain Protagonist in the last few episodes.
- Big Bad: Headcase in Season 5. In the last two episodes, Officer Jenkins
- Blood Knight: Hrothgar the Dragonborn and Officer Jenkins are both of these.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The first two seasons were lighthearted parodies of Skyrim ideas in the vein of COPS. Then Season 3 started developing an actual storyline with Officer Jenkins being too Ax-Crazy and being forced to attend anger management to keep his job. By the time the Season 5 finale comes, with Jenkins murdering other guards indiscriminately, his Blood Knight antics are no longer Played for Laughs.
- Comedic Sociopath: Officer Jenkins is one of these.
- Continuity Nod: The series routinely use dialogue from the games as well as concepts.
- Jenkins takes an arrow in the knee.
- The serial killer in Windhelm is a plot revisited multiple times. The citizens are completely uncooperative and the guard are unable to investigate as a result.
- Lydia shows up in Season 4 who is cheating on "Jimmy" who she is the Follower of (which is implied to be sex).
- The Stormcloak Rebellion is referenced many times and serves as a backdrop for several attacks.
- Dirty Cop: Cochran is one and engages in some truly awful behavior even by Skyrim guard standards.
- Driven to Suicide: This is what Jenkins wants to do while listening to an old woman's life story during an anger-management class
- "Could somebody please draw my sword and chop my head off?"
- Easily Forgiven: Somehow, against all odds, he managed to get his job back in Season 6.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even though Jenkins is often a violent sociopath, he believes Cochran is pushing the line with him killing every criminal he comes in contact with. He decides to kill him at the end of Season 4, and everyone is pretty much understanding about that. Belford even said after discovering Cochran's head among the other victims of Headcase that he was a "ruthless prick"
- Face–Heel Turn: Officer Jenkins snaps and starts a violent killing spree after being fired in Season 5
- Fantastic Racism: One of the more common things the guard has to deal with and true to the games. Argonians, Dark Elves, Orcs, and Khajit tend to get the worst of it.
- Jenkins is a Dark Elf and has an adopted Argonian child so he's less than sympathetic to the view. It may have contributed to his Face–Heel Turn.
- Kangaroo Court: One scene has an officer conducting a trial by battle over a parking space
- "All suspects are guilty until proven innocent in a court of law"
- Kick the Dog: The officers change their minds about talking down a suicide once they find out he's an orc.
- Officer Jenkins stabs a man for drawing his sword to keep him from beating him.
- Officer Jenkins also threatened to kill all the children of a group of people in a traffic jam.
- Possibly crosses the Moral Event Horizon when he kills Officer Belford.
- Killed Off for Real: Happens frequently in the series.
- Officer Belford in Season 5.
- Jarl Baalgruff is killed Season 6.
- Left Hanging: Epsidoe 5 of Season 6 ends with Jenkins meeting the ghost of Officer Belford, who pulls a What the Hell, Hero? on him for his murderous rampage in Season 5, and Jenkins' surprise seems to indicate he doesn't remember any of it. When it's pointed out he has the same camera crew as back then and they saw everything, the "crew" begins to back away from Jenkins as he keeps asking what's going on. The series hasn't been continued yet to explain what happened.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: Special Edition Vol. 2 has Jenkins beamed aboard the Enterprise
- Obfuscating Stupidity: What a lot of the perps attempt to pull on the guard with varying degrees of success.
- Only Sane Man: Belford is sane, rationale, and loyal—so he's screwed in this setting.
- Moral Event Horizon: Invoked; Jenkin's reaction to killing Belford indicates he feels this was his crossing. Afterward he calmly asks a friend to look after his dog for him while he goes on a "road trip", and then goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge knowing they won't be taking him alive when he can't keep up anymore.
- Red Shirt: Most unnamed guards are killed in any fight scene they're in, especially if it involves dragons or post Face–Heel Turn Officer Jenkins
- Reset Button: Is hit hard by Season 6 when Officer Jenkins gets his job back despite his Roaring Rampage of Revenge and killing spree.
- Sociopathic Hero: Officer Jenkins isn't afraid to act violently at anyone who sends him over the edge. This leads to his suspension in season 4 and getting fired in season 5.
- Soft Reboot: Season 6. Jenkins is back on the force with little mention made of what happened to him in Season 5 (a Facebook post gives a Hand Wave), and while he's mostly the same person he's comparatively more sane than before.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Stormcloak Rebellion shows up a couple of times and is treated as an extremist group the Imperials have to deal with. Which is true from a certain point of view.
