Villainpedia: Alduin 

Alduin in lore: 🤯👉😎👉😡😳🙏🙏😤😤🐉😱😱🦖👹👿🗣💥💥 Alduin in game: 🐸

I always felt Alduin's model was way too small. When I first saw him I just thought he was A dragon. Not THE Dragon. I feel like it wouldn't have been that hard to scale him up just a little.

From Alduin's point of view he wasn't plotting and scheming in the time he was gone. He disappears and reappears thousands of years later and honestly was underprepared for the new world he finds himself in. He's arrogant enough to believe all his old tricks will work because to him they're not old they worked yesterday. The Nords were losing the dragon war, and sending Alduin forward in time was a last-ditch, hail mary play. Really it's not like he even could learn lessons from previous Kalpas, he slept the entire time until the proverbial dinner bell ring. Alduin's biggest flaw is that he didn't want to eat the world, he didn't want to do the one thing he was designed to do. Unlike Mortals the Aedra, Daedra, Atronachs and Dragons can not truly deny their nature. Mehrunes Dagon is the God of destruction if he likes it or not, dibella is the goddess of beauty if she likes it or not. Same goes for flame atronachs, winged twilights, and golden saints. That's the true power of mortality, the reason why some see Lorkhan's plan as a gift or challenge, while others see it as a punishment or prison.

To me, the Dragonborn DLC feels more like the main quest than the actual main quest.

I agree, Alduin could’ve been so much more, but DO NOT Slander my main man Paarthanax. If he wanted to rule Tamriel then I’d let him.

If you make a most powerful villains from the villainopedia list i’m looking forward to seeing Tom nook above Alduin the world eater

Alduin was such an absentee villain, that my wife had forgotten about him entirely even after putting hundreds of hours into the game

I really liked the idea of a neutral, uncaring villain just doing his job. Since there is a startling lack of actual conversation with Alduin in the base game, being able to talk to a villain like that would be super interesting. Great work as always!

The Greybeards almoooost hit on what you wished was fleshed out. When I told them if I don't learn Dragonrend the world will die, they were like 🤷‍♂️ maybe it's supposed to die. But also anytime you speak out against my boy party snacks my anti-Delphine reflexes kick in and are ready to 🤺

Alduin Design: 10/10 very cool looking. Alduin Implementation: 1/10 The Skeleton Dragon optional boss was a more interesting fight. Killed Alduin in like three hits.

Alduin and the last Dragonborn are like physical embodiments of the two natures of Akatosh. Alduin being his his more Dragon nature while the last Dragonborn is his more human depiction. Akatosh is debating whether to spare the world or end it, is symbolized through the characters.

i love Alduins lore, but i don't really like about its ingame depiction

Oblivion : You walk through an Oblivion gate in the first 30 minutes Skyrim : You kill an ancient resurrected dragon at level 3 Fallout 4 : MG goes brrrrr on a deathclaw in the first 10 minutes The trend couldn't be more clear.

Partysnacks does mention how we've now essentially prevented the next kalpa from forming by killing Alduin and does try to get us to question the weight of our actions. But we just say: "nah, it'll work itself out" and Partysnacks is like: "Yeah, you're probably right."

Some of the conversations you have with Paarthurnax make it seem like Alduin is simply a force of nature, and that attempting to defeat him would be going against the natural order of things. It's possible that Alduin was regaining his strength so he could fulfill his purpose, and struggling to overcome his own dominant nature while doing so. I imagine that the use of an Elder Scroll would have humbled him somewhat, causing him to kick it into high gear. But we could go into theories all day. Very thought-provoking video, good work.

The one cool thing about Alduin is his design. While the avatar of Akatosh in Oblivion is depicted as this huge golden-fire dragon. Alduin in Skyrim is his exact opposite. Dark, grey, he almost looks like his body has been burned. Perhaps the nords are right and Alduin and Akatosh are the same being, only at different stages of power/lifecycle.

all of this game to one shot alduin with mehrunes dagon's dagger.

I really like the concept of Alduin being a force of nature. There is a great deal of potential in a grand story telling perspective: imagine Alduin rending entire sections of Skyrim as you progress in the story. This also allows for the Dragonborn to take on a role of a “10th Divine” and potentially pull a Martin Septim, using their accumulated power to destroy Alduin and reverse the destruction of Skyrim and potentially Tamriel: have more of a fallout esque ending. Really good video!

25:19 This description somewhat reminds me of Grigori, the Dragon and antagonist in Dragon's Dogma. From what I remember of Dragon's Dogma's story, Grigori's purpose is to test the Arisen (the main character) who must eventually rise up and slay Grigori to complete the test. Grigori doesn't do any of this simply because he hates the Arisen but because its his purpose to do so, even sparing the Arisen until they are ready to challenge him. Theres even a cult dedicated to worship Grigori, who they consider to be a being to bring about destruction (and in their mind, salvation). Their goals are completely at odds with the Arisen, who is meant to slay Grigori, and so they consider the Arisen an enemy to be destroyed. During a key point in the story, the cult's leader, Elysion, goes on a monologue, welcoming the arrival of Grigori, who then only shows up to squish Elysion halfway through his speech. Grigori openly mocks Elysion, stating that the future events hold no place for Elysion or the cult, and that the only way to stop him is to kill him, and that when the Arisen is ready, they should seek him out to do so. (NOTE: If I have gotten anything wrong or left anything out, feel free to correct me, since its been a very long time since i've played Dragon's Dogma.) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-M3m5H1IZBx0.html

@21:55 - Funniest thing about this scene though... The first dragon you killed in Skyrim wasn't a resurrected dragon. He literally came rushing to Skyrim from his hiding spot the moment Alduin announced his return. Every named and important dragon has been marked as dead or alive during and after the Dragon War, and this first dragon you killed was one of the very few to marked as alive, never slain... (Others being a dragon that seemingly left Tamriel as a whole, a red dragon that later showed up in ESO and then later slain in Redguard, and obviously our main friendly old man, Paarthy himself). So, not only are you a level 3 killing an ancient creature... You're killing a dragon that has never actually died and been alive for thousands upon thousands of years...

My issue with alduin and skyrim (or most bethesda games of this kind) is that we are supposedly facing this world ending threat, but it never feels that way. Even with a civil war going on you travel to different cities and it just feels like everyone is carrying on normally with their day to day lives. There doesn't seem to be any real panic or fear or paths of destruction outside of Helgen. No sense of urgency or that the world around you is being affected for the worse. Alduin has nearly no presence in the game until the very end and I felt nothing when I just hacked his face off with my alchemically enhanced sword. Even Borderlands 2 had a much better villain who was constantly taunting you and mocking you every step of the way and in most cases you at least had some motivation to go after them.

Alduin being a villain was okay. I would have liked him to admit something surprising. He may have gotten tired of restarting the cycle, seeing new life simply repeat itself with no iteration that actually differed between one another that much. Sure, the praise and fear of mortals was like icing on the cake, but I would have liked to seen Alduin defy his nature not out of arrogance, not at first, but actually out of curiosity for mortals. Why did the gods “love” these little creatures, and yet why was he tasked to destroy them and restart the Kalpa again, and again? Maybe his actions could have been the orignal thought process for Paarthurnax: “Which is better: to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature with fear effort?” For Alduin it could have been “Is it better to follow nature without thought, or is it better to try something different for the sake of change, but from within rather than without?”. It is easy to overlook that no matter prophecy’s potency, free will and choice make great differences when acted upon major decisions. Imagine Alduin saying all of this and asking you: “Which is better, Dovahkin: to be reborn forgetting your mistake, doomed to repeat them again in the next Kalpa, or to live one single life and decide for yourself what is right, and having the power to do so?”

I agree that alduin being a more neutral force would be much more interesting, But I also find most modern villains are held to a standard of complexity and depth that isn't always necessary-- This does not excuse bad writing however, and the skyrim main quest is certainly poorly written. Delphine and esbern both want parthunnax dead, for seemingly no other reason then "conflict." Despite his role as a powerful ally and advisor both past and present, neither of them even sound convinced of their own conviction. Like you mentioned, alduin's wall is a bit convoluted as well, since it was intended as a reminder when the temple was locked with a special blood seal. There's a lot of missed opportunity in the base main quest, and alduin is probably one of the biggest.

I was expecting Mehrunes Dagon to get a video first but I can't complain about Alduin

as someone who was introduced to TES with skyrim, alduin failed to stick out to me as a villain. i found myself finishing nearly all the side quests before i remembered that i had the entire universe to save. i loved the lore going on outside the main quests and found myself immersing myself in the story's online long after playing the game. even though alduin wasn't very complicated, i think they successfully balanced a wide appeal while still including more lore through the side quests that made skyrim able to have been as popular as it was.

alduin is indeed the firstborn of akatosh as attested by several dragons alduin himself with nordic legend considering akatosh and alduin seperate entities.

Man you killing it. Don't burn yourself out, you hear. I love the content

I believe Alduin saved the Dragonborn from his execution because of the prophecy of one or the other needing to die. If the Dragonborn died, Alduin would have to end the world; If Alduin were to die (obviously not possible right?) then the world goes on until Alduin reconstitutes or reincarnates or whatever. It's Alduin's arrogance to think that just the act of saving the Dragonborn would communicate this idea so he just leaves to start his dragon-necromancy, expecting the Dragonborn to be content with just being alive.

If alduin turns the entire Nordic population down to age 6.. doesn’t that make them invulnerable?

well I've always thought that Alduin doing what he was in Skyrim WAS fulfilling the world eater ideal as he's eating people in Sovengarde to gain power - and Talos is suspiciously missing from the hall - so it was as if the Gods were separating themselves from the world to allow Alduin to do his thing finally. But Akatosh - who has previously sided with Mortals - gave us a fighting chance by allowing the birth of a Last Dragonborn at the right time after the great Tamerelic Dragonborn Emperors have all died out.

A video on Alduin’s Wall would be time well spent.

alduin works perfectly as a being created for one purpose, choosing to reject that purpose and finding his own. alduin also works as a foe that urgently needs to be stopped. sure in game there is no urgency, but logically speaking, he is immortal and you are not, so at the end of the day all he needs to do is to chill where you can't get to him until you just drop dead, that is why alduin works so well for me, he doesn't take a very active part in the story, because he doesn't need to and i find that very unique because in most stories, the villain is the active party of the conflict, sending monsters or assassins to have you taken out of the picture. alduin doesn't do any of that, upon realizing that you're dangerous, he just fucks off, no cultists or assassins coming for you and even the dragons you do fight usually just happen to stumble across you by accident unless YOU are invading their turf. this forces the protagonist side of things to take the active role, you need to find a way to get to alduin so you are actually conspiring with the major forces at play, you are manipulating events in your favour, odhaving doesn't come for you under alduins orders, he comes because his ego compels him to answer YOUR challenge. in other games most of what you do is reacting to what the villain is doing OR what you're doing was part of the villains plan all along., skyrim has the villain react to your actions instead and i consider that perfectly fine.

He was under-utilised. I’d have had him possibly talk about how he was tired of being a Destroyer only. A tool with no choice of his own. He is a Dovah. Moreover he is the Firstborn of Akatosh. The first dragon. To be a tool with no agency is an insult. Maybe he was sick of it and decided “I can destroy it whenever. Why shouldn’t I have a bit of fun for once? I’m tired of doing only one thing all the time!”

Holy shit, this is a fucking diamond in the rough channel, Fantastic videos talking about the lore and background to some of my favourite characters from some of my favourite games. Please for the love of god keep going!

I understand this video is 9 months old at this point but speaking on the theory of dragon gods and using real world religions. The Aztecs believed that the world has been reborn multiple times, and each rebirth was begun by a deity of sorts sacrificing themselves to become the sun of each new world. So with this it could be that Auriel, Akatosh and alduin are the same but they were each a part of the world ending myth. All of them could be world eaters for their own respective world ,explaining why most accept that Akatosh is essentially the beginning of Time as he ushered in the world of nirn, and it could be that Alduin is supposed to bring in the next, but in his meddling he attempted to divert the course the world was supposed to take. Just an observation I wanted to point out as plenty religions and stories across the world, have a lot of commonalities.

This vid better shoot up to thousands of likes and comments cause this is good.

I personally assumed "Firstborn of Akatosh" meant that Alduin was the first physical manifestation of the dragon deity that freely roamed Nirn

I feel like Alduin actually was just obeying the "code of the universe" so to speak with his mission to end the world and restart it anew. Sure, he was being kind of a dick about it, but it is still his purpose to do so. There's even a conversation about this the player has with Parthunaax regarding it, in which whether or not stopping Alduin is even the morally correct thing to do and whether stopping him would deny the next world it's right to existence. All I'm saying is if you want Alduin to be deep, he can be. If not, he doesn't have to be. This, I think, makes Alduin really unique as a villain. Who else comes off as an incredibly simple villain to first time players but has a wealth of philosophy to dive into for those who want it?

26:14 I mean, I think that Paarthurnax is a villain. Paarthurnax means Ambition Overlord Cruelty, the language of the Dovah is one of what is reality. You speak fire and there is fire, which means Paarthurnax, so long as he is Paarthurnax, is Ambition Overlord Cruelty. Just learning a new shout changes you, look at what you are told about Dragonrend. "When you learn a Shout, you take it into your very being. In a sense, you become the Shout. In order to learn and use this Shout, you will be taking this evil into yourself." That is just learning a shout, now imagine being the embodiment of one. Paarthrunax is Ambition Overlord Cruelty on such an ingrained level that it is the essence of his very existence. He was also the 2nd in charge before, but not the head honcho. What happened? He assisted in the downfall of the only Dovah that could appose him, Alduin. Kyne shows up, goes "Help the Nords take down Alduin" and so he does so, but Alduin is not fully defeated. He is sent into the future instead. Then comes to prophecy of the LAST Dragonborn. The only ones that could oppose him are Alduin and a Dragonborn, and there will be an end to the line of dragonborns, there will be a last one. So, what happens if you assist this last dragonborn in defeating Alduin and then wait until this final dragonborn dies? No one will be able to oppose you. Dragons are, on some level, eternal beings. What is waiting a couple thousand years before an eternity of rule? Spend that time acting like you turned over a new leaf in order to motivate the Last Dragonborn into sparing your life, lead a new order of followers that know the Thu'um, learn how to empower the Thu'um even further, etc. and then you will be able to easily cement yourself as the new leader of the new dragon cult. Let your Ambition guide you to this point of being an Overlord, and then once again enact the Cruelty you did when you played second fiddle to Alduin.

Here's an idea for an alternate ending and Alduin: instead of being evil, he's dutybound to destroy the world and finish the cycle. The final battle is not against a hateful evil dragon, but against a dragon that has begun to question the rules of Akatosh and thinks that it's a bit of a waste to just "reset" the world over and over. When you finally beat him, insteas of dying outright, Alduin has a conversation with the player, eventually deciding that the player characters courage and might does not deserve to simply be snuffed out by an apocalypse. And so Alduin decides to refuse to end the world, facing his maker and whatever punishment his maker might impose upon him.

He was such a disappointing final boss fight

My Dad got the collectors edition of Skyrim back in 2011 that had the statue of Alduin. I still have it sitting around

When you propose the idea of the Dragonborn fighting a neutral Alduin who is fulfilling his duty as world eater, it immediately reminded me of the undead from Dark Souls 1 who are assisting in the continuation of the age of fire. Considering how Skyrim and DS1 came out roughly the same time, it would have been an interesting comparison of philosophy

I always found Alduin to be pretty disappointing, from an ingame standpoint. Maybe its just because I got the big surprise in Oblivion of having Mehrunes Dagon appear in Tamriel but I just found it a bit lackluster that Alduin was essentially just another dragon but a bit more spikey.

Absolutely loved the video! I've been watching your other elder scrolls related ones and throughly enjoying them, specially because I didn't get to play the other ones before Skyrim and you do a recap, so thanks a lot for the good work :) About Alduin, I've discussed about Skyrim's worldbuilding, visually and narrative wise, on my master's degree, and the catch 22 (let's put it this way) is that even though the narrative is very simplistic (straightforward characters, no hidden motives, etc) it taps into the collective cultural consciousness of the public playing it. There's a TON of stylistic and narrative decisions that can't have been made as arbitrary, and such decisions are heavily inspired by bronze age tales, myths and real world objects that can be found in the game. So, in a sense, despite the apparent simplicity of the characters, the player feels more attuned and invested into the story, because differently from other tes games (and even rpg games in general) in Skyrim you're not an onlooker watching a story, you're effectively in a story you know and that you've heard before. Kinda like a reader insert fanfiction with real world counterpart lmao Anyway, I hope this is intelligible. English is not my first language and I got too excited typing it lmao

You should try and go into cool plot elements like Dragon Breaks. Incredibly complex under the hood but a MASTERFUL storytelling device. I haven't seen any videos really grasp the scope of them and explain them in a way that would satisfy a more casual audience. They're always brushed off in timeline or lore videos and I'm really interested to see how you'd handle the topic. Much love, very impressed with the overall tone and quality of all of your videos!

Underrated long form analysis channel.

One of my favorite lore bits of TES are the Malestrome arena, a daedric arena where every beeing no matter if daedric or mortal can fight for the spot of becoming the campion of the arena, the most hellish place with different arena themes from dwemer to clockwork to Blackmarsh to the burning fields of Merunes dagons real even to the most disgusting and evil place anyone can imagen, Coldharbor. I like also the lot about Molags bal plan to fuse Nirn with Coldharbor with the planemeld, but unlike Merunes Dagons oblivion crisis, molag bal just got ducked over ten fold, at the very same time his plan started rolling, his enemy’s already started working against him. Also you should make an episode about Molag bal, in TES lore there are little to none characters who are pure evil, most of them have atleast one thing that doesn’t make them look as bad. And then there’s molag bal, the fucking dude thought it would be a nice little prank to the god of life to just rape and murder his most loyal Prietres who’s also a virgin, aaaaaand so the first ever vampire was born, thanks a lot Mr edge lord.

how about doing a villainpedia entry for mannimarco? he spans several games

Omg Alduin can eat the souls of mortals, and Dragonborn can eat the souls of dragons! Dovahkin is to the dragons what Alduin is to men and mer! Why did I never notice that

The idea that he is an inevitability of nature would make him sympathetic especially if parthanax would mention something like "much to alduins own Krosis, he must destroy this world and slumber for another cycle" but I think it's more appropriate to have the dragon priest Konahrik infuse his body with Alduin and you have to explore Skyrim defeat the dragon priests to gain access to sovngarde instead of ohdaving. That way they could elongate the plot, give reason to halt the story progression and give a Canon reason to explore. And have esbern or parthanax give you the locations after a certain amount of quests completed. (except morokei put him in shalidors maze instead of the main chamber) After Konahrik infused his body, Alduin not only wasn't able to compete his purpose, but he now is imbetted with a dragons desire for power, a humans corruption, and it gives a genuine human for to defeat eventually. As every villain had a human subject or was a human. The heart of lorkhan is aedric, dragon is aedric, so returning to a human villain using aedric power would be useful for the plot.

Just discovered your channel, this is sick work. Was wondering if you would do a cutiepedia on this guy named Ghostcharm?

I wish you could do the reapers but you know that’s not really a character but a species.

Is it really a bad thing for humanity that Alduin lost sight of his purpose? Sure it was horrible what he did, but they wouldn’t have been able to stop him if he didn’t, and their Kalpa was able to survive, and it’s possible that because of Alduin’s arrogance that the kalpa will never end.

wow, morrowind had such original writing relative to this

i misheard the beginning as 'i will facetime your soul in songarde' and with that image in my head i will continue the video now

Check out Skyrim: Extended Cut. It's a main quest overhaul for Skyrim currently in development. The mod tries to make the storyline so much better and bring justice to Alduin and the Nord Pantheon.

I think a better story for both Alduin and Miraak would have been casting Alduin as a neutral force of nature and Miraak as the primary antagonist, revealing at some point toward the end of the story that Alduin's return is the result of postponing an inevitable part of the universe's nature. This would have helped create more ambiguity and impact regarding player role and choice in the world. Maybe it turns out that the player is misguided and prolonging the cycle is a bad thing. Or maybe we learn that we can defeat Alduin to stop the cycle and that Miraak is in the way, misguided by his arrogance. In any case, I agree with the idea that there were significantly more rich opportunities for storytelling here. Four preceding games' worth of lore which culminate in "dragon bad, player good" made the game more marketable but less interesting from a story perspective.

I've always thought the good ending was to let Alduin restart the cycle lol excited to see what it's actually about.

1. Fails to kill, subdue or try to turn the Player or anyone else to his side from the games start to finish. 2. Never tries to attack or sabotage the player while they are questing to defeat him before we aquire the means to defeat him. 3. Destroys 1 town nobody cares about and never does anything to personally wrong the Player. In-fact he actually saved the Players life at the start of the game, sealing his own fate. 4. Faces the Player only after they gain the power to defeat him and loses sp spectacularly he loses whatever tenuous respect he once had amongst other Dargons. 5. His Army of Dragons are weak and unorganized, with no cooperation or plan what-so-ever. 6. After his first defeat, he retreats to the one place he can finally be killed once and for all, not considering that he could be followed. He is then betrayed by one of his own Luitenants(the second time it has happened) who then brings the Player to where Anduin can be killed. 7. His goals are inconsistant or even completely non-existant. Does he want to enslave the world or destroy it? He bounces between both these goals constantly. 8. Overhyped. Talks big but is as weak as any other Dragon. 9. One of the oldest, possibly THE oldest, Dragon in history, and yet only knows about 6 Shouts and only uses 3 in combat. 10. Cannot damage three dead Heroes he effortlesly defeated when they were alive and at their prime. 11. No personality. Had no discernable motives besides his actions simply being in his nature.

"What if here in the game Alduin was scheduled to devour the world not for any malicious or selfish reason but because he must? We could have had a neutral, uncaring, and justifiable villain who is simply following the code of the universe and in a certain sense doing what could be best for the world to end the current kalpa and give new life an opportunity to rise from the rubble" sounds a lot like the Reapers from the Mass Effect series, which could definitely be an interesting entry in the Villainpedia "There possibly could have even been multiple endings if it went that route" ah yes, Mass Effect 3

I feel like Alduin could’ve been used better, but I do love the idea of the Dragonborn as a man against time destroying the world eater the avatar of time and renewing the Kalpa without destroying it (perhaps temporarily if the Thalmor destroy the last tower)

The first time I played Skyrim I didn't understand everything since I was a kid and english is the third language I knew and I didn't even know that Alduin was the dragon that "saved" you in the beginning. Dramatic entrance yes but it didn't have a "main bad guy" vibe at all.

Hi, just found your channel while listening to some dagoth wave. I think a cool concept for the next elder scrolls is to have the thalmor attempt to destroy the adamantine tower (what’s theorized the last of the 8 pillars) since the aldmery dominion wants to destroy all calpas and return to primordial goo.

Crazy thing I just found out: Charles Martinet voices Paarthunax. Yep. Mario and Paarthunax are the same guy.

Loving the content so far! I was trying to come up with a suggestion for this series- how about Dutch Van Der Linde of the Red Dead games? A complex character I haven’t seen dissected in a format like this yet

I hear all this and I wonder what mortals are just shards of Lorkan, little pieces of his spirit, which is why they can use his heart to ascend to become like vivec, it's pieces of lorkhan reuniting with his essence. The dragonborn, the hero of tamriel, etc, are just slightly stronger shards. Daedra try to collect mortal souls to gain lorkhan's power over nine for themselves, while aedra shepherd the mortal races throughout reincarnations.

Would you do a video on how wasted mannimarco was in oblivion? Also it breaks my heart that Vanus Galerion only appears in ESO

I actually put Alduin and Dagon in the same level of uninteresting characters from gameplay. Dagon is a god who's only motivation is to destroy, just because that what he is the god of. Where is Mankar Cameran does all the heavy lifting and has certain beliefs so is subsequently more interesting because of that. Alduin really lacked that human motivation and suffered because of it.

I kind of like the idea that the prayers, worships, sacrifice, etc in elder scrolls imparts a piece of the devotee to the god. So while certain qualities maybe already present, the worship can amplify/negate those qualities. This would explain the seeming personality changes of deities. I find it especially interesting when thinking about the Tribunal.

So did you put out the poll questioning if alduin was an acceptable subject before you made this video, or after to judge how your community would react? Just curious. Great video regardless. Top notch production as expected.

I find Mankar Camoran from TES IV more interesting than Alduin

Hehe, get my refreshments ready? No, friend. No chewing noises to cloud the air while your calming cadence of a voice strums softly of the entirety of worlds' lore into my waiting ears! Though I do get my dumbbells ready, and I workout while listening. Watch when the exercises let me face my monitor. 6430 Subs by the end of May, not quite 10k, but I'm still rooting for you to hit the five digits, because the quality of your work deserves it, man. As far as Alduin goes, I am with your initial framing, and I find him to be very boring. It's like you stated several times though. Bethesda has crafted Skyrim to be a gateway drug to their series, and I must absolutely respect it for getting my GF into video games well before I ever met her. It is still her favorite game by far, though it did addle her brain with mods somewhat. I am hoping that they do not try to weigh down the future Elder Scrolls series by making each and every further installment continue the trend of bowing to what is popular. Though I will also say that they did keep it weird in some ways, as I think barring Flight of Dragons the animated movie with Sir Orrin Neville-Smythe, it is one of the more unique approaches to the dragons' backstory. I should have liked to see some Steam Centurions fight dragons though.

What would've made Alduin better? If he tried to lie to you / bs you, to turn you into being his minion and part of his plan. But since dragons don't understand mortals, some of what he's telling you seems sus. And when you look into what he's saying to try to figure out what he's got going on, you have to learn the hard way: Because he got his ego swollen by worship, and he honestly doesn't understand how it'd feel to not be worshipped, and he wants to stay in his comfort zone, by conquering. But in doing so he's closed off his perspective, and lost touch with his nature, his position in the Elder Scrolls (world's story) has become uncertain. The bs he told you isn't a lie because his lies are unravelling - he honestly does believe himself when he tries to convert you. The bs he told you is a lie because his role in the timeline is unravelling by his own actions, and he is becoming a vaguery of the lore. And he really, really cannot comprehend that concept. As in, that concept, when smashed into his skull by the Thu'um, causes him to doubt his own existence to the point of his existence becoming doubtful. I.e. you make the idiot 0sum himself. Congratulation, you win. You also 0summed the end of the cycle. What is a Tower without an endpoint? Or for that matter a Wheel that no longer cycles? Didn't think that one through did ya.

Boomers: Okay we'll postpone this bitch into the future so future generations will have to deal with it. Future generation: I'mma re-awake the boomer generation so they can deal with it.

Though the Kalpa idea of Anduin seems plausible, I think it's much more likely that Alduin is supposed to be the harbinger of Ragnarök, since Skyrim is mainly inspired by Norse concepts, like Solstheim being a stand-in for Valhalla. The destruction of the world so it can be born anew is also present in the Norse mythology. Is it possible that they borrowed from Eastern concepts, because of Kirkbride's influence? Absolutely. But Ragnarök is still a more likely candidate for inspiration, especially since the ender of the world in the "Dusk of the Gods" is Nidhöggr, the dragon feasting on the roots of Yggdrasil and the bodies of those unworthy to be ascended to Odin's hall of valor in Asgard, Valhalla.

I think that it's important to remember that the dragonborn (at least in conversations with the greybeards and paarthunaax) believes they are stopping the end of the world. They believe they are stopping alduin from starting the next Kalpa. I really like the theory that the dragonborn was chosen by akatosh to destroy alduin's corrupted form so he can be reborn anew and eat the world like he's supposed to. Paarthunaax even makes a comment that your efforts could hasten the end of the world. I think that adds some depth to this story. Granted, you have to play the game a few times or be really perceptive or you may miss those comments and what they really mean.

Alduin's Lore & Wall are great, but the main story is one of the least interesting paths to follow, to the point that I'm level 32 in my most recent playthrough and haven't been to the Western Watchtower or fought a dragon yet 😂

2:58 Small correction here. MK left Bethesda well before the release of Morrowind. That said, he did contract writing for both Oblivion and Skyrim, and has written all sorts of interesting stuff in an unofficial capacity.

Great vid, can't wait to watch it.

I played Skyrim almost 7 years ago. You've made me feel the beauty and awe I first felt when I played it, all those years ago. Thank you💙

Alduin was absolutely underused in Skyrim, however, I think the implications of his death could redeem that when (and IF) we get the next game. The natural balance is totally screwed up because with his death, the cycle can never begin anew. What would that look like? How would that manifest in Nirn? Would the use of magika be different? Would the connections between other planes be affected? Would Merunes Dagon actually be able to take over now?? Now, do I think the next game will actually address any of this? No. I think that they'll just ignore the literal death of the World Eater, and act like the biggest think that happened in Skyrim around this time was the civil war. I get opening the game up to a wider audience, but I do wish they could figure out how to do that, and not deprive us of cool ass fantasy stuff.

I remember when I first got Skyrim I was already a Veteran of Elder Scrolls games with over a decade of experience in them, and Skyrim frankly was looking to be a bit of a disappointment with most of the features that I came to love being gutted even further from the prior two games. I remember joining the Thieves Guild and doing the Dark Brotherhood with my first character just to see if those questlines are even good and being distantly enthralled. My second character join the Fighters Guild and I can't say that I was all that happy to be a werewolf but it was a very fun quest line, it wasn't until my third character that I decided to actually play the fucking game and go and kill Alduin.. I can appreciate Skyrim now even with all it's cut features, for reaching out to such a wide audience and making so many people appreciate open world RPGs.

The whole "By killing Alduin and saving the world, you've doomed the balance of this plane of existence" should've been explored more in the game. But probably too weird for the average casual gamer new to TES.

17:08 - THERE WAS NO MURDER! Ulfric challenged Torygg. He beat the High King in fair combat. Such is our way! Such is the ancient custom of Skyrim, and ALL NORDS!

I think the Dragonborn (the protagonist of Skyrim) is the real villain of the story.

Love the videos man! Definitely scratches a deep, irritating, Lore itch. You're the closest thing to a legitimate Video Game documentary channel I've seen on YT.

There is tough moral choices in skyrim like to kill parthanax leader of grey beards or not to due to the fact if it wasn't for him and greybeards then there would be no way to stall the dragons at all

Theres a deity similar to Azathoth, in the way that if he wakes up the elder scrolls universe is over. Any kind of problems like the world not being destroyed when its meant to means, that he gets confused and might realize its a dream. Alduin becoming a dictator of skyrim instead of destroying it was either meant to happen, or he was closer to waking up.

Honestly, I think there's nothing wrong with the way they used Alduin. There's a reason why villains with simple motivations like him transcend time and culutre, appearing in myths and stories going back to the dawn of mankind. They represent problems and evils which are common to our species: greed, tyranny, murder, hatred, and rebellion against the natural order to name a few. I love complicated villains as much as you, but sometimes it is good and necessary to remind ourselves that simpler evils also exist and villains like these can be just as entertaining if only to act as something for the protagonist to overcome.

"Let's say you have a window(shows a car window), this window represents aka." This might be one of the gratest jokes I've heard in years

7:15 There’s actually a book in Skyrim covering this idea.

All that is left is mankar camoran and jagar tharn. Not to mention mehrunes dagon. Keep up the good work!

Great video! Let us pray that the nine divines.. err, the almighty algorithm sends this video into everyone's recommendations.

When I first heard Alduin referred to as the world-eater, it did remind me of Vishnu’s most famous quote from the Bhagavad Gita “Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds”.

Great video you should do frank Horgan

With the themes of voices and rebellion in Skyrim, along with the flavor text in that one load screen describing battles between dragons as harsh debates, you’d think that we would have gotten a pivotal moment between one of the main dragons similar to the dam scene with Lanius in New Vegas. Would have been interesting and a chance for the player character to potentially tap more into their dragon side.

I’m so happy he brought up the fact that paarthunax could possibly be a usurper. I’ve been screaming that since the first time I finished the main quest. Ol’ snax up there with a plan under his scales.

This is the best thing that popped up on my youtube suggestions. Kudos on the amazing video! Alduin is the MOST underutilised villain ever because we never see any characterisation for him(it?)

60 spare dragon souls? Those are rookie numbers son.