» Mon Dec 19, 2011 12:51 am I was expecting these:
1. The Thu'um
What I dreamt of
The Thu'um, the Shout, the very heart of Nordic culture. According to legends, a Nordic general once shouted a city gate down during a siege, allowing an entrance even more badass than Genghis Khan's army could ever dreamt of. A freaking city gate, destroyed merely by screaming out loud. Imagine what happened when the said general asked for more mead in the local tavern, the roof would've blown off!
I imagined that the Shout would be... well... a SHOUT, as in screaming out loud. I mean, it's named Shout for God's sake. And I imagined that Shout is merely a very badass version of magic: no frilly hands, no sassy magic words, it's just between my mouth and your city gate. And I also thought that it'd be in human language, something that just about everybody can use, but only the select few can master
Lastly, I thought that the Shout's limits is only a sore throat. Kinda like magicka reserve, only you recover it by swallowing a lozenges, not some sassy "potion"
What I got
Well, it's true that I have a Shout that can knock down people, and it does a very good job at doing that, but it can hardly knock down a goddang door, let alone a city gate. I'm the Dovahkiin, a very talented version of Thu'um Master, and my Shout can't even knock a door down? At least make it capable of OPENING a door. Why? is my scream not loud enough?
And a version of Shout is not even a SHOUT, but a whisper, for calling names. A legendary language, created by the Dragons of Old, specifically made just to call names. What is this, a joke? So dragons of old could just call names from a mile away and whistle like nothin' as the target looks around with confused look? The Ancient Nords must have been an unstable community, as everyone can call names and nobody would know who did it. Kind of like get-away-with-smelly-fart-free card.
I can tolerate Life Detection, sure, since it's pretty useful. But calling names?
Also, for a Whisper, Life Detection sure taxes the throat. I have to wait for lots of seconds before I can spit out another Shout. I understand that this is probably for game balancing, but the image of Shout is no longer AWESOME, just like Destruction. But at least Destruction have cool looking trap runes
2. The Greybeards
What I dreamt of
According to the books, the Greybeards are a bunch of guys with grey beard who lives in the tallest mountain of Skyrim, where they seclude themselves from lowly Nords who can't even hear them whisper or die immediately out of testosterone in the air. They were pictured as wise guys, they KNOW the right guys, and call out to them to share their wisdom. Also, they don't speak: some even gagged themselves out of fear that their manly Voice shrinks any puny Nords out there
So, I thought that Greybeards are like a tribe, a community, that live in caves. Kind of like cavemen. Wise, badass cavemen. They are naturally badass, and don't understand the concept of sissy words known as "robes" or "formal". Since they are badass, they live not like any normal Nords: they don't need food (and thus don't need to do number 2), they outlive any puny "normal" Nords, and they are not handsome (and naturally grow grey beard). They meditate all day long, all year long, and wear only sufficient clothing to make them look like cultured cavemen. When a worthy hero comes, all of them gathers in a large cave, surrounding said hero, with the Elder sitting in front of the Hero. With every word that the Elder spits out, the world itself shakes, and when the sentence is finished, Vvardenfell erupts again out of shock
What I got
They have grey beards, yes, but they're pretty much just old men in robes. There are only 4 of them, and they're all old, meaning that within a few born babies, Way of the Voice could be lost just because nobody wants to get near them. They're not even a community: they're just a bunch of nerds doing nerdy things in a nerdy place that nobody would ever bother to get in to.
And they are not even self-sufficient: in exchange of doing absolutely nothing, the people of nearby settlement give them supplies all year long, traversing the Steps just so they can waste their hard-earned provisions on a bunch of strangers. A simple smile would be very nice, especially since one of them can speak without destroying the eardrums of everyone in range. This is probably why nobody wants to get near them.
Or at least... you know... clear the skies when the kids want to play outside? That's pretty cool too.
3. Dragons. F-ing DRAGONS!
What I dreamt of
You know how a dragon looks like, and you know that dragons are usually very big compared to a human. Dragons are awesome and badass, they're basically winged version of T-Rex. Any metal album cover that features a dragon is automatically badass, especially when combined with fire.
So, I thought that the Dragons can spit fire. Fire is pretty much the staple of any dragon. Aside from that the dragons are so powerful that it takes A HELLUVA LOT of effort just to bring them down from the skies, not to mention having to kill them after that. It makes sense: in legends throughout the world, dragons are depicted as having badass scales that resist magic and laughs at steel, not to mention the f-ing fire. They're also huge: dragons are usually big, and tens of times bigger than a human. And they can breathe fire, have I mentioned the fire yet?
In short, they're EPIC and MANLY
What I got
First, let's get these things out of the way:
- Dragons in Skyrim LOOKS badass
- Dragons in Skyrim CAN breathe fire
- Dragons in Skyrim IS bigger than a human
So what's the deal? The deal is that Dragons don't really take effort in our part to bring down: either they circle around and join the developers' quest to screw your day up or they land immediately (and goes down immediately too). In the days of old, some would even give you and law of physics the middle finger by propelling backwards, as if saying "I can beat you just with my bottom!"
In short, dragons are NOT epic, they're merely annoying. No amount of dragon scales can resist magic, or a shovel. Once they are within attack range and is stationary, they're pretty much fearsome looking version of a bear. Sure, their breath hurts a lot, but their health is simply way too low for a dragon (even a bear could take more damage, that's saying something). Also, it's probably because they haven't brushed their teeth for hundreds of years, not because their magic is awesome
This is probably to make sure that you don't spend 2 hours of real life just to bring down a dragon in the wilderness (as it would svck even more), but I feel that killing a dragon is NOT in fact, epic. The only time they did a dragon attack right is when you have to kill your very first dragon:
You have to literally fight for your life (as usually at that point you're at low level). The dragon has lots of health, but there are lots of people who help you to shoot it down. It takes a LOT of effort before the dragon finally lands, and only when you killed him, do the adrenaline finally ends. Also, the dragon DOES NOT ignore you and choose to kill a random fearsome Mudcrab or breathe at a random adventurer's knee: it wants YOU, and you NEED your allies to bring the svcker down
THAT's an epic dragon fight
