This topic definitely has spoilers...

OK, so I've read that we can kill Ancano after a certain quest, but can we kill him before? Specifically what I did was: hacked him to 'death' (kneeling actually) with a great axe and, of course, he got back up. However, since this was on one of the narrow walkways outside the College I shouted him off into the crevasse (or WTFever is below). I saved right before I did this and restored, but before I reloaded I looked for him in most of the rooms of the College. So my question is: has anyone tried this and not restored? Would he have eventually reappeared?

My guess si yes....he'll properbly get scripted and teleport back to where he should be.

I have. Unfortunately he can't die. What he can do however, is get stuck down there and essentially break the quest

Haven't done whatever quest he is involved in yet, but I did get quite a laugh off him getting owned over and over by the dremora lord that I summoned to bring me the sigil stone. Seems he stuck around and whenever ancano walks into the "apprentices" chambers he immediately goes hostile and takes him down to his knees. He then starts to walk up the steps until ancano gets back up then he goes back down with his fire enchanted glass 2h sword and hacks him down with one hit. I could not stop laughing. Does it over and over as long as he is in there.

"See? You're not the only one who can wield power irresponsibly!"

You can't kill him until the game allows it, however you can attack him a few times before he goes hostile. I usually paralyze him and cover him with raw meat, if he says something snarky to me.

Yeah, I figured he'd respawn/reset.

Good to know I'm not the only one who likes tormenting certain NPCs.

I knew as soon as I saw him he would be a total A** , then it took one speech with him to discover there was nobody in Skyrim I would rather murder than Ancano. I guessed he would be unkillable until a certain point, if anything the wait made killing him even more satisfying, found myself saying things like "Ohhh im gonna enjoy killing you" or "just you wait Ancano" everytime I walked past him ..... there is something about Elves that annoy me in general, all male Elves of any type all seem to be really rude to me, the female ones are fine, just the men, but Ancano was on a whole different level, along with Nazeem in Whiterun

When they were teaching me whirlwind sprint, one of the graybears whirl winded himself off the side of the mountain.

It was ... intended! Of course. To demonstrate the power of the ethereal shout should the dragonborn accidental run off a cliff. See? The power of the Thum'um when used correctly.

Also ... mead run.

*strokes beard*

Yeah, its an annoying railroad. Coupled with the fact that hes prettymuch the silliest boss fight ever (I killed him by taking cover behind a pillar for a few seconds to get my magicka back, and his own anomalies ate him).

That and considering every last person in the College knows hes a spy and doesn't trust him, how does he get any of his information? Sure he asked the Augur for some, but that dudes not that helpful.

I know, right? Thalmor robes, boots, and gloves? Clark Kent has a better disguise.