So, I married Aela and she often follows me.

One day I was bored in Breezehome so I warhammered Aela, it was a one hit finishing move that completely decapitated her. She was a follower at the time.

I really love Aela so I went back to my previous save.

Immediately I tried it again - for fun - (she was still a follower) but this time I could not kill her. I bludgeoned her countless times, dragon shouted her ears off and still no death!

What the hell is going on???

She learned by the first mistake and bought an immortality potion from M'aiq.

Nice joke but I'm baffled... Any clues? I'd really like to know how to kill some pesky NPC's.

I know followers can die if they take too much damage but how did I kill my follower in one hit, then reload in the exact same circumastance and not be able to kill her no matter how much I tried?

Anyone help with this one please?

No finishing move second time?

Nup, no finishing move.

I'm thinking this made the diffrence. Weird though hey? You can kill them with a one hit finishing move but not bludgeon/shout repeatedly to death...

I don't use companions, so I don't have a lot of experience with them, but I suspect it's because the finishing move is a fatality move.

I'll give this a try on some non-named companions I can get tomorrow.

Yeah, test it out, I find it rather bizzare. If there is a 'secret' to killing essential quest characters then I'd love to know - Olfrid Battle-Born has it comin!

She killed you, and you went to a hellish afterlife were you try and kill her but she just won't die. Mocking you as you strike her down.