Haven't really been playing this game all too much lately, but in anticipation of Dawnguard I figured I'd start a new profile for the sake of having a clean slate. I've been doing a few quests and recently refinished the College of Winterhold questline and was reminded of Mirabelle Ervine's inevitable end. I felt a bit disheartened, as she was one of the only NPCs I actually would've preferred having around and I would've appreciated a way to save her.

I can understand why freedom is limited in how many lives you can preserve as well as how many you can take, because no world is perfect by any means, but I still would've liked to choose who is essential and who is not. Perhaps that's a bit selfish from the developer's perspective, as you'd be taking away their freedom to create a world for the player + it'd be all that much harder to mesh with the lore, but it's a freedom I'd gladly take full advantage of.

Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else get attached to some of the characters that have an expiration date? Do you perhaps wish you could prevent them from meeting an untimely demise?

my current character had a great fondness for Kodlak the great Harbinger. I wish I could have prevented his death... besides not going for the witch heads.

And the winterhold college quest line I have rushed through every time, only doing them for the last priest mask... I didn't realize Mirabelle Ervine died. She sent me outside to find the arch mage after the explosion.