I'm Glad Someone Put This Into Words Bc It Encompasses A Lot Of The Thoughts I've Had Abt The Main Quest - Tumblr Posts

not the first time this has been discussed or suggested but an easy fix to skyrim's dearth of interesting themes is to add a philosophical dilemma to absorbing souls. you start absorbing souls, you begin getting unsettling dreams. you begin to question: when you shout, is it you, is it the dragon? have you tamed it? have you become it? who are you? Is it fair to those souls, to destroy them so utterly? yes you have to save the world - but what of the cost? and what will you become by the end?

ties neatly into the central dilemma in paarthunax's character - the idea that one can conquest one's own nature. your character will keep absorbing souls - that's the story as written - but you're presented with two different options in what that could mean in alduin (an insatiable eater - in some ways not too different to your consumption of souls) and in paarthunax (who has restrained himself).

I tend to dislike stories that present choices as instincts and part of 'nature' but this dilemma - that you're becoming less mortal, more dragon, through devouring souls, something you can't seem to stop, unless you choose to stop fighting - at least adds complexity to the bare bones of skyrim's dragon storyline.