I'm with the OP on this. Dragonshouts could well be fine - could even be a great addition to the game - but they also could end up being sort of cheesy.

They just sort of remind me of fighting animes - "Dragon Powers ACTIVATE!"

:facepalm:

Dragonshouts...if you don't want to use them, just don't use them.

I'm curious to see how powerful they are. Will warriors and thieves be able to easily use shouts that are equivalent to high-level mage spells?

No.... my second paragraph illustrates exactly what I'm getting at. You're ill-appreciated sarcasm aside, let me clarify it a bit more for you.

Gandalf, as far as the reader's suspension of disbelief is concerned, is real. As are Hobbits. As is the Witch-king of Angmar. Let's say that during their confrontation Gandalf stood up, bent over and started shooting Hobbits out of his [censored], whereupon one got logded in the throat of the Witch-king and he started choking on the Hobbit's furry feet, finally spitting him out and ultimately turning to flee, knowing he'd been bested by a cagey Wizard's anol, Hobbit gun.

How's that, how do you think that would fit into Lord of the Rings. Would you be fine with it?.. because eveything else is also make -believe?
See what I"m getting at ... even though it's fantasy and were being asked to believe and emotionally connect with something WE KNOW isn't real, we do.. because the story isn't asking too much from our own common sense that we've let be stretched and pulled to fit into the writer's narrative.

I think the shouts fit in fine. As long is there is no hobbit gun shout i will be fine with them.

:rofl:

This is one of the most entertaining posts I've seen on here. Thanks.

And I know this wasn't your intent, but now I REALLY want to see someone do a mod that'll let my mage shoot hobbits out of his butt.....

This.

DragonShouts are not like Edward,They are not covered in glitter.

Don't think of it as "shouting" as much as it is more of invoking your inner dragon power.

lmfao! that was wonderful. thank you for that. but ya i completely see where your coming from on how it might seem a little out of place. I would'nt go so far as to compare it to shooting bees out of your hand at armoured scuba divers and whatnot but try to think of it as more of a deeper level of magic where corresponding magical words are used instead of an assortment of spells and schools to give it a more forgotten arcane knowledge used in manly skyrim form. if that makes any sense at all.

Yeah, I agree with you OP. I'm OK with them and everything, but when I first heard of Dragonshouts I thought it was a bit ridiculous. I think it may feel kind of lame to be able to create freakin' thunderstorms by 'shouting'.
It'll still be pretty cool though, it's just the fact that I can destroy things by speaking that makes me doubt it.

Have to agree with the OP. Dragonshouts do sound cheesy to me.. and also a little unbalancing. This seems to be more appealing to the pure fighter classes who only want an occasional powerful spell and not invest any points into magic skills. We already have magic spells -- why include this?

I completely agree with the OP. When I speak about the game I have no problems with it except the dragon shout concept. It just seems like a lame ability that they threw in. I believe the game footage showed a shout that set enemies aflame? Why not just have a spell or power that does the same effect...? They just seem so pointless. Speaking draconic language and being a dragon born deals significantly with the plot I'm certain, but I don't care to use it for combat.

Dragon Born -> Dragonspeak -> Dragon Shouts
Seems like a logical progression to me. It's just like any other tool/weapon you can use. There's nothing too silly about it. You don't need to do a twirl and throw flowers in the air to do it. You shout something in a manly voice and breathe fire or knock back enemies or summon a thunder storm or get your power levels over nine thousand or whatever. It's a good addition that fits in with the story.

Your first paragraph gave me a good laugh and to answer your question, no, I would not be ok with that scenario occurring. However, that is not the case in the Lord of the Rings and Skyrim. We don't have hobbits flying out of Gandalfs' ass and we don't have Dovahkiin shooting laser beams from his mouth and flying ponies into the sunset. In actuality, Skyrim is providing us a completely new narrative and setting to explore for on our own, while also giving us some abilities to tinker with, dragon shouts being one of them. It's a fantasy world and your topic post is basically questioning the validity of dragon shouts in a fantasy world.

Compared to Skyrim, how is Lord of the Rings more emotionally engaging and believable? How is it that we can have super-sized Elephants walking around or Arwen summoning a wave to wash away Ring Wraiths as believable, but a character of exceptional power, a person that holds the power to speak the tongue of dragons and use it against them, is lame, cheesy, or far-fetched? I know i'm beating a dead horse here, but where are you drawing this imaginary line and suddenly coming to the conclusion that Dragon Shouts just aren't believable and will detract from the immersiveness. If anything, it's adding to the overall lore of the game and immersiveness because the Dragonborn are people capable of utilizing Thu'um. If they don't include it, it detracts from immersiveness and lore.

If your original post had just been the first paragraph it would have been a valid concern, but when you go off in the second paragraph comparing Dragon shouts to Tolkein's fantasy world it completely undermines your original statement. Both worlds are so far from our world, you can't suddenly start drawing parallels and determine that Tolkein's is more believable. Skyrim and LOTR are practically the same setting when you look at it. We've got dragons, giants, trolls, elves, humans, dark dungeons, diverse environments, etc. Arwen's ability to summon a tidal wave by whispering words can even be paralleled to Skyrim's dragonborn summoning bad weather to rain on the dragon's parade, but oh wait, I guess that's a little too cheesy.

To each his own I guess.

I am pretty sure that TES dragons do not breathe fire. They use dragon language to cast a fire spell... just happens that their focal point is oral instead of the human hand waving standard.

i'd go see that movie!, joking aside, the shouts are a part of the history that TES has built over the last 15 years, the shouts fit the lore, just like if the darwves were around they would NOT be short.

thunder

thunder

thunder

THUNDERCATS HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Actually, everyone was pretty tame from what I saw. Don't resort to calling names just because a few of the forumers thought the idea was silly. They weren't insulting your intelligence, like you are doing to them. Also, I don't understand, in the realm of high fantasy that Skyrim is apart of Dragons DO have a language. Did you not catch that part?

Ok...

The Dragonshouts are a family trait that has been passed along for generations through the bloodline right....The Dragonborn has a part to play in a great destiny, which is the main storyline of Skyrim...Not unlike being a ringbearer in Lord of the rings lore...That destiny, like all destiny is not chosen by the person, rather they are a part of an enormous cosmic bloody interplay of forces of order and destruction...

That being said...as far as playing the actual game goes, I dont know if your character actually has the knowledge of dragonshouts from the beginning or not...

My suspicion is that you do not...In fact I believe that being the dragonborn is something that takes some time to be discovered...ie the talk about being called to the Throat of the world at some point in the MQ...this makes sense to me as far as RP, and the choice of "Be who you want, play how you want" would indiate that you could have an enjoyable game experience without ever engaging in the main quest as has been the ethos of TES games...I dony think I have heard anything so far from the devs to contradict this.

If ot turns out that what I have just said is true...then there exists no problem for those of us who dont see the dragonshouts as a positive thing,and dont mind not doing the main quest...If you do want to do the MQ however, then you will be exposed to the potential, at least, of the shout system...whether you use them or not will be purely your own choice at that point...thus defying the pre-written destiny of the character,which, to my mind is fine...I am all for a little self determination, and sticking the old middle finger up to the forces at work...bastards.

Personally though, I want to play with the system a bit...to see what it does...I also want to fool around with not using it to see if I can fight a dragon without it...and win....

I would hope that I was able to fight battles with the usual enemies without having to use the shouts, but I imagine the feeling of being especially powerful will get the better of me and I will set fire to someone at some point....

Pretty sure he means that there needs to be a concrete standard for what is and is not acceptable or possible in a fictional setting. If the dragon shouts seem to bypass the conventions of the setting it will stand out and feel... odd and perhaps diminishing the believability(real word?) of dragon shouts. If it gives the player abilities that no other being in the game world has access to,.then it looses credibility. Just because the developers conveniently state that "for this game your character has sole access to unique powers never before seen in TES".... which is kind of what it seems like to me. The fact that they have never been in a TES game before makes it gimmicky. Well, I never played any TES games before Oblivion so maybe I am wrong and there were dragonborns shouting in prior games?

see there, that's kinda what I'm talking about. Is it really going to be that way?
There's an old movie called, 'The Incredible Mr. Limpett' about a bored accountant that somehow gets turned into a fish. Takes place during WWII and Mr. Limpett, coming to after falling into the ocean to find he's been magically turned into a blue, cartoon fish, soon learns that he can 'shout' real, real loud and knock out the radar on enemy submarines. Comes in handy as he 'shouts' the American ships over and past the evil Germans patrolling the depths of the Atlantic... looking for things to shoot and eventually, a blue fish that 'shouts'
Entertaining yes... serious, no friekin way.
Man I really hope it isn't anything like that in the game.

there is something wonderful about this post...but my brain hurts to much to really think about it right now....

It's never really been in a previous games, but there were other Dragonborn capable of using dragon shouts, it just wasn't a honed ability per se. That's essentially why the Greybeards exist, the God-like masters of Thu'um, that will likely help the Dragonborn become more proficient in the use of Thu'um. It's not just you that has access to Dragon shouts though, it is the dragon language after all so Dragons will be using it, and the fore-mentioned Greybeards are equally capable in its use.