Why would he do this? It's in his best interest to see us dead.

I don't know which mod it is in my set-up, but for some reason Alduin can 'Shout' me to death during the attack on Helgen. Except...the player character ragdolls and comes back to life. It might be Deadly Dragons, it might be something else, but it's definitely odd, and it happens when Alduin is carrying out his scripted attacks and shouldn't have been able to harm the player character.

I have no idea. But in threads discussing why Alduin shows up in Helgen I've seen a few people put forward the theory that he arrives to prevent our execution. It has never made much sense to me either.

Alduin probably didn't know who in the crowd of puny mortals was the Dragonborn, so he inadvertently saved the player character. He did as much damage as he could before too many escaped through Helgen Keep, and then flew off assuming he'd killed the Dragonborn.

It's more likely that he sensed a fellow dragon in us and came to investigate. Maybe he attacked when he realized that there are only humans in Helgen, so one of them must be a Dovahkiin, and hoped that general chaos and destruction will be enough to kill them.

I once stayed in the square too long, Alduin flew by and burned me to a crisp. It wasn't a very nice beginning of my character's story.

I'd say your character went out in a blaze of glory...

Thank Talos I wasn't playing Dead is Dead. On the other hand, I wouldn't have lost much.

Another good mod to check out is "Unbound-Alternate Start." (I think that's the name) It even lets you decide on whether or not you are dragonborn, or if you want dragons in the game at all.

I saw that as well, but something put me off it, can't recall what. I'll have to look at it again, thanks.

On my very first playthrough I recall lingering for so long that Alduin landed directly on top of me, rocketing me up into the air. I somehow survived the fall and got to see my character in 3rd person with his hands still tied. Wasn't until my second and third playthrough that I realized how anomolous that was.

Actually, I think that is just an Unrelenting Force shout that you survived. I have been thrown to the ground a few times and gotten back up, hands still bound

I take damage almost every time I jump from the tower through the roof to the Inn next door. I've also taken damage from some of the "meteorites" that Alduin spawns. And fires. I think I even stubbed my toe on the stairs up in the tower when following Ralof

I sometimes watch Alduin killing everyone. He landed at one point in front of Tullius and the two Mages, grabs one mage in his mouth and throws him, then the next mage in his mouth. Leaving Tullius crawling away.

I bumped into Ralof trying to run into the tower where Ulfric is and he goes "What's the hurry?" I had to stop and just go "Are you serious Ralof...?"

The only time I ever manged to die was before Alduin ever showed up and it was because of some mod not playing nice. Lokir fell through the cart and died and I followed his lead about 50 seconds later.

That's funny

"Uh... Ralof... DRAGON!!!"