Aela is my favorite follower for my Nord Harbinger character for her utility as a ranged fighter and for RP purpuses (Garm's "neutral" and remains a werewolf) but what always bugged me is her lack of dialog when exploring caves, ruins, etc, compared to Mjoll or even Erik and Jenassa for that matter. For one of the iconic Skyrim NPC's, I found this surprising. Any other Aela fans irked by this?

Mjoll's almost too talkative imo. She kind of stood out among followers for that. Well, her and Erandur (although I like Erandur).

Anyways, I haven't noticed really (about Aela). I wanted to like her, but ended up not making much use of her.

For the simple reason that the game isn't about Aela. Which is the reason why she is lacking in dialogue.

Followers are good if you're starting out in the game and your skills are under-developed. They are there if you need help from getting over whelmed by the enemy itself. But when you are like me and get over the level of 81 and above.

Those characters become irrelevant to you and have little use and you can pretty much take care of yourself without having Aela or another NPC to guard your back.

Yes we like her because she's a "ranged character" and we're really concerned about what she has to "say." I've noticed Murcio the wizard apprentice (not a pack mule) from Riften is extra chatty in Dwermer ruins though he also comments on every cave and wants to "go inside." Maybe Aela is just not chatty as per her personality type. She is a bit tough and no nonsense.

C'mon, man... We all know you took her for her "side-boob." You don't need conversation with that distracting us

Seriously, she does seem more of a "quiet type" than most other followers. I think the trouble is that she doesn't really have much of a "backstory", so to speak. Mjoll (I've heard) never shuts up, kind of like Serana. I don't know about Jenassa as I've yet to pick her up as a follower.

As long as she doesn't say, "Look! A Cave! I wonder what's in there..." as we EXIT a cave (like Lydia does), it's all good

Her voice is FemaleCommander.. shared with Rikke. I think if there's any important character out of the two, it's her. Although she isn't a follower.

MaleCommander is Skjor and the Imperial Captains btw. Kind of funny parallel.

I haven't used Alea as a follower all that much but she doesn't seem like the kind of person who would comment over every little thing. If you want more dialogue from her though, http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52019/? might help. It's PC only though and there doesn't seem to a version for the Special Edition either.

Mjoll is pretty talkative but her dialogue is more stories about her past adventures than comments on your surroundings or current situation. Nice the first couple of times but it gets old after a while. She can also get really annoying when you forced to stay in one place such as the peace treaty during Season Unending. "Yes Mjoll, I know your dad used to take you to hunt cliff racers. Now will you shut up? I'm trying to negotiate here!"

I love Mjoll's pvssyr. Its one of the main reasons I ever take her along. Jenassa's comments are pretty fun also and in the right order can be pretty hilarious.

I agree that she's the quiet, badass, type, but so is Jenassa, yet Jenassa has far more random dialog than Aela even though Aela is a prominent character in one of the major faction questlines. I suppose I just get tired of hearing "you don't see that every day." Marrying her does make it a bit better, since you get a few dialog options, but it's always been hilarious to me that she can be kidnapped by mere bandits like any other non-combatant spouse. She's a highly skilled hunter/warrior and a werewolf. Come on.

May be she is just a quiet shy girl. Don't judge her.

Anyways, as came to my mind, one of the things that really bothers me in this game is that our character doesn't have a voice. Everybody else is a pvssyrbox and my dragonborn is asking questions silently. I'm surprised how people understand what she says while she only says it just in her mind. LOL

I pray to the gods that the Elder Scrolls games never have a voiced protagonist.

Indeed. It will be a sad day if it ever happens.

For sure! "Bad\-Ass" Aela gets kidnapped?

I don't like how she hang back all the time and tend to get stuck.

She had one memorable dialogue, it was Clavicus Vile's dungeon, I entered the last chamber and all the vampires started running up the stairs towards me and I shot them down as they come.

At the end Aela finally cached up with me and said "That is not something you see every day" I thought she was complementing my shooting, but realized it was the daeric shrine afterward.

I think many of the followers in Skyrim are shallow / superficial to begin with. Not too much depth to them. At least the ones I've used (Aela, Jenassa) I think werewolves were added late into the development of Skyrim and therefore wouldn't be surprised if Aela was not worked on as much as some of the other followers. That being said, I can't help but think that the followers in Skyrim are even more superficial (not enough character depth) than the followers in Follout 3 that was made before Skyrim.

The most backstory you'll come across for Aela is when you first meet her outside of Whiterun when they take on that giant. She mentions her armour was passed down for generations through her matriarchal lineage and that both her parents were both werewolvesl. Her father died somewhere along the way and her mother was a Companion as well, IIRC.

Aela does seem like her werewolf side sort of seeps into her character, following the pack leader with unquestioning loyalty (Kodlack). Even with his decision for the new Harbinger.

Jenassa isn't bad. She revels in combat, views war wounds with respect and thinks it's a shame to hide them as evidenced when you heal her, "I hope you're not expecting a thank you." She does have some interesting dialogue on dwemer ruins triggering a slight bit of nostalgia for those who researched them back in Morrowind (at least for me). Sounding almost like a Dark Brotherhood type her one short coming for me is that her sneak skill isn't that good. Interestingly enough, Jenassa is not very fond of caves and makes such a statement when you come to one. I do think though that she makes a similar comment when exiting. Many followers do unfortunately. Aela included.

Quiet is good where vanilla followers are concerned. Mjoll makes a good first impression, but her company gets old really quickly. Really, unless the follower is central to the game, not much along the line of resources can really be put into creating them, so it's either quiet or spamming the same lines over and over.

Certain follower mods like Inigo can provide you with an amazing follower, but the time put into creating just that one follower mod has been staggering.

Vanilla wise, I think the only truly unique follower is Cicero. He's got his own voice, never shared with anyone. And DLC wise, Serana and Frea. So Aela is fairly normal, as far as followers are concerned. She doesn't have that ambient stuff that Mjoll does, but even so, that has it's downsides too. Mjoll sometimes spouts irrelevant details.

Followers in TES are pretty much "no-dimensional." A couple have a semblance of a backstory, but most "just appear" like the housecarls. This is why I like games like SW:KotOR or Fallout: New Vegas with their companions that had lives and stories to uncover