Yeah seriously. Who uses ketchup on good meat? If you're gonna use ketchup use it on something trashy like hamburger.

Ok. Alduin is the focus of the entire main quest. You lay the smack down on him twice. I do remember what he did to Helgen, but I also remember bringing 2 unenchanted legendar daedric swords and using elemental fury to take him down in under 15 seconds. im not saying he's really that weak, but i am saying the dovakiin beats his ass multiple times, and that the only thing he destroyed was Helgen.

That was full-powered santa Alduin, not sleepy wimpy Alduin (the dude we face in Skyrim). If we're including alternate points in time, than that seriously muddles things beyond reason.

This. Dagoth -> Ayem / Seht -> Dagon, and the heart of Lorkhan has been directly or indirectly responsible for several dragon breaks, making its wielder more powerful than any incarnation of the great Dragon.

DREAMSLEEVE AETHER-TENDRIL RECEIVED: DECOMPRESSING PALEONUMERALS

WORKING...

MNEMOSPHERE EXTRACTED. LAUNCH WRAITHTIME?

WORKING...

PLAY:

"Attention, feeble womb-issue of the mundus, you have the honor of being addressed by Valkynaz Ktharakakarys, His Most Severe Majesty's Lord-of-the-Lash for all the Worthy Kyn of Ganonah.

I believe the idiom of your maggot-culture is...the chase, let me pursue it: No ash-vampire nor dragon-priest can rightly be mentioned in the same aeon as the Valkynaz. They were weak, and now slumber as ashes, as is the fate of all the womb-issued everywhere, no matter their conduct. But not the Valkynaz. Having wrestled with your ZNTHR, we are stronger; Having cheated your JLNS, we are more cunning; and having authored havoc across the countless membranes of the AURB and authoring havoc still since before The Serpent (may his scales rot in all the worlds!) fled Our Master in his silver vehicle at the Dawn, We Are Without Boundary Known.

The Kyn are endless, as is the patience of the Kyn. If not within this kalpic, then in the next.

...

Have a pleasant evening."

END MIMETOGRAPH.

Well that settles it. I am not about to argue with those guys.

The Ash Vampires certainly have the most class:

"I greet you, Aramdryn. Or Nerevar. Or whoever you are. I'm Dagoth Endus, brother of Dagoth Ur, and lord of Citadel Endusal. Would you like a little ancient Dagoth brandy? It is a rare nectar beyond compare, distilled ages before your ancestor's ancestors. And a fitting toast to our challenge. Would you like to sample it?...

Then I drink to your health. Bottoms up... Whenever you're ready, then? You're the challenger, and I am your host. So honor demands that you deliver the first blow"--Dagoth Endus

Honestly, I'd be more inclined to treat the resurrected dragons as the Elite minions of Alduin than the Dragon Priests. They are most like in him kind, and mind. A Dov is a Dov, and a Joor is a Joor. The Ash Vampires, the Kyneval are not Joor. Alduin's strongest are not either.

At the time, Almalexia and Sotha Sil were at the peak of their power because Dagoth Ur had yet to awaken and keep them from the Heart. 430 years later, they've seemingly gotten a lot weaker.

Alduin can't even be harmed without Dragonrend. Some people seem to be thinking of the Dovahkiin as some sort of mighty hero but that's not the most important part, the important part is the thu'um. The Dovahkiin (and others) literally had to shout Ald off of his Divine perch before they coud harm him with physical means. Mundane sword-swinging and spell-weaving would do [censored]-all against him withought Dragonrend. I've seen a few people who are annoyed with Alduin's supposed weakness in Skyrim, they forget about that whole escapade with the elder scroll and the wound-in-time that was necessary to obtain the power to even stand a chance at defeating him. In fact come to think of it I'd imagine that if an elder scroll didn't happen to be so close to hand (relatively speaking) then Tamriel may well have been out of luck.

Perhaps, but the question isn't about Alduin.

Alduin isn't that powerful as most seem to think he is.
Don't forget that he is the first son of Akatosh,the first born,but nothing more.
If you finished the game you should remember that other dragons started doubting his power and feeling like Alduin isn't that powerful as he wanted them to think.
And actually under normal circumstances Alduin isn't that more powerful than the rest dragons at all... It's because he is cheating and travels to Sovngarde and eats souls that he conserves enough power to play it tough.
That's why other dragons call him a lier,as the lyrics of the Main Theme also do.
Alduin wasn't a god neither he was gifted by being the first born as he wanted others to believe.He had the power of a usual dragon and he only became more powerful because he broke rules and ate man's souls.

I'm sure that if in some way the portal to Sovngarde was blocked and Alduin was forced to stop eating new souls,he would be so weak Mehrunes would kill him and then use conjuration spell to bring him back to life and kill him again just for fun..


p.s. I started feeling sorry for Alduin. Weird eh ?

He's also invincible without Dragonrend, which only three Tongues (who've been dead for thousands of years), and now you, know. Dragons are special as they have a unique bond to time, and Alduin is special even among them (as evidenced by his invincibility and your inability to take his soul). Dragonrend was Alduin's Achilles Heel -- even a god(-like being) can have a mortal weakness.

Odahviing also acknowledges that Alduin may not be all he's cracked up to be, but he still refuses to side with you against him unless you can prove yourself by killing him. Paarthurnax turned away from Alduin because Kyne told him to (Kyne being Shor's war-wife, who is Akatosh's/Alduin's mirror double; that's not a position to ignore, even to a dragon). The dragons of the 3rd Era followed the dragonborn because Alduin wasn't around, and the dragonborn is a powerful dragon.

In a straight-up fight, I'd say the Heartwights would win. Valkynaz are tough, but mortals have banished them before, and the Wights are much more than mortals, as they share the power of Lorkhan. Dragonpriests are powerful wizards, but mortal and have a limited time to gain experience. Heartwights, on the other hand, are thousands of years old, with the experience and skill to match.

Not quite. He is the "First Born" of Akatosh but I don't think we can draw anything solid from that statement just yet, whether in relation to his power or anything else. There are just too many equally valid interpretations of that*. Alduin is no normal dragon. As far as we know Alduin can not be killed without divine intervention. The thu'um was a gift from Kyne, later refined into a shout capable of messing with Alduin to the degree that he could be harmed. You seem to be missing this, Alduin was invulnerable until Dragonrend.

* First born as in first limitation/refinement such as Anu(Anuiel(Auriel)? Or first born as in the result of an interplay of Akatosh and another entity? Perhaps neither?

EDIT - Perhaps we should be thinking more in terms of Akatosh = Time. First-Born could be the first consequence or implication of time's existence. Or time's effect on another concept (to go with the interplay idea)