Definitely spoiler stuff here.

Something I've wondered about ever since my second or third playthrough. (At @3500 hours of play, that was quite a long while ago.) Dovahkin manages to trap Oodahviing and extract Alduin's location from him. The location is Skuldafn, high in the mountains. According to Oodahviing, the only way to get there is if a dragon flies the Dovahkin there. The dragon's deal is: I fly you there and then you let me go.

Now, here's my question: Why couldn't Dovahkin use Paarthurnax to fly to Skuldafn and leave Oodahviing a prisoner (where he most likely deserves to be for the rest of eternity)? Paarthurnax has definitely demonstrated that he is very much anti-Alduin, so I can't see any reason why he would decline the request. WHY must it be Oodahviing's way or no way?

Odavhing is young, according to Parth, and impulsive. He can be beaten and bargained with. He won't lose standing if he bends to help the dragonborn.

Paarth is not only older and stronger, and would possibly lose face and standing with the other dragons if he agreed to play transport, but Alduin and Parth have an "attack on sight" thing going on from the very beginning of things. When you go back in time to learn dragonrend you can hear Alduin swearing he's going to kill Paarth, "My teeth to his neck." before the Tongues banish him into Time.

Also Paarthurnax tells you he saw Numinex driven mad by captivity and loneliness - you think he'd willingly subject Odahviing to that ?

bigger question is, why can't you bypass that entire quest by using Bend Will on a random Dragon..


Same answer to both questions though, the gameplay and story demand it

That reason is easy to get around. "Look, Paarthurnax, I don't entirely trust that Oodahviing won't just dump me off when we're a couple thousand feet off the ground. But if you fly me up there, I'll make sure that he gets released when I get back." (If I die, it's the end for EVERYONE anyway, so Oodahviing's captivity wouldn't be all that long either way.)

When a dovah gives you there word they'll never go back on it there no elf.

Probably because bend will is introduced in the game by an extension, Dragonborn, I think. It's not part of the base game and there are no reasons for the devs to modify the base game for that.

I believe that's an overstatement. Oodahviing stresses that he keeps his word... but then, that's pretty much what a liar would say, isn't it? Dragons as a rule are prideful, and in a way, they are much like Nords, espousing noble sentiments about honor. Yet, not ALL Nords are honorable or valiant. Dragons have personalities, just like people, and personalities run the gamut from Good to Bad, Truthful to Deceitful, etc. Breaking one's word usually involves rationalizing the action. "I said I would take him up to Skaldafn, but I never specified from what altitude I would drop him off there." If the desire is there to mislead without lying, there are always ways to circumvent the intent of an agreement. (As Oodahviing himself demonstrated by initially by neglecting to mention it takes a dragon's flight ability to reach Skuldafn.)

You realize that Alduin has come back intending to pick up where he left off, right? The whole Dragons as supreme rulers with Alduin ruling the dragons? Humans and mer back to being slaves for the Dragonpriests? Paarth tells you that Alduin's actions in stepping over the boundaries of what Akatosh intended his role to be is why Paarth was convinced to teach the humans the Th'uum by Kyne.

If the Dragonborn doesn't come back, everyone's captivity is going to last a long, long, long time. True, Odavhiing might end up being killed by Alduin for losing to the Dragonborn, but Alduin might decide being trapped is an appropriate punishment.

Wasn't there also an insinuation by Odhaviing that he's not sure who's going to win in the end (the Dragonborn or Alduin) so he wants to hedge both sides?

If you speak with Esbern and Paarthurnax, they both indicate that Alduin's return signifies "the end of the world". NOT just a resumption of the state of affairs when Alduin last ruled. And NOT just the end of Skyrim, but rather the entire world. That this world will end and the next cycle ("egg of the Kalpa") will begin.

Dude there dragons there make believe. they can be what ever you want them to be. oodahviing takes you skaldafn on his back he kept his promise maybe it wasn't exactly were we wanted to be but maybe that's also how dragon humor is? I don't know THERE DRAGONS. any mortal that says they fully know and understand dragons are liars. and any lairs who say they don't fully understand dragons are themselves dragons.........

I think you may have missed the point i was trying to make

Even Paarthurnax says dragons are not to be trusted: "The Blades are wise not to trust me. Onikaan ni ov. I would not trust another dovah."

Then again later he adds "It is always wise to mistrust a dovah. I have overcome my nature only through meditation and long study of the Way of the Voice. No day goes by where I am not tempted to return to my inborn nature."

Some would argue that, in fact, Alduin doesn't want to destroy this world, he just want it for himself...

Maybe...

ok so then don't trust dragons its not like there are a lot of chances were we are supposed to trust them anyway. So they are able to over come there nature it seems oodaviing did it so did durnahviir and paarthanaax. Also oodah probably droped you there because he got tired of carrying our heavy ass he probably was asking himself why in the flying [censored] his the dragonborn carrying all those [censored] swords and potions?!

The Reason you can't use Paarthurnax to fly to Skuldafn is because he turned on Alduin so if he arrives at Skuldafn Parth would be attacked on sight. Odaviing has not turned against alduin so he can arrive there and drop you off.

Basically Odaviing is your undercover ride to the secret base . Even when Oodaviing drops you off he even tells you he can"t help (or Go) you no further. Odaviing knows that if he is seen helping you , if you fail Oodaviing is done for.

If it was the true end of the kalpa, and Alduin was there to end the world as he was supposed to, why would he be resurrecting the other dragons? ALDUIN eats the world; it isn't a "every dragon's free buffet". If he was going to destroy the world, why bother resurrecting the other dragons to simply kill them himself when the world ends? Al du in, Destroyer Devour Master, had his own plans.

The Tongues and Greybeards and Dragonguard kept the legend alive so when he returned in the future, people would still consider him a threat, even if no one remembered exactly what happened during the Dragon War. Bad enough that some consider Alduin and Akatosh the same being.

Like all good minions and henchmen, those other dragons help Alduin subjugate the world. They may think that they will share in the bounty, but all that they DO know for sure is that they were dead, and then because of Alduin, they were alive again. That tends to instill a certain level of loyalty. Enough for Alduin to carry out his nefarious scheme anyway. The only real impediment is Dovahkin. (Anybody else out there killing dragons that are NOT in DB's company?) All Alduin has to do is keep sending minions at Dovahkin until one of them gets lucky.

What is meant by "company?" Practically every NPC with an iron dagger is trying to kill Dragons.

"Company" = "Dovahkin and those with him". And "trying" is the operative word. Other than all of the dragon skeletons on Solstheim -- remnants of the First Dragonborn's handiwork several millenia ago -- the ONLY dragons being killed in Skyrim that I am aware of have been those killed by Dovahkin or by someone fighting alongside Dovahkin. Ergo, take out Dovahkin and Alduin's only real roadblock to world domination is removed.

Nope. I've watched giants kill dragons. Since just about every single giant I've come across has tried to qualify my dragonborn for the Tamriel space program by sending her into orbit, I seriously doubt the giants are fighting alongside the dragonborn. The first time I couldn't figure out why I absorbed a dragon soul, since I was running down the road with no dragon in sight anywhere, then I got closer and found the dead dragon in the middle of the road.

Remember; the dragonborn can kill a dragon and take its power, but others can kill dragons. They may still be raised by Alduin, but until then they are dead and buried.

There's also the mention of going out to investigate a report of a dragon: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Annals_of_the_Dragonguard%C2%A0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQYjyqfFSE8

Beginning of the end....of the world? Or beginning of the end of the rule of men and mer? It isn't stated by anyone who really knows. Alduin is raising dead dragons, and eating souls in Sovngard. Other than that, it might be open to interpretation.

Yes, dragons killed by others are subject to being raised. Guess who killed most of the dragons that Alduin is raising? Not a dragonborn. Akaviri dragon hunters, maybe. Dragonborn, definitely not.

I feel so out of it. So much time invested, and yet so much that I've never seen.

Weren't most of the dragons killed by the Nords that were working with Felldir, Gormleith, and Hakon? Once they zapped Alduin with the Elder Scroll, no more recycling available, so the population was continuously decreasing until only Paarthurnax remained.

You will get the soul anyway, whoever kills a dragon. You just have to wait for the killer to leave the premisses before getting close enough to the corpse.

It's hilarious that when Alduin actually starts doing his job, he gets shanked by an uppity mortal kleptomaniac with dubious morals.