Morrowind did this better than Oblivion (no, don't try and disagree). In Morrowind, you actually fight the final boss, in Oblivion, you just watch some dudes in a fully scripted battle while the default dungeon music plays.
I want to have to climb the Throat of the World and fight a dragon and kill it. Then Alduin comes down from the sky and you have to kick his golden (hoping he's gold) ass!!! Then you can take his scales and make super-dooper armour! :biggrin:

I'd like a sad ending for once, like Alduin proves too strong for you alone but before you're death a last minute effort of companions and well developed characters shield you while perishing trying to weaken the dragon. Seeing those you knew lying dead give you a final burst of strength and you annihilate it in their name. You are celebrated a hero while those who saved you are quickly forgotten. With no-one to go back to you can only wander the world in the traditional elder scrolls fashion, alone.

Yes exactly!! It wont feel like a good and proper climix without utter devastation and destruction ruining vast swaths of countryside... Mountains must crumble!! Cities must be razed! Armies must be slaughtered to the last man!! The Blood!! The Fire!!! Ruination!! It shall be Gloooooriouss!!!

And the few pitiful survivors should be damaged... physically and mentally scarred beyond all hope of recovery by the horrific battle...

Getting a badass house/dungeon with a massive libary and weapons all aorund me on weapon racks

Hey now, I remember being right there with you too.

Broken Steel be damned. So close, and yet so far.

Anyway, I'd like after a nice epic fight with a big dragon, part of the Throat of the World starts to give way. You can choose to run, or you can choose to stay. If you choose to run, you'll have to run down the throat of the world without getting squished by falling rocks. If you choose to stay, it'll be end game for your character, nice endgame cinimatics to send you off.

Probably not going to happen, but I can always hope.

At the end i wouldn't mind a fight but i believe that everyone shouldn't recognize you as a hero.... Some may call you species killer.... i don't know if you kill off all the dragons but if you do that would fit...... And some people, who might have been previously in the Mythic Dawn might try to kill you for being dragonborn....

Yeah, can I have the option of being ruler this time? I felt deflated when I didn't become the new empress at the end of the main quest in Oblivion

After battling through the game and collecting all the dragon shouts, the hero finally approaches the final boss dragon.

A flick of the tail decapitates him.

The dragon snorts and goes back to sleep.

Personally i think they should do something similiar to the ending of shimmering isles. give the player the power to rule as the new dragon god.giving him access to some special palace of some sort and the ability to turn into a dragon. and even though they probably want do it add in a command feature as the ruler so that you can command the dragons to attack different places..but that would need several other things to go along with it to make it fun..

and just and extra note you can hunt down other dragons that hope to overthrow you as the dragon king

The perfect ending? An ultimate war against every daedric prince and aedra.

The fallout style, where the game actually ends (good or bad doesn't matter), allows much better storytelling and quest design. In FONV so many quests ties into the main quest, weather you do them or not, and weather they have an *actual* impact on the main quest outcome or not, making them unplayable after the dam. I.e. the Boomers, where you in preparation for dam and who you side with, wouldn't make sense to do after the dam. Or Return To Sender (Chief Hanlon), although the outcome didn't matter, it still felt connected.

In FONV, even if you avoided the last boss fight and simply talked him out of it, the story and fate of those you've met are told, in a really grand way. It was an ending to remember. In TES, although you may remember the end of the main questline, you don't remember how the *game* ended. For me, they always just kinda faded away. Not memorable at all. Kinda sad.

So for me, the grandest ending of all times in an RPG, was FONV followed by FO3 (just *bald* to let the hero die )

I guess what could have worked out in Skyrim would be:
* Double Main Quest - Alduin and Civil War.
* FONV endstory for each Main Quests.
* Continue to play after both Main Quests, but with consequences.
* Replacement cells where needed when either of or both are completed.

In FONV it would translate to: Continued play after finish. New Vegas and main camps cells replaced with new cells depending on the outcome. Most quests connected to the main quest would be set to inaccessible, and most important people replaced. But it still would be pretty little stuff left to do unless they made side quests specifically for the after story.

The final fight being a gigantic setpiece in which you jump on Alduin's back and fight him as he tries to shake you off, falling off means dead for you and the world.

The looming threat to the world is over but Dragons are here to stay: goodly, neutral, and bad dragons and all those in between alike. My biggest fear plot wise is that dragons will be one dimensional villainous monsters to be exterminated.

You will mantle Shor in his true form and fight against Alduin one on one.

**Congratulations, you have beaten Skyrim!**

Daggerfall is now playable under the options menu.

Oh I have another one.


The final battle with Alduin is over, you step closer and loot his corpse, to your suprise there's a crossbow and spear and you've learned a shout that will summon a dragon mount!


Credits roll

A similar ending to TheNord, except, as you are fighting atop Throat of the World, you almost die (as TheNord says) but Martin comes, turns into Akatosh form, and there is a hell of an awesome dragon battle. Then Martin Septims Ghost comes out of the (of course) statue of Akatosh that just arose and says some stuff to you that you dont care about then you do the credits and have skillful music...

Edit: I also think that before Martin turns into Akatosh, he talks to you, if you want the game to end and the player to die, you can be akatosh, and you turn into a dragon and fight with fire-breath and that throat-ripping-out thing he did in OB, and if you want the quest to keep going, Martin then kills Anduin. Then you play normally. This is kind of like FO3:BS,
[SPOLIER]
where you get Fawkes or another companion (or Sentinel Lyons) to activate the purifier, on the other hand you can do it yourself and die.