So I completed the companion quest line using the 'Enhanced Skyrim Factions: Companions' mod, which made it a lot better and made me want to take Aela along as my follower. The only problem is, she is completely boring! She barely has any area-specific dialogue. She has NO random dialogue, no combat dialogue (that I can remember), etc. The only dialogue she seems to have is "Don't see that every day" and "Trouble ahead..."

So disappointed! She was an actual character with an actual personality (by Skyrim's standards), but she just went silent after that. I was going to consider marrying her, but not really anymore. Any way to get her to talk more?

Any mods -- Well, I know there is a mod called 'Enhanced Skyrim Followers: Aela' but that relies too much on text based dialogue, and I don't like having subtitles turned on -- that address this?

I don't find her particularly boring but she like a lot of followers do suffer from a lot of unique dialog.

I have subtitles turned on for those I am talking to, not for people talking as I walk by. I had thought about trying the Enhanced Aela mod even if its a lot of silent dialog. There is no fix for this other then to hire a voice actor to completely redo all Aela's lines. Which I think the creator of the Enhanced mods had mentioned looking into doing. I might be wrong there.

Since I RP though I do not actually rely on what a follower says to make them interesting, but rather what I imagine them to be saying when we're off exploring.

Thats why all the sellswords are the best followers. They actually talk to you.

Any other good female sellswords, then?

Jenassa, of course, but I've already been down that road.

Borgakh is nice. I remember she liked to chat a bit.

Pretty much all NPCs are boring in Skyrim. The follower / marriage features just highlight the problem, which is one of the reasons why they should never have been added in the first place.

Have you at least tried the mod with text-based dialogue? Having to read will seem really unpleasant if you're used to games with fully voiced dialogue, but if you force yourself to read it rather than skipping through it, then after an hour or so it'll seem completely natural and enjoyable. It's kind of like going back to games with outdated graphics. Sometimes your eyes just need time to adjust.

Is she from one of the orc strongholds? Could be an interesting option.

Right now, my character, Torm Greybear, went back to an earlier acquaintance. I think they are a good match. Better than Aela, at least. Torm became the Harbinger, and decided to reinstate this person into the Companions. Can you guess who (no cheating by link-peek)?

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p117/arkanSTFU/uthgerd2_zps45d40082.jpg

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p117/arkanSTFU/tormanduthgerd3_zps27033823.jpg

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p117/arkanSTFU/tormanduthgerd2_zps9b27631b.jpg

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p117/arkanSTFU/tormanduthgerd1_zps4ede85f4.jpg

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p117/arkanSTFU/uthgerd1_zpsebcc57be.jpg

She comments on her surroundings more than Aela, at least. She's battled hardened, obviously. Seems like a good match, no?

If you think followers are boring, try this mod http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52019/?

Fixed that for you