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You know, Torolf is that guy in Helgen who is wounded on the ground when you jump down from the inn. At first I thought he was just a corpse but I wondered why Hadvar always cries, "Torolf!" He is still alive and the dragon fries him before your eyes. I always have pitied him.
Today I was running through Helgen for the umptieth time and just for kicks I tried to see what happened if I kept running up to the dragon when it lands instead of cowering behind the wall with Hadvar, the old man and the kid. Alduin flew off and didn't kill Torolf! Of course, this will have no long term effect on the game but I like these tiny variations in the otherwise repetitive game.
One interesting variation that happened nearby in one of the, I estimate, forty times I've done Helgen was in the tower before jumping down to the inn. There's this Stormcloak whom Alduin kills when he headbutts the tower and then flames it. You know, the one that only wants to move some rocks. Well in this game he wasn't killed, just wounded and he was lying there blinking and holding his tummy. So it seems the death of Torolf and the Stormcloak are not scripted but Alduin actually resolves an attack against them that can in very rare occasions leave them alive. I wonder if the horse thief might get away sometime? Nah, that one surely is scripted. Have you noticed that the arrow almost always hits him in an ankle? Must have been poisoned or something.

Back when I first played Skyrim on an older computer the game was very laggy. When I was going through the opening the game was so laggy Lokir actually got away. He kept running and eventually faded out of view. Of course since he's supposed to die I would never see him after that, but it was still funny.

I did some "speed runs" through Helgen (aka, get out into the world as soon as possible - which is why I actually knew about that Alduin thing you mentioned, actually!), and I used to have some glitches where the stormcloak guy would be totally fine, and standing on the rocks and even surviving Alduin's fire breath. Honestly, I think he is suppose to have a death - not exactly in script per say, but I have a feeling if he survives that it was some sort of small glitch or another. I used to have a pretty sure plan that would make it "glitch" so he would survive, but ever since I gotten the DLCs, it's never happened again.

Sadly the guy who you saved from being toasted, well, his son ends up and orphan and goes to live with his grandpa, so I guess his dad succumbed to his wounds! Not too surprising, but it would have been rather interesting if there was a change if he survived (ex: him also living with his father and son)

As for Lokir, I don't think the arrow has ever hit his ankle in any of my games, always seems to be his back, but his death animations can be different and I always found the one where he does a face-dive or the splits to be rather amusing. XD

Never had that Stormcloak live or Lokir live - saved Torolf loads of times though, just run straight through, Alduin gets out the way so that he can get to the point to kill the Imperial in the house a few seconds running up the path.

The glitch I always (99/100) get on PC is when the Stormcloak who disagreed with Talos being left out of the priest's bit is being executed his body always keeps moving and ends up 90 degrees away from where he should be...

They are just bugs i think. Because if you visit the old man and the kid in Helgen(Torolf's son)
They still say that Torolf died even when i 'rescued' him.

caralampio wrote:I wonder if the horse thief might get away sometime? Nah, that one surely is scripted. Have you noticed that the arrow almost always hits him in an ankle? Must have been poisoned or something.

Yeah the thief can actually survive if you use console commands to kill the archers. He also does seem to be shot through the ankle every time too, I believe this to be in reference to Achilles.

CBR JGWRR wrote:Alduin gets out the way so that he can get to the point to kill the Imperial in the house a few seconds running up the path.

I've actually had this guy survive due to a bug where Alduin spiraled hundreds of feet up into the air at this point instead of landing on the wall. He was spewing fire at the time as well, so he looked like a giant pinwheel or some sort of firework. It was pretty amusing. The Imperial just stood there afterwards, not even bothering to help his fellows in the fight.

I've had a real good glitch, there must have been a script error because Alduin was not invincible, the imperials killed him pretty quick and just stopped, Hadvar acted like there was still a battle and urged me into the keep, but Alduin's skeleton was just there, with everyone complaining how "It just keeps coming!". It was funny.

I walked on Alduin's back!
Still experimenting with Helgen, I just ran up the stairs before Ulfric could say anything, when Alduin broke the wall I jumped out before he could flame everything, and ran down his back into the keep. Awesome!