My Favorite Skyrim Shout

Being Dragonborn doesn’t come without its benefits. Not only do the Skyrim locals talk agog about the Dragonborn like Justin Bieber fans talking up their favorite idol at a Teen’s Choice Awards program, but the Dragonborn gets the power of the Thu’um, or Dragon Shouts, as he adventures throughout Skyrim. Dragon Shouts are cool for a couple of reasons:

• The power of the Shout is fairly exclusive — not everyone has the voice of the dragon. Savos Aren, the Archmage of Winterhold? Nope. How about Balgruuf the Greater, Jarl of Whiterun? Not a chance. The only NPCs that have the power of the Thu’um are the old dudes living at High Hrothgar, the Greybeards. But let’s face it — these dudes live in isolation near the top of the highest mountain in all Tamriel and they’re kind of creepy. Their skill at the Shout is lame compared to the Dragonborn. In a one-on-one cage match against a Greybeard, the Dragonborn will win every time.

• The Shout is an extra power that just makes life sweeter. With all the weapons, magic skills, and enchanted items in Skyrim, I sometimes forget that I even have the Thu’um. I’ve been in various fights, hacking and slashing and using up Magicka, when I suddenly remember that I can Shout. It’s kind of like finding a ten dollar bill in your jeans pocket that you forgot you even had.

My favorite Thu’um is Ice Form. For some reason I just love freezing opponents into solid blocks of ice — it just brings a smile to my face. Typically I’ll use Ice Form at the beginning of combat. First I’ll freeze an opponent into an oversize fish stick, then I’ll run up and beat the tar out of him with dual weapon attacks before he fully recovers. Street fighting Dragonborn style! Even if I can’t finish my opponent off immediately, I just know it has to humiliate him to be schooled in such a fashion.

Word to the wise — you have to be careful with Ice Form. Once when I was in Whiterun, loitering just inside the front gate, I accidentally used the power of the Shout and froze some old lady into a block of ice (I can’t remember her name right off, but she annoys me every time I see her — always harping on me for having done my good deed for the day). Anyway, I unintentionally froze the old bat into a block of ice, and the Whiterun guards were on me something fierce. I’m a Thane of Whiterun, so I didn’t think it would be cool if the locals saw me going Chain Lighting on a couple guards just doing their jobs, so I had to restart my game. Just be careful not to be all thumbs with your Thu’ums and you should do all right.