User blog comment:Sgt. S.S./If you could bring any dead character back to life in Skyrim, who would it be?/@comment-5378691-20121011021254

Some spoilers below...

[Pelinal Whitestrake], if he actually is dead and not just off hanging out somewhere doing who knows what like the Nerevarine in Akaviir (I assume the Nerevarine isn't dead since he's crazy powerful and immortal as a result of his corprus), would probably be able to seriously mess up the Thalmor considering he was able to single-handedly take out three Ayleid city-states and has a serious hate of elves like the Thalmor (maybe all elves). He tends to not stay dead already though, so maybe not the best pick.

It did always bug me in game that I can have my character become a master the restoration school and yet there's so few times it can actually be used to save a character from a for some reason scripted death (the hunter at Bloated Man's Grotto during Ill met by Moonlight for example, I can't see why he couldn't be saved). But I'd have definitely saved Astrid if I could, though I'd have preferred having Gabriella. The Night Mother would probably be the most obvious choice to res. There's a bunch of characters I'd want to bring back though, mostly ones who it would seem the Dragonborn should have been able to keep alive anyway, I'm not sure if I had to pick just one.

Eltrys' didn't really deserve his fate and had a pregnant wife. He really shouldn't have been meeting the Dragonborn at the Shrine of Talos, way too public. First time, I thought going there was going to be some sort of Thalmor trap too. The penalty for worshipping Talos is death, so it doesn't seem like a good place to loiter. The Dragonborn really should have been able to go to Jarl Igmund with all his findings too, they're pretty damning for the Silver-Bloods. Apparently being Thane of Markarth doesn't even get you the right to speak in your defence though.

Potema was actually in the process of being resurrected when the Dragonborn showed up at Wolfskull Cave but the game won't let you just let it play out and see what happens (most of my Dragonborn would have for one reason or another: getting their hands on resurrection magic from the ritual leader, powerful necromantic allies, bringing another Dragonborn in to play as a potential contingency against Alduin, etc. Not that he wouldn't kill them later if things turned bad).

Mirabelle Ervine's death seemed like an afterthought on the part of the devs, and for some reason the player can't go ahead and heal her before he leaves the College grounds. Was never sure what Tolfdir meant by "holding off Ancano" either, since the guy didn't really seem to be trying to go anywhere. Archmage Aren I'd leave alone so I could keep his position.

The Nightingale Gallus was another it'd have been nice to bring back, Karliah blamed herself for his death way too much and I found her refusal to let herself love again terribly sad. The Butcher's victims seem like good potential choices, Friga Shattershield and Fjolti Cruel-Sea were pretty well connected, Susanna maybe less so. So many options, and the mechanics and limitations of resurrection magic in Nirn aren't exactly clear either, though it certainly exists.