I'm listing examples in how they would make the fighting much more thrilling, they can keep their own identity but also make it more fun to kill things and to watch others fight, not to copy each other. This is how you can come up with great NEW ideas is to look at what's already out there and learn where it went wrong and where it went right, if no one ever did that, we wouldn't have video games, we wouldn't have the cars we see today, or houses, or even ROADS! There is nothing wrong with learning where others have gotten the right idea and incorporate it into your own game like First person perspective.
This is where you're very mistaken. You are asking to make the mechanics of Elder Scrolls like another game, not to expand on it's own content. Would you want a Mario game to be more like Legend of Zelda? Would you want a Kirby game to stop being about kirby sucking up his enemies and gaining their powers and becoming something like Pokemon?
There is a difference between improving on what mechanics a game uses and taking mechanics from something else and calling it your own.
This isn't an 8-16 bit RPG where you must use your imagination, we are given the fight and that's how it looks. And yes, I know animation as well and no, many people have their own charm in their animation and their art style but many already use outside sources from which they learned how to animate/draw. I learned how to animate frame-by-frame in Flash and how Disney would make their movies like in Pinocchio with the layers of paintings and frames.
Congratulations, then you know the suffering and terrible practices Disney's company put on animators back then and still do to this day. This isn't an argument about you wanting animation. I've explained this, you want different mechanics. You want to change the technical aspect of Elder Scrolls.
To see people swinging wildly with no reaction at all, it gets tiring and boring. As Colleen has added on, being unable to move past something like her own dog blocking her in the door way, this goes into climbing/jumping/AI and discussing how they could improve AI also could use outside references to convey your point, this isn't about how Bethesda should be more like Ubisoft, this post is all about using examples to convey my point and what I would see which could make it more thrilling so calm down.
How AI work and how the mechanics of Skyrim's combat system are not the same thing.
Let's say you had to unequip weapons, shields, and spells in order to use your hands to help you climb, how about the fact you couldn't do it if you're over-encumbered or even by stepping up as well, perhaps you can't wear heavy armor in order to cling to the mountain side for very long because it drains your stamina, no stamina then no clinging or climbing, this can also bring back the Acrobatics skill they removed after Oblivion. Then let the fun commence when someone finds another Fortify Restoration glitch and now can leap from point A - point B regardless of distance, I remember seeing a friend do that in Morrowind on his PC.
I don't think you're very familiar with the concept "What's great on paper isn't good in practice." You think Bethesda's employees haven't had these brilliant ideas? That they would cast such concepts aside? Of course not, neither would I. See, this here is improving on BETHESDA'S Mechanics, not bringing in someone else's (Ex. Assassin's Creed).
You need to learn that sometimes Gameplay needs to take precedent over ideas that can slow the game down too much. This is the exact reason Bethesda and Zenimax allow modding and the creation kit's release and add-ons for ESO. They're a company, what suits us for immersion in today's market isn't always welcome to the masses. You need to be realistic. It sucks sometimes, but these companies work for YEARS. They can't give you everything.
The fight animation isn't what got Skyrim so many awards, the jumping mechanics weren't either, what got the awards was the story, the graphics, the immersible world, the sand box, fast traveling... which by the way all of the above were using outside resources to improve on and even utilize in their own game.
Show me evidence.
Edit: Lastly, on your side with what you were saying about changing something drastically. Fallout. Look at the DRAMATIC difference, all of the Fallout fans from 1 and 2 hated the fact that Bethesda changed it around to what it is today, they hated how Bethesda made it a "mirror of Elder Scrolls", they utilize a lot of the same things, I personally love the changes but many of the fans do not, thanks to Bethesda's changes however brought even more public attention to the games. If you've seen the first 2 games and compared them to Fallout 3 and New Vegas, you'd have no trouble seeing the major differences in... almost everything.
This is a terrible argument. If anything it reinforces what I've been saying. Is fallout fun? Yes, sure. I love fallout too just like you. But remember, Fallout 1 and 2's mechanics were very different in their time, and a lot of people argue that it's just a shooter.
Guess what? It mostly is. It's a first person shooter with a terrible VATS system throw in that makes the game unimmersive and takes away a lot from the fast pace action of the shooting.
Fallout isn't a bad game, but it's nothing new. It really is Elder Scrolls with guns. Why do you think Bethesda uses the same engines for Oblivion and Fallout? And are going to use Skyrim's engine for fallout 4?
Is this bad? That's debatable. Some love it, some don't.
Also, your "calm down" comment was cute. Shows you didn't read my post thoroughly since I too gave an example of the best and worst examples in changing mechanics for good and ill.