Black Books are way more interesting than the main Dragonborn questline

[EbonyWarrior]

okay so I just finished Dragonborn again on my current playthrough and I'm realizing the Black Books genuinely hit different. like, the actual Miraak fight and the whole "defeat the first Dragonborn" thing feels kind of... flat? But then you go into one of those Black Books and suddenly you're in this twisted reality where Hermaeus Mora is just casually warping the rules and you can barely tell what's real.

I think it's because the Black Books feel personal in a way the main quest doesn't. Miraak's out there doing his thing, fine, whatever, he's got his dragons and his cult. But the Books? Those are Mora's actual domain. You're not fighting some dude who made a deal with a Daedra - you're literally walking around inside a Daedra's mind and he's watching you the whole time. The flavor text alone is creepier than most of the actual combat encounters.

Plus the rewards actually feel earned. Like, Bend Will is cool but you get it from just progressing the main questline. But grabbing a Black Book and coming out with some weird spell or power that Mora's just... giving you? That feels like you're messing with something you shouldn't be.

Does anyone else feel like they spent more time in Apocrypha than they did actually caring about Solstheim's politics? Because I definitely did.

 

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

I get what you're saying about the atmosphere, but I think you're underselling the Miraak fight a bit. The whole point is that he's not just some random dude - he's literally the precedent for what you are. The Dragon language, the shouts, the whole Dragonborn thing? He did it first, thousands of years ago. That's why the confrontation matters, even if the actual combat is straightforward.

That said, yeah, Apocrypha is way more memorable as a space. The Black Books nail something the main quest doesn't really go for - that creeping wrongness of being inside Hermaeus Mora's head. The geometry doesn't make sense, the books are breathing, Mora's just... there, narrating your descent. It's less about winning and more about the violation of it, if that makes sense. And mechanically, the Black Book powers feel rarer because you're actively choosing which ones to grab rather than just getting Bend Will handed to you as a story beat.

But I'd push back on the "Solstheim's politics" thing - there's barely any politics in Dragonborn at all, main quest or otherwise. The Skaal are cool flavor but they're not really a faction you're choosing sides with the way you do in Skyrim proper. The DLC is pretty laser-focused on the Daedric stuff, which works, but it does mean the island itself feels a bit hollow outside of the dungeons and Apocrypha itself.