Fus Ro Duh - why does Harkon want you to blot out the sun

[DragonbornVet]

I just realized something stupid about the whole vampire questline. Harkon's whole plan is to use Auriel's Bow to block out the sun forever, right? But like... why does he need YOU to do it? He's had centuries to figure this out. Serana's been walking around with the bow knowledge in her head the whole time. The Volkihar have resources.

But more importantly - and this is what's bugging me - if the sun is gone, what happens to literally everything else? Plants die, the food chain collapses, everyone starves including the vampires. I get that vampires don't need to eat but their thralls do. Their cattle do. The whole ecosystem thing.

I'm on my second Dawnguard playthrough and I'm actually taking the vampire side this time because I wanted to see if the game explains this better from that angle. It... doesn't. Harkon just wants it done and Serana's like "yeah this is bad actually" but then you do it anyway if you're vampire.

Am I missing something or is the vampire ending just fundamentally broken from a logical standpoint? Like the Dawnguard side at least makes sense - stop the bad thing. But the vampire side is asking you to help commit ecological suicide.

 

[NordOfSolitude]

Yeah the vampire ending is definitely the weaker narrative choice, not gonna lie. I think the game just... doesn't care about the logical follow-through. Harkon's motivation is basically "I want power and eternal night" and that's it - the devs weren't really interested in exploring what that actually means beyond the immediate goal.

The thing that gets me is that Serana basically calls it out (like you said) but then the game just shrugs and lets you do it anyway. If you're playing vampire, there's no real counterargument or alternative vampire plan. It's just "okay go get the bow." Compare that to the Dawnguard side where at least Isran and the other hunters have a clear reason to stop it - and Harkon is explicitly the villain. The vampire path doesn't have that same moral weight because nobody's really questioning whether this is a good idea except Serana, and she doesn't push back hard enough.

The ecosystem collapse thing you're pointing out is real though. I don't think the game's simulation goes deep enough for it to actually matter mechanically, but yeah, logically it falls apart pretty fast. Eternal night sounds cool in theory but it's basically doomsday. You'd think even pragmatic vampires would realize "we need thralls and servants to survive, and they all die if the sun never comes back."

Which ending are you leaning toward on this playthrough? Curious if the vampire side at least has cooler rewards or if Dawnguard just wins on every front.