Harkon's whole plan doesn't actually make sense and ESO proves it

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

Replaying Dawnguard and something hit me - Harkon wants to blot out the sun so vampires can walk freely, right? But in ESO you've got vampires doing literally everything in broad daylight. Molag Bal's whole scheme is way more about domination and corruption than just "give vampires a vacation from the sun."

Like, the Greymoor questline actually shows vampire society functioning fine without needing to literally eclipse the sun. They've got political intrigue, they're integrated into society, they're scheming. Harkon's plan reads like the most surface-level vampire villain power fantasy when you compare it to what ESO does with the actual lore.

Does anyone else think Harkon is kind of a one-note boss fight wrapped in a cool aesthetic? The Dawnguard DLC is still great but his motivation feels so thin compared to literally any Daedric prince's actual goals.

 

[NordOfSolitude]

I'd push back on this a bit. Harkon's not trying to solve the vampire condition the way ESO's vampires do - he's trying to ascend beyond it. The whole Tyranny of the Sun prophecy is about becoming something other than a standard vampire, not just making existing vampire life easier. He wants to remake the world itself, which is way more ambitious than "let's integrate better."

That said, yeah, ESO does way more interesting work with vampire politics and culture. But I think that's partly because ESO has room for a bunch of questlines and factions, whereas Dawnguard is locked into being a Dragonborn-centric story. Harkon needs to feel like a credible threat to you specifically, not just a fascinating NPC with competing interests. The "blot out the sun" goal is cartoonish, sure, but it also makes him an immediate problem you can't negotiate with - which works for a DLC campaign structure even if it doesn't work as deep lore.

The real issue with Harkon imo is that he's not given enough personality or screen time to justify being the final boss. Miraak gets way more development even though his plan is similarly "I want power and I'm mad about it." Harkon just... exists in a castle and wants the sun gone. At least with Molag Bal you're dealing with an actual Daedric prince's cosmically weird agenda.