Just realized Dawnguard actually has the best villain writing in the game

[RiftenWanderer]

I'm on my third playthrough and I never paid attention to Harkon until now. Like, he's not trying to be this epic world-ending threat—he's just a petulant vampire lord mad that the sun exists and he can't do anything about it. The way he talks to Serana, how he treats the whole "blot out the sun" plan like it's his birthright... it's so much sadder than it is threatening.

Compare that to Alduin, who's basically just "I'm the World-Eater, bow to me." Harkon actually has this weird family dynamic with Serana that makes the whole questline feel personal in a way the main story never quite gets there. Even Miraak has that whole "I was the first Dragonborn" thing but it's still pretty straightforward.

Am I just noticing this late or did other people clock this when Dawnguard first came out?

 

[TamrielTactician]

Nah you're onto something real. Harkon's whole thing is that he's basically throwing a tantrum because he's trapped by his own curse - like, he's got all this power but it's useless during the day, and instead of accepting it he decides the solution is to blot out the sun for the entire world. That's petty in a way that actually makes him feel like a character instead of just a final boss.

The Serana dynamic is what sells it too. He's not some distant evil overlord - he's her dad, and he's clearly been a controlling nightmare about her whole life. You can feel how much she resents him just from how she talks about him, and when you finally confront him he's still trying to order her around like she's supposed to just obey. It's uncomfortable in the best way.

Alduin works fine as "world-eater who sees you as an insect" but yeah, he's pretty one-note compared to that. Miraak at least has the whole "I was enslaved and now I'm power-mad" thing going on, but even that feels more like backstory than actual character depth in the moment. Harkon you're dealing with throughout the DLC as this presence that's warping everyone around him - Serana, Valerica, even the whole vampire court is basically just his extended family drama played out on a bigger scale.