Miraak's dragon is way cooler than fighting him

[NordOfSolitude]

the actual boss fight with Miraak feels kinda anticlimactic but god damn that moment when you're riding Sahrotaar and he's flying around Apocrypha? that's the whole DLC right there. the dragon design, the way the arena shifts, the fact that you're both on dragons - it should've been the centerpiece of the whole questline instead of feeling like a bonus round before the actual duel.

like I get why they did the duel at the end, very thematic with him being your predecessor and all, but the dragon fight is genuinely one of the coolest set pieces in Skyrim period. makes me wish there were more moments in the DLC where Bend Will actually felt essential instead of just being a cool tool you unlock halfway through.

anyone else feel like that part should've been the climax instead of what we got?

 

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

I get the appeal of that sequence, but I think you might be underselling the actual duel. The dragon fight is absolutely a spectacle - Sahrotaar's design rules and yeah, the shifting arena in Apocrypha is sick - but the reason Miraak himself is the real final boss is kind of the whole point of his character.

He's not just some dragon lord you need to overcome. He's a Dragonborn who went full Hermaeus Mora, and the duel forces you to confront him as an equal in the one way that matters - skill, not just having a bigger dragon. The Bend Will shout is cool, but it's almost a shortcut. The actual fight with Miraak strips that away. You're not commanding anything; you're just fighting him, and that's where the weight of "I am the Last Dragonborn" actually lands.

That said, I do think the pacing feels off. The dragon ride gets maybe five minutes of your attention before you're back on solid ground doing the same melee combat as always. If they'd stretched that sequence out or made Bend Will more central to the final confrontation itself - like you had to use it tactically during the duel instead of just the setup - it'd feel less like a cool detour and more like a proper climax.