Serana's questline actually has better writing than the main Dawnguard plot

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

I've been replaying Dawnguard for the first time in years and I just realized something. The stuff with Serana - her backstory, the dialogue about her family, the whole thing with her mother - is genuinely compelling character writing. Like, properly written. But the main "stop Harkon from blotting out the sun" stuff feels so flat by comparison.

Harkon himself is just... there. He wants to do a thing, you stop him. His motivations are basically "vampire lord angry." But Serana's whole arc about being trapped for centuries and having to confront what her family actually is? That's the real story. And the game kind of buries it under the Dawnguard vs Vampire questline structure.

Does anyone else feel like the DLC would've been way stronger if it was more focused on Serana's personal conflict instead of the faction war stuff? The radiant quests and the whole "pick a side" thing feel obligatory compared to the character moments.

 

[EbonyWarrior]

I think you're onto something, but I'd push back a little. Serana's personal stuff is genuinely well-written - the voice acting helps a ton there - but the reason the main plot feels flat isn't really that it exists. It's that Skyrim's faction quests in general are kind of thin compared to what Morrowind did with House politics or even what Oblivion managed with the Mages Guild stuff. The "pick a side and do radiant jobs" structure was already getting tired by the time Dawnguard came out.

That said, Serana works because she's grounded in real character conflict - family trauma, agency, being forced into something she didn't choose. Harkon's just an obstacle. The game does bury her story though, you're right. If you don't actively engage with the companion dialogue or ask her about her past, a lot of it just... doesn't come up naturally. That's more of a design issue than a writing issue, imo.

The radiant quests are whatever, but I don't think cutting the faction war structure would've made it better. It would've just been a different kind of thin. What would've helped is if the main plot actually involved Serana's conflict instead of treating it as a side character arc. Like, what if stopping Harkon mattered because of who he is to her, not just because he's a generic vampire threat?