Dark Brotherhood Questline - My Thoughts (Extreme Spoilers)

[David]

Quick thoughts on the Dark Brotherhood questline, now that I've finally officially completed it.

Characters...

[*]Cicero is the best (uh...most memorable) TES character since... Well, ever. Maybe the adoring fan (who he posed as to kill the "Grand Champion" as stated in his journals).

[*]Babette was also quite good too, I was pleased that she survived the whole sanctuary onslaught thing. I feel like a lot of background/development could have been added to her character, though.

[*]Didn't know Gabrielle existed was until I found her body when I was looking for survivors.

[*]The whole "we're a faaaaamily" thing was creepy and dysfunctional; I thought it was well-done. Specifically how the first time you meet everyone they're standing around and laughing about their murder stories.

Story...

[*]I had a sad when I was forced to kill the woman at her wedding. Then I was more sad as her husband bent over and cried after. Then I was even more sad when I accidently killed him in the ensuing struggle. And the rest of his family. Then the woman's mom was wailing about how horrible everything was.

[*]On that note, do any of you still like Muiri?! That is one sadistic bitch. I don't know if any of you saw this extra post-quest thing, but after you kill the second Shatter-Shield sister the mom committs suicide and leaves a super despressing note by her body.

[*]The whole, "Amagawd, you killed a double!!1" thing was really cliche but it still caught me off guard. Before that I felt as if I had gotten off too easy; that made up for it.

[*]Seeing (and then having to kill) Astrid's horribly burned (yet living) corpse was pretty shocking, and it really helped out what I originally thought was one of the weaker Dark Brotherhood installements in the grotesque department.

[*]The final confrontation with the Emperor was really surprising to me; I figured I'd have to do something lame like kill him in his sleep. The way he went about it really made me question why, exactly, I was even doing any of this in the first place.

[*]Side Note: Being able to thrall the Emperor and run around with him in matching robes is the shit.

Other...

[*]Loved the eerie music alongside the pounding bass when you stand next to every sanctuary entrance. I have a good surround sound system and it really creeped the hell out of me.

[*]Shadowmere is looks 10x better in this game. His eyes actually glow, and he's not some odd shade of blue/black with pink circles for eyes.

[*]It was awkward spooning with the Night Mother in her coffin.

[*]Lucien Lachance's appearance was great, and you get quite a few easter eggs through his comments by having him around during the quest line.

Overall, the DB quests beat out the Thieves Guild in my opinion. I don't know why most people thing the Thieves Guild was the best quest line.

[Blake]

I think I liked the Thieve's Guild quest better, maybe the same as the Dark Brotherhood.Yeah the Dark Brotherhood quest line was a lot darker, mysterious, and sinister in Skyrim than Oblivion. Liked how they gave up on the Tenets and things went to shit until you showed up. Also, Babette kind of freaked me out the first time walking into the Sanctuary. I kind of guessed Nazir, who is my favorite, and her would survive at the end because they are both trainers and Babette is a kid and therefor can't die. Even the opening where you see that kid preform the Dark Sacrament with the knife and the skeleton, cause kids acquire skeletons all the time, is a significantly better opening than the random killing of a npc in Oblivion.Wasn't too fond of assignments given to you by Nazir. Seemed to be just place holders to add to the experience. Also, Shadowmere is a girl in Oblivion, but a guy in Skyrim. Pointless complaints, but worth noting.

[David]

Most of the opinions I've read on other message boards seem to be critical of the Skyrim Dark Brotherhood as opposed to the Oblivion one. I mean, yeah, Oblivion's was probably longer - I don't remember any of it though. Oh, I do recall dropping a deer head or something on someone a few floors below. Maybe Skingrad? Either way, that's only one mission.As far as story is concerned, I'm probably going to have to give it to Skyrim's version. Oblivion did have more (and more varied) killing missions though, and since killing people is so fun that's probably what most people are bummed about in Skyrim.

[Blake]

Oh, I do recall dropping a deer head or something on someone a few floors below. Maybe Skingrad?

Bruma. I think the guy is named Baellin. I remember that because his servant, Grogg, was crying in that bar afterwards.Yeah Skyrim easily beats Oblivion story wise and the general feel of it; creepier, etc. I don't care too much about the variety of missions, but Oblivion obviously had more. Yeah Nazir handed out task, but there was no bonus or special method involved in those, so I don't enjoy them as much.

[Marcus]

I think the Dark Brotherhood Questline was terrific. I originally was more excited about the Thieve's Guild but I wanted to have some sneaky armour so I started the DB questline to get The Shrouded armour at the start and just continue with Thueve's guild with the Shrouded armour being all sneaky. But I'd find myself keep coming back to The DB more than I would with the Thieves. I was terribly excited to get my next quest to kill the emperor, or maybe kill a bride at her own wedding (I do agree though, that was sad considering she'd done nothing wrong and it was just for attention). You get some truly worth-it rewards from this questline especially if you're a sneaky kind of guy and if you don't want to fix the new sanctuary you get 20000 gold at the very end which is VERY helpful. I think that the quests were very well written, especially the one where you came back to the sanctuary to see it burning to the ground surrounded by imperial soldiers. I was actually genuinely shocked to find out that *SPOILERS* Astrid betrayed me. I give this questline an 8/10 for it is my favourite. There could have been a bit more variety with the radiant side contract missions but altogether I reckon this is the best questline in the game!

[David]

Oh, that reminds me. Did you guys actually keep the 20k? I spent it right away to buy upgrades for the Dawnstar sanctuary. Overall you only come away with 1,000 gold in profits.

[Blake]

Oh, that reminds me. Did you guys actually keep the 20k? I spent it right away to buy upgrades for the Dawnstar sanctuary. Overall you only come away with 1,000 gold in profits.

Yeah like everytime. I might keep it this run and try to get that achievement where you have to get 100k gold.