Oh! I can put my finger on what I loved so much about the Markarth DLC: It had emotional consistency! Past feelings and traumas weren’t ignored and affected how the characters spoke and acted.
Like, I fully expected for Fennorian’s torture to not even be mentioned while in Rada’s lab because it wasn’t relevant to the quest, but no! He talked about it! Only a little, but full-on admitted to being very bothered and uncomfortable being in that kind of setting again. And the whole time he’s also worrying about how he hasn’t had time to get a proper reunion with Verandis, and felt like everything was moving too fast.
And meanwhile, Gwendis was angry. She’s good at being angry, but there was also a lot of emotional vulnerability in her character here. She talked about past experiences and worries, and was allowed to show all this.
I just adore that the characters were allowed to be emotional despite how fast and urgent the quests were. It didn’t feel awkwardly thrown in there either. Everything fit so well and had its place.
Damn. The emotional highs and lows of Markarth.
