Aside from the VoS, the Dawnguard never occurred to me as bad guys like Volkihar vampires were. They didn't keep human cattle, most of the Dawnguard are genuine good guys save the leader who's hatred of vampires is justified given the fact they are the byproduct of the king of rape and the only thing more evil than Sithis himself. It kind of felt unsatisfying
What could there have been done to make the Dawnguard a more morally questionable faction so it doesn't become a black and white struggle. I mean with Knights of The Nine you are the reincarnate of Pelinal Whitestrake who we know have a less than stellar reputation. So Dawnguard could have benefitted from being a secret pact between Meridia and Arkay as an excuse to wage war against Molag Bal's servants, hence the secrecy of the group as if people had known Meridia had given Arkay's followers knowledge of defeating Molag Bal there will be blood on the streets
Well if you think about it, the Dawnguard expects you to kill all vampires you come across. Isran threatened to kill Serana multiple times, and all of them never consider thinking that vampires sometimes don't have a choice. It's not like all vampires know of Falion just by talking to an innkeeper. So in that aspect the Dawnguard is defected?
If the Dawguard had some sort of affiliation with the Silver-Hand, or at least expressed a hatred for werewolves, people may have been less open-armed to the vampire-hunting guild. I think maybe a mission where you must hunt some werewolves would have been fun, and make you second guess the Dawguard a bit, ever since Skyrim introduced the beloved Companions.
Well they do murder a race of beings that are just trying to survive? How are Vampires evil? You wouldn't call a beat evil if it tried to eat you, you'd call it nature. Well that's exactly what it is. You have to stop seeing humans and such as the centre of the universe, not everything revolves around us.
They are morally questionable, they don't try to help the vampires by finding a cure, they want to kill them all. It just goes with their beliefs, and I understand that.
@Ramah: Mostly, I join the Volkihar with characters that are looking for power and knowledge. Maybe you could try one of these characters to play the Volkihar questline (Looking for power is quite a good excuse for your characters to do morally questionable things).
I don't get it. You're asking why a faction of fantasy vampire hunters was morally on the "Lawful Good" end of the spectrum? Isn't that normal? someone explain to me why this is a viable question, please. I don't see any problems with the way bethesda made the Dawnguard...
I've heard rumors, but it's only rumors (and conflicting ones at that); I don't automatically assume rumors are true. There are basically two rumors about why they stopped hunting vampires (1) they became vampire themselves and (2) they disbanded due to a lack of need (no vampire threat = no respect/need for vampire hunters. I personally think the latter is the most logical (although, no doubt, some of their members likely fell to the vampires and became vampires themselves).
In any event, the dawn guard faction from the 2nd era has little to do with the dawn guard faction of the 4th era.
Blocking out the sun is just one person. And kidnapping a handful of people to feed from so that feeding is regulated is just common sense. If anything, that's the best thing they're doing for their survival. Sure, attacks on cities aren't exactly good, but those are to send a message - by which I mean a middle finger - to the people who are indiscriminately killing them purely on the grounds of their lifestyle.
on the grounds of their lifestyle ....
I usually don't join the dawn guard until after the attacks. But in any event, kidnapping, enslaving, and killing people can all be put under the umbrella of 'evil'. It's not an animal/survival thing (for one, they can survive without feeding on the blood of people). And two, animals cannot reason; the vampires can reason, but rather choose to kill. (And even animals that get a taste for humans, must be put down). On the other hand it would be wrong to kill any vampires that did not choose this evil path (the court wizard in Solitude is a prime example of a vampire surviving within the law).
Just from what I remember hearing they sounded like bad guys either way. So I think that today's Dawnguard would be more like a redemption for past errors.
On a different note aren't most Vampires Hunters chaotic neutral? In Skyrim it certainly feels that way. Especially when you have to commit crimes just to kill a vampire. The people Isran enlists for help don't exactly come off as good guy types anyhow. Isran himself is in it for the blood. So we can count him out of the pictures for good guys. It could be me, but I can't see them as the heroes saving the day after a righteous, and difficult crusade.
I agree that vampires cannot be classed as evil, as it is in their nature to feed on human blood.
But then by the same token killing them cannot be evil either, as taking your bear analogy and turning it on it's head, a bear is not evil for trying to eat you, but nor is a hunter considered evil when he kills a bear.