Whaaaat, no way. The story is by far, the most interesting and completely random in Skyrim. There are two whole realms to explore, and I'm still stuck in the Soul Cairn after a good 6 hours.

I did it in 8 hours. No side quests, and 1 hit killing everything. If I used a legit character with normal armor and weapons I can see this going past 20 hours easy.

Yes Ive had that scene, but I cant say my reaction to it was the same.
I was quite interested in speaking with the mother and learning more about the cairn and the ideal masters.
Did you notice what was implied about the.. ritual that turned the women into pure-blooded vampires?
Maybe I didnt pay close enough attention.

i'm not talking about the background. The background is interesting. The actual dialogue and writing and the direction the story ends up taking is cliché to me. Daughter wanting to forge her own path, her parents makong decisions for her, typical betrayal, forcing the player to do the opposite of what their original goal was with no other option, giving away one of the major things mentioned in the trailer. Some scenes literally made me cringe.

Yes, the background is interesting, but the dialogue itself is so jarringly typical and painfully clichéd to me, and is inconsistent given the backstories and prior behavior of these characters. They're murderous necromantic vampires who worship molag bal, king of [censored], and have comitted unspeakable acts and rituals in his name. Maybe Serana was pressured into doing that, but she still seems way too ok with it and her personality is just inconsistent. It's just....I don't know. The backstories of these characters dont fit the family friendly, typical mother daughter conversations they're having. I've similar types of family issues involving vampires in Adventure Time for goodness sake (Marceline and Abadeer)
Edit: Make no mistake, something like this could be written well, but you have to make it either VERY believable or purposefully ironic (yet still somewhat believable) for it to work. It also needs to feel consistent with what we're given, and hopefully put a new spin on the original typicality to make it feel fresh. This does none of that in my opinion.

Cliche in that of itself isn't something to be shunned. The whole family situation has been done before, sure, but everything surrounding that base story is very very different. Learning about the Betrayed and seeing their culture expanding and growing, not to mention the other places like Soul Carin, adds enough of a unique spice that the cliche story can shine in a new light - and along with that actually create some solid characters for us to interact with.

And can't we give the bow to the father in the end? I was dawnguard the first time through, so I didn't even bother to test that line of dialogue but now I'm wondering what it leads to.

You can't side with him. That's what everyone is saying. Read this thread: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1388538-blocking-out-the-sun/page__st__60

Also, in my edit I go into detail of how clichés can sometimes work if they're done well, but why I dont think it was handled right in this case.

I have no idea how long it'll take me.
It's integrated into the main game, so I'm doing DLC stuff sure, but then I wander off and do some contracts or thief jobs, bit of crafting, turn in a few misc quests, do another vampire quest... do some shopping, meet up with Lydia for a sweetroll and some mead, go slay some Dawnguard mooks, do some exploring (yep, I still have map to explore).

I've never stuck to a single questline from start to finish without doing a pile of other stuff at the same time.
Content in TES games is as long or as short as YOU make it.

It's always been that way and tbh "rushing it" is relative... you may not think you rushed it, but compared to some players you probably did.
Pace of play is a personal thing, it'll probably take me another 100 hours to wrap up just the Dawnguard mainquest.

seeing Jiub after all these years and with a proper dunmer voice was worth the $20

Its the longest of the factions, I dont know what your talking about OP.

Now THAT i'll give you! Like I said, this dlc is fun and the background is great. I just think the dialogue and the way the story progresses is lackluster.

Speeding through yes. It'll be longer if you collect everything (Items/Weapons Armor Shouts Etc). It'll also be longer if you do every optional part in every quest.

So he double-crosses you? That, I can understand as being the kind of cliche you want to avoid. Gotta let the bad guys win ever now and then, to keep things interesting at least. Still, overall I think the story did a good job in crafting some characters with a little bit of depth to them, something Skyrim really did need. Looking towards the next dlc only inspires confidence in me. Two or three more of them could seriously improve the game, both mechanic and story wise. Beth hasn't always been the best at writing, and to be honest I wouldn't expect much improvement, but even just the addition of stronger characters like Serena will help this game in a big way.

You know why selara is mentally unstable?She was [censored] by a [censored] daedric prince.

That's like saying "well this movie is better than Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and The Blob, therefore it must be the greatest movie ever."

The story is excellent, HELL , the guy with the elmo avatar,who always bashes Skyrim, agree with us. Longkinfe come on man give it a chance

I think you just completely missed the point of my post as I wasn't even addressing the story of Dawnguard, which does actually look decent. (albeit individual NPC character depth and quality still seems lacking)
You said it was "longer than all the other factions," I was saying the Skyrim factions are so ridiculously brief that that it's not exactly very difficult to top them in length.

Haha come on! Cant be THAT BAD! Vivec did it!

Ah, I see, the length is...depending on how fast you rush, if you rush the MQ yeah its like 8 or 10 hours, however if you do the side quests (which are quite good) and the radiant quests (which are ten times better then the companions), also if you explore the large new areas, you can draw it out to 20 to 30 hours.

Who knows, maybe Molag Bal is an okay guy and a beast in bed. Maybe he cares about her and writes her love letters on a regular basis.

Dear serana,
I want to [censored] you again, drop by the cold harbor and lets party,
From your love, Molag bal.

Hey hey he doesn't always bash Skyrim. He just states his opinion. I just disagree for a change. The dialogue and progression is typical and cliché, and the story randomly forces vampires to be good and you're unable to do the main thing stated in the trailer (oh you get a bow that temporarily blocks out the sun, big whoop).

Look deeper, Lord Harkon is very good character, Well intentioned, as he does everything for a selfless reason to aid all vampires, by his ruthlessness show no bounds, as he let Molag bal [censored] his family for more power to achieve his noble goal.

Haha actually he's apperently very good, but extremely violent and will literally destroy you. Vivec is the only one I've heard of not only surviving, but enjoying himself haha. Anyway, back on topic: I just find the story lackluster. It's not terrible mind you. Sorry if I made it sound like that. The background is good. It's just the clichés and some of the dialogue and inconsistent chracrer personalities. Not to mention the sudden forced shift into a good guy. It's not bad, just meh.....maybe I'm just fondly remembering the days of morrowind, where a seemingly simple story was filled with philosphy, religion, history, symbolism etc. I guess my expectations are just too high? Maybe that's it. I'm just tired of the mediocrity in comparison to what they've given us before, but feel free to disagree.

I dont bash and its not Elmo