I was never a fan of replacing her original voice actor for the one she got. Make no mistake, Kerstyn Unger is a good voice actress but this whole inversion of Serana's character really just really off putting. A lot of the writing is very.... cringe, as you said. A lot of it doesn't even fit her character. I'm glad someone finally agrees with what I thought about this mod though. I would like for someone to do something as expansive as SDA but without the cringe and actually keeps her in character, the closest I've found is serana dialogue expansion but it kinda uses 11labs. I don't condone AI but I think someone who could pull off Laura Bailey's voice would be a good start. Surely SOMEONE out there can mimic it?
@@housetheunstoppablessed4846 i actually found out she voiced a character for the flower girls mod , a vampire called seductress Faye , she literally used aspects of that character in SDA
In defense on the usage of AI voices, yes, I get it's a sensitive subject and I agree that no robot should ever replace a human. But AI isn't a bad thing in itself. It's just a tool, and as such it's up to how we use it. As far as I'm concerned, it's not even legal to use it to voice movies and such, so there ARE limits to its usage. ElevenLabs is simply a voicing tool much more accessible for people that can't actually afford to pay professional voice actors for their own personal projects. Especially if they're non-profit. And even so, we all know that AI voicing is objectively worse than a human's, and that fact is here to stay 🤣
@@TheRogue_Paladin Yeah. It's a shame. Honestly, my favorite use of AI was that one _"Rac1st Dagoth Ur vs Argonian Nerevarine"_ video that got ElevenLabs popular in the Elder Scrolls fandom. It was hilarious! By the way, are you planning on trying other Serana dialogue mods? I think there're like... Three more?
Understandable. The mod got repetitive for me and the lines were clearly written from more of a self-insert perspective than character faithful way. I got more enjoyment out of it due to the liberation of having a mod available (having been locked on PS4 for so long), but much like a new toy, just wore out its welcome after a while
Also agree about Xelzaz in which I love that he'll openly disagree with some decisions you can make and can even turn against you. Haven't gotten to Dawnguard yet in my current playthrough but looking forward to hearing his lines.
When I tried the mod it was an older version from about a couple years ago but even then I wasn't a fan of some of the lines Serana would say. I almost immediately regretted going for the romance aspect of the mod. I agree with you that the writing around a lot of female follower mods is absolutely horrendous. Many of those mods tend to hyper sexualize female characters and have them say dialogue that no one would say in real life. Remiel is honestly a breath of fresh air cause she isn't hyper sexualized and most of her dialogue is actually pretty great.
Not gonna lie, i've had SDA for a while, mainly because there was more to Serana from there than what vanilla provided, and I know there are new expansion mods for her now using AI but thats a complete other rabbit hole :P and yes, while I like that shes more fleshed out than vanilla, some lines are just-----difficult to listen to without your face absolutely imploding X"D
I agree 100%, and actually when it comes to *that* line, I think you and I had a conversation about it and how I (as a woman) do not like that line nor ever considered using it in conversation lol. It gives me just... icky vibes, I guess, I don't know. But really I always loved Serana as a character, and I just don't like what they did to her. At all. The mod isn't in my load order anymore either because in my humble opinion, there are so many other beautifully crafted and well-written mods out there like Xelzaz, as you mentioned (He's mah boi I love him), and Val Serano, who you have in the background there. In fact, I've done a good bit of outside help for Val's mod like throwing some artwork in there and I even helped with some video editing for Krimson (The VA) when he did a video on Val. There are just so many other mods I enjoy far more, a lot of which you enjoy, too.
Pretty sad to hear that, also SDA has its final update on January 2025. It’s such a damn shame too because that mod had so much potential as it could’ve had more awareness lines for Serana like Skyrim Extended Cut or Beyond Skyrim.
There's a reason I don't play with female mod followers, except maybe the woodelf chick. The female follower mods seem hyper sexualized, ironically it's male followers that are less sexual towards you as a whole. Even Kaidan being an ass man gets annoying as hell, and he's one of ny favorites.
100% agree when it comes to most of the female follower mods. Remiel has been a breath of fresh air for me as I find she doesn't suffer from the same issues as the other mods. Kaidan was one I was interested in trying cause of how popular he was even tho I was gonna avoid the romance aspect. I passed on using him when I heard about the controversy surrounding the original voice actor and the team he works with. Also is the wood elf follower you're referring to Auri? Haven't tried that mod out before.
@@ryanwatt6706From what I remeber the original va and the mod team were bigoted and very rude to people. There discord server from what I understand is filled with a lot of drama. That and the type of lines I've heard that they wrote for Kaidan in the current version were why I passed on the mod. There is another version being developed tho called Kaidan Workshop which I've been following a bit which is a completely different team and va . They seem to be a lot more friendly and keep in line with the original mod author's vision.
If you want a strong, thoughtful and extremely well-voiced female follower that's not hypersexualized in any way, look no further than Eris from Light and Shade mod. Her voice is incredibly soothing and her remarks are sparse but always meaningful. She's not romanceable (as far as I know) and acts more like a mercenary at first, developing into a friend or even guardian to the Dragonborn later on.
I tried that mod for a few hours and uninstalled it. It's presented as an add-on, but it's more of an outright replacer leaned toward "romance." Though I was annoyed at og Serana's repetitive complaints about bad weather and whatnot, at least her character felt grounded in the world she pertains to. SDA just sounds like she doesn't belong in a game like Skyrim; having her as a companion takes me out of the experience instead of enhancing it. I'll just stick with Inigo and Eris, and use the DialogEdit for Serana.
I really wanted to like the SDA mod, but I feel it suffers from poor execution. With the proper tweaks and fixes, it could’ve easily had a place in my load order. Of course, the mod itself is very impressive, but the problems you mentioned kept me from being able to truly appreciate it. While it does leave a gaping hole in my Dragonborn’s squad, I really don’t have the patience to sit through the cringy dialogue anymore.
I was never a fan of replacing her original voice actor for the one she got. Make no mistake, Kerstyn Unger is a good voice actress but this whole inversion of Serana's character really just really off putting. A lot of the writing is very.... cringe, as you said. A lot of it doesn't even fit her character. I'm glad someone finally agrees with what I thought about this mod though. I would like for someone to do something as expansive as SDA but without the cringe and actually keeps her in character, the closest I've found is serana dialogue expansion but it kinda uses 11labs. I don't condone AI but I think someone who could pull off Laura Bailey's voice would be a good start. Surely SOMEONE out there can mimic it?
@@housetheunstoppablessed4846 i actually found out she voiced a character for the flower girls mod , a vampire called seductress Faye , she literally used aspects of that character in SDA
In defense on the usage of AI voices, yes, I get it's a sensitive subject and I agree that no robot should ever replace a human. But AI isn't a bad thing in itself. It's just a tool, and as such it's up to how we use it. As far as I'm concerned, it's not even legal to use it to voice movies and such, so there ARE limits to its usage.
ElevenLabs is simply a voicing tool much more accessible for people that can't actually afford to pay professional voice actors for their own personal projects. Especially if they're non-profit. And even so, we all know that AI voicing is objectively worse than a human's, and that fact is here to stay 🤣
@mariogarcia7445 when used correctly it can be useful unfortunately some people don't know the difference
@@TheRogue_Paladin Yeah. It's a shame. Honestly, my favorite use of AI was that one _"Rac1st Dagoth Ur vs Argonian Nerevarine"_ video that got ElevenLabs popular in the Elder Scrolls fandom. It was hilarious!
By the way, are you planning on trying other Serana dialogue mods? I think there're like... Three more?
@mariogarcia7445 unsure to be honest, I'm trying to distance myself tbh also because of playing sda so much I can't even be with Serana that long
Understandable. The mod got repetitive for me and the lines were clearly written from more of a self-insert perspective than character faithful way. I got more enjoyment out of it due to the liberation of having a mod available (having been locked on PS4 for so long), but much like a new toy, just wore out its welcome after a while
Also agree about Xelzaz in which I love that he'll openly disagree with some decisions you can make and can even turn against you. Haven't gotten to Dawnguard yet in my current playthrough but looking forward to hearing his lines.
When I tried the mod it was an older version from about a couple years ago but even then I wasn't a fan of some of the lines Serana would say. I almost immediately regretted going for the romance aspect of the mod. I agree with you that the writing around a lot of female follower mods is absolutely horrendous. Many of those mods tend to hyper sexualize female characters and have them say dialogue that no one would say in real life. Remiel is honestly a breath of fresh air cause she isn't hyper sexualized and most of her dialogue is actually pretty great.
Not gonna lie, i've had SDA for a while, mainly because there was more to Serana from there than what vanilla provided, and I know there are new expansion mods for her now using AI but thats a complete other rabbit hole :P and yes, while I like that shes more fleshed out than vanilla, some lines are just-----difficult to listen to without your face absolutely imploding X"D
I agree 100%, and actually when it comes to *that* line, I think you and I had a conversation about it and how I (as a woman) do not like that line nor ever considered using it in conversation lol. It gives me just... icky vibes, I guess, I don't know. But really I always loved Serana as a character, and I just don't like what they did to her. At all. The mod isn't in my load order anymore either because in my humble opinion, there are so many other beautifully crafted and well-written mods out there like Xelzaz, as you mentioned (He's mah boi I love him), and Val Serano, who you have in the background there. In fact, I've done a good bit of outside help for Val's mod like throwing some artwork in there and I even helped with some video editing for Krimson (The VA) when he did a video on Val. There are just so many other mods I enjoy far more, a lot of which you enjoy, too.
Oh we did, that line is literally the worst....
@@TheRogue_Paladin It's just... unnecessary.
Pretty sad to hear that, also SDA has its final update on January 2025. It’s such a damn shame too because that mod had so much potential as it could’ve had more awareness lines for Serana like Skyrim Extended Cut or Beyond Skyrim.
There's a reason I don't play with female mod followers, except maybe the woodelf chick. The female follower mods seem hyper sexualized, ironically it's male followers that are less sexual towards you as a whole. Even Kaidan being an ass man gets annoying as hell, and he's one of ny favorites.
100% agree when it comes to most of the female follower mods. Remiel has been a breath of fresh air for me as I find she doesn't suffer from the same issues as the other mods. Kaidan was one I was interested in trying cause of how popular he was even tho I was gonna avoid the romance aspect. I passed on using him when I heard about the controversy surrounding the original voice actor and the team he works with. Also is the wood elf follower you're referring to Auri? Haven't tried that mod out before.
What was the controversy??
@@ryanwatt6706From what I remeber the original va and the mod team were bigoted and very rude to people. There discord server from what I understand is filled with a lot of drama. That and the type of lines I've heard that they wrote for Kaidan in the current version were why I passed on the mod. There is another version being developed tho called Kaidan Workshop which I've been following a bit which is a completely different team and va . They seem to be a lot more friendly and keep in line with the original mod author's vision.
@600azo I read some of the convos, they called the one guy a literal token gay hire. Then joked about other race hires 💀💀💀
If you want a strong, thoughtful and extremely well-voiced female follower that's not hypersexualized in any way, look no further than Eris from Light and Shade mod. Her voice is incredibly soothing and her remarks are sparse but always meaningful. She's not romanceable (as far as I know) and acts more like a mercenary at first, developing into a friend or even guardian to the Dragonborn later on.
I tried that mod for a few hours and uninstalled it. It's presented as an add-on, but it's more of an outright replacer leaned toward "romance." Though I was annoyed at og Serana's repetitive complaints about bad weather and whatnot, at least her character felt grounded in the world she pertains to. SDA just sounds like she doesn't belong in a game like Skyrim; having her as a companion takes me out of the experience instead of enhancing it.
I'll just stick with Inigo and Eris, and use the DialogEdit for Serana.
I really wanted to like the SDA mod, but I feel it suffers from poor execution. With the proper tweaks and fixes, it could’ve easily had a place in my load order. Of course, the mod itself is very impressive, but the problems you mentioned kept me from being able to truly appreciate it. While it does leave a gaping hole in my Dragonborn’s squad, I really don’t have the patience to sit through the cringy dialogue anymore.
The walk animation you have on your character reminds me of Oblivion's walk