I guess it's the difference between drama and melodrama. First is good, second is bad.
This.
This is Bethesda's cardinal sin when it comes to writing.
Nothing is ever actually dramatic, they want you to think that it is, but it's always soooo contrived or convoluted that it isn't.
Everything is a matter of life or death, of empires crumbling or eternal demons or whatever.
I DON'T CARE ABOUT THINGS JUST BECAUSE YOU FEEL THAT I SHOULD.
I didn't care about Jimmy Jesus Neeson, I didn't care about Son of Picard and I sure didn't give two wet farts about Alduin.
Paarthunax was okay, but it still veered too closely to the "One good thing out of a race of bad things" trope that Beth seems to love.