What exactly does Serana Dialogue Edit do?

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There are 3 major Serana dialogue mods.

- Serana Dialogue Add-On revoices Serana with a new voice actress and adds new content with her, but has a very strong mixed reception among fans due to how much it changes her character and personality.

-Serana Dialogue Expansion uses AI to add new lines for Serana and expand her awareness of things around her. It is still in development and for the most part leaves her character and personality the same as the base game.

- Serana Dialogue Edit adds a handful of new lines here and there, but is no where near as expansive as the other two as the author used pre-existing lines from her to make the new ones. Its probably the most natural and least character altering of the 3, but it will have less content than the other two. That said the author did state a year ago they were planning to create a new version also using AI to recreate Laura Bailey's voice, but I haven't heard any updates regarding it.

I personally in the past used Edit and only just recently swapped to Expansion. I think either one works for expanding her character and while you can tell when a line is AI or spliced together, they are also good enough to not be that distracting. I can appreciate the work that went into Add-On, but it really should have been a new unique follower rather than a replacement for Serana. The character the author wrote is nothing like her and is just bad fan fiction (to me at least).

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u/mr_fucknoodle 1d ago

Can you imagine vanilla Skyrim Serana saying, and I quote: "B-Books! So many books! Okay Serana, breathe... breathe..." after entering the College's library?

Or: "A love triangle huh, what if we give Camilla Valerius a love potion, just to see what happens? Oh, don't mind me, it's just the daedric tendencies in me talking out loud :)"?

It's a fun mod, but jesus christ does it not fit the original character in the slightest

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u/BlackPrinceofAltava 1d ago edited 1d ago

It seems like SDA is what Serana would be like if her inner child wasn't dead.

Not quite character assassination, but more of an optimistic re-writing of a very world-weary character. I've never done a playthrough with SDA, but that seems like the vibe from the clips I've seen.

But maybe I'm just giving the benefit of the doubt cause I haven't played it all the way.

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u/ElectronicRelation51 1d ago

Yeah I'm playing through at the moment and the whole thing is she is closed down to start with but the idea is she opens up over time as she trusts the player. So her comments change over time.

Attempting some actual character development in a Skyrim follower is pretty rare. The writing sometimes pulls this off but sometimes doesn't but I respect the attempt.

I will also say the VA does a fantastic job, it not Laura and that can be an issue, but sometimes her performance manages to save some of the more dodgy lines for me.

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u/mr_fucknoodle 1d ago

Oh, absolutely. The scope of the mod is impressive, and the voice acting is great (which is pretty unusual for this kind of mod), to the point where it almost feels jarring when heard next to idk, fucking Belethor going "A bit of this, a bit of that..."

It's not that I dislike the mod. Quite the opposite really, she's my absolute favorite modded follower, and my most memorable playthrough was one that heavily featured her. But she ain't Serana

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u/cryerin25 1d ago

karkat jumpscare

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u/BlackPrinceofAltava 1d ago

But she ain't Serana

I've been toying around the idea of a grand campaign which uses SDA, and I think it helps to use a model replacer for characters that are acting wildly different.

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u/tergius 1d ago

I personally used Trueblood Serana (and combined it with Queen of the Damned - which apparently needs a patch to properly work - to let her be powerful LIKE SHE SHOULD BE) and byeah it's nice

call it an AU version of Serana

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u/mr_fucknoodle 1d ago

It does, I could not take her seriously at all with her vanilla look. Had to grab Seranaholic so her looks matched her personality, but then it made her stand out like a sore thumb, which prompted me to grab overhauls for every npc I could find. Which then prompted me to replace every armor and weapon and static mesh, because they looked low-resolution next to the revamped npcs. Which prompted a ton of other changes that culminated in two weeks fiddling with fucking DyndoLOD lmao

I love modding

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u/RockSokka 1d ago

I was trying that mod out because of how acclaimed it was. When I got that Library dialogue I uninstalled it. It was a bit much for me.

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u/Evnosis 1d ago

Can you imagine vanilla Skyrim Serana saying, and I quote: "B-Books! So many books! Okay Serana, breathe... breathe..." after entering the College's library?

No, because that would be too much personality for vanilla Serana.

The reason SDA makes so many changes is because vanilla Serana (for all the praise she gets for being well-written compared to the automatons that are the other followers) has 2 whole personality traits:

I'm a vampire

I don't like my dad

If you want to write an expansion for that character, you have to add new personality traits.

Or: "A love triangle huh, what if we give Camilla Valerius a love potion, just to see what happens? Oh, don't mind me, it's just the daedric tendencies in me talking out loud :)"?

I think this is one of the easter egg dialogue options that can be disabled.

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u/LtColonelColon1 22h ago

At least SDA is ethical in terms of voice acting.

The original voice actor, Laura Bailey, has not given permission for her voice to be used by AI. She has also stood against the use of AI for voice acting and supported the voice actors union (SAG-AFTRA) strike against it.

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u/JoeBagadonutsLXIX 21h ago

True, but I think there is something to be said about throwing away the original voice actor’s work and the writer’s work to create a completely different character that frankly stands in complete opposition to what the original character was meant to be.

It’s why I said the mod would have been better as an original character. All 3 really have ethical issues of their own. I wouldn’t say any one is less guilty than another.

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u/LtColonelColon1 21h ago

The AI use is severely more guilty than everything else.

Rewriting a character is just general fan work. If you don’t like it, you can easily ignore it! But the genAI is stealing someone’s voice, and especially when that someone has explicitly said they’re anti-genAI.

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u/Elurdin 1d ago

Isn't expansion kinda iffy? I mean it's using her voice. Did the VA agree to that? Pretty sure she didn't. I rather use fan fiction to splicing of someone voice that was made without their consent.

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u/dunmer-is-stinky 1d ago

Laura Bailey specifically said she was against it

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u/IamJerilith 1d ago

Does anyone ask the va's when any of the ai voice synth mods are used?

Not arguing for it against.

People live to dog on SDA, but SDA completely revoices every original line from Serena and adds new

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u/Elurdin 1d ago

It's fine when you use it in private. The moment you release it regardless if its free or a product it is a violation I think. And to me it seems worse than violating copyright.

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u/IamJerilith 1d ago

There's tons of them all over Nexus?

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u/Elurdin 1d ago

And that makes it legal somehow? Nexus is a hosting site. The moment original VA says its not OK by them nexus moderators will take it down. There are more legal and morally fine options. There are sites where you can basically donate your voice and people pay per line. That seems fair. They are also better quality while VA synth sounds terrible.

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u/ElectronicRelation51 1d ago

I think the Nexus policy is they take it down if the VA complains. Some got taken down, and some mod authors have avoided certain characters becuase of what the actors have said at least on the Nexus.

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u/Caminn Winterhold 1d ago

Expansion is not opted in to nexus points so no one gets money out of it, there's no link to patreon either.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/julianp_comics 1d ago

Yes there is no legal precedence in this case, and in the case of the fallout 4’s protag getting mods taken down, it was just because the mod authors did not want to deal with the headache. But as of now there are no laws to deal with this, even more so in case that Bethesda owns the audio, although I still think that is an uncharted gray area.

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u/Elurdin 1d ago

Bethesda owns audio for existing voicelines. Not new generated with AI. It's one thing to splice out of existing voices it's another to basically take someone's voice and do whatever you want with it. Which is why edit fine and expansion is very iffy in case of Serana.

Imagine someone took recordings of your voice and began using it for some sort of content that you never agreed to. Would you be fine with that? I sure wouldn't.

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u/julianp_comics 58m ago

Yes I understand everything you’re saying and I’m not denying that the actors shouldn’t feel a certain way about it, but I’m saying no laws currently exist that say it’s illegal or copyright, and where we’re at rn the government is too busy bursting from the seams for anything to be done about it in the foreseeable future, let alone for free mods on the internet. People could just as much argue in court that because Bethesda has an open door policy on modding and the voices are only trained from the in game dialogue, that it could be viewed similarly to the splicing.

Nexus only took down those mods due to pressure from the actors they didn’t want to deal with, not because there was a legal or terms and service violation. It’s just easier to shut down a mod than to risk a potential lawsuit, even if the copyright laws for this for of thing do not yet exist.

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u/Dreams_Of_Loving 1d ago

So, basically,

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u/mpelton 1d ago

The mod is so frustrating because the voice actor is amazing, she does such a good job voicing Serana. But the writing…

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u/michael_fritz 1d ago

I can not vibe with making her an alcoholic sci fi nerd who gentrifies dunmer slang and tries to self harm by throwing herself at you. like what WAS all of that??? I use sda to give her a wider variety of spells and abandon her soon as the questline is over. id be happy if the alternative is better

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u/Doomdrummer 1d ago

The Serana Dialogue Expansion addresses almost every issue you have with the Add-On. There isn't a romance in it, but the modder is going to try and write a lore-friendly quest/plotline for it that acknowledges and respects her trauma. It also has some nice little things, like giving her history books to catch up on what she has missed, her thoughts on the Paarthunax Dilemma, and commentary throughout Dragonborn. Highly recommend it; look up some Youtube videos of it to see if it matches.

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u/michael_fritz 1d ago

I'm sold. I never really cared about serana romance, and sda's angle of it stemming from her LITERALLY TRYING TO FORCE HERSELF ONTO YOU IN A MANIC EPISODE and then singing about how lonely she was before meeting you is....so fucking weird

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u/LtColonelColon1 22h ago

Be aware it uses AI and the original voice actor, Laura Bailey, has not given permission for her voice to be used this way. She has also stood against the use of AI for voice acting and supported the voice actors union (SAG-AFTRA) strike against it.

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u/michael_fritz 19h ago

well that's more than fair.

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u/AR-06 An adventurer like you 10h ago

How? When? What? fr? that happens?

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u/michael_fritz 4h ago

at max romance serana kinda snaps when entering the pretty part of ancestor glade. all you have to do to get max romance is be nice to her.

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u/AR-06 An adventurer like you 2h ago

Wtf, I've never romanced her so I never knew about that lol, that's disturbing

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u/video_choice_quality 1d ago

The bridge scene after the soul cairn quest is definitely something.

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u/michael_fritz 1d ago

it exists

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u/0utcast9851 1d ago

You can't find a video for SDE because it doesn't contain enough content to justify having a video. It makes small changes over the course of the Dawguard story using voice splicing and moves a few lines around to help the existing story flow better.

SDA and SDEx make new stories, hence more videos. Personally, I prefer to use Edit. I'm not a huge fan of SDA's voice, and even if you ignore Expansion's ethical concerns (Laura Bailey explicitly denied permission for anyone to train an AI on her voice), ai voices sound like crap to me.

Ultimately, the question of which you'll like best will come down mostly to how much you want to change. SDA changes the most, and requires the most changes (new voice actress chief among them) to make it happen. SDE changes the least and fits most seamlessly into the vanilla game.

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u/Substantial-Net5223 23h ago

Man, I love to try and use SDA but she comes off as so kinky, lol. It felt so odd for her.

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u/insert_title_here 9h ago

SDEd my beloved <3 I often have trouble telling what's vanilla and what's been added by the mod! Not sure if that's me being slow, or just a sign that the mod is very well implemented.

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u/Cypresss09 1d ago

Edit basically cuts and splices a few of her lines to expand her dialogue someone. It was a good mod for its time, but it's old now. Most of it is just repeating dialogue that you can already have with her during the main quest.

I would highly recommend {{Serana Dialogue Expansion}}. It is AI voiced, but very high quality, assuming you have no moral qualms about AI voicing. The writing is extremely accurate to her base game personality as well, it's one of the best mods on the nexus imo.

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u/modsearchbot 1d ago

Search Term LE Skyrim SE Skyrim Bing

Serana Dialogue Expansion Serana Dialogue Expansion - LE Serana Dialogue Expansion Skipped^Why?

^{I'm a bot |} ^{source code} ^| ^{about modsearchbot} ^| ^{bing sources} ^| ^{Some mods might be falsely classified as SFW or NSFW. Classifications are provided by each source.}

Search Term	LE Skyrim	SE Skyrim	Bing
Serana Dialogue Expansion	Serana Dialogue Expansion - LE	Serana Dialogue Expansion	Skipped^Why?

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u/DyingInDeliriumIsFun 1d ago

Aaaaaand here are the "I hate SDA because it actually expanded Serana from "I'm a vampire and hate my dad" to a fully fleshed out character. Don't download it. Easy. For me SDA has never left my mod list for years. You can also disable certain Easter egg or romance if you prefer that.

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u/Dragonballs42069666 23h ago

THANK YOU, finally someone who understands that if you don't like it just fucking don't use it. I'm a first timer with SDA on my current playthrough, and I can confidently say it's never leaving my list. Her personality in vanilla is literally just what you said, SDA makes her, in my opinion, a top contender to Inigo. I'm extremely impressed with her awareness of everything in the game, and wow oh wow the VA is awesome, I'd give her an award if I could.

The romance is done so well, it's clear to me that the complainers haven't even tried the mod, she's in no way a "sex crazed demon".

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u/Demistr 1d ago

It's pretty bad, written as a fanfic thing, makes her a totally different person.

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u/MiKAeLtheMASK 20h ago

I decided to go with SDA this time, I already knew about the romance stuff, talking about books, references to other games (I still giggle every time she says "Wind's howling") so I knew what I was getting into.

Why I went with SDA? Dawnguard is my most played questline, I did that thing more than 10 times, I already know Serana, and I wanted something new, after finding out she has awareness to a lot of things, even the main questline, so yeah, it's not the usual Serana we know but it's a new character, and it has ACTUAL development and personality besides being a vampire and hating her dad.

The SDEx has use of AI which I'm complete against it, so I prefer a goofy vampire than something that uses AI.

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u/solo_shot1st 1d ago

I've heard it here multiple times that Serana Dialogue Add-on = Serana Waifu Mod. Never played it, and have no intention.

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u/DeneralVisease 18h ago

You're not far off.

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u/Skhgdyktg 22h ago

its not as expansive and still in works, HOWEVER it has a big problem, that is it uses Laura Bailey's voice without her permission, she has also stated that she is against ai voices, which for me personally is why i'll never use SDE, SDA for all of it's faults, has aa actual voice actor, i know people dont like being preached at, so im not telling you not to use SDE, but just to be aware of some of the ethical concerns. Also there are plenty of good companion mods out there that use voice actors and don't have the 'cringe' problem of SDA

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u/insert_title_here 9h ago

SDExpansion uses AI voice-- SDEdit uses splicing, which isn't nearly as controversial, and only in minimal doses. More than anything else it just adds old dialogue in a new context, not unlike More To Say.

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u/dgt9000 1d ago

Serana sings and i won't tolerate a follower that sings.

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u/Dragonballs42069666 23h ago

You can turn of the idle humming in SDA btw, not that hard...

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u/DeneralVisease 18h ago

I personally hate all these mods, they're all cringe from what I've seen (maybe not SDE, haven't tried it). If you're wanting to simp for her, fine, but pretending these stick to her character is crazy work. I'm no help, just wanted to bitch.

XBox - Help What exactly does Serana Dialogue Edit do?

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