miraak and the last dragonborn's parallels have been on my mind so much recently.
miraak, time and time again, is shown to actively go against his "destiny". he is revealed to be the first ever dragonborn and is told be is fated to be their greatest slayer, yet he chooses to serve them as a dragon priest instead. he then went on to betray even them in pursuit of his own desires, while simultaneously refusing to be used as a weapon aganst alduin for the nords, leading to his near-death and forced servitide to herma-mora, the prince of fate. he speaks dragon tongue fluently, easily. and this bit might just be me reading into details too much but i fully believe miraak never fully committed to his service towards herma-mora and was always simply biding his time until he could be free from apocrypha. he never bended to destiny even once, miraak always went against it.
the last dragonborn goes along with their destiny. when they found out they were dragonborn, they accepted it and went on to protect the world as the title demanded of them. they slay dragons because it is what they are supposed to do; they slay the world eater because it is what they are supposed to do. never does the last drahonborn even get close to understanding dragontongue. disconnected from that part of themself that tied them to their mission. the last dragonborn kneels to destiny every step of the way. (which would become even more so if you included all of the guild storyline's, but those are all non-canon to the last dragonborn so im not counting them here.)
the first dragonborn fights what the last dragonborn follows.
the way miraak speaks to them during their first meeting and the implications of how he speaks about the last dragonborn (through his cultists) are pretty hateful and full of construed lies of the last not being a "true dragonborn". its pretty obvious to assume he despises them for attempting to take "his" role and as a result wants them dead. but his dialogue once the last dragonborn reaches the summit of apocrypha seems to imply differently.
miraak speaks in warning most of the battle, less like a scornful enemy. "this is the only way, dragonborn. the only way I can be free." and "fate decreed you had to die so that i could win my freedom." both don't sound very hateful, instead implying that he didn't necessarily want to kill the last dragonborn but that there was no other way for him to be free. despite his actions up to that point, (sending people + sahrotar to kill them, stealing dragonsouls from them to put him closer to breaking free, etc) he seems to be a bit conflicted in how he thinks of them. its not as though he won't kill them, he will if that's what it takes, but it isn't a want that came from him.
"beware. hermaeus mora will betray you as he has me." he outright warns the last dragonborn during battle instead of insulting them as most other enemies tend to. from his dialogues in that fight alone i feel that miraak did see how similar they were to him, they are both dragonborn after all, and wanted them to see that as well and potentially help him escape.
and uh despite his line at the end of his calling about ending the world, i don't believe miraak would have followed through on that. he has been know to betray every notion the narrative had put him in before, and so it's hard for me to believe he would fully commit to destroying tamriel. miraak also did refer to solstheim (or more likely tamriel as a whole) as "home" when he spoke of his return.
all of this is basically to say we absolutely deserved another route with miraak. a branch off where the last + first dragonborns join forces (for better or worse) would have been very interesting and could've allowed for more introspection towards miraak's character than what we have now.
