What DARK Is Really About

DARK was a great series that offered an intriguing mystery, revealed little by little with each episode. However, all the crazy timelines, paradoxes, and parallel realities weren’t there just to be an interesting puzzle. They were used as a way to explore some complex and relevant themes.

In this video, we dive into that side of the series. We look at the series as a whole, how it ended, and offer an interpretation of what it all means.

After watching, make sure to share your interpretation and takeaways from the series! This video offers my view and opinions but with a show as complex as DARK, there is so much room for debate.

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[OneTakeVids]

Hope you enjoyed this video! A couple of quick notes:
- If you're curious why I pronounce characters' names a certain way... my rule of thumb was to go by how they are pronounced in the English dub except for one or two cases where I felt confident(ish) in my ability to use the proper German pronunciation

[chrischiu-tabet]

So much of what the show was ultimately about was foreshadowed by Peter reciting the Serenity Prayer in the first episode: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

[deebugger]

In the end, Tannhaus succeeded: he created a machine that eventually saved his son’s family. That was his only desire, and even though it was achieved by an infinity of misery, it worked. What we experienced through the show was seeing just how the machine actually did it.

I’ll always think of Dark as the best hard-core time travel story (and yes, I acknowledge all that came before it, especially All You Zombies).

Thanks for the video! 🙏

[NathanEllery]

Their choice of actor was excellent in that I could follow the characters thru the ages because they looked so alike. It could have been far more confusing.

[chewyjello]

I loved how so many of the characters were constantly coming face to face with different versions of themselves and deceiving themselves in order to manipulate their past actions. I don't think I've ever seen that in a show about time travel. I've often wondered what I would say if I was given the chance to try to change things by making a phone call to my past self. I usually imagine that I would pass on wise advice from the lessons experience has taught me, and that my past self would eagerly listen. I never imagined what it might be like if my past and present selves had completely different goals and values. Maybe my past self was less like my present self than I remember. It's an interesting thought.

[waymire]

Dark may be the best story I have ever experienced, in any media. The planning and execution is pristine. It's deep, intelligent, and emotional. The twists keep coming and there isn't a plot hole to be found. They also did an amazing job with the casting, it's easy to believe every character grouping is the same person. The only thing I don't like is in the end Hannah gets a happy ending. She was a selfish, horrible person from childhood and the decisions she made were not influenced by the others.. they were purely her own.

[BooshMeBaby]

Jonas already showed in series 1 that he didn't 'think he was so important he had to exist' when he was about to bring Mikkel back to the present day to reunite him with Ulrich & Katarina. He did this knowing that Mikkel would never grow up to be his father and that this would mean he no longer existed. It was his older self who stopped him, but young Jonas always had that in him.

[DemetriusWren]

I’ve actually wondered my entire life if my very existence ruined the lives of others. As if I was a mistake. So I really connected to that theme within the show and felt a sense of peace with their decision at the end.

But at the same time, hearing you say that philosophy is unhealthy hit me like a ton of bricks. Thanks for this commentary.

[eddiehanley]

Omg, Dark is such a masterpiece of a show.

[shirshadrichakraborty]

This show deserves all the recognition in the world! What a masterpiece! And great content as always. Love you and your channel! This show is extremely thought provoking - so many characters, so many perspectives and so many more possible explanations. Yours are the ones which I find the most satisfying. Keep up the good work friend. Love from India. :))

[ivanamendez]

To me it's also a love story. Not a romantic love story, but familial love, love for humanity.

[jayvogelsong]

I just watched the three seasons of Dark for the fourth time. Every time I watch it again, I understand the story better. I just wanted to add that even if characters changed their desires, like Jonas trying to hang himself, time itself intervened to keep the whole knot intact because nothing that violated the cause-and-effect patterns of such a determined knot could be allowed to happen. Only when time stopped for a moment could it be violated. Of course the people were miserable in such a closed universe, since they had free will and desires which were thwarted again and again by time itself. In that sense, the story seemed like it was more about characters being kept in line by their author and his or her story-logic than about the real world we inhabit. Still, I love time-travel stories and this one was the best!

[sunsetvibe]

I like how the phrase Jonas & Martha kept saying to each other was that they’re perfect for each other. Because that ultimately foreshadows where they come from. They were literally too perfect to be true.

[ScarredRomeo]

While Dark indeed tells the story of the battle between Fate/desire and free will -- 'We can do what we want but not will what we want' -- I think another significant theme -- whether intentional or not -- is that Love (symbolized in Jonas and Martha) is ultimately what "saves" us. It was the loss of Love (his family) that drove Tannhaus to create the time machine which spawned the two "cancerous" knotted worlds (symbolized in Regina), and it was Love in them that eventually freed the knot to save his family in the origin world. Love can both harm and save, but it is the primary principle of the Universe and ultimately does the latter.

[jezebulls]

Thank you for reminding us about this masterpiece and that the show is over. So sad it's over, but happy to say it's a top 3 of all time greatest shows.

[rini]

This show really asks and answers the big questions of existence. We need more art like this.

[oglatnik]

I’ve been thinking about this “creation of two worlds” part (how they split) and I realised something.
The only difference in alt-world(Martha’s world) is that Mikkel never travelled through the tunnel so Jonas doesn’t exist.
Then I thought about the fact-what started everything in Jonas’ world. And it was this - Mikkel travelling theough the tunnel and consequently people trying to find him, travelling as well … and Jonas sending himself a letter that his father left and the map and telling himself about time travel.
And then I remembered what Mikkel said. Jonas BROUGHT him through the tunnel. Which means Jonas is the one who started everything in his world by his free will to do this. (He caused the existence of himself so basically he created himself knowingly).
And then followed by Martha also telling herself about time travel (her older self sent Jonas to get her from her world). And she already had that apple travelling machine. She provoked Jonas with the apple to follow her and tricked him into having a baby (see the parallel with the Biblical story) and then tried to keep the baby alive. Causing all this events to happen and the world to be created and keep existing.
So older versions of Jonas and Martha were actually responsible for creation of the worlds (I mean as a consequence of Tannhouse opening the portal - he made it possible - so we can look at him as this sort of like God figure) and older versions of Jonas and Martha = Adam and Eve. So Adam and Eve were responsible for the creation of the worlds (by influencing their younger selves and ensuring their own existance) but God made it possible. There’s also the apple and baby and all that.
I think Eve’s storyline is particularly interesting because we don’t get to know, how all the time travelling developed in her world and how everyone was created (like Ulrich, Agnes …).
And in the end everything is stopped by the younger selves of Adam and Eve.
And Claudia plays the role of “knowledge” or “consciousness” impersonalised. We could also say that she gives then the knowledge about their free will in the situation. She gave Adam and Eve knowledge about where their actions would lead them so their young selves would stop it. I just thought about how we can compare her to Jesus (if we are doing a comparison to the Bible). The young versions would stop it and clear the world of “sin”.
And she also sacrifices herself in the process but survives.
That’s my comparison to the Biblical version.
I’m not Christian but I thought that might be interesting.

Oh and another little part. As I said before if we compare Tanhaus to God (because he created the tunnel and subsequently enabled the worlds to create themselves) - on the tunnel it says “Let there be light” which is how in the Bible God creates the world.

[spectrohypernova]

This philosophy of similar to the philosophy of Buddhism " Desire is root of all suffering"

[ryanfrick]

I like how all of the episode until the last two kept perpetuating determinism only to end with the other side winning.

[clairekooyman]

Well now I have to watch dark again. Great analysis.