Philosophical Analysis of Dark Souls

I think this video is what is meant by the phrase “youtube premium”.

On my first playthrough, I didn't think twice when I lit the bonfire after defeating Gwyn. I didn't realize that was the first flame, or what it meant to link it. When my character self immolated, I was dumbstruck. Looking back on that, I do feel there's some credence to the idea that someone is leading the undead to unwittingly keep the age of fire going. What with telling the undead they have a purpose that must sought, and conditioning them to light bonfires along the way. I feel like I was set up, and that experience is part of why I love this game.

The most ancient comedy: Giving a being the ability to surmise purpose and giving it none. Hilarious.

His thoughts about the painted world are extra meaningful when you think about what happens at the end of DS3 DLC.

i think something interesting to note is that DS3's ringed city DLC heavily implies that the dangers of the abyss (or, the terrors of nihilism to continue the analysis began in the video) were imposed on humanity by an outside force. prior to the war with the dragons but after the dawn of fire, humanity lived in harmony with their darkness. we get scraps of information about this era, from the dark hand, from the ringed knight set, all of which implies a world where communities of humans lived in the dark, using their fragments of the dark soul freely, sharing them amongst each other and forging their tools in the depths of abyss, imparting their desires and wishes into them, giving those tools quasi-life, or essence. but gwyn, with his command of light, trembled at the dark, and so did everything in his power to contain it. he did it in small ways, by discounting and ignoring the achievements of humans during the war with the dragons. he did it in big ways, by turning a city, the ringed city, into a prison for the human nobility, the pygmy lords, direct descendants of the furtive pygmy. he did it in insidious ways, by working with his uncle to found the way of white and teach humanity that dark was evil and to fear their inherent nature. he did it in blatant ways, by branding humanity with an infectious sigil which burned away their dark, a brand that would come to be known as the darksign. prior to humans growing to fear and hate the dark, prior to gwyn actively burning their nature out of them, humans had zero problems with the abyss. the dangers of the abyss, the desire for eternity and fear of finite existence, is imposed on us, by our society, by our "gods", by our kings who worship those gods, and it's so ingrained in the culture of the dark souls world that many players legitimately argue that gwyn is a hero, simply because people in the games say he is, without ever questioning the narrative.

This is a solid video-essay, worth watching for those who are hungry for philosophy: Darksouls fan or not. Thank you for making it.

I first found this game in high school on reference from my friend. I was depressed and out of motivation or care in the truest sense of the words. He told me the motivation was the key giving yourself a goal you look forward to like beating dark souls. Playing dark souls in such a state made me think of hollowing as losing to my depression or giving up. And not only the game but the communities git gud attitude towards the game is what helped give me motivation to beat it. Lots of people hate the elitist attitude of the souls like community but that elitist attitude is exactly the thing that motivated me to not go hollow, to not give up, to want to beat this game. And when I finally finished it I had friends and people I cared about idk if the game simply helped see that I cared or it took me so long that I found people to care about but in the end it's the reason I'm still here you guys are the reason I'm still here. So thanks, and don't you dare go hollow.

The way the Crestfallen Warrior says there’s two bells of awakening is so sinister, as if to immediately rebuke you for even possibly considering the ‘prophecy’ as anything to be taken seriously. I never noticed this once in all my play throughs of the game, super interesting. Great job man

This is the what Wisecrack video of Dark Souls should be. Incredibly insightful. Haven't learned so much since Matthewmattosis and Hawkshaw videos.

Watching this as the “FromSoft games have no narrative” discussion resurges

In Nietzche's philosophy, you don't strive for joy or happiness, you strive to struggle and the feeling most players get when they beat a difficult boss is the will to power or to overcome one's own weaknesses through resiliency. Joy accompanies the result of winning, which is the players knowing they are gitting of the gud. The series intentionally does all of this bullshit or "miyazaki magic" or difficult to interpret lore as different forms of struggle to create the impression of increasing a person's power. When you upgrade your weapon, you feel it, when you acquire a stronger/different weapon, you feel it. And when you discover a faster route, you feel it. Many do not like the summon signs because you are not conquering yourselves. But I believe that for many starting players, it is useful as a series of training wheels. Then as you progress through the series, you actual realize you are getting better. You are not conquering the bosses, areas, lore, story, or the controls, you are just purely conquering yourself and attacking your own weaknesses through your reslience. Freidrich Nietzsche would be very proud. To die is not the worst thing in Dark Souls, it's the will to give up. If your strong enough to quit the game (or any game for that matter), you are strong enough to keep going to the end. You are forcing your character to go hollow, so then you are strong enough to win. By contrast in real life, if you are strong enough to be lazy (hollow), or to kill yourself (also giving up and going hollow), then you are strong enough to work hard and keep on living until fate decides when you die. Every character says you shouldn't go hollow because you are quitting at living ingame, not because of their goals, but because you must conquer yourself.

Something interesting worth noting: In the second game, there is a sorcerer of Hexes named Felkin. Hexes, being sorceries of darkness, are powered by the lower stat of your intelligence or faith. Felkin stutters much, and doesn't talk to you very much unless you have a minimum understanding of the Dark of which he is so fond of, and when he speaks of it, his stutter fades. He becomes calm, relaxed. The psychological power of the Abyss, the "sense of absurdity", the existential paradox of knowing life is meaningless that drives people mad? Apparently, it's not a supernatural power. It's just... human reaction. Felkin takes comfort in knowing about the soul-death of the universe slowly crawling ever closer; he takes solace in the nihilism, because if nothing truly matters in the grand scheme of things, then there's no need to cry anymore. He even calls it "the dark" instead of its more ominous title. Hexes. It requires the intelligence, the logic to understand that ultimately, nothingness is coming, and cannot be stopped. But it requires the faith, perhaps in oneself instead of any gods, to remember one's own existence outside of the context of their essence. Felkin even mentions in his dialogue that sorceries and miracles never really interested him - I think he knew something felt off, wrong. The heretical truth behind hexing is dark - but authentic. Felkin is drawn to that authenticity, because it speaks to who he is, not what his role is. It's only the Abyss if you drown.

this video went so in depth, really well put together, and extremely informative, how the heck does this only have 450 likes?

You know, typically I'm just commenting to help with algorithmic satisfaction, which is part of the reason for this comment, but I've gotta say: You really justified the hour and a half run time. You had a lot to say about the topics on hand, which were themselves really well chosen, and that shows. You've given me much to think about! Life has no meaning sans that which we give it, and I had a lot of fun seeing that (and the other notions) delved into in this context. Really great work, I think your best by a lot (which is saying something!)

The beautiful thing about dark souls is that while the messages conveyed in this video may very well not at all be what was 'intended' to be taken away from the game, the game is built in such a way that these ideas and themes naturally come forward, while it may take some insight to notice them; much like in real life.

This video is seriously a really cool way to learn about existential philosophy in general. Like, I have only played a tiny bit of Dark Souls, but I still gained a lot from the explanations of really complex philosophy through art. Who would have guessed that a video game could get so deep...

This is prime material. Incredible work on this. Super thorough, thoughtful, and well-written.

I love the novelty of uncovering the lore yourself without being handfed by NPC's or cutscenes, truly a masterpiece.

Something that seemed interesting in DS2 when I was playing was that Invaders come to stop you and cause conflict when you have humanity; and that when you become more hollow they stop coming. Almost like a commentary that the more “hollow” you become, you get less conflict because you don’t assert/have less agency. That giving up/hollowing is like the path of least resistance and that being “human” brings all sorts of challenges that are meaningful when you try to reach goals.

If I had to convince someone that a game can be considered a work of art, Dark Souls is the first game I'd show them.