The Philosophies Within Dark Souls

The Dark Souls series is one of the most punishing rage inducing video game series out there. Across all three games you are tasked with defeating bosses for specific purposes, which all usually lead to a simple decision; be an agent of light or embrace the dark. Now this seems very simply to be a choice between good and evil, represented by light and dark respectively, however this is completely incorrect. To become an agent of light is to keep alight the fire via self sacrifice to it, to keep the world in its natural order and the old gods in power. To embrace the darkness is to turn your back on the gods and return mankind to its dark roots; but we see evidence time and time again that humanity cannot thrive in this world of darkness without fire. This seems like a strange dilemma; be a pawn of fate and keep the old gods in power, ruling over mankind as they see fit or reject your fate and attempt to overthrow the gods even if humanity suffers for it. Regardless both futures seem bleak at first, especially in the first game. However in the second game we learn a chilling fact about our previous decision; it doesn’t matter. Countless people came before you, and countless people will come after, whenever the fire fades, a champion rises up and accepts the task of sacrificing themselves to it. To this end what you do in the Dark Souls series, one of the most difficult series out there, every hour you spend, every time you die and come back only to repeat the process has been trivial before the passage of time. Your actions are meaningless. It was only in the last chapter, the third game that we truly realize how meaningless our choices are however, where regardless if you decide to let the world descend into darkness or keep the fire lit, you know that the fire will inevitably go out. The inferno from the first game that fueled the world as we knew it had become less than a campfire, regardless if you attempt to keep it lit, the fire will soon go out. How soon? Impossible to tell it may be days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia, an near eternity. Regardless the fire soon fades and only ashes will remain. Dark Souls is cruel, whilst it beats you over and over and over again until you have had enough, until you feel like you have done everything in your power to succeed and fail, it weaves a tale of how your actions are irrelevant. Regardless if you give up now there is no difference, after all every action you take is meaningless and have no true impact, as you may move forward, the world does not, and you cannot move the world. It teaches you how meaningless you are and then tells you that there is an inevitability, that since you are meaningless before this world, you cannot change the future or what must happen. You can merely delay it, and move yourself forward.