Update: last tweet I saw from her is talking about making this a legal thing. I will keep an eye on it for fantasy news.

It stole the digits 1, 9 and 8 from George Orwell

As the age old saying goes that every writer should know- "There's nothing new under the sun."

You are allowed to be wrong. You aren't allowed to defame someone, which is what she did.

This is terrible on more than one level. First, this writer crying wolf, even if proven wrong, has already won with the publicity. The viewership of her work has probably exploded several thousand percent over this nonsense, and by the time it’s all said and done, so many people will know her work that she’ll get a movie deal from Netflix. And even more tragically, she’s accusing of plagiarism the writers of Dark. Dark!! The show that probably took a warehouse-sized whiteboard just to map out. Of all the hacks in the movie industry who probably do indeed plagiarize, how could she accuse these guys? And, more importantly, how could anyone believe her? It’s just infuriating.

Multicultural crew can even be attributed to Moby Dick & Treasure Island. We've been telling variations of the same tales forever because the collective therapy we experience through them is important to the human experience.

I think alot of authors ignore "creative osmosis" when it come to their own works. How much sci-fi in the last 40 years can honestly claim absolutely zero influence from Star Trek, Star Wars, Bladerunner, Alien, Akira, Ghost in the Shell? Even if these works were not actively in the mind of the author/creator, they still form the modern dna and impression of sci-fi. No author truly creates in creative vacuum and modern creators stand on the shoulders of giants whether they know it or not.

I'm brazilian and i think this controversy is so weird. I have watched the show and read the comic, and the plots, characters and stories are completely different. Aside from a few visual elements, like a pyramide (wich the author of the comic wasn't the first one to use in a sci fi series), there's not a solid reason to call plagiarism. My guess is that the author hadn't watched the series, someone sent her the images comparing the works and she immediately felt she was robbed and made the thread. The thing is that the brazilian community is going through this twitter mob mentality where they are attacking anyone who says there wasn't plagiarism, even though many of them have not even consumed both series. This reminds me of the "lion king ripped off kimba the white lion" controversy, wich YMS completely debunked on youtube simply because he was the only one who actually consumed both works lol.

My first thought was immediatly, that I cant believe that. I mean sometimes you get surprised when you dig deeper, but the screenwriter of 1899 Jantje Friese and her partner are such a passionate filmmaking couple. They made DARK, an absolute masterpiece and though I dont love 1899 as much it's still amazing how much work they put into that. Their love for detail is impeccable

I would like to point out something regarding the implied similarities. I haven't read the comic, just went through it briefly so correct me if i'm wrong, but it is assumed there is indeed a black pyramid in the story right? Because the "pyramid" in 1899 isn't even a pyramid. It's a tetrahedron. A pyramid has a square as a base, tetrahedron has identical triangles on all sides. Regarding that, I recently read a very interesting comment analysing the show. Turns out it being a tetrahedron IS VERY IMPORTANT TO THE STORY. I will try to paraphrase some of the analysis here and add some stuff too. SPOILERS FOR 1899 BELOW A tetrahedron is something what is called a "platonic solid" (pls google the proper definition of it because I'm afraid I won't explain it correctly). What you need to know is that only 5 of them exist. Apparently platonic solids are used frequently in today's technology, for example in electronics and geophysical modeling. Therefore they also play a major role in how things can be created in SIMULATIONS. What's more, when I researched the platonic solids myself I found out another interesting fact. Plato connected each classical element to a solid that is supposedly similar to the shape of their atoms. And he assigned tetrahedron to FIRE. How is fire relevant in the story? In Greek mythology, the titan PROMETHEUS stole fire from gods to give it to people, and he was severely punished for it, going through a REPEATED nightmare (like Daniel pointed out). The show told us (at least for now) that Moura was trying to "become the Creator" aka "play God" to make a new reality, new "better" world and then she got punished for it by being stuck in an never ending loop. We get even more connections to Plato since her whole idea of the simulation was based around the "platonic cave". On top of that, throughout the show we have a lot of other triangle imagery. Particularly the upside down triangle with a line at the bottom - that is actually a symbol used in alchemy to represent earth. And COINCIDENTALY (or not) the symbol used for fire is - a regular triangle. All this stuff honestly still blows my mind and makes me believe the showrunners had to REALLY do a ton of research to shape out the story.

1899 is fantastic. I agree, not as good as Dark, but still fantastic. Dark is one of those shows I actually consider a 10/10.

The comic book being free on her webpage has me thinking that this entire thing was just a publicity stunt to get people to read it- which isn't gonna work out well for her at all when Netflix sues for defamation lol.

Well, now a lot more people are going to read a Black Silence in order to disprove her claims. So, she’s going to get what she wants in a way

I think this BS copyright claim directly influenced Netflix's decision to cancel the series. Shame on them and shame on the author of the graphic novel.

Hey Daniel, thanks for speaking up on this! For us fans of 1899 and Dark, a large voice like yours adding to the conversation is a big help! - Anthony

I enjoyed the heck out of 1899. Yeah, it's using some very tried-and-true (and occasionally silly) genre conceits... but in a slick and interesting way, just like DARK did. Remains to be seen if we will get the insane level of plot layering that DARK gave us, but I can definitely see the path for 1899 to do that. And I LOVED the very international cast with all the language barrier/figuring out how to communicate angles.

I met Brandon Sanderson at a con and I said to him that split the movie copied his legion idea. He said it's almost impossible now to write a story that is completely original and that his story could also be considered copy. Can't remember the book he referred to as being the "original idea"

I was not aware of this until yesterday, when Quinn did some coverage on this. If anything, all of this just made me more interested to check out 1899. It's been on my radar for a bit, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. That being said, your gut reaction is, I think, pretty normal and something that a lot of people also have. It's kind of natural to immediately want to side with a slighted creator against a large company, but this should serve as a reminder that it's probably a good idea to wait until we have all the details before flying into a rage on social media. Obligatory comment about Twitter mobs.

I completely share your opinion on this topic! I immediately watched 1899 when it came out since I was very excited for a mystery show written and produced by authors from my own country. I was more than happy that Germany is finally stepping up their game in the film industry and I wasn’t disappointed by the show. it’s not a 10/10 for me but I liked it a lot and I was quite shocked about the entire controversy that went on afterwards…thanks for using your reach in order to share a very relevant opinion. I also think that the usage of the triangle or pyramid as a symbol is something that happens in many fictional stories…to me it just gave me the association to the bermuda triangle but giving a different spin on it without giving away too much about the plot of 1899. In my opinion it is clearly not plagiarized, there are influences from myths, legends and popular tropes but that is something that happens in literally 90% of fiction…

it’s so sad how many people who didn't watch the show and didn't read the comic unconditionally believed in plagiarism and thoughtlessly spread it in twitter… at least check information but no instead people choose to spread misinformation 😔

Reading the reactions to that tweet made it pretty obvious many of those hundreds thousands who liked it either didn't read the comic or watched the show (or neither of the two options). I can understand a first knee jerk reaction since Netflix is involved, but so many seriously are going along with the narrative that the two works are identical, and it's just ridiculous. It also looks like the author didn't actually watch the serie herself but asked her followers to tell her what similarities they found....? Not sure about this though, correct me if i'm wrong.

Such a weird claim. Multicultural crew? Melville did it for Moby Dick! Thanks, as always, for some thoughtful and fair analysis.

I'm definitely sympathetic to an author feeling defensive over their work, but claiming basic visuals and tropes as proof of "plagiarism" is not only arrogant (bc many tropes are about as old as humanity itself is), but deeply concerning given how many people are blindly agreeing with it. The whole rationale of the argument being that tropes and visual elements are enough to claim plagiarism spits on a core tenet of storytelling. It's like calling Star Wars a Dune rip-off because both feature space magic, politics, a desert planet, and a messiah-type figure, when anyone who's read Dune and watched 1 Star Wars movie know they take those tropes in vastly different directions. Tropes are the foundation for a story, and lots of stories can share them, the way architects all use the same pool of materials to make buildings. But even so, you wouldn't confuse say, the Empire State Building in New York with the Lotte World Tower in Seoul, let alone accuse the architects who designed it of plagiarizing one another.

Black Silence has like 70 ratings on Goodreads, I don't think it's influencing anything tbh

Glad you talked about this! I've seen a lot of people standing behind this accusation without even experiencing the show or the comic

"People shouldn't be punished for being wrong"... but they SHOULD be punished, or at the very least publicly rebuked until they withdraw their accusation, for falsely accusing someone else of doing improper things. Particularly on Twitter when you can almost guarantee a mob of idiots spurred on by this did immediately send attacking tweets at Netflix, and most likely the writers of 1899 as well.

People should not be punished for being wrong forever especially if they apologized. But, they should be held accountable if they made public accusations that directly affect somebody.

SMH can't believe Jolkien Rolkien Rolkien Tolkien ripped off *Die Hard* when he basically used Nakatomi Plaza twice in *The Two Towers.*

Worth noting too that pyramids are literally the most secure, easiest architectural form you can build to any decent size without fear of collapse. This is why they are so common. For the same reason that when you let sand fall from your hand it forms into a hill with the same incline as a pyramid. Not to mention that black pyramids and "cyclopian" architecture is a direct ripoff of Lovecraft stories.

She succeeded at making people read her comic. I guess I'm going to do the same when I publish my comic. I'm going to accuse some popular show to gain attention.

I honestly think the creators of the show should sue the author, cause the reputation of the show has been ruined

I mean, before throwing accusations around I don’t think it’s a harsh requirement to require people to actually think about it more than a second. It’s not the first ridiculous claim of plagiarism, and it probably won’t be the last, but I can’t excuse someone who accuse someone else that easily. To attack someone of committing a crime shouldn’t be done that lightly without prof on a social platform.

I'm a brazillian and I pretty sure she didn't watch the show, because if she had she would see that there's very little resemblance with her comic. But since we used to defend our own (we have our reasons) the buzz in twitter will continue and some people will die swearing on their lives that it was plagiarism.

Daniel is twice the journalist as most people who call themselves journalists lol.

I am just glad you found enough dramatic lid close ups for every punch on the greenscreen. And good ones as well. Great vid btw.

I really like the way you handle those quote on quote "drama" and the insight that you provide !

This is why, as someone who loves both works, I really hate it when people say that Inception "ripped off" Satoshi Kon's Paprika. One is a surrealist detective mystery with a love for film and social commentary woven into it. The other is Ocean's Eleven with multiple Matrix's stacked on top of each other, based on a script that Christopher Nolan started writing ten years before he filmed it.

And now it's cancelled after 1 season, despite relatively good Numbers. I Wonder If her claim hurt the outcome.

I'm glad you made this video. Hope more people see this and form their own opinions rather than blindly following twitter posts.

The thing that's even more sad is that this show is produced by the same creative Duo that made Dark, and they have complete creative freedom and poured all their heart and effort into its production. Now they get hate online so much that Jantje Friese even disabled her Instagram account, all because of a selfish author who wanted to grab some fame from 1899's success with her delusion...

Some aspects of the show's design (black inverted pyramids, strange crystaline growths, people in a trance state, red lightning, the furnace...) remind me a lot of the videogame Control but I would never imagine calling that plagiarism.

Thank you for this!! I hope the show got renewed for a second season!

I had the same thought. The comic writer didn't immediately engage lawyer to sue Netflix or the show creators/writers told me what I needed to know.

Has the creator ever heard of... ya know... *parallel ideas?*

I wish this reached more people. Thank you for this.

Wow. This is wild. I just finished 1899. I hadn't heard about this yet. That's really too bad. I hope that this doesn't kill a chance of another season. I read that the writers were hoping for multiple seasons. I would really like to see where it's going.

I watch it all one Saturday afternoon. Fascinatingly trippy.

A lot people online, have also commented how her graphic novel is basically a copy and paste of Event Horizon and Dead Space. With her logic though, then the creators of Russian Doll plagiarized The Edge of Tomorrow and Happy Death Day, and the creators of Parrellels and Secrets of Sulphur Springs plagiarized Dark. By the Way... Outstanding video.... A lot of outragers need to watch this and realize... They've jumped to conclusions.

That’s very interesting. Incidentally enough, when I finished 1899 it reminded me a lot of the novel Eversion by Alastair Reynolds. I think that just adds to you point about their being common tropes to this genre.

I watched 2 episodes, and skimmed through a few pages of the graphic novel. I can already say that the two are very different. Reminds me of the Fine Bros trying to copyright / trademark reacting on KZfaq. lol Maybe she only wanted some pr, well, she's successful.

Daniel I love passionate videos like this! I feel like there will be pressure for you to delete this later but I'm so glad someone is willing to standup for storytelling and integrity.

If it's plagarism, i hope she's ready for a plagarism lawsuit from the makers of the movie Void, and probably even Event Horizon.

I will say this, the mass jumping off the ship really was unsettling and holy smokes that image is gonna stay in my head for a long while.

I had no idea this was going on and just finished 1899, it was extremely bingeable and I enjoyed it a lot! I hope you'll put up a review of the show as well, i'm interested to hear more of your thoughts on it ^^

I think the fact that the "plagiarisms" are so surface level and very easily coincidental, and the fact that the creators claim to have not even heard of the comic, kinda goes to show that it is just that: a coincidence. Why would they lie about something so surface level that you could only just make the 'inspired by' argument?

Thank you for mentioning Sunshine. It’s possibly my favourite movie, and a criminally overlooked scI-fi classic.

I heard about this and honestly didn't think much about the claim. I think my main disappointment with the show was that I was looking for some Lovecraftian sea horror, what I got was simulation scifi. Overall the show isn't bad just not what I wanted. The tropes they play with are nothing new to sci-fi. I think Mary is going to make a fool out of herself if she goes for legal action.

In any case, a lot of people are now familiar with the previously totally unknown Mary Cagnin and her 'Black Silence' comic.

Great video, it answered a lot of questions. (The name Daniel Green actually appears in one of Lovecraft's stories, btw.)

1899 goes deeper than some sci-fi tropes. It's so intricate and full of symbology that this Mary person couldn't even begin to comprehend what she tried to compare her work to. 1899 touches mythology, theology, psychology, alchemy, multidimensionality and I won't spoil anything so I'll leave it at that.

It's such a reckless accusation made on a public medium, which has snowballed at an insane rate which has greatly coloured the reporting of the show that has little to no merit, and she has not retracted her statement, at this point it is starting to come off as malicious. Also, this is getting covered by some pretty popular entertainment sites worldwide by now, right after it has released worldwide, and obviously all articles are being like 'is it plagiarised, we don't know?', I think the creators of 1899 might be able to sue her for defamation due to Mary Cagnin knowingly making false statements about them publicly that has caused them monetary harm, though usually for famous persons it is generally harder to prove defamation so maybe it might not work out though. The plagiarism case though will probably get laughed out of court and she may have to pay costs due to frivolous use of litigation, if that is a thing in Brazil as well.

Well, the author probably never watched 1899, they just saw the trailer and decided "Netflix, lawsuit, payday".

As A writer it's just funny to see that some people think a story should be 100 p original there is no such thing we are inspired by everything we watch or read you take ideas from other stories the thing is that you make in your way.

I appreciate this evenhanded response. It's not uncommon for shows/books/movies to use certain tropes, ideas, or shots (even around the same time) without actually being directly influenced by the other (even if it came much earlier), often it's because they're pulling from the same influences (whether it's specific media or broader societal or mythological things or concepts), subconsciously or not. Or sometimes it's simply because there are only so many ideas/options for certain things that you're bound to end up with similarities to something. I don't blame an author for seeing similarities, though I wish they would be a bit more tempered in response.

im really glad you talked about this, giving detail and honestly just grounding the discusion. the series and the creators dont deserve to have this attached to them, and theres just no way of taking plagiarism seriously without taking the time to look into the different claims. jumping to boycott as soon as you hear the word plagiarism doesnt help anyone, critical thinking is still very much required

Thank you!!

You’re really good at this review thing, Daniel. Professional caliber bro!

I know this shouldn't be a compliment necessarily, but nowadays I suppose it is. But your fan base seems so positive, supportive, and reasonable. Kudos to you for cultivating a voice of reason in this crazy online world!

Great video !!! Thank you for the explanation

This just made me think of Hoid in Words of Radiance “All stories told have been told before. We tell them to ourselves, as did all men who ever were. And all men who ever will be. The only things new are the names.”

Fantastic breakdown. Well constructed, fair and polite. Seriously important points made regarding what this controversy could do to the creators' reputation! Great video Daniel.

Daniel,thank you for your hard work👍👍

Aaaaand and now it's cancelled....

I read a book the other day, and it had a character struggle against a villain. What plagiarism! It was ripped off directly from star wars!!!

I’m glad you’re setting the record straight. I support the writers of “Dark”. Are you going to do a review of 1899? I would love to hear your theories!

Love your personality Daniel!

I liked the first 2 seasons of 'Dark' immensely, and '1899' was created by the same team, exploring similar narrative terrain. The series quite obviously took a great deal of inspiration from an indie film called 'Triangle', released well over a decade ago. 'Triangle' also featured an (almost) empty luxury liner caught in a time-loop, a mother who was trying to escape the memory of what she did to her own child, and scenes in which the results of the various causality loops coalesce in dramatic fashion: in '1899', we see a harbor packed with hundreds of iterations of the same doomed ship; in 'Triangle', we find hundreds of corpses, all of them versions of the same murdered redhead. They also differ in many, many ways, but I'll refrain from entering that spoiler-rich territory. Both '1899' & 'Triangle' are well worth the time, especially given the desolate landscape that the Netflix home-page has become of late. Taking inspiration from a film, using it as a springboard for new ideas in the way '1899' does, is nothing to be ashamed of; writers will be taking inspiration & outright stealing from '1899' soon enough. '1899' is a solid 7.5/10; at times predictable, it sometimes meanders & bogs down, but overall it's a fun story. 'Dark' seasons 1 & 2 are a bit better, averaging out at a 7.8/10. I'd give 'Triangle' a 7.0/10. As for this shitty comic author looking to promote her work by tearing down someone else's: shut the fuck up. Coincidences happen all the fucking time; we instinctually mistrust coincidences, but we logically have to acknowledge that they exist & they happen.

People need to remember that it wasn't Netflix who MADE 1899, it was Bo & Jantje. I would never believe anyone who says these two straight up plagiarised the plot of one of their shows.

I’d love a full review of 1899

This is why looking up information for yourself is key. Don't just believe one thing you see, unless from a trusted source of course.

Didn't Blade Runner juxtapose imagery of eyes and pyramids? This reminds me of that woman who tried to claim JK Rowling ripped her off because her work used the word "Muggles" and certain similar names...And wasn't there a woman who claimed the Matrix ripped off her work?

Thank you for this video! I have just discovered this controversy, but I didn’t have enough knowledge to base my initial idea that perhaps there was nothing going on, and also I didn’t have time to truly investigate this matter 😊 p.s I’m also Brazilian, I do not agree with the mob mentality that is going on, specially bc it seems people don’t want to actually have a talk about it (as always on the internet 😑)

Thank you so much for this video, I have seen many of those author accusations of plagiarism. As a writer I know that we are all influenced by everything around us. What we hear, see, watch, read, and do all have an effect on our works. Being well read can be both blessing and curse. Stephen King said all the stories have been told, the secret is in the telling. Once you are deep into writing it's almost like a fuege state of mind, the mind goes where the story takes it.

Cutting out of the video before you hit spoilers. You've made me want to go watch the show so that's what I'm gonna do.

Fair play to her, all this controversy has gotten buzz around her work and people flock to her material. Honestly, when I saw the pyramids/triangles, my first thought was sci-fi stories really do love their pyramids/triangles. That has been used in sci-fi stories since people claimed that aliens built the pyramids. But regarding the ending and that big reveal, my first thought was oh this trope again. I have seen it countless times in other books, shows, and movies, that is not plagiarism, that is a common story trope. Though my favorite part of the show was the fact that everyone spoke in different languages and not just all in one language like English. It really set the tone of the show and gave it a rich tension.

The 1899 copied the matrix and the matrix copied Plato's cave allegory! That's essentially what Mary is saying lol

Oh. My. God. Came back to watch this video after I had watched the show, incredibly frustrated with how it ended. Turns out my Netflix bugged out and didn't play the final episode, so despite my efforts I still got spoiled about the ending by this video 😭

Never thought I'd be watching a video explaining that tropes aren't plagiarism

Thank you for this! I loved this TV show and think it deserves the hype for being original. This makes me think about when Avatar came out all those years ago and how people said it was ripping off other movies. I could easily agree in regards to SOME artistic choices when creating the world. But there were also a lot of original creative world building ideas to express the theme of the conqueror joining the people they are oppressing as they realize the beauty they have to offer. Idk, I am just some guy on youtube. Haha. Don't hate me people....

I'm less than 6 minutes in and I think I'll go watch the show now before watching further, but I gotta say - I'm not so sure that, in this case, the "I don't think people should be punished for being wrong" applies here The author making accusations already seems so pigheaded in their accusations, I can't believe they're making the accusations in good faith. Add to things the fact that, thanks to the attention earned by these bad faith accusations, they're profiting in the form of sales. I think there should be some punishment What kind of punishment? I have no idea. But at the end of the day, they're getting nothing but benefits out of this situation. They are being rewarded for gross behavior

Just finished the show and the ending reminding me of the signal :0

Hey I know this is kinda random but I’m digging the new camera angle and style of shot if this video. 👍

A doctor going mad in a sci fi story?

She also called out the movie Life of Pi, saying it was a plagiarism of a Brazilian book. In actual fact, that movie was an adaption of the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel, who was inspired by a segment of the book she's referencing (Max and the Cats by Moacyr Scliar) where the main character crosses the Atlantic in a boat with a jaguar. That's literally the only similarity, they both feature a main character stuck on a boat with a big cat. In the Brazilian book, that's less than 20% of the book, while in Life of Pi, that's literally the main plot and takes up more than half of the book.

Oh I actually added this to my watchlist, it looked good.

I have to agree with you here. Expanding past SF, the doctor as a main character on a ship, is pretty much a staple. From Dr. Adam Bricker on the Love Boat to The Story of Dr. Wassell with Gary Cooper as the leading role, doctors on boats are regular main characters. They can talk back to the captain and are a source of wisdom and drama. As far as a pyramid in an eye, come on, I have been seeing eyes in pyramids and the reverse all my life. Multicultural crews? Wow that one pretty much reflects on every large cast since the Mod Squad. Doctor going crazy? Since Jekyll and Hyde and probably earlier that too has been pretty common. Lots of real life famous crazy doctors such has H H Holmes at the Chicago Worlds Fair. The only element that seemed like a close match was the pyramid, but honestly, in a show with this sort of mood, you show reflections in eyes and make them meaningful. If you latch onto the dark pyramid as a theme, it would be surprising if it wasn't reflected in an eye.

Wait Wait Wait Inspiration does not = theft!? I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you!!

I had no idea 1899 was even a thing until talking two days ago with a friend who said that the controversy was that "Netflix had plagiarized her pitch to them"...which sounds so different from what Daniel is describing XD Either way, there is a need to have a well of tropes and visual language to draw from in order to convey your story. If we didn't have a "film language" any tv show or movie we watched would be senseless to the vast majority of people who watched it, and it would make sense that this language would have crossover with other mediums. Plus stories typically need something familiar to the audience as a jumping off point in order to even get them interested. A lot of premise/pitches of stories are going to sound super similar as a result. How many times have you sought out a specific premise for a certain vibe, only to be surprised in all the different ways it turned out in different stories? Meanwhile, all those campy Christmas romance movies are out here coexisting instead of suing each other for plagiarism XD

Black triangles in eyes, immediately went "hell, the Edge of Sleep audiodrama/podcast did this, too." It is not uncommon lol

Your videos are so good sometimes.