So I been thinking about Katharina and the fact that in every reality she manages to break the cycle of parent to child abuse.
Katharina grew up as an only child with a mother who was both physically and emotionally abusive, beating her and verbally putting her down pretty much non stop - even straight up killing her when Katharina travels back in the timeline.
Just… her face when her mum tells her i should have gotten rid of you says it all. Katharina never had anyone model positive, supportive, unconditional motherly love to her.
Yes, 1986 Katharina is boisterous and aggressive and rebellious and goes out of her way to bully others and seeks conflict. She’s not a nice person. Then you see what her life is like, and how much she is made to feel small and useless and how her mother never shows her even a scrap of affection and it all makes sense: all Katharina knows is violence.
There’s a scene between Katharina and Ulrich in season one where Katharina tells him (in 1986) that she doesn’t want children ever, and it’s super obvious why - young Katharina equates motherhood with resentment, with anger, with abuse - and she has decided that she doesn’t want to feel like that, that she doesn’t want to end up being just like her own mother. Better not to have kids at all.
When we see her in 2019 in the ‘spin off’ universes, Katharina is a fantastic mum to her kids. She is firm but fair in her interactions, she shows them kindness and unconditional love, she’s endlessly supportive. Katharina, without ever being shown how to be a good mum, has worked this out all on her own. Magnus, Martha, and Mikkel are loved and Katharina makes sure that they know it. That’s growth right there, and a lot of hard work and some phenomenal healing - Katharina has broken the cycle of abuse.
In the original world, Katharina has no children. She has decided that she won’t go down that road, that she won’t risk perpetuating the violence and abuse she experienced at the hands of her own mother. Again, the cycle has been broken, albeit in a different way. Also, original Katharina seems… happy. Less defensive, less on edge, softer.
So much of Dark is about literally breaking cycles that continue to repeat themselves. Katharina’s own personal cycle is that of abusive, toxic motherhood, and she manages to break out of it in every iteration.
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