The creators of God of War focus on the themes that animate the long-lasting protagonist: brutality, fatherhood and redemption.
2018’s “God of War” rebooted the collection and marked the start of a extra severe tackle the brutal anti-hero — one which’s been met with near-universal approval for its portrayal of themes of fatherhood and redemption.
“I think a lot of people going in [to the reboot] had felt like Kratos was a pretty irredeemable character,” mentioned Matt Sophos, narrative lead on the newest entry within the collection, “God of War Ragnarok.” “Going into the last one and then [‘Ragnarok’], you know, we evolved that hopefully in most people’s eyes.”
Longtime followers had been fast to painting the franchise’s tonal shift because the “daddification” of Kratos; the change corresponded with the introduction of his son, Atreus, who accompanies his father by means of the realms of Norse mythology.
But the staff behind the collection at Sony’s Santa Monica Studio doesn’t fairly see it as a metamorphosis for his character. “Ragnarok” producer Cory Barlog and director Eric Williams, two of the leads behind God of War from day one, mentioned in an interview with The Washington Post that the reboot marked much less of a brand new route and extra of Kratos coming full circle. Sophos echoed this sentiment, noting that the character of Kratos has all the time been outlined by his relationship with fatherhood.
“This was kind of a chance for us to really kind of examine parts of fatherhood that we didn’t before because in the last series, his being a father and a husband is what led to a journey of revenge,” Sophos mentioned.
As proven in a flashback within the authentic “God of War,” the loss of life of Kratos’ spouse and daughter set the occasions of the collection into movement, the primary casualties in a string of betrayals that outline his character arcs. After rising by means of the ranks to turn into a common, Kratos instructions a military of troopers to put siege to Sparta’s enemies. But when his forces are overwhelmed in battle, Kratos pledges his life to Ares, the god of struggle, to show the tide. Ares methods Kratos into severing his final remaining connection to his humanity, his household, who Kratos slaughters in a blind rage whereas pillaging within the god’s title.
Once he realizes what he’s completed, Kratos is overwhelmed by grief. Distraught and vengeful, Kratos serves the opposite gods of Olympus, who promise him an escape from his torment. But after obeying their command for years and finally slaughtering Ares himself, he realizes this was one more trick. The alliances he forges with titans, denizens of the underworld and different deities on his quest for revenge all finish equally: in a path of destruction and slaughtered foes that leads Kratos no nearer to discovering peace.
While he forges ahead unflinching all through all this, Kratos isn’t as indifferent from the atrocities as he seems in these early video games.
“He’s very aware of the fact that he wasn’t the good guy in his story,” Sophos mentioned.
By the tip of “God of War III,” Kratos is clearly buckling after going through betrayal after betrayal whereas in service to the gods of his homeland. He uncovers the horrible reality of his lineage: That Zeus is his father, and the one who ordered his brother, Deimos, kidnapped as a toddler in an try to forestall the prophesied fall of Olympus. In his quest to kill Zeus, Kratos bonds with Pandora, who reminds him of his daughter, and thru that bond begins to develop hope that he might lastly be capable of forgive himself, solely to observe her die as Zeus mocks him for failing to save lots of anybody who will get near him.
After he lastly defeats Zeus, Kratos is at his lowest level, Barlog mentioned. The “God of War” reboot takes place an undetermined variety of years later, after Kratos has constructed a household within the land of the Norse gods along with his spouse, a fellow warrior named Faye, and Atreus. Barlog mentioned this relationship with Faye (which performs out off-screen) formed the person gamers had been reintroduced to within the 2018 reboot simply as a lot as his newfound fatherhood:
“Kratos at the end of ‘God of War III’ fell into an exceptionally deep well within himself, a well that is miles and miles and miles and miles and miles deep. And then he spent … just a massive amount of time alone, falling deeper and deeper and deeper into that well. And Faye was the first person to throw a rope down. She started the process in concert with him, together, of crawling out of that well.”
That’s a course of Kratos finds himself navigating alone as soon as once more in 2018’s “God of War,” which begins after Faye’s loss of life, leaving Kratos to navigate single parenthood and the unanswered questions she left behind. Though it’s not below circumstances he would have ever hoped for, this provides Kratos the chance to rediscover himself and confront the feelings he ran away from in earlier video games.
“We were really focusing in on who he is, not in the grand scheme of mythology and all that kind of stuff, but just who the guy is, who Kratos is and what he’s dealt with and what he fears, and all those trappings,” Sophos mentioned.
Earlier God of War video games supplied glimpses of this extra advanced world happening inside Kratos, Williams mentioned. Particularly “God of War: Ghost of Sparta,” which reveals a younger Kratos as a caring and protecting brother to Deimos even among the many harshness and cruelty of their Spartan upbringing.
“Those parts have always been inside of him to do good, to do the right thing, it’s just that people broke him, and when he got broken, he couldn’t deal with his own guilt,” Williams mentioned.
All three builders expressed that Kratos, after fleeing to the land of Norse gods, nonetheless completely believes that his horrible previous has perpetually stained him — just like the ashes of his household have been cursed to stain his pores and skin — however he doesn’t need to taint his son with that too. The 2018 reboot “is really about him learning to be a better person in general,” mentioned Sophos, “and that kind of evolves from him really taking on the mantle of being a true father rather than someone who’s just provided the necessities for his family.”
The stakes in 2018’s “God of War” are excessive. There is not any operating away from his grief this time; to disregard his failings would imply to danger seeing them mirrored in his son, Barlog mentioned. Until Faye’s loss of life, he had stored his personal historical past and Atreus’s demigodhood a secret from Atreus. But confronted with the fact of Atreus rising into powers he doesn’t perceive, he realizes he should open up concerning the sordid particulars of his previous. This informs the core battle on the coronary heart of the reboot.
“It’s that idea of how much of ourselves do we show our children, especially the parts we’re not proud of, especially if those things can help them in some way to either guide them away from paths that you took,” Sophos mentioned. “But you’re still ashamed of them and you don’t want to do it. And that was something that felt so perfect for Kratos as someone who really does have a lot of things he’s not proud of.”
An actual-world component contributed to this a part of Kratos’s growth: Barlog, Sophos and Richard Gaubert, Sophos’s longtime writing associate and a story designer for the collection, all had younger sons across the time of the reboot’s growth. The parallels of their lived experiences knowledgeable how they navigated Kratos’s transition from Greek to Norse mythology and, extra importantly, from a vengeful soldier to a father as soon as extra.
“I think that’s the biggest thing that we did was make Kratos relatable in a way that he probably wasn’t before,” Sophos mentioned.
While Kratos travels with Atreus to meet his spouse’s final want to unfold her ashes on the prime of the best peak within the 9 realms, the 2 safe one thing Kratos by no means had within the earlier video games: an entourage. The father-son duo stumbles right into a discovered household dynamic with the dwarven brothers Brock and Sindri and the Norse god of knowledge Mimir, a growth Kratos initially resists. He distances himself, refusing to consult with them by something apart from reductive nicknames like “head” for Mimir (as a result of, properly, he’s a speaking head). Even his personal son is “boy” as an alternative of Atreus. But their camaraderie chips away at these partitions. By “Ragnarok,” that prickly demeanor has softened significantly — he calls Atreus, Mimir and the remainder of his crew by their names all through the sport.
“He’s reliant, as much as he doesn’t want to be, on others,” mentioned Barlog, revisiting the properly analogy. “And those others are the muscle, the hands, on that rope that is pulling him out … they’re helping to pull the human side of him back out of a well that he dug for a long time.”
Part of this growth stems again to the tip of “God of War” when Kratos and Atreus unfold Faye’s ashes and uncover one more hidden lineage. Faye was an enormous, which makes Atreus half large and half god. A prophecy reveals that Kratos isn’t lengthy for this world and that Atreus, generally known as Loki among the many giants, will in some way be concerned in his loss of life. Understandably, Atreus has questions on his lineage. Kratos, blindsided by the revelation of Faye’s previous simply as a lot as Atreus, has to reconcile with the truth that he has zero solutions. This is an issue he can’t repair.
“And that’s the hardest part for a parent when you can’t give them [your child] what they want,” Williams mentioned.
On prime of that, he is aware of he should shortly put together Atreus for a world with out him, and with that data comes vulnerability. He’s grappling along with his shortcomings and making an attempt to make peace with understanding he should now lean on his newfound connections to fill within the gaps in Atreus’s growth. That’s significantly the case with regards to channeling his feelings and dealing with anger, Sophos mentioned, since traditionally “when he lets out that emotion, it usually goes to a bad place.”
The looming specter of his loss of life is on the entrance of Kratos’s thoughts heading into “Ragnarok.” To put together Atreus to outlive in a world with out him, he’s pressured to reckon with the disgrace he’s shouldered quietly since Greece so Atreus can perceive tips on how to keep away from making the identical errors. Kratos doesn’t need Atreus to be like him; he needs him to be higher, and meaning committing to his personal private development.
“Kratos is just doing his best to kind of guide him on what he sees as the safest path, the path to where his son will survive, even if he doesn’t,” mentioned Sophos. “Even if you aren’t a parent, you can still identify with wanting to be better for somebody, you know, wanting to do right by someone and hope for the best for someone.”
correction
A earlier model of this text misstated the surname of one of many narrative designers on the God of War collection. He is Richard Gaubert, not Richard Gilbert. The article has been corrected.