Is Kratos — the fictional lead of the popular God of War video game franchise — merely a product of his environment and experiences? Or did he forge himself of his own volition?
The recently released God of War (2018) gives a fresh take on the aging character, and it’s easy for anyone to praise the new, thoughtfully layered father figure version by denigrating the classic rage-fueled Kratos most often associated with extreme violence, nudity, and adolescent male gamers.
In order to better understand the reasoning for his persona and aggressive behavior, fans must comprehend the conditions and trials he has experienced against antagonists throughout his life. Here are the most important enemies Kratos has suffered and what was needed to slay them after an already difficult childhood struggling to become a Spartan warrior.
Ares: God of Bad Impressions
The original boss and O.G. of War was Ares, the ancient Greek deity who started Kratos’s entire journey and literally left a lasting mark. The very first time that Kratos encountered him — as played out in the events of God of War: Ghost of Sparta — was during his childhood training years. Ares permanently scarred Kratos’s right eye and abducted his birth-marked brother Deimus because of a prophecy that Olympus would fall at the hands of a “Marked Warrior.”
Later in life, Kratos pledges allegiance to Ares in return for the Blades of Chaos. After triumphing over his barbarian enemies, Ares tricks Kratos into mistakenly killing his very own wife and young child. This curses Kratos to repetitiously relive the memory through torturous nightmares. Lastly, Ares even impales and kills Kratos himself with a hurled broken pillar after the legendary Pandora’s Box is retrieved as a means for aid.
After having to fight his way through countless monsters, consulting an oracle, exploring a desert temple on the back of a titan, retrieving a magical box with the power to defeat gods, getting murdered, crawling back from the underworld, and using the box to become a giant, Kratos ultimately engages in a final battle. However, halfway through the fight, Ares sends Kratos into an illusion where he must defend his wife and daughter from alternate versions of himself only to see them killed again by his own weapons. It took a giant blade, a gift from another god, for Kratos to finally cut short the thread of Ares’s fate by forcibly piercing his throat.
Zeus: God of Deadbeat Dads
Now keep in mind that Kratos was no angel as a god after defeating Ares. The nightmares about his family continued and his persistent destructive behavior irritated the other gods. However, as heinously as Ares had tormented Kratos, his half–brother was ultimately a preamble for Zeus, the ruler of all Greek gods and the spartan hero’s biological father. As a boy, Kratos’s mother Callisto was shunned for giving birth to children out of wedlock and started a new life for her family as a single mother in Sparta . It wasn’t until Kratos demanded the identity of his father on her deathbed that the god’s identity was revealed after transforming into a vicious beast and forcing her own son to kill her. At the end of Kratos’s time as a god, Zeus also destroys the city of Sparta, the very place that trained and worshiped the hero. And last but not least, Zeus not only directly battles the Spartan three times and successfully skewers him once over the span of two God of War gaming campaigns, but enlists the help of all other Greek gods to wage war on Kratos and his allied Titans.
Now bringing down a ruling god is no easy task and after being tricked by Zeus to imbue his immortality into a sword and then getting killed with it, Kratos must do more than merely come back from the dead and swing a sword. The marked warrior must venture to the Sisters of Fate and kill them so he may go back to the time of his murder. Zeus ultimately flees this second battle while Kratos’s ally, goddess Athena , sacrifices herself to save her king and father. From there, the Ghost of Sparta, treks up Mount Olympus with his warring Titans , falls to the underworld again, crawls back battling each of the gods and looting their powers, breaks the chain of balance in the world, and must standby while a befriended child sacrifices herself so he may achieve his goal of ending Zeus and the rule of Olympus. The world is half destroyed in the process and only chaos and the hope of survivors are left behind.
Kratos: Demigod of Punishment
The absolute worst enemy our hero has consistently fought and punished repeatedly in vane is himself. His anger has followed him since childhood and morphed into a character that only desires conquering and pillaging. He tattooed his body to match the birthmarks of the brother he could not stop from being taken from him. He suffers nightmares because of the guilt he carries after murdering his family and wears their ashes on his body as a ghostly curse. Kratos never truly grows as a person and continues to let his rage make his decisions until the end of God of War III when he learns to allow some internal reflection and forgive himself for his actions. Now that this eternal madness has been conquered, he’s ready for the next chapter in his life although his wrath is still with him and will always be apart of him.
