Kratos was always DEEP as a character! In-Depth Post

A lot of people, especially people who just recently got into the franchise with the new installment, and those who have not really played all of the games in depth, sure think that Kratos used to be a monster that killed anything and anyone without mercy, before becoming a calm and reasonable dad. Also, I remember reading outrageous news articles about how Kratos finally is a deep character and no longer is an emotionless brutal destroyer. Of course I could not just think about how wrong these ridiculous articles were, and had to make this post today.

Today I will go over Kratos' human side and how he is not a monster in the greek era.

The fact is, this couldnt be further from the truth, and I have A LOT of points to make in order to back up this claim.

I am going to go through the whole timeline chronologically. If you havent played the greek era GoW Games and you are planning to do so, do not read this post.

Kratos is a Spartan, and its a pure fact that Spartans were destined to become fierce warriors. In his early years of warfare where he was a general/captain, he and the Sprtan army were on a conquest for power. This is standard stuff for an ancient greek civilization, especially for the battle orientated way of life in Sparta. After Kratos' pact with Ares, it is in this time that Kratos did some of his most questionable killing in all of the franchise, from innocent citizens that worshipped Athena, to his own family, the later being a mistake he did not mean to do. Of course, this killing was all done in the name of Ares and even though it was senseless violence, Kratos would not do all of this if it was not for Ares.

Most of the questionable and non justified violence that Kratos has commited, has been put to the game to establish him as a fierce warrior and some also to reflect on his wrong choices and actions in his early years, not to establish him as an actual anti-hero or antagonist of the franchise like a lot of people think.

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GAMES TIMELINE:

In Ascension, it is stated that Kratos would only be free from his bond to Ares and live in the truth again if he killed the Furies, which he mainly did because of these motives. Kratos just wanted to be freed from the Furies' illusions and his actions against them were justified, considering how they tried to break and torture him. In the end though, where the oath keeper of Kratos' bond to Ares became Orcos, Kratos did not only want to not kill Orcos, but was actually saddened by this. Kratos killing Orcos was something that needed to be done though for both of them, and Kratos proceeded to kill him.

In Chains of Olympus, if it was not for the end of the world and elysium, Kratos would have ended his servitude to the Gods there, and stay with his daughter in elysium. This is quite a point actually, because at that point, Kratos had not yet killed Ares, which means he was willing to stop thinking about revenge and be there with his daughter. Most people have overlooked this but its a main point to take into consideration before judging Kratos' character in the Greek era. The plot of Chains of Olympus is huge, compared to how small the game is. Kratos didnt only save the world of Gods, but the world of mortals and the dead alike. In the end, where Atlas asks Kratos what good is the promise of an olympian, Kratos can be heard in a depressed state shouting "It is all I have Atlas", which proves that he still has feelings, is tortured by his nightmares and wants to make it all go away. Pretty human reaction to all the psychological pain Kratos has endured, if you ask me. Not being able to stay with Calliope devastated Kratos emotionally but the choice was clear to him. He needed to let go of his daughter forever so that she could may continue to live in elysium. Tapping O to let go off Calliope as a quick time event, shows Kratos' emotional pain when he comes to the realisation that me must go on and how difficult it is for him to let go.

Another questionable act was killing the boat captain in the beginning of GoW1, but the boat captain is mostly a mere easter egg, hence why we see him get killed by Kratos 3 times in the franchise. Also, in the encounter where the woman in Athens kept running away from Kratos until she fell from the balcony to her death, Kratos did not seem to want to kill her, but rather ask for the keys that she had in order to progress with the game. If Kratos wanted to kill her, it would be easy for him to outrun her and catch up to her canonically. In the end he justifiably kills Ares, who had it coming, because it was both a task by the Gods and Kratos' long awaited act of revenge, he tries to commit suicide, even though he was imbued with the power of hope. That's how suicidal and depressed Kratos was. It is the Gods that wanted Kratos alive and gave him the throne of War on Olympus. GoW1 depicts Kratos as a tired, suicidal man, whose only drive to stay alive is a promise of the Olympians to end his nightmares, which the Gods didnt even do, despite Kratos saving them all in Chains of Olympus and having served them for 10 years straight at this point. Atlas predicted all that in Chains of Olympus though...

In Ghost of Sparta, Kratos showed feelings in the scene with his mother, eventually regretting killing her even as the beast she had become. He spares Deimos and does not decide to kill him even though he attacked Kratos. The whole game actually takes place because Kratos decided to find and save his brother in the first place. If he was a monster, he would simply not care for anything. When Thanatos kills Deimos, the sheer rage of Kratos and how well the game depicts it, still brings chills down my spine, after so many years. Kratos was devastated by the death of his brother. This was his turning point, after he had lost everything and was constantly screwed over by the Gods, that he decided to take action and conquer the whole Greece with his Spartan army, in order to stand up to the other Gods.

In GoW2, Kratos is killed by Zeus. Kratos had enough and now his path for revenge against Zeus is justified. Now lets see how Kratos treated each character he met on his journey to change his fate. Firstly, he asked Theseus to let him pass and in exchange Kratos would not kill him. Later, he was provoked and challenged to a fight by Perseus who though that killing Kratos was a sign by the fates. He killed the translators because it was the only way for Kratos to proceed with his journey. One may find these acts somewhat questionable, which is understandable, but Kratos had one thing in his mind, revenge. He would simply not care for mere mortals compared to his grand scheme of killing Zeus. Im not saying that Kratos is a saint. The goal of this post is to prove that he is not a monster that kills without reason. Heck, Kratos even asks Lakhesis to stay out of his way in the cutscene before their fight, which further solidifies the idea that Kratos did not want to destroy everything he came across. In the end though, Kratos had to destroy the fates. When he accidentally impaled Athena with the Blade of Olympus, he seemed a bit saddened and concerned as to why Athena chose to sacrifice herself. This is Athena we are talking about, one of the main Gods that had part to do with Kratos' nightmares and how the Gods failed to keep their promise to Kratos.

"IF ALL ON OLYMPUS WILL DENY ME MY VENGEANCE, THEN ALL ON ONLYMPUS WILL DIE" - This goes to show that Kratos only wanted to kill Zeus, not all Olympian Gods, despite that most of them, if not all, in some form or manner were responsible for Kratos' tragic life up until this point. He even said that to Athena before she died.

GoW3, the game where Kratos kills all, the game of absolute chaos. Poseidon and Hades? Well, they were among the big 3 of Olympus, and would stand with Zeus till the end of times. Kratos had to dispose of them. Helios? He asks him about the location of the flame of Olympus and in return, Kratos would spare Helios. Hermes? "To catch a fly from the ass of Zeus is not worth my time, Hermes." - But Hermes was foolish enough to keep taunting the Ghost of Sparta. Hercules? "This is not between us, borther" - Kratos even tried to difuse the situation against Hercules, but it seems Hercules had a deathwish. How foolish and selfish of the Gods to really think they could kill Kratos... The man had killed Thanatos, the primordial personification of death, a far more powerful being than most Olympians, if we take mythology into consideration. I actually believe Thanatos is only tied in terms of power to Zeus, far out-powering Poseidon and Hades. Back to the main GoW3 story, after Kratos found Pandora, he looked after her as his child, which reflects on Kratos' past as a father. Clearly, while Kratos has lost some of his humanity in his journey for vengeance, the part of him being a former father still is inside him. It is noteworthy to add that when Kratos was killing the Gods, chaos hit the world and mankind suffered. In a selfless act, Kratos sacrificed himself and gave back humanity the hope they needed to rebuild the greek realm, instead of giving it to Athena and ruling over the mortals, possibly with her dark, greedy schemes. I actually think Athena was infected with the evil of greed when Kratos opened the box.

Im not going to go over GoW4, because we all know his motives aren't about vengeance at all. The goal was to shed some light on greek era Kratos and show you with facts that he, in comparison to his older self in GoW4, isn't just night and day, but share a lot of character traits, even after the 1000 years that have passed since the end of 3.

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Kratos was always DEEP you cowards!