History Fridge / GodOfWar

* Athena being the one to manipulate Kratos into killing Zeus make sense when you remember the myth of Metis. She was one of her lovers, and was prophesized to give birth to the future ruler of the heavens. To prevent this, Zeus ate her when she was pregent with Athena, but this did not stop Athena from coming out of Zeus's head thanks to Hephaistos, [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext cutting Zeus's head with an axe freeing her]]. While this is not touch on in classic mythology again because Athena is mostly loyal, this prophecy makes Athena's role in God of War 3 not come out of nowhere.

* Probably the biggest one of them all is how King Rhadamanthus found Kratos worthy of Elysium. This is what Minos says the man thinks of Kratos, and a nearby book on the upper level says that only those found worthy by the judges may pass through towards Elysium. While Minos then says "The afterlife is not yet ready for you", that just means "It ain't your time, my boy. Not yet." Given Kratos survived releasing the power of Hope into the world, left Greece, moved to Midgard, and formed a new life and family there, he was right.

* There's a bit of brilliance in how Zeus' speech in the beginning of God of War III only further exposes his hypocrisy and cowardice. In the speech, he talks about how they needed to put aside their petty grievances and unite to stop Kratos. But in actual execution, the other remaining Gods ended up separating to attack Kratos individually, while [[OrcusOnHisThrone Zeus himself stays back on Olympus.]] While most likely done for the sake of gameplay and having bosses, the reality is that if they had actually committed to attacking Kratos together, he might have genuinely lost against them since he wouldn't be able to fight against all of them at the same time. But by separating themselves (and in Zeus' case, letting the others do the fighting for him until there were no more bodies between him and Kratos anymore), they pretty much guaranteed they would lose. Furthermore, all of them allow their grievances against Kratos to influence their attacks against him. It's also quite reflective of Zeus' cowardice that, despite his call for unity, he chooses to hang back and let the others try to kill Kratos until he has no other option but to fight himself.

* There's a bit of brilliance in how Zeus' speech in the beginning of God of War III only further exposes his hypocrisy and cowardice. In the speech, he talks about how they needed to put aside their petty grievances and unite to stop Kratos. But in actual execution, the other remaining Gods ended up separating to attack Kratos individually, while [[OrcusOnHisThrone Zeus himself stays back on Olympus.]] While most likely done for the sake of gameplay and having bosses, the reality is that if they had actually committed to attacking Kratos together, he might have genuinely lost against them since he wouldn't be able to fight against all of them at the same time. But by separating themselves (and in Zeus' case, letting the others do the fighting for him until there were no more bodies between him and Kratos anymore), they pretty much guaranteed they would lose. And it's reflecting of Zeus' cowardice that, despite his call for unity, he chooses to hang back and let the others try to kill Kratos until he has no other option but to fight himself.

* The mural of the Three Wise Men visiting Baby Jesus in God of War II seems a bit out of place in an overly violent game based off Greek mythology. However, it actually provides some {{Foreshadowing}} for what happens in the third game. The birth of Christ is supposed to be a sign of hope for humankind. [[spoiler: Said hope was imbued into Kratos when he opened Pandora's Box to combat the evils set out by the box, and was released when Kratos stabbed himself with the Blade of Olympus.]] Guess who also [[spoiler:nearly died]] to give humanity hope?
* Something I didn't catch until about halfway through the second game: the first game and most of the second show an _absurdly_ detailed knowledge of Greek Myth, down to getting it right on subtle (and not-subtle) distinctions between the Greek versions of the gods and their roles and the Roman versions.

* Why is the Stranger described as "Odin's best tracker", despite his condition? [[spoiler:It's precisely ''because'' of his condition. He doesn't have any sense of touch, smell, taste or pain - and this sensory deprivation is torture for him. It's safe to assume that he focused on his remaining senses (sight and hearing) because they're the only things that he can feel; and he ended up developing them to an immense degree, hence why he's so good as a tracker]].

* Kratos was revealed to have initially wielded Hope to kill Ares instead of the Evils but in God of War III it was shown to have been buried under all his guilt and he only regained access to it when he learned to forgive himself. Yet there is a logical reason why he could use it against Ares; it was because he was confronting what he knew was the biggest reason (aside from his own shortcomings). Faced with his most hated adversary, Kratos was no longer wallowing in guilt before there Ares was, the source of his problems and the one he could truly blame for everything. It was only after Ares was dead and Kratos was left with no-one to blame but himself did Hope eventually get smothered by his shame before he was able to re-ignite it within himself.

* At the end of the first game, Athena said that the gods would absolve him of his sins but couldn't erase his visions of him murdering his wife and daughter, which is what he really wanted. So why don't they just ask him to take a sip from Lethe, the river of forgetfulness? While it could be another example of SadlyMythtaken causing said river to go under the radar, Lethe would erase Kratos' entire memory, not just his visions.