Line #16 NightmareFuel/GodOfWar


1	%%Image removed via crowner in the Moments Images Cleanup Thread: %%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=1udihyro
2	%%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1642193091068711500=]
3	%%Please do not add a new image without going through the Image Suggestion thread or starting a new Image Pickin' thread
4
5	Considering the series is about one man carving a path of carnage and death throughout the world of Greek Mythology, there's nightmares aplenty. Especially caused by the man in question.
6	----
7	* How about we start with [[VillainProtagonist Kratos himself]]? That this single petulant, PsychopathicManChild is willing to essentially destroy reality itself purely in a fit of pique is bad enough. The cruelties he inflicts on the at least decently-innocent and monsters alike are the stuff of nightmares. Worst of all? You have to ''play'' as him.
8	** Even worse is that Kratos himself is shown to be horrified and disturbed by the atrocities he commits, and when the dust settles he can only mutter WhatHaveIBecome in horror over the depths his pursuit of vengeance have brought him.
9	* You'd think that running around as pretty much gaming's ultimate badass, who stumbles upon [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Moments of Awesome]] with every step, and hacked his way out of hell three times, would excuse one from this. You'd be dead wrong. Ares decides to MindRape Kratos by having him fall to the same church where he slaughtered his family, with them still alive in it, and pale(r) copies of Kratos emerging from holes in the ground to do them in. Fighting against these true monsters as they seem to spawn endlessly, your family screaming in terror, the numbers overwhelming you as the church begins to break apart in the void. At the end, when after you have defended them to your last, your chained blades are ripped from your body, and used to kill them anyway.
10	** And if you lose in this fight, Kratos laments his failure before presumably being torn apart by his copies.
11	* The hydra's roar in the first game. Jesus ''Christ''.
12	* In the first ''God Of War'', in order to proceed, Kratos must "escort" a trapped, live, apparently innocent soldier to a room, where he is sacrificed to open a door, which is bad enough, in and of itself.
13	** The worst part is he's begging for his life the whole time and his pleas get more and more frantic and desperate the further you progress. When you finally reach the chamber, he's crying out for the gods to save him only to be ''burned alive'' shortly afterwards. Hell, the preceding scene implies that [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Kratos isn't happy about having to do this.]]
14	** For bonus horror, the soldier in question is voiced by none other than Creator/RobPaulsen. That's right, [[WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain Pinky]]/[[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} Yakko]]/[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 Raphael]]/[[WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius Carl Wheezer]]/[[WesternAnimation/MightyMax Max]] is begging you for mercy while you (probably a late teen or twenty-something at the time of the game's release) ''kill your own childhood.''
15	*** For those unwilling to murder said soldier, the scene is changed in the PAL version, replacing the trapped Athenian with a zombie soldier. Although this variation gives Kratos a [[SlasherSmile truly creepy smile]] when he realizes what he has to do, something that [[HorrifyingTheHorror unnerves]] even the undead soldier in question [[OhCrap once it realizes]] Kratos's intent.
16	* The Colossus of Rhodes in the second game. Zeus steals Kratos' godly powers and imbues it into the great Colossus, animating the gigantic statue and seemingly gives it a monstrous intellect, enough to make it zero in on Kratos and chase him across the whole island. Its incredibly disturbing to see the blank, frozen face of the Colossus peer in through the windows of the buildings as it searches for you. This is especially bad if you happen to have a fear of statues. Its even worse the times it breaks its blank facial expression and ''screams''. Imagine a [[Franchise/DoctorWho Weeping Angel]] that's 100 feet tall.
17	* Clotho, the Fate who spins the threads of life, from ''God Of War II'' is creepy. For one thing, her lair is dark and ominous, as opposed to the rest of the Temple of the Fates, which is bright and majestic. Plus, her lair is strewn about with threads in a way that is reminiscent of cobwebs. As for Clotho herself, she's a silkworm monster so massive she even makes Jabba the Hutt look like Calista Flockhart. Her skin is a sickly dark gray and zombie-like, covered with disturbingly lesion or blister-like growths. To top it all off, she has multiple breasts and spindly little arms sticking out of her body. And last but not least, there's that little speech she makes when you first see her: "It is through my threads that all life is born. You must not tamper with destiny, Kratos. You will destroy everything!" Kratos may not be afraid of anything, but we're not so lucky.
18	* ''Ghost Of Sparta'' give us Scylla: Let's see: a giant part-shark part-squid part-narwhal part-crab monster which lurks in the water and has a penchant for sneak attacks and will chase Kratos even in an ''active volcano'' to kill him. The part where you fall into the water and the first thing you see is this giant monster rushing towards you with gaping maws open is quite scary.
19	* Hades. Both the character in ''God of War 3'' and the place itself in the first game: navigate through platforms made of flesh, bones and blood.
20	* Alecto's sea monster form. There is nothing more frightening than seeing a monster in the pitch black of the ocean swimming towards you with its mouth ready to devour you.
21	** The scene before it comes into view is also quite terrifying, with Kratos dumped into the [[NothingisScarier pitch black ocean after fighting massive tentacles, not quite knowing what will come out.]] [[TheDarknessGazesBack And then Alecto's piercing eyes come into view...]]
22	* Aegaeon the Hecatonchires in ''Ascension'' is having a pretty tough time. [[AndIMustScream Bound in rock,]] [[BodyHorror hollowed out to make a prison dedicated to torture,]] and slowly [[EatenAlive infested/disfigured]] [[DeathByAThousandCuts one tiny bit at a time,]] he's probably rethinking his decision to break his blood oath about now.
23	** Hell, most of the bosses in Ascension, which could easily be renamed "BodyHorror Parade". Castor and Pollux are reimagined as Siamese twin mutants, instead of zombies the Furies use parasitical arthropods that hideously mutate their victims, the Furies themselves. It's like someone decided to remake ''Film/TheThing1982'' in classical Greece.
24	*** Actually, Pollux is made to look like [[spoiler: [[Film/TotalRecall1990 Kuato]]]]. The game's achievement for killing him is called [[spoiler: "QUAID!!!"]]
25	* Many of the deaths in God of War III are the bloodiest:
26	** The beatdown of Poseidon is given from HIS perspective, so through most of it you're treated to a close-up of the page picture: Kratos's psychotically furious expression as he [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown pummels the Ocean God to a bloody pulp]] before ''[[EyeScream gouging out his eyes]]'', [[NeckSnap snapping his neck]] and tossing his lifeless body from Olympus.
27	** Following directly on from the above, taking his terrified, beautiful young widow and forcing her to hold open a door by means of two nearby giant cogwheels: which then [[SquashedFlat pull her in and gorily crush her between them.]] Made even worse by the fact she hadn't done ''anything'' to deserve being so thoroughly desecrated.
28	** Kratos ripping off Helios' head with his bare hands... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRFNX9ma9Zc * shudders* ]]. Oh, and if ''that'' wasn't enough, Helios' head is promptly used as a macabre lantern by Kratos. One that ''screams in pain'' whenever you use it, meaning that Helios is [[AndIMustScream at least somewhat alive and cognizant.]]
29	** Kratos using the Nemean Cestus to literally beat Hercules' face in until it ''bursts.''
30	** Hermes dies from the shock of getting both of his legs cut off specifically so that Kratos could take his boots. The worst part how after Kratos cuts off the first leg, he starts slowly marching toward Hermes, who's desperately trying to crawl from him and begging the Spartan to leave him alone.
31	** The fight with Cronos is filled to the brim with {{Gorn}}. Cronos makes the grave mistake of swallowing Kratos alive. Which gives Kratos the opportunity to cut his stomach open with the Blade of Olympus. ''That part'' just leaves Cronos in horrible pain. Kratos busts open the giant stone in the titan’s belly button and it gets jettisoned into Cronos’s chin. Worse, he can’t get it out because of the chains attached to it and his wrists. This ''still'' doesn't kill him. Kratos stabs him in the forehead with the Blade of Olympus. '' That'' finally kills him, [[RasputinianDeath though he spends several seconds staggering around, screaming in agony and desperately trying to pull the stone spike from his chin before he finally topples over dead.]]
32	*** Cronos' body provides plenty of gore as well - his chains have been attached for so long that they've carved deep, bloody furrows into the flesh of his wrists from the friction of them rubbing against them, and his body is covered in blisters stuffed with walking corpses and fleshless Cyclopses.
33	** Zeus' death. Kratos tosses the Blades of Exile aside in favour savagely beating Zeus to death, to the point where the ''screen is completely stained in his blood''. And even then Kratos is ''still'' beating him how ever long the player wants.
34	* As horrible as the Gods are, each one is a CosmicKeystone. Every time a god dies, something horrible happens. Poseidon? The ocean levels rise to flood the world except for the highest mountaintops. Hades? The dead wander the world aimlessly. Helios? The sun is blocked by perpetual storm clouds. Hermes? A plague of biting insects bursts from his evaporating body and infects everyone with disease. Hera? All plant life in the world withers. Zeus? The whole world falls into complete chaos. And Kratos giveth roughly ''no'' shits.
35	* You know the horrible brutality Kratos inflicts on his enemies? The horrible part is that almost all of them deserved it, especially the bosses. If they aren't horrendously threatening, rampaging, mindless monsters, they are cruel, petty gods or arrogant "heroes". The worst part of the world of God Of War isn't what Kratos turned it into, its that everyone he killed along the way absolutely refused to accept any responsibility for what happened. Ares, Zeus, The Fates, the Furies, all of them are just as responsible as Kratos.
36	* The games show ''just'' what kind of [[CrapsackWorld world]] would realistically exist under the Greek [[JerkassGods Gods of Olympus]]. It is a world where [[YouCanNotFightFate no matter how hard you try, you can't escape your destiny through any normal means]] ([[spoiler:though Kratos did it by ''killing'' those who controlled his destiny]]); [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed giant monsters are constantly shown throughout the land slaughtering enough bystanding folk]]; and [[CosmicHorrorStory human beings are completely under the dominion of sociopathic and divine beings who see them as little more than ants]].
37	** Oh but wait it gets [[SarcasmMode better]]! Those Gods that were sociopathic to your needs? Yes they're cold but they're actually possessed. By what you may ask? Why [[SealedEvilInACan the evils of mankind from Pandora's Box itself]]. And that's not even getting into how [[SealedGoodInACan the only good spirit Hope]] bonded itself.... to [[SociopathicHero KRATOS]].
38	* A few of the songs on the soundtrack fit the bill, like ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pthpvZjUd3k Battle in the Bog]]'' with its oppressive horns and ominous whispers, or the Film/{{Jaws}}-like ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a4Rx7T_lwc Rage of Sparta]]'', which plays when Kratos has an Olympian at his (non-existent) mercy and is about to kill them in horrendous, agonizing fashion.

Context NightmareFuel / GodOfWar