This page details Kratos' family members from both the Greek and Norse eras. Bear in mind that this page focuses on Kratos' immediate family and not his extended ones from Zeus's side.

open/close all folders

Greek Era

Callisto

As an old woman.

^{Click here} to see her young.

^{Click here} to see her monster form.

Voiced by: Jennifer Hale (English, young), Deanna Hustold (English)^{additional VAs}

Kratos' mother.

Dying as Yourself: She reverts to her human self after being fatally wounded by Kratos and lives long enough to give her parting words to him.
Forced Transformation: As punishment for trying to tell Kratos that his brother Deimos is still alive and being held prisoner, the gods turn her into a monster that Kratos has to Mercy Kill.
Good Parents: She's definitely better than the father Zeus.
I Was Quite a Looker: As the flashbacks and pictures to the past can attest, she was quite the beauty. No wonder Zeus fell for her.
Loophole Abuse: When Kratos demands she tell him the name of his father in a fit of rage, Callisto attempts this trope by hoarsely pronouncing the first and last letters of his father's name. It doesn't work, and for her trouble she's transformed into a monster and is killed by her son.
Mercy Kill: On the receiving end of this trope by her son.
Morality Chain: Because even Kratos loves his mother.
My Greatest Failure: The fact that even with her love and support, Kratos is still cold to everyone else.
No Body Left Behind: Subverted. Her body vanishes when she dies on Kratos' arms, but its revealed at the end of Ghost of Sparta that Zeus teleported it somewhere so he could bury it next to Deimos.
Pet the Dog: It's implied that Zeus was quite fond of her considering that he left her in the care of his brother Poseidon when Callisto was in her old age. And he later buries her body next to her son Deimos.
Shadow Discretion Shot: Unlike other brutal finishers, we're treated with a shadow shot of Kratos slowly walking to her and swiftly stabbing her heart once.
Tongue-Tied: She was forbidden by the gods themselves from telling Kratos his true parentage, with a curse being laid on Callisto to transform her into a monster if she ever did this.
Tragic Monster:And, obviously, Kratos killed her the most fast and soft way he knew.

Deimos

^{Click to see spoilers}

Voiced by: Elijah Wood (English, God of War III), Mark Deklin (English, Ghost of Sparta), Bridger Zadina (English, young)^{additional VAs}

Kratos' brother who was kidnapped by Ares after being mistaken for the one who would bring ruin to Olympus. He had hoped to be saved by Kratos, but that hope turned into hatred for his brother when he didn't come.

Back-to-Back Badasses: In the final battle, Kratos and Deimos face Thanatos together.
Being Tortured Makes You Evil: When the gods kidnapped him as a child, he was left at the hands of Thanatos. Whatever the death god was doing to him, Deimos had to suffer through his childhood to adulthood. As a result, he grew an unbearable hatred for his brother, vowing revenge on him for not saving him.
Birthmark of Destiny: He has a large birthmark across his head and shoulder. And the gods thought it was a straight example of this trope, making him the 'Marked Warrior' of prophecy, but it wasn't; instead, it was his brother Kratos, who had no birthmark but gained two potentially qualifying marks (he got a tattoo shaped like Deimos's birthmark in his brother's memory, and he had ashes grafted to his skin) later in life.
Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: He saves Kratos from Thanatos' One-Winged Angel form by spearing his eye out of the orbit. The God of Death answers by killing him.
Cain and Abel: Subverted with a very rare occasion where Kratos is the Abel rather than the Cain, with Deimos wanting to kill him for abandoning him. After a brief fight between the two, Kratos saves Deimos from Thanatos and the two make peace with each other, making a final stand against the Death God.
The Chosen One: In a twisted way. The Gods thought that he was the Marked Warrior who would have destroyed Olympus.
Defeat Means Friendship: Not exactly, but after he defeated Kratos he was snatched by Thanatos and tossed to his death, only to be saved again by his elder brother, who gained his trust.
Early-Installment Weirdness: In the non-canonical "Birth of a Beast" video from the first game, Deimos is transformed into a demonic being with bat-like wings. Ghost of Sparta establishes that Deimos looks more or less like a normal demigod.
Expy: Of Leonidas. Even moreso when he gets the Arms of Sparta.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: He's never mentioned in the games set after Ghost of Sparta. Finally Subverted in Ragnarok, where Kratos brings up Deimos in a conversation with Freya and Mimir.
Mistaken Identity: Both Thanatos and Zeus realize Ares chose the wrong Spartan youth; the "marked warrior" that would destroy Olympus is Kratos, the "mark" being the ashes of his wife and daughter fused to his skin.
Retcon: His existence was alluded in a bonus video from the very first game's extra content. Originally, Deimos would have been taken by Spartan soldiers and left to die in the wild as part of the agoge, but he was taken to the Underworld where he became a demon and vowed revenge on Kratos. His existence was considered non-canon until it was confirmed in Ghost of Sparta, but changed several details such as the gods being responsible for his abduction and imprisonment in him in Death's Domain.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Sort of. In order to prevent the fall of Olympus, he was jailed into the Domain of Death, the home of Thanatos and Erinys.
Took a Level in Badass: When Kratos finds him, he's a far cry from the weak boy deemed unfit for the Spartan army.
Weapon Tombstone: The Arms of Sparta become his Tombstone.

Lysandra

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kratoswife&child.jpg

Voiced by: Gwendoline Yeo (English)^{additional VAs}

Kratos' wife who Kratos had been tricked into killing by Ares.

All There in the Manual: Her name is revealed in the comic.
Disposable Woman: Her role in the story is to be killed to fuel Kratos' rage.
Morality Chain: For Kratos, as she was the only woman who he genuinely loved.
My Greatest Failure: Disregarding Lysandra's wisdom is a source of great shame for Kratos, that upon reflection, refusing to heed her when she spoke out against his ruthless actions made him a poor husband, who did not realizes how much he truly valued her until she was gone. Thus whenever he thinks of her, Kratos cannot help but be reminded of those personal failures. This, in turn, would inform why Kratos speaks so little of her in the present day in spite of still loving her as deeply as his second wife Faye, as he personally feels he has no right talking about her after how horrible of a husband he was to her before her death.
No Badass to His Valet: While they were married, she stood up to Kratos and his talk of fighting for the glory of Sparta.

Calliope

Voiced by: Debi Derryberry (English)^{additional VAs}

Kratos' beloved daughter, who he had accidentally killed when Ares tricked him into doing so.

Children Are Innocent: She couldn't have been no more than eight years old and what little we see of her shows that she was innocent.
Daddy's Girl: She loves her father very much and Kratos in turn cares for her. This makes it all the more tragic when it's heavily implied that Calliope knew that Kratos was the one that killed her mother just moments before she herself is killed.
Death of a Child: She is killed as a child by Kratos.
Delicate and Sickly: According to the comic, she was a rather sickly girl, something not tolerated in Sparta. Kratos then went on a quest for Ambrosia to help her condition.
Easily Forgiven: She doesn't hold a grudge against Kratos for cutting her and her mother down, even happily embracing him when he enters Elysium.
Et Tu, Brute?: Her brief reaction to seeing her father about to kill her if the flashback towards the end of III is any indication.
Morality Chain: Kratos' second chain after Lysandra, being Kratos' beloved daughter.
Please, Don't Leave Me: When Kratos is forced to leave his daughter behind to save the world, with the full knowledge that he can never enter the Elysian Fields again.

Norse Era

Atreus

Atreus / Loki

Voiced: Sunny Suljic (English)^{additional VAs}
Appears In: God of War (2018) | God of War: Ragnarök

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/atreus_5.png

"Maybe I've learned I run better on chaos."

^{Click here to see his appearance in God of War: Ragnarök}

"You know I love him. I just wish he was better. I know he can be. So if he tries...I'll try. But if he doesn't...please come back. I know you're out there somewhere."

The Deuteragonist of the Norse Era and the support half of the Combat and Support duo that consists of himself and his father Kratos. His main weapons include an enchanted bow and arrow with elemental based arrows that can stun opponents and whittle down their health.

Ever since his younger days, Atreus's relationship with his father has been...strained to say the least due to his poor health and desperate need to prove himself to his distant father, with his mother Faye often acting as the buffer between the two. He would soon get his wish to prove himself when he and his father have to fulfil his mother's dying wish to spread her ashes across the highest peak in all the realms. Throughout the journey, Atreus would face many hardships and lessons that would help him become a man, and help mend the fractured relationship between father and son.

Due to his divine heritage, Atreus inherits many powers and abilities from his father and also gains some new ones as Loki. These include enhanced agility, enhanced stamina, communication with animals and spirits, ability to speak forgotten/dead languages, supernatural senses, and limited Precognition.

Acquired Situational Narcissism: After Kratos reveals his godly heritage, Atreus drops his previous Cheerful Child attitude and becomes extremely arrogant, rude, and hot-headed, acting a lot like Kratos did in his younger days. Kratos isn't happy with this at all, especially after the boy kills a badly injured Modi despite being ordered not to. It's justified since every time Kratos tells Atreus not to do something and Atreus asks why, Kratos refuses to offer any clear answers; the most he'll say is "because I said so". The result is that Atreus has no clue how to interpret his father's teachings, having nothing to go on but his self-confidence and his father's brutal example. There's also the fact that, even after supposedly "learning" this, Kratos' continued evasiveness on the matter of his past makes Atreus more indignant and spiteful.
Atreus: I can't learn if you won't teach me.
Kratos: You do not heed my lessons.
Atreus: I've done everything you've asked, and all I wanted was the truth.
- Downplayed in Ragnarök. Atreus is still a good-natured kid, but his assumptions about the prophecies concerning Loki have him believe that he's destined to become a hero of sorts and stop Odin. As such, he starts getting cocky and insubordinate around his father. And when he learns that his father is destined to be killed and that Atreus is supposed to serve Odin, he sets out to change his fate, becoming more reckless along the way. It takes freeing Garm to finally humble him.
Adaptational Heroism: Atreus has virtually none of the negative traits associated with Loki aside from some occasional hubris. Whereas Loki had Baldur killed with a mistletoe spear as a cruel joke, here Baldur unwittingly impales himself on the mistletoe arrowhead keeping his quiver string together when he punches Atreus as he tries to defend his father. And while Loki still plays a major role in the destruction of Asgard and overthrowing Odin, it's made abundantly clear that he only goes to war to protect himself from a vengeful Odin and takes no pleasure whatsoever in all the destruction that ensues.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the original myths, Loki was Odin's Blood Brother and drinking buddy prior to their falling out. Due to Atreus's Age Lift, however, in this version of the story they have more of a mentor-and-apprentice relationship in the brief time that they work together.
Adaptation Species Change: Downplayed. The original Loki was full Frost Giant, taking after both of his parents, but in Norse mythology godhood was as much a matter of position as it was species, if not more so, so he was both a giant and a god. Here, it doesn't work that way and he's half and half, with his father being a former mortal turned god instead of a Frost Giant. And since giant and god mixes in the universe make gods, he might be just "god".
All-Loving Hero: Atreus is a very kind and loving boy, and finds good in almost everyone he interacts with. He doesn't even hate Odin by the end of Ragnarök, giving Odin every chance to surrender peacefully. Kratos learns to consider this his most valuable trait and even goes against his own earlier teachings that Atreus should close his heart to the suffering of others by telling him to open his heart and feel their pain so that he will never lose sight of true justice and never act in vengeance.
All Take and No Give: When Sindri undergoes an Anguished Outburst after Brok is killed by Odin, he calls this trope out on Atreus, bitterly and somberly claiming that Atreus kept asking more and more of what Brok and Sindri had in his quest to avert Ragnarök, which culminated in the former's death and the latter being left with nothing. Although Atreus feels guilty about his recklessness resulting in Brok's death, the damage is already done, with Sindri outright dismissing their friendship right then and there.
Animal Lover: He shows a remarkable affinity for animals and has befriended or cared for several magical creatures. He's befriended the World Serpent, a giant turtle, Brok's transportation beast, his sled wolves Svanna and Speki, all of Angrboda's animal companions, the wolves that chase the sun and moon, and Fenrir, the Beast of the Apocalypse himself.
Animal Motifs:
- Atreus has some connection with wolves - in his journal he mentions having an admiration for them. In major story scenes with Atreus, wolves are present as totems and the first rune Atreus learns is the ability to summon a wolf spirit. Finally, his tunic was made from wolf pelts. When he finds out that he's a demigod he asks if he can shapeshift into a wolf ^note. When Atreus starts getting corrupted by his narcissism, rabid and diseased wolves appear as enemies on the trip to the Jötunheimr gateway.
- One of the vision murals left by Faye depicts Atreus being accompanied by three wolves. No doubt these wolves are Fenrir, Sköll, and Hatti. Just like Jörmungandr, Fenrir is said to be Jörmungandr's brother and the son of Loki in Norse mythology.
- In the steel book version of the game, the translated version of the runes on the cover regards Atreus as a wolf. The Norse translation is "This is the story of a bear and a wolf, who wandered the realms of nine to fulfill a promise of one before; they walk the twilight path, destined to discover the truth that is to come".
- It's enforced even further in Ragnarök when he gains the ability to shapeshift into animals. The wolf is the first transformation he learns to control, while the bear, representing his father, is what he transforms into when overwhelmed by his emotions. It takes until the end of the game for him to control the bear transformation.
Annoying Arrows: At the start of the game, his arrows deal very little damage and are primarily used to distract enemies. However, it eventually becomes Subverted as Atreus' bow gets upgraded and he obtains light/shock arrows, allowing him to deal more damage and affect enemies with status effects.
Apocalypse Maiden: According to the Jotun prophecy, he is destined to trigger Ragnarök. In the end, however, he only does so indirectly; Atreus freeing "Tyr" (Odin in disguise) and fleeing to Sindri's house with the mask results in Odin being in the position to kill Brok, which in turn convinces the previously reluctant Atreus and Kratos to initiate Ragnarök.
Armor-Piercing Response: He gives one to Thor, when they're searching for the last mask fragment in Niflheim, after Thor says Atreus has no idea what his life is like.
Right. Half giant son of a god with impossibly high expectations. No idea what that's like.
Assist Character: He provides ranged support for Kratos, and can either grapple or launch enemies into the air for more attack opportunities. Atreus can't be killed, either; just temporarily knocked out.
Awesomeness by Analysis: His gift with languages counts as this. He figures out multiple meanings for Tyr's rune (which Tyr invented himself using languages from multiple nations/worlds/realms) before Mimir can even finish explaining what it is.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: He gets annoyed by Kratos' utter lack of parenting skills, but when the chips are down, he does love his father and acts to save him if he's in danger, much like Kratos does for him. He gets in the way of one of Baldur's attacks against Kratos (which results in Baldur hitting the mistletoe arrowhead, and in Ragnarok he's utterly horrified that the Jotnar prophecies involve Kratos dying and he immediately loses his enthusiasm about fulfilling them.
Badass Adorable: He's a cute child and is being raised as a warrior by the former God of War. How badass is he? When Kratos plunges into the light of Alfheim, he's woken up by Atreus and sees several piles of corpses belonging to would-be attackers that tried to occupy the platform.
Badass Bookworm: His mother taught him how to hunt and read Midgardian writings. His father taught him how to kill and defend himself. He's still a capable warrior after hitting puberty and still able to kick ass on his own.
Bad Liar: Atreus consistently shows in Ragnarök that he's pretty bad at lying. When Kratos calls out Atreus for disappearing on him, Atreus says that he wanted to visit Fenrir, which is a bald-faced lie that Kratos calls out immediately, since Atreus was gone for two days, and nobody needs two days to visit a dog. It ties into Atreus being incredibly impulsive, since he never thinks of a lie to tell in case he gets caught acting against his father's orders, and the lies he does come up with on the spot are obviously false.
Be Careful What You Wish For: At the beginning of Ragnarök, Atreus is eager to fulfill what he saw of the Giants' prophecy and discover who he was meant to be, so he repeatedly insists on letting the titular war happen, more so after Odin and Thor pay a visit at his and Kratos' home. Then he learns in Ironwood what the prophecy fully entails, namely his father dying and him joining Odin, so he tries to find a way to avert this. As the game progresses, Atreus impulsively makes numerous mistakes which culminate in Odin killing Brok and Sindri cutting ties with him and Kratos, armies converging on Asgard during Ragnarök, and Atreus having a front-row seat to watching countless lives be lost on both sides.
Sindri: More or less what you wanted?
Atreus: I-I didn't want this.
Berserk Button: By the time of Ragnarök, he evidently doesn't take well to being called "Boy". There's a moment where he initially tries speaking gently to a drunken Thor to get him moving... only for Thor to snarl "Quiet, boy." It's only then that Atreus starts getting shouty.
The Berserker: When he's caught up in the heat of combat, he can start screaming and attacking without any semblance of control. Like father, like son. It nearly kills him when he activates his own Spartan Rage mode while fighting Modi.
- In Ragnarök, he unlocks his shapeshifting powers in a moment of grief and transforms into a feral bear, "berserkr" appropriately meaning "bear-shirt" in his native Norse language. In this form, he's a mindlessly aggressive monster that attacks anything in his path, even Kratos and Sindri. He doesn't learn to control his bear form until the end of the game.
Beware the Nice Ones: Generally every bit a Nice Guy, but deep down he has his father's temper, and you do not want to provoke him. His cold-blooded murder of Modi proves that.
Black-and-White Morality: Atreus is still just a boy, so while he is more mature than you'd expect, he can get stumped when faced with complex moral concepts. After learning of his godhood, he slips into a bit of Black-and-White Insanity in condemning the Aesir as absolutely evil in an obvious attempt to justify his own ignominious behavior, and a bit later is confused as to why Freya mourns the death of Baldur and vows vengeance on Kratos, even though Kratos' actions were done to save her life — describing her as acting "all evil" until Kratos and Mimir gently correct that she's angry and grief-stricken, not evil.
- This trait continues into Ragnarök, most notably when he has difficulty deciding if the light elves and dark elves are good and evil respectively or vice versa. Thankfully, he grows out of it by the end of the game.
Break the Haughty: After finding out he's a god, Atreus becomes increasingly arrogant and openly resentful of Kratos, partly due to Kratos disapproving of this behavior, despite Atreus thinking this is what he wants him to be like. Too bad for Atreus, he quickly finds out even with his sickness gone, he is still nowhere near tough enough to be close to his father when he gets utterly beaten by Baldur. During the process, he is left stranded in Helheim along with Kratos, is forced to witness a hallucination of him killing Modi, finally starting to regret his dickery... And what ultimately leaves him disillusioned with his godhood is him seeing Kratos murder his OWN FATHER and Kratos's clear horror and remorse over it. The fact that he was becoming dangerously close to being a monstrous god all but removes his pride, causing him to return back to being his old self.
Brief Accent Imitation: Atreus isn't above mocking his father, and when he does, he lowers the pitch of his own voice to mimic Kratos' low voice. He also refers to himself as "Boy" when he quotes his father. He tries to do the same with Mimir in Ragnarok only to give up on it pretty much immediately, because he can't do his accent.
Brutal Honesty: Prefers to hear the raw truth, and has no patience for hedged responses or deflections, something his father is understandably uncomfortable with. Unfortunately, he adapts this stance towards others after a budding A God Am I mentality starts to grow from learning his heritage, hurting Sindri without a shred of regard for the dwarf's feelings, essentially breaking him in the process. Even Kratos calls him out on this afterwards.
But Now I Must Go: At the end of Ragnarök, Atreus leaves Kratos in order to pursue his own path and seek out the Giants.
Calling Your Attacks: Has an habit of shouting "Nista" whenever he fires his arrows. This expands as he gets different powers for his bow.
Canon Character All Along: It's revealed at the end of the 2018 game that he's none other than Loki, the Trickster God. Ragnarök not only doesn't even bother hiding this fact, but makes it a key plot point by having Atreus introduce himself as "Loki" instead of "Atreus" to several Norse gods because it's the name his Giant mother picked for him, and thus makes him associated with the Jötnar.
Cassandra Truth: Tries to tell Thrud that Odin is evil, but it fails as she points out she has no reason to trust the random stranger over her grandfather.
Change the Uncomfortable Subject: As of Ragnarök, Kratos is opening himself to people, and once tried to talk about Hephaestus and Pandora, but Atreus feels he doesn't have to talk about it if he doesn't want to.
Character Development: He goes through several in the course of his journey with his father. One significant ones is in Hel where he sees his own murder of Modi and Kratos killing Zeus. This allows him to understand why his father doesn't want him to be like him.
- In Ragnarök, he becomes obsessed with his identity as Loki and prophecy in general. At first, he thinks he's the champion of Ragnarök meant to help fight against Odin. But after he discovers that he's destined to serve Odin and that his father dies, he slowly begins to doubt fate. By the end, he lets go of the notion of destiny and decides to carve his own path.
Cheerful Child: Atreus is a rather exuberant boy, especially compared to his dour father. He runs off in excitement while exploring a hoard of treasure, cheerfully asks the Witch if she can revive a decapitated head, and happily calls the experience of falling from Yggdrasil "incredible" as Mimir balked out of fear and nausea.
Children Forced to Kill: Early on, he's forced to kill a human in self-defense when cannibals try to carve up Kratos and Atreus for meat. Atreus doesn't take the experience particularly well, but Kratos at least gets him through it.
The Chosen One: Deconstructed. He believes that the prophecies of Loki to paint him as this, if not, to somehow help Tyr stop Odin. Turns out he's kind of right. He is a chosen one, but the Giants did not prophesy him to stop Odin; in fact, they foretold that he would become Odin's servant. Instead, he's supposed to protect the marbles containing the Giants' souls and is called the "Champion of the Jotnar" because of it.
Combat and Support: Mostly aids Kratos with arrows and digging up stuff when the latter is doing the close-up fighting.
Combat Medic: With certain gear, he can toss healthstones over to Kratos if he's at low health as well as using Resurrection Stones to revive his father should he fall in battle.
Comes Great Responsibility: Atreus' inherent godhood, combined with his Hair-Trigger Temper, naturally would make one wary of what the boy could do if he one day went off the deep end. Kratos has firsthand experience of the consequences of giving in to baser urges in a mad rage, so he tries to fill in the role that Faye had once had by instilling a sense of discipline unto the boy.
Crazy Enough to Work: One of the few things he does is make plans that would be deemed too crazy, but it goes give results. Mimir is quick to point out he is definitely his father's son.
Creepy Child: He'd normally avert this, but after learning about his divine heritage, he begins showing signs of arrogance and believing that as gods they can do whatever they want, which is shown when he kills Modi in cold-blood, which is a far cry from the little boy who nearly wept from killing a cannibal in self-defense. Kratos and Mimir manage to rein in these impulses eventually.
Cunning Linguist: Atreus has a real knack for language. He can read ancient runes, roughly translate Elvish, and after only a few exposures, can speak Jormungandr's language well enough to ask him to ram the Frost Giant. It's implied his quick grasp in language is at least partly magical in nature. Mimir seems to think his godly heritage is at least part of why he's such a quick study in languages, plus there's the fact his eyes glow yellow when he first speaks Jormungandr's tongue.
Curb-Stomp Battle: This kid delivers one to a horde of Dark Elves armed with his bow and his father's Leviathan Axe. Suffice to say, they didn't last long.
Dead Guy Junior: Atreus is the name chosen by Kratos for his son, at the end of the journey to scatter Faye’s ashes he tells the boy its origin; Atreus was a Spartan soldier who fought along Kratos, he was a different type of Spartan who still believed in having kindness even as a killing machine, the Spartan Atreus sacrificed himself for Kratos and the other Spartans in battle. Kratos personally ensured he honored the fallen soldier with a proper burial and now centuries later Kratos names his son after the fallen soldier.
Deuteragonist: Atreus shares the spotlight with his father Kratos.
Divine Parentage: His father was the Greek God of War. His mother is the giantess Laufey. He is being raised to believe he is a mortal; this contradiction to his nature causes his mind to harm his body.
Didn't Think This Through: Has shades of this, one example that stands out is when he tried attacking Modi who pinned down Kratos with lightning, by firing lightning arrows. Then he tried touching his electrocuted father, which predictably made himself electrocuted as well. Modi lampshaded this a second later.
Modi: Wow, are you dumb. Is that your father's doing or did you get it from your mom?
- Admits this in Ragnarok in his journal entry concerning his meeting with Freya, who he hopes to convince to join them to fight Odin; not only is Freya still irrationally pissed off at him and Kratos for killing Baldur, she couldn't help even if she wanted to because she's still bound to Midgard and Odin isn't. He ends up leaving with none of what he wanted, and worrying that Freya will use what he said to attack Kratos again.
Dramatically Missing the Point:
- Atreus' getting Drunk with Power after learning of his Divine Parentage is because Kratos still refuses to divulge very important pieces of information about his past as a War God. As such, when Kratos tells Atreus, "You must be better than me," the boy can't help but interpret it as "You must be more ruthless than me."
- Many of Atreus's more boneheaded moves in Ragnarok are because he's desperate for some way to change his father's fate... because no one told him that he's got the very nature of fate completely wrong, and the only way to change it is to change oneself for the better. Every rash decision he makes to prevent Ragnarok only makes it more likely to happen, because the prophecy was based on the idea that he'd go haring off on his own and fall into Odin's trap.
Dreaming of Things to Come: At the very end of the game, Atreus dreams of Thor coming at Kratos' doorstep menacingly, about to use Mjolnir. His dream is even stated to be happening several years ahead of the time.
Drunk with Power: When he discovers his Divine Parentage, it quickly goes to his head, leading to him casually killing a defenseless Modi on the grounds that he's a god, so he can do whatever he wants.
Exact Words: After Kratos reveals to Atreus his Divine Parentage, he pleads to the boy, "You must be better than me." What Kratos means by this is he wants Atreus to preserve his kind heart and endless optimism, and not Turn Out Like His Father. However, Kratos is still deliberately telling half-truths and refusing to entrust Atreus with the more unsavory aspects of his past. As such, Atreus takes this statement to mean that he must become more ferocious, arrogant, violent, and reckless—becoming like his father in the process.
Fatal Flaw: Impulsiveness. While Atreus is curious about the world, that curiosity can get him into trouble due to a flaw of not being willing or able to control his temper when he needs to. When Atreus has made up his mind about doing something, he wants to do it right away, not bothering to think through the logical consequences of his decisions, especially what will happen if they don't work out the way he thinks they will.
- In the 2018 game, Atreus gets Blinded by Rage during the fight with Magni and Modi after they continuously insult Faye. Even with Kratos telling him to calm down, Atreus just attacks impulsively, consistently making things harder. This gets him into trouble when he uses Spartan Rage, as it knocks him out. While Kratos wasn't helping things by hiding his godhood from him, Atreus not knowing when to focus his emotions or channel his anger complicates things.
- In Ragnarök, Atreus is a teenager, and once again shows that he doesn't really think things through before he does them. For one, Atreus consistently lies to his father or hides the truth about trying to find out who "Loki" is, frequently sneaking away with Sindri in an attempt to do so. He even goes to Asgard to talk to Odin directly. This is despite his father, and all of his allies — Tyr, Mimir, and Freya included — echoing the sentiment that doing anything Odin wants is a very bad idea. But because Atreus can't handle the pressure of everyone scrutinizing him all at once, he impulsively lashes out and runs away from them, leaving him wide open for Odin's manipulations.
Fiery Redhead: He has his mother's hair, but his father's temper. But it's pretty downplayed, as he only displays the "Fiery" bit when something upsets him enough; otherwise, he's rather pleasant. In Ragnarök, there are scenes where he's genuinely angry, but his temper isn't nearly as explosive as it was in the previous game. He even does exercises taught to him by his father to better reign in the more destructive tendencies that come with it.
Foil: To his father in many ways.
- Atreus starts as a brooding kid but is also a Cheerful Child who had at least born into a good childhood with his parents (at the very least, his mother, and eventually his own father) whereas Kratos was taken to the agōgē as a child for the specific intention of being a Child Soldier, and had a very rough childhood, which included his brother taken by Athena and Ares. He's a lot friendlier and willing to make friends while Kratos barely interacts with anyone else other than business.
- How he handles Odin greatly differs to how Kratos handles Zeus. Kratos spent two games trying to outright murder Zeus out of blind vengeance against him, and when he does get his hands on him, the evils of Pandora's Box loses its hold on him, and Zeus deeply regrets over his actions over the course of II and III before Kratos kills him. Odin adamantly refuses to believe everything in the course of the Norse duology was his fault, which included killing Thor, claiming he had no choice in which Atreus calls out on his bullshit. But Atreus tells him he can be better, but Odin refuses his kindness, and Atreus eventually "kills" Odin by removing his soul from his body. Unlike Kratos from the original trilogy, Atreus' action is treated very sympathetically.
- Even to Odin himself. Both of them tend to be tricksters, relying on speed, agility and outwitting their enemies. Both of them have a strong sense of curiosity and drive to achieve answers (Atreus wants to learn more about his identity as Loki, Odin wants to learn how to prevent Ragnarok and gain more knowledge). Both of them are willing to deceive and lie to their allies when they feel it's necessary. Both of them utilize magic along with their weapons in combat (Atreus mixes magic with his bow and arrows while Odin utilizes magic with his spear/ staff). Both have an Animal Motif that's very reminiscent of their personalities (wolves for Atreus, ravens for Odin). However, the similarities stop there.
- While they're both willing to lie to their allies, Atreus does it with the intentions of honoring promises or keeping people safe while Odin does so for his own selfishness. Atreus genuinely values his father and allies, shown most prominently when Brok is murdered, while Odin simply sees his family and allies as tools for his own benefit. Atreus seeks knowledge to help others and learn more about himself while Odin seeks knowledge to establish his control over the Nine Realms. Atreus is willing to own up to his mistakes and poor choices while working to correct them, Odin constantly blames others for his misfortunes and choices and never takes responsibility for any of his atrocities. Atreus is an All-Loving Hero who wants to help others, encouraging them to be better while Odin is a Control Freak who only wants to himself and desire to keep people as his puppets. Atreus reaches out to Thor and tries to help him become better for the sake of his family while Odin mistreats Thor, keeps him under his thumb and tells him that he's worthless without him. In the end, Atreus is willing to let go of his desire for answers while Odin refuses to let go of his obsession, leading to his death.
Foreshadowing: Almost everything about Atreus' character, literally from his very first appearance, foreshadows The Reveal that he is destined to become Loki.
- The leaves that he sprinkles over Faye's burial shroud are of mistletoe.
- As Kratos and Atreus traverse the Lake of Nine, Atreus will often press Kratos and Mimir for stories to help pass the time, and he'll even criticize Kratos' poor storytelling. Guess who's the Norse god of storytelling.
- After Kratos reveals to him his godhood, Atreus asks aloud if being a god means that he can turn into an animal, one of Loki's most infamous abilities. He also has an affinity for wild animals (like wolves) and mythological creatures (like the World Serpent and the Giants), which reflects Loki's own role as the father of several mythological creatures (mother in the case of Sleipnir) taking the form of wild animals.
- Though Atreus is ultimately kind at heart, when sufficiently agitated or allowed to let too much power get to his head, he'll do a complete 180 and become as arrogant, reckless, volatile, and foolhardy as his father once was; he also has a propensity for lashing out when pressed enough, reflecting Loki's hubris.
- Loki's silver tongue is reflected in how Atreus can telepathically communicate with other creatures and learn their whole languages even with just sentence fragments.
- And finally, his close relationship with his mother over his father (at least initially) is seen in Norse mythology as how Loki's surname takes after his mother's own name (Laufeyjarson) rather than his father's.
- The first thing Atreus asks Kratos when he learns he's the son of a god is if he can transform into animals. Lo and behold, come Ragnarök the first boss fight is against Atreus having changed into a bear, and the wolf transformation becomes his Spartan Rage equivalent when playable.
Freak Out: When Atreus sees a prophecy painted by Angrboða what appears to be Kratos dying in his arms and being Odin's servant, he understandably freaks out and it causes him to transform into a wolf. Angrboða manages to calm him down, but it was such a concern for him that he wants to avert his father's fate.
Friend to All Living Things: Has an affinity for animal life in general, which seems partly because he is The Empath and thus can sense their emotions and discern their thoughts. This backfires on him when he releases Garm. Sensing the wolf's desire to be free, Atreus assumes that he's just an innocent, imprisoned beast and undoes his chains to get the mask fragment, even when Thrúd points out that there may be a reason why Garm is locked up.
Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Once Atreus discovers his Divine Parentage, he begins to develop a massive hubris that at certain points in the game, he only obeys outside of battle. When you are fighting hordes of enemies, he attacks every enemy on sight without the player's input, and will disobey you when you need him to kill dangerous enemies. This lasts up until they both ended up in Hel, where he only attacks unless Kratos/the player tells him to.
- In Ragnarok, while Atreus normally jumps right into the fray and actively attacks in most fights, he notably stays to the side when Vanadis attacks Kratos, and only fires arrows when commanded — as she's a Valkyrie, and the pair helped and freed the Valkyries in the previous game, Atreus doesn't want to fight her and keeps trying to get her to back down.
Glowing Eyes:
- At the climax battle, he briefly gets glowing pupils when asking Jörmungandr to help him and Kratos.
- In Ragnarok, his pupils glow every time he taps into his powers, that is either speaking the Ancient Tongue to Jormungandr, or if he's about to transform into an animal.
God Is Good: Kratos' main objective, beyond spreading Faye's ashes, is to ensure that Atreus doesn't learn of his godhood in the hopes of preserving the boy's good nature. As the son of the Greek God of War, Atreus is especially prone to flipping out when angered or annoyed enough; the vast majority of the time, however, he's a genial boy who enjoys helping people and doing the right thing, even if it impedes his progress. It's only after he finds out he's a god that he ends up becoming just as arrogant and unpleasant as his father once had been, but after this arrogance gets them both trapped in Hel (even if it's just for a time) and getting chewed out by Kratos for it, Atreus revives his good nature and fully comes to terms with the responsibilities of being a god.
Good Feels Good: Word for word after one particular sidequest. Unlike his father, Atreus enjoys helping people, even if it doesn't reward him.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Atreus is forthcoming, jovial, and overall a much better and more approachable person than his grim, no-nonsense father. But when sufficiently agitated, Atreus is just as capable of being blinded by his rage as his father is.
- As of Ragnarök, he's much more level-headed. He does have a couple of outbursts here and there, they're not nearly as explosive as when he was younger.
Healing Factor: Evidently he's inherited some of his father's healing powers as Baldur at one points stabs Atreus through his shoulder with a knife. A short while later, Atreus is completely fine. It's made more explicit by Ragnarök, where after a fight that leaves Atreus wounded, he does the same focus and heal method that Kratos uses.
Hearing Voices: He can hear otherwordly voices that Kratos can't, which he notes to be of many sources like the voice of the dead, the voices of animals, and some really evil ones too. However, he's not affected by them.
Heart Is an Awesome Power: His talent for languages seems mostly useful for journal entries, puzzle-solving, and unlocking trophies, but comes in handy in a big way at the climax when Atreus summons freakin' Jörmungandr.
Heel Realization: Seeing his own vision of murdering Modi and Kratos killing Zeus in Helhiem lets him truly realize the depths and consequences that Kratos didn't want him to know.
Heinz Hybrid: His father is an Olympian demigod, by birth, who became god later in life, while his mother was a full-blooded Giantess. Due to weird genetics, he is likely just of the “god” species.
The Hero's Journey: Atreus' path throughout the game tracks this almost beat-for-beat.
- He has a miraculous birth in that his father is a god. His mother is... also special.
- The story starts with him exploring the forests around his home, testing the skills he will need to make the journey to spread his mother's ashes. He has a desire for adventure and a thirst for knowledge, but due to his lack of discipline and experience, his father fears he's not prepared for the outside world.
- The arrival of The Stranger brings destruction and danger to his home, meaning he and his father can no longer stay there, and they must begin their journey, despite neither of them being ready.
- Father and son travel away from their home, crossing several thresholds. The first physical threshold is even a large gash in the land outside their own home. The cannibals are where Atreus makes his first human kill, starting his emotional maturity, and Kratos tempts him with a return home when he develops a Heroic BSoD. The Witch of the Woods' abode is where the duo are given access to the wider world, and are truly separated from the familiarity of their home.
- The duo receive supernatural aid from the dwarven smiths with weapons and armor, the Witch of the Woods with magic, Mimir with knowledge, and Jörmungandr with travel, all which bring them closer to their goals.
- Through numerous challenges, Atreus grows physically as a fighter, and emotionally as he hardens himself in combat, but never losing his child-like innocence and inherent goodness.
- At the height of one of their challenges, Atreus falls gravely ill. He is saved from death, but his rebirth is truly cemented when he finally learns the truth from his father, that he is a god himself. This revelation, however, transforms him into an arrogant, entitled, petty little brat.
- His arrogance costs him dearly, right when they are about to complete their quest, and it takes a second 'death', a literal trip to hell, to the belly of the beast, for him to learn the consequences of his arrogance, and he has to transform back into the boy he was by making amends to the people he has hurt. Their escape out of hell is even a Night Sea Voyage.
- In the final confrontation with their main antagonist, Atreus' experience as a warrior now makes him a valuable asset to his father (as opposed to being hidden away the first time Baldur found them). And rather than fighting for survival or to proceed in their quest, this battle is to save a dear friend of theirs.
- Father and son win their final fight, but are faced with a Friend-or-Idol Decision. Atreus chooses to save his friend, and his father obliges, but in the process gains the hatred of said friend.
- Throughout his travels, despite witnessing the carnage prevalent amongst gods, Atreus learns instead of the joys of friendship and the power of unity, as those are the tools that enabled him and his father to succeed in their seemingly-impossible task. But the greatest lesson he learns is from his father, that they must be better than the petty gods they have met, to break the cycle of vengeance, and to never give up hope.
- Father and son complete their task, discover the boy's true heritage, and return home on a Magic Flight, ready for the next adventure to come knocking on their door.
Heroic BSoD:
- Suffers one very early in the game when he is forced to kill a human cannibal in self-defense. He had no problems killing animals for food and monsters like draugr and trolls are a whole different story, but killing a human for the first time in his life leaves him extremely shaken.
- Also suffers one in Ragnarök when he saw the prophecy that Kratos will die and he as Loki will eventually side with Odin to preserve the realms. He doesn't take this kindly, shapeshifting into a wolf and starts clawing and biting on the mural in anger, until Angrboda calms him down.
- He goes through yet another one in Ragnarök during the game's Darkest Hour. Right after Odin kills Brok in the process of revealing his deception, Atrus is shaken so badly that he tries to distract himself by hunting deer back in Midgard, and mentions seeing the scene of Brok's murder over and over again.
Heroic RRoD: Briefly goes into a Spartan Rage at one point, and his body can't take it. He immediately succumbs to his illness and nearly dies.
Mimir, to Kratos: Look, I get it. You hate the gods. All gods. It's no accident that includes yourself. And it includes your boy, don't you see that? He feels that! He can't help what he is. He can't begin to help it, because you haven't even told him. It's all connected, man!
Hey, You!: In God of War PS4, Kratos almost exclusively refers to Atreus as "boy", only calling him by name on very few choice occasions. The Japanese dub sidesteps this by having Kratos address him by name. While he stops doing this in Ragnarök, the one time he does call Atreus "boy" in the game, it's Played for Drama.
How Do I Shot Web?: Since he's a quarter Greek God, a quarter mortal, and half Jotunn, nobody can predict what Atreus' abilities will be until he accidentally uses them, and it's even harder getting a grip on them.
I Miss Mom: Atreus never directly voices it out, but it's clear that the death of his mother pains him throughout his and Kratos' journey. It can manifest in anger over her name being insulted, but every once in a while Atreus will voice out plainly to his father, "I wish Mom were here." He and Kratos repeatedly discuss Faye's passing throughout the story, and from their conversations it's clear that while Atreus doesn't visibly mourn, he deeply misses her regardless. In Alfheim, it turns out that he misses her to the point where he even states that Kratos should have died in her place, though he immediately retracts that statement.
Improbable Aiming Skills: Throughout the game, Atreus becomes an absurdly skilled archer for his age, able to cleanly shoot through rope, quickly readjust himself in mid-air after being flung by Kratos to nail someone in the side or from behind, and repeatedly hitting Baldur in the torso with arrows even as he struggled in Kratos' grip while they were all in free fall. Impressive considering that, at the beginning of the game, he couldn't even shoot a deer a few meters away from him.
Incurable Cough of Death: His disease often manifests this way.
Improbable Infant Survival: The kid is freaking indestructible. If Atreus gets attacked by enemies, he gets briefly incapacitated before getting back up and starts shooting again. This includes surviving against enemies that can one-hit kill the player, and even he shrugs that off as well. He can even survive a direct hit to the sternum from the Norse God of Light.
Ink-Suit Actor: Atreus bears a great resemblance to his mo-cap/voice actor, Sunny Suljic.
Innocently Insensitive: While he certainly has a good head on his shoulders and is always willing to help others, Atreus is still a growing boy and rather sheltered. He therefore has a nasty habit of saying or thinking things that hit others' sore spots, such as talking about topics concerning fighting and the gods that Kratos is audibly uncomfortable about. Even a few years later in Ragnarök, Atreus hasn't improved much in this area, like when he tries to convince a still grieving and very angry Freya to fight alongside them again, or later arguing that he could go to Asgard in a room full of people who've all suffered because of Odin.
Atreus: I gotta stop something bad from happening-
Mimir: SOMETHING BAD DID HAPPEN!! Look at me! At Freya! At Tyr! Odin did this to us!
Involuntary Shapeshifting: In Ragnarök, his grief and anger from losing Fenrir (and a mother bear charging him) leads to him transforming into an enormous bear and losing his mind to it. It happens again a few other times when he's especially angry or stressed. His first transformation as a wolf also counts, as he starts to have a breakdown from seeing the prophecy of Kratos' death, but he gets control over it much faster than he does the bear.
It Gets Easier: A lesson that Atreus needs to learn in order to become a warrior. He becomes very distraught after having to kill a human being, even if it was in self-defense, but Kratos is trying to teach him to not feel for his opponents because they will not return the favor. It works a little too well when Atreus executes a defenseless Modi, saying that "we're gods, and we can do whatever we want."
It's All My Fault: Blames himself for allowing "Tyr" (Odin in disguise) into Sindri's home, resulting in Brok's murder. Kratos shuts most of the overt self-loathing down by pointing out that not only did Odin trick him by playing on his compassion, but everyone else had failed to see through the falsehood, including Mimir and Freya, who both had personal experience with Odin and Tyr.
Jerkass Ball: He has two moments where he becomes more mouthy and insubordinate, only for Kratos to snap him out of it.
- After being left alone by Kratos for what can only be described as a long time, Atreus is understandably pissed off for feeling abandoned and accuses his father of not caring about him or his mother. When Kratos reveals that he is in fact grieving Faye's death, Atreus apologizes.
- After learning of his Divine Parentage, he starts thinking a lot more highly of himself and lesser of other people, basically assuming he can do whatever he wants because he's a god. He thankfully gets better after Kratos gives him a stern talking to during their trip to Helheim.
Jerkass Has a Point: While this outburst was uncalled for, and was a result of being drunk on the revelation of having divine heritage, Atreus wasn't wrong on telling Sindri to make up with Brok because he just wouldn't shut up about their disagreement or kept feeding his own ego by saying how great his methods are. Notably, Sindri makes up with Brok not long after Atreus yells at him. Brok also shows no anger towards Atreus and says he "told him what he needed to hear."
Jerkass Realization:
- In Alfheim, he accuses Kratos of not actually caring that his mother is dead, and suffers one of this when Kratos makes it clear he does care and is mourning for Faye in his own way.
  Atreus: I'm sorry. I didn't realize...
  Kratos: No. Why would you? You do not know my ways.
- He realizes what the consequences of his A God Am I have done after his arrogance gets both himself and Kratos trapped in Hel. Kratos even gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to really rub it in. In the journal entry immediately following this, Atreus starts with "I screwed everything up."
- Of the Innocently Insensitive variety in Ragnarök, but Sindri royally laying into Atreus over how Atreus constantly took advantage of his and Brok's hospitality while never giving anything in return renders Atreus silent for a moment, especially since his inability to even give the brothers his trust is what led to Brok's death.
Kick the Morality Pet: Up until the second bout with Baldur, Atreus had been Slowly Slipping Into Evil, but it's only truly apparent how out-of-control he is when he shoots his father with a lightning arrow in a fit of anger after Kratos shoves him to the ground.
Kid Hero All Grown-Up: He's noticeably taller in Ragnarök, and much more capable on his own, pulling of feats such as successfully hunting deer. Though he's more a teenager on the very cusp of manhood than a full grown adult, and accordingly is still somewhat out of his depth at times despite being more capable of handling himself.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At times during Ragnarok, there will be branching paths in the semi-open world, at which point the player is free to venture off in different directions at their own discretion. Atreus will sometimes tell Kratos "We can do X, or we can do Y. It's up to you," and he's essentially speaking to the player more than he's talking to Kratos.
Leeroy Jenkins: Temporarily, during his Aquired Situational Narcissism period in the PlayStation 4 game. When Kratos tells him not to fight Baldur, he shoots Kratos with a shock arrow so he can attack Baldur with his knife, despite knowing that Baldur is a grown adult and good enough to give his father a hard fight. Baldur proceeds to demonstrate exactly how right Kratos was when he says Atreus wasn't ready. On the plus side, the experience does humble Atreus a good bit.
Light 'em Up: After his bow is infused with the light of Alfheim, he gains the ability to fire light arrows that can activate Alfheim crystals and quickly stun enemies.
Like a Son to Me: He and Freya have this dynamic presumably because of her strained relationship with her son Baldur. As of Ragnarok, this has changed, as Freya repeatedly tries to kill him and Kratos, but by then end, she forgives them and repairs her relationship with them.
Like Father, Like Son: Though Atreus is significantly more virtuous and generally a lot more sociable than his gruff, pragmatic-to-a-fault father, the boy can very easily lose his temper and fly into a blind rage. Kratos is fully aware of how this could cause problems for the boy in the future, and constantly tries to reign his son's more violent tendencies in by exercising his discipline and focus.
Atreus: YOU'RE NEXT! I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF!
- In a darker way, its revealed that Atreus is destined to bring about Ragnarök in the same way Kratos was the destined "Marked Warrior" that caused Olympus' downfall. Thankfully, unlike his father, Atreus is able to fulfill the prophecy in Ragnarök in a way that doesn't involve the total collapse of civilization.
- In Ragnarök, Atreus ends up inheriting his father's trust issues and inability to communicate. This ends up causing serious problems, as his private investigation into his identity of Loki allows him to play directly into Odin's hands with no one being the wiser, until Atreus' irresponsible actions allow Odin (in the guise of Tyr) to kill Brok.
- One that's Played for Laughs. Even he knows how to make plans that's Crazy Enough to Work. Which is lampshaded by Mimir:
  Mimir: That was your plan?^note You're both cracked!
Like Father, Unlike Son:
- Kratos is abrasive, single-mindedly focused on his mission to spread Faye's ashes, blunt to the point of insensitivity, and generally unsociable even in situations where it'd benefit him greatly to simply talk and ask others for help. Atreus, on the other hand, is gregarious and forthcoming, always willing to help others in need, greatly concerned for the well-being of innocent life, and fully embraces the adventures presented by the world around him. This is even portrayed through gameplay, in that while Kratos gets up-close and personal with his weapons, Atreus keeps himself at a distance and fires using arrows.
- In Ragnarök, the player finally gets to play as Atreus. The first time he encounters a chest which Kratos would famously just punch through the lid to open, Atreus tries exactly that and does an excellent job of hurting his fist while the lid remains intact. He ends up hitting the lid with his bow to break it.
Made of Iron: He already survives some impressive damage during the course of his first game, but by Ragnarök he seems to be made of solid brass, taking multiple hard falls and blows, most notably during his "fight" with Heimdall, who beats the poor kid to hell without doing much more than covering him in mud.
Mage Marksman: He gains access to various magical arrows and powers as the game progresses.
Magikarp Power: At the start of the game, Atreus is pretty pathetic. His arrows do a rather pitiful amount of damage and take a while to recharge. However, by the end of the game with all his abilities unlocked, his bow and quiver fully upgraded, and wearing the legendary archery set, Atreus becomes invaluable. His light and lighting arrows are excellent at handling and stunning crowds of enemies while Kratos focuses on dispatching individual foes, while his summoning powers give you various AOE spells or even healing.
Meaningful Name: Atreus means 'fearless' in Greek. Kratos reveals in the ending that "Atreus" was also the name of a warrior of Sparta who was constantly inspiring his fellow Spartans.
Momma's Boy: He was closer with his mother than with Kratos, since they used to hunt together and her memory is still very precious to him. In the game, he slowly rekindles his relationship with his father. Insulting her is one of his most frequently pushed Relative Buttons.
Morality Pet: To an extent. The focus of God of War is for Kratos to rediscover himself after the pain of his past life. Being a good father to his son plays a major part of that. Much of the sidequests in the game is instigated by Atreus' desire to help others and Kratos begrudgingly appeasing him (as well as the promise of some sort of payment).
Muscles Are Meaningless: Discussed in Ragnarök. Atreus clearly has super strength, just not to the degree his father does - him and Angrboða working together can lift giant stone pillars, for example. Which makes Atreus wonder when he'll bulk up like his father. Mimir and Kratos explain that as a god his physical strength isn't tied to his muscle mass. That Kratos works out to look the way he does.
My God, What Have I Done?:
- He suffers a series of these after the second encounter with the Stranger. The bridge to Jotunheim is destroyed, he shot his own father with one of his arrows, and now they're stuck in Helheim, the land of the dead. His journal entry right afterwards starts with "I screwed everything up." He also has this when he sees his execution of Modi from an outside perspective and shocked by his own actions.
- In Ragnarok, he suffers this twice when he accidentally released the giant wolf Garm while in Helheim, who in his pained rampage started tearing holes between the Nine Realms. Later on, Odin-disguised-as-Tyr kills Brok right in front of him due to Brok having Spotting the Thread that "Tyr" had some method of getting into Asgard as well calling Atreus "Loki" instead, causing Sindri to be furious at Atreus. Kratos had to take Atreus back to their home in Midgard so as to recollect himself.
Nice Guy: One of the more friendly characters in the game unless provoked. He apparently takes it after his mother, but Kratos reveals his namesake was a Spartan warrior that also happened to be very kind and friendly.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- His arrogance causes him to bite off more than he can chew fighting Baldur, resulting him, Kratos, and Baldur being cast into a seemingly inesecapable part of Helheim. Fortunately, this is enough to to shatter his Acquired Situational Narcissism and help him come to his senses.
- His insistence to search for Tyr in Ragnarök might not had seemed like this. Except Odin had been disguising himself as Tyr, which meant that Atreus unwittingly let Odin read the true prophey Groa had hidden from him, as well listen the group's plan to assault Asgard by initiating Ragnarök, leading to Brok's death by Odin's hands.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His Acquired Situational Narcissism did have one long-term benefit. His telling off Sindri about his rivalry with Brok actually gave Sindri the push he needed to reconcile with his brother, healing the rift that had formed between them.
No Badass to His Valet: While it takes him a fair bit to get used to his father's attitude, he ends up one of the few people in the series who's not only willing to stand up to Kratos, but call him out on his bullshit. He also pokes fun at Kratos at times.
Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Like you wouldn't believe. His attempts at getting Kratos to open up about his past only serve to open old wounds, driving the rift between them even further. And we're not even getting into when after Kratos reveals to Atreus his godhood.
Atreus: It's just... you hate the gods so much. But Tyr proves gods can be good. And you're good. You only killed those deserving, right?
Kratos: (Beat) Yes...
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When Kratos becomes trapped inside a pillar in Alfheim, Atreus stood guard for an indeterminate long time, even though only a few moments passed for Kratos. In the meantime, he fended off several waves of dark elf soldiers, to the point when Kratos wakes up, he sees the platform littered with their bodies.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Atreus becoming arrogant with power is depicted as such, with even Kratos becoming very pissed at his drastic change in behavior.
Paradox Person: Atreus' Jötunn name is revealed to be Loki which means that he's the Loki who kick-starts Ragnarök for killing Baldur. The presence of Wolves in the game is perplexing to say the least, as Loki is the creator of wolves as he is the father of Fenrir who in turn becomes father of wolves. For now it's confusing as to how wolves are present in game despite not being birthed by Fenrir. Since Jörmungandr is also in-game due to the possibility of time travel, it's likely that time travel may be a major factor at one point.
Parental Favoritism: Inverted, he deeply loves his mother, to the point where most of his virtuous traits are being taken after her, and he has a strained relationship with his father. Bonding with Kratos is a major focus of Atreus' development as a person.
Parental Neglect: While Kratos is never directly abusive, he is notably gruff and withdrawn, largely unable to encourage or bond with Atreus, in part because of his own trauma and complicated family history of consecutive patricide. A large part of God of War (PS4)'s story is dedicated to Kratos and Atreus learning to understand eachother.
Personality Powers: Atreus is much less standoffish and more willing to make friends then his father, and accordingly his godhood manifests as abilites like an enhanced faculty for foreign languages and the ability to summon spirits to fight alongside him. He also gradually reveals the same potential for inhuman ferocity that Kratos does , and shows several hints across the story that he might have inherited his preternatural skills as a warrior .
Physical God: Not only is he Kratos' son, he's Loki, the Trickster God of Norse Mythology.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He is incredibly strong for a child his size, while being competent enough in a fight that he is an integral part of combat strategies in game.
Poor Communication Kills: Another flaw he got from dad. A lot of the problems in Ragnarok could've been avoided if Atreus had just told Kratos things instead of disappearing for suspicious amounts of time and then deflecting when asked where he was- though to be fair, Angrboda did ask him not to tell anyone about Ironwood.
Posthumous Sibling: He was born years after the death of his half-sister Calliope.
Plucky Comic Relief: Downplayed; Atreus' role as Deuteragonist is played as seriously as possible, but he does provide some small moments of levity throughout the journey. These moments are not played merely for comedy's sake, but also to provide Kratos more of an opportunity to mellow out and essentially develop his own fatherly instincts. This is best seen when Kratos finally decides to reveal to Atreus his Divine Parentage, only to be surprised when the first thing Atreus asks after this revelation is if he can transform into an animal. Humorously, given Loki's Trickster God nature, this makes a lot more sense given The Reveal.
Power Incontinence:
- Being unaware of his divine parentage causes his own body to fight against it, manifesting in an illness that has persisted through most of his life. It eventually comes to a head when he briefly goes into a Spartan Rage, and the resulting strain almost kills him.
- Happens again in Ragnarök, where his Heroic BSoD after burying his pet Fenrir activates his Voluntary Shapeshifter abilities, causing him to turn into a bear to fight off an actual bear - and causes him to lose his mind to instinct for a bit, unknowingly attacking his father in an early Mini-Boss.
Precision F-Strike: During the fight with Magni and Móði, Atreus initially watches his tone and tries to keep calm but by the final phase he says this:
Móði: What— did mommy not feed you enough? Too ugly to let you suck on her—
Atreus: SHUT UP, YOU BASTARD!!!
Pride: Atreus learns that he's a god and develops a really bad streak of hubris, thinking that as a god, his goals are more important than any other, that he's almighty, and that he can freely kill anyone he crosses path with. Kratos and Mimir try to rein that in before his pride gets to his head, but they don't work fast enough to stop him from stabbing Modi in the neck.
Profane Last Words: Discussed in Ragnarok, when Atreus swears out of surprise when he and Kratos get jumped by a troll. While chiding Atreus for cursing, Kratos asks him if he really wants "shitshitshitshitshit!" to be his last words.
Promoted to Playable: While he’s only ever an Assist Character to Kratos in God of War 2018, several segments in Ragnarök have him as a fully playable character with his own unique moveset and upgrades.
Race Lift: The original incarnation of Loki was clearly never half-Greek.
A Real Man Is a Killer: Played with. Atreus is at heart innocent and good-natured, and while he is willing to use lethal force in self-defence, killing, in general, is something that takes time for him to get used to; Atreus visibly hesitates when killing the deer he and Kratos hunt in the woods right at the beginning of the game, and is clearly very shaken up after killing a Reaver who attacked him. Atreus believes his inability to close his heart to the gravity of death is key to why Kratos is as distant as he's been throughout the boy's life, when it couldn't be farther from the truth. So when Kratos eventually pressures him to be a better god than he ever was, Atreus assumes the very worst and starts being more actively vicious in combat, casting aside his better nature for the sake of boosting his own ego. It only gets worse with Kratos' continued evasiveness on the topic of his past, even when Atreus states right to his face that he wants to know the truth, no matter how unpleasant it may be.
- Another aspect to this trope is that Kratos actively tried to shield Atreus from killing people, as at one point, in a false show of bravado, Atreus declared he would kill anyone who threatened them on the road. This was clearly what he thought his father wanted to hear, only for Kratos to harshly tell him to stay out of it. Atreus probably took it to mean that Kratos thought he was weak and incapable, whereas really Kratos just want to protect his son from the harsh realities of the world, and keep his son from becoming the killer he was. This is made worse by the fact that when Atreus is forced to kill a man, Kratos is too wounded and stunted emotionally to be truly able to offer his son the emotional support he needs. Word of God confirms that the advice Kratos gave his son, in the wake of his first kill, “Close your heart to it”, was terrible advice. Kratos only gave that as an answer because he didn't know what else to say. Come Ragnarök, Kratos realizes that he made a mistake and urges Atreus to "open his heart" to suffering so that he understands the true weight of his decisions; something that Odin refuses to do.
Related in the Adaptation: Loki was not the grandson of Zeus in the original stories, seeing how they came from two separate mythologies.
Relative Button:
- Mentioning his mother in a negative way will extremely piss him off.
- Also hurting Kratos will have you end up with an arrow through your head.
The Reveal: When he and Kratos finally make it to Jotunheim, Atreus discovers that the name Faye originally intended for him was Loki.
Shapeshifting: In Ragnarök, he gains the ability to turn into a bear and a very large wolf, the later of which acts as his version of Kratos' rage mechanic.
Semi-Divine: As Kratos' son, he's a lesser demigod^*. With the reveal of Faye's identity, Atreus is now revealed to be 50% jötnar, 25% god and 25% mortal.
Sensory Overload: Atreus's episode of Acquired Situational Narcissism has been linked to his newfound awareness of his Divine Parentage. After spending his entire life struggling with his sickness and the belief that Kratos resents him for his weak constitution and kind nature, learning about his divine heritage makes him feel much stronger and finally makes his father proud. However, this also gives him an emotional high that makes him overconfident and reckless, ultimately leading to a disastrous meeting with Baldur. It takes getting trapped in Hel as a result for Kratos to snap him out of his high and bring him back to reality.
Shock and Awe: He gains the power to infuse his arrows with lightning from Sindri as reward for saving him from a dragon.
- During one of his major Kick the Dog moments (when he talks down Sindri), a lightning storm briefly manifests itself around, disturbingly implying he's inherited a degree of his grandfather's power.
Smug Super: After Kratos tells Atreus that both of them are gods, the boy starts acting far more arrogant, insulting the dwarves and mocking any enemies they come across. Even Kratos tells him to knock it off. However, those moments of arrogance also saw Atreus being perfectly capable of killing the lesser enemies without his father's aid. it's when he faced other gods that shows how far in over his head he was.
Suicidal Overconfidence: During his period of Acquired Situational Narcissism after having learned of his godhood and killing a severely injured Modi, Atreus gets it into his head that he's now capable of taking on Baldur. It doesn't go well for the boy, aside from firmly knocking his senses back into him.
Strong Family Resemblance: ''Ragnarök'’ reveals that he looks like a male version of his mother.
Summon Magic: He can unlock Runic Summons that lets him call upon magical animals to aid him in battle, such as wolves, deer or even Ratatoskr (who digs up health and rage pick-ups).
Summon Bigger Fish: During the climactic Final Boss battle against Baldur, Freya raises the corpse of Thamur to keep Kratos and Atreus from hurting her son. After the two of them are pinned down by Thamur's ice breath, Atreus decides to fight a Giant with a bigger Giant and calls out for help in the ancient language spoken by Jörmungandr. Sure enough, the World Serpent answers his call and smashes into the undead Giant.
Super-Strength: He's not as insanely strong as his father (he's unable to punch through chests and needs help to lift pillars that Kratos can lift on his own), but he's definitely way stronger than your average human. He can harm both Baldur and Odin, who are both extremely difficult to kill; leap across massive chasms, and fire an arrow that pierces the sun.
Super-Toughness: While not as tough as his father, he can survive a punch from god and show no lasting damage from it aside being stunned for about a minute.
Superior Successor: Kratos fully intends for his son to be a better god than he ever was, especially in character and responsibility. By the end of the game, Atreus shows potential to be even more powerful than his father, with a diverse range of abilities, such as magic arrows, summoning spectral spirits, and communication with kaiju-sized snakes.
Support Party Member: Kratos does most of the heavy-lifting, but Atreus is happy to assist by riddling his enemies with arrows, acting as a distraction, using magic to attack, and reviving Kratos with runestones when he falls in battle. He'll also grapple foes for combo attacks and yells warnings while covering Kratos' back.
Sympathy for the Devil:
- Upon discovering that Magni and Modi ended up the way they are because they were products of Thor's abusive parenting, Atreus expresses sympathy for them. Kratos is quick to rebuke this, pointing out that the two are adults and have no excuse for their actions.
- Despite the laundry list of atrocities Odin has committed, Atreus comes to pity him enough to plead for him to stop of his own accord and change his ways, and he sounds genuinely upset when Odin rebuffs him. He's then uncertain of what to do with Odin's soul upon trapping it in a marble before Sindri takes matters into his own hands.
Teach Him Anger: Kratos wants Atreus to learn how to defend himself:
- When he's forced to tell Atreus about his godhood, he becomes hubristic and callous to a point where he gets them both stranded in Helheim after a fight with Baldur. After the fight, Kratos gets angry at him for what happened and bars him from helping him escape Helheim. From then on, Atreus learns to trust his father and learns to only kill out of necessity, not because he can.
- This is also shown with his interactions with the dwarves; he tries to help them by persuading the two to just make up with each other, only for the brothers to stubbornly turn him down. Out of hubris; Atreus berates Sindri for being so arrogant about his work and only looking down on Brok's work out of pride, he then tells him to make up with his brother or shut up about it. Tellingly, Sindri takes these words to heart and patches things up with Brok, who reassuringly tells Atreus that he "Told him what he needed to hear."
Telepathy: He has the ability to hear the thoughts of humans and animals. After Kratos fights a pack of wolves, Atreus nervously tells him that they were only hungry.
- Some sidequests reveal that Atreus can communicate with a lot more things than that, including spirits trapped inside objects and a giant sword.
Tomato in the Mirror: Atreus eventually learns his divine parentage. He also comes across a mural revealing that his mother was a Giantess, which would make him part-Giant. He takes the revelation quite well, being more curious than horrified about it.
Too Clever by Half: Goes to Asgard thinking he can trick Odin, not knowing that Odin was already tricking him.
Took a Level in Badass:
- Before powering up the Bifrost in Alfheim, Kratos asks Atreus to hold the axe while he steps into the light. Kratos is then dragged out by a supremely pissed Atreus somewhat later than he thought, to find a few dozen Dark Elf corpses, with the axe buried in one of them.
- By Ragnarök Atreus is a capable warrior in his own, and several segments of the game have him be controlled on his own.
Touch of Death: One of the spells he's learned by the beginning of Ragnarok enables him to separate the soul from a living creature's body. He uses it to Mercy Kill Fenrir and imprison Odin's soul in a marble. However, it requires him to chant a long incantation while maintaining physical contact with the victim, which renders it ineffective in combat.
Translator Buddy: He translates all sorts of languages, seemingly one of godly powers. He also serves as Norse reader to Kratos, since his father can’t read in this language.
Trickster God: Heavily downplayed, though he does showcase extremely positive examples of this trope occasionally. Yes, he's a bringer of change and chaos whenever he goes (usually dragging Kratos behind him), constantly trying to break the status quo. However, all of this is done out of the pure goodness and upright morality he has. Much like his mythological counterpart, he's also fond of negotiating with his opponents... though given this is God of War, he usually fails. Not for a lack of trying, though.
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Atreus becomes increasingly aggressive and cold-blooded after learning of his divine parentage, simply remarking that his new knife is better than the one his mother gave him after plunging it into Modi's neck. Kratos is far from happy about this, and quickly reprimands Atreus for his actions.
Turn Out Like His Father: Averted. Kratos's main goal is to be certain this does not happen, and he becomes very unnerved at Atreus acting increasingly more like him. It seems, however, one is adopting the attributes of the other, Kratos becoming more humane and caring and Atreus more serious and disciplined.
Two Aliases, One Character: He is revealed to have two names, his Greek name given by his father and his Norse name given by his mother: Loki.
Uneven Hybrid: By ancestry he's quarter-god, quarter mortal. And half-giant.
Unrelated in the Adaptation:
- In the legends, Loki is also the mother of Odin's horse, Sleipnir, through... unthinkable implications. Here, the legend has already taken place as Hrimthur was able to finish the wall with the help of his stallion, Svaðilfari. In Hrungnir's shrine, there is an image of an 8 legged horse in the centre panel, indicating that Sleipnir has already been conceived during Hrungnir's story. The best idea that comes to mind is that Odin likely used Svaðilfari as a sire to conceive Sleipnir with another horse or used Svaðilfari as breeding stock for the Asgardians.
- The wolves Sköll and Hati are mentioned, along with their father Hróðvitnir (another name for Fenris). In the original myths Fenris is Loki's son, and Sköll and Hati are his grandsons. Barring similar time-displacement as Jormungandr, they are unlikely to be related.
- Also with Odin in an adoptive brother level, as the myth states that he and Odin are brothers by blood oath, while in the game they don't have this sort of relationship.
Unstoppable Rage: He has inherited this trait from his dad. It gets increasingly worse until towards the end of the game, when he finally comes to terms and begins to control it.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The first scene of the game has Kratos picking up a fallen tree like he was slinging a small sack of potatoes, and Atreus doesn't see anything weird about this. Later when his father moves a skyscraper-sized contraption that spans half an entire lake with his bare hands, all Atreus cares to remark is that his father is 'really strong'. Since he grew up isolated with only Kratos (a god), and Faye, a warrior Jotunn, it's likely he has no idea how strong normal people are and thinks all adults can casually haul trees around.
Unwitting Pawn: Like father, like son. He spends most of Ragnarok being one to Odin, as most of the things he does play straight into Odin's hands until the final battle. Growing apart from his father? Odin planted the seeds of doubt, and takes the chance to swoop in as a replacement father figure so he could use Atreus to complete the mask. Freeing Tyr? Tyr was Odin in disguise, and so on.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: In Ragnarök, after some bouts of Involuntary Shapeshifting, he gains the ability to transform into a wolf for his own version of Spartan Rage.
Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Dramatic inversion; Atreus is a Cheerful Child who enjoys doing the right thing even when there isn't a benefit to their journey, while Kratos is wrought with regret and self-loathing to the point of being blunt and no-nonsense, and only helps people if it means getting rewarded with something that can help them. Another likely factor is that Kratos, being Spartan, was raised to be laconic and blunt (a trait that Spartans took a great deal of pride in) while Atreus, raised in a Nordic environment, has more boisterous traits that are often associated with the ancient Norse peoples.
Walking Spoiler: The revelation that he's a half-giant named Loki is a huge one that's revealed at the end of the game. Even bigger is that he will play a large part in Ragnarök.
The Watson: Asks a lot of questions about the world around him, and serves the dual purpose of naturally developing his character and providing the player with much-needed exposition.
Weak, but Skilled: He's certainly this when you play as him in Ragnarok, even after his Character Development and between-games power up. Compared to Kratos or his eventual role replacement, Freya his attacks lack the instant power and area-of-effect bursts Kratos can spam with seeming impunity. He's not as durable either as a Player Character, requiring a completely different playstyle precisely because you're usually paired with a partner you're unused to (Sindri, Angrboða and Thrúd. However, even when not comparing him to the adults, he's this compared to his peers. Angrboða has much more potent and varied magical skills (most of Atreus's magic arrow types are enchanted by others, not his own spells), not to mention her talents as a seiðr and general hidden knowledge of the giants. Thrúd completely outclasses him in physical strength and close-quarters combat, not to mention possessing powerful lightning enchantments. To be fair to him, though, he's only been seriously unearthing and training his powers for roughly three years, while the girls spent their entire lifetime using and practicing their skills as part of their day-to-day lives. Luckily for him, his real battle experience (and whatever training Kratos eventually put him through), guile, and precision long-range attacks more than make up for the difference. Ironically, when he's using his innate abilities, he becomes Unskilled, but Strong, transforming into either an invincible large wolf or bear with devastating, but feral attacks. He also completely loses the ability to utilize magic in these forms.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: A lot of his interactions with Kratos shows that Atreus is constantly trying to prove his worth to him, showing to become upset whenever he feels he angered or displeased his father. Suggested to be on the way for a Deconstruction since this attitude slowly leads to Atreus becoming bitter and angry towards Kratos for keeping secrets and failing to give out proper affection or approval.
What the Hell, Hero?: He frequently calls out Kratos for his poor decisions.
- However, he also gets called out by Kratos as well. When Atreus finds out that he has divine heritage and develops an ego in turn, Kratos shouts at him for not only killing Modi, but for insulting Sindri as well. When Atreus starts becoming callous about Faye and tries to convince Kratos into giving him her ashes, Kratos correctly assumes that Atreus would discard the ashes so that they can't fulfill her last request. Even Mimir agrees with Kratos for blaming Atreus for landing in the worst side of Hel after his narcissism lead to a disastrous fight with Baldur.
Kratos: You will listen to me and not speak a word. I am your father, and you, boy, are not yourself. You are too quick to temper. You are rash, insubordinate, and OUT OF CONTROL. This will not stand. You will honor your mother and abandon this path you have chosen. It is not too late. This discussion is far from over. We are here because of you, boy. Never forget that.
Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Atreus thinks Kratos resents him for his weak constitution as well as his tender and kind nature, and believes that Kratos' unwillingness to tell him the truth concerning his past is a sign of his father's resentment. In reality, Kratos cares for Atreus more than anything, but doesn't quite know how to properly express that thanks to everything he's been through.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's usually ready to fight just about anything he and Kratos encounter, but he's really not keen on fighting the first Soul Eater they come across, since the prospect of losing his soul understandably puts him off. Kratos insists on fighting it anyway to help Atreus get over his fear.
Wise Beyond Their Years: Atreus is intelligent and compassionate, able to intuitively grasp complex intellectual and moral concepts, while (almost) never losing his innate kindhearted nature.
Wrath: Atreus has this issue as well as his father. They both have a Hair-Trigger Temper but as Kratos learns to control it his son has a more difficult time with it. Atreus shows signs of some Troubling Unchildlike Behavior as he attacks in battle with arrogance and rage. He likely holds in this said anger to act normal but he less uses it as a weapon but to let loose in things he doesn't like.
You Are Not Ready: His father says this to him when he goes into a uncontrolled berserker rage after the first troll fight, and that he cannot go to the top of the mountain to spread his mother's ashes. The Stranger showing up at their doorstep a few moments later gives Kratos no choice but to force the journey on the boy.
You Should Have Died Instead: While Kratos is in the Light of Alfheim, he hears Atreus declaring that Kratos should have died instead of Faye. However, he quickly takes it back.
Young Future Famous People: Atreus is Loki, the fated bringer of The End of the World as We Know It in Norse Mythology.

Faye

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2018_07_19_at_32619_pm.png

Faye in the digital comic prequel.

^{Click to see her true appearance (spoilers)}

Voiced by: Deborah Ann Woll (English)

"We are not our failures. We must be better."

Kratos's second wife and Atreus's mother, whose final request before her untimely death was for her husband and son to scatter her ashes from the highest peak in all the Nine Realms.

Action Mom: She was apparently one, given she is the one who taught Atreus how to hunt, and did most of the work herself. The Leviathan Axe was also hers, meaning she probably knew how to use it. Sindri even mentions that she was a very great warrior, and Kratos at one point remarks that watching her use the Leviathan Axe was a sight to behold. She was in fact one of the most powerful beings in The 'Verse, as she was capable of fighting evenly against the likes of Kratos and Thor.
Kratos: She fought. Beautifully.
Affectionate Nickname: Ragnarök reveals that she liked to refer to Kratos as "Grumbles" because of his tendency to respond with grunting and stoic anger.
All-Loving Hero: If Atreus is to be believed, Faye would have been happy to help everyone who'd cross her path. Brok and Sindri also mention that she helped the weak, whoever they were, and that is why they made the Leviathan Axe for her free of charge. In any case, who else would accept Kratos after everything he's done? Possibly subverted come the ending, which reveals that the name she chose for Atreus was Loki. Double-subverted in Ragnarök, where it's revealed that she decided against following through on the prophecy, destroying Loki's shrine so that her son would be free to choose his own destiny.
Ambiguously Evil: With The Reveal that Atreus' true name is "Loki," the ability of giants to foretell the future, Faye's own expressed disdain for the gods and her affinity towards such dangerous creatures as the World Serpent, it’s entirely possible that she gave birth to Atreus specifically to kickstart Ragnarök, and bring forth the end of the gods. Though to be fair, the "evil" part of the trope is very questionable considering the gods certainly have it coming... the question is whether the rest of the world deserves it too. Sindri gives the idea that Faye was originally planning to avenge the Jötnar but after meeting Kratos, she had a change of plan and decided to follow the path of Bergelmir the Beloved.
- Subverted in the end, Faye ultimately just wanted both Kratos and Atreus to forge their own path, and had absolute faith that they would be able to rise above their failings to seek a brighter future.
An Ice Person: She was the original owner of the Leviathan Axe, a weapon that had cryokinetic properties.
Batman Gambit:
- When Faye's people foretold that Loki will bring about Ragnarök, Faye asked Kratos and Atreus to scatter her ashes. She was well aware that Kratos would never have Atreus go down his path, so she intentionally kept him in the dark. She also failed to tell Kratos that the Aesir Gods would be after Atreus. When Faye tells Kratos to chop down the protective trees, it allows the gods to find them, and it forces Kratos's hand in having them leave, regardless if he believes Atreus is ready or not.
- Ultimately it is subverted. Ragnarök reveals she destroyed Loki's shrine so Atreus would be free to chose his own destiny, rather than following the giant's visions and plans for him.
The Berserker: It may be surprising to learn, given her being near universally regarded as an All-Loving Hero, but Faye once possessed an incredibly destructive hatred and fury. Her battle with Thor was wild and uncontrolled, tearing an entire inhabited valley apart, and the restless spirits that were caught in the collateral damage remark upon how terrifying the rage between the two combatants was.
Beware the Nice Ones: Faye was so kind, patient and altruistic that almost everyone who encountered her, even Kratos, remembered her with nothing but affection, admiration and respect. However, she was also a warrior skilled enough to stalemate Kratos when they first met. And as the eyewitnesses to her battle with Thor can attest, was capable of flying into an Unstoppable Rage just as intense as those of her husband, if not more so.
Birds of a Feather: Faye is said to have been unfailingly kind, a powerful warrior, and a loving mother. A shocking contrast to Kratos, surely, but then you find out that she hated divine beings as well, and suddenly it makes more sense that the two would be drawn together. And then comes The Reveal that she possibly intends to trigger The End of the World as We Know It through her son, Loki/Atreus, and suddenly the similarities to Kratos are all too tragic.
- Ultimately subverted on intending to trigger The End of the World as We Know It, Faye simply wanted her husband and son to seek their own bright future, and trusted that they would be able to overcome themselves to do so. It is revealed however that Faye was once an extraordinarily powerful warrior who possessed a terrifying inner rage, making her very similar to Kratos in a different way, though she had since moved past that by the time she met him.
Body Motifs: Hands- or, more specifically, handprints. Faye marked the trees she wished used for her funeral pyre by pressing her gold-painted palm against them, and the significance of this is made clear when it's revealed she wished to have her ashes scattered from the peak of the Giant's Fingers, a hand-shaped mountain in Jötunheim. At the Giant's Fingers, Kratos and Atreus discover Faye's handprint at the final ridge they need to climb, revealing that Faye was responsible for carving in the golden marks directing father and son throughout their journey, having directed them on where to go from the very beginning.
Broken Ace: She is seemingly a kind, smart, and strong woman whose influence over others causes everyone to look up to her, including Kratos, Atreus, and the dwarves. However, she also lost every one of her kind due to the Aesir and bore a strong hatred for them, so she desires revenge against them by bearing a child so as to kickstart Ragnarök, which implies that she only used Kratos for the sake of vengeance. However, Ragnarök reveals that her love for Kratos and Atreus was legitimate, and she ultimately decided against fulfilling the prophecy in favor of nudging her two loved ones towards a path where they could overcome their respective demons and become better people.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Faye is the "Gentle" to Kratos' "Brooding." Based off her actions posthumously and in Kratos' dreams in Ragnarök, Faye is compassionate, patient, and understanding compared to Kratos being guarded, stoic, and cautious. This is more downplayed in Ragnarök when her battle with Thor comes to light, showcasing she was more similar to Kratos before they met.
Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie: Faye has asked her family to scatter her ashes atop the highest mountain among the nine realms, which constitutes Kratos's main quest in the game. For a time, Kratos and Atreus think she meant the peak they can see in Midgard, but in reality, she meant the peak of Jötunheim, the realm of frost giants, her former home.
Canon Character All Along: She is revealed to be the giantess Laufey, mother of Loki (i.e. Atreus).
Chekhov's Gun: All the yellow markings indicating where Kratos and Atreus are meant to go? They were all hand-painted and carved by Faye herself, as she foresaw literally every single step her family would take throughout their quest.
The Chessmaster: The ability to see the future certainly helps. She intended for her husband and her son to realize their destined roles in Ragnarök, and laid out their path directly to ensure they'd be able to reach Jötunheim.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: Was said to be a kind, yet fierce warrior who sought to use her skills to help as many people she could. Even Kratos, a man driven largely by self-interests, found himself enraptured by the purity of her desire to help others, and even views Atreus developing these traits as well with pride (though he does express annoyance at the boy's willingness to help everybody he comes across). It is revealed later on that she was addressed by those who knew her true nature as Laufey the Just.
Color Motif: Yellow. Her protection stave and the Guardian Shield she gives to Kratos are gold-colored and she uses yellow paint to mark things important to her, such as the trees she marked for her pyre, the designs on the cliffs, and the image of Kratos where she painted over the final image of his shrine. She's also seen wearing a gold dress in the Jotnar mural depicting her as the Guardian. Atreus's outfit in Ragnarok reflects this with his yellow shirt representing his mother.
Deadpan Snarker: Have her moments, as highlighted in one flashback conversation between Kratos and Faye regarding differences in funeral arrangements in Midgard and Greece.
Kratos: In my land, we entomb our loved ones.
Faye: You would have me trapped in the ground for eternity?
Kratos: I would have you close to me.
Faye: How touching. My rotting corpse will bring you such comfort.
Deceased Parents Are the Best: Atreus thought the world of his mother, who was kind to him, unlike the more sullen and withdrawn Kratos. Too bad she's dead.
Distaff Counterpart: To her own husband, believe it or not. They both hate the gods and have a personal vendetta against them which involved the death of their families. They are also Berserker-styled Dance Battlers. And then they met each other, and nearly took each others' heads off. Their major difference is that Faye decided against going down the path of bloodshed and revenge against the Aesir while Kratos slew the Greek Pantheon, and lived to regret it.
Dramatically Missing the Point: Possibly. She is said to have decided against getting bloody vengeance against the Aesir for their slaughter of the giants and instead follow the path of Bergelmir the Beloved. Except, while Bergelmir made settling down and having children his 'revenge', a distinct possibility is that Faye settled down and had a son so he could get revenge for her. But this turns out to be averted come Ragnarök. She actually didn't want Atreus to bring about Ragnarök, instead destroying his shrine to encourage him to find his own path.
Fiery Redhead: Downplayed. Her time with Kratos and Atreus shows Faye being patient, demure, and utterly kind along bieng a very capable warrior. However, she was the epitome of this during her past, especially during her literally cataclysmic fight with Thor, rivalling a temper with Kratos.
Foreshadowing: Atreus brings up the fact that Faye, like Kratos, demonstrated more than a little disdain towards the Aesir and even spoke highly of Jörmungandr — despite Jörmungandr being a Beast of the Apocalypse fated to kill Thor during Ragnarök. This makes a whole ton of sense when it's revealed she was a giant.
- There's also Atreus's remark of giants as Kratos crawls through one of their mines; namely that they're not all actually gigantic, lending credence to the idea that Kratos could mistake Faye for a regular human.
- The fact that her axe handed to Kratos was an Ice Elemental weapon, should have been a hint at her true nature of an Ice Giantess. Likewise, the seemingly innocuously-named Guardian Shield she gave Kratos as an anniversary gift celebrating the day they met is named as such because she was given the title of "the guardian" by her fellow giants, meant to stay in Midgard and help usher in an age where "gods grow good."
- Early on, it's shown that the woods she and her family lived in were guarded by a protection stave and she tricked Kratos into cutting down trees that maintained it. The implications of both the deception and its immediate aftermath, a visit from the Stranger, clearly unsettles Kratos. The final part of the game reveals at the time the mural of their travels was painted Faye intended, or at least was fine with, Kratos and Atreus coming into serious conflict with the Aesir that will involve Kratos's death. Ragnarok subverts this by revealing Faye grew disillusioned with the plan and worked to undermine it.
- The mural depicting Faye in Jotunheim shows her in some sort of conflict with the other giants- odd considering none of the previous scraps of information mention 'the Guardian' opposing her fellows, and the implication that Faye was following the giants' plans all along. The next mural has also been vandalized. Ragnarok reveals that the argument Faye had with the other Jotnar was about this prophecy- she didn't want it to come to pass and so sabotaged it, while the other giants were fine with Kratos dying in Ragnarok.
Foil: To her husband, Kratos; they both have bloody, vengeful pasts filled with violence and conflict with the gods, and both of them seek to move on from that by the time they meet and fall in love, but Kratos stews in regret for his actions, becoming withdrawn and laconic, while Faye chooses not to let her past define her, instead remaining warm and loving to others. On that note, Kratos was once a self-focused destroyer, laying waste to all in his path in selfish pursuit of vengeance, while Faye, by all accounts, was always an altruistic protector of others. Kratos starts the Norse era as a cynic who sees himself as a monster, but Faye sees better elements to him, a faith that proves well-founded by the end of Kratos' journeys. Driving this comparison home, visiting the Crater in Vanaheim reveals that, like Kratos, Faye had clashed with Thor, leaving a frozen lightning bolt as a reminder of their duel (fought with the very same weapon, the Leviathan Axe).
From a Certain Point of View: Kratos tells Atreus what he knows of Faye's past during their excursion to Alfheim, revealing that Faye's family had been brutally murdered, and though Faye once sought to exact retribution, ultimately her vengeance was "to live on." These words take on an entirely new meaning by the time Kratos and Atreus reach Jötunheim, revealing that Faye was referring to the other Jötnar as her "family," that those she'd sought vengeance upon were the Aesir, and that in living on she gave birth to the instigator of the apocalypse. Ragnarök ultimately reveals it to be closer to the initial meaning; Faye's vengeance was to make sure that her husband and son received better fates than the rest of her race.
The Ghost: Never seen, despite her crucial role in the plot; even in the digital comic prequel released for the game, her face is always obscured. The closest she gets to a physical appearance is a body wrapped in an anonymous burial shroud and a single engraving on the walls of Jötunheim, the latter of which is too simplified to make out any real detail and is most easily identified as her because she has the Leviathan Axe. Ragnarök changes that as Kratos has multiple flashbacks of his time with her.
Greater-Scope Paragon: Was a positive influence upon the lives of Kratos, Atreus, the Huldra brothers and ultimately even multitudes of people suffering under the Aesir's thumb. It's telling how devoted her husband and son are to her when they're told that the destination she'd intended for them to spread her ashes from is in Jötunheim — their disdain at the revelation comes not from how utterly ridiculous her request was, but rather because they are once again delayed in their mission. This is further proven when it's revealed in Ragnarok that she didn't want Kratos to die or Atreus to serve Odin and instead wanted them to find their own path and be better people.
Happily Married: Kratos deeply loved Faye, and though he maintains a stoic and grim demeanor throughout the journey to spread her ashes, her absence causes him great turmoil. It's apparent that Faye cared for Kratos as well, as the default shield Kratos uses throughout the journey was given by Faye as a gift celebrating the anniversary of the day they met. How much Faye truly cared for Kratos, however, is put in question thanks to The Reveal. In Ragnarök, it's confirmed to be earnest as Faye only set Kratos and Atreus on the path intended for them by the other Jötunn to protect them and facilitate their Character Development, and even kept their original ending planned for them a complete secret to help them realize they really can Screw Destiny and as well as ensure Kratos finally accomplishes his redemption he spent centuries trying to accomplish and grow to become the Hope Bringer and Ideal Hero she knows he can be.
Hero of Another Story: Though dead by the beginning of the fourth game, it becomes clear in Ragnarok that, before and to an extent during her marriage to Kratos, Faye lived a very interesting and occasionally violent life, but we never see any of it; only the aftereffects.
Ink Suit Actress: When she's finally seen in Ragnarök, she resembles her voice actress Deborah Ann Woll.
Kinky Spanking: Implied by Word of God when asked if Kratos is a "spanker."invoked
Cory Barlog: Of his children? No.
Last of His Kind: Faye was thought to be the last of the Frost Giants.
Last Request: Her last wish was for Kratos and Atreus to cremate her, then carry her ashes to the highest peak in all of the Realms to spread them there. It's heavily implied that Faye did this to take Kratos and Atreus past things that would reveal hidden secrets to them about Atreus, the Aesir, and the Norse gods in general.
Life Will Kill You: Faye is revealed to have been among the most powerful warriors within the universe of God of War, capable of fighting the likes of Kratos and Thor to a standstill. There's no indication she died of anything but natural causes, simple misfortune doing what a genocidal war with the Aesir couldn't.
Living Emotional Crutch: To both Kratos and Atreus. Atreus loved his mother dearly, and in a vision in Alfheim, he even briefly states that Kratos should've died instead of her (though he recants immediately after), and pleads for her to come back if Kratos fails to improve as a father figure. Likewise, after Kratos defeats The Stranger for the first time, he helplessly limps back home while pleading for guidance from Faye, proclaiming that neither he nor Atreus are ready yet to carry her ashes to the top of the mountain.
The Lost Lenore: Her death, though offscreen, affects Kratos and Atreus so profoundly that it changes their relationship from the ground up. Kratos has to become more emotionally available (since prior to this he had been incredibly aloof), and Atreus has to take his father's brutal yet pragmatic example to heart (since Faye had taught him nothing but kindness before).
Love at First Punch: It's revealed in Ragnarök that she first encountered Kratos in a Duel to the Death. Faye managed to fight Kratos to a complete standstill. When Kratos finally simmered down as much as he could, she opened up a dialogue with him. The rest is history.
The Magnificent: She was widely regaled as Laufey the Just, named precisely because of her heroic and kind personality, as well as her willingness to mess around with the Aesir and foil a ton of their more devious schemes.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Faye serves the narrative as Kratos's second love, and one whose kind, loving and has a somewhat playful nature is used to pull him back from the brink of mindless rage and despair. Nearly all of her actions revealed in Ragnarök are likewise devoted to helping her husband overcome his dark past and grant him new meaning in the form of a brighter future. This is justified by the fact that Faye herself was a warrior with a Dark and Troubled Past of loss, grief, bloodshed and violence, and had successfully let go of that darkness to emerge from the other side a better person. Having personally experienced a similar life, she more than perhaps anyone could understand Kratos' struggle and more importantly could see the potential he had deep down to be a better person.
Meaningful Name: Her name, Laufey, means "full of leaves." Considering that she lived with Kratos and Atreus in a forest, it's quite fitting.
Muscles Are Meaningless: While she's tall, she's of relatively average build. She's still able to lift logs with ease and was capable of being a match for Kratos and Thor.
Nay-Theist: Atreus remarks that she felt more than a little disdain towards the gods in life, much like Kratos. It is implied through The Reveal that Faye possibly intends to trigger Ragnarök through Atreus, taking this to a completely new level. Subverted in the sequel, since she destroyed Atreus/Loki's shrine depicting his prophecy so that he and Kratos could carve the paths they wanted for themselves.
Nice Girl: An incredibly kindhearted woman who helped the less fortunate and most likely had a positive effect on Kratos himself.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She kept many secrets, most notably her husband's and son's prophecies, in the hope that they would be free to forge their own future without falling into Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. In Ragnarök, however, these secrets create a rift between Kratos and Atreus, with Atreus deciding that since both his parents hid things from him it's acceptable to keep secrets from Kratos, and Kratos feeling betrayed by it and becoming suspicious and distrustful of his son for keeping things from him.
No Badass to His Valet: Well, his wife. Kratos' gruff and violent manner did not phase Faye in the slightest, with her nicknaming him Grumbles and teasing him about his tendency to grunt rather than speak. Since she was his equal on the battlefield she had no reason to fear him or defer to him, which Kratos loved her for.
Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Faye herself recants how she and Kratos first met in Ragnarök, and they did not meet on good terms at all as they basically got locked into a Duel to the Death seemingly given their respective comments to one another. And somehow, despite being at the point where Kratos was, relatively-speaking, still fresh off killing the entire Greek Pantheon and still in his "Ghost of Sparta" tendencies, Faye managed to fight Kratos to a complete standstill before they finally calmed down and began to talk. The rest is history. Ragnarök also revealed through conversations with various ghosts that Faye similarly battled Thor, who wiped out the rest of the Giants from Midgard, and not only survived but gave him the fight of his life. Fighting him to at least a draw, and possibly even had the upper hand.
Person of Mass Destruction: Her battle with Thor literally tore the Valley they fought in apart.
Plot-Triggering Death: Her death kickstarts the plot of God of War (PS4) as her husband and son embark on a journey to scatter her ashes.
Posthumous Character: By the time the 2018 game begins, Faye is dead. The story opens with Kratos and Atreus gathering supplies for her funeral pyre, and the reason they leave their home in the first place is to honor her last request to spread her ashes from the highest peak in all of the Nine Realms. Considering that Kratos and Atreus have to spread news to other characters about her passing, it's shown that Faye's death was relatively recent in-universe. Her appearances in Ragnarök show what she looks like, but only when Kratos is Dreaming of Times Gone By; Faye is dead throughout the entirety of the Norse saga.
Power Glows: Her ashes glow a bright orange when Kratos and Atreus finally spread them at the peak of the Giant's Fingers.
The Power of Love: It is implied that Kratos's transformation from a monstrous and wrathful Villain Protagonist War God to a much more mellow and stoic hunter-gatherer is large because of how Faye's love and acceptance of him forced him to change. Years of reflection and regret notwithstanding, Kratos became a better man partly because Faye's presence gave him an avenue to mature and find a new life in Midgard.
Retired Badass: Just like Kratos, she was a powerful warrior that decided to settle down in a remote cottage in the woods.
The Reveal: The ending reveals so much about Faye it hurts. The mural in Jötunheim reveals that she was actually a jötunn and that her people were able to foretell not only her meeting Kratos but also Kratos and Atreus' journey to Jötunheim, as well as the death of Kratos himself in Atreus' arms. This makes Kratos realise Baldur wasn't looking for him, but for Faye, but he didn't know she was already dead. Next, Atreus discovers through the mural that the name Faye wanted to give him was Loki. This reveals that Faye is in truth the giantess Laufey, and given the role of Loki in Ragnarök, the implication then and there comes out that she's most likely planning to trigger Ragnarök through Atreus — by way of the death of Kratos. This exchange after Kratos and Atreus see the murals that foretold their roles in triggering Ragnarök pretty much sums everything up.
Atreus: What does it mean?
Kratos: It means I wasn't the only parent with secrets.
- The reveals of Ragnarök puts all this in significantly less menacing light. While Faye did secretly set events in motion that would bring Kratos and Atreus into conflict with the Aesir, she did so with the intention of pushing them to grow past their flaws and rise above their supposed destinies. The reason the mural in Jotunheim showed her arguing with the other Jotnar is because she didn't want Atreus or Kratos to die, even painting over a mural showing their fates with her own visions of them earning their happy endings.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Subverted. Faye's entire family had been murdered, and though she once sought to exact revenge upon their killers, she decided to settle and find a new life with Kratos at her side. However, with the reveal that she knowingly bore a child destined to become the Norse Satanic Archetype Loki, as well as the fact that she kept this detail secret from Kratos and their son all the way up 'til the very end of their journey, implies that she planned all along to get her vengeance through her son.
- In Ragnarök it's triple subverted, as Faye actually set Kratos and Atreus's journey in motion in the hopes that they would defy their fate and find their own path.
Screw Destiny: She wanted Kratos to live and Atreus to defy his fate, going as far as preparing both Kratos and Atreus' journey, hoping that both will come out of it as better people. Come the end of Ragnarök, Kratos lives and Atreus does not end up serving Odin, and it's shown she even extended this desire to the point of complete opposition of her own people, sabotaging and defacing their murals involving the two so they wouldn't influence them, and in two cases painting over them to show her own visions.
Second Love: For Kratos, who managed to find love again after Lysandra's death.
Spanner in the Works: Like her husband, Faye often got in the Aesir's way multiple times and frequently botched up their plans, to the point where Thor is said to have been raring for a chance to face her in battle.
- One of the major reveals in Ragnarök is that she was this to her own people in regards to Kratos and Atreus. It's revealed that she willingly defied the fate her people had planned for her future husband and child, Kratos dying in battle with Thor and Loki joining Asgard and starting Ragnarök leading to his own death, effectively sacrificing them in a long game against the Aesir. Faye destroyed Kratos' and Atreus' mural in Jötunheim, so they wouldn't be influenced by it, and at the very end it's shown she even literally overwrote their "future" murals with her own visions, of Atreus exploring the world and Kratos becoming a god celebrated and beloved by all, metaphorically (and maybe literally) rewriting fate to save them and become better people.
Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Faye is revealed to be Laufey, Loki's mother, who will bring forth Ragnarök, and intended to name her son Loki as well, relenting due to Kratos's desire to honor his soldiers, and also put them in their journey to scatter her ashes in Jotunheim which put Kratos and Atreus facing off against several of the Norse pantheon, putting her real motivations into question. Ragnarök reveals while Faye used to be vengeful towards Odin and the Aesir, she never wanted Kratos and Atreus to destroy the Norse pantheon, believing Kratos to be a far better man that even he gave himself credit for, and Atreus to not end up serving Odin. She's also the one who vandalized the giant murals depicting Ragnarok because she didn't want them to come to pass, and she painted over Kratos's shrine, which showed Thor killing him, with him earning his happy ending, because that was what she, as the only one who truly believed in him, could see.
Small Role, Big Impact: Never gets a spoken line in throughout the entire game until Ragnarök, nor even a flashback concerning her but is the single driving force behind Kratos and Atreus' journey. And with The Reveal, this trope is played twofold, in that she deliberately bore a child destined to bring about the apocalypse.
Statuesque Stunner: Kratos' dreams in Ragnarök shows that Faye was roughly equal in height with him.
Straight Man and Wise Guy: Ragnarok's flashbacks show that her relationship with Kratos involved a lot of friendly teasing from her over Kratos's gruff and laconic nature.
Strong Family Resemblance: She's where Atreus got his red hair and his soft features.
Thanatos Gambit: She practically engineered the whole quest to lead Atreus to Jotunheim so that he could learn his real heritage.
Together in Death: At the end of the PlayStation 4 game, Atreus and Kratos spread her ashes over Jotunheim, finally reuniting her with her kin who'd died in Odin's purges and fulfilling the prophecy of the Guardian returning.
Unreliable Narrator: She was understandably and heavily biased against the Aesir, given how they genocided her entire species and had many glowing things to say about other enemies of the gods.
Unseen No More: A variant; it makes sense that she'd never be seen in the 2018 game given that she died before the prologue. Come Ragnarök though and she starts appearing in several flashbacks and dream sequences, the result of Kratos reminiscing.
Unstoppable Rage: In the past as Laufey, she had at Thor with the freshly minted Leviathan Axe, a weapon forged by the Sindri and Brok specifically to be a hard counter against Mjölnir. At the time, Thor was drunk on mead, and when Laufey had at him, she was drunk on rage. The battle tore the valley apart and left a frozen lightning bolt after the two dwarvencraft weapons clashed against each other. She managed to force Thor to flee.
Walking Spoiler: Learning more about Faye leads to some very big twists in the story of the Norse Saga, so many that it's difficult to talk about her at length.
Was It All a Lie?: It's left up in the air by the time Kratos and Atreus reach Jötunheim if Faye had ever even truly cared about Kratos to begin with, or merely saw him as the man best suited to become the father of Loki. Word of God states that the affection between her and Kratos was mutual, and Ragnarök confirms this, showing that Faye really did love Kratos earnestly and did everything she could to help him become the man she knows he can be.invoked
What Does She See in Him?: Never outright stated in-game, but when comparing the self-serving and often-brutal Kratos to the saintly figure everyone describes Faye as, one can't help but wonder just how they could've ever hit it off beyond their shared opinions concerning gods. It's later revealed that Faye and Kratos are far more similar than initial appearances suggest, both of them being incredibly powerful warriors with histories of bloodshed and violence and a dark inner rage within them, the main difference being that Faye had managed to move past this to become a widely beloved All-Loving Hero. The implication is that Faye was initially drawn to Kratos because she could understand him, and furthermore could see the better man he had the potential to be deep down.
Worthy Opponent: Part of the reason how Faye and Kratos fell in love with each other was because they both fought each other to a stand still multiple times. She is not afraid of him and can even have fun with him.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Flashbacks in Ragnarök show that Faye thought much more highly of Kratos than Kratos thought of himself, playfully trying to get some humor out of her husband and, more seriously, telling him that they didn't have to be defined by their pasts and that they could "be better". Her mural, shown at the end of the game, makes it clear just how highly Faye thought of her husband; she foresaw him becoming a great hero who could heal the wounds Odin left on the realms and become widely beloved. Seeing her mural about this and realizing the faith Faye had in him leaves Kratos on the brink of tears.
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Just looking at Atreus's thoughts from early in the game it's clear his mother had many good things to say about the traditional enemies of the Aesir gods, depicting them to her son as persecuted or misunderstood while painting the gods as entitled or unjust persecutors of those who MIGHT threaten them. The revelation that she was really a Jotun, typically the most prominent of the Aesir's enemies, explains everything.

Sandbox / God of War Series – Kratos's Family

Greek Era

Norse Era

Atreus / Loki

Voiced: Sunny Suljic (English)^{additional VAs}
Appears In: God of War (2018) | God of War: Ragnarök

Previous

Index

Next

Sandbox / God of War Series – Kratos's Family

Edit Locked

Greek Era

Norse Era

Atreus / Loki

Previous

Index

Next