History Characters / GodOfWarSeriesKratos

* HumbleGoal: He's not out to kill a deity in the name of petty vengeance. All he wants is to get to the highest peak in all the nine realms and spread the ashes of his dead wife along with his son. The deicide just sort of happens because even the Aesir participate the time-honored tradition of bullying Kratos.

The Ghost of Sparta. The Bane of Olympus. Slave of the Gods. Bastard Son of Zeus. Former Servant of Ares. Savior of the Nine Realms.

* GentleGiant: Especially in ''Ragnarok''. Kratos wants peace more than anything will not resort to violence unless in self-defense, showing restraint at times where physical retaliation would have long since been justified (such as his first meeting with Baldur in ''God of War''). Push him too far, however, and this goes out the window.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Before he got his skin coated with ash, Kratos used to have mildly brown skin. Additionally, both his voice-actors have been African-Americans. That said, both his children are white, and so are his parents Zeus and Callisto, so where he got his skin tone from is uncertain, although it's possible it was tanned, considering the climate of Greece.
* AntiHero: Goes through multiple shades of it, zigzagging between this and being a VillainProtagonist. For specifics, check the folders below.

* TheAtoner: While Kratos does dwell a lot on his family's death, it's mostly just used as a source of his volcanic rage, and his idea of ''atoning'' for his actions is partially wishing his bad memories away. Played more straight after he [[spoiler:destroys Olympus]], where Kratos has come to realize that his constant desire for vengeance in his youth had become little to nothing more than petty immaturity and seeks to end the cycle of violence. The Platform/PS4 installment is essentially one long quest to make his son into a better person than he ever was, and though at first he is convinced that he can never become a better person himself, by the end he seems to have realized that he can keep trying.
* BaldHeadOfToughness: Kratos is never seen with hair, not even as a child, and he is TheDeterminator when it comes to taking his revenge against the gods of Olympus for killing his family. He's also a MadeOfIron, StrongAndSkilled, OneManArmy as he nearly single-handedly accomplishes his mission.

** Per the Norns in ''Ragnarök'', his biggest flaw, one that defines all the others, is his unwillingness to commit to change. He makes numerous attempts throughout the series to better himself, but when push comes to shove he always makes the same choices, which usually entail killing anyone who gets in his way and damn the consequences. Subverted at the end: [[spoiler: While he does end up killing Heimdall anyway, he makes every possible effort to avoid it, even when Heimdall goes out of his own way to provoke Kratos. He notably doesn't end up killing Thor or Odin and becomes more willing to prevent harm to innocent bystanders during Ragnarök when he decides to save as many people as possible.]]

** Also in ''Ragnarök'' -- [[BystanderSyndrome inaction]]. He is adamant about ''not'' going to war with the Aesir and ''not'' killing gods. Kratos is clearly still haunted by his slaughter of the Greek pantheon and doesn't want to repeat it, especially knowing from experience it could destroy the Norse world, but he puts his personal desire not to fall back into old behaviors above the desires of others who are looking to him for leadership and help. It particularly toes the line of selfishness when one considers the Kratos knows for a fact that Odin is an oppressive tyrant that has slaughtered or enslaves most of the Nine Realms, and many of his friends and allies have been wronged by Odin and the Aesir and argue that deposing the All-Father is the right thing to do, but he still refuses. This extends to Atreus as well -- he thinks his son is set on starting Ragnarok and he doesn't want to learn more about the role Loki is meant to play in the conflict, and his refusal has already driven Atreus to start looking for answers on his own, driving a wedge between them that Odin ends up exploiting.

*** [[spoiler: While his battles against both Thor and Odin, both contenders for the strongest Norse god, were some of the toughest fights he's ever endured, it's clear that he was not fighting at his best. In his first fight with Thor, he'd only had a few small hours of sleep and only had the Leviathan Axe; Thor flat-out calls out Kratos for still holding back and even then he still keeps up with the God of Strength before eventually ending the fight in a stalemate. The next time he and Thor fought, Kratos ended up the victor even though he was the only one not fighting to kill, and both had engaged in different fights prior. And when the time came to fight Odin, whilst he needed help from Atreus and Freya to win, all three had just come from other battles whilst Odin was fresh; even then, Kratos was going most of the heavy lifting against the All-Father, with his allies in comparison serving as assistance. Odin himself specifically avoids fighting him the best he could before all this, making it clear even the All-Father fears the Ghost of Sparta on a level, and he's accomplished two feats that is implied to be out of Odin's paygrade: Odin straight up finds Kratos surviving entering the Light of Alfheim highly astonishing as anyone else would have been disintegrated or left insane, and while Odin is indicated to require a spell to be able to completely withstand the cold of Helheim, Kratos can stay in Helheim fairly easily without any need of a spell. The only one being who could possibly be stronger than he is would be Surtr, at least when he's Ragnarok, although Kratos didn't outright fight either incarnation (Surtr only blasted him back once instead of engaging in an outright fight and Kratos' mission in the final battle was to get to Odin himself, not completely stop Ragnarok from destroying Asgard), leaving the question of who is stronger as being forever undeterminable.[[note]] It's worth noting that Atreus actually got caught in what appeared to be the final blast of Ragnarok which destroyed Asgard and was simply knocked out, and it's pretty clear his father's far tougher than he is.[[/note]] With Thor, Odin and Surtr dead, Kratos is unquestionably the strongest being in the Nine Realms. In '''Valhalla''', Kratos actually replicates the '''Blade of Olympus''' through the sheer power of his memories manifesting in Valhalla, meaning he is powerful enough to replicate a weapon that could single-handedly end a war between god-like beings through '''his own power'''. To compare, Zeus needed a lot of time to create that weapon, but Kratos could do that as instantly and as naturally as he manifests his rage.]]

* KickTheDog: During his battle with Thor in ''Ragnarok'', Thor pulls "AndThisIsFor" on him, and eventually says "this is for Modi!" Despite it being perfectly reasonable for him to mention his younger son last[[note]]Kratos' other victims were Thor's brother and elder son[[/note]], Kratos jabs that he "puts Modi last, even in death!" When Thor is outraged at his accusation, Kratos tells him that Modi died of the wounds Thor gave him when he beat him; while not an outright lie, the fatal blow was dealt by [[spoiler:Atreus]] and it was plausible Modi could have lived. Though he was distorting the truth to [[spoiler:protect his son]], telling Thor that he accidentally killed his own son was cruel, and [[DrowningMySorrows the effect it has on Thor]] can be seen later in the game.

* TheDragonslayer: Ends up adding dragon-slaying to his list of feats when he kills Hraezlyr to save Sindri. Notably, Kratos doesn't go out of his way to kill dragons, as there are three trapped dragons that he releases without any intent to kill after Atreus asks him to help them - he only kills Hraezlyr because the latter was trying to eat the dwarf. ''Ragnarok'' sees him add several more dragons to his kill count, including the legendary Nidhoggr.

* TheDragonslayer: Ends up adding dragon-slaying to his list of feats when he kills Hraezlyr to save Sindri. Notably, Kratos doesn't go out of his way to kill dragons, as there are three trapped dragons that he releases without any intent to kill after Atreus asks him to help them - he only kills Hraezlyr because the latter was trying to eat the dwarf.

* TheDragonslayer: Ends up adding dragon-slaying to his list of feats when he kills Hraezlyr to save Sindri. Notably, Kratos doesn't go out of his way to kill dragons, as there are three trapped dragons that he releases without any intent to kill after Atreus asks him to help them - he only kills Hraezlyr because the latter was trying to eat ythe dwarf.

* TheAtoner: While Kratos does dwell a lot on his family's death, it's mostly just used as a source of his volcanic rage, and his idea of ''atoning'' for his actions is partially wishing his bad memories away. Played more straight after he [[spoiler:destroys Olympus]], where Kratos has come to realize that his constant desire for vengeance in his youth had become little to nothing more than petty immaturity and seeks to end the cycle of violence. The UsefulNotes/PS4 installment is essentially one long quest to make his son into a better person than he ever was, and though at first he is convinced that he can never become a better person himself, by the end he seems to have realized that he can keep trying.

** Even after a ''ton'' of CharacterDevelopment, he still demonstrates a self-centredness that seems more out of pragmatism’s sake than anything from callousness. That being said, the script in the UsefulNotes/PS4 game would still insert unkind lines of dialogue to contradict his desire through the story to let others be (as, despite not trusting gods at all, he was not out to kill Baldur) and have his relatively {{cheerful|Child}} son Atreus be a better person than he was.

* StartOfDarkness: Regarding his VillainProtagonist mention below, he seems to start down this path in earnest by the end of ''Ghost of Sparta'', owing to the deaths and divine manipulations of [[spoiler:his mother and brother]], followed by Athena essentially [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame congratulating him for losing his mortal binds and becoming ready to become a god]].

* GentleGiant: Especially in Ragnarok. As long as you stay on his good side, Kratos is generally a kind, thoughtful, and polite person. The moment you annoy him, threaten him, or get in his way, though, this goes out the window.

* ObsessivelyNormal: Kratos hates the gods for how they treated and tortured him. He hates himself for what he did to Greece and now lives in the Scandinavian region in an attempt to sever all ties to his past and to the gods, and makes no attempt to learn anything about them. His greatest fear is Atreus finding out about his godhood and turning into a monster because of it. He now lives a reclusive lifestyle to avoid gods and conflict.

* ShipperOnDeck: [[spoiler:After Angrboda saves everyone's lives during Ragnarök, Kratos shows interest in seeing her and Atreus together and trusts her with his life as much as Atreus would]].. After seeing her paintings, Kratos mentions that Atreus also paints, possibly trying to impress her. Helping Angrboda's case is her saying that Atreus needs discipline to hone his artistic talents, something that amuses [[SternTeacher Kratos]] enough to ''chuckle'' and say he likes her.

The Ghost of Sparta. The Bane of Olympus. Slave of the Gods. Bastard Son of Zeus. Former Servant of Ares.

'''The''' [[TheBerserker Berserker]] WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. '''[[TropeCodifier THE]]''' [[KillTheGod God Slayer]].

'''''The God of War'''''.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: [[spoiler: Throughout the ''Valhalla'' DLC, Kratos is conflicted about taking up the title of God of War once again, having spent so long trying to run from who he used to be and fearing the responsibilities that come with the title. When faced with a vision of his younger self, he initially gives himself a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, calling out all the cruelty and selfishness he once indulged in, but rounds it off by saying that he still has hope, believing that he, Kratos has the potential to be better than he was; he just needed to see it for himself.]]

* BigGood:

* CharacterDevelopment:

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:''Valhalla'' has Kratos going through all manner of trials and personal challenges in order to accept and confront his past crimes. He also reveals some of his more personal sins to Mimir, including the captain he killed simply to further his own goals when saving him would have cost him nothing. While Kratos knows he can never truly atone for those he wronged in the past, Valhalla allows him to see that his past actions were not entirely self-serving (his pact with Ares was originally made to save the people of Athens, after all) and that he can indeed become a hero in the path forward if he accepts all facets of his past and use it to do better.]]

** ''Valhalla'' more closely examines the consequences of his prior actions, [[spoiler:namely his guilt complex causing him to intensely AccentuateTheNegative about his past deeds and choosing to focus heavily on how his blind rage destroyed everything in the end, when in reality the decisions he was forced to face were far more complicated than a simple "right or wrong" answer as both Týr and Mimir repeatedly hammer home to Kratos — even his infamous deal of Ares that started ''much'' of his pains over the entire series to begin with wasn't as simple as a need to satisfy the GlorySeeker in himself, but the reality that if he ''hadn't'' reached out to Ares, Sparta would have been devastated and its people violated by the Barbarian hordes ([[MortonsFork with potentially his family would have been a victim either way]]). The lesson to be learned ''isn't'' to excuse his actions in some fashion, but to understand that his choices made him the man he became in the Greek saga and it can in turn help prove definitively that Kratos doesn't have to stay trapped by his guilt and find redemption by "being better".]]