Characters / God of War Series: Baldur

God of War characters index
Protagonists: Kratos | Atreus
Greek Era: Gods (Zeus) | Titans | Mythology's Heroes | Other Beings | Normal Humans | Characters from Comics
Norse Era: Gods (Odin | Thor | Mimir | Baldur | Heimdall | Freya) | Jotnar | Other Characters (Sindri and Brok) | Monsters

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Baldur/The Stranger

"Long way from home, aren't you?"

Voiced by: Jeremy Davies (English), Tooru Sakurai (Japanese)^{additional VAs}Silvio Giraldi (Brazilian Portuguese), Dmitry Krivoshchapov (Russian)

"Throw whatever you have at me, I'll keep coming! That old body will give out. But before I end this, I want you to know one thing: I can't feel any of this!"

A mysterious stranger that knocks on Kratos's door, seeking answers. However, his aggressive attitude quickly turns the encounter into a fight, more difficult than Kratos expects as the man is exceptionally strong, and shrugs off and heals every wound.

It turns out he’s none other than the Norse god Baldur, “blessed” with immortality and a Healing Factor that renders him virtually invulnerable to all threats, physical or magical. Said blessing has also stripped him of all physical sensations from pain to even feeling the ground under his feet. Driven completely mad by a century’s-worth of sensory deprivation and desperate for a cure, Baldur stalks after Kratos and his son for reasons unknown and serves as the most frequent and dangerous obstacle throughout their journey.

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A - I

• Achilles' Heel: Mistletoe is what removes his immortality. Before that, subjecting him to a Neck Snap was the only thing that’ll take him out of commission for a significant amount of time, anything else would be just shrugged off. He can be stunned and pushed back briefly if Kratos smacks him in the head enough times, since, even if he cannot feel the pain, that doesn't completely protect his brain from getting rattled around and disorienting him. Accordingly, Kratos subjects him to several No Holds Barred Beatdowns that would have reduced pretty much anybody else's face into hamburger meat, because that's the only way he has to force him down for a minute before he recovers and resumes fighting.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the Eddas, Baldur was greatly sorrowful about the prophetic dreams of his own death, and the fact that his mother made almost every object vow to never harm him wasn't told to bother him, as it seemingly ensured he wouldn't suffer his fated demise, even letting the other gods have fun throwing their weapons at him only for them to bounce off. Here, his invulnerability is reinterpreted as a case of harmful parental overprotectiveness and it causes him to not feel anything anymore, which Baldur didn't have to be concerned about in the myths. Thus, he feels utterly miserable for his condition and greatly resents his mother for it. He was also Loved by All in myth, whereas in the games his nephews comment about how he hadn't been the same for a long time due to his decaying state of mind and were mostly only working with him because their father Thor still trusted him.
• Adaptational Badass: In myth, he was essentially a pretty boy who had a prophetic dream of his own death and fell into a depression, so his mom made everything (with one exception) swear not to harm him. When Loki discovered this, he arranged the death of Baldur. He didn't even die in battle, which sent him straight to Hel. Here, he's a rugged man covered in runic tattoos who can match Kratos blow for blow, someone who killed an entire pantheon up to and including the resident Top God. He's blindingly fast, incredibly strong (enough to knock out Jörmungandr, who fought Thor wielding Mjolnir to a stalemate, though due to the circumstances the serpent couldn't defend himself), takes full advantage of his invulnerability, and has Elemental Powers. Even when he gets stabbed with mistletoe, his weakness, it doesn't really hurt him so much as break the spell. Even then, he's insanely durable, dying at last only after a long and exhausting battle.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: In the Gesta Danorum, he was was said to have hair so blond it was nearly white. Here, his hair is much darker.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Baldur is the God of Light in Norse myth, but doesn't really display any light abilities throughout any of his battles with Kratos (beyond his Super-Speed to maneuver and dodge him with and manifesting trail of exploding ball of light), instead relying mostly on brute strength. His tattoos do glow when he uses these abilities, however, so the Light aspect of his godhood remains mildly intact.
• Adaptational Ugliness: This version of Baldur is a scruffy, emaciated and disheveled guy with an unflattering haircut and tattoos all over his body, while the mythical one was said to be the most beautiful of the gods. Granted, his personal grooming is probably the last thing on his mind considering what he's living through.
• Adaptational Villainy: His real identity is that of Baldur, a.k.a. the nicest, wisest, and most merciful of the Aesir in recorded myth. A far cry from the Ax-Crazy guy we see in the game. There are hints that he used to be a lot nicer before he became indestructible, and his subsequent loss of all physical sensations drove him mad.
• Alas, Poor Villain: His death by Kratos's own hands is treated as an extremely solemn affair. One that Kratos really wished he could have avoided. Freya cries over her inability to protect him.
• All for Nothing: In Ragnarök, the journal entry Kratos writes about him outlines that he feels this way about having to kill him despite Freya's pleas to spare him and willingness to die if that would sate his animosity and antagonism towards Kratos and Atreus. He notes that even if he had allowed Baldur to kill his mother, the crazed god had made it clear he would be coming after them next, which would have resulted in Kratos killing him anyway, so by killing him before he murdered Freya, despite knowing it would turn her vengeful towards him, Kratos did what he could to avoid anymore needless death.
• And I Must Scream: Freya’s spell gave him Complete Immortality… and completely robbed him of the ability to feel anything whatsoever; pain, sexual pleasure, the wind on his face, not even something as trivial as room temperature or tasting a meal. By the time Baldur shows up at Kratos’s door, he’s been living like this for over a century, and the effects it’s had on his psyche are VERY evident. Even when this is subverted and the spell is removed by mistletoe, the damage has already been done.
  Baldur: "You... you had no right."
  Freya: "I had every right, I am your mother."
  Baldur: "You had NO RIGHT, witch! I can't taste. I can't smell, I can't even feel the temperature of this... this room. Feasting, drinking, women... it's all gone. Gone."
  Freya: "But you will never have to feel pain again. Death has no power over you now! You would rather die?"
  Baldur: "Then never feel again? Yes. YES. I would rather die."
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Towards Atreus, though indirectly, as he notes that Kratos's house has two beds and threatens to get whoever he's hiding to talk if Kratos won't. This triggers Kratos's Spartan Rage.
• An Ice Person: In his final boss fight, he absorbs the Leviathan Axe's frost powers after Kratos embeds it in him, gaining ice powers, including shooting ice blasts. He even becomes immune to the Leviathan Axe, forcing Kratos to use the Blades of Chaos when he is channelling ice.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Toward his mother. It's his main goal to kill her.
• Apocalypse Maiden: His death marks the coming of Ragnarök. Kratos killing him ends up kick-starting Ragnarök at least a hundred years ahead of schedule.
• Arc Villain: For the first game set in the Norse Mythology; he's the most consistent and dangerous obstacle Kratos and Atreus face on their journey. What keeps him from being a Big Bad is that he's ultimately a Plot-Irrelevant Villain tracking the protagonists for reasons that don't become clear until the end of the game, and he's taking orders from Odin.
• Ax-Crazy: Although he’s relatively composed when you meet him, when the punches start flying he turns into a gleeful savage that won’t stop until his opponent is dead. As the game goes on he reveals himself to be an immature Sense Freak with some extreme Mommy Issues. In fairness, you'd probably be unhinged after going through sensory deprivation for a century too.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Uses nothing but kicks and punches and the occasional wrestling hold; they're all he needs.
• Barrier Change Boss: In the final fight against him, he'll change between using fire and ice magic, thus requiring Kratos to switch between the Leviathan Axe and the Blades of Chaos to counter his current state.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Once his immortality is undone, Baldur is the happiest he's ever been in the last hundred years. But, by this point he's gotten himself in hot water with a God of War and his son, and his sudden mortality means he can actually lose at this point...which he does.
• Beard of Evil: He sports a typical Norse beard that's also styled with beads.
• Believing Their Own Lies:In the middle of their first duel, Baldur rants about how Kratos’ acting proud started their fight, and how he was “not (his) brother”, completely ignoring that he started the fight provoking Kratos to hit him. Justified; Baldur’s sanity has become so fragile and his mood so mercurial he clearly believes that Kratos started the fight.
• Berserk Button: Of all words Freya could have used to convey empathy to him, saying she knows how he 'feels' was the worst one.
• Beyond Redemption: After soundly defeating him, Kratos opts to spare his life, warning him to not lay a hand on him, his son, or Freya. Immediately afterwards, Baldur turns on Freya, refusing to forgive her for placing the curse on him and attempting to choke her to death. Realizing he's too far gone to be reasoned with, Kratos steps in and snaps Baldur's neck.
  Kratos: The cycle ends here. We must be better than this.
• Blessed with Suck: He was blessed by his mother with invulnerability to all threats — physical or magical. In fact, any injury will heal itself near instantaneously too. However, because of this, he cannot feel even the most mundane stimulus, and the loss of his ability to feel anything for a hundred years turned him batshit insane hell bent on killing his own mother. Regaining the ability to feel due to a mistletoe arrowhead turns him into a Sense Freak.
• Blood Knight: The guy seems to enjoy battle as much as Kratos used to in his younger days.
• Blue Is Heroic: Inverted; he's the main antagonist, but he's got blue eyes and blue colored tattoos.
• Braids of Barbarism: Baldur's thick beard is tied into thin braids here and there.
• Brought Down to Badass: When he inadvertently stabs himself with the mistletoe arrowhead on Atreus' quiver, he loses his invulnerability and Healing Factor. However, he still retains all of his other powers and is still very hard to injure. In fact, he seems to fight even harder than before now that he can actually feel the pain of his opponent's attacks once more after going without sensation for an entire century.
• Bubble Boy: A magical variant and a Deconstruction combined. Baldur was cursed with invulnerability because Freya learned that he was destined to die a needless death and she overcorrected the problem by removing all of his senses. Because of Freya, Baldur can't feel anything (not the taste of alcohol, the pleasure of sex, not even simply walking on the ground) and it drives him into a rage-filled depression and madness. He's been estranged from Freya for over 100 years and was exploited by Odin to serve him in exchange for a flimsy promise of curing his condition.
• Bullying a Dragon: Subverted; initially seeming like a scrawny drunken guy with a death wish picking on Kratos, once the fists start flying he gives Kratos the first real fight the Spartan's had in a long, long time.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Baldur is seen this way by his own family; Modi claims that his uncle "hasn't seen straight" in years (which Magni doesn't disagree with), and Odin considers his mind "gone". That said, none of them dismiss or ignore his skills; Magni and Modi follow his instructions without question, Mimir flat-out states that he is the best tracker in the Nine Realms bar-none, and Odin himself remarks that Baldur reliably acted as his "closer".
• Character Tics: Has a tendency to lean backward when talking to other people.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Played for Drama and Horror; Balder is barely clinging to sanity, which results in both his behavior and body language appearing very "off". His nervous twitching, his habit of agitated shadow-boxing during moments of downtime, his audibly talking to himself, and his frequent, violent mood swings communicate to the audience that Baldur is both uninterested in observing social norms and dangerously, homicidally unstable.
• Combat Sadomasochist: He's obsessed with pain due to being deprived of every sensation, to the point he willingly smacks around Kratos to goad him to hit back even though he (incorrectly) believes Kratos is a Jotunn, one of Asgard's greatest enemies. Later on, when a mistletoe arrow jabbed into his hand removes his invulnerability and returns his ability to feel, the sensory influx drives Baldur into psychotic glee even as Kratos continues to pummel him.
• Complete Immortality: As revealed over the course of the game, there's nothing that can kill him. He survives being crushed by a massive stone and Kratos snapping his neck, and any damage inflicted on him rapidly heals. The downside is that it robs him of all his senses. The only thing that can harm him is mistletoe, which breaks the curse and renders him mortal.
• Death Seeker: While still under the effect's of Freya's spell, he makes clear more than once that he's willing for Kratos to kill him if he is able. He only fights back when he realizes Kratos can't do anything. Also, his torment in Hel shows in the past, he made it clear to Freya he'd rather die than still be under her spell. In the end, when Kratos' hands are around his neck, Baldur encourages him to finish it and is disappointed when he is released.
• Detrimental Determination: He wouldn't have died if he was willing to go back to Odin and say "Look, these clearly aren't the giants you're looking for, maybe send someone else to talk to them if you're that interested." Instead, because he utterly refuses to back down from kidnapping Atreus and Kratos is eventually forced to kill him because there's no other way to make him stand down.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: For as much as this game can be considered an "adaptation" of Norse Mythology, Baldur's death in the source is very different. Depending in the account, he was either stabbed by a mistletoe knife or shot with a mistletoe arrow by Loki, or Loki tricked Hodr into either shooting him with the arrow or hurling a mistletoe-laced spear at him, which caused Baldur to immediately drop dead. In this game while Loki (as Atreus) and a mistletoe arrowhead are involved, Baldur punched the arrowhead and all it resulted in was his immortality getting removed. He then has a knockdown, drag-out brawl with Kratos and Atreus that ends with Kratos trying to show him mercy, Baldur immediately using it to try and kill his mother, and then Kratos snapping his neck in retaliation.
• Dirty Coward: He believes himself to be a coward after seeing his past self in Helheim refusing to kill Freya. Subverted as before and after his spell was broken, he wanted to keep fighting Kratos and Atreus even if it cost him his life.
• Dragon Rider: Baldur uses his dragon Dagsetr as his mount. According to Heimdall, this is unique to Baldur himself; he was able to tame Dagetsr because he didn't have to worry about the dragon killing him.
• Dragon with an Agenda: He's only after Kratos and Atreus because Odin promised to remove the spell if he succeeded. However, Odin may have revoked the promise or lied about it.
• Drunken Master: He talks and moves as if he's inebriated at all times. Brok suggests maybe he's just like that because he's "slow," or else his invulnerability has addled his senses (or, on the third hand, maybe he really is drunk all the time; he is a Norse deity, after all).
• Establishing Character Moment: Baldur is first introduced talking down to Kratos, goading him into a fight, and predictably getting knocked down with a single punch. He then get's back up, decides to go for another round... and then punches Kratos hard enough to send the former god of war flying over his house, at which point his three phase boss fight begins. This shows that the Stranger tends to think very highly of himself but is fully capable of backing up his boasts in a fight.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved:
  • Psychopathic and murderous as he may be, he's still unconditionally loved by his mother, even though he'd rather kill her. So much that she is willing to go on a rampage against Kratos in Ragnarök.
  • Thor is also shown to be saddened by his death and wants to avenge him alongside his sons. He also bitterly remarks that Odin used to talk about what a good team he and Baldur made, hinting that deep-down he blames him for sending his brother to his death.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He takes it in stride, but after seeing Atreus shoot Kratos on purpose with a shock arrow he retorts "and here I thought my family was fucked up" suggesting that not even the Aesir royal family would pettily attack each other. Then again, this is coming from the guy who, when given the chance to kill his own mother after a hundred years, immediately guns for it.
  • Even earlier than that he digs at his family when he tells Kratos that he's not his brother and that had he just told him what he wanted at the start of the game there wouldn't have been a fight. Given that his brother is none other than Thor, someone who's portrayed as a ill-tempered, violent, battle-crazed lunatic with a tendency to murder someone for the smallest of sleights for the entire narrative, it's kinda telling that even Baldur backhandedly speaks poorly of his behavior. Though ironically, Thor gets redeemed while Baldur does not.
• Evil Counterpart: Resembles a twisted Norse version of Kratos. The similarities become stronger when it's revealed that he seeks revenge against his own mother just like Kratos did in the past against Zeus (the difference is that his mother Freya was trying to protect him). Kratos actually tries to talk sense into him, but Baldur is too blinded by hate to see otherwise.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When he and Kratos come to blows a second time, he cries out "Don't you know when to give up!?" even though he's literally trying to kidnap the guy's son right in front of him. During their final battle, he's utterly confounded that Kratos and Atreus would even care about stopping him from killing Freya. This is to the point where when Kratos has him in a neck lock, by the end of it all, he even screams out "Why do you even care!? You could have just walked away!"
• Exposed to the Elements: He's even worse about this than Kratos; at least Kratos has a shoulder guard while Baldur is completely topless in Scandinavian weather. He's even shirtless and completely unbothered in Helheim. Justified by his curse; he's immune to heatstroke and frostbite and being incapable of even feeling temperature means there's no reason for him to wear clothes except for modesty.
• Fantastic Racism: When he first encounters Kratos, he mocks him by saying, "And here I thought your kind was supposed to be so enlightened. So much better than us. So much smarter." At first you think he's being insulting towards Greeks/Olympians, but then at the end of the game, you realize he's actually talking about the Giants.
• Fatal Flaw: As the Norns say in Ragnarok, what sealed his fate more than anything else was his thirst for revenge. He had broken his curse and could have gone on with his life feeling all the things he'd been deprived of, but he needed to make Freya suffer, so he ignored Kratos' warning and started to strangle her before Kratos was even out of earshot. Kratos kills him before he can finish the job, fulfilling the prophecy of him dying a needless death.
• Fate Worse than Death: He considers his invincibility as this since said invincibility makes him unable to feel anything like pain, the taste of food/drink or sexual pleasure. Enduring a century of this is what drove him over the edge.
• Feel No Pain: During his first fight against Kratos, he claims to be incapable of feeling anything from Kratos' attacks, coupled with having an exceptional Healing Factor that immediately regenerates his injuries during the battle, including getting hit hard enough to crash through solid rock and keep going. Atreus deduces his identity as the Norse god Baldur, son of Odin and Freya, from this. When Freya heard a prophecy that Baldur would die "a needless death", she reacted by casting a spell that removed his ability to feel anything, however, in addition to pain, it also prevents feeling things like touch, taste, smell, and pleasure. By the time the story begins, Baldur has been living like this for at least 100 years according to himself. Similarly, just like the myth, getting stabbed with mistletoe (in-universe, the broken-off tip of a mistletoe arrow that he accidentally strikes when attacking Atreus) removes his invulnerability and returns his ability to feel. The resulting influx of sensory ability, after having been starved of it for an entire century quickly drives Baldur into fits of psychotic glee as he sustains injury after injury in the ensuing battle with Kratos.
• Final Boss: He is the final obstacle standing in the way of Kratos and Atreus scattering Faye’s ashes.
• Fire/Water Juxtaposition: In his third fight, he shifts between fire and ice, requiring Kratos to shift between the Leviathan Axe and the Blades of Chaos, depending on his state.
• Foreshadowing: When Kratos/the player sees him for the first time through the doorway of Kratos' house, his profile is briefly outlined by blinding white light, hinting towards his identity as the god of light. More overtly, his intense Healing Factor can clue in those knowledgeable about Norse myth to his identity.
• First Injury Reaction: When Baldur is stabbed by the mistletoe arrowhead and feels the pain, he stops fighting to laugh in glee at the return of his senses.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: After getting his neck broken for the first time by Kratos, he's thrown over the side and deep into the crevice. Through mods, you can see Baldur flipping the bird as he falls, affirming that he's not finished yet with Kratos.
• Freudian Excuse: Freya "blessing" him with immortality has clearly done more than just made him resent his mother.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Yes, the guy's half a head smaller than Kratos and only uses his fists against him, but that's all he needs to give the Spartan a very hard time. The only other characters who fought Kratos with their fists alone were Zeus, and Hercules (and the latter had no choice as Kratos had just taken his Nemean Cestus).
• Handicapped Badass: Baldur's lack of sensations would be treated as a minor setback. However, his condition drove him to madness. In spite of losing his sensations, Baldur is an unparalleled tracker.
• Hates Their Parent: During the second visit to Helheim, Kratos and Atreus discover that Freya is Baldur's mother, and that she was responsible for the invincibility spell that cost him the ability to feel any pain or pleasure of any sort. Since he has suffered this Fate Worse than Death for over 100 years, he is completely psychopathic and depressed and wishes nothing more than to have violent revenge on her like Kratos had on Zeus in the Greek Pantheon.
• Healing Factor: Boasts this ability during his boss fight. Bruises and even deep cuts from the Leviathan Axe disappear in seconds.
• The Heavy: In God of War (PS4), he serves as most direct and recurring antagonist to Kratos and Atreus, while Odin remains in the background. That said, he has nothing to do with Faye's death and serves mostly as an unrelated obstacle to hinder their quest.
• Human Notepad: His torso and arms are covered in tattoos and Nordic runes.
• Hypocrite:
  • During his first fight with Kratos, he chastises Kratos by saying he was "acting all proud" and starting the fight when he wanted answers, but it was really him that started the fight and the whole time he keeps boasting about how he is better than Kratos and how he can't feel anything.
  • When Atreus attacks Kratos during their second fight, he states "and here I thought my family was fucked up" stating that they weren't petty enough to fight or attack each other, but he tries to kill his own mother because he wants revenge for putting the invulnerable spell on him.
  • Calls Kratos a coward for being in Midgard away from major conflict (and thinking he's a giant) when he then later calls himself a coward for not killing his mother in the past even pulling a Spiteful Spit at his past self when witnessing it in Helheim only stating the word "Coward".
• Immunity Disability: He's immortal and invulnerable... and his inability to be harmed extends to being able to feel anything whatsoever. He's not happy about it and tells his mother point-blank that he would rather die than be unable to feel again.
• Implacable Man: He's an absolutely relentless foe capable of fighting Kratos (who also qualifies for this trope himself) to a standstill and tanking all of his mightiest strikes. Keep in mind, Kratos was someone who punched Hercules and Zeus (the world's strongest man and the King of Olympus, respectively) to death, and Baldur survived this. As if that wasn't enough, he heals himself during his boss fight and can even survive being crushed when a huge rock is dropped on him. Getting his neck snapped and his temporarily lifeless corpse being tossed into a chasm is the only thing that takes him out of the fight for a significant amount of time and the second time they meet, Kratos and Atreus have to give him the slip. Even after having his invulnerability taken from him, Baldur still puts up one hell of a fight.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Because of motion capture technology, Baldur resembles Jeremy Davies quite a bit.
• I Shall Taunt You: During their first fight, he constantly rubs in how ineffectual Kratos' attempts at stopping him are, though it's less out of a petty need to insult his opponent and more out of disappointment at how Kratos can't hurt him.
• It's All About Me: All Baldur wants is to be rid of his curse, he doesn't care about the deaths of his nephews, Magni and Modi, and is confused/frustrated when Kratos returns to save Freya.
• Is That the Best You Can Do?: His reaction to his first fight with Kratos is to grumble irritably about how disappointing he is, though as noted above it's more about how Kratos can't hurt him than anything else.

J - Y

• Jerkass: His first appearance establishes himself as one; though he goes on about how Kratos started the fight through "pride", he very obviously did it himself (Kratos repeatedly told him to walk away) and spends his time taunting, mocking, and making threats to Kratos for the entirety of their first fight. He doesn't improve in later encounters.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Regardless of the reasoning behind it, he ultimately does have good reasons for hating his mother. Considering it was his mom making him immortal and taking away even his most basic of senses that had made his existence miserable and ironically enough a Death Seeker.
• Kick the Dog: When Mimir tries to beg him to stop hunting down Kratos and Atreus, he responds by viciously kicking the poor, helpless head unconscious.
• Kryptonite Factor: Mistletoe takes away his immortality and his inability to physically feel anything and leaves him vulnerable.
• Lack of Empathy: Doesn't mourn Magni and Modi when they were killed by Kratos and Atreus and even attacks Atreus who is only a child not caring about what he is as long as his goal is in his reach.
• Large Ham: Definitely not as hammy as Kratos used to be, but he's still prone to exaggerated movements, delivers his dialogue in slurred yet bombastic fashion, and really likes to rub in how utterly pointless Kratos's attempts at fighting him are. This only gets worse once his immortality is undone, as he's so happy to have regained his senses at this point that he indulges in Laughing Mad and starts screaming his lungs out endlessly.
• Laughing Mad: After having his curse removed, Baldur's sense of reason drowns in an abyss of sensory-induced euphoria and he starts laughing in mixed bliss and joy like a madman as the fight rages on.
• Lean and Mean: Downplayed. He's of a reasonably slim stature, but when standing next to the brick wall of muscle that is Kratos, he can appear outright skinny. And just watching him in action, he's very mean.
• Leitmotif: "Deliverance" is a melody that plays in all of his boss fights.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Baldur is depicted as a more sympathetic figure than the background villains like the Aesir. Unlike Odin and Thor, Baldur is given a Freudian Excuse and is shown to at least try talking his enemies into giving him what he wants which he directly contrasts to Thor's immediate propensity for violence. Of course, it turns out Thor also has a Freudian Excuse, as Odin has browbeat him into believing that he can do nothing but hurt people, even when he wants to be a loving father, and Thor can be reasoned with while Baldur cannot. Odin is still worse than both, though.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Stranger not only can move so fast he appears to teleport, but also can send Kratos flying with just one punch.
• Light Is Not Good: Baldur is the God of Light, has glowing tattoos, and is an Ax-Crazy Psychopathic Manchild with major parental issues.
• Living Is More than Surviving: Upon his birth, Baldur's mother learned he was destined to die "a needless death" and did everything she could to prevent that prophecy. Her plan to save Baldur was to make him immortal at the cost of his most basic senses (touch, smell, taste, and pain, along with his fertility come adulthood). The loss of Baldur's senses caused him 100 years of misery and depression due to being unable to feel pleasure. He did return to Freya in a failed attempt to remove the spell and the two become estranged when she refused to help.
• Logical Weakness: His curse prevents him from being injured, but it does nothing to increase his mass or change how he can move, so he can still be tossed around, disoriented, and restrained, though that's easier said than done given his super strength and skill at unarmed combat. Kratos wins the first two fights against him by grabbing him and tossing him somewhere he can't immediately return from; a ravine in the first fight, and Helheim in the second.
• Made of Iron: His invulnerability alone makes it impossible to leave lasting damage in him. And even when it's removed, it takes Kratos and Atreus every trick in their arsenal to even just wear him down, as he quickly regenerates from all the arrows and axe wounds piled onto him.
• Marathon Boss: Both his first and last fights have multiple phases.
• Matricide: The one thing he wants more than anything else is murdering his mother for making him immortal and leaving him unable to feel anything. He is killed to prevent this trope from passing.
• Mercy Kill: Kratos had no earnest desire to kill Baldur in the end, only resorting to fighting him out of self-defense and knowing from personal experience that he won't stop his mad quest for revenge until he's forced to stop. Even after Kratos and Atreus have beaten him within an inch of his life and give him one last chance, he still tries to kill his mother Freya a moment later, forcing Kratos to do the deed.
• Mirror Character:
  • It's possible that Kratos sees a lot of his younger self in Baldur as a completely psychopathic and unreasonable murder machine that won't be swayed from his path no matter what. Kratos attempts to talk him out of killing his own mother, mentioning that Vengeance Feels Empty since he didn't find peace after killing Zeus — especially since unlike his own father, Freya is a legitimately loving parent that wanted what was best for Baldur. When forced to pull him out of his misery, Kratos repeats the same words Zeus told him in II before killing him — "the cycle ends here" — and says that the gods must become better than this.
  • He's not too different from Atreus and is what Atreus would become if Kratos didn't mature or tell him of his godhood. Both Atreus and Baldur have blue eyes and have issues with a parent who did more harm than good in an effort to protect them. With the ending revelation that Atreus is Loki, then both Atreus and Baldur are key figures in Ragnarök.
• Mistaken Identity: Baldur had the right man, but the wrong backstory. Baldur's dialogue frames it such that he knows Kratos is the Greek God of War and that he never should've come to Midgard, going out of his way to antagonize him. The truth of the matter as Kratos realizes in the ending is that Baldur thinks Kratos is a Frost Giant (Faye was one, so he assumes another one would be her lover), he thinks Kratos never should've never left Jotunheim (Kratos is from Sparta), and thinks Kratos is going out of his way to hide Faye from him (he was hiding Atreus, and Faye has been dead for a long time). Baldur has no idea who Kratos really is outside of "that guy who loved Faye" and consequently spends the whole story Mugging the Monster.
• Moral Myopia: In his first fight with Kratos, he complains that Kratos caused the fight by refusing to answer his questions and give him what he wanted. The fact that he could have just as easily left Kratos alone, like the Spartan wanted, seems to elude him.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: While not necessarily a weakling, he's significantly less muscled and shorter than Kratos, yet packs a hell of a Megaton Punch.
• Narcissist: Constantly boasts to Kratos during their fights on how he is better than him or how he is unstoppable.
• Neck Snap: Kratos seemingly kills him this way before throwing his corpse down a chasm. Kratos later kills him for real with this after he tries to choke his mother to death.
• Never My Fault: During their first fight, he gripes about Kratos acting "all proud" and starting the fight when he just wanted answers, when in reality, Kratos repeatedly warned him to walk away while Baldur was actively provoking him, and refused to just ask directly for the information he wanted.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: His mother placed a spell on him that renders him pretty much invulnerable as well as giving him a Healing Factor to boot. The nigh part to this comes when it's revealed that mistletoe is the only thing that can still hurt him and being injured by it will break the spell.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Fans have pointed out that Baldur bears a strong resemblance to UFC fighter Conor McGregor.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He's a relatively minor member of the Aesir and still manages to give Kratos a spectacular fight. He also mentions that he's not quite as belligerent and brutal as his brother. And from what we see of his brother in The Stinger, THE heavy hitter of Norse legend...
  • Mimir also explicitly mentions that his specialty is tracking, not fighting. Although being immune to everything save mistletoe is something unique to him that gives him an obvious edge compared to the Greek gods.
• No-Sell: This is his blessing. Or rather, his curse. The only sign he shows of being hit are simple physical action/reaction; he is completely impervious to the damage it causes him. For instance, he shrugs off Kratos's punches, being rammed through a boulders, and slashes from an axe like they were nothing, and constantly screams his head off about how much his lack of feeling any of this upsets him. Just about the only thing that gives him pause for any length of time is repeated and intense blows to the head which seem to briefly stun him, and getting his neck broken, though in that case it's more a case of taking a little longer to recover from that. This ultimately bites him in the ass once his invulnerability is removed. As he can is now capable of sensing the pain from attacks, Balder delights in it, and keeps fighting recklessly without modifying his fighting style to be more defensive, even though his body now has a limit to how much abuse it can endure. As a result, the damage eventually stacks up on him and results in his loss.
• Not Hyperbole: When he says he was Expecting Someone Taller in his first confrontation with Kratos, he wasn't just trying to insult the guy, he was genuinely expecting Kratos (who's about a head taller than Baldur) to be bigger, due to thinking Kratos was a Frost Giant.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Baldur chides Kratos for being so old and slow during their first fight.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: His first confrontation with Kratos. Kratos believes he's someone from his past in Greece coming back for revenge; Baldur thinks that Kratos is a Frost Giant who wants revenge against the Aesir and might know the secret of how to break his curse or kill him.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Downplayed in that he's of average size, but noticably smaller than other powerhouses among the Aesir, including his nephews Magni and Modi, and when they appear in the sequel, Thor and Tyr. Even his mother Freya has several inches on him. Despite all that, he's capable of matching Kratos in terms of brute strength.
• Playing with Fire: In the final boss fight, after Kratos impales him with the Blades of Chaos and he cops a Shatter Crystal explosion to the face, he gains the power to channel fire and lava. His moveset becomes fire-themed, and he becomes immune to the Blades of Chaos, forcing Kratos to use the Leviathan Axe when he is channeling fire.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: What he ultimately comes down to as the story is about a father and son trying to bond as they embark on a journey together with Baldur popping up on occasionally to cause problems. At the end, their final confrontation has nothing to do with their quest or Baldur's own mission, but over something completely unrelated such as protecting his mother Freya from him.
• Plot-Triggering Death: His death by Kratos would be a big mistake as it would trigger Ragnarök, which kickstarts the sequel God of War Ragnarök.
• Poor Communication Kills: His idea of getting information from Kratos is to walk up to his house, taunt him a bit, pick a fight, and threaten his son. Then he blames Kratos for the ensuing beatdown. It turns out basically all their encounters were entirely unnecessary; he was looking the last Frost Giant; i.e. Faye, but he was so vague Kratos assumed that he was someone after the Ghost of Sparta.
• Psychopathic Manchild: His behavior makes it apparent that beneath his godly exterior is an angry child lashing out at his mother for making him immortal yet unable to physically feel anything. When his immortality is removed, he starts laughing like a psychopath and demands more when he gets hurt. And yet, he still wants to kill his mother. Then he gets angry and starts to become more vicious when Kratos activates the Rage of Sparta, screaming like a madman.
• Rasputinian Death: Kratos and Atreus repeatedly beat, stab and slash him to a pulp, pump him full of arrows, and then gets Jörmungandr to ram him, and even after that he still gets up - seemingly more out-of-breath than anything - and tries to kill his mother, only stopping when Kratos intervenes once more and breaks the guy’s neck, and even then he still takes several seconds to finally perish from his injuries. And all this was after his immortality was taken away.
• Recurring Boss: He's fought three times- once as the Stranger at Kratos's house, once when they try to use the Jotunheim gateway, and finally at the Lake of Nine.
• Redemption Rejection: After his boss fight, Kratos explicitly spares him on the condition that he not harm Kratos, Atreus, or Freya, and it's made clear that he could just walk away and enjoy his returned senses, but instead he immediately tries to strangle Freya, and Kratos kills him to break the cycle.
• Related in the Adaptation: Baldur, in the myths, is a son of Frigg, not Freya. However, Mimir informs Atreus later on that Odin used "Frigg" (meaning "beloved") as a pet name for Freya, and later attributed Freya's accomplishments to the fictional Frigg, all because he couldn't allow a Vanir goddess to be renowned among realms dominated by the Aesir.
• Revenge Before Reason: Even after he finally has the curse Freya placed on him lifted, and moments after Kratos warned him to not lay a finger on Freya, logic and self-preservation would dictate that he should settle for leaving Freya to suffer her banishment by Odin and the knowledge that he won’t ever forgive her and go and enjoy his newly acquired ability to feel, or at least make a tactical retreat until Kratos and Atreus have left and kill Freya when they are not there to intervene, he instead opts for trying to strangle her right then and there in front of them.
• Revenge Is Not Justice: Even though he has a good reason to despise Freya, Kratos tries to tell him that killing her won't achieve anything and he'll find no peace. Baldur doesn't listen and Kratos is eventually forced to kill him against Freya's wishes since Baldur won't stop at his rampage with Freya.
• Rewatch Bonus: The context of his first interaction with Kratos becomes very different when you watch it after beating the game and realize he and Kratos have completely different interpretations of what he's saying.
• Resurrective Immortality: Despite temporarily dying from a snapped neck in his first confrontation with Kratos, he bounces back from it thanks to his immortality.
• Sanity Slippage: A hundred years of being denied any and all sensation, pleasant or otherwise, has driven Baldur utterly mad, making him violent, cruel, and thoroughly unbalanced, as well as crippling his sense of self-preservation. In Helheim, seeing a memory of his last encounter with Freya play out has Baldur break down, screaming at his past self to kill her and calling himself weak and worthless when it doesn't happen. And any sanity he had left is violently obliterated once his invulnerability is done away with, rendering him a screaming madman reveling in every single sensation he receives during his final fight with Kratos and Atreus.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Despite his lack of senses, he's Odin's best tracker. In the sequel, Odin uses this as a pretext to negotiate 'pace talks' with Kratos, noting that of the three gods slain at the duo's hands, he considers Magni and Modi 'kinda useless', but despite his instability, Balder's tracking abilities made him useful to the Top God, and so Kratos owes the pantheon a Blood Debt, something that they're willing to uphold unless Kratos agrees to a truce, since the same losses mean Odin is aware unwisely antagonising him could be more costly than its worth.
• Screaming Warrior: In the final fight, he's screaming with pure ecstasy when he's rendered mortal. Frequently yelling his excitement, cursing Kratos and Atreus and reciting how he's going to kill Freya.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Freya cursed Baldur with immortality in order to prevent a prophecy saying he would die a needless death from coming true. This does not stop it from becoming fulfilled as his thirst for revenge ended up causing the needless death anyway.
• Sense Freak: Reveals that he's unable to "feel anything", specifically pain from his injuries like how Kratos feels. When he's robbed of his invulnerability, he's actually pretty happy to just feel things, like the cold wind, the pain from Kratos's strikes to the point of being a Combat Sadomasochist and his last thoughts when Kratos performs a Neck Snap on him is to the feeling of cold snow.
• Sense Loss Sadness: Essentially why he's so unhinged and pissed off. Baldur constantly gripes that he's unable to feel anything. The reason he sought Kratos out in the first place was hoping that, because Kratos doesn't use Norse magic, it would be different. It isn't. Except, the actual reason is that Odin convinced him a Giant might know of a way to break his enchantment.
• Sensory Overload: A lifetime of sensory deprivation leaves his brain incapable of adapting to all the sensory input it receives once the curse is broken, sending him on a euphoric high in his final fight with Kratos without considering the consequences of suffering too much pain upon his body, demanding for more despite the danger of death involved with his desires.
• Sibling Team: In Ragnarök, while working together, Thor tells Atreus that he and Baldur used to team up to do Odin's bidding, sadly commenting that the brothers made a good team.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • He's pretty much what Kratos used to be in the Greek era, seeking retribution against his parents for the misery they inflicted on him, and being unnecessarily cruel to everything and everyone around him. The key difference is that his mother Freya genuinely loved him and was trying to protect him at all costs, even if her methods were completely misguided, unlike Zeus who tried to kill Kratos because he was fueled by paranoia that he would overthrow him just like he did to his father Cronos.
  • He's also one to Atreus. While Baldur's psychosis stems from receiving too much love from his mother, Atreus was similarly in danger of becoming emotionally damaged from too little love from his father's extreme discipline.
• Shoot the Dog: His final death is treated as this. Kratos doesn't want to kill him, but is forced to do this because he's just too insane to reason with at this point.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Baldur is lean, short-haired, claims to be more reasonable than Thor, and is regarded as Odin's best tracker. Thor, on the other hand, is long-haired, bulky, quick-tempered, and is universally regarded as Odin's deadliest warrior.
• Spiteful Spit: He does one at his past self and hisses "Coward!" in Helheim when viewing the moment that he restrained himself from killing his mother in vengeance for her actions.
• Story-Breaker Power: He can't feel pain, which already grants him a massive advantage on the battlefield, but it's later on revealed that the spell preventing him from feeling pain also granted him Complete Immortality...at the cost of all his other senses. The only reason Kratos and Atreus defeat him by the very end of the game is because Atreus happened to have a mistletoe arrow keeping his quiver together — mistletoe being Baldur's only weakness.
• Strong and Skilled: He is one of the strongest of the Aesir, being one of Odin's sons, and for all his insanity, he is so skilled in combat (unarmed at that) that he gives Kratos one of the hardest fights he's ever had.
• Stupid Evil: Justified in that he's really not in a stable state of mind and is utterly confident he can brute force all threats with his invincibility, but his bloodthirst can lead to him making decisions that are really boneheaded in hindsight.
  • His mission at the start of the game didn't actually require any violence; had he bothered to talk to Kratos, he would've easily learned that Kratos wasn't a Jotunn, didn't know anything about them, and his target was Faye, who had died. Because he picked a fight, he ended up with nothing that he actually wanted and inadvertently got Magni and Modi killed because they were sent with him to subdue Kratos- albeit that bringing the two probably wasn't Baldur's decision.
  • When Kratos let him go on the condition that he not harm Freya, he doesn't even pretend to obey it long enough for Kratos to leave the immediate vicinity, instead opting to immediately try to strangle his mother... while Kratos, who had just told him not to do that if he wanted to live, was right there. This time, he doesn't have his invulnerability as a crutch and he dies for good.
• Super-Strength: On par with Kratos. His punches and kicks are powerful enough they can easily send the Spartan flying and would likely splat your average human. He's so strong that he doesn't even need to use weapons; his fists are all he needs.
• Suspect Is Hatless: His description of Kratos to Mimir is simply 'tattooed man, traveling with a child'. Thing is, in the Nine Realms, everyone has tattoos (including Baldur himself), and he fails to mention things like what the tattoos looked like, or other distinguishing features like his unnaturally-white skin.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He isn't fond of working with Magni and Modi and is noticeably absent in Thamur's Corpse. The simplest explanation is that he got irritated by their constant bickering and opted to hunt Kratos alone.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: One of the most notable things about The Stranger is in just how plain he looks, especially in comparison to other bosses throughout the series. Though he's distinguishable thanks to his many glowing tattoos, it's counterbalanced by his rather rugged looks, the lack of any Bling of War on him, and his lean frame. In any other game, he'd look like a regular background NPC and no one would bat an eye, which makes the reveal that he's in truth the God of Light Baldur even more jarring.
• Tragic Villain: Yes, he's a vicious madman who Would Hurt a Child. But the curse Freya put him under was essentially a form of torture, and he's been living like that for 100 years at least. It's no wonder he's unstable and hates her with a burning passion. References to him in Ragnarok indicate that he Used to Be a Sweet Kid and had a genuinely loving relationship with his brother Thor, but living with a father who was a complete narcissist who only saw him as an asset (Odin) and a mother who was so overprotective that she outright tortured him while claiming it was for his own good (Freya) sent him right off the deep end.
• Trash Talk: He's almost as bad as Hermes in terms of insulting his enemies. But then again, flyting is a Old Norse art-form.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
  • Freya's affection for Baldur may be just her overbearing motherly love talking, but evidence suggests he was a more noble guy before Freya cursed him; as his visions in Helheim show, even after the curse he couldn't initially bring himself to hurt her. A hundred years later, we see that Baldur's gone completely mad over the loss of his senses and any kindness he once had is gone, and when given the chance to kill Freya a second time, he guns for it with everything he's got.
  • Official cosplay guide reveals that Freya's sword, beaded necklace, and bracelet are in fact gifts from young Baldur, showing how close they were before she cast the curse.
  • According to Freya in Ragnarök, as a boy, Baldur was very much like Atreus: friendly, inquisitive, and happy to explore. However, his innocence was ground into dust by years of seeking the approval of, and subsequently doing the dirty work of, his father Odin (and, implicitly, the curse that prevents him from feeling).
• Villainous Breakdown: He fully believes he'll kill Kratos and Atreus in their final fight with him, and even thanks them for removing his immortality. When Kratos activates his Spartan Rage and turns the tables on him, it suddenly dawns on Baldur that he could actually lose after having nothing new to throw at them, reducing him to screaming at the two of them.
  Baldur: WHY! WON'T! YOU! DIE?!
• Villainous Legacy: Following his death, "Ragnarök" is set in motion. This prompts Thor, already enraged by his sons' killings, to seek revenge against Kratos by attacking him at his residence. Meanwhile, Freya seeks to kill Kratos as revenge for Baldur's death. This also creates an inescapable confrontation between Odin, the Aesir, and the duo of Atreus and Kratos.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: The first fight with him. If you haven't learned the importance of blocking, evading, and fighting in a considerably more methodical manner than in the original trilogy, this guy will mess you up.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: He's completely shirtless in the snow, boasting his tattoo markings all over his body. Justified because he's Baldur, whose invincibility means even the cold wind doesn't faze him and thus has no need for a shirt.
• Weaksauce Weakness: His immortality and inability to feel pain are completely undone the second his hand is pierced by a mistletoe arrowhead, in line with Baldur's mortal weakness in Norse myth.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Freya mentions to Kratos and Mimir that Baldur desperately wanted Odin's approval and affection, but never received it. Even after Baldur is dead, the only compliment he gets from Odin is of his usefulness as a minion, rather than anything close to a father's love and affection.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Baldur is immortal and immune to any form pain with the exception of mistletoe. While this was done with the best of intentions, Baldur can't feel the most mundane sensations, like the temperature or the weather. Unsurprisingly, this drove him to madness and to develop an unquenchable wrath towards his own mother; he even states outright that he'd much rather die than be unable to feel anything. He gets his wish.
• White Sheep: Not anymore, but it’s implied that he used to take after his mother, with an preference towards passivity and negotiation over violence, but this all changed with his years of mind-shattering insensitivity. He still seems to detest his family’s barbarity, especially Thor’s.
  Baldur: "I’m not my brother, and if you’d given me what I wanted, it wouldn’t have ended this way. But no!"
• Why Won't You Die?: Says this verbatim to Kratos and Atreus during their final battle, as while he still has incredible power, his newfound mortality coupled with Kratos's Spartan Rage means that he might actually lose a fight for once.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Being deprived from feeling anything has driven him mad for centuries, becoming utterly unhinged and destructive as a result.
• Worf Had the Flu: When Atreus inadvertently removes Baldur's immortality, Baldur's so overwhelmed by Sensory Overload that he literally doesn't notice Kratos destroying chunks of his life bar. Likewise, his impatience with their tenacity causes him to be wild and reckless by the end of the fight, allowing the more disciplined father and son to beat him down without nearly as much issue as they had mere hours before.
• Worthy Opponent: He genuinely thanks Kratos and Atreus for figuring out the way to remove his invulnerability. Doesn't mean he's going to stop fighting them, though.
• Would Hurt a Child: If threatening Kratos's son will push Kratos to fight will all his rage, then so be it. During a cutscene, Atreus stabs him with a knife. He just giggles, takes the knife and stabs Atreus back, in the shoulder. Later, he gives Atreus a punch strong enough to send the boy flying backwards gasping for breath.
• Wrestler in All of Us: In their first fight, he subjects Kratos to a German Suplex at one point, and even uses a Double Axe Handle to knock Kratos back after the latter pins him to a wall and a Shining Wizard knee strike during the fight on a dragon's back. This isn't surprising given that wrestling and martial arts were not at all foreign to the Nords, but slowly phased out of their culture come the Christianization of Scandinavia. Baldur's brother Thor is even the god of, among other things, wrestling.
• You Have Failed Me: His comments before reuniting with Freya, as well as Mimir's comment after the fight, suggest that Odin promised him that he'd remove the spell. After Baldur failed twice at this point and after the sequential deaths of Magni and Modi, Odin revoked his promise or revealed that he couldn't actually remove the spell.
• You Talk Too Much!: He likes to run his mouth during battle, much to Kratos's irritation. In their first fight, Kratos's response to his taunts is to grunt "You talk too much" and resume punching him.

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