- Why does Kratos not take Magni’s lightning sword? Nor wear Hermes’ boots? Fighting & traveling, respectively, would have been easier.
- Regarding the boots, it's unclear if they still work after the fall of Olypmus. Regarding the sword, in game play it would make Atreus slightly redundant, in universe perhaps Kratos prefers to travel light; Kratos is strong, but the sword could get caught on something. Additionally, the sword would make it harder for Atreus to stay on Kratos' back when climbing.
- Because unlike the previous games Kratos isn't on the warpath for some god or monster and only wants to spread his wife's ashes, therefor he has no reason to collect additional weapons. As for the boots, they'd be just another painful reminder of his bloody past.
- Additionally on a more practical note magical weapons in this outing know their rightful master, and those they trust, so there is a very good chance that Magni's sword either would not have worked or would have actively harmed Kratos should he try to take it.
- Why is Kratos still illiterate in Icelandic in spite of having spoken the language for a full century or so now? There are only 24 letters in the Ancient Greek Alphabet, which Kratos is fully literate in by the time he is twenty, as the "Agoge" education of Sparta required a Warrior to be an intelligent and literate scholar as well. There are also only 24 letters in the Icelandic "Futhark" Alphabet, and being an intelligent scholar, Kratos would surely have picked up said writing system in the first-twenty years at worst he spent in Iceland. And yet, by the time our adventure has begun, Kratos still requires his son Atreus to read every single letter and word of Icelandic for him. That does not make sense for a warrior as intelligent as Kratos now, does it?
- Because you can speak a language doesn't inherently mean you can read said language, and vice versa. Moreover, there's no indication Kratos can't read Icelandic, he just might not be very good at it, and any chance he had to improve on it he avoided or ignored when Atreus entered the picture and was receiving his education from his mother, as it's brought up that Kratos became pretty distant when Atreus was born. And there's of course the possibility that she deliberately withheld teaching Kratos anything other than speaking Icelandic, on the off-chance he would have come across something in Midgard, such as the many murals he, Atreus, and Mimir find, that would have clued him into Atreus' true role in Ragnorok. Something that Kratos would have staunchly opposed from the moment he would discover it.
- If Baldur can't feel anything, why does he grunt and make noises when Kratos hits him?
- His Immortality and Invulnerability clearly have some caveats. Example, when his neck is snapped it's enough to remove him from the fight, even if he didn't actually feel that. Also he doesn't say anything about not being able to get fatigued or winded (aside from the standard durability you'd expect from a god).
- Grunting comes from air escaping your lungs on impact. It doesn't have anything to do with pain, just to do with having the wind knocked out of him. Also, organisms are designed to subconsciously make noises when struck as a warning mechanism to those around them: He probably doesn't even realize he's making the noises while he's fighting.
- Maybe because of the sudden movements caused by Kratos are powerful enough to disorient him?
- He's immune to "feeling" anything, but he's not immune to the "physics" of anything, meaning his reactions will still happen. It's almost silly to think even a god can just breathe or behave like a cool cat while being bulldozed through several boulders.
- He is immune to the "physics" of anything though, that's where his actual immortality comes from in the first instance. It's why Kratos can snap his neck during their first fight and he just shrugs it off and comes back like nothing happened.
- He isn't immune to "physics" of divine world, he was just unable to feel any pain and automatically heal every injury inflicted to him.It's seen in the first fight, he got cuts that immediately heal itself.
- Kratos does that too over the course of the fight, which makes me think it isn't anything to do with Baldr's specific invulnerability but rather is something related to godhood in general.
- Think it this way. While Kratos can do the same thing he can, Baldr can do it indefinitely. Unlike Kratos that does get tired (at least psychologically), Baldr can keep going on and on as it doesn't consume his stamina nor cause him any pain. He does get injured (not hurt), but none of them gave any lasting impact when you cannot feel and auto-heal indefinitely.
- If not knowing he's part god makes Atreus so sick he almost dies, how come Kratos never had a problem?
- Aside from being a god Atreus is also part frost giant so maybe that also had an effect on his constitution?
- It doesn't explain why Kratos never had the same issue. When did Kratos even know or found out he was a demigod? If this can't be answered, it's a plot hole on Atreus's end.
- This Troper's best guess would be that, while Kratos was born a normal demigod (who aren't known to be sickly from their dual nature in the first place) only to ascend into full god-hood later in life, Atreus was born a full god, as the Giants (supremely powerful, prophetic abilities, shape-shifting, etc.) were on equal footing with the Norse deities, similar to how the Vanir and the Aesir are both gods despite being from different realms. So perhaps being born a full god and being unaware of, or even subconsciously suppressing, their divine nature is a serious hazard for their health.
- Except that Arteus is not a full god, but instead he's a half-Giant, quarter God, and quarter Mortal.
- Atreus is not a demigod, nor is Kratos. They are constantly referred as gods, and Mimir outright denies Atreus being a mortal. Kratos is a god, and he had a child with a Jötunn. God and Jötunn pairings always produce gods, as seen with Thor.
- Mimir talks about Atreus condition as a psychosomatic one, so while the origin is the contradiction of a god thinking he's mortal, there is a huge psychological component here. Kratos probably never had the psychological problems Atreus has during his childhood, like the latter's inferiority complex toward his father.
- Difference between the two men Kratos is no longer a demigod. At the end of "GOW" for "PS2" he became a full blooded god. So Atreus has no human blood in him. Kratos daughter was a quarter god but Atreus is half god. While Kratos was depowered in later games, he was still a full god. As to why Kratos never got sick. He was raised from birth to be a warrior. He may think he’s human but he’s trained to see no limitations. He may not be a god but he could fight like one. He also never hated the gods until the rampage of revenge was kicked off. Even then a lot of that anger was at himself. By then though he was being imbued with magics and finally became that which he learned to hate…..a God. Atreus though was never told any of his lineage. He’s a half God/Giant told he was a normal human boy. He was told that Gods are terrible beings. To quote a certain character from another media “What, because I... I... I am the monster parents tell their children about at night?”. He’s been raised to hate himself and not know it. Then he starts getting sick like no immortal ever would. No wonder the kid was at war with himself.
- Who blew the horn for the World Serpent when Kratos was bringing the sick Atreus to the Witch of the Woods?
- This is probably just a loose end for a sequel. We also know that Jormungandr is a time traveler, so there's potential for things to get pretty weird.
- Cory Barlog has said publicly that he is specifically not answering this question. Likely to be answered in a a sequel.
- Who were the voices Atreus heard crying for help in Alfheim, and why did he hear his mother among them? Given the ending, it would seem he was hearing the Giants, but all of them are dead by that point, and he makes a point of saying how silent Jötunheim is.
- He may have heard the voices of the dead in Midgard, as their souls couldn't go to Helheim since it was full. Likewise, his mother's souls may have tagged along Kratos and Atreus until they fulfilled her wish, since the ashes at the seem dissolve in magical light which may indicate Faye definitely passing away. As for the giants, their souls may have already gone to Helheim since it's not like they died recently, hence the silence.
- Was Atreus aware or conscious of his increased "attitude" and arrogance of his newly discovered godhood mentally because of being told by Kratos? It seemed like he didn't know what he did or said after Kratos lectured him about "not being himself" after being the reason they both ended up in Hel.
- Atreus "not being himself" is just an expression, Kratos is saying that Atreus is not the usual cheerful, humble and nice boy he knows.
- But that doesn't answer the question. When Atreus saw himself through an illusion, he agreed that it was only just an illusion.
- Atreus is in denial of his failings, projecting them onto a third party, rather than taking personal responsibility, it's a psychological defense mechanism. It's also possibily what caused Kratos to become a villain by Go W 3, which ties into the Evil Parents Want Good Kids theme that drives the interaction betwen Atreus and Kratos.
- It is strange; although the psychological explanation (Atreus trying to repress his negative deeds) makes sense in a vacuum, the game really does seem like it's setting up some sort of possession or mind control plotline, with how conspicuous Atreus' denials are. It could be a remnant of an earlier draft of the story, or Atreus' voice actor simply overselling his lines. Alternatively, it could be establishing how easily Gods lose themselves to arrogance, to the point of it creating almost a split personality; that would be in line with the campy evil personalities most Gods in the series display.
- It could have been the wine. Atreus seems to be around the age of 10 and even the small amount of wine he drinks could be enough to intoxicate him. Probably not enough to cause him to outright not remember what he did, but enough to disassociate with it.
- I'm sorry, one sip of wine is not enough to intoxicate anyone, not even a 10 year old. He's not drunk on wine, he's drunk on power. He has a LITERAL god complex.
- It's not impossible to be intoxicated by a mouthful of wine (from what it looks like in the cutscene), and it all depends on factors like size, alcohol content and how much of a lightweight the drinker is. Considering Atreus has size working against him and the wine is likely of high quality given that it was a gift to Tyr, it's not hard to imagine that it's at least having some effect on his judgement. It should be noted however that Atreus was experiencing a light god complex before the wine.
- Yes, it is literally impossible to be intoxicated by a mouthful of wine. Get out of here with this nonsense.
- Greek wine was often made with watering down in mind. Its significantly stronger straight from the bottle then anything in the modern world. As a result yes it is entirely possible to be intoxicated by a mouth full of wine that was at minimum twice as strong as the highest alcohol content wine around today, more without added water.
- Atreus was already getting big for his britches by the time he had the wine, so drinking something that only affects him enough to be loose in his social filter and more dismissive of his father, and especially his mother, doesn't sound like a stretch. It is not impossible for a 10 year old drinking wine of completely unknown alcohol content to be affected by it. He almost certainly wasn't drunk, but he wouldn't have to be to amplify the shitkiddness he was already displaying.
- The simplest answer is: sometimes we are jerks, without realizing we're being jerks. Atreus got carried away with himself and indulged in some exceptionally jerkass behavior. People, even kids (especially kids?), can be selfish and inconsiderate at times. He thought about what he had been saying and doing, and realized he'd been a jerk.
- In other words, he was not possessed by anything other than his sudden pseudo-arrogant-god-complex obtained from learning about his godhood, much like how he was not possessed by his sickness when he didn't know about his godhood; it's not uncommon to suffer a physical sickness from something created in your head (it is an actual thing), while also not uncommon to feel things like fear (and an accelerated heart-rate) when expecting death... so, it's also not uncommon to experience a feeling of power when you are told you are a god (and are proven to be so). Atreus simply became arrogant because, as a kid, it's easy to see godhood as a position of power, a position to consider most living beings beneath you, and to not care about the consequences of your actions. It took a trip to Hel, a stern lecture from Kratos, and an illusion to make Atreus understand how much of a jerk he was knowing what he is now. Admittedly, the delivery from Atreus to this realization while in Hel was rather flat, considering that Mimir stated "that the boy is in nine kinds of pain" despite Atreus basically acting normal instead of depressed or upset about the guilt he should have felt with his past behavior and actions... although it is possible for him to be in shock too, I doubt that's the case. The game didn't do the whole scenario with Atreus here justice, even though everywhere else was sublime in the deliveries by Atreus.
- Why can't Kratos jump in battle? He clearly could even double jump during his revenge plot back in the previous God of War series.
- My guess? Bad knees. Just you try double-jumping at his age.
- Besides, jumping in the middle of a fight (unless you’re doing it to avoid something or get a higher platform) just leaves you vulnerable to attack. And why do that when you have a huge ax you can throw at your airborne enemies, that also flies right back to your hand with a simple gesture?
- Is Kratos weaker than he was before? He took on and killed nearly all the Greek Gods from the land of Sparta, and yet an ogre, troll, and even a simple Reaver can kill him now? Why is this?
- Its possible that when Kratos stabbed himself with the Blade of Olympus to release Hope into the world, he lost much of his vitality. Even though he is The Ageless, the years have taken a toll on his body as the Stranger comments in his boss fight that he grew too old and slow.
- 1) Maybe keeping his rage and bloodlust under control keeps him from being quite the unstoppable warrior he once was. 2) Maybe the fauna of Midgard is exceptionally tough due to some magical evolution. 3) Within the game mechanics Atreus is immortal, and nothing has killed Kratos cannonically, so maybe when Kratos "dies" the failstate doesn't really represent the death of of Kratos it represents the player's skill as Kratos not being good enough to keep Atreus alive. In other words, even though Atreus is only a mechanical benifit to the player, within the story it's still difficult for Kratos to keep him safe in the middle of a battle, and the game represents that difficulty through enemy damage rather than by being an annoying Escort Mission.
- Let's be honest, the Norse gods probably blow the Greek ones out of the water power-wise. Odin literally killed a giant who was bigger than the world and created Midgard from its dismembered corpse, Thor causes creatures made of clay to spontaneously create renal systems for the sole purpose of pissing themselves in fear of him, Vidarr rips apart the jaws of a Wolf that can eat the fucking sun, Baldur was as close to actual invulnerability as it gets for anyone who isn't Capital-G God (even if he was basically the god of being a pussy, who's actual mum had to call up everything in the world and ask them to be extra nice to him), etc... Zeus literally did fuck-all after the Greek succession myth.Even Ares spent most of the mythology getting his ass handed to him by puny mortals in the Illiad.
- Bear in mind that back in the original trilogy, Kratos could have been theoretically killed by basically anything given enough incompetence on the part of player.
- This. What matters is what has actually managed to kill him via cutscenes: Ares throwing a giant pillar at him in God of War and Zeus stabbing him in God of War 2. He was also drained of all the power he accumulated in God of War 2 at the start of the third game by falling directly into a river in the Underworld, where he was attacked by the souls of the dead. That's all pretty insane. So, to date, he's only really been killed by 2 Gods.
- Gameplay, mostly. Kratos is also drained, not because he is physically weaker but psychologically, he is always trying to not giving up into his rage, with fear of becoming what he was once.
- The Word of God is 'a little bit of everything'. Kratos no longer has his magic because it's tied to Greece, he's spent a long time holding himself back and never fighting anything stronger than wild animals, and the Aesir are definitely stronger than the Olympians (Odin, for example, is a match for Kratos, Atreus, and Freya all on his own). He's also holding back to an extent to better teach Atreus.
- We know about the Leviathan Axe's origins, but is there any mention of the Guardian Shield's origin? It seems there is no mention whatsoever of how Kratos could get a retractable shield able to withstand the punches of a god.
- The Guardian Shield may have been somthing that Kratos received from his wife long before the game ever began, as the Shield isn't Greek, because it's magic isn't foreign to The Nine Realms like how the Blades of Chaos are.
- Easy answer: Faye left it to him too. It's just her shield from when she was still a warrior. Nobody mentions it because it's just a normal shield, albeit extremely sturdy.
- The description of the shield in the game confirms that Faye gave it to Kratos as a gift on the anniversary of the day they met.
- Were the Astral Forms of both Zeus and Athena from the previous game and this one delusions of Kratos' declining mental state? As Mimir couldn't hear nor see the Astral Form of Athena, but he could hear Kratos' responses to her clearly.
- I assumed it was because Kratos is Greek so he would have more of a connection towards them while Mimir is Norse. My other thought was that they only wanted to be seen by Kratos. Since, Atreus can hear things that Kratos cannot.
- How does Freya miss out on the mistletoe arrowhead on Atreus's chest repeatedly despite her early growing nearly hysterical at the sight of his arrows? It's not like a big green thing is going to be inconspicous.
- She would have to be actively looking for green arrowheads to spot any, let alone assume that they can be used as a means to hold a quiver in place. A better question would be, how does the quiver stay on after the arrowhead got removed?
- So are Baldur and Magni's souls in Helheim or are they just gone like the Greek God's souls from the previous games?
- They died in battle so they'd go to Valhall, surely?
- But the Valkyries are the ones who take the souls of fallen warriors to Valhall and, as we saw, they were imprisoned long beore the game takes place. So where are their souls?
- Waiting in line with the others, perhaps? Once the Valkyries are freed there's going to be a huge backlog to get through, and as it looks like most of Midgard's human population is dead they'll have a 3-year head-start on Ragnarok.
- Well, in that case, Helheim? Or perhaps their spirits will hang around Mithgarth as vengeful spirits Kratos will encounter in the next game.
- Pretty sure Mimir mentions at one point that a god's soul automatically goes to Valhall upon death and doesn't need the assistance of a Valkyrie.
- Where’s Heimdallr? With as much traveling between the different realms that Kratos and Atreus do, and how difficult it seems to be for Baldur, Magni and Modi to track them down, you’d think Odin would first ask the one Asgardian noted for his foresight, keen eyesight and hearing just where they might be. Not to mention he’s the one who will Mutual Kill Loki/Atreus during Ragnorok.
- Early on, the Witch places a rune on Kratos and Atreus that hides them from the Aesir. It only wears off much later in the game, and this results in Baldur finding them again. Presumably, Heimdall is searching for them the whole time, but the rune keeps them hidden from even his sight. As the hidden ending shows, Thor is going to find them at some point. Who's to say Heimdall didn't point him in their direction?
- OP here: True enough. But in that case, what took him so long to point out their location, since Thor supposedly only shows up a few years later?
- Thor shows up exactly 3 years later, which if you count winters as years instead of the usual half a year could be the end of Fimbulwinter and the beginning of Ragnarok.
- Heimdall makes his appearance in God of War Ragnarök, in which he is less a guardian of travel between realms and more of Asgard's guardian, although his connection with the Bifröst is still there. His rivalry with Loki is also seen.
- So the ending reveals that Kratos is going to die in Atreus' arms at some point. But he's already been killed multiple times in canon. Why should this one be treated any differently? Couldn't he just fight his way out of the underworld again?
- A lot is made of the idea online that Kratos can Screw Destiny. He can't. His entire life back in Greece was defined by the prophecy of how he'd cause the Fall of Olympus. It might be that the immutability of fate is partly what allowed him to emerge again from the Underworld. That being said, Helheim is shown very clearly by the game to be a much more serious place than the Greek Underworld ever was. Here, he's specifically warned by several characters to stay out of certain places by Freyja and Mimir and his mental state is severely taxed by the visions he experiences. Not to mention fighting the Guardian proves to be more difficult for him than most of the Greek pantheon. Finally, it should be noted that breaking in and out of the Underworld in Greek Mythology is pretty damn easy, while in Norse Mythology after Baldr's death, Hermodr rides to Hel to ask for his soul, only to be denied in that request and given an ultimatum. In the end, Baldr ends up remaining there. There are also no myths about people saving their loved ones from Hel as there were in Greek Myth with the Underworld. It could very well be simply impossible for Kratos to return back from death in the Norse world. Unless of course he dies in battle and goes to Valhall, in which case, he might well not wish to return.
- An extension of an earlier point: At least two out of the three times Kratos got out of Hades, he had help. Either from Gaia who resurrected him, or from Athena in the third game.
- Depends on what you mean by "screw destiny". We need to keep in mind that while some oracle or whatever saw a vision of a marked warrior destroying Olympus, the Sisters of Fate who are a FAR HIGHER authority than any oracle deemed Zeus to be victorious. Kratos killed them/locked them up in that mirror, AND killed Zeus, showing that Kratos does have a degree of "to hell with destiny" on his side.
- We're not even sure if Kratos is actually being depicted as dead in the prophecy. The ambiguity of the carving (including something spewing out of both their mouths) and the fact that a huge chunk of the wall has been destroyed leaves more than enough wiggle room for the devs to write out an alternative context of the scene depicted.
- He is depicted as dead in that prophecy. The runes around him — Svik, Andlat, Fothur, Hormung — mean: Betrayal, Death, Father, Disaster, respectively.
- Which could mean just about anything regarding that scene. Heck, I could take those words and apply them to any part of Kratos' life after his original family was killed, which would make just as much sense. So without proper context of what's going on (which, again, there's a lot of wall missing), we can't conclude with certainty that it's his death.
- It might, were it not for the fact that Kratos is in Atreus's arms with his skull split open.
- Looks like blood. Doesn't mean it's his. All I'm saying is, just don't count your chickens before they hatch. He may or may not be dead; that's up for the sequel to decide.
- Much of it simply must be his: In the mural, his skull is split open, and there is possibly something lodged in there. Hard to tell due to the angle and the lack of a clear close up. Also, his right arm is seemingly crushed under something, and his right leg was severed just below the knee. Whatever was able to dismember and bash him about has to have been rather fierce.
- Either way, even assuming he does die, it’s doubtful that any of Odin’s enemies will let it stick. The game seemed to make it clear that even if they didn’t know exactly who killed the Olympians, or why, a number of Norse mythological figures took notice of the destruction of the Olympians when it happened. Imagine what lengths Surtr would be willing to go to help whoever already destroyed one pantheon if he found out the man/Demi-god responsible was in the Nine Realms and had a son who is instrumental in the bringing of Ragnorok? Or the Vanir, or any remaining Frost Giants, or Fenrir?
- I seriously doubt any member of the Vanir is keen to see Ragnarok happen since they all die same as the Aesir do. Freyr himself by the sword of Surtr, no less.
- Turns out, he doesn't die.
- Shouldn't the blades under the house be the Blades of Exile? Ares took away the original Blades of Chaos in the original game.
- True, but what many forget is that we never saw Ares destroy them and that Kratos went on to become the God of War himself shortly afterwards. While he never used the Blades of Chaos again, it's not hard to think that he could have easily found them wherever Ares left them after the first game and kept them as a reminder, seeing as how he did use them to kill his family. In comparison, the Blades of Exile are last seen when Zeus blasts Kratos and causes the latter to lose all of his weapons. We then know that Kratos has his encounter with Athena, stabs himself with the Blade of Olympus, releases Hope into the world, and somehow manages to crawl off of the remains of Olympus and down to the land below, all the way to the Norse Realms. Hardly seems like he'd have been able to pick up the Blades of Exile at that point, while the Blades of Chaos could have been hidden somewhere where he recuperated before immediately going to the Norse Realms.
- From a Doylist perspective, none of his other weapons would have been as meaningful. From a Wastonian perspective, I always interpreted the blades of Athena and Exile as actually being the blades of Chaos, just polished up and re-enchanted.
- The intro level of GOW 3 shows Ares' body entombed in ice. Chances are the Blades of Chaos were stored somewhere on Olympus, and Kratos found them after the ending of GOW 3. Speaking of that ending, the chains for the Blades of Exile slid off of Kratos' arms right as Zeus died, so perhaps they were destroyed after all?
- Where were the Ljósálfar warriors and soldiers in Alfheim? We saw that there were civilian Ljósálfar being slaughtered by Dökkálfar soldiers, but why didn't we see any form of resistance or guards from the Ljósálfar?
- Presumably, they were all either dead, fighting elsewhere, or otherwise unable to reach the temple in time.
- The Ljosálfar soldiers appear in God of War Ragnarök, so it's possible they had beem defeated by the dark elves when they win over the light in the previous game.
- Mimir’s accidental referral of himself, Kratos, and Atreus as friends of Odin nearly earns them Jörmungandr’s wrath. While Mimir quickly corrects his mistake, why would Jörmungandr attack Kratos and Atreus if he supposedly recognized the latter as another Giant (well half, but still), much less as his own father?
- Because Odin in this setting is a very crafty Manipulative Bastard in frantic search for a passage to Jotunheim and Jörmungandr knows it. The possibility of Odin tricking some people into deceiving the snake to find a way to Jotunheim isn't that far out there as a possibility.
- How did Baldur escape Hel? After being flung in there together with Kratos, that is.
- Have you seen the man jump?
- Even if he can jump, wouldn't the gate to Hel be sealed off? I mean, it's supposed to be a hell after all, not that easy to escape from.
- Thanks to Kratos killing the Helheim guardian earlier, there's actually nothing stopping somebody escaping Helheim, assuming they had the means to operate Tyr's bridge or the Bifrost.
- Depending on how one played until that point, he could've been found by a Valkyrie. Kratos never told them about Baldur attacking him, since they're meant for post game content.
- See, I always thought that when the Jotunheim tower was passing through the other realms, Baldur saw it appear in Helheim and hitched a ride on it back to Midgard.
- Odin has his raven spies everywhere, even in Helheim. My theory is that one of them eventually found him and someone, probably Thor or Heimdall, brought him back to Asgard.
- Why don't the Blades of Chaos bypass Baldur's immunity? They're completely alien to Midgard, to the point of instantly catching Brok's attention when Kratos starts wielding them again, and so would be free of Freya's magic, right?
- The spell made Baldur immune to all forms of damage, physical and magical. It doesn't matter if the blades are Greek.
- Besides there's nothing to indicate that the Blade origin really matters. What was special about them is that they're powerful weapons and hot enough to be useful in Hel. It was just the place was too cold for any weapon besides the Blades
- By the time that weapon was used against him the dwarves had tinkered with it and that possibly added enough "nativeness" to the foreign weapon to make them subject to some of the local rules.
- The inconsistencies with the real world Norse mythology notwithstanding, in-universe, why would Freya play up the heroism of the Aesir and only demonize the Giants, Kratos, and Atreus? Sure, they all have some hand in causing Ragnarok, and yes, Kratos killed her son, but Odin’s hands aren’t exactly clean in the matter either; after all, if he had just left well enough alone, Kratos wouldn’t have any real reason to kill Baldur. And there’s the multitude of atrocities the Aesir have committed, which Freya IS very well aware of. Surely she’s not so mad with grief that Odin could easily convince her that the Aesir are the real heroes of this story?
- Who said she was persuaded into it? Her son got killed, she could have glorified the Aesir in order to ensure that Kratos and Atreus wouldn't have a anywhere to hide once the hammer comes down upon them...That and perhaps she believe that doing some serious flattery, she might get her real powers back from Odin to finish the duo off herself.
- What happened to Hoor, Hermod and Viddar? Three other important sons of Odin, the first two of which would be Baldur full brothers. Nearly every god exist but these two don't?
- We haven't seen or heard of them YET; that doesn't necessarily mean that we won't in future games.
- Why can't Freya just use the Old Magic to resurrect Baldur like she did Mimir?
- Visiting Freya's house after the game has Mimir mention that if she DID try it, the results would be a lot less coherent. He doesn't explain WHY. Might have something to do with their difference in species.
- Actually, Mimir was never resurrected, and explicitly said that in that very scene that he's not alive. Mimir's little more than a Revenant Zombie; reanimated, but still a corpse. So, of course, the implication is that Freya wouldn't want to do such a thing to her beloved Baldur. Although, given that she subjected him to A Fate Worse Than Death and refused to remove it even when he pleaded...
- If Baldur feels nothing, how come he reacts with discomfort when Kratos twists his arm after catching his punch?
- He is trying to move and can't. I interpret that as a psychological discomfort more than physical, putting out muscle action and not getting any results. How many times have we, as Kratos, grunted as if in real pain while just button-mashing to try and lift a door or fight a boss? He reacts with discomfort because he knows he's supposed to feel discomfort.
- Because of his curse Baldur is unable to feel anything. How is it that he is able to do things like walk, pick up people, talk, fight, etc? By all logic he should have slurred speech, flopping around, not knowing his grip strength, no sense of balance, thus he would be effectively nonfunctional.
- Practice and/or gods aren't subject to those problems as a human would be and/or just don't experience the effects as strongly.
- He specifically can't feel anything, however his divine powers allow him to do anything that doesn't contradict that. So he can walk, talk, kick Kratos through a mountain, all because he has divine power; but that divine power can't counteract the one specific spell his mother put on him.
- So, in this world, all mythologies are at the very least implied to all exist simultaneously. At least the Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Chinese, and Meso-American mythologies. So what happens when these myths... contradict each other? To give an example, we are told in this game about Skoll and Hati, the two wolves who chase the sun and moon. And from the way they talk about the wolves, this isn't meant to be taken metaphorically, but literally. There are literally two giant wolves in space chasing the sun and moon. But... we already saw the sun. Back in the spin-off game Chains of Olympus. The whole game's plot centered around the Sun Chariot of Helios, literally the sun itself, crashing into the earth and plunging the earth into an eternal night. So... does this mean that the sun Skoll has been chasing for all these millennia actually the chariot of Helios this whole time? Does Skoll know? Does Helios know a big ass wolf is chasing him? Does he know why? What about when the chariot fell to earth? Wouldn't that make it an easy target for Skoll? Or did Skoll not notice that the freaking sun just went missing for a day.
- Different region, different pantheon, different Sun. Given all other natural phenomena have different individual origins in Greece then they do in Midguard it seems likely that each pantheons territory works like its own separate world. You can pass between them for sure but they operate independent of one another.
- Something similar to what the above troper mentioned. There are several instances in the previous game of the literal, entire surface of the earth being affected by the Greek Gods. Kratos even journeys to the Island of Creation at the edge of the Earth, and we plainly see that Atlas is not merely holding up Greece, but the whole of the Earth. Mimir states in the new game that Odin would love to control "every realm of every land in EVERY WORLD" if he could, which appears to suggest that each mythological land/pantheon is considered its own, separate "world". This is even further suggested when you find the Unity Stone; Mimir excitedly states upon seeing it that he now understood how Tyr, the Norse God of War, was capable of traveling between the nine realms, and "even other lands, to boot!". This suggests that Mimir considered traveling between the "lands/pantheons" a feat more difficult than traveling between the Nine Realms, even though the game explicitly establishes that the realms are separate dimensions in the branches of the cosmic World Tree, Yggdrasil, and that you need the Bifrost and the Bifrost alone to travel between each of them. If we were to assume it's literally just "different countries" it'd be ridiculous to suggest that it'd be easier to travel between dimensions than between countries - so this line by Mimir suggests that the "lands" are considered distant, separated dimensional spaces of some sort. When you go back to Tyr's chamber, you see a mural/triptych depicting just HOW Tyr traveled between the pantheons, and it shows galaxies and constellations inside a cosmic void, with Tyr using the Unity Stone to create a "bridge/portal" connecting the symbols of each pantheon together. If Tyr needed to travel through a cosmic void (something confirmed by Matt Sophos, the guy who wrote the game) and then create dimensional portals to reach other lands, it's obvious that they're not just different countries.
- And, lastly, the aforementioned writer, Matt Sophos, has gone on Twitter to say that, regardless of the contradictions, all myths and their interpretations are still completely true. He has even confirmed Mimir's tale of Surtur filling the cosmos with stars as valid, despite the contradiction that'd generate with the Primordials, who were stated to have created the universe in past games. Even Cory Barlog alluded to something of the sort, since he stated that each pantheon is its own cosmic bubble within each geographical region. So, even if we assume they are literally different countries, it appears as if each of those countries constitutes a "dimensional bubble' of some sort, which is bigger on the inside than it appears from the outside, containing each pantheon's version of reality.
- Possibly having to do with the Power of Belief as well; after all, this is considered to be the world before science made us all realize that the sun is just a ball of hydrogen millions of miles away, and we're not the center of the universe anymore... so if the people in that realm believed their myths enough, they were true for that region alone.
- When they first met, Atreus told Freya they were taking Faye's ashes to the highest peak in the realms. The question is, why did Freya not say anything about the impossibility of traveling to Jotunheim, considering that's where the highest peak is? Even at the realm travel temple, she doesn't say anything about the mountain, even though she explained about Jotunheim being inaccessible.
- Either she wasn't willing to talk about Mimir given their past, or she assumed he could get them through; the giants didn't trust anyone except him and Tyr.
- How did the giant in Jotunheim die? Odin and Thor can't go there. It's Odin's obsession to go there and the entire reason he sent Baldur after Kratos (thinking Kratos was a giant). So who killed all the giants in their own realm?
- God of War Ragnarök reveals that the giants deliberately left corpses so the Aesir would think they were extinct if they ever visited the realm, with most of them putting their souls in spheres to hide.
- When Kratos, Atreus and Mimir go inside Jörmungandr, how come their boat doesn't get dissolved? I can understand why the trio would be unharmed, considering their durability, but I don't think an ordinary boat can stay intact in a lake of giant snake digestive acids.
- It's entirely possible that Jörmungandr's stomach acid just isn't that strong. He seems to be carnivorous, and there can't be enough large animals left in Midgard to let him eat three times a day, so maybe Jörmungandr's stomach acid is weak because he rarely eats and he needs to preserve his meals in his stomach until he can find more to eat.
- Because snakes can't digest cellulose or lignin.
- How does a narrow path negate the superior numbers of an enemy that can fly and therefore attack you from any direction?
- 1. It doesn't. They can attack you from behind, they seem to be easier to handle than those you fight up to that point.
2. It works fine if Kratos pushes forward and Atreus covers the rear.3. It might be a reference to 300
- Shouldn't wine that's over 150 years old have long since turned to vinegar?
- Maybe that's why Atreus doesn't like it. Kratos is just too badass to be bothered by drinking vinegar.
