2020 Reflection: God of War

 

God of War was written in March 2005 by Marianne Krawczyk, Alexander Stein, David Jaffe, and Keith Fay. God of War follows Kratos, the Greek Demigod who was manipulated by the God of War Ares into the unforgivable sin of murdering his own wife and daughter. In rage Kratos would vow vengeance on the God of War, leading to two completed story arcs of getting vengeance and a current ongoing story arc of Kratos in the Norse Mythological World trying to be a better father to his new son Atreus. One of the things I find frustrating talking about God of War is that people will talk about the new game with well deserved praise but then add it's good basically because it's not like the old games, when the original God of War games also had depth and a compelling story imo, and in fact when God of War 1 came out it was also given the same praise. It's also interesting to talk about because the series is not what you'd expect someone like me to like. I'm a pretty soft person who likes magical girls and series where elegant people talk cryptically about big things happening and it's all mysterious. God of War in contrast is a rather brutal action series with very violent deaths and a very blunt aggressive feel to it. With that said let me tell you why I love this series. 

3 Reasons I love it:

1: God of War is the best recreation of the original Greek Worldview I think I have seen in fiction. I don't know how common an opinion this is but one of the things I can't stand most in art is when the artist takes a culture or philosophy that is not their own, strip it of anything that offends their sensibilities and then present it with their own values instead, ESPECIALLY if this is used to try to create a sense of "well really all cultures/religions/philisophies want the same thing". God of War is absolutely not that, the original God of War especially (which is my favorite game in the God of War series) is a textbook perfect Aristolean Tragedy, right down to the fact that from the very beginning of the story we know that Kratos is doomed to failure with the introduction showing that he will mournfully attempt suicide by the end of the story. Kratos' actions seem amoral or downright evil to us, but the ancient greek mythological moral structure held that a demigod's might gave them the authority to do basically as they wished. Kratos like all tragic heroes is damned by his tragic flaw. For most of the Greek Demigods it is their pride, but for Kratos like the character who inspired him, Hercules, it is his wrath. Kratos is regularly blinded by anger which causes his problems. It's not a coincedence that Hercules killed his family in a rage caused by Hera and had to repent by laboring under the gods for 10 years and then Kratos killed his family in a raged caused by Ares and had to repent for a time said right near the start of God of War 1: "10 years! I have faithfully served the gods for 10 years!" Even that style of exposition near the beginning or the omnipresent chorus whose words underscore the importance of a scene are all ripped straight for a Greek Tragic Play. While in our Post-Stoicism world, manliness is associated with some level of composure and quietness which means most action heroes are quiet sometimes wise-cracking until the end where they have one big anger moment to show how cool they are. Kratos is not cut from this cloth and comes from an Ancient Greek Perspective on manliness, constantly emoting, full of emotion and not hiding it at all. I could go on, but this section could go on forever. God of War is immediatly intriguing to me as a fan of history and mythology for attempting more then anything else I've seen to accurately recreate the plot structure initially and the brutal worldview that existed in actual Greek Mythology.

2: On a related note, God of War captures something that I think is one of the fundamental parts of mythology; the relation of the human to the inhuman, something that is a really big interest of mine. Mythology was often about how humans interacted with the forces and concepts making up the universe, nature personfied as deities and God of War more then any other game captures the sense of things being beyond control. While there are many games that remove agency from the player or present them with big scary thing they can't fight to give them a sense of something they as a person or an individual human character can't beat, God of War is a series showcasing the interplay of forces that humanity as a whole is subject too. Kratos for all his power is a slave to his rage, chained to the objects of his hatred by his need for vengeance. It is only in releasing that rage will Kratos ever find peace, and why he becomes a changed man in God of War 4. In all the games, in my opinion especially in God of War 1, the world seems fatalistically stacked against Kratos, and Kratos' struggle is against not just the people he is angry with but with the broken world and his own fate within it. As the games progresses it moves more into Kratos being the unstoppable rage that consumes the world.

3: I love the myth cycle in the game about the cycle of patricide present in the gods and how it's incorporated. This was also a thing in the Greek Myths with Cronos overthrowing his father Uranus, Zeus overthrowing his father Cronos and Zeus torturing Prometheus to try and prevent himself from being overthrown. Mythologically this is a representation of how each generation surplants the last and is probably the closest thing the Greek Myths have to a central myth arc. The Fates control all, conflict is inevitable with the new destroying the old. Each generation will fall to time as their children take over. God of War takes this idea and incorporates it, doesn't shy from the idea but instead suggests a way that it can be averted. Kratos tries to first willingly sacrifice himself to give hope to humanity, ending the cycle of vengeance and patricide, but when that does not work tries to raise his son to be better. His goal in God of War 4 is to raise his son to better to end the cycle of patricide, such that instead of one generation killing the last, surplanting them, the generations can work together building something across time and in so maintians their spirit through the ages. It is a beautiful idea. 

3 Flaws:

1: Probably the one I think most people would notice thinking of my personality and this game's content. The world of God of War is a very hostile one. There's much killing and brutality, much destruction and hatred. It's not a very pleasent world to visit mentally, and truthfully that's not really my taste. Most of the series I like tend to be rather idealistic.

2: I don't think a lot of the God of War cast outside Kratos is that well developed. Granted a lot of spectacle fighters have this problem because you spend all your time with the main character. I love Kratos' character. I like Athena and Freya and I like Atreus well enough, though I don't know how much of that is actually Atreus' character and how much is his dynamic with Kratos, but a lot of the characters I just feel kind of eh about. A lot of the villains in the original God of War games were fairly similar feeling. Sure I can pick out the differences between Hades more sinister tone, Poseidon's more formal tone, and Zeus' more personal tone but they're all big tough arrogant guys who talk down to Kratos. It's sort of how I feel about a lot of Dragon Ball Z villains, which I know is also kind of an unpopular point. 

3: While God of War is a really good recreation of the ancient greek tragic structure and ethical worldview, it doesn't capture in either the Greek or Norse so far sagas, probably my favorite of a mythology, which is actually it's more spiritual or conceptual side. God of War has a physicality to everything. There's blood and guts and bones and such. My favorite parts of mythologies however are the metaphysical stuff. For instance my favorite Norse Myth is the myth where Thor and companions are tricked into competitions with concepts like Thor wrestling an old woman who turns out is old age herself. My favorite Greek Myths were usually ones that involved the gods being somewhat abstracted like when the God of Death Thanatos was captured and so nobody died. God of War will occasionally reference things like that, such as Persephone's absense from the Earth being the cause of Winter, but it doesn't feel like that during the main story because everything is made out very physical. 

My Favorite Part:

My favorite part in God of War is actually a very specific part. During God of War 4 Atreus falls ill and Kratos carries him back to Freya's house in his arms. During the trip Kratos has to wait on a rising platform. His son is dying in his arms, and Kratos nervously paces around the platform. I love moments of duality in characters and Kratos is no stranger to them, with many moments of being weak despite his strength or showing compassion despite his cruelty, and this is my favorite of those moments of his. Kratos is the one who can easily kill gods and can destroy anything in the world and here he's helpless to help his son, panicing and frantic and the scene is so moving to me. I don't want to get into it, but I have a personal connection to this scene and it always gets an emotional reaction out of me.