While I liked the older games for their gameplay and polish, it's always rubbed me the wrong way how hard the writers tried to make you sympathize with Kratos when it becomes evident that he's not only a piece of shit who becomes an even bigger piece of shit with every iteration, but that he was always one before the story even began. The fact that they keep on bringing him back to life after killing him just so they can keep the series going is fucking retarded.
I disagree. God of War is not a game of lesser evil versus greater evil, even if that's what the writers think they were doing. It's exact same evil versus exact same evil. The gods go around exploiting and killing humans at their whim, and so does Kratos. He kills panicking civilians indiscriminately as he cuts a way through the usual monstrous adversaries. He murders people brutally and without hesitation to open a path forward. Sometimes, he kills` people just because. He begins the second game raiding Rhodes the exact same way Ares raided Athens in the first game, and that was just his latest sacking in his war of conquest across Greece. He constantly cries about how his family was killed and how it's all the gods' faults, but never once considers the hundreds if not thousands of families he tore apart before and after he achieved godhood.
I think the whole incident with the slave girl in GoW3 represents represents just how truly vile a thing Kratos is. This was an innocent who was more or less enslaved by Poseidon, kept around as a sex slave and abused. So what does Kratos do when he finds her? Ignore her? Let her be? Free her and send her on her way? Feel at least a tinge of sympathy for this woman who, like him, has suffered at the gods' hands? Nope! He yanks her around, manhandles her, treats her like an animal, and then chains her up to a crank so that she can open a gate for him, getting torn to pieces in the process. He doesn't give a shit what happens to her. The entire scene showed just how completely lacking in empathy Kratos is and how he is exactly the same as the gods he hates so much.
And how did Kratos' beloved family die? He raided a village and killed people left and right for no other reason than because Ares told him to, stopping only when he noticed his wife and daughter among the bodies. And what was he doing before he made his deal with the Devil Ares? Being a good soldier boy for Sparta, meaning he was spending most of his time terrorizing the Helots. Kratos is not a tragic figure who fell from grace. He was an evil bastard from the very beginning and he only became an even eviler one over time.
While I liked the older games for their gameplay and polish, it's always rubbed me the wrong way how hard the writers tried to make you sympathize with Kratos when it becomes evident that he's not only a piece of shit who becomes an even bigger piece of shit with every iteration, but that he was always one before the story even began. The fact that they keep on bringing him back to life after killing him just so they can keep the series going is fucking retarded.
Everyone in the world of God of War is generally an even bigger piece of shit than Kratos.
I disagree. God of War is not a game of lesser evil versus greater evil, even if that's what the writers think they were doing. It's exact same evil versus exact same evil. The gods go around exploiting and killing humans at their whim, and so does Kratos. He kills panicking civilians indiscriminately as he cuts a way through the usual monstrous adversaries. He murders people brutally and without hesitation to open a path forward. Sometimes, he kills` people just because. He begins the second game raiding Rhodes the exact same way Ares raided Athens in the first game, and that was just his latest sacking in his war of conquest across Greece. He constantly cries about how his family was killed and how it's all the gods' faults, but never once considers the hundreds if not thousands of families he tore apart before and after he achieved godhood.
I think the whole incident with the slave girl in GoW3 represents represents just how truly vile a thing Kratos is. This was an innocent who was more or less enslaved by Poseidon, kept around as a sex slave and abused. So what does Kratos do when he finds her? Ignore her? Let her be? Free her and send her on her way? Feel at least a tinge of sympathy for this woman who, like him, has suffered at the gods' hands? Nope! He yanks her around, manhandles her, treats her like an animal, and then chains her up to a crank so that she can open a gate for him, getting torn to pieces in the process. He doesn't give a shit what happens to her. The entire scene showed just how completely lacking in empathy Kratos is and how he is exactly the same as the gods he hates so much.
And how did Kratos' beloved family die? He raided a village and killed people left and right for no other reason than because Ares told him to, stopping only when he noticed his wife and daughter among the bodies. And what was he doing before he made his deal with
the DevilAres? Being a good soldier boy for Sparta, meaning he was spending most of his time terrorizing the Helots. Kratos is not a tragic figure who fell from grace. He was an evil bastard from the very beginning and he only became an even eviler one over time.