God Of War And The Power Of Being Better

God of War is celebrating its 20-year anniversary today, March 22, 2025. Below, we examine how Kratos' character arc has shifted over time to become a timely reflection on masculinity and change.

As much as people remember the brutality and the grandiosity of God of War, as a singular game and as a series, it's easy to forget that the first God of War in 2005 doesn't actually begin with Kratos fighting a hydra and ripping soldiers apart with his bare hands.

It begins with a suicide attempt. Starting a new game, the very first thing we hear from Kratos is him gravely intoning that "the gods have abandoned me" before walking straight off a cliff into the Aegean Sea. This is a warlord who accidentally murdered his own wife and child, and is then cursed by an oracle to have his family's ashes permanently grafted to his skin, ensuring there is nowhere in Greece he can go where his crimes are unrecognized. The only help he receives is being conscripted by the gods to murder Ares, who set him up to begin with, which isn't really helpful at all. The reward is the gods' forgiveness, which does nothing to alleviate his consistent nightmares about the deed. When blood doesn't grant him peace, the gods give him power, letting him take Ares' place as the Greek God of War, beginning a reign so destructive that almighty Zeus himself has to intervene to take him down. That's before finding out Zeus himself is Kratos' father, and Kratos having his revenge means laying waste to his entire domain. Which Kratos does.

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