How God Of War: Ragnarok Almost Does the Impossible

After selling over five million copies in it’s first week, receiving a multitude of accolades including Game of the Year at the Titanium Awards, as well as numerous wins at the Game Awards there is simply no denying that God of War: Ragnarok is a success. That it has done so following on from it’s equally adored and lucrative predecessor makes Ragnarok’s feats even more impressive, as creating a satisfying sequel is a task that all forms of media seem to fail at time and time again. Often these sequels fail because the magic and experience of the original is dispelled upon revisiting it’s world, and striking the balance between capturing the original’s draw while still adding something new is a delicate and difficult challenge. God of War rises to this, furthering the stories of both Kratos and Atreus without falling into the trap of completely undoing their character development, while, at the same time, introducing equally strong, well-written characters to the cast. The story has touching moments, iconic lines and the same engaging combat system of the original, with a few new flourishes, most notably in the form of a unique new weapon for Kratos. When looking at Ragnarok’s new features, it’s commercial and critical success, the assumption becomes that Santa Monica Studios have done the impossible and created a sequel worthy of it’s predecessor. With all of these signs pointing to success, I can’t help but wonder why when I finished Ragnarok, I felt that it wasn’t the sequel God of War deserved.

2018’s God of War ended with some notable surprises. As Kratos and Atreus reached the peak of Jotunheim’s mountain, there to spread the ashes of Faye, Kratos’ wife and Atreus’ mother, we learn through the tapestry’s that both Faye and the giant’s had predicted every step of the two’s journey only to then unveil that Atreus’ giant name is actually Loki, the trickster god who’s Marvel fame undoubtedly stirred surprise amongst the player-base. Then we see Kratos push aside a leather hide to uncover his own fate, death in son’s arms. With these two twists in mind, it seemed logical to assume that Atreus, now Loki, would play some part in his father’s death, especially as, to me, that is intrinsically what God of War is about. Yes, the relationship between Atreus and Kratos forms the bulk of the game’s dialogue and sequences, but at it’s heart God of War is a story about grief. The death of Faye is the game’s inciting incident, as the first sequence is Kratos’ chopping down the trees to make her pyre (the marking of these trees we will come to see first hand in the second game), and it is the wishes of Faye that drives the two main characters out of their home and into the world and, while she is not often mentioned, especially by Kratos, Faye’s presence is felt in every scene and sequence, influencing Kratos’ decisions and shaping his fears over whether or not he can truly be the father Atreus needs. When Kratos steps into the light at Alfheim, he is shown a vision from Faye of what Atreus said when given a moment alone with his mother’s body. Atreus speaks about not feeling wanted, not wishing to be left alone with “him” and hoping so desperately for his mother to come back. At the end of this, Kratos’ sees the golden light that he is sure is Faye and rushes towards it, before being pulled out by Atreus, while desperately shouting out for more time. This early story beat shows us where both Atreus and Kratos are within their relationship, Atreus believes that Kratos doesn’t want him, misunderstanding that it is Kratos fear of himself that is causing such distance, and for Kratos, we see some of the first signs of how badly he misses his wife, even if he doesn’t say so. Grief is what has fractured this relationship, and when the pair spread Faye’s ashes at the end of the game, amidst the reveals, the change we see is acceptance, of not just Faye’s death, but Kratos’ and Atreus role within their relationship. That Kratos discovers signs of his own death only strengthen this theme, and the question of whether or not this prediction is guaranteed ties us into what will become the main theme of the next game: fate.

The key plot point of Ragnarok is the implication that Kratos will die. Kratos knows this information from the end of the first game, and Atreus discovers this around a third of the way through Ragnarok after visiting Angrboda in Jotunheim. From Kratos side of this, we see him as being resigned to such a fate, accepting of death, and instead being fearful of whether or not he will have left Atreus in good stead at the time of his passing, as when Atreus finds out that Kratos knew all along about his fated death, he comments “That’s why we’ve been training so hard.” From Atreus side of things however, he is unable to accept the fact of his father’s destined death and, despite Angrboda’s protests, seeks to change this outcome.

This is where I believe the first odd story choice is made. After Kratos and Atreus are visited by Odin and Thor near the beginning of Ragnarok, a fantastic battle sequence between Kratos and Thor leads to an off-screen conversation between Atreus and Odin, which Atreus details as Odin offering him transport to Asgard whenever he desires it. The story makes it very clear that Odin, who we have only heard tale of in the first game, is truly the villain and mastermind behind the events of the first and second game. Portrayed by the magnificent Richard Schiff, Odin’s character is expertly woven into Ragnarok, his vast intelligence and deception being something that is only heard of from other characters, creating the dogma within Kratos’ circle of allies that he is all-powerful and untrustworthy, despite his on screen appearances showcasing a kind and warm hand to Atreus. This conversation between the two gods leads into Kratos’ discovery that Atreus has been secretly uncovering more giant tablets, and has found a way to read secret messages carved into the wood. More importantly though, it is a sign to Kratos that Atreus is growing past him, becoming a man, and forming his own decisions and beliefs, that deep down, Kratos fears signifies the end of their relationship somewhat. It is this divide that pushes Atreus into Jotunheim, but it is in this sequence while playing as Atreus that the story begins to unravel somewhat.

Firstly, the way in which Atreus believes he can save Kratos is by working with Odin so that he can secretly use and uncover his plans. This, to me, seems like an inconceivably stupid idea, and furthermore, one that I really can’t believe Atreus would make, especially as in the prediction of Kratos death he also sees himself, standing beside Odin seemingly as friends, something he tells Angrboda he would never do, almost right before making that exact decision. This feels like a story issue, from a writing perspective, you know you want Atreus to separate from Kratos, and you know there is story to be told with Atreus alongside Odin in Asgard, but this decision seems forced and out of Atreus character. Personally I found this doubly frustrating as Atreus’ visit to Jotunheim also leads to Angrboda, in my opinion arbitrarily, demanding that Atreus not tell anyone of his journey to Jotunheim. This leads to conflict later when Kratos asks where he has gone and Atreus refuses to tell him, leading Kratos to believe that Atreus has visited Asgard. But why can Atreus’ simply not explain himself, even if he cannot specifically mention Jotunheim? It feels like conflict that could be solved with a sentence, “Father, I can’t tell you where I have been, but it is for the safety of someone I care for, and in no way to do Odin and Asgard.” But of course he doesn’t say any of that, and the rift between the two characters furthers as soon as they meet each other outside their house in Midgard.

This leads into a confrontation with Freya. She has been pursuing and hunting the two repeatedly after the actions of the first game resulted in Kratos and Atreus killing her son Baldur and driving her into a grief fueled rage. Ragnarok opens with one of these encounters, and also later features a visit to Freya by Atreus, foreshadowing his various attempts to subvert fate. But it is after Atreus returns form Jotunheim that his conflict comes to a head, and a fight between Kratos and Freya begins, ending with Atreus turning into a bear, the form used to represent his uncontrolled emotions, and Kratos’ having to calm him down. This is used to sate Freya’s anger, contextualizing to her that Kratos is also a parent, and his decisions are motivated in the exact same way as hers. This draws the parallel between Kratos and Freya that forms the basis of their relationship for the rest of the game. They have both lost, and are both struggling with their new identity in the world as a result of that grief. But another mistake is made here, as Freya almost instantaneously overcomes her grief as a result of seeing the care between Kratos and Atreus. When she makes the journey to Vanaheim, her story pivots immediately towards her relationship with Freyr (A character with his own story issues), and following on from the end of this chapter, where Freya joins Kratos as his companion, she is soon a bubbly cheerful woman as you row through Vanaheim’s side content. Where did all the grief go? How, within the space of a couple of hours, do you go from wishing death upon someone, to joking around as friends? This again seems like an issue of working backwards within the story. It is clear that, in lieu of Atreus as the companion, the decision was made that it should be Freya who joins Kratos on his quests, but the short amount of time between encountering Freya and Atreus leaving for Asgard forces an incredible amount of character development into too short a section.

Regardless, what follows is two chapters as Atreus, who has now made the curious decision to visit Odin in Asgard. Despite this strangeness, these chapters are excellent, featuring more development of Odin and Thor’s characters, as well as introducing the awful Heimdall and a friend for Atreus in the form of Thor’s daughter Thrud. This also introduces Thor’s wife, Sif, and through her conversations with Thor, we see that the couple are also suffering beneath the weight of grief, again as a result of Kratos and Atreus, this time being responsible for killing the Thor’s sons, Magni and Modi. The two have concerns over their remaining child, Thrud, choosing to become a Valkyrie, fearing that it will also lead her to a similar fate. We’ll come back to this conflict later.

In regards to Odin, he is cleverly positioned as the opposite of Kratos, giving Atreus his own room, and consistently showering the boy with praise and support. He also lets Atreus in on his plan, and how he claims to have lost his eye, by looking into a mysterious crack in space and time that he believes contains “the truth.” Of course, Odin shares the fears of all the characters within Ragnarok, that of death itself. After all, Ragnarok predicts his death as well, and he passes comment that the “normal” people of the world have the gods to look to for meaning, but where is he, All-Father of all gods, supposed to look to? I loved this section, and believe it provides perfect, interesting conflict for Odin, as well as humanizing a god amongst gods by giving him such a universal fear for men and god-alike.

What follows was my favorite section of gameplay. Kratos wishes to find the Fates, and after convincing Freya to go with him, they take the journey, ride a Kelpie, and find themselves entering the gold home of the Fates. This cinematic is superb, with so many great lines, and Freya and Kratos being at the whim of words and truth makes a sequence with no combat absolutely riveting. There are a few important revelations here. Firstly, one of the Fates tells Kratos directly that he will die. Of course, so will all men and gods, but at the end of their conversations she comments that it is a “pity” that Kratos story must end so soon. We will again come back to this later. Secondly, we get possibly the most interesting and important line in god of war’s story telling.

“There is no grand design. No script.
Only the choices you make. That your choices are so predictable only makes us seem prescient.”

This is a huge revelation for Ragnarok’s story, implying that the Fates simply rely on the past to tell the future, they know where you have been, what you have done, and that accordingly determines where you will go, and what actions you will take. This ties in well to the next revelation. The Fates tell Kratos that Heimdall is planning to kill Atreus, and that he in turn will be forced to kill Heimdall, starting the process of Ragnarok. Heimdall, who is just begging for a beating from Kratos, also shares the talent of the fates, being able to predict your actions ahead of time, leading to it being said that no one has ever laid a finger on him. Now we have our breadcrumb, and Kratos and Freya leave the Fates company demure and quiet, because, although there is no “destiny” as such, so far, and presumably throughout history, all these actions have been predicted, and it seems therefore that we our bound by our fate, and the decisions of our past, to repeat the same mistakes. In Kratos, this is to be the killing of Heimdall, as the Fate’s say, killing gods is what he does, and he will do so again, bringing about Ragnarok.

In the following chapters, Kratos crafts his trusty new weapon, the Draupnir spear and Atreus continues to help Odin on his quest for truth, but inadvertently releases Garm in Hel, causing angry spirits to flood in all over the Nine realms. It’s this mistake that causes Atreus to flee back home, which Odin willingly agrees to, and to a much warmer welcome from Kratos this time around. The two set about stopping Garm, and return to Hel where they work together to solve matters, and create a giant friendly teleporting dog to help them at the same time. Job well done.

This is followed by a great sequence where, right before returning home, Kratos pauses and feels the weight of his decisions. He expresses awareness that he has pushed Atreus away, that he has not trusted him, and Atreus equally confesses that he grew reckless in his time away from Kratos. Atreus goes on to mention that he also fears how Kratos will do without him around, leading eventually to two of the strongest words delivered throughout God of War by Kratos: “I’m sorry.”

Now in sync with one another again, the two embark on a quest to defend Vanaheim, which leads to the inevitable confrontation with Heimdall. Kratos uses his fresh weapon to beat Heimdall and, to the distress of Mimir, kills him. Heimdall’s final word is “Monster,” calling back to all the way to the first game where Athena uses it as a word to taunt him as he reclaims his blades. For me though, this has a bigger connotation as it shows that even having being told the fate he must avoid, we again see Kratos stumble into destiny, and with each instance we are reminded of this, we are brought all the way back to the prophecy at the end of the first God of War, that Kratos will die.

With Ragnarok now on their heels, the decision is made to send Atreus back to Odin, where he, alongside Thor again, attempts to retrieve the last piece of Odin’s puzzle in Niflheim. He is successful, but, despite making headway’s in his relationship with Thor, Sif arrives and demands Thor kill Atreus, as revenge for the death of their sons. Again, we’ll remember this decision later.

Atreus is reunited with everyone, and we soon get the big twist of Ragnarok. Tyr, who Kratos and Atreus had found and rescued at the beginning of the game, has been Odin all along, hiding amidst them and always being one step ahead of the group’s plans. He kills Brok, causing more grief for everyone involved, and flees back to Asgard.

Okay, let’s pause for a second here. I haven’t mentioned much about Brok and Sindri’s story, nor about Tyr, simply because I wanted to focus on the arc of Kratos and Atreus, and how it relates the characters around them. This reveal however was excellent, and capped off day two of my three day binge of Ragnarok. It was a welcome surprise, especially explaining why Tyr seemed to be so useless, and furthered Odin’s role as the villain, as well as being the great deceiver we have heard about from the other characters in the group. I went to bed that evening riding ever so high about God of War. I felt they had truly done it, and, despite a few odd choices, Santa Monica had written an excellent story with emotional twists and turns that kept me wanting to play more and more to discover what would happen next. It was the game version of a page-turner, and that for me creates such a great excitement at knowing there is more to go. But all this was under the pretense that they stick the landing, and when I woke up the next day to finish it, I was eager to see how they would wrap all this up.

So, that next morning, I played through the sequence where Kratos and Atreus go on a simple hunt to distract from the grief over Brok’s death. Kratos puts this to Atreus directly, saying that,

“When an animal has been wounded, it must stop the bleeding, or else it will die. This…this is a distraction”

This again seemed to be to link to the idea of the future both of them know is coming. Atreus will again have to deal with his grief, because Kratos will soon be gone, and he will have to find a way to stop that bleeding. The two then visit a grieving Sindri who is extremely vengeful, and pushes the two away, leading Kratos and Atreus back to their hideout where the begin the plot to start Ragnarok.

From here on out, I must confess, I couldn’t help but wonder whether Santa Monica had…ran out of time? Surtr is the first stop for Kratos and Atreus as the other members of their group summon the rest of the armies for Ragnarok. They find him in his realm, and ask him, directly, to participate in Ragnarok. He says no, as in doing so, he will have to kill his loved one (more grief) as prophesied. Then, out of nowhere, he asks to see Kratos blades of chaos and, thankfully, they will do the job without the loss of his partner, and so he just kind of says “Sure, I’ll do it then.” Convenient.

We follow Surtr underground, where there is a beautiful skybox, and a fantastic confrontation with two Valkyries that leads to an iconic shot of Kratos standing in front of Atreus in his bear-form. The blades, very quickly and easily, get Surtr ready for Ragnarok, and so it begins, and the pair set up camp in Midgard, alongside all their armies, with Kratos as their reluctant leader to begin the siege of Asgard.

On the last night before Ragnarok, we get another impeccable sequence, where Atreus, who has is own tent, comes to ask Kratos whether he can sleep beside him instead. It’s a touching moment, and when Atreus says he cannot sleep, Kratos agrees to tell him a story.

He tells a tale of the Woodsman, who provides the logs for his village, and each day, he carries the logs down to his village. But as time goes on, and the Woodsman gets older, the logs get heavier, until one day, he cannot bear their weight, and falls down, and asks for death to come to him. This is perhaps the most emotional we ever see Kratos, and was possibly my favorite moment in the whole series. It showed him as vulnerable, but also accepting, he knows he must die and, like the Woodsman, in a sense he welcomes it, because he is older, and without Faye it is getting harder and harder for him to keep doing what he must for Atreus, just like the Woodsman must to for his village.

This moment is followed by the last of Kratos visions of Faye, this one being more of a memory, as the two mark trees for the pyre which Faye’s body will be burned upon, bringing us all the way back to the very first shot of the previous God of War. Faye speaks of her death as though she knows it is coming, but tells Kratos that the two of them will never be apart, and goes on to have a heart-wrenching description of what, in my opinion, is the main theme of God of War, grief.

“To grieve deeply is to have loved fully. Open your heart to life as you have opened it to me and you will find every reason to keep living it.”

They share a final tender moment, and in mirrored in Faye’s acceptance of her own death and reassurances that Kratos will be fine is Kratos own acceptances, that of his death and his fears over Atreus. He awakes, and the final sequence begins, Ragnarok.

Before we discuss the ending, I’d ask that with all these plot points we have discussed in mind, you consider what the ending should be. What can we expect from these closing moments of the game? What have we been building to? What has been drilled into us, time and time again throughout both games? Kratos is to die, and that’s okay, because he’s done a good job of raising his son, who will be fine without him, and more than anything, right from the start, Kratos has made no effort to subvert his own “fate.” This, to me, is because he is welcomes death, because it means he gets to put the logs down, and potentially see his wife once more.

But as the attack on Asgard begins, strange decision after strange decision occurs. We get cameos from everyone, one after the other, and another confrontation between Thor and Kratos that leads to the two putting aside their differences, only for Odin to step in and kill Thor, his own son. We get our final battle, a sprawling conflict between Odin and Kratos, that ends with a beating delivered by Kratos, Atreus and Freya. In their last words, Odin claims that he could have known the truth, and Atreus tells him that he always has a choice to be different, but Odin insists that he will never change, that he is who he is, and he cannot stop searching for the truth, furthering the Fates claim that the past decides our future.

Atreus draws out Odin’s soul, and Odin collapses into his arms, imagery that is supposed to symbolize that on all the prophecies, it was not actually Kratos but Odin who was dead in Atreus arms, meaning that the premise the whole game was built on, that every story beat contributed to, was false, simply because they couldn’t tell who it was on the tapestry. Right.

Surtr is out of control and goes to destroy everything, but luckily Angrboda teleports in out of nowhere to save everybody, but, for some reason I’m not sure of, someone must stay behind, so Freyr, a character minor enough I’ve only mentioned him once stays behind, and becomes the death sacrifice.

Then we get the stories final sequence, Atreus awakes, and has a one on one conversation with the characters from the story.

He visits Sif and Thrud, you remember, the woman who vengefully tried to kill him, who after Thor’s death, has now decided that she wants peace and harmony for the gods and is thankful for Atreus. I guess all that development happened off screen.

He then visits Freya, Freya who has lost her brother now, in addition to her son, the two people she cares for most, but who actually isn’t all that bummed about it, instead focusing on Atreus and giving him a nice lovely hug. Great.

Then he finds Angrboda where she asks him whether he has “told his father yet” despite having just woken up from near apocalypse. He says no, and then Kratos enters. Angrboda leads them both to a final giant’s prediction, that shows that Faye purposefully destroyed one of the shrines in Jotunheim to prevent the two from knowing their fate, thus subverting it. This is fine but…ugh. It again seems like more of a reason to explain why fate was subverted, rather than a good reason for it being so.

Atreus then tells Kratos that he must go out on his own, and then, five minutes later, he does, and that’s it, he’s just gone. Why now? The apocalypse was a day ago, I understand he must chart his own course and all, but is there literally no time for him to pause, not even for a week?

Kratos sees the other side of the shrine, which depicts him being honor and worshiped as a god, which calls back to an earlier scene where Odin tells him such a fate will never be his. It’s again touching, but I just couldn’t believe that it was all over so quickly.

Why did Kratos not die? That was the perfect end to all of this. It was what was called for, what was hinted at over and over again, and while I know there are reasons why he didn’t, it just feels like cheap misdirection. The scenes that I had loved that dealt with grief and acceptance over death all become naught when at the end of it, we see that death doesn’t matter all that much. Sif gets over the death of Thor instantly, Freya seemingly doesn’t care about Freyr at all, and it’s no surprise to me that the one character who is actually impacted by grief, Sindri, is the one who has the strongest ending, serving as a “post-game” scene that shows the funeral for Brok.

Once again, it felt like the decision was made to keep Kratos alive, and then they had to work backwards to do so, causing these odd bumps in the fabric of the story. I found it terribly disappointing, especially following on from the high I felt the night before, and so odd was this decision that I wondered whether it had been changed last minute. Perhaps screenings of the story that showed Kratos death were received negatively, and so a last second decision to change it was made, or, maybe, Kratos is just too big a “star” now, and needs to be kept for future installments. Regardless, I felt cheated by Ragnarok, and gutted over what felt within Santa Monica’s fingertips. They had all the pieces there to do the impossible and create a sequel worthy of the original, but as Kratos leaves the cave at the end of the game with Atreus nowhere to be seen, all I felt was grief, grief over what almost was.