* Warning - This article contains major spoilers. Read at own discretion. *

*Disclaimer* This article expresses my personal opinions on the character Kratos from the game series of God of War. This is by no means a detriment to the video games themselves, because I loved every one of them along with its great story. These are only my thoughts on his character and choices that he made.

Kratos, a son of Sparta, a son of a god, and one tough son of a female dog, he is everything we are in shock of and yet someone we all wish we could at times become. As with many other fans, I have followed his journey from start to finish and it was one heck of a ride. With every God of War game released after the other it just seems to keep on becoming bigger and better. I am also a Greek mythology buff so I found these games all the more interesting. But I am here to write about my thoughts on the character himself, Kratos, and give my opinions on the actions he has taken in achieving his ultimate goal; destroying Olympus along with its gods.



Kratos had a lot of power at his command being a general in one of Ancient Greece's most powerful armies, and you've probably heard the saying that "power corrupts", and in his case it did. It looked like the only thing that began to matter to him was that Sparta would be the most feared nation in all the world. Although, things became worse. In the war against the barbarians, Kratos called out to Ares, the god of war, to save him and that he would surrender his life to his will. Bing bang boom; Kratos's arms then became wrapped in chains which wielded deadly blades at each end and he'd been granted the power to destroy his enemies. From then on Kratos began to lose his humanity and is on a killing spree for Ares. Later, in an attempt to make Kratos an even more unstoppable soldier, Ares tricked Kratos into killing his family so that nothing would be able to hold him back any longer. As a curse, the ashes of his family stained his body and he became white as a ghost; thus the name the Ghost of Sparta. This was the first act from the gods that put Kratos's path to vengeance into action.

I can understand his pain. Well, I mean I have never killed my family before, but I can understand how heart broken and guilty Kratos would have felt about what he did. Even though he blamed Ares for what happened, it's evident that he also blamed himself, and that's reasonable. So he began to work for Athena and the other gods in a quest for redemption. But does he deserve to suffer for what he commited even though he was tricked? Or was it unfair and not his fault because Ares corrupted him making it perhaps nearly impossible for him to think clearly? Either way Kratos does a lot of things from there on. He's sent on a quest to gain Pandora's box because it is the only thing that will allow him to kill Ares, and in doing so he made some choices to sacrifice people along the way. Obviously the only thing that haunted him about his conscience was the part about killing his family. Basically, screw everyone else.



His entire mission was about revenge on the god who set him up and to have the other gods erase the memory of his horrible sin. Although we know that the gods sort of "two time" Kratos by not being completely forward with him, did he ever really deserve that kind of mercy? He was drunk with power even before he became a puppet of Ares and cared more about the glory of Sparta over his own family. Even though he was moved by Ares to preform such a horrible task, personally, I don't believe he ever deserved the right to have what he did erased from his memory. There would be nothing in the world that he could do to allow him forget that. But everyone deserves a second chance, no matter what they've done. The first step to being forgiven, is being able to forgive yourself.

The story continues that he doesn't really change his ways after becoming the god of war, and actually wages even more war against the other gods, and Zeus puts his foot down after Kratos decides to invade Rome. Kratos's resentment towards to gods of Olympus takes over him after being denied what he had asked for after he killed Ares. But like I said, he never deserved that much so he's basically being an idiot at this point. After Zeus puts him in his place and kills him, he's magically revived by Gaia, and then set on a journey guided the Titans to kill the sisters of fate and change his destiny. In Greek mythology these three sisters are who basically controls peoples fate. They decide who lives and who dies at which appointed time and no one, god or man, can change what they see. If it's your thread that they hold in their hands, there is no stopping them. But of course Kratos being the mad dog that he is, he storms in and dishes out a whooping only he can deliver. You've got to admit, it's pretty awesome how insane he can be. When he sets his mind to something there is no stopping him. But what was all it for? What will killing the gods accomplish? Will it bring back his family? After his revenge then what? Had the gods done really that much to him that he felt he had to kill them?



This is off topic, but the one thing that I truly wished the developers of the game never would have even considered, was that Kratos is actually the son of Zeus. I hate that idea. It's nothing that would make or break the game's story, but it's not that original. Anyway, back to Kratos. He had so much anger and rage built up inside of him that destroying Olympus is the only thing that mattered to him. He was close to killing Zeus, but then Athena jumped in the way and sacrificed herself. You could see that Kratos was upset, but he obviously wasn't too phased by it cause he keeps on trucking.

Now in the third installment of the series, he is as brutal as ever. And this is what I meant about he's someone that leaves us in shock, but sometimes we wish that we had that kind of determination and craziness. Kratos was so close to his goal, and then was betrayed by the Titans and learns he was also their pawn all along. Then his fury was unleashed. With every god that Kratos killed something happened to the planet. When he killed Poseidon the ocean swallowed the earth, when he killed Helios the sun vanished, when he killed Hermes pestilence was spread, and finally by the time reached his ultimate goal and killed Zeus the entire planet was literally in ruins. Not only did he kill the gods, he basically killed all the planets inhabitants as well. At least, that's what it looked like. Although Athena's ethereal form sort of hinted otherwise. Either way, did that really make him any better than the gods who's lives he ended? He was angry about the death of his famil then killed so many other families by completing his revenge.



In the end, before he's able to finish off Zeus, he finds the strength to forgive himself for murdering his family, and releases the "hope" that laid dormant within him since he opened Pandora's box, allowing him to finish off Zeus. And we learn that his act of opening Pandora's Box in the beginning actually led the gods to being corrupted anyway. Although, it's sort of a plothole because if Zeus and the gods knew Pandora's box contained all that bad stuff that was in there, why would they have led Kratos to obtaining it to destroy Ares? Because Zeus himself made an appearance to help and gave him his thunderbolts in the first game. Anyway, after killing Zeus, Kratos looks at the messed he'd made and then kills himself. I guess there would be no point in living since the entire world is a mess. What would he go back to? I actually felt bad for some of the people he met along his quest. For example: He led one of Poseidon's daughters to hold up a lever only to be crushed by it once he passed through gate. He is just a bad dude.

In the end, whether you love or hate Kratos, the game is still amazing. There's a captivating and excellent story that never let up for a moment along with memorable battles on an epic proportion. I love Greek mythology so there was no way that I could have passed up on these games. They are definitely some of my favorite video games I've ever played. So even though I personally thought that Kratos did a lot of things that I thought were wrong and ultimately only made things worse, the chance to follow him on his journey and experience it all was worth it.