God of War is a founding father in the context of current action video games.
Releasing in late March of 2005, it featured a main character, a spartan soldier, who
becomes overcome with rage, cheating death and becoming the god-slaying warrior of
greek myth. Kratos is the being of rage that players have controlled for generations of
games. There have been games surrounding this man that have survived multiple
iterations of consoles and story lines and has always been seen as THE action game
character. Around the time that mature video games were in their infancy, you couldn’t
go two steps in parenting spheres without hearing about the violent acts committed in
these games, from hyper-violent and brutal deaths of mythological gods at the hands of
Kratos. These games always, although possibly not on purpose, displayed the worst
parts of older masculine ideals, from the muscle-bound character models to the sexual
content quick-time events. The game series went on to go on an extended hiatus for
multiple years following the release of God of War 3.
In 2018 a new game was announced and we were greeted with a somewhat
familiar face. A game set in a different realm and time, showing an aged and silent
Kratos. Most importantly, they introduced a son. The silence of this rage-filled muscle-
bound powerhouse is something that many were not expecting. Kratos was a changed
character, discarding his instrument of destruction as a sacrifice for founding a family.
I’m not going to summarize the entire game, but the key points are as such.
Kratos and his son, Atreus, have no semblance of a relationship. This leads to
him responding to questions posed to him with mere grunts and mumbles. This cold
shoulder stays on until the introduction to a new character. Mimir, a severed head of the
norse god of knowledge. He is the polar opposite of Kratos, a jovial and quick witted
person. Through countless stories told by him and deep conversations had, Kratos’
conversations too expanded. It seemed that this is what he needed to have an
relationship with his son. You spend the course of this 20+ hour game watching the
group of three bond and evolve as people, becoming family.
In real life, as the player, you are witnessing the internal thoughts and feelings of
the game’s director, Cory Barlog. He experienced beginning his own family and fears
and worries and regrets. This new series of games as a look inward at the very pixels
that make up Kratos and the fatherly role he harbors. We witness a man, stripped to his
senses and muted by the sheer amount of regret and anger he feels for the relationship,
or lack thereof, with his son since his wife’s passing. He did promise her to make him
feel loved and cared for in her absence. We witness a man throw aside his past in
search of a future. A man that has learned to truly let go and move forward into fostering
relationships with others and becoming human from a god.
We have an epidemic in today’s society. This epidemic is from an echo of
generations past. Older generations of men have grown up in a mindset that masculinity
and maturity are things that have rules set in stone, and often are unable to express
true emotion with an ounce of vulnerability. This macho persona is something that I
have personally witnessed and experienced, be it in my grandpa’s, uncles, or my own
father. Conversations with my father have led me to the reason I am writing an essay on
this topic in the first place. He opened up to me on a random summer night, expressing
his regret for pushing this “macho” persona unto the world with his actions, and that the
only reason he can think it could exist is due to the lack of a father figure in his life.
Many struggle with this issue, obviously not only my dad. This “father hunger” comes
from the void left by positive male role models and the void left by the father. This leads
to the person to seek out this source of masculine teaching in other places, such as the
neighbors, bosses, older friends, etc. Those experiences culminate together with the
lack of emotional awareness that inherently comes with not having someone with whom
you can express your emotions to, making them seek more and more other things and
people to fill that gap. That warm summer night opened me to another side of the
previous generations of men, and the toxically masculine environment that rings true
through this day. This sense of toxic masculinity prevents people from giving
themselves the most important thing, forgiveness.
Seeing this evolved form of Kratos put hope in my mind. Hope that this
generation will learn to be genuine and to not let your past define you. Forgiveness is a
resource, and one that is as scarce as it is essential. This evolution of the rage bound
man who ripped and tore his way to godhood into a father and a mere man is one of the
most important turnarounds in media’s male role models of the current age in my
opinion. My hope is created from the emergence of the idolization of a man that can
forgive and move forward, and a man who isn’t afraid to be free of mind and to lay down
arms in an effort to change.
“The cycle ends here. We must be better than this.” -Kratos, GoW 2018