God of War: Ragnarok has been getting much acclaim over the past week, with many praising the game’s many improvements over the original. The enemy variety, the updated visuals, and most of all, the emotionally charged story. This being Ragnarok, it makes perfect sense that there would be this foreboding sense of doom overhead.

Kratos, unfortunately, is far from being unfamiliar with looming death. In fact, he instigated Greece’s personal Ragnarok in God of War III, and shockingly, it was for genuinely sympathetic reasons. Kratos’ story is perhaps the most over-the-top Greek tragedy ever written.

Warning: Spoilers for God of War: Ragnarok (2022)

10 The Ghost of Sparta’s Origin

The entire reason for Kratos’ curse as the Ghost of Sparta goes all the way back to when he first served Ares, the original God of War. Tricked by the sadistic god, Kratos had flown into a rage, murdering an entire village, his family among them. Horrified, the Spartan renounced his ties to Ares.

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The oracle of the village cursed Kratos to never forget the atrocity he had committed, and the ashes of his dead family clung to him like heavy snow. Thus, his skin took on a pale complexion, and the Ghost of Sparta was born. A title he bears painfully even in modern games.

9 Killing Orkos

Kratos has few allies and even fewer friends, but Orkos manages to be both in a surprisingly short time. He alone among the gods saw the injustice in Kratos’ fate. Throughout God of War: Ascension, Orkos, the son of Ares and the Fates, is the guide that allows Kratos to navigate the many dangers on his journey. Eventually, Orkos is seen as a friend by Kratos.

Unfortunately, Kratos is forced to kill him, upon Orkos’ own request. Orkos knew that as long as he was alive, Kratos would never be free of Ares’ ties. Kratos had finally found a true friend among the gods, one who spoke plainly and was kind. But the Fates are cruel monsters, even to their own child.

8 Pushing Away Calliope

In Chains of Olympus, Kratos eventually found out that the person behind the attack on the Greek gods was none other than Persephone, Hades’ wife. Despite her ulterior motives, she does sympathize with Kratos and sends him to Elysium to spend his last moments with his daughter, Calliope.

Sadly, Kratos realizes that if he let Persephone go through with her plan, he and her daughter would be gone as well. In a cruel subversion of the QTEs reserved for the hardest bosses, the player is forced to push Calliope away from Kratos, absorbing souls to regain his powers and defeat Persephone. A shocking and visceral scene, but incredibly memorable.

7 No Family Left

In Ghost of Sparta, Kratos sets out to find his long-lost brother, one of the few remaining family members he has left. On the journey, he finds out his mother is cursed with the knowledge of Deimos, but if she told Kratos, she would turn into a monster. Bravely, she told Kratos anyway, knowing her son could defeat her monstrous form.

It’s telling that, unlike other finishers, Kratos doesn’t brutally kill his mother, only stabbing her once in the heart. When he does find Deimos, they fight over a misunderstanding but find that they’re actually quite fond of each other, even facing off against Thanatos together. Sadly, Deimos sacrificed himself to save Kratos’ life. Now, Kratos is all that remains of the Spartans.

6 The Death of Pandora

In God of War III, finally, at the apex of his wrath against the gods who betrayed him, and goaded on by the equally bitter Titans, Kratos snaps and wars with Olympus itself. The journey upwards is vicious and brutal, and Kratos murders many innocents on his path to vengeance, making him more and more like the cruel gods he hated.

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However, his entire demeanor changes when he meets Pandora. A creation of Hephaestus, she was a truly kind and optimistic young woman and was also the key to defeating Zeus (quite literally). So of course, in typical God of War fashion, she has to die so that humanity may be saved. Her death is one that Kratos was never willing to let happen, and it took Pandora to tell him it was okay for it to happen.

5 Hope Returns

After finally all the remaining Greek gods, Kratos is met by the ghost of Athena, who reveals that her plan all along was to wield the power inside Pandora’s box so that she could become the sole goddess of Greece. Athena had become twisted by the mysterious force that was plaguing the gods as well, making her a megalomaniac.

However, Kratos, affected by Pandora’s ability to see good even in a monster like him, decides that it was time to do something truly selfless. He drives the Blade of Olympus into himself and releases Hope into the world. much to Athena’s dismay. Despite all he’s done, Kratos gave Greece the means to rebuild. It does not exonerate his sins, but it does give him some measure of peace.

4 The Ghost Returns

In God of War (2018), Kratos left behind the past and started a new life in a new land. There, he got a wife and a son, to who he was devoted. After the death of his wife, Kratos is left to be a father to his child, a treasure that had been taken away from him in the past. However, this is threatened once more when Atreus gains a fever, and his Leviathan Axe doesn’t work in Hel.

So, in one of the game’s most somber scenes, Kratos returns to his home to reclaim the Blades of Chaos: a memento of Kratos’ villainous past. To further punctuate this choice, the ghost of Athena returns, shaming Kratos for pretending to be the father he was not. It’s an incredible scene that pays homage to the older games while moving forward in a new world.

3 At The Highest Point Of The World

After the grueling journey, Kratos and Atreus finally reach Jotunheim, the highest point in the world. Here, they finally spread Faye’s ashes in her homeland. In sharp contrast to the rest of the franchise, where Kratos is often near-death or suicidal, here he is with his son, enjoying a brief peace in the beauty of Jotunheim.

Yet even here, death surrounds him. The corpses of giants are strewn across the landscape, and in one mural, he finds a prophecy of himself, laying dead at Atreus’ feet. Although an unsettling visual, Kratos seems more sad than angry at the revelation. A bittersweet ending, and yet the happiest one by far in the franchise.

2 Ragnarok

The path to Ragnarok is one huge gut punch, and it all kicks off with the sudden death of Brok. Despite their grief, the group has no choice but to rush Ragnarok, and even that is full of heartache. Quite literally, in the case of Surtr. He is a humble, tired, and ancient hero who knows the part he has to play, and reluctantly chooses to fulfil it to the best of his ability.

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With the flames of Tartarus, Surtr becomes the primordial harbinger he was fated to be, and the finale sees both Thor and Freyr die in front of their families, and many innocents dying as a result of Odin’s machinations. An epic climax with the necessary sacrifices needed to make the player feel the weight of the journey.

1 A New Path

Now that Ragnarok was over, the only path left for the survivors is to rebuild a new world. Unlike in Greece, Kratos is around to see it. After a heartfelt goodbye from Atreus, who went off to find the remaining giants, Kratos goes to the back of the mural Atreus had shown him. Instead of another morbid prophecy, Kratos finds something that he had never even thought possible.

Instead of his death, he saw people erecting statues of him, not as a monster, but as a savior. The very idea had never occurred to Kratos before, and the thought visibly shakes him. Unbelievably, Kratos had finally found his happy ending, and fans around the world saw this through their own tears.

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