The new trailer for God of War Ragnarök - released as part of Sony’s September 2022 PlayStation State of Play event - suggests that Tyr, the Norse god of war, will play an important role in the forthcoming action-adventure game from Sony Santa Monica. The sequel to 2018's God of War will see Kratos and Atreus tested in ways they haven't been before, and the latest trailer hammers hope the scale of their adventure appropriately. Tyr, who seems to strike up an alliance with Kratos in the trailer, looks set to play a central role.
[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for God of War (2018).]Scheduled for release on PlayStation 4 and 5 (the first time that a game in the GoW franchise has debuted on both consoles), the sequel God of War Ragnarök (not GoW 2, as some believed) picks up where the previous game left off. 2018’s God of War marked a departure from earlier games in the series, shifting the action from the pantheon of Olympus and Ancient Greece to the realm of Midgard and the Norse gods, the Aesir. In that game, the action followed Kratos, the eponymous God of War, and his son Atreus, as they journeyed to the highest peak in the nine realms to scatter the ashes of Kratos’ late wife and Atreus’ mother, Faye. Along the way, they made a powerful enemy in Freya by killing her son, Baldur; discovered that Faye was a giant, making Atreus a half-giant called Loki by his mother and her people; and learned that Fimbulwinter - a three-year period preceding the apocalypse known as Ragnarök - had already begun.
Where this all leads in the sequel is uncertain, but God of War Ragnarök’s trailer reveals that Tyr will figure prominently in the action. Mentioned but never seen in the previous game, Tyr is believed dead, but in fact he has been imprisoned by his father, Odin, and Kratos, and Atreus will seek him out and enlist his aid in their campaign to avert Ragnarök and the destruction of the nine realms and their inhabitants. The question remains, however, if these two Gods of War - both of them hugely powerful but very different in their actions and outlooks, based on Kratos' depiction throughout the series so far - can cooperate successfully and prevent armageddon from coming, and, as the God of War Ragnarök's trailer suggests, if the game might require an alternative timeline to make it all happen.
Tyr’s Role In God of War Ragnarök May Involve An Alternate Timeline
Sony Santa Monica played fast and loose with Norse mythology in its 2018 God of War, and it looks set to do so again in its sequel. But understanding the events of the game requires at least a minimal conception of the legends and characters - including Norse gods like Thor, Odin, and Loki - on which God of War Ragnarök is based. Key figures from Norse mythology are set to return and make their series debuts in the upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive, only reimagined from their more traditional depictions.
Tyr, a son of Odin and half-brother of soon-to-be God of War villain Thor, is one of these characters. He is the God of War but also of Law and Honor and, paradoxically, a pacificist, a tendency that gets Tyr into trouble with his father. A scheming wretch determined to hold onto power at any cost, Odin imprisons Fenrir, a giant wolf destined to kill him during Ragnarök. The only god whom Fenrir trusts is Tyr, because Tyr is kind and feeds him; but when Odin binds him in an unbreakable chain, Fenrir bites off Tyr’s hand. Later, Tyr offers to broker a peace in the ongoing conflict between Odin and the giants of Jotunheim, only to have Odin pull a fast one and massacre the giants, another attempt to fend off Ragnarök. Feeling betrayed, Tyr protests and Odin locks him away, telling the world that Tyr has died.
In the God of War Ragnarök trailer, Kratos and Atreus find Tyr in this state. The trailer shows Kratos breaking the chains that hold the beleaguered Tyr. Curiously, though, Tyr is shown with both hands, despite having lost one of them to the wolf Fenrir. This obvious departure from Norse canon suggests an alternate timeline, one in which Tyr has yet to encounter Fenrir. Later in the trailer, Atreus and Kratos are seen standing before a glyph depicting a god - either Tyr or Odin - fleeing a giant wolf, further suggesting that this encounter - which, according to myth, occurred prior to Tyr’s imprisonment - will, in game-time, occur afterward. There may even be time travel in God of War Ragnarök’s story. Loki, aka Atreus, is known to be Fenrir’s father, though the boy Atreus is shown confronting the fully grown wolf.
God Of War Ragnarök Brings Two Gods Of War Into Conflict
Though he owes Kratos and Atreus for liberating him from Odin’s prison, the trailer suggests that all is not friendly between the two Gods of War. Tyr is a peacemaker, after all, while Kratos, to put it mildly, is not. A voice-over, apparently belonging to Tyr, runs throughout the trailer, in which the pacifist war god expresses his opinion of Kratos: “All that blood on your hands, on your son’s hands,” Tyr says. “You don’t care about anything beyond yourself, beyond the monster that kills without cause.” Kratos is not given a chance to respond in the trailer, but one can imagine he will answer these charges with deeds rather than words.
While a three-minute trailer can only reveal so much and Kratos, Atreus, and God of War Ragnarök theories abound, it seems likely that Tyr will play a central role in the new game’s storyline. This may require an alternative timeline - which may only be a polite way of describing Sony Santa Monica’s distortions of Norse mythology. Still, if Tyr has an important role to play in God of War Ragnarök, then it seems that Fenrir, the colossal wolf, also does - several scenes depict Kratos and Atreus both confronting a giant wolf and in the company of wolves. By turning the chronology on its head, and incorporating events that occurred prior to the game into the game’s storyline, the developers may have created a compelling dramatic turn that players will soon get the opportunity to play.