 When this game ends, there is a sense of emptiness. Of course there's a feeling of accomplishment and joy for Kratos and Atreus. In the post game, you can travel all the realm and take in the vast lore that is littered throughout the Norse world. But you can also return to Sindri's home. Going back to this home forces the characters to relive the tragedy that occurred there. A house that truly felt like a home, with a found family fighting for justice, is now so empty. And that emptiness, what has been taken away from this home, to me, bleeds over into the rest of the game. The shift from Tyr's temple into Sindri's home creates all of these new unique dynamics. Kratos and Brock, Atreus and Sindri, Brock and Sindri, and it allows them to interact in different ways. It also creates a sense of intimacy and family, as they include Freya and Freya, and they all break bread together at the same table, that is now, again, empty. So many of these fast travel entry points are shop points also. You need shops to get better armor to fight, and Lunda is great, but she too is a constant reminder of what has been lost. Two members of the family have been lost, one forever and the other unknown. Brock's colorful language, his comedy, Sindri's joie de vivre, all gone. There is a gaping hole left by the Holger brothers. When Kratos and Atreus met Brock and Sindri in the first game, they were separated. A dispute had created a divide between them for years. A split that hurt the two brothers, but it felt like it affected Sindri a bit more. Brock had belittled his brother and his abilities as he did everybody, but still was the one to check for him. Out of the two, Sindri was clearly the more emotionally charged one, for better or for worse. And this can be applied to just about everything. Sindri loved Fully, and he held grudges with that same intensity. But the Holger brothers had been through so much together, but what united the two was Atreus and the late Fae. Fae's kindness clearly touched the dwarves, and it showed as they gifted the Leviathan axe to her. The only weapon to truly match Mjolnir, it also shows in the way they spoke about her. Brock doesn't give many compliments, but when it comes to Fae, he says, And Sindri was willing to even fight Kratos, if it meant defending her honor and the gift they made for her. That was how deeply Fae impacted their lives. Through that connection, they repaid her kindness to Kratos and Atreus. Sindri says that he sees a lot of Fae in the young gods eyes. He mentions how she was a good woman who wanted to protect people. And he says that with a tinge of sadness in his voice. I see a lot of her in your eyes, you know? To compare Atreus to Laofae the Just is high praise already, but it's insight into how Sindri views Atreus going forward. As a little brother, a nephew, family that he wants to help and help protect, the way he speaks about it is almost like he owes it to Fae, and he does it for nothing in return. Kratos at first neglects the family aspects of these relationships. When they are asked by Brock to search for Antvarie, all they find is the ring. With nothing to give Brock, Kratos still expects to be paid for his efforts. This is a relationship that is transactional. He is unable to do anything for the dwarf out of the kindness of his own heart. And it's this idea, albeit directed towards Atreus, is where Sindri's anger truly begins. Sindri and Brock again help Kratos and Atreus out of the kindness of their own hearts, fixing and upgrading their armor, the axe, all of the information that was given to them on their journey. The hidden caves, the treasures, the shock arrows, the braided mistletoe arrows, the bows, all have been free of charge. And in the first game, this is how Sindri is repaid. And it's here that the seeds are planted. Sure, it's a child who's telling him off, who doesn't know better, but that doesn't mean that Atreus' words don't hurt. Even if he did apologize, that sting and that memory doesn't just suddenly go away. In the second game, Sindri takes on this uncle-like role to Atreus. Over the three-year gap between the games, they go on adventures together. They've been partners, as Sindri calls it. The dwarf acts as another buffer between Atreus and Kratos, another figure to guide the young god and to show him the love that Kratos does not outwardly show. No one asks him to accompany Atreus on these secret adventures, but Sindri does it anyways. To ensure Atreus' safety, he guides him and he gives him wisdom. But it's wisdom that Atreus rarely listens to. It's easily overlooked, but the seeds that were sowed in the first game, that whole, it continues to grow, because Sindri doesn't feel listened to and appreciated by Atreus. He warns the young god about going to meet with Freya, Atreus doesn't listen. And the idea of even going to visit her, Atreus had no intentions of consulting Sindri. Sindri calls Atreus his partner, and is genuinely hurt when he is not included in these plans. And yet, he still continues to watch over the young god. He continues to gift him with armor, new sonic arrows, free of charge. Sindri the germaphobe at one point even touches Atreus, he puts his arm around him, after an argument with Kratos as a way to calm him down. That in itself is quite a mighty act of love from the dwarf. And after this, the young god then has desires to go to Asgard to seek out the answers that he's been promised. Against the warnings of Mimir, Freya, Kratos, and most recently Sindri, he doesn't listen. Sindri feels as though he is the closest to Atreus, and yet the boy does not listen. To make matters worse and a fit of rage, he transforms into a bear and slashes Sindri, something that wounds him more emotionally than it did physically. And he wasn't able to forgive him for it, saying that he eventually would. And even after all this, when Atreus was missing, Sindri was still so worried about the young god. From Atreus' perspective, it's easy to see where the lines have been blurred. Atreus clearly views Sindri as family. He says so after trying to apologize to the dwarf. He sees him as an uncle, a big brother, a friend. To him, these relationships are not transactional. He is a child, a teenager. He has nothing to offer Sindri. When family members offer gifts to others, when they offer counsel and wisdom and help, it isn't supposed to be done to receive something in return. It is done out of the goodness of one's own heart. That is the essence of family. It's giving without the intention of receiving. It's giving out of love. But it all comes together when Sindri's guilt compounds with his grief and his inability to let go. When it comes for Kratos to potentially kill Haimdall, he ventures out with Barak to create Dropnir, crafted by the Lady of the Forge. Earlier, Sindri tells Kratos that once upon a time, Barak had died. And so, Sindri went to Aufheim to reclaim his soul and bring him back to life. But was only able to recover part of his soul, missing the direction. And that he has never told his brother this. Barak's hunch that he had once died comes true when the Lady of the Forge is unable to see him because of his missing soul. But when Barak dies, he dies forgiving his brother, urging Sindri to let him go. For a second time, Sindri is forced to mourn his brother. And this time, there is nothing he can do about it. There is quite a sense of powerlessness here at play for Sindri. The Haldra brothers were once on a quest to become the greatest blacksmiths in all of the Norse world. For all we know, they already are. Mjolnir, the Leviathan Axe, two of the greatest weapons have been forged by their joint hands. The idea of Dropnir came from their mind. They've got such a vast wealth of knowledge of these lands, rivaled by few others. They've got all these little tips and tricks and trinkets, arrows, little gadgets, the ability to enter the realm between realms, the ability to fix virtually anything. Sindri already tried to fix Barak once before. Now he's got no more tricks, no more gadgets, no knowledge that can bring his brother back. There's nothing left, there's nothing to do but to let go. And deep down, Sindri blames himself, because for the second time, he was unable to protect his brother. And now, because he couldn't fully bring Barak's soul back, leaving out the direction, there is no afterlife for Barak. This is it. Sindri will never be able to apologize, he will never be able to right his wrongs. This is it. If souls can meet in the light of Alphime, he will never reunite with Barak in the light. He has stripped his brother of his direction, and a life beyond this one, and he feels so guilty about it. And there's a reason Sindri couldn't let go. The love he had for his brother was too great. The sadness and the pain of losing him would always be too much. He says it himself, Sindri says that Barak called himself selfish once, and he refuted this idea. But in his actions, we see that Sindri was to a degree selfish. Denied Barak a chance at the afterlife because he couldn't survive without his brother, because he couldn't let go. Now inconsolable and unable to carry the weight of the choice he made, so all the pain and all the anger he feels towards himself, he aims towards Atreus. We've settled here in the realm between realms. My secrets. I couldn't be alone. My treasures. Drop near. But we need it. Our supplies. And you just kept taking. And now what have I got? Not even my family. I'm sorry for our spoke to you, Sindri. Can you forgive me? Already have. I'm really sorry about the way I left. So do you forgive me? I'm sure I will. Eventually. I'm so sorry. No. No, I don't want to hear it. You don't know what sorry means. If you want sorry, this is what sorry looks like. Sindri drowning in sadness closes all of his emotions off, except for rage and vengeance. He even disregards the innocent people that he hurts in Asgard. To prove a point to Atreus. Emotionally, Sindri is drained, but physically he is spent as well. Sindri's physical change is so jarring when combining that with the anger that he feels. His bloodshot eyes, his hair disheveled, his hands exposed. This is the same man that could barely touch the Leviathan axe because of the amount of blood, dirt, and filth that was on him. He wears gloves at all times. He was constantly gagging throughout the first game, but now Brock's blood stains his armor, and he never takes it off nor does he ever clean it. And his hands are now fully exposed, still stained with Brock's blood as well. Because of that guilt that is weighing on him so heavily, it makes him desperate to hold on to that anger, that vengeance, even after he destroys Odin's soul. Brock's funeral takes place a bit after Odin's end, and when the dwarf appears, he still hasn't taken off the blood-stained armor and his hands are still exposed. He wants so badly to continue being angry because it distracts him. The armor, the blood, these are constant reminders of that rage, but it's fading. In the close-up of the dwarf sending his brother off, he allows his anger to slip and to turn into deep sadness, but he still doesn't want to let himself break. When Kratos tries to talk to him and he stares the Spartan down, he can't even manage to make out any words. I think at that moment, he finally ran out of anger. The hole that was growing inside him had finally engulfed the dwarf, until there was nothing left but emptiness inside of him, and his grief without processing it made him empty. Even the way he slowly trudges away, as if he were a man unstable, a man with no direction, a man who's been broken down to his core, just trying to find balance anywhere. When we juxtapose that with Atreus' reaction, he too tried to run away from his emotions, but Kratos and Mimir forced him to confront his emotions. Sindri on the other hand, in all of his grief, refuses to let others in, building up that wall, making that hole larger and larger. The more it grows, the longer he takes, the harder it becomes to forgive himself. He might never be able to. A rational look at this situation is that Sindri's anger isn't unfounded. There is a bit of truth behind it. Atreus does bear some responsibility in the way that he treated Sindri, but Atreus is a child, a child of a deeply wounded god and a deceased giant. A kid who's not known any bit of normalcy. He's just made friends his age for the very first time in his life at 14 years old. I've mentioned how Kratos sees these relationships as transactional and that Atreus does not, but sometimes Kratos' ideals and the way he treats people bleeds into how his son does, for better or for worse. Without Atreus, Sindri and Brock would have never reunited. Without Atreus, he would have been killed by that dragon. Sindri is old enough to take responsibility over the fact that he invited Kratos and Atreus into his home willingly. He decided to help them on their journey, and even after learning of the potential danger, even after learning that they would be involved in matters concerning Odin, he continued to aid them. All of this was of his own volition. But I think the most important thing to note here is that grief is not sensible, it's not rational. Grief can change a man. I think deep down, Sindri knows that it's his fault, and I think he knows that blaming Atreus does nothing good for him in the long run. That Brock would be adamantly against him blaming anyone for his own death, other than Odin. But again, this game approaches grief in a very realistic way. This game and this new world has been about grief the entire time. About how people react, change, grow, or decay when they lose a loved one. Whether it's Kratos and Atreus grieving Fae, Kratos being forced to face down his past mistakes and accept them in order to properly raise Atreus, or whether it's Freya and learning how to grieve Balder, and how to move forward past her rage. And now Sindri, grieving Brock, becoming someone completely unrecognizable. And to make a small note of that, Sindri is turning into the man that Kratos once was. I think the Spartan recognizes this and he tries to help him, but he too, more than anyone, understands what loss does to a man. Grief is a part of life. As Fae says, the culmination of love is grief, and yet we love despite the inevitable. We open our hearts to it. To grieve deeply is to have loved fully. Open your heart to the world as you have opened it to me, and you will find every reason to keep living in it. Sindri loved his brother so much, so much so that he knew he couldn't be in that world alone. He wasn't strong enough. He isn't strong enough to let go. She has closed himself off to the world. In that closure, the very thing Kratos wanted to avoid for Atreus, Sindri is slowly losing his reason to live. Grief changes people. Mistakes change people. Sindri's words, his actions, and Brock's presence, they leave a great hole. That emptiness permeates throughout the end of this game. These are the consequences of their choices. This is one mistake, one final problem that the great blacksmith Sindri might never be able to fix. It's a hole that might never be closed.