 Kratos, with the wrath of all of Sparta, pushed his rage and anger to the limit, where he brutally destroyed all the gods of Olympus. He was pushed to a place where it seemed that he could redeem himself, but with his past sins branded on his arms, and a child, the ghost of Sparta would get that very redemption. But this redemption doesn't stop at Kratos, it also redeems his perception of what the gods are, and what they should be. Kratos, son of Zeus, began his journey in Greek mythology as the ghost of Sparta, a Spartan warrior who was groomed to battle from the age of 8. During a failing effort during a war, Kratos called to Ares, asking the god of war to give him strength, in exchange he would serve the god. Ares accepted, giving him the blades of chaos, a tool to defeat his enemies. Kratos would later destroy countless towns and helpless lives for the god, and unbeknownst to Kratos, he would later kill his family in one of these villages. Kratos renounced his allegiance to Ares, and then kills him, becoming the god of war. Kratos would go on to kill many other demigods creatures, and would become a being of pure vengeance and rage, brutally murdering the gods, blaming them for his current predicament, including killing his father Zeus, which brings us to the Nordic realm. After many years, we are now greeted by an aged Kratos, who is in the process of burying his wife, Fae, alongside his son Atreus. This Kratos is a more calm level headed man, but not because he has suddenly changed, but because he had to. His son is now his foundation, his anchor, Kratos has to teach someone else to not dwell in anger and rage, and to temper it, while tempering his own, and we see moments of this. Nonetheless, the ghost of Spartal while assuming a parent role is still cold and seemingly unforgiving when we meet him in the Nordic world. Kratos refers to Atreus as either boy, or simply Atreus, as if not claiming complete ownership of his child, never calling him son until the end. He hides his past from Atreus, out of fear that his son may think of Kratos as a monster, as a hypocrite. Because he teaches Atreus, this only reinforces the idea that Kratos has changed, but he also hides from himself, to try and forget mistakes that he once made. Though everything Kratos teaches Atreus is from a place of experience, but his fear of his child hating him, or worse becoming like him, is stronger than all. This aged Kratos still carries severe bitterness towards the gods of either Mythos, Norse, or Greek. Over the course of the game he repeatedly tells Atreus that gods cannot be trusted, and that all gods are bad. Until they hear about the god Tyr, the one god that was good. Tyr aided the giants and everybody he encountered, a god that was beloved by all. This idea that there was once a god for good, lights a fire under Kratos, and it instills him with one key idea, and Kratos' motive, which is the idea of being better. An idea that started off as, you must be better than me, and turned to, we must be better. Kratos and Atreus are gods. They must be better gods, better children, better parents, better people. They must end the cycle, the cycle of the selfish gods. The gods that punish, that take advantage of others, that trick others, and the cycle of godly families, hating and killing each other. We see this line when Freya is about to be killed by her son Baldur. Kratos interrupts and says, and kills Baldur, a decision that Kratos had to make to begin this change. Whether it's Baldur killing Freya or Kratos killing Zeus, Kratos knew the next logical path in the cycle would be Atreus killing him. He better than anyone is aware of this malicious cycle. After everything Kratos has been through he understands what lies, anger and hatred are capable of. And now that Kratos has told Atreus of his true godly nature, they as gods have a duty. To bring peace to a land that is approaching Ragnarok. Rather than fail the Norse land and bring chaos like he did to the Greek pantheon. Finally I want to take a look at the moment of complete acceptance for Kratos. Kratos reaches his wife's home, Jotunheim, and releases the bandages showing off the scars of his past. This is the moment where Kratos accepts himself in full. And the bandages flying through the wind represents the release of his tight grip on his former life. And you can see Kratos close his eyes and take a deep breath to represent that the journey is over. It is complete. From the ghost of Sparta to Kratos, the father. A story that began with wrath and anger and a loss of humanity. He found this humanity through his son. And even though his thoughts had deceived him, Kratos accepted his mistakes and finally accepted the man he once was. But not that he accepted it only to himself, but the big step was finally to tell his son who he was is not who he is today. To tell his son that he was far from perfect. But that Atreus cannot make the same errors that he did. To now guide Atreus. And himself down a path of peace. A path that Faye would have wanted for the both of them. Kratos' personal journey and story has ended and it is time for Atreus to now become a man. Kratos' story teaches a familiar tale that I have reiterated and it is about the past. Again Kratos pushed himself to a place that no man could return from. But even the ghost of Sparta redeemed himself. He accepted his sins and is now trying to live a better life for his son. Which brings Kratos some humanity, some redemption. Now I won't sit here and tell you that Kratos is now an angel for good or he is now the greatest person. But what is important is that you can see that he is trying. He has owned his past. And now he is trying to own the present and to make a way for his future, Atreus. And that's what really matters.