Kratos: Villain by Nurture or Nature?

God of War. I truly love this franchise. A franchise about vengeance, terrible consequences, objective redemption, and now with the latest installment, true redemption. God of War(2018) is highly regarded, earning near perfect scores from fans and critics alike. All of which is well deserved. A main talking point for this game is how Santa Monica Studios has managed to humanize Kratos, to bring some pathos to the character. Taking an unstoppable rage monster and turning him into an unstoppable Dad monster that hits you right in the feels.
His character has depth and nuance as he is still dealing with his past, or rather, still trying to run from it. All of this is true, but that certainly doesn’t mean the Kratos of old was a one dimensional set piece. I think the original games tell an intricate story of a man struggling to deal with forces far greater than himself. A story with some highs and mostly lows for Kratos. So here is(I hope) an abridged version of Kratos’ journey, his fall from grace, and his road to villainy.

As a child, Kratos trained with his younger brother, Deimos, with aspirations of joining the ranks of the Spartan army, growing up in Sparta with their mother, Callisto. One day, Sparta was attacked by an army of centaurs, orchestrated by Ares and Zeus, unbeknownst to Kratos. But why would Ares want to attack the very city that worshiped him? Well Reader, the Gods are inately driven by self preservation, their immense power resulting in devastating effects.
The Oracle foretold the fall of Olympus at the hands of The Marked Warrior. Unfortunately for Deimos, he was born with a distinctive birthmark across his face and body. Amidst the chaos of the attack, Ares and his sister Athena emerged to take Deimos. Kratos tried to save his brother, but was struck down by Ares, scarring his right eye. His life only saved by Athena, who stopped Ares, claiming that they were only sent for the boy. Having failed his family for the first of many times to come, Kratos tattooed his own body to match Deimos’ birthmark.
Surviving his first encounter with the Gods, Kratos goes on to become a Captain in the Spartan army and being chosen by Ares as his champion. Unrivaled and undefeated in combat across Greece, until the fateful day his Spartans come up against the barbarian horde, led by Alrik the Barbarian King. Clearly outnumbered by the horde with little hope of overcoming these odds, an enraged Kratos leads his Spartans into battle after Alrik lets loose a single arrow into the head of a young warrior on the front line. Through overwhelming numbers and tactical errors, the barbarians make short work of the Spartan army. About to die by the hands of Alrik, Kratos pledges his life to Ares, creating a blood oath to the God, asking for the power to defeat his enemies.
This really is the standout moment for Kratos that starts his steady decline towards his ultimate fate. Despite the oath being Kratos’ choice, the circumstances that demanded it were not entirely his own doing, as Kratos and Alrik’s history runs deeper than just this encounter. They met once before on a quest for Ambrosia, the drink of the Gods, said to have potent healing properties. Ares unleashed a plague upon the children of Sparta, including Kratos’ daughter Calliope. With the help of his Spartan soldiers, Kratos sought out the Ambrosia to prevent Calliope from falling victim to Spartan law and being sacrificed as an unfit child.
Being the bored, manipulative entities that they are, some of the Gods made a wager with Ares, each of them choosing their own champion in a contest to reach the Ambrosia first. Chief among the wagering Gods is Hades, who chooses Alrik, the Barbarian Prince at the time, to be his champion, “encouraging” him by besetting his father with a fatal illness. Cutting down two other champions, Kratos acquired the Ambrosia, but is ambushed by Alrik and his barbarians soon after. The Spartans quickly gained the upper hand, only for Hades to intervene and summon monstrous forces to aid the barbarians.
In the confusion of battle, Alrik manages to grab the Ambrosia from Kratos and flee. Kratos takes chase, leaving his Spartan forces to die. Catching Alrik and struggling for the Ambrosia, some of it spills on both of them and Alrik manages to mortally wound Kratos. The spilled Ambrosia heals his wounds and Kratos counterattacks, reclaiming the drink of the Gods and leaving Alrik to be repeatedly torn to pieces by rocs until the effects of his own spilled Ambrosia runs out.
Furious at the defeat of his champion, Hades resurrects Alrik, who then becomes King as his father succumbs to the illness inflicted upon him. Alrik then vows his own vengeance against Kratos at all costs. Which puts us back to Alrik almost getting his revenge. Ares bestowed upon Kratos the Blades of Chaos, a pair of lethally sharp blades on chains seared into the flesh of Kratos’ forearms, never to be removed. He then promptly uses the Blades to decapitate Alrik and vanquish the rest of the barbarians.
With the Blades of Chaos in hand(in arm?), Kratos becomes a true extension of Ares’ cruelty and destructive power, killing countless innocents in his name, driven in part by Kratos’ own thirst for power. I don’t think Kratos was ever a very good Spartan. He blatantly defies the Spartan code whenever it best suits him in the moment, whether it be abandoning his brothers in arms or letting his rage get the better of him and losing control.
Instructed by Ares, Kratos leads an assault on a village purported to be home to worshippers of Athena, setting the village ablaze and moving house to house, savagely slaughtering any inhabitants in front of him. In a ploy to make Kratos the perfect warrior, Ares transported Kratos’ wife and daughter to the village, who end up being murdered by Kratos in his frenzy. Horrified at what he has done, Kratos emerges from the smoke filled house to be cursed by the village oracle, who bonds the ashes of his slain family to his body, giving him his signature white skin, resulting in the nickname, Ghost of Sparta.
Kratos denounces his blood oath to Ares, swearing to never serve him again. A broken blood oath does not go unnoticed, however. The Furies, guardians of honour who punish the wicked and treacherous, torture Kratos with illusions of his family as they hunt him down in an attempt to imprison him. Confronted by Orkos, the son of Ares and the Fury Alecto, he allies himself with Kratos, turning against his mother after seeing the unjust punishment Kratos was suffering. Kratos learns that the Furies were not always this ruthless, but Ares’ “guidance” had turned their judgement into unfair and cruel punishments.
Before Ares’ tricks to make the Spartan his perfect warrior, the God of War conspired with the Furies to overtake Olympus. Conceiving Orkos in an attempt to breed this warrior, Ares disowned Orkos, believing him to be weak and a disappointment. Seeing value in him nonetheless, the Furies trusted him to be the Oath Keeper. Orkos then instructs Kratos to seek the Oracle of Delphi for the answer of how to break the blood oath. Which, in typical God of War fashion, turns out to be slaying the Furies.
Kratos achieves this with Orkos’ aid, only to discover that the Furies had make Orkos the keeper of Kratos’ oath before their deaths, leaving Kratos no choice but to kill his newfound ally. Kratos is flooded with vivid memories of killing his family that were previously masked by the now broken oath, gripping him with crippling sorrow. Freed from Ares’ influence, Kratos is left a slave to his haunted memories. Finding no  choice other than more servitude, he once again turns to the Gods for salvation, serving them in hopes of earning forgiveness for his sins, and to be rid of the nightmares of his past deeds. He became the errand boy for the Gods, dealing with any matters that require some form of divine intervention.
At this point, Kratos has certainly experienced his fall and is only looking for redemption. It’s a very selfish form of redemption though, as all he wants to do is forget what he’s done, not to atone or make amends for it. He’s too broken to even want revenge on Ares for tricking him. He is constantly being reminded by the Gods that his service will be rewarded, being told exactly what he wants to hear to continue on.
During a search for a missing Helios, God of the sun, Kratos finds himself in the Underworld where he encounters Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld. She offers Kratos the chance to be with his daughter again, spending eternity in the Elysium Fields with her. To be worthy of Elysium, all he needs to do is strip himself of his weapons and magic, releasing his past evils. But, she warns, doing so will ensure that the whole world suffers. Willing to make any sacrifice for his daughter, Kratos agrees and is reunited with Calliope in the Elysium Fields, his first respite from the sorrow of his actions in five years.
Persephone appears once more, taunting Kratos for his foolish decision and revealing that she had freed the Titan Atlas and captured Helios in a plot to harness his power and destroy the Pillar of the World, motivated to destroy Olympus after Zeus’s betrayal and subsequent marriage/imprisonment to Hades, the God of the Underworld. Destroying the Pillar will topple Olympus, and destroy everything with it, including the Elysium Fields and everyone in it.
Abandoning Calliope and sacrificing ever seeing her again, Kratos regains his powers and defeats Persephone. Preventing the destruction of the Pillar, Kratos chains Atlas to it, leaving him to shoulder the burden of propping up the world.
After a decade of servitude, Kratos is fed up with the countless tasks, asking of Athena, when will it be enough? The Goddess of wisdom gives him one last task. Ares is rampaging and destroying Athens, but Zeus has forbade any of the Gods to interfere. Athena tells Kratos that if he can kill the God of War, he will be forgiven for murdering his family. Kratos is to seek out Pandora’s Box to find the power within to defeat a God. This is where Kratos’ path turns from redemption to vengeance, the very idea that he could kill a full fledged God creates an “ends justifies the means” mentality that quickly escalates throughout the series and becomes the mantra of the franchise.
However, there are still influences and chances for Kratos to pull back from the destruction of vengeance and revenge, most notably in the form of an elderly gravedigger Kratos encounters many times in his journey. The first of which sees the gravedigger justifying his namesake, digging a hole during the siege of Athens. A grave to be used by Kratos very soon, the man tells him. A comment that is immediately brushed off by Kratos as he goes on to locate the box in Pandora’s Temple, which is strapped to the back of the Titan Cronos.
Carrying the temple being Cronos’ penance for his part in The Great War between the Titans and the Gods. Learning of his former disciple’s success, a giant Ares hurls a broken stone column hundreds of miles to impale Kratos as he attempts to leave the temple with Pandora’s Box in tow, sending him to the Underworld to traverse the hellscape. Only escaping with the aid of the gravedigger via a length of rope lowered through the grave previously dug in Athens, the gravedigger remarking that Athena is not the only god looking over Kratos. The gravedigger later being revealed to be the mortal guise of Zeus, King of the Gods.
Back from the dead, Kratos retrieves Pandora’s Box from Ares’ clutches and opens it. Imbued with the power within, Kratos grows to match Ares’ giant God form and bests him in physical combat, and thwarts his attempts at breaking Kratos mentally as well. Having to defend an illusion of his wife and child from doppelgangers of himself, embracing his family to transfer his life to them.
To me, this is the only true act of redemption that Kratos ever achieves in the franchise. A common theme throughout God of War is that Kratos will do anything for his family, even sacrifice his own life. This redemptive quality gets warped and buried under layers of rage and hatred as the franchise goes on, and as Kratos slips further and further towards villainy.
Defeating Ares, Kratos has again been tricked by the Gods as Athena grants him forgiveness, but his actions can never be forgotten, his nightmares will remain. Now truly left with nowhere to turn, Kratos climbs the Suicide Bluffs and throws himself into the Agean sea, only to be saved by Athena and rewarded with the newly vacant title of God of War.
During his tenure as God of War, Kratos is as angry and defiant as ever and basically doing his best Ares impression. He decides to explore his mortal past, finding his mother, Callisto, being held in the Temple of Poseidon in Atlantis. She attempts to tell Kratos his true heritage by revealing who his father is when she is turned into a terrible beast that Kratos must fight, killing her in the process. Callisto’s dying request if for Kratos to find his brother Deimos.
Exiting the island, Kratos encounters the trapped Titan Thera and releases her, being told that his arrival was foretold by the Titan Gaia, Mother of Earth. Thera’s release causes the volcano in which she was imprisoned to erupt and sink the city of Atlantis. Fleeing the destructive eruption, Kratos encounters the gravedigger again and is warned that alienating the Gods has consequences.
So, more consequences and prophecies, basically Kratos’ middle names by now. He manages to find his brother trapped in the Domain of Death, by Thanatos, the God of Death, where he has been kept and tortured all of these years. Once Deimos is released, Thanatos attacks them, the fight taking them to the Suicide Bluffs where Kratos prevents his brother from falling to his death, only for Deimos to be killed by Thanatos. Kratos, in turn, slays the God of Death, then carries Deimos further up the bluffs, again finding the gravedigger with an already prepared grave for Deimos to be buried in.
Athena appears, begging for Kratos’ forgiveness for her part in Deimos’ imprisonment, but Kratos turns his back on her, returning to Olympus, stating that all the Gods will pay for their treachery. The gravedigger is seen burying Callisto next to Deimos and preparing a third grave, remarking that only one remains.
Shunned by the other Gods of Olympus due to Kratos’s destructive ways, the God of War wages war on the city of Rhodes, joining his Spartan army in battle. Zeus is forced to intervene and keep Kratos in check. Tricking him into draining his godly powers into the Blade of Olympus. Zeus offers a depowered Kratos one last chance to cease his defiance and fall in line. Kratos, of course, denies to do so, receiving the pointy end of the Blade and dying once more, gaining the long scar down the length of his abdomen.
Falling to the Underworld yet again, Kratos is saved by Gaia, who gives him the will and strength to claw his way out of the grasp of the arms of Hades. She instructs Kratos to find the Sisters of Fate to turn back time and prevent Zeus from killing him and exacting his revenge. A revenge longed for by the Titans as well, as Gaia tells Kratos of Zeus’ own vengeance against her race. How Gaia had raised Zeus, keeping him hidden from his father, Cronos, who had swallowed all of Zeus’ siblings in an attempt to prevent the prophecy of his children one day usurping him.
Growing to adulthood, Zeus sought out his father to free his siblings, starting The Great War and crafting a powerful weapon, the Blade of Olympus, that turned the tide of battle and won the Gods the Great War, imprisoning and humiliating the Titans.
This really is where Kratos turns full villian. There was no turning back after Zeus stabbed him. Kratos’ wild and untamed anger finding a focus again. He tears through anybody that gets in his way to find the Sisters, savagely killing the likes of Perseus, Theseus and Icarus. All the bloodshed leads Kratos to his goal and he finds the Sisters of Fate, who deny him his request to turn back time. So he kills them too and uses the Loom of Fate to return to just before Zeus impales him with the Blade of Olympus, charging the King of Gods and reclaiming the Blade in a lengthy fight that ends with Athena throwing herself in the path of the killing blow meant for Zeus, sacrificing herself.
It is here Kratos finally learns that Zeus is his father, Athena warns Kratos that the Gods of Olympus will rally behind Zeus and protect him, that Zeus IS Olympus before succumbing to her fatal wound. Nearly defeated, Zeus retreats to the relative safety of Mount Olympus as Kratos uses the Loom of Fate to return to The Great War, before the Titans are defeated, and brings them back to the present to launch an assault on Olympus.
Here we enter the final chapter of Kratos’ vengeance against the Gods of Olympus. The following events have been building and simmering for most of Kratos’ life. The first God to fall during his final assault is Poseidon. His death causing the oceans to flood the world. Carried to the top of Mount Olympus by Gaia, Zeus launches a devastating lightning bolt that sends Gaia and Kratos careening down the mountain, with Gaia managing to catch hold, but refusing to aid Kratos for fear of falling herself, telling him that this is the Titan’s fight, not his.
This betrayal leaves Kratos to fall to his death(DEAD AGAIN?!), where he is met in the underworld by Athena’s spirit. Her sacrifice for Zeus has allowed her to rise to a higher state of being, and she now encourages the path Kratos is on, and tells him that he needs the Flame of Olympus to defeat Zeus. An eternal fire that is lethal to mortals and Gods alike.
With a newfound purpose, Kratos escapes the Underworld again, but not before paying Hades a visit and murdering him with his own weapon, his death releasing thousands of untethered souls into the world. The carnage continues as Helios gets his head ripped off, plunging the world into darkness, Hermes gets his legs maliciously amputated, spreading a pestilence upon dying, Hercules gets his face smashed in, Hera receives a minor skeletal adjustment as Kratos gives her neck a crack, Hephaestus is impaled with one of his own devices, Cronos is stabbed in the head with the Blade of Olympus, Gaia is stabbed in the heart with the Blade. Every kill destroying another aspect of the world, tearing it apart at the seams. Finding the Flame, Kratos discovers that housed inside of it is Pandora’s Box. The key to unlocking it from it’s fiery cage being the box’s namesake, Pandora herself.
Finding Pandora in the Labyrinth built by Icarus’ father, Daedalus, Kratos is instantly reminded of his daughter Calliope. Enough so that he has second thoughts and tries to prevent her from sacrificing herself to the Flame, a fate that Pandora has accepted she was made for. Restraining Pandora, Kratos is taunted by Zeus to save her, to not fail this daughter too. This enrages Kratos as he release Pandora and lunges for Zeus, allowing her to throw herself into the Flame, extinguishing it and her own life.
Now unprotected, Kratos opens Pandora’s Box for the second time to find it empty. Despite this, Kratos defeats Zeus’ physical form, only to have to face his spirit as well,a fight that delves into Kratos’ psyche. And with the help of his wife’s and daughter’s spirits, Kratos is able to forgive himself for murdering them and pummels Zeus’s spirit back into his body where he proceeds to turn him into a pulpy mess.
Athena’s spirit appears and demands Kratos hand over what he took from the Box, not believing it to be empty. She realizes then, that when Kratos opened the Box to use it to defeat Ares, in addition to releasing the evils of the world that were stored inside, he also released their counterpart, hope. The former infecting the Gods, fear warping Zeus’ mind resulting in many of his actions to prevent the cycle of patricide and betrayal that also affected Cronos. And the latter was imbued in Kratos, giving him the means to defeat Ares. It’s what rebellions are built on after all.
Athena demands again that Kratos give her his power so she can use it to rebuild the world as she sees fit. Having clearly been manipulated by her, Kratos refuses and impales himself with the Blade of Olympus, releasing hope into the world to repair the damage and destruction that he so carelessly brought upon it as he collapses to the ground, bleeding and dying. We’re left with the lasting image of a blood trail leading to the edge of the cliff. . .

Wow, you made it through! I would’ve quit halfway and I’m writing the damn thing! There’s a lot to unpack here, but I’ll try to keep it as succinct as I can now that you have some context of Kratos’ history. I’m very interested in the philosophical debate of nurture vs. nature. Whether genetic inheritance determines a person’s behavioral traits, or if one’s upbringing and environment is the leading factor. Interestingly enough, the idea of the two influences being antagonistic is relatively new. The concept of the two being intrinsically linked as nurture and nature is ancient, being Greek in origin. Which is entirely fitting for Kratos.
The God of War series also heavily focuses on the concept of prophecy, or destiny. This is largely in part due to the source material, but I think this lends nicely to internal character influence, which leads to developed character decisions and motivations that can be tragic or even seemingly uncharacteristic. Knowledge being power, and power being dangerous if wielded incorrectly.
In an effort to prevent Olympus’ destruction at the hands of The Marked Warrior, Zeus forsakes his son Deimos and has him locked up and tortured, creating the actual Marked Warrior in Kratos as he tattoos himself in Deimos’ memory, playing a part in his own prophecy of destruction. He then tries to kill Kratos before he gets uncontrollable. Are these actions in Zeus’ nature? Or are they developed as a result of hearing the prophecy, the nurture?
The series certainly depicts the majority of the Gods as being sadistic. Even Athena, Kratos’ main ally and sister, plays her part in the underhanded tactics of the Gods. We are shown a picture of the God’s being cruel by nature. Is this really why Kratos is ultimately the villain of the series? A villain among many other villains, yes, but still a villain. If Zeus didn’t have Deimos taken, would he have grown up harbouring a grudge against the Gods like the prophecy seems to state? I also find myself asking if there really was any chance for Kratos to get out. There are definitely some bad decisions that he makes along the way.
But that’s really a moot point isn’t it? At the end of the day, Kratos is portrayed as destiny’s pawn. He is the cataclysmic event that ends the reign of Olympus. I believe this is why people think the Kratos of old has no substance. God of War (2018) brings the focus to the mortal side of Kratos, the parts that were buried beneath the rage. Parts that we see glimpses of in the original games; his sacrifice for Calliope in the Elysium Fields, his reluctance to allow Pandora to quell the Flame of Olympus, even his interaction with Orkos and being hesitant about shedding any more blood to further his own agenda.
Without any of that, there is no old man Kratos. There is no progression to the character we now have. We still see his growth even now too, as he comes to realize that his heritage, his past, they’re not a continuous cycle perpetuated generation after generation. There is an end to it if he’s strong enough to achieve it. Kratos believes that he must be better.
But is being better in Kratos’ true nature? Able to prevail, despite being warped and poisoned by prophecy and godly machinations? Or is being a father again, and the consequences of his past enough to overcome his malicious godly nature? I think that unanswerable question is what makes God of War a standout franchise for me, and why Kratos is cemented as one of my favourite video game characters of all time.

L.