SNEAK PEEK: God of War Part 12 Notes

Here are the notes that I plan on sharing at the beginning of the next part of God of War!

Okay so the Magni and Modi fight. I could not for the life of me, articulate what I was feeling at the time, all I knew was that I felt emotional and like I really wanted to cry for some reason but I couldn’t pinpoint why exactly. 

However, after some time and some reflection, I think I’m able to now. That fight was unexpectedly emotional, with how cruel Magni and Modi were being to both Atreus and Kratos about Faye. I watched the footage multiple times in editing and I can’t quite understand why Faye is so notorious in the circles of the Aesir gods, but regardless, you can tell that Magni and Modi were taunting us, somehow hitting us where it hurts. But it wasn’t necessarily even their words that made me feel so emotional, but it was how Atreus reacted to them, with fury and rage. He is so protective over the memory of his mother because of how much he loved her, and that is sort of the explanation to his rage (that and he shares DNA with Kratos) and this is heartbreaking to me. It’s heartbreaking that he lost his mother and even has to be on this journey to begin with and can’t be a normal kid (which reminds me a bit of Ellie from the Last of Us. They are both forced to grow up and grow a hard shell and survive but I wish they could both have the chance to have a childhood and be tucked in by their parents and read bedtime stories and play with other children, not protecting themselves against enemies who constantly want to murder them). 

Anyway it’s heartbreaking that he lost his mother, it’s heartbreaking that he has to even be on this journey, it’s heartbreaking that he has is in a position where he cannot show weakness, and it’s heartbreaking how Kratos has to sort of remind him to shut it all out. Not only shutting out the fear and anger, but the pain. It’s heartbreaking that Kratos is teaching his son how to cope in the only way he knows how, sort of ignoring his pain or anger or channeling it to become a more efficient fighter and survive. And finally, it’s heartbreaking knowing that Kratos (who has lost everyone and everything dear to him, his past allies, his brother, his freedom, his wife, his daughter) it’s heartbreaking knowing that Kratos has to watch the only person he has left, also suffer from loss and try to teach him how to overcome grief. 

Anway, seeing Atreus’ struggle and seeing Kratos care about Atreus...it all sort of hurts to watch. And all these emotions sort of sandwich an exhausting and stressful fight with Magdi and Modi and even though I don’t have an attachment to Faye, I have an attachment to Atreus. During the fight, I swear I could feel everything he was feeling, a fear (of getting killed), hurt and rage about the way they’re talking about the memory of someone who was dear to us and finally the exhaustion after the encounter. In a weird way, I have experienced everything Atreus felt in those 10 or 15 minutes of gameplay and cutscenes. I remember quite vividly, being taunted by my mother for the man that I chose to be with, my partner who means the world to me, who I want to fiercely protect...someone hurling every insult possible at the person you love and then you feel so defensive but you also feel angry ...so ENRAGED...and then you just feel exhausted. 

In an unexpected way, this fight hit really hard, the circumstances certainly aren’t identical but some of the feelings are. And I can finally pinpoint why I was shaken and sort of upset after that fight. I think it also could have brought up some unresolved resentment of mine, towards the person who constantly tried to destroy the people I love.

Going back to how Kratos is trying to teach Atreus how to get a grip on his emotions...it kind of brings up the question, is Kratos a “good father”? Considering the circumstances, yes, absolutely. Atreus needs to learn how to survive and Kratos is the best teacher out there because he has survived everything, even when he didn’t want to (lol surviving against your will). I wish that Kratos could be a bit softer with Atreus, but unfortunately that is not the reality that they live in.