God of War was a huge success in the gaming community back in 2018. Not only for the gaming experience and its gameplay, but mostly for its plot and story from start to finish. The developing staff and director Cory Barlog, did an amazing job bringing the old Norse Mythology world to life. From the eyes of, our protagonist, Kratos a God with his own history in a different Mythological Realm, Pantheon. But our job here is not to praise them and discuss the all the things from the different games…
In our Blog we take interest only in the story part. As we have mentioned in our Home Page, everything has a story to tell, book, tv, movie, even games! So here we are taking into consideration only the plot. That is a friendly thing to keep in mind from our Story Analysis posts.
Today we are not going to analyze the plot as it is set for other day 😉. But since I am a personal fan of the Norse Mythology, I couldn’t help but notice some differences between the games and the actual Mythology. So here we are pointing them out and trying to figure out what excited future events might happen in the next game God of War: Ragnarok. Whose its release is near!
Keep in mind… Spoilers Ahead!
Hel
So, this is something that I expect the next God of War: Ragnarok, will explain in the future. We know Atreus is Loki, and by the Norse Mythology, Loki is the father of 3 children with the giantess Angrboda; Hel, Jormungandr and Fenrir. We got an explanation of the appearance of Jormungandr (The World Serpent) in the first game, which was by the words of Mimir; that the World Serpent is actually from the future and already lived during Ragnarok and with his clash with Thor he ended up ‘shaking’ the world Tree Yggdrasil, ending back in time, sending him in a timeline “EVEN BEFORE HIS OWN BIRTH”. So, we also got a reason why Jormungandr was so willing to help Kratos and Atreus, being Atreus Son and Kratos grandson (or Grand-BOY :P).
But that is not the case with ‘Lokis Daughter’ Hel. In Norse Mythology, Hel is the Queen of the Dead and Ruler of their Realm. The Realm of the Dead got its name after her actually, “Helheim”. In God of War, this realm was called Helheim as well. Does that mean Hel exists as well? But She wasn’t mentioned at all. Here is something that can be explained or showed in the future game. Maybe in the God of War version of the Norse Mythology, Helheim, was the realm of the dead and when she will be born, she will take the name after this Realm and not the other way around like in the Mythology.
Also, as we noticed from the gameplay, Kratos kills the keeper of the ‘Bridge of the damned’. A Troll named Mattugr Helson (as we found out from the God of War wiki). Now that leads to two different thoughts.
Is Hel present to the events or not?
Firstly the Bridge keeper is named Helson, which means obviously, son of Hel. That shows that Hel might exist as well, which does not explain how she is the daughter of Loki/Atreus. We could also try to find a way how she would end up as Lokis/Atrues daughter as the second thought…
That is, maybe Helheim is not being affected by timelines. And maybe after the past Ragnarok (the one the World Serpent came from) Helheim was not affected at all, yet. That could possibly work, because as Mimir said: every Realm has a different way that the time passes. That means for example 1 hour in Helheim could translate in 1 minute in Midgard. That was also the reason why Kratos (even if it took him quite some time to find and kill the guardian) when he returned to Midgard and his sick son, he was in-time to give Freya the cure to save him from the illness. Maybe the fact that Helheims time passes so slow was the cause it didn’t catch up to the events of Ragnarok. And Hel is still on her throne.
That is very unlike though…
There is the possibility Hel does not exist yet, and she will appear as Atreus daughter in the future. Maybe Kratos killing the guardian and leaving Helheim unguarded let all the souls to enter Helheim and the overpopulation led to many problems, as Mimir notices. Maybe Atreus will be forced to leave his daughter the protection of Helheim after the events of the next game God of War: Ragnarok. That is, IF they show Atreus have his Giant kids, Loki in Mythology supposably has.
Fenrir
Similar to Hels issue from above, Fenrir is one of Lokis/Atreus ‘Unborn children’. Yet not shown or mentioned he is crucially important! In the Norse mythology he was fierce and terrifying for all the gods as well! He ended up tricked and chained by magic bounds. His Myth is very interesting but we don’t have the length and the topic to analyze it all. Maybe I will write it in some Myth Explained in the future. As we did in previous post with the Norse Mythology Origin
Back to Fenrir, there are 3 important things must be mentioned in his case! First of all, in the Myths, in order to trick him, the Gods had Tyr (the only god Fenrir was familiar and fond of) to sacrifice his hand to him. So basically, Tyr was known ever since as the one-handed god. In the Myhts he was appeared only with one hand! That is not the case in the God of War game. First of all, during the first game he was not appeared at all, making many to thing that maybe he was dead, so we could not prove Fenrirs existence. But after the gameplay trailer of the next game, we got a glimpse of him! And he appeared with both hands!! A crucial note, since proves that Fenrir hasn’t been born!
Now, maybe you thing, whats the deal with it and Fenrir? Well, Fenrir in Norse Mythology is the one that kills, or rather Devours Odin in Ragnarok. Fenrir is Odins doom! He is extremely important to be mentioned as one of the nightmares of the Gods and their Great Enemy. Which is one thing we should expect from the next game. How will Fenrir appear or rather when he will be born?
Angrboda’s significant appearance
In both Hel and Fenrir cases, it is one thing required to justify the fact we can expect their appearance. That is their mother, Angrboda. In order for them to be born, Loki must meet Angrboda. And to our surprise, she did a cameo in the trailer! So, maybe we could expect some ‘romantic’, ‘shipping’ scenes with Atreus and Angrboda. But that is not in the DNA of God of War games, at least in the past. It is yet to be showed how they will adapt the myths in to the games story plot.
Skoll and Hati issue
There is one last thing though that the Game’s story goes against the Mythology. That is Fenrirs sons. Skoll and Hati! During the game, Mimir told many Stories, one that caught my attention was the one considering those two wolves, Skoll and Hati who were wicked to chase the son and the moon and when they will catch their prey, Ragnarok will come. If they are sons of Fenrir grandsons of Loki, (and Grant-grant-boys of Kratos :P), and Fenrir hasn’t been born yet, how do they exist at all? In the Game Mimir says that these two wolves are the sons of one great Wolf-giant named Hróðvitnir, whose name literally means Famous Wolf and is a byname of Fenrir Himself!
So, the God of War directors are either playing with words and the different names and try to keep secret some things or they took the different names of Fenrir and created some other personalities as well. Maybe in their story-plot Hróðvitnir is not Fenrir rather just another great Wolf-Giant. Which makes me still wait for Fenrirs appearance in the next game, it is teases enough in my opinion, with the connection Atreus has with wolves (one of his abilities in the first game and the wolve riding in the gameplay trailer of the next).
Baldur, Magni and Modi dying in God of War
Last but not least, the death of Balder meant and symbolized a lot of things, who were understood by the most, but the deaths of Magni and Modi were not just a coincidence choice of gods at all!
Firstly, the most self-evident being Baldurs death. Even in Norse Mythology after Baldurs death, the next event was that of Ragnarok! His death didn’t happen exactly like the Myths but it was a close enough adaptation, while it kept the most important facts. Mistletoe was his only weakness that could kill him and Loki was the one lifting the spell, causing him to die. Just like the Myth and the game had these important similarities.
Even if some parts were missing like the fact that the one who killed Baldur was actually his brother Hod, the blind god, but he was tricked by Loki to do so without him knowing. That lead to Hod getting killed by his other brother Vali, who sought revenge. Then Lokis punishment and then eventually Ragnarok…
In the game he was killed so the directors could show that Ragnarok was coming. As we mentioned above his death was the countdown of Ragnarok. After the last events of the game Fimbilwinter, the great winter, had already started!
But what the game did differently is the death of Magni and Modi, the sons of Thor! In the Norse Mythology Ragnarok meant the Twilight of the Gods and the End of the Old times. Without going in to full details, as this is not our topic at this post, almost everyone died… Almost…
Ragnarok in a nutshell
In Summary, in Ragnarok Odin rushes in to Fenrir and ending up dead by the Wolfs Jaws, Thor fights the World Serpent and both end up dead by each other, the warriors of Valhalla fight the Troops of Hel. The other gods fight the Frost Giants and Loki fights Heimdall both ending up dying by each other hands. Even though after their father’s death Magni and Modi both end up lifting Mjollnir together and carry it until the end. Vidar, the silent god and son of Odin sought revenge for his father’s death by fighting Fenrir and ending up defeating him!
While all this chaos two humans, a woman named Life and a man named Lifes Yearning, were hiding in the truck of the world-tree Yggdrasil and ending up surviving all the Fire and Death that occurred after Ragnarok. No one survived the carnage Sutrs, the burning giants, sword was lift in to the heavens, giving the final blow in to the battlefield.
The world was filled with ash and grey waters, but eventually the suns daughter took his mothers place, water started running again, starting rivers and lakes. With Asgard gone, another land called Idavoll stood in its place and there the Odins Son’s Vali and Vidar went. With the sons of Thor, Magni and Modi following after. Then Balder and Hod returned from the underworld and there in Idavoll they watched as the two surviving humans started to become the ancestors of everyone. That was what the Norse mythology says about the end of Ragnarok in a nutshell.
God of War will end differently than Mythology
Having Magni and Modi killed in the God of War is something more important as the audience might think! They killed the gods that end up surviving Ragnarok and being the Gods in the ‘New Age’ that will come. Maybe the directors of the game try to tease us something by it. Maybe by saying that no one will survive, or that the gods will not end up surviving at all, or the future world will depend on the Giants and not the Gods, as the giants were represented throughout the game as the ‘misunderstood’ or ‘unfortunate’ race, while the Aesir gods were the ones obviously cruel to everyone else!
I guess we have to wait and see what the God of War directors and developing team have in store for us in the next game!!! Cannot wait to see the myths come to life in the games animation!
Those things were a lot time in my mind, but I never got the chance to explain them in public. I hope you enjoyed this Analysis, since it took us quite a while since our last Story Analysis Post. I mean it was Spyros's game analysis as well a Kingdom Come Deliverance review/analysis some months ago... A lot happened during this time. We will both me and spyros, try to post more regularly as it is something we are fond of; writing, narrating and explaining stories! You can always connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and the 'forgotten' Facebook XD. Until next time, have fun reading, playing watching stories.
Chris