#santa monica studios

[simplysparrow14]

Okay okay okay but if it’s true that Ingrid was made by Freyr, then why the hell does his Sheith for Ingrid have the fucking Celtic Triskelion on its medallion????

And the fact that Ingrid— a literal sword of light—seems to look nothing like any sword that we've seen (not even freya's sword) be similar to the “sword of light” of Celtic mythology????

As well as the fact that throughout Ragnarok, there were so many references to Celtic/Irish/Scottish/British Isle specific mythology and stories:

Kelpies

mentions of Arthurian Legend of The Lady of the Lake, Nimue

The Scottish play which shall not be named (Shakespeare)

mentions of Oberon and Tatiannia

Mimir being opening called “Puck” from a Mid-Summers Nights Dream by The Norns (Shakespeare)

Mimir’s story about the Laird (The scottish name for a lord) and The Girl

The fact that the British isles is geographically closer to Scandinavia than any other mythological location

the fact that the biggest mystery as to what happened to the remaining giants of Jotunheim is still ongoing and Atreus is now on his quest to find what happened to them and where did they go

And the fact that the Ragnarok ending heavily hinted at the fact that Atreus could have his own spin-off game in the future

Also the fact that the formorians of celtic mythology are often linked to being giants/vikings that came from scandinavia (AKA home of Norse Mythology)

Santa Monica Studios: The math is not mathing, the mythology is not mythology-ing.

[kratioed]

FUN FACT: Santa Monica uses Deimos' child model from Ascension to represent Atreus for GOW (2018) in early development! Like uncle, like nephew 😭😭😭.

EDIT UPDATE: More pictures of child!Deimos and Kratos together! Not sure if it's a unused cutscene from Ascension, but I assumed those are placeholders for Atreus and Kratos for GOW (2018)- Kratos teaching Atreus archery made sense since he wielded the Bow of Apollo before. But nevertheless, it's still heartwrenching to see! ;)

[tapioca-puddingg]

Why GoWR Valhalla Is Important

Hey. It's me again. This time I'm not yelling about Kingdom Hearts or Drakengard, but I wanted to talk about God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla today and why I think it's important in trauma-centered narratives. This isn't a detailed analysis, just me spitballing.

SPOILER WARNING: There will be spoilers for God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla, so please proceed with caution!

EDITED: 2/26/24

As a brief summary, Kratos spent almost the entirety of GoW 2018 refusing to talk about his past. His guilt, shame, and trauma deeply affected his relationship with his son, to the point where he didn't want to be around Atreus bc he was terrified of being a bad influence on him. It was only when Atreus' life was in danger did it force him to finally admit just a sliver of the truth. Now I don't mean to say that Kratos revealing his godhood wasn't a big deal because it absolutely was, I'm just saying that it's just one piece of a MUCH bigger story. Anyway, he recognized his past mistakes, but the shame was too much for him to openly acknowledge it until damn near the end of the game.

Come Ragnarök, Kratos was pretty much an open book. He had grown SO much in those short years of fimbulwinter: He openly talked about his trauma to Mimir and Freya. He worked so hard to be a good father and a good support system to his friends. He went out of his way to make amends with Freya and restore their friendship. And he fought to restore peace to the Nine Realms.

But come Valhalla, Freya wants to recruit Kratos to be the new God of War of the nine realms, or at least to be a part of the new peacekeeping council that she's putting together. Kratos is extremely hesitant to take up the mantle. He doesn't feel worthy or deserving enough to hold this position given all that he's done. He and Mimir (and later on, Tyr) are constantly going back and forth about it. Both perspectives are completely valid. Valhalla is about Kratos facing his past in a more literal sense; parts of Greece have been manifested from Kratos' memories of it, so it's like he gets to be there in real time again. This is about helping him process what happened and to add some nuance to the conversation. It's like free therapy for Kratos.

It's funny too bc you have both opposing viewpoints being represented. On one hand, you have Mimir and Tyr being the supporting/validating voice, and Helios is the contrarian. Since he's a manifestation of Kratos' memories, he represents the doubts that Kratos has about himself. The harsh voice to show how hard he is on himself, and not without good reason.

The reason why I think Valhalla is so important is bc in media, survivor narratives are often linear. The character just "gets over" their trauma and then that trauma isn't addressed again. It's presented more as a hurdle than a lifelong battle. I guess this goes to show how misunderstood survivorhood is. But that isn't how healing works. We regress sometimes, and sometimes we still mull over the things that have happened to us. We might heal, but that trauma does leave emotional scars. So even after the many leaps and bounds Kratos has made, he's not "over" his past, far from it! It still haunts him every day and every night. Valhalla is Kratos still processing everything. From my own healing journey, I've learned that it takes a long, long time to fully process your trauma, if there even is a "fully", anyway. It takes a long time to learn and understand all the complexities and how it affects you in current day. And it takes even longer to process such a complicated history like Kratos'.

Generally speaking about the idea of processing trauma, I said earlier that survivorhood is extremely misunderstood by the masses. Imo, our society is very anti-victim/anti-survivor. So with that in mind, from the perspective of the audience, some might perceive the processing trauma bit as repetitive or "milking it". These are mediums of entertainment after all, so ofc I understand wanting to put out an engaging story where the audience doesn't lose interest. But screw those ppl lol. We have to understand why we do what we do if we want to do better, and it's amazing that a video game is willing to have these conversations. Being more open about all the nuances of processing trauma, grief, healing, etc will go such a long way.

Even the roguelite gameplay style perfectly reflects this theme. Processing this stuff is slow. It doesn't happen overnight. Unless you're in Valhalla, I suppose.

Okay I said this wasn't a detailed analysis but I lied. I'm a liar now

[triplethreat77]

One of my favorite tattoos is one I don't often see...for multiple reasons. It's on my back and can only be seen in black light. I happened to get this shortly before meeting Stig Asmussen (game director for God of War 3) and he was stoked on it. The blades of Athena are still the best in my opinion, and what a killer game.

[almirondesign]

GOD OF WAR RAGNAROK FANART POSTER

[pedrotheart]

some fanart (kratos and some characters from silent hill)

[but-a-humble-goon]

The honour of single best creative decision anyone made in the process of writing the new God of War games goes to whoever it was who looked at Kratos and thought "this character was born to be the deadpan straightman surrounded by far too many friendly talkative people."

[wftjd95-gaming]

[redgraysonofthenight]

" I am your monster no longer.. "

[the-elven-nymph]

No game has made me tear up as much as GOW Ragnarok has. What a beautiful journey through this masterpiece of a game❣️

[embracedbythesea]

ENDING SPOILERS

A journey to reborn from the ashes of own mistakes and become better people. Some thoughts about God Of War Ragnarok from Santa Monica Studio

God of War Ragnarok didn't disappoint my expectations. I waited a long time for this game and I was assailed by doubts and worries about Kratos and Atreus' fate from the beginning, afraid of what awaited them and the prophecy that would be fulfilled.

It has been a journey full of challenges and self-discovery for Atreus and Kratos, a coming together and pulling apart, quarreling and making peace, putting each other's sake first while keeping quiet about the truth thinking they are doing the right thing.

A constant effort to walk a path, not to fall back into the mistakes of the past, a digging within oneself to be better and "open the heart" to pain and suffering, feeling empathy and emotions hitherto kept dormant and controlled; a journey to discover forgiveness, to discover new worlds and new friends, moments experienced in solitude to clear one's head and master anger until a greater purpose is achieved.

I have so many feelings to consider, starting with the fact that Faye had seen the fate of Kratos and Atreus but hid the prophecy so that they would both follow their own path according to their choices. Seeing Kratos and Atreus unite even more during this journey, the trust they both felt little by little toward each other, and the fact that Kratos understood that Atreus has a mission and his own path to follow, make one realize how much he has changed and how much he loves his son, that child who became a man in front his eyes and for whom he tried to be better.

He himself was destined to be the "champion" of the nine kingdoms, a god of a foreign land who brought peace, fighting wars for a more just end. And even if his son left, if Loki left... Atreus will remain in his heart and always be a part of his life.

Even though Atreus is far away now, even though he left to follow the destiny he himself decided to forge, Kratos knows that he will be able to make it and that one day, sooner or later, they will meet again. And I'll wait for that day too.

[nenafena]

artwork i made for my dad of god of war, the biggest fan there is~

[kratioed]

ANDY PARK: KRATOS & DEIMOS (YOUNG), CONCEPT ART Game Franchise: God of War, dev. Santa Monica Studios

[tapioca-puddingg]

[solain-rhyo]

Photo mode at last!

[ibelinn]

"Every agony. Every violation imaginable."

First image of my Ragnarök Freya costume. Thank you Santa monica Studios for partnering with me to bring Freya to life 🧡

Costume&Photo by me

You can find me here;

https://twitter.com/ibelinn

https://instagram.com/ibelinncosplay