God of War rant

Ok so I just wanna say Kratos’s character development between the two games (2018 and 2022/Ragnarok because those are the only two I’ve played) is really good and it makes me happy. Like he goes from being all stoic and cold, which he still is in his own way but in the first game where he tries to toughen up his son, Atreus, after they hunt a deer, where he says literally after his son expresses guilt and sorrow after having killed the deer, “Close your heart to it. On our journey we will be attacked by all manner of creature, close your heart to their desperation, close your heart to their suffering. Do not allow yourself to feel for them, they will not feel for you.” While in the second game Kratos says after Atreus expressed guilt and sadness again after innocent people get caught in the middle of the battle in Ragnarok, and then Atreus tells himself to close his heart and not care about other’s suffering Kratos interrupts him and says “You feel their pain because that is who you are. And you must never sacrifice that. Never. Not for anyone. I was wrong, Atreus. I was wrong. Open your heart. Open your heart to their suffering.”

Not only is this just important to Kratos accepting for who his son is and not shaming him/ trying to get him to be less caring or empathetic like himself but the message feels very important especially to father/son relationship though it can be applied to other guardian/child relationship too. I say especially father and son because often fathers will tell their son to “be a man” and it is seen as feminine to both a boy showing emotion and a father showing comfort to a child. Not that this doesn’t happen along other guardian/child relationships, Im AFAB and my mother and older sister would constantly make fun of me or shame me when I showed too many emotions especially ones of sadness, telling me to “grow up”, “get tougher skin”, “stop being so dramatic”. This line from Kratos is important because Kratos is valuing his son’s empathy for other people, he is telling him to be empathetic, to “open his heart to their suffering” which I think is something that is an amazing message to have especially come from someone like Kratos who is often seen as someone who is the epitome of masculinity and often people think to be masculine is to show not many emotions except anger. Kratos is still Kratos of course, he’s been through a lot and it’s a lot harder for him to change rather then his son who has less trauma and Kratos can give support to. Kratos shows he values his sons empathy and says he is sorry for ever telling him to get rid of it. And that line along made me love the game so fucking much and definitely had to pause the game to cry for a minute.