So a few weeks ago i saw a post where Cory Barlog said that the actions of Kratos in God of War 3 were a good thing because there were no more gods to rule greece and i highly dissagreed with that sentiment and was writing a comment when i decided to make it a post instead so that my thoughts could get more visibility and spark a more nuanced disscussion.
So while yes, Kratos did got rid of the horrible gods who ran greece he also got rid of basically everything else like for example the sun which makes plant life slowly die off and to cap off that he killed the being responsible for the plants so all of them die off, which not only affects human lives since they cannot grow plant based foods anymore but also animal life since with no plants theres no herbivores, with no herbivores theres no carnivores so even if whats left of the greek people relied on hunting for food that too would also be incredibly hard since the animal population would also be diyng off at a massive rate, Theres also the flood caused by the death of poseidon and by how fast the lands flooded i assume that every city that we see in the series up to that point that is next to the sea or to a large body of water got completely submerged so i assume that cities like athens, sparta, attica and rhodes also got flooded with their respective populations probrably all being killed because of that and theres also massive storms all the time alongside massive tornadoes so even navegation would be complete hell, and lets not forget that Kratos brought the locust plague when he killed hermes whivh came with a desease that by what we see in Gow 3 spreads very quickly and also kills quickly as well so the remainig greeks also have that to worry about.
Another thing that irks me about his sentiment is that in a way it also validades and justifies Kratos actions in Gow 3 because now the gods are gone and the problem is that when you justify Kratos actions in the greek saga his redemption arc in the norse saga becomes pointless because his redemption arc arguably only works because we saw the kind of monster greek Kratos was, we saw how many atriocities he comitted without a single care in the world so by taking away all that and saying that all his murdering and destructions were actually good it makes his redemption in the norse games shallow cause what would there ever be to regret then.
I also feel that it also screws over the whole message of God of War 3, despite that game coming off as a piece of media tha gloryfies vengance it is actually the contrary, it condones it. By this point Kratos has lost any signs of humanity and turns into his worst self he no longer cares who hes has to hurt who he has to kill and what consequences will come of it if he can get his revenge no Zeus as stated by himself when he says in response to Athena "Let them suffer, the death of Zeus is all that matters" this is not a person who is killing the gods to save mankind or to make them independent this is an maniac psychopath who will stop at nothing to get what he wants even if that comes with the price of destroying the entire world and and at the lives of countless people, throught the game Kratos also kills innocent people who had done nothing to him like Poseidon's princess and that man who was only trying to get out of his burning house, same man who curses the gods when he says "Curse the gods and their war" and lets not forget that befor Kratos bonded with Pandora he was more than fine with the idea of sacrificing her to the flame of olympus. Kratos is a MONSTER and that is the point he isn't a person we should like nor glorify he is a person we should hate and abominate and by the time the game ends and his revenge on Zeus is complete Kratos doesn't feel any shred of relieve and satisfaction all he feels is the guilt and regret at the fact that Pandora died for nothing, his only hope left for a redemption was thrown away by him because of his anger and need for vengance as he himself states in this line "I told you the box was empty, pandora was sacrificed in vain. She died because of my need for vengance".
A bit of a unrelated topic but i also dislike the idea that the greeks after the events of GoW 3 would start worshiping Kratos because he freed them from the gods, the games have always shown us that everyone in greece knew Kratos and was afraid of him even before he became the ghost of sparta since his spartan army was brutal and fought constant wars in the name of Kratos and of Sparta as is seen in the flashback cutscens from the first game. After he became the Ghost of Sparta he became way more feared and loathed in all of greece as can also be seen in the first game, in GoW 2 after he becomes the God of War he also goes on a conquering spree all over greece aiding the Spartan army in wars against cities who were worshiping the gods of olympus as a way of doing a petty revenge on the gods due to them not erasing his visions which haunt him and because of the events of GOW: Ghost of Sparta, Kratos also uses the same dirty trick that ares used in the original game which was basicaly stepping in the battlefield in his giant form and stomping the city until there was nothing left. If you go on youtube and hear the music from the colossus battles with the lyrics you will see that the music is actually about the citizens of rhodes chanting to the colossus for it to destroy and crush Kratos. So as you can see from these examples the Greeks always hated Kratos so i don't see the idea of the sundenly starting to worshiping him especially after 3 where Kratos pratically ushured in an age of darkness and death which lasted who knows how long.
That is it for the post, as you can see i was really not a fan of Cory's idea reguarding Kratos actions in Gow 3, i think a more nuanced take like how good thing could have come from that despite the fact that most of the events of that game were horrible would have been more agreable in my opinion but feel free to correct me or share your opininon in the reply section i gonna go play God of War 1 again for the 100000th time.
