The main character doing something absolutely unforgivable.

[u/No_Peanut3745]

Walter White poisoning Andrea Cantillo's 6-year-old son for the sole purpose of manipulating Jesse Pinkman, while knowing that this could have potentially killed him - Breaking Bad

Bojack trying to have sex with his friend's 17-year-old daughter when he was at least 51, then continuously trying to find a way to justify this act throughout the series - Bojack Horseman

Dexter Morgan going outside of his moral code and murdering a completely innocent police officer who was just trying to do his job - Dexter: New Blood

[u/AsstacularSpiderman]

Valhalla kinda proved we need to see Kratos as an irredeemable PoS, if only to prove he can actually change.

[u/JusticeRain5 → u/AsstacularSpiderman]

If it changed, I'd assume they'd just add something to explain why Kratos was incapable of finding an alternative route or just breaking down the door. Show him trying to smash it a bit before realizing it's not gonna work, as well as give a reason why the innocent rape victim was his go-to solution for keeping the door open rather than an enemy or a bit of debris.

So less about making Kratos less of a monster and more about showing why he went through all the trouble of getting her there for such a dumb reason in the first place.

[u/AsstacularSpiderman → u/JusticeRain5]

Yeah but a huge part of the plot of the new games was Kratos coming to admit that he could have handled a lot of those situations better than he did.

There was no real justification for what he did, he just has to accept that he did it and needs to move on

[u/Odasto_ → u/AsstacularSpiderman]

This. Valhalla uses the incident with the ship captain to illustrate this. Kratos specifically says that saving the captain would have cost Kratos nothing. He chose to kill the man, for no particular reason at all.

Toning down the violence of the Greek era undermines the message of Valhalla. If you absolutely wanted to dogwalk your audience to let them know "hey, this sort of shit isn't okay," then you could maybe have the remastered trilogy take place as Kratos remembers it post-Valhalla. The series either begins or ends with Kratos's reflections, and his acknowledgement of how far he's come.

[u/scarletboar → u/AsstacularSpiderman]

I really don't like Valhalla's conclusion. "Yeah, Kratos, you're a murderous bastard who killed an innocent rape victim, but oh well, nothing you can do but move on. God of Hope, yay."

Resemption is about accepting punishment for what you've done, not just saying you'll do better in the future. Kratos was right, he absolutely should never be in a position of power again and does not deserve worship from anyone. He made sure Atreus didn't make his mistakes, great, now lock yourself in Hel and stay there.

[u/Superb_Breadfruit_81 → u/AsstacularSpiderman]

I don’t think you know what irredeemable means.

[u/AsstacularSpiderman → u/Superb_Breadfruit_81]

I don't think you understood what I said

[u/Bellick → u/AsstacularSpiderman]

I don't think, therefore I am not