If the latest trailer for God of War Ragnarok is any indication, it looks like the events of 2007’s God of War 2 are going to be hugely important to the next installment in the series. For the most part, since first being announced back in 2020, PlayStation has tried to keep much of the story found in God of War Ragnarok under wraps. And while we have a broad idea of where the new PS5 and PS4 sequel will be going, it definitely seems like Kratos’ experiences from God of War 2 will play a major part in the themes of Ragnarok.
Warning: Spoilers for the majority of the God of War series will be mentioned in great detail in this article. Read on at your own peril!
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The new trailer for God of War Ragnarok that was unveiled by PlayStation and developer Santa Monica Studio this week is only the second proper video for the game that we’ve seen. Much of the trailer centered around the narrative of Ragnarok and gave us a better understanding of the roles that Kratos, Atreus, Tyr, Odin, and many others will play in the game.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the trailer comes with the brief dynamic that is shown between Kratos and Atreus. At the conclusion of 2018’s God of War, Kratos viewed a mural on a wall in Jötunheim that predicted his eventual death. This same mural also happened to prophesize all of the events that took place within God of War, which suggests that the death of Kratos is something that seems likely to happen. Clearly, this tease of Kratos’s potential death is something that could be bothering Atreus, as the new trailer for Ragnarok has him stressing that Kratos himself is in need of protection. Kratos ends up responding with the trailer’s best line by simply saying, “Death can have me when it earns me.”
Beyond simply greeting the thought of his death in this badass manner, Kratos also goes on to stress to (seemingly) Atreus later on in the trailer that what has been foretold isn’t guaranteed to come to pass.”Fate only binds you if you let it,” he says. “Do what is necessary. Not because it is written. We will make our own destiny.”
What makes all of these lines from Kratos so fascinating is that the original entries in the God of War series already leaned heavily into the idea that Kratos is someone that makes his own fate. God of War 2 is perhaps the most notable example of this as that game begins with him literally being killed at the hands of Zeus. After entering the depths of the Underworld, Kratos goes on to defy the Sisters of Fate, roll back time, and undo his own death. Kratos also has other brushes with death in the original God of War and God of War 3, but it’s God of War 2 that really centers around this central theme of his destiny not being set in stone.
To hear that the version of Kratos in God of War Ragnarok is still pulling on these learnings from his past and is now passing them onto his son is something that greatly unifies the franchise that much more and continues to show how much Santa Monica Studio is still leaning on the Greek games in the series to shape Kratos as a character. If Kratos could change his own fate in the past, what’s to say that both he and Atreus can’t accomplish this once again in the face of Ragnarok?
It’s for all of these reasons that I don’t believe Kratos will die in God of War Ragnarok. I think the tease of his death at the end of God of War was merely a red herring that was meant to misguide fans more than anything. Still, this new trailer for the game clearly suggests that the potential death of Kratos is going to be a big focal point of Ragnarok and the story that it tells. Whether he actually bites the dust remains to be seen, but I have a hard time seeing this be the end of his arc — especially since God of War is likely now the biggest first-party franchise that PlayStation has at its disposal.
No matter what happens in God of War Ragnarok, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out. The game is set to launch in a little under two months on November 9th and will be coming to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.
