For me, God of War is a complicated example of revisiting frustrating tropes/cliches that absolutely do annoy me, but yet they do so in interesting ways:
Faye - fridged mother, but also a chessmaster to the events of the game, and a complete badass. The finale reveal also adds a dash of moral ambiguity to her dynamic with her husband and son, which I'm curious to see if they explore in the future.
Freya - urrghhh at everything with her and Baldur in the finale, but a compelling character throughout.
Valkyries - technically damsels in distress, but yet, terrifying badasses. Sigrun put the fear of god into me in a way few bosses have outside of the Soulsborne games.
Neither Freya nor the Valkyries designs were sexualized, either, which was refreshing and important step for the series.
The one thing that annoyed me 1000% more than any of the above was that Kratos didn't tell Atreus about the fact he'd killed his first wife and daughter. As this fact had been so much of Kratos' guilt and motivation from the past games, the fact that this didn't get discussed was downright absurd. It felt like Kratos' guilt over killing his piece of shit corrupted father took priority over his accidental (accidental via hubris?) murder of his innocent wife and daughter. In one of the interviews with the writers after the game's release, they talked about how it was a bit too much to deal with story-wise in one game, and will hopefully be material to revisit in the future. Was it a Game Informer interview? I can understand this perspective from a writing standpoint, as the core of the game was the relationship between father and a son. The unfortunate side effect, though, was that it made Kratos' moment of catharsis with bandages in the finale fall really flat and become almost silly for me, because until Kratos acknowledges the full truth of his past to Atreus, he isn't free at all. I ultimately felt pretty disgusted that Kratos' fear of Atreus finding out he killed his father was prioritized over his murdered wife and child.
Basically, I have complicated feelings on God of War. I love the game, and it's my GOTY. It does great and extremely important things, especially unraveling toxic masculinity and the cycles of abuse. It's just a shame that all of this came at the expense of the female characters. It's a fair enough topic for Abby to bring up.
Any criticism or discussion point on a subject being shut down with a 'well, go make it yourself!' is really, really frustrating - and also hypocritically hilarious, considering the focus of this forum is gaming and entertainment discussion, and only a very small portion of users would actually work in either of these industries. Surely 98-99% of users on Era are armchair developers?
Hey, Abby, spend years learning to be a game dev and/or writer, before you can criticize anything! It'll be fun, I promise! ...enjoy the long hours and terrible pay. As a woman in the industry, it's going to be even more fun! Yay!
The sanctity of a creator and their vision is also pretty fanciful, too, as it's a miracle if a creator's product reaches release with being mostly intact. The romanticizing of just one member of a team (which frequently tends to be directors) glosses over the valuable contributions of team members in all levels that contribute to a final product. Saying that Abby should become a creator is pretty patronizing, too, and it implies that it's an easy thing to do, which it isn't. There are already so many diverse voices in the entertainment industry fighting tooth and nail to get their stories told, but have their stories warped, torn apart, or thrown away entirely. It's brutal.
I respect that God of War was a very personal journey for Barlog, especially him being a father with a young son. I think Barlog's own father may have been involved in elements of the writing process? I love the game, I think it's a beautiful, emotional, and memorable experience. But as a creator, your work does not exist in a void if you choose to show it to the world. It's for consumption, and that comes with both good and bad. God of War did many incredible things, and in the process, also made some missteps on the way. And that's okay, as long as they keep learning. The team at SSM had already made positive steps from their previous games. I can't wait to see what they do next.
Faye - fridged mother, but also a chessmaster to the events of the game, and a complete badass. The finale reveal also adds a dash of moral ambiguity to her dynamic with her husband and son, which I'm curious to see if they explore in the future.
Freya - urrghhh at everything with her and Baldur in the finale, but a compelling character throughout.
Valkyries - technically damsels in distress, but yet, terrifying badasses. Sigrun put the fear of god into me in a way few bosses have outside of the Soulsborne games.
Neither Freya nor the Valkyries designs were sexualized, either, which was refreshing and important step for the series.
The one thing that annoyed me 1000% more than any of the above was that Kratos didn't tell Atreus about the fact he'd killed his first wife and daughter. As this fact had been so much of Kratos' guilt and motivation from the past games, the fact that this didn't get discussed was downright absurd. It felt like Kratos' guilt over killing his piece of shit corrupted father took priority over his accidental (accidental via hubris?) murder of his innocent wife and daughter. In one of the interviews with the writers after the game's release, they talked about how it was a bit too much to deal with story-wise in one game, and will hopefully be material to revisit in the future. Was it a Game Informer interview? I can understand this perspective from a writing standpoint, as the core of the game was the relationship between father and a son. The unfortunate side effect, though, was that it made Kratos' moment of catharsis with bandages in the finale fall really flat and become almost silly for me, because until Kratos acknowledges the full truth of his past to Atreus, he isn't free at all. I ultimately felt pretty disgusted that Kratos' fear of Atreus finding out he killed his father was prioritized over his murdered wife and child.
Basically, I have complicated feelings on God of War. I love the game, and it's my GOTY. It does great and extremely important things, especially unraveling toxic masculinity and the cycles of abuse. It's just a shame that all of this came at the expense of the female characters. It's a fair enough topic for Abby to bring up.
Any criticism or discussion point on a subject being shut down with a 'well, go make it yourself!' is really, really frustrating - and also hypocritically hilarious, considering the focus of this forum is gaming and entertainment discussion, and only a very small portion of users would actually work in either of these industries. Surely 98-99% of users on Era are armchair developers?
Hey, Abby, spend years learning to be a game dev and/or writer, before you can criticize anything! It'll be fun, I promise! ...enjoy the long hours and terrible pay. As a woman in the industry, it's going to be even more fun! Yay!
The sanctity of a creator and their vision is also pretty fanciful, too, as it's a miracle if a creator's product reaches release with being mostly intact. The romanticizing of just one member of a team (which frequently tends to be directors) glosses over the valuable contributions of team members in all levels that contribute to a final product. Saying that Abby should become a creator is pretty patronizing, too, and it implies that it's an easy thing to do, which it isn't. There are already so many diverse voices in the entertainment industry fighting tooth and nail to get their stories told, but have their stories warped, torn apart, or thrown away entirely. It's brutal.
I respect that God of War was a very personal journey for Barlog, especially him being a father with a young son. I think Barlog's own father may have been involved in elements of the writing process? I love the game, I think it's a beautiful, emotional, and memorable experience. But as a creator, your work does not exist in a void if you choose to show it to the world. It's for consumption, and that comes with both good and bad. God of War did many incredible things, and in the process, also made some missteps on the way. And that's okay, as long as they keep learning. The team at SSM had already made positive steps from their previous games. I can't wait to see what they do next.
