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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 8877653" data-attributes="member: 63">It's a story about the rejection of generational trauma, and an effort to overcome toxic masculinity. Kratos regularly tells his son to 'close his heart to it' whenever something bad happens to a stranger, and yet Kratos clearly is full of rage at the world, rage that caused him to do things he regrets. When he sees that same rage arising in his son, he grapples with raising the kid, because he doesn't want his son to turn out like him, but he also has internalized that being gruff and forceful and heartless is 'right.'It's also a story about going to great lengths to try to avert what seems like an inevitable war, against a foe who insists on pursuing that war, and trying to change one's own nature so that you don't fall into a predictable tragedy.Now, all of that is allegorical, but if I told you I was going to make a video game about a man rejecting toxic masculinity and trying to avoid war by learning forgiveness, trust, and love, somebody would call me a woke hippie snowflake, probably.The main villain, Odin, is sort of the negative parts of capitalism personified -- he pursues 'knowledge' that is undefined, with no specific goal and no mention of how he might use that 'knowledge' to help anyone but himself, which I read as a stand-in for the pointless pursuit of bigger piles of cash rather than using money as a way to pursue improvements in the world. He also uses overwhelming military force (aka, Thor) to force the other realms to submit to him, and in some places that leads to the crushing of local cultures and environment-destroying exploitation of natural resources that leave the residents dependent on a distorted supply chain which invariably siphons prosperity to Asgard and the Aesir.You seek forgiveness from a woman you've wronged, and she ends up your most powerful ally. Like, you actively risk your life to try to help her and to make amends. You grow as a person in the course of doing so.And the game repeatedly argues that taking an action simply because it will hurt someone you see as an enemy is unjustified and will end up coming back to hurt you or those you care about.</blockquote>

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