"Be the hero of your own story." Ever been given this advice? It's very good advice; it means to be the kind of person you want to look up to. Do good with your life; be successful, be happy, be GOOD. Take charge of your own life. But sometimes we screw up; we make one bad decision after another. Sometimes these decisions are so fatal, we become our own worst obstacles; our own villains. There will be times when the cause of our misfortune is ourselves; sometimes we can make up for it, sometimes we can't. When we can't recognize our own faults, our own shortcomings and weaknesses, we become our own villains. And if we're not careful, we end up hurting other people. Today's villain is a man who ruined his own life, and then kept on ruining everyone else's: Kratos, from God of War.
Born in Sparta to a normal woman, Kratos is yet another bastard son of Zeus. Raised the Spartan way, Kratos' life would be one guaranteed to be of war, if he lived past childhood. Together with his younger brother Deimos, Kratos trained every day to become the best warrior possible. One day, fearing a prophecy that said the gods would be destroyed by a man with a mark, Athena and Ares went to Sparta, thinking Deimos would grow up to be that man, and slew him. Unable to protect his younger brother, Kratos swore to never falter in combat again.
When he became a man, Kratos took a wife, and together, they had a daughter. Though he was a rough and cruel warrior, he truly loved the two girls in his life. But Kratos also hungered for glory, and kept on fighting war after war, becoming Sparta's top general. One day, Kratos fought a battle he could not win against a barbarian horde. Unwilling to admit defeat, Kratos beseeches Ares, begging the God of War for the power to defeat his enemies. In return, Kratos would dedicate himself to Ares.
Ares accepted. This would prove to be Kratos' undoing.
Ares turned Kratos into his servant and gave him the Blades of Chaos, a pair of short swords attached to chains, tied to Kratos' wrists that he could swing wildly. With this new power, Kratos defeated not just the barbarian horde, but every enemy that came before him. But Ares wanted the ultimate warrior, one without weaknesses. Family can sometimes be a weakness...
One day, Ares commands Kratos to burn a village to the ground and slaughter every one in it. Kratos happily obliges, Unbeknownst to him, though, his wife and daughter are also in the village. In a fit of blind bloodlust, Kratos kills his wife and daughter. To punish him for this horrific crime, the oracle of the village covers Kratos with the ashes of his wife and daughter. Thus was born the Ghost of Sparta.
For years, Kratos served the gods of Olympus begrudgingly, hoping to atone for his sins and end the nightmares that plague him. Every night, he witnesses himself killing his wife and daughter, again and again. One day, Ares, in his bid to humiliate Athena, attacks her city. Athena commands Kratos to stop Ares and save Athens. Kratos, blaming Ares for the death of his family, agrees. To sweeten the deal, Athena promises Kratos his crimes would be forgiven.
In order to stop Ares, Kratos needs Pandora's Box. Travelling across the Temple of Chronos, located on the Titan's back, Kratos eventually finds the Box. He opens it and absorbs the power to kill a god. In a final showdown, Kratos easily slays his former master.
"That night, I was trying to make you a great warrior!" Ares' last words.
"You succeeded." Kratos, before impaling Ares with a sword.
Though Kratos' sins are forgiven, the nightmares endure. Athena explains that his sins were FORGIVEN, not FORGOTTEN. Depressed, Kratos prepares to kill himself, but Athena offers him a new role in life as the new God of War,
But the rest of Olympus does not accept Kratos. He had already killed a god, after all, and one who was a family member to, well, EVERYONE! Angered at what he perceived to be a betrayal, Kratos began a new war campaign in Sparta to conquer the entire world.
With every city he destroyed, the wrath of Olympus grew. When Kratos attacked Rhodes, Zeus brought its legendary Colossus to life, in a bid to kill his son. Tricking Kratos to surrender his powers, Zeus has his own son killed and sent to Hades. But Gaia, mother of the Titans, calls to Kratos and offers him a deal: help her destroy Olympus, and she will revive him. He accepts.
Gaia leads Kratos towards the Island of Creation, home of the Sisters of Fate. Kratos makes his way through the island, kills the Fates, and does the impossible: change his destiny.
You know, Kratos could have used the Threads of Fate to travel back to the night he killed his family and stopped himself. He also could have stopped himself from making that deal with Ares. But, he instead travels back in time to stop Zeus from killing him, fights him, and would have killed the King of the Gods if Athena had not intervened. Angered, Kratos travels back further in time to the Titanomachy and brings back the Titans. Together, he leads the Titans towards one final siege on Olympus.
"Zeus! Your son has returned! I bring the destruction of Olympus!"
Leading the charge against Mount Olympus, Kratos starts off by killing Poseidon, God of the Sea, which causes the sea to rise up to absurd levels, flooding most of the world. Afterwards, Gaia betrays Kratos (yeah, that never backfires, he says sarcastically) and sends him down to the Underworld, where Hades attempts to kill him. But, Kratos proves a much stronger opponent, and kills the God of the Dead, sending the souls of the departed flying across the world.
Climbing out of the Underworld (something Kratos does every game) Kratos confronts the God of the Sun,Ra Apollo. Kratos crushes Apollo with ease, blotting out the sun and plunging the world into darkness. Next, Kratos confronts Hermes, Messenger of the Gods, and kills him too. This causes the world to be covered in plague flies. Hera, Queen of the Gods, tries to stop Kratos too by having Hercules kill him, but Kratos proves too strong for the Strongest Man Alive. A little while later Kratos kills Hera too, killing all plant life on Earth.
Alright, you know where I'm going with this. Kratos' rampage of revenge is slowly bringing the world around him to its doom. Kratos, whether he meant to or not, has flooded the world, released the souls of the dead, blotted out the sun, and spread a plague across what little is left of humanity, and he does not care. Not once does Kratos stop to consider how his actions are affecting the world around him, not once does he stop and say "maybe I ought to cut it out, cuz I'm fucking shit up left and right." That's the major problem with Kratos: he never stops to consider other people, only himself.
After Kratos FINALLY kills Zeus, the spirit of Athena descends upon him and explains that, when Kratos opened up Pandora's Box, he spread a lot of negative emotions across the gods. Zeus, particularly, was afflicted with Fear, and feared Kratos would kill him. But considering that Athena wants the power of Hope for herself, I have to say she's lying and that Zeus was just a dick, like in the myths. Anyway, the power of Hope was inside Kratos all along, and Athena asks Kratos to give it all to her. In a moment of clarity, Kratos understands that Hope shouldn't be focused on one person, and thus kills himself to help spread this power across the world. That he helped destroy. Because he's a dick.
Also he's probably still alive...
Kratos is, in one simple sentence, the cause of his own misery. Yes, you could argue that Ares tricked him, but Kratos was willingly KILLING INNOCENTS just because Ares commanded it. What makes Lysandra and Calliope (Kratos' wife and daughter, respectively) any different than the other villagers Kratos was willingly slaughtering, besides their personal connection? And THAT question is what leads to one of the biggest reasons why Kratos does not deserve your pity: he doesn't care about the people he killed EXCEPT for his wife and daughter!
How many people had Kratos killed while he was a general? How many villages has he razed and burned as Ares' servant? Who knows? How many people died by Kratos' hand? That's the thing: Kratos is a killer. A cold blooded killer with no remorse, who happily killed innocents until his master made him kill his own wife and daughter. And even then, even as he admits HE was the one who killed them, he blamed Ares for it all.
Kratos' refusal to accept his part in the killing of his family is just another manifestation of Kratos' greatest character flaw: his inability to accept his own failings. When the gods of Olympus turned their back to him, Kratos responded by plunging the world into war. Rather than accept the fact that they hate him with GOOD REASON (he killed one of their own) Kratos acts like a spoiled brat and brings nothing but misery and despair to the world. And when Kratos is killed by Zeus, rather than accept the fact that MAYBE if he hadn't gone around destroying cities left and right he would probably be up in Olympus fucking Aphrodite instead of being dead. But nope, Kratos just HAS to have his revenge, so he teams up with Gaia to kill Zeus.
And yes, the gods did kind of screw over Kratos. They treated him like a slave, after all...except that this was Kratos' fault too. Kratos willingly gave himself over to Ares, and when that backfired on him, he gave himself willingly to the gods so they could erase his guilt. That was NEVER going to work, and many gods, like Hades, would have personal reasons to never, ever allow Kratos to be forgiven (Kratos killed Persephone, for example). The simple truth is that Kratos burned every bridge he could find, many before even having the chance to cross them. Even Zeus destroying Sparta was brought upon by Kratos' actions: after all, Sparta had the God of War personally come down and aid them in their conquests, why not see if they can stand against a god?
Kratos' misery is his own damn fault, and he doesn't care. He doesn't care about the lives he takes or ruins, doesn't care if his desire for revenge hurts innocents, and doesn't care how much he hurts others. All Kratos cares about is his own damn self. Yes, he also cared about his family, but not nearly enough to stop and think that being a cold blooded killer would have any negative effect on them.
At the end of his life, Kratos became the kind of person that literally, quite LITERALLY did the world a favor by ending his own life. I don't think there's anything that can say what kind of monster he was any better; the world truly was better off with him dead. That's why he's the best video game villain.
The summary:
Name: Kratos
Type of Villain: The Vengeance Seeker, The God Killer, The Psychopath
Greatest Crime: Killing his own family.
Current Status: Unknown, presumed dead.
When he became a man, Kratos took a wife, and together, they had a daughter. Though he was a rough and cruel warrior, he truly loved the two girls in his life. But Kratos also hungered for glory, and kept on fighting war after war, becoming Sparta's top general. One day, Kratos fought a battle he could not win against a barbarian horde. Unwilling to admit defeat, Kratos beseeches Ares, begging the God of War for the power to defeat his enemies. In return, Kratos would dedicate himself to Ares.
Ares accepted. This would prove to be Kratos' undoing.
Ares turned Kratos into his servant and gave him the Blades of Chaos, a pair of short swords attached to chains, tied to Kratos' wrists that he could swing wildly. With this new power, Kratos defeated not just the barbarian horde, but every enemy that came before him. But Ares wanted the ultimate warrior, one without weaknesses. Family can sometimes be a weakness...
One day, Ares commands Kratos to burn a village to the ground and slaughter every one in it. Kratos happily obliges, Unbeknownst to him, though, his wife and daughter are also in the village. In a fit of blind bloodlust, Kratos kills his wife and daughter. To punish him for this horrific crime, the oracle of the village covers Kratos with the ashes of his wife and daughter. Thus was born the Ghost of Sparta.
For years, Kratos served the gods of Olympus begrudgingly, hoping to atone for his sins and end the nightmares that plague him. Every night, he witnesses himself killing his wife and daughter, again and again. One day, Ares, in his bid to humiliate Athena, attacks her city. Athena commands Kratos to stop Ares and save Athens. Kratos, blaming Ares for the death of his family, agrees. To sweeten the deal, Athena promises Kratos his crimes would be forgiven.
In order to stop Ares, Kratos needs Pandora's Box. Travelling across the Temple of Chronos, located on the Titan's back, Kratos eventually finds the Box. He opens it and absorbs the power to kill a god. In a final showdown, Kratos easily slays his former master.
"That night, I was trying to make you a great warrior!" Ares' last words.
"You succeeded." Kratos, before impaling Ares with a sword.
Though Kratos' sins are forgiven, the nightmares endure. Athena explains that his sins were FORGIVEN, not FORGOTTEN. Depressed, Kratos prepares to kill himself, but Athena offers him a new role in life as the new God of War,
But the rest of Olympus does not accept Kratos. He had already killed a god, after all, and one who was a family member to, well, EVERYONE! Angered at what he perceived to be a betrayal, Kratos began a new war campaign in Sparta to conquer the entire world.
With every city he destroyed, the wrath of Olympus grew. When Kratos attacked Rhodes, Zeus brought its legendary Colossus to life, in a bid to kill his son. Tricking Kratos to surrender his powers, Zeus has his own son killed and sent to Hades. But Gaia, mother of the Titans, calls to Kratos and offers him a deal: help her destroy Olympus, and she will revive him. He accepts.
Gaia leads Kratos towards the Island of Creation, home of the Sisters of Fate. Kratos makes his way through the island, kills the Fates, and does the impossible: change his destiny.
You know, Kratos could have used the Threads of Fate to travel back to the night he killed his family and stopped himself. He also could have stopped himself from making that deal with Ares. But, he instead travels back in time to stop Zeus from killing him, fights him, and would have killed the King of the Gods if Athena had not intervened. Angered, Kratos travels back further in time to the Titanomachy and brings back the Titans. Together, he leads the Titans towards one final siege on Olympus.
"Zeus! Your son has returned! I bring the destruction of Olympus!"
Leading the charge against Mount Olympus, Kratos starts off by killing Poseidon, God of the Sea, which causes the sea to rise up to absurd levels, flooding most of the world. Afterwards, Gaia betrays Kratos (yeah, that never backfires, he says sarcastically) and sends him down to the Underworld, where Hades attempts to kill him. But, Kratos proves a much stronger opponent, and kills the God of the Dead, sending the souls of the departed flying across the world.
Climbing out of the Underworld (something Kratos does every game) Kratos confronts the God of the Sun,
Alright, you know where I'm going with this. Kratos' rampage of revenge is slowly bringing the world around him to its doom. Kratos, whether he meant to or not, has flooded the world, released the souls of the dead, blotted out the sun, and spread a plague across what little is left of humanity, and he does not care. Not once does Kratos stop to consider how his actions are affecting the world around him, not once does he stop and say "maybe I ought to cut it out, cuz I'm fucking shit up left and right." That's the major problem with Kratos: he never stops to consider other people, only himself.
After Kratos FINALLY kills Zeus, the spirit of Athena descends upon him and explains that, when Kratos opened up Pandora's Box, he spread a lot of negative emotions across the gods. Zeus, particularly, was afflicted with Fear, and feared Kratos would kill him. But considering that Athena wants the power of Hope for herself, I have to say she's lying and that Zeus was just a dick, like in the myths. Anyway, the power of Hope was inside Kratos all along, and Athena asks Kratos to give it all to her. In a moment of clarity, Kratos understands that Hope shouldn't be focused on one person, and thus kills himself to help spread this power across the world. That he helped destroy. Because he's a dick.
Also he's probably still alive...
Kratos is, in one simple sentence, the cause of his own misery. Yes, you could argue that Ares tricked him, but Kratos was willingly KILLING INNOCENTS just because Ares commanded it. What makes Lysandra and Calliope (Kratos' wife and daughter, respectively) any different than the other villagers Kratos was willingly slaughtering, besides their personal connection? And THAT question is what leads to one of the biggest reasons why Kratos does not deserve your pity: he doesn't care about the people he killed EXCEPT for his wife and daughter!
How many people had Kratos killed while he was a general? How many villages has he razed and burned as Ares' servant? Who knows? How many people died by Kratos' hand? That's the thing: Kratos is a killer. A cold blooded killer with no remorse, who happily killed innocents until his master made him kill his own wife and daughter. And even then, even as he admits HE was the one who killed them, he blamed Ares for it all.
Kratos' refusal to accept his part in the killing of his family is just another manifestation of Kratos' greatest character flaw: his inability to accept his own failings. When the gods of Olympus turned their back to him, Kratos responded by plunging the world into war. Rather than accept the fact that they hate him with GOOD REASON (he killed one of their own) Kratos acts like a spoiled brat and brings nothing but misery and despair to the world. And when Kratos is killed by Zeus, rather than accept the fact that MAYBE if he hadn't gone around destroying cities left and right he would probably be up in Olympus fucking Aphrodite instead of being dead. But nope, Kratos just HAS to have his revenge, so he teams up with Gaia to kill Zeus.
And yes, the gods did kind of screw over Kratos. They treated him like a slave, after all...except that this was Kratos' fault too. Kratos willingly gave himself over to Ares, and when that backfired on him, he gave himself willingly to the gods so they could erase his guilt. That was NEVER going to work, and many gods, like Hades, would have personal reasons to never, ever allow Kratos to be forgiven (Kratos killed Persephone, for example). The simple truth is that Kratos burned every bridge he could find, many before even having the chance to cross them. Even Zeus destroying Sparta was brought upon by Kratos' actions: after all, Sparta had the God of War personally come down and aid them in their conquests, why not see if they can stand against a god?
Kratos' misery is his own damn fault, and he doesn't care. He doesn't care about the lives he takes or ruins, doesn't care if his desire for revenge hurts innocents, and doesn't care how much he hurts others. All Kratos cares about is his own damn self. Yes, he also cared about his family, but not nearly enough to stop and think that being a cold blooded killer would have any negative effect on them.
At the end of his life, Kratos became the kind of person that literally, quite LITERALLY did the world a favor by ending his own life. I don't think there's anything that can say what kind of monster he was any better; the world truly was better off with him dead. That's why he's the best video game villain.
The summary:
Name: Kratos
Type of Villain: The Vengeance Seeker, The God Killer, The Psychopath
Greatest Crime: Killing his own family.
Current Status: Unknown, presumed dead.
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