In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:God of War, Kratos first meets Freya early in the game when he and his son, Atreus, shoot and injure a boar (actually a Vanir trapped in the form of a boar, but that’s besides the point) under her protecꦫtion. They help her heal the boar and quickly become friends, though Freya warns Kratos that the Aesir won’t be happy about a foreign god’s presence in their realms and expresses worry about Atreus’ ignorance of his being half-giant, half-god. Freya helps them bypass obstacles, gives them advice, and even saves Atreus’ life. In return, Kratos kills her son.
Of course, it&rs🌞quo;s much more complicated than this. Freya’s son, Baldur, had been trying to kill them, and he’d been in the act of strangling Freya when Kratos killed him. Baldur was murderous, driven close to madness by a spell his mother had put on him to make him invulnerable to all threats – the spell also took away Baldur’s ability tꩵo physically feel anything. He felt no pain nor pleasure and begged his mother to lift it, but she refused, as she believed a prophecy that told her he would die a ‘needless death’. She was prepared to die to give her son peace, something she expressed to Kratos and Atreus as Baldur was choking her to death. She understood that he could not forgive her, and was willing to let him kill her to show she was truly sorry. In response, Kratos snapped Baldur’s neck.
God of War Ragnarok shows Freya at her most furious and vengeful. It has been three years since Kratos killed her son, but she ambushes and attacks them constantly, trying to confront them. When she finally gets her confrontation, she softens when Kratos refers to her as their ‘friend’ and refuses to harm her, so she agrees to spare her son’s killer if he helps her break Odin’s curse binding 🐓her to Midgard. He does so, and in turn opens up to her about his experience with getting revenge and how empty it left him, and they make up. She acknowledges that she will never stop being angry about her son’s death, but should be directing that anger at Odin. Kratos acknowledges that he should not have robbed Freya of her choice t💖o die at Baldur’s hands. And that’s that.
The way I see it, Freya’s forgiveness made it easier to get to the rest of the story. The game sells itself as a narrative-driven game, one of the best stories in the video game space, but then writes off one of its key characters' most interesting arcs because it makes it easier for the player to carry on with the main narrative. She becomes a companion in the game much like Atreus, and you get to use her skills in battle. She gets her revenge on Odin and subdues him, but refuses to destroy Odin’s captured soul. If the game was trying to communicate the lesson that a drive for revenge rots the soul, it does, we all understood it. But I wasn’t at all convinced by Freya’s emotional arc - she deserved to hold on to her rage towards Kratos. She deserved to hold on to her rage towards everyone who wronged her, even. Freya’s emotions may not be dismissed by Kratos, but the game itself dismisses them. It’s a matter of whose story is more important, and Freya gets dealt a losing hand.
The game seems to be trying to tell us that the𒈔 ability to forgive and make measured descriptions is what makes you the good guy. It is a strong, unfettered rage that makes people unpredictable and dangerous – Baldur, Freya, and towards the end, Sindri. But all this anger is righteous. These characters aren’t driven by incomprehensible motivations or even a greedy quest for power, but by realistic, tangible pain. Freya deserved to be angry and vengeful and still get her good ending. She could have stayed angry and still worked towards taking Odin down. Soꦯ why didn’t she?
Kratos’ story is largely one of brutality, recko꧙ning with his own violence and blind anger and learning to confront his emotions. Faye, his wife, softens him. In a vision at the end of God of War Ragnarok, she tells him, “Open your heart to the world as you have opened it to me.” Later, as they are fighting in✨ Ragnarok, Atreus is horrified to see innocents die, and repeats something his father has told him repeatedly – “Close your heart.” Kratos turns to him and says, “You feel their pain, because that is what you are. And you must never sacrifice that.”
Then, he uses the words said to him by Faye: “Open your heart to their suffering.” It’s a beautiful moment, e🌳mphasising Kratos’ redemption – for him, being better means feeling, being in touch with the pain of others, being motivated by it rather than indulging in his own pain. The game uses his own rage as a mechanic, allowing him to unleash a flurry of attacks on his opponents, but with the understanding that it will fade. Mechanically and narratively, masculine rage is about letting the rage go. Because Baldur refused to let go of his rage, he died.
Yet, stereotypically, feminine rage is expected to be quiet, pain contained inside, compartmentalised for the comfort of the men around them. Do any more, and it is an overreaction, an example of being overemotional. The writers had a chance to explore a different version of feminine rage, one that is violent, righteous, and persistent, in their story, and chose not to. Freya is given basically the same redemption arc as Kratos, and for what? What purpose does it serve in�🧜� the story? Feminine rage is powerful, and rarely acknowledged or validated. Women have been using rage to propel political and social movements for decades. But in the game, it was nothing but a way to show how far Kratos had come in his own journey.
Yes, Kratos validated her anger. He acknowledged what he did wrong, but explained why he did it. It was a masterclass in relationship counselling. The writers decided she would forgive him, but she didn’t have to – she didn’t owe him that. He wronged her, and he had his reasons, and that didn’t have to be enough for her. In discarding her rage, the game shortchanged her, turning her into yet another character there to help kill Kratos&rsquo♔; enemies. With such a strong start, I wish her character had been an example of how🍰 feminine rage can persist, and she could still work towards the greater good. She deserved it.