The God of War title in 2018 marked the beginning of a soft reboot of the series. A lot of things, including the camera angle, were changed. The game also switched genres with many RPG elements added to it. Not to forget, it also introduced a new beginning for Kratos as he began a new adventure with his son, Atreus.
Series veterans who have played through the previous titles in the series know a different side to Kratos, a different lore, and a different setting. In the initial games, the setting was Greek Mythology and Kratos went head to want with the entire Olympus Gods. God of War (2018) explored a different setting based on Norse mythology. Recently, Reddit saw a sort of connection between the two settings and how the third game could perhaps act as a bridge, connecting the two settings.
Athena in God of War 3 and her appearance in the 2018 reboot
The post was made on Reddit by a user going by u/Altairc7840 on the game’s official subreddit. The post can be found here. To establish some background, especially for people, one must understand what happened between Kratos and Athena in God of War 3.
Kratos, consumed by rage, gets to Hades only to encounter Athena’s spiritual form. Athena says her sacrifice to save Zeus brought her to a higher existence. After a brief dialogue, Athena phases through Kratos’ torso to procure his blades and turn them into the Blades of Exile. The thing to be kept in mind from the encounter between Athena and Kratos is that she appears as a greenish, transparent figure.
In 2018’s God of War, Athena revisits Kratos when he is en route to obtain his Blades of Chaos from his abode before he ventures into Helheim, a place where the Leviathan axe is rendered moot. As Athena appears, it is unclear if she is there in reality or is just a figment of Kratos’ imagination. Based on whatever is the case, the next part of the fan theory makes either complete or partial sense.
Relating the two mythologies in God of War
As per the post, an apparent link between the two mythologies and settings can be established. As Athena appears in the green astral form in front of Kratos in the title, it is worth discussing whether she appears on the canoe or is a figment of his imagination.
Coming to God of War Raganrök, we see Odin obsessed with what becomes of Gods after he finds the rift. As seen in this scene here, he wants to understand what gives gods like him meaning. As Atreus mentions that the rift feels like knowledge and truth, Odin makes him understand that looking into the rift is a bad idea as he raises his eyepatch, indicating that taking a peek made Odin lose his eye.
The color of the rift in the scene is very similar to Athena’s apparition when she appears in God of War 2018 and afterward. Also, Odin had been on his quest to find the other fragments of the mask, and interestingly enough, the mask also glows in a shade of green as the rift and Athena.
While the same shade could be a mere coincidence and might not be related to the two game’s settings at all, Athena sacrificing herself to ascend to a higher form might enable her to travel across mythologies using some powers, as Cory Barlog also mentioned that post-GOW 3, Athena would become the one true god.
But God of War’s writers also revealed that Athena wasn’t there in God of War (2018), and it was just Kratos’ head playing tricks on him, as seen in the video here. So it is possible that Kratos saw Athena in the green transparent form as that is how he remembers her from his past and she never actually visited him. Raganrök established that Odin sought the mask in the game’s lore to gain access to higher knowledge. This could have been information about the higher astral form that Athena has access to.
What do you think of this fan theory? Do you think it makes sense? Let us know in the comments below!
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