Kratos actor Christopher Judge says working on God of War “changed my whole perspective on the world” and “what it really means to be a man”
Kratos actor Christopher Judge says working on God of War “changed my whole perspective on the world” and “what it really means to be a man”
19 Comments
That’s great, good for him.
What did he think of the game part of the game?
Is lratos going to rub banana peels on his face now?
The story of those two games are pinnacle in writing masculinity.
“Indeed” Teal’c
Cringe
Christopher Judge is so fucking wholesome already. He seems exactly the kind of person to be open to growing. Great guy.
Weird ass comments.
Just started playing this series for the first time last week as a gamer of 22 years, near the end of the 2018 game and it is such a good game. Can’t wait to play Ragnarok and try out GOW III, I wish Sony remastered the first two as well so I can truly experience the series.
GoW 2018 and Ragnarok are such wonderful and incisive explorations of how to shed more toxic forms of masculinity for positive ones. Kratos starts the game as a father who sees expressing emotion as weak and stoicism as the only way to keep his son safe. He’s not a bad father, but he’s far from a good one and falling into the traps so many distant, cold fathers have fallen into. But we watch him learn that showing emotion and talking about it isn’t weak; it actually requires a deep strength he has to work on to model a better kind of masculinity for his son. We watch him go from basically monosyllabic with his son (“Boy……..”) to practically crying in front of him as he opens up about how proud he is and how much he loves him.
I’m not a parent and don’t want to be (I’m 42), but the end of Ragnarok still made me cry because of how far we’ve seen that character come and how he’s transformed from a more traditional, more toxic form of stoic masculinity to a warmer, more emotional, and stronger model of masculinity for his son. It really is a beautiful and remarkably successful arc over two games.
These games were entirely unneeded, but goddamn did they make them work.
Taking ‘Mr Anger issues’ and having him go through a reflective arc and come to terms with who he is without rejecting himself entirely but finding himself instead all while still keeping him in a traditionally masculine manner that feels more accurate to the character and connects to the audience. No shade towards ‘men embracing feminine aspects to unlearn toxic masculinity’ or whatever, but we lack good stories where men can embrace that masculinity and overcome it’s worst aspects and Become Someone Better^(TM)
Say what one will, but Kratos grew like few characters get the chance to. And is arguebly more influential than he’s ever been for it. The scene where he confronts his past self just hits so well goddamn.
Indeed, getting a boat load of money will do that
You are some weird, corny motherfuckers in these comments 😭
Man, how toxic do you have to be brought up, to be THAT moved by the writing in God of War? Is everyone’s Dad the guy from that 70s show?
Calm down, Teal’c.
Got the same experience here from my office assistant job. Folding those papers made me a man.
Absolute masterpiece in showing how much Kratos tried to push down feelings thinking they were weakness, just for absolute losers online to say they butchered Kratos and preferred him being an angry asshole 24/7 (just to be clear I still like Greek Kratos, but damn if the journey with Norse Kratos wasn’t a masterpiece)
Not surprised he seemed to be struggling with a lot personally
lowkey democracy in the workplace vibes from his description
As someone who didn’t play the Norse games because I wasn’t ( and am frankly still not ) really sold on how the Norse game’s focus more on cutscenes and story ….
I do appreciate what they did with Kratos’s character, and I do think that him being more restrained is a great example of ” healthy masculinity ” so to speak.
To quote from the voice actor of optimus prime, ” be strong enough to be gentle ”
That said, I’m still not a fan of how the Greek games had to be put down in the marketing to sell the Norse games. Especially when the very first game still has great examples of incorporating story into a game without too many cutscenes