Did Kratos retire after the heartbreaking events of God of War: Ragnarök?

Kratos a-t-il pris sa retraite après les événements déchirants de God of War : Ragnarök ?

There are some exciting questions on everyone's minds since the conclusion of the Nordic chapter of Santa Monica Studio's God of War. Questions came to mind, like: what will happen next? What will become of Kratos and Atreus in the future? What does the future of God of War look like? There have been many theories circulating on Reddit about the game's ending, and one of the biggest is whether Kratos has retired from his role as the god of war.

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Kratos' Journey

Kratos has had a long and arduous journey as the face of God of War, filled with heartbreak, loss, and, of course, anger. Fortunately, we were able to follow much of his painful journey. Sure, Kratos has already retired from the role of god of war, but is it for good this time?

God of War marks the beginning of Kratos' journey into the Greek pantheon. He begins working for the Greek gods, and the past reveals that he was once a bloodthirsty but powerful captain in the Spartan army. Faced with death, he promised to serve the Greek gods if they would spare his men and give them the power to destroy their enemies. Ares, the Greek god of war, agreed and bound him to the Blades of Chaos.

Ares staged an attack in which Kratos killed his wife and daughter in a blind rage. When he realizes what he has done, he swears to renounce his servitude to the Greek gods and vows to kill Ares. He finally succeeds and Athena gives him a new set of blades. This is when Kratos officially becomes the new God of War. The rest of the Greek trilogy is taken up in God of War II, God of War III and in several spin-offs of the series, God of War: Betrayal, God of War: Chains of Olympus, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, and God of War: Ascension.

To everyone's surprise and immense happiness, the series was rebooted with God of War in 2018. In this version, Kratos once again moved in with another family and had a son. But unfortunately, his wife has died, and he and his son must go on a journey to scatter her ashes in the realm of the Norse gods. During this journey, they discover that his wife was not really who she claimed to be and that she was much more powerful than they believed.

Kratos' son Atreus discovers that he is prophesied to be the reincarnation of Loki and that his destiny is intrinsically linked to the future of the Norse kingdom. In the events of the most recent game, Kratos and Atreus must work together to try to prevent the end of the world in Norse terms and prevent Ragnarök. To do this, they fight many Norse gods who do not want to help them but try to get in their way.

Once they succeed and prevent the end of the Norse Kingdom, Kratos is seen by many mortals in the Norse Kingdom as a hero and a god. Wouldn't this be the perfect time for Kratos to finally retire from his long life of war and anger and protect the Norse Kingdom from part of the pantheon?

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What will happen in the next game?

There have been a lot of suggestions about what could happen in the next game and what the ending of God of War Ragnarök means for the rest of the franchise. Many players seem to think that Kratos has gotten a little old for his role as God of War and that Atreus will take up the mantle in his own adventures. What these adventures might be is entirely open to interpretation. Atreus, despite being Kratos' son and having his fury within him, doesn't seem like the type to look for trouble.

Instead, much about him has yet to be discovered. For example, he can read runes and talk to animals. This may be due to his connection to the prankster god Loki and is an avenue that could be explored. On a related note, it's also possible that his half-giant lineage comes into play. His mother, although deceased, was a giantess, and based on the game's lore, most giants have the ability to prophecy. Since this character is already so tied to prophecy, it would be interesting to see how some of his other skills might manifest in the future.

There have been quite a few theories about what the events of the next game could be, and there are still plenty of pantheons to explore. One suggestion was that Atreus could be kidnapped by another Pantheon to understand Kratos' weakness. But this could happen in two ways.

Of course, Kratos would probably go for his son if he was kidnapped, bringing the last Spartan out of retirement and not fitting in with everyone's theory that he will no longer be the protagonist of the God of War series.

The other possibility is that if Atreus were to be kidnapped, he would have grown up a bit and could probably defend himself perfectly well. We would then have a game following Atreus fighting for his freedom, perhaps using the Spartan anger he inherited from his grandfather. This would make sense if Kratos had retired, although it's hard to believe the stoic but caring father would leave him to fend for himself.

Atreus also spoke of breaking away from his father's protective wing and following his own path. So this would be the perfect opening for us players to follow him as the protagonist as he tries to figure out who he is and how he fits into the world as the son of the God of War, essentially in two pantheons and a prophesied half-giant god himself.

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Do you think Kratos has retired? Tell us what you think will happen in the next God of War game.