Kratos

"The hand of death could not defeat me, the sisters of fate could not hold me, and you will not see the end of this day. I will have my revenge!"

- Kratos swearing to kill his father, Zeus. "Death...is in my blood. Fate...has brought me here. I hope for nothing. I fear nothing."

- Kratos (trailer for the third game) "The gods of Olympus have abandoned me."

- Kratos (in the opening of the first God of War game). "My vengeance...ends now."

- Kratos' last words.

Kratos is the main character of the God of War video-game series. Although he is presented as an "anti-hero", many consider him to be a villain due to his unending blood lust, selfishness, and destructive behavior. His actions ultimately cause the downfall of Olympus and, along with it, all life on Earth; however, his attempted suicide had allowed the power of Hope to spread across the world.

Becoming the Marked Warrior
Kratos was a child who wanted to be in the Spartan army. He always trained his younger brother; Deimos, and told him that a Spartan warrior never falls to the ground. After they finished their training, two of the Gods of Olympus attack Sparta, searching for someone called the Marked Warrior, because they were warned that someone with marks would be the demise of Olympus. They thought that it was Deimos and decided to take him away. Kratos tried to fight back, but one of them struck him, giving him a scar on his right eye. Thinking that his brother was dead, he had someone place tattoos on his body to honor his brother.

Becoming a Ghost
Kratos was born and raised as a Spartan warrior, becoming the youngest and boldest captain in the army. Leading his troops into battle against a barbarian horde, Kratos finds himself quickly outnumbered, and vows his life to Ares, the God of War, for his aid. Ares accepts Kratos' bargain, and slaughters the barbarians; as a sign of servitude, Ares embeds the chains of the Blades of Chaos onto Kratos' body. Kratos continues to lead the Spartans under Ares' orders. Ares tricks Kratos into killing his own wife Lysandra and daughter Calliope, believing that this act will make Kratos a perfect warrior and even death itself wouldn't stop. Instead, on discovering the deception, Kratos denounces his pledge to Ares and promises to seek revenge on the god. The Village Oracle curses Kratos to wear the ashes of his family on his skin forever, giving him the nickname of "The Ghost of Sparta".

Breaking The Bond (God of War: Ascension)
Kratos has been hunted down by the Furies for promising revenge towards Ares.

Tasks Of Olympus (God of War: Chains of Olympus)
To atone for his family's murder, Kratos allows himself to serve the other gods of Mount Olympus. Even when given the opportunity to reunite with Calliope on the Elysium Fields in exchange for his godly powers, Kratos refuses in order to complete the gods' task for him and save both Mount Olympus and the mortal world. Kratos was required to prevent Persephone and Atlas blot out the sun. Kratos would continue to serve the gods in this manner for a decade.

Gaining Redemption (God of War)
Athena, the goddess that has taken the most pity on Kratos, identifies the location of Pandora's Box for Kratos, promising him it has the power to defeat Ares and satisfy his revenge. Kratos successfully retrieves and uses the power stored within the Box to kill Ares. With his revenge complete, Kratos prepares to commit suicide after learning that his memories would not be removed, but Athena intervenes and offers Kratos the vacant title of God of War as well as new blades, the Blades of Athena, which he accepts.

Zeus' Betrayal (God of War II)
As time passes, Kratos finds himself bored with life in Mount Olympus, being sneered upon by the other gods, and only finding solace in commanding his armies. He encounters the famous King Midas, the sea beast Scylla, and the messenger Ceryx killing them along the way. When Kratos' armies begin to attack the City of Rhodes, Zeus conspires a plan; he tricks Kratos into abandoning his godly abilities into the Blade of Olympus to defeat the Colossus of Rhodes, and then impales Kratos with the sword.

As Kratos falls into Hades, he is rescued by the Titan Gaia. Gaia and the other Titans have been banished to Tartarus after the First Great War, and now share a common goal with Kratos—to seek retribution on the gods. Gaia directs Kratos to the Sisters of Fate, where Kratos is able to use their Loom to return to the point of Zeus' treachery and reverse his fate.

Encountering Greek heroes and other mythological beings throughout the Island of Creation. Recovering his powers, Kratos is prepared to kill Zeus when Athena appears, begging him not to do so; Zeus is Kratos' father, and Athena seeks to end the cycle of son-killing-father as Zeus had done to Cronus, and he to Ouranous which was also Zeus's intent when he killed Kratos originally. As Kratos attempts to impale Zeus, Athena intervenes and takes the Blade herself, killing her while Zeus escapes. Furious, Kratos returns to the Loom and uses it to bring the Titans back to the present to lead their assault on Mt. Olympus and beginning the Second Great War.

Final Battle (God of War III)
As the Titans and gods battle, Kratos is abandoned by Gaia for her to save herself. Now betrayed by both the Olympians and Titans, Kratos seeks a way to end the conflict once and for all, and learns from the spirit of Athena, who gives him the Blades of Exile, that Pandora's Box may still have power to defeat Zeus, but it is now protected by the Flame of Olympus, which only Pandora herself can quench. Kratos makes his way to the Labyrinth where Pandora is being held, killing both Olympians and Titans in his path and unleashing countless catastrophes on the mortal world.

After freeing Pandora and returning with her to Mount Olympus, Kratos finds that she reminds him much of Calliope, and tries to find a means to defeat Zeus without sacrificing her. Upon reaching the Flame and the Box, Zeus appears and attacks Kratos; amid the battle, Pandora willingly sacrifices herself to allow Kratos access to the Box; however, Kratos finds the Box is empty. Kratos and Zeus battle on, eventually coming to the exposed heart of Gaia, where Kratos kills them both with the Blade of Olympus.

After Kratos recovers the Blade and begins to walk away in triumph, Zeus' spirit attacks him, forcing him to seek refuge in his psyche. There, he is able to finally atone himself for the murder of his wife and daughter, and breaks out of psyche and finally defeats Zeus. Amid the ruined earth the spirit of Athena appears and seeks the power that Kratos took from the Box back, that of hope, as she had put it in there along with the other evil spirits Zeus had contained within it. When she hears the Box was empty, Athena realizes that Kratos had taken that power before, when he battled Ares, and at the same time had unleashed the evil spirits that poisoned the gods and turned them against Kratos.

When Athena demands her power back, Kratos instead refuses, finally realizing what his lust for vengeance had cost him. He chose to impale himself with the Blade and letting the power free into the world to give the people hope for a better world. Athena angrily leaves him, believing him to not know what he was doing, ripping the Blade put of him Athena left Kratos to bleed to death as he weakly laughed, victorious at last. Some time later, the site where Kratos' body fell is empty, and his fate is left unknown.

Life in Scandinavia (God of War PS4)
Many years after the fall of Olympus, the deaths of all the gods of Olympus and the power of hope spreading over the world, Kratos, having somehow survived his own suicide, lives in isolation in Scandinavia, ruled by a whole new host of gods and monsters, such as trolls.

He had met an unknown woman and had a son with her; after she had supposedly died, Kratos decided to take after the boy (now 10 years old) himself, teaching him to hunt an elk. He has become much more restrained and less angry at everything by this point, as he now has to take after a child and cannot go berserk due to responsibilities. However, he still shows slight signs of impatience, as he had almost lashed out at his son for not firing an arrow at an elk right in front of him; still, he cares for him, defending him from a troll attack and not getting angry at him for missing a shot and hitting him in the shoulder.

Without his traditional weapons, destroyed by Zeus over a decade ago, Kratos has fashioned himself a magical battle axe which he can call back to him after throwing it. In addition, he still bears the scar that he gave himself with the Blade of Olympus (or possibly the stab wound left by Zeus in God of War II).

Edits begin after the release of God of War (PS4).

Villains in family

 * Zeus (father) †
 * Callisto (mother) †
 * Deimos (brother) †
 * Hercules (half-brother) †
 * Athena (half-sister) †
 * Unnamed wife
 * Unnamed son
 * Gaia (great-grandmother) †
 * Cronos (grandfather) †
 * Hades (uncle) †
 * Poseidon (uncle) †
 * Ares (half-brother) †
 * Hera (step-mother/aunt) †
 * Hermes (half-brother) †
 * Megaera (grandaunt) †
 * Alecto (grandaunt) †
 * Tisiphone (grandaunt) †
 * Persephone (half-sister) †
 * Aegaeon the Hecatonchires (granduncle) †
 * Perseus (half-brother) †
 * Hephaestus (half-brother) †
 * Pollux (half-brother) †

Notable Kills
Important Note; No Mortal Kombat Characters
 * Countless amounts of Grunts
 * Lysandra
 * Calliope
 * Minotaurs
 * Satyr
 * Cyclops
 * Gorgons

Ascension

 * Pollux & Castor
 * Megaera
 * Tisiphone
 * Alecto
 * Orkos (asked Kratos to kill him)

Chains of Olympus

 * The Persian King
 * Basilisk
 * Charon
 * Persephone

God of War

 * Hydra
 * The Captain (killed him three times)
 * Medusa
 * Hades Minotaur
 * Ares

Ghost of Sparta

 * Scylla
 * Callisto
 * Erinys
 * Piraeus Lion
 * The Dissenter
 * King Midas
 * Lanaeus
 * Thanatos

God of War II

 * Colossus of Rhodes
 * Prometheus (asked Kratos to kill him)
 * Dark Rider
 * Theseus
 * The Barbarian King (Killed him twice)
 * Mole Cerberus
 * Euryale
 * Perseus
 * Icarus
 * The Last Spartan (By accident)
 * Kraken
 * Lahkesis
 * Atropos
 * Clotho
 * Athena (by accident)

God of War III

 * One of Poseidon's Hippocampi
 * Poseidon
 * Peirithous
 * Hades
 * Helios
 * Perses
 * Hermes
 * Hercules
 * Poseidon's Princess
 * Cronos
 * Hephaestus
 * Hera
 * Skorpius
 * Hades Cerberus Breeder
 * The Three Judges
 * Pandora (indirectly)
 * Gaia
 * Zeus
 * Himself?

Mortal Kombat 9
Kratos made an appearance in the PS3 version of Mortal Kombat 9. He may have been portrayed as a protagonist hero/villain in the God of War Series, but to both Raiden and Fujin, Kratos was just a hero. According to his in-game story, Kratos was summoned to the Mortal Kombat universe by Shao Kahn to participate in the Mortal Kombat tournament.

Kratos fights with the Blades of Exile, Nemean Cestus, the Head of Helios, Bow of Apollo, Icarus Wings, Golden Fleece, the Head of Medusa, and the Blade of Olympus.

Kratos' Ending
After Kratos killed Shao Kahn, the spell that brought him there began to fade. As he began to return to his own dimension, Raiden and Fujin walked toward him. Kratos was about to attack them, but both Raiden and Fujin bowed before Kratos for slaying Shao Kahn. Even though Kratos' intentions were never pure, he saved Earthrealm from the evil Emperor of Outworld, and was owed a debt of gratitude. Kratos silently acknowledged Raiden and Fujin's praise as he returned to his home dimension, believing that their debt may be useful to him one day.

Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny
Kratos made an appearance as a guest character in the game Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny. The character Sophitia is given to him as a rival, due to her servitude to the god Hephaestus.

Story
In a dreary underground library, a man sought to discover forbidden texts which would grant him power. This man was a survivor of Fygul Cestemus, a religious cult which had been recently pushed to the edge of total destruction by the golem known as Astaroth.

Rather than uniting, survivors had turned against each other, each seeking to gain higher authority over the remnants of the cult. This man desired the power to take revenge on the rebelling giant and then rebuild the organization under his own authority, his status of power being above all others.

He finally came across an ancient text, which held information to perform a ritual which was said to summon an ancient god known as Kratos. According to legends, in the battle for Greece, Kratos had taken over Ares' position of 'God of War'.

Using a shard of Soul Edge, the man succeeded in performing the ceremony and opened a dimensional portal. Kratos appeared and with his Blades of Chaos, rewarded this man who summoned him with death. From the environment and tools the man had been using, Kratos realized he is no longer in his era. The fragment of Soul Edge, stepped in the madness of the now deceased man, whispered to Kratos.

"To grant your wish, offer many souls to me. With your power it will be easy..."

Kratos easily overcomes the shard's attempt to enslave him and views visions of Soul Edge and the spirit sword Soul Calibur. Kratos realizes the power created by the conflict of these two swords will be able to send him back to his own time. Leaving the library, he viewed what appeared to be shooting stars heading towards the west. Realizing they are Soul Edge shards, he decides to follow them...

Gauntlet Mode
Kratos has a small role in chapter 27 of The Gauntlet.

Cassandra, Hilde and Dampierre continue their search for the ingredients that Hilde's father needs to recover, there next one they must find is "Sand from another world", but they are clueless of how to find another world. So Dampierre thinks of someone that can help them, it turns out it's Zasalamel. after the three defeat him, they dragged Zasalamel into 'another world' along with them, as they encounter Kratos.

The player has to defend himself/herself against Kratos' attacks such as a Guard Impact, and attack him when he is open for attacking. While that is going on, Dampierre managed to sneak some of the Sand from another world into his shirt sleeve and requests them all to retreat. Just before they get to Ivy, Cassandra breaks the fourth wall complaining about Kratos being a Special Guest.

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale
Kratos made an appearance as one of the playable characters in the crossover game Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale. His in-game rival is Sweet Tooth.

Shovel Knight
Kratos appears a exclusive boss in the PS3, PS4 & PS Vita versions of Shovel Knight.

Notable Cameos/Guest Appearances

 * Easily one of his most well known cameos is in Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds when he shows up as a golfer, and, while being tamed down, doesn't change much of his hot-blooded personality.
 * Kratos also shows up in Modnation Racers as a playable character with his Chaos Kart.
 * In the The Simpsons episode The Food Wife, Kratos is seen on a billboard that reads Guts of War II: Entrails of Intestinox, which is a direct parody of the game's over the top violence.
 * Kratos appears in the infamous Youtube video "Racist Mario" as an anti-heroic figure, participating in a Mario Kart race along with several other non-Nintendo characters. While Mario went completely insane over the third-party characters and began killing everyone else on the track, Kratos eventually caught up to him and killed Luigi. Despite the mad plumber's attempts to defeat him (including ripping off Toad's head and using it as a Mushroom to supersize himself), Kratos ends up killing Mario and takes Peach and Daisy as his "prize".

Trivia

 * In every game in the God of War Series, Kratos has killed at least one God (The Furies; Megaera, Tisiphone, and Alecto in God of War: Ascension, Persephone in Chains of Olympus, Ares in God of War, Ceryx in Betrayal, Thanatos in Ghost of Sparta, The Sisters of Fate, and Athena in God of War II, and Poseidon, Hades, Helios, Hermes, Hera, Hephaestus, and Zeus in God of War III).
 * He also killed at least one half-brother in God of War: Ascension, God of War, II, and III (Pollux, Ares, Perseus and Hercules respectively).
 * The most interesting thing about Kratos is his tattoo; the tattoo on his chest always changed as the sequels were created.
 * It's ironic that in God of War II, Kratos uses the Threads of Time to turn back time, so he could prevent himself from being killed by Zeus and prevent Zeus from destroying Sparta, but in God of War III, after he kills Poseidon, all of Greece gets flooded, killing nearly everyone, if not everyone, in Sparta.
 * In Mortal Kombat 9, whenever Kratos is a victim of a fatality, it's slightly altered.
 * In Mortal Kombat 9, Kratos has one of the few Babalities that does not end up crying. He also retains his beard like Kano.