#gow norns

[duck-noises]

 I had a dream where I was gow Thor’s successor and I was trying to fix his mistakes by helping the giants be able to live in peace again or something like that but everything was getting worse when I would try and help them. Then I go to the Norns to see what I can do and change my prophecy and help the giants. They basically went “you can’t undo what your father has done to them, and you never will be able”(I found out he was my dad in this moment) and I was basically going through an identity crisis cuz I knew I wanted to help but knowing that I would always make it worse sent me into a spiral of just going “I can help them, I know I can. After all I’m not my father, I have to be able to help them, to fix everything and anything my father has done to them”.

[thatonebrunettewithglasses]

Not all of these match but too many did match that I couldn't resist

[eliasbouchard]

today i offer you god of war edits, tomorrow? who knows. (part 2)

[jenarosscity]

[simplysparrow14]

I think the one thing that I love the most about GoW (2018) and GoW: Ragnarok is the fact that the women of the world have the most power out of all of their male counterparts. And it isn't because they have higher power or any special abilities.

It is because they are women. And they are messy and angry and don't always have the best view of the world, themselves or others.

And that they are actually respected by the story itself.

Like, say what you will about how Faye had to die to kickstart Kratos' redemption arc, but I find it unbelievably badass that said dead woman played the long-game of the century, made herself a living legend in all of the 9 realms, knew fully that she was going to die young, but instead of wallowing in despair, she chose to smile and love her husband, son, her heritage and friends to the fullest despite it all.

Freya rallies armies, beats the shit out of her ex, regains her warrior spirit, reunites and rekindles her relationship with both her Valkyrie sisters, Kratos and Atreus and twin brother, heals from the death of her son and regains a new family.

Angrboda uses her companionship, trust and gentleness with Atreus to show him a glimpse at the life and skills of a giant, peace and comfort and overall domesticity that he had been lacking back home due to odin and fimbulwinter, as well as give him the skills needed for his journey into who Loki is.

The Valkyries are able to be well respected warriors who are fully proud to be fighting aside true commanders and fighters and not have to follow Odin's command.

Thrud becomes worthy to wield her fathers hammer, is respected by her mother and those around her for the first time.

Sif controls, rallies and persuades Thor, the meanest of the aesir to nearly kill Atreus and Kratos for revenge against the deaths of their sons, just by her words and love for him alone. SHe even tries to be a better mother to Thrud due to having lost Magni and Modi.

The Norns freely use their creepiness and vast knowledge of fate and time and wisdom to scare the shit out everyone they meet and because of that, people don't dare mess with them, not even fucking mansplain-manipulate-manslughter Odin.

The Lady beneath the water is so respected and worshiped that it's factually known that you don't talk to the lady, she talks to you.

A lot of GoW is about swinging axes and ripping apart enemies. But the most powerful characters don't do that. They use their emotions and smarts and intelligence rather than their fists.

the true character arc for God of War isnt about Kratos at all.

It's the fact that God of War went from a dudebro power-fantasy hack-n-slash game where the women were either relegated to sex minigames, sub-par emotional justification for *why* we are killing gods, and villainous roles---to actual 3-dimentional characters who are given proper respect, courtesy and value, who are integral to the story as a whole and are crucial to the long term consequences of the game.

[the-dormant-ocean]

The Norns, after Ragnarok, walking pass Kratos after they trash talked him and wrongly predicted his death:

[sunnys-sonnets]

The Norns: Your other half is your fate, is your life, and can be your death at the peak of Ragnarök where you will meet and decide each other's end with your own hands. The sum of you choices is your destiny

Atreus, who hasn't slept in days, currently wanted dead by more than half of those living in Asgard including the King of the Aesir: stop fucking calling me gay

[felrend]

The Norns

[ambienceroyale]

Gaming Moments, Scenes, & Screenshots

God of War Ragnarök (2022)

[thedailybullshit]

God Atreus & Angrboda are the pan4pan couple ever.

[lazuliquetzal]

HOLLYYY SHIIITTT you have outdone yourself again. Chapter 9 was fucking amazing, I am dying for the next chapter. 💖💖💖

💖💖💖💖💖 THANK YOU

[ghostaris]

i can't help but think that by changing his fate, kratos doomed brok. perhaps fate is just shifted, because it's like... in the mural, atreus was holding his father, killed by heimdall, a man with a sword. since kratos defeated his own fate, it was then odin (as tyr) with a knife who stabbed brok and sindri held him while he died, a very similar image the mural showed. someone had to die, and unfortunately, it was brok.

[sondrox]

God Of War Ragnarok Writing Prompt #1

"The Norns. Only seen by a handful of people in their lifetimes. Omnipresent in The Nine Realms without ever being there. Countless stories they could wonder anyone with, and still, they only need one.

Five times The Norns didn't tell someone their destiny and one time they did.

OR

Five times The Norns predicted the actions of someone and one time they didn't.

OR

Five times The Norns didn't intervine in the course of the world and one time they did."

So many paths and yet only the same choice is made. Curious enough, that's something the Norns would say looking at someone's life.

[cassandors]

playing gow:r is like. everything is telling you this story is a tragedy. there is no fate, or destiny, but because you are who you are, you are predictable. you get explicit instructions to not do the thing that you always, inevitably, do, and immediately afterward, decide to do that thing. every action you take brings you closer to fulfilling a prophecy that only exists because you always make the same choice. i'm deeply fucked up about it right now.

[forgedobsidian]

'you come to us, piteous archetypes, seeking freedom from your scripts'

like seriously get fucked

'that your choices are so predictable only makes us seem prescient'

can you predict me shoving my foot up your ass

the norns give off a vibe similar to a undergrad creative writing student who read the summary for one of joseph campbell's books and thinks they know everything

[charalysis]

GoW: Baldur

Trigger Warning: Discussions of suicide, sundial ideation, and self harm.

The main antagonist of GoW 2018, Baldur is well known by fans of the newer games and is beloved by many for the complexity of his personality and story. Baldur captivated many with his erratic behavior, interesting abilities, and his complicated relationship with his mother. Today we are going to examine him as in depth as we can and break down his behavior, motivation, and his complicated emotions around his relationship with his family.

Let's start with a little backstory.

For those needing refresher, when Baldur was born his mother, Freya, went to the Norns to inquire about her son's fate. She was told Baldur would meet an unnecessary death. This terrified Freya, as she loved her little boy more than anything and couldn't bear to lose him. She seemingly spent much of Baldur's childhood looking for the right combination of spell components, words, and general rites to protect him from his fate.

Presumably, Freya and Baldur once had a good bond, a very close mother-son relationship. Freya wears to the current day a necklace Baldur made for her as a child. We can see signs of this closeness as it seems that, despite an Aesir upbringing, Baldur followed his Vanir heritage more. He doesn't wear shoes, only leg wraps that lightly wrap around his feet, leaving him essentially barefoot. What clothes he does wear don't seem to match anything we see the other Aesir wearing, even his nephews. Everyone is in either clean, neat attire, or they are lightly armoured, but still clean for the most part. Baldur's pants are simple. He wears a large piece of either cloth or soft hide around his waist, along with an ogre hide as a leather apron, held up by a belt (a gift from Odin) which holds a pouch and various simple trinkets. Not unlike Freya's "Witch of the Woods" outfit.

It's also likely that he inherited Freya's magic, but he possibly refuses to use it out of spite. However there's little evidence for this. Though there is a little evidence for him taking on Odin's magic. Baldur has the ability to absorb and manipulate other elements, not just light. We see this with Leviathan and later fire with the giant fight.

Now, despite his potential closeness to his mother, obviously something broke this bond.

The spell Freya made to, in her mind, protect Baldur. She was terrified for him and worried he was going to die. However, for Baldur, this was no protection; for him it was a curse.

Baldur was left unable to feel warmth, cold, pain... He was also unable to feel any sensation. The touch of his wife, Nanna. The taste of food, the taste of a drink, let alone the feeling of anything in his mouth to begin with...

And this means Baldur was actually left with a lot more problems than I've seen anyone discuss.

If he did drink anything, there's no way he could tell if he had to pee, likely leading to plenty of accidents, or him just... Not peeing. Because of his healing ability and inability to die, it's possible he just gave up trying to eat or drink in general. Not like he'd die from starvation or dehydration, as much as he may have tried.

That also leads into the idea that it's possible Baldur, early on with his curse, likely tried to kill himself.

Of course, realizing his mother made him incapable of dying, he likely resigned himself to his fate of simply existing as he was and serving Odin.

Now, his broken bond with Freya does not mean Baldur ended up close with Odin. Perhaps closer than before, but Odin views his family, especially his children, as pawns in his larger game. He sees them as a means to an end and we see this outright in our first meeting with Odin in Ragnarok. Odin simply calls him "his greatest tracker". Odin just saw Baldur as a hunter to send out whenever he needed something or someone found.

Seemingly, Baldur had no one to help him cope, (aside from a wife we never actually have mentioned. Nanna's existence is implied however in a background dialogue in Odin's home/mead hall where someone mentions Forseti being paranoid someone tried poisoning Thor. For any unaware, in canonical mythology, Forseti is the son of Baldur and his wife Nanna.). However I would like to speculate a little here and say, perhaps Baldur and Thor were close.

In the fight with Thor at the beginning of Ragnarok, Thor says the line, "That ones for Baldur!", Or something like that. Given Thor's generally dismissive attitude towards his other brothers, Tyr and Heimdall, and his dislike of them, I find this line interesting. It implies that there was a level of closeness, at least enough for Thor to want to get some kind of payback against Kratos for Baldur's death.

Obviously, Thor's larger concern was the blood payment for Magni and Modi. However, I don't think that entirely negates the idea that Thor loved his baby brother and wanted some kind of payback for him.

I do also suspect Baldur and Thor being close could be in part why Thor's boys in particular were sent with Baldur. I doubt Baldur immediately went to Odin about his initial failing, as Odin is capricious and patiently unpredictable. It's possible Baldur went to Thor, the best known giant killer, to ask advice on hunting down a giant (reminder, he thinks Kratos is Laufey). Thor could have easily sent his boys to join their uncle, not going himself because of other responsibilities.

Magni and Modi seem perfectly agreeable to Baldur, only really bickering or bantering amongst each other. Baldur I think, despite his madness, was as kind as he could be to his family.

Which does lead me to speculation on his bond with his son, Forseti.

For anyone unaware, Forseti is the Norse god of Justice, Reconciliation, and Law. This tracks with his few mentions in Ragnarok, lining up to him trying to find someone allegedly trying to poison Thor and being the one to track down Heimdall's corpse and report it to Sif.

Forseti was at least conceived before Baldur's curse, which does make him one of the younger gods, closer in age to Thrúd than her brothers.

so, this means, Forseti likely grew up with a volatile, distant father. He was quite likely exposed to a lot he shouldn't have been, such as the incident where Baldur was asking people to launch arrows into him to see how many it would take to make him fall over. Baldur likely was not a good dad to Forseti, and the likely frequent violence against Baldur, simply because of Baldur's invulnerability, likely contributed to Forseti's seeming isolation and paranoia in Ragnarok.

Baldur was likely a genuinely worse father in ways compared to Thor through sheer neglect and exposing his son to horrific sights. Not to mention the emotional impact of having someone so volatile around.

(Obviously that's not me saying Thor's a good dad. I love Thor's arc and as a character, but he is a child abuser and he doesn't even try changing until Thrúd comes around.)

Segwaying right along back into the discussion of his appearance: Baldur's tattoos.

There are a few I think are work mentioning.

First, the large red runs across the top of his back say "cursed", which is how he feels about his condition of invulnerability and sensory deprivation.

Second, his arm says "never to forgive", which makes sense given his condition and his rage at Freya over it.

Third, I believe this is the large circle tattoo on his chest, apparently reading, "lights confide me with warmth so that I might feel (something)". If this translation is accurate, I think that could be an appeal to his own abilities to manipulate light. As god of light, we can see in game he can bend light around him to move faster, or at least appear to move faster. There is no telling what else he could do with his light manipulation. But this also matches his desire to feel something, anything.

And finally, the tattoo around his neck/collar bone seems to tell of his role in prophecy as the bringer of Ragnarok, which is true. His death triggered Fimblwinter.

There are other tattoos to be translated on him, but based on these, it can be assumed they are just as tied to his identity, and possibly his curse and fate, as these. And Baldur is covered in tattoos. And from what we can tell there is no clear point to tell when he started to get them done.

Further interesting points on his appearance, at least for me, is the almost haphazard placement of beads and braids in his beard and hair. It seems as though that either A, in his broken mental state, Baldur is easily irritated by the beads and braids, so he just half asses it. Or B, he tends to leave the beads in, allowing some to fall out or be messed up.

Baldur's outward presentation of himself seems to follow his mental state. Messy, bold... He's not afraid to make a statement or point that's for sure

And despite Odin's fondness of Baldur, at least in what Baldur can do for him, I'm certain Odin resents Baldur's outward presentation. Baldur must serve as a reminder of Freya, not only in his face to an extent, but also in how he dresses. His clothes and his arms being riddled with tattoos must remind Odin a lot of Freya, thus ensuring Baldur also wouldn't be close to his father. Same as his brothers before him.

There is also the Kratos parallel to acknowledge.

Baldur, like a young Kratos, is vengeful and angry. He doesn't care who gets in his way, they'll become a target too. He's brutal, cocky, outright arrogant. He's particularly gungho about killing a parent who wronged and betrayed him. (I would argue though that Baldur is way more justified than Kratos ever was in his rampage against Zeus. Not that Zeus didn't deserve it, but his motivation against Zeus was, "He killed me and stole my powers wah." At least at first.)

Baldur also does as Kratos did, and he perpetuates a cycle of hate and destruction. Kratos knew Baldur likely wouldn't stop at Freya, just as he didn't stop at Ares. Baldur was exceptionally keen to fight and kill, especially after he regained sensation. He wouldn't have stopped at Freya. He damn well likely would have gone after Odin next for lying to him and not helping him, and anyone else getting in his way of such a goal. This, seconds before his death, Kratos tells him the same thing Zeus told him. "The cycle ends here."

In conclusion, Baldur is an extremely complex character whose life was admittedly ruined really before it began. He was young for a deity, at a mere 130 years old, when he died. Freya, despite her love and intentions, ignored his wishes and refused to respect her adult son's boundaries. Odin's only real use for his youngest son was just that. What he could use Baldur for. He didn't really love him, he didn't care about him, he lied to his face... And we don't know how truly isolated he was.