#gow5 speculation

[screechthemighty]

*crashes into your living room* HEY, BESTIES, ARE WE SURE THE GIANTS IN GOD OF WAR IS FORETOLD RAGNAROK BECAUSE I’M STARTING TO THINK THEY DIDN’T (or at least, not the Ragnarok we’re thinking). This is really long so it’s under a cut but hear me out, okay...

Here’s my logic. Most important detail: Mimir mentions that Ragnarok is supposed to happen hundreds of years from now, but they “changed something” and kick-started it early. All of this would line up with what we, the audience, know about Ragnarok, and what Asgard seems to know about it. It’s supposed to be Loki as an adult, having kids with Angrboda (one kid in particular being super important to Ragnarok), and everything kicks off then when he kills Baldur. But that’s not what happens. Loki (Atreus) is twelve when Baldur is killed, and technically he’s not even the one who does it. Kratos is.

This is important, because the giant’s prophecy mural depicts what happens in the game--the wrong version of Ragnarok, the version Mimir says wasn’t going to happen. Young Loki, Kratos actively involved. So they knew that Fimbulwinter was going to happen early, even though that flies in the face of other prophecies and things that seem to be common knowledge outside of Jotunheim.

On top of that, let’s go through that second piece of writing you can read before the mural is revealed.

We foresee Midgard’s fate, overrun, a second Hel. Neither Odin nor his dead may reach Jotunheim. The ways must be shut. - Discussing the events leading up to the closing of Jotunheim.

The serpent and the guardian remained. They alone shall keep our hope. - Faye + Jormi staying behind, serving as pieces in a puzzle that will play out later (Jormi helping Atreus and crew on their quest, Faye as his mother).

When doom befalls the indestructible, only then shall the guardian return. - Again, seems to foretell events in that game; Faye’s ashes are returned home after previously unkillable Baldur dies.

Now none of this points to the giants knowing about a second or differing Ragnarok, as it’s vague enough to apply both to the events of the game, or Ragnarok as we know it (for instance, there’s nothing that says in the standard Ragnarok timeline Faye isn’t still alive and came home post-Baldur, or maybe died but much later). BUT...this last bit caught my attention.

Until then, we await a better world - one without fear, without greed, without war. We wait for deliverance, and justice. - None of this sounds like the end of all creation, as Ragnarok is typically depicted.

We wait for a champion. - Most likely Loki (therefore Atreus).

We will wait for the word that gods grow good. - KRATOS HAS SPENT THE PAST DECADES GROWING AS A PERSON. Who is he, if not proof that gods can grow good? Him and, to an extent, Atreus, who had his brush with darkness but overcame it and seems to be doing well for himself? This could be proof that they accounted for Kratos, who is absent from Ragnarok in more than just the obvious ways of “Kratos not being myth canon” (Mimir probably would’ve guessed by now if he’d been in-game-Ragnarok canon).

So, what we’re seeing is that the giants, known for their gifts of foresight, foretold that Ragnarok is going to happen in a way different than what the Aesir know of, and then on top of that foretold a much brighter future (which also lines up with the reality of canon--Odin being alive actively makes things worse, as it’s his meddling that’s caused the Desolation and the slow sickness of Midgard). They seem to account for Kratos’s involvement in a way the Aesir didn’t. And seeing how giant prophecy seems to be on point (on point enough at least that Odin was desperate to know what they knew), I don’t think we can accurately use Ragnarok as a meter for what’s going to happen in game, even if you’re of the opinion (like me) that Kratos can defy fate. I think what we THINK is going to be fate is actually going to be quite different.

Now, this leaves a lot of questions, like for instance “why is this prophecy different than what Groa foretold? Is it that fate and destiny are a bit more malleable and Kratos showing up shifted the balance of fate in a way that only the giants knew, that Odin missed because he was too obsessed with a singular outcome? What does this mean for the missing parts of the mural (in particular the sad parts that I’m trying not to think about)? Can that fate be defied as well? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON??” And for that, unfortunately, we may have to wait...but if I’m right, and the actual canon is being put right in front of us, this could all also mean a more optimistic ending than a game called “Ragnarok” indicates. At the very least, it grants them some wiggle room to do so. (Seriously, picture an end reveal where things kinda work out, and then we find out the rest of the mural was the plot of Ragnarok. That’d slap.)

[screechthemighty]

Wait, actually. I am gonna post this in the main tag because I think I’m onto something. 

Angie (Angrboða, I have to google her name to spell it right, sorry) being Tyr’s kid actually kind of makes sense when you remember that Tyr himself is PROBABLY half-giant. Odin’s “first great love” (debatable but as far as Mimir knew it was love) was a giant, remember? Because Thor himself is half-giant. So if Tyr is Odin’s son in this timeline, he’s part giant himself, meaning that regardless of whether or not Angie’s mom is a giant, she’d still technically count by way of her dad. (I can see it swinging either way wrt her mom; on the one hand, he definitely had the trust of the giants, so I can see him having a family with one, but ALSO she would’ve been born after he left Midgard so she could be half mortal by someone he met when he went wherever it is they find him?? But we’ll see next year I guess.)

[screechthemighty]

Concept: my theory about Faye having stayed in the woods and kept the prophecy a secret in order to try and pull a Bergelmir because after years of fighting she's come to realize peace is the best way and the way that keeps her family safe, Atreus learns about this along with what the true cost of Ragnarok might be and chooses a better path, Kratos gets to be secure in the knowledge that his wife did truly love him and wanted what was best for the both of them, everyone wins for a change.

[screechthemighty]

Concept I thought of in light of the declaration that the ending of Ragnarok will be "surprising but logical" or something to that affect:

Kratos does not die, however he chooses to "retire" so to speak and Atreus goes on adventures and becomes the new main character.

Surprising because everyone is expecting Kratos to die, logical because honestly the poor man needs and deserves a break, so him making the conscious decision to go live in a cave somewhere while Atreus goes off to see the world makes sense.

[screechthemighty]

CONSPIRACY THEORY: Tyr had his arm/hand re-attached in Egypt as a thank-you gift from that pantheon from some owed favor, which is why it has the tattoos and why he has both hands.

EVIDENCE: this is mostly centered around me tenuously remembering that Orisis was re-assembled after being chopped up, so theoretically Isis could be capable of re-attaching limbs.

[screechthemighty]

Related to that “what if Ragnarok is a necessary evil” post I made, imagine if GoW5 is just all these people who hate Odin trying to get Ragnarok going and they keep coming to Kratos and Atreus for obvious reasons, and Kratos is just...

“Oh, so when you kill all the gods it’s justice and a return to balance, but when I kill all the gods, it’s the worst crime in Greece and I’m an irredeemable monster.”

[screechthemighty]

New Crack Theory: Angie is Tyr’s half-giant daughter in this timeline.