Poll: Male Gamers: Do you consider Kratos aspirational?

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

The dude is jacked, but that level of physique is beyond what I would like to have.

Add to that, the fact that he is a total psychopath who partakes in murder and deicide as a routine.

I don't even think actual psychopaths would aspire to be like Kratos.

 

[Amaury_games]

In a fantastical way, yes. Kratos has become that powerful that literally nothing can stand in his way. Not even gods. As someone who often feels trapped, that kind of power, even fuelled by psychotic, selfish rage, is undeniably tempting to me.

However, there is no shortage of other unstoppable characters who don't have such drawbacks that I look up to. John Mclane from Die hard for example. Just no stopping him, and he's still, albeit grumpy, a good guy at heart.

Exactly this for me.
I can't deny I have fun in GOW, specially because I'm a guy that overpowers everything else, including Gods and Titans. Physically, he's an impossible standard or goal to have, but could be something to kind of aspire to if I wanted to get stronger and stuff (since I'm just happy to keep a "physically able shape", then that becomes just part of a cool design for a character fueled by the desire of vengeance). In terms of being a person... well, like was said here, they try to sell him as n anti-hero, but he's just a maniac who can't stop killing and is so crazy that he insists he's killing in the name of redemption.
So, in essence, he's only cool for me as a fantasy of being more powerful than everyone else, but nothing else. There are more interesting characters to aspire to, like John McLane (at least, in the first Die Hards - I have only watched the first 2 and the 4th).

 

[Rowan93]

I haven't played any of the games, but it's obvious that he has one or more aspects that I find appealing, and aspire to. He's ripped to shreds, is strong and powerful and able to defend himself (and, y'know, kill anyone who annoys him, but I don't want to do that), frequently encounters bizarre and fantastical creatures, and his decisions greatly effect the world he's in.

Overall, I don't want to be Kratos, but that's not what the question was.

 

[chikusho]

He starts of as an incredibly strong and almost unstoppable power-fantasy type character that crushes everything and everyone in the path towards his goals. But as any protagonist in a Greek tragedy he spirals downward and ultimately falls victim to his own selfish ambition. He's not an admirable character, but a tragic one, that utilizes his superhuman power for the benefit of no one. However, you still feel strong as all hell when ripping the eye out of a cyclops.

 

[NemotheElvenPanda]

Kratos is a psychopathic, arrogant, scarred, blasphemous, sexy badass. Not someone I'd want to be like in appearance or character, but I don't deny that I like looking at him. He's ultimately a tragic character on literal and metaphorical steroids.

 

[Barbas]

Kratos is the walking embodiment of short-sightedness and impotent rage. I can't think of anything else to say about him.

 

[Bluestorm83]

Other than wishing I was built like Kratos, I kinda hate the person that he IS. Let me explain in a few points.

1) He's completely incapable of rational thinking. His history ranges from "I'm a Spartan, kill whoever Ares points me at!" to "I'm pissed at the gods, kill whoever's in front of me until I kill the gods!" In the middle, he ALMOST stops at, "Wait, I'm in Elysium with my wife and daughter, who forgive me and we can have a happy eternity together, which is what I want," but then decides "Time to go rip peoples arms off!" Yep. The Jackass actually reaches the happy ending and then heads back out into the hell that he actively tried to escape from via suicide during the opening cutscene of the first game.

2) He has no regard for innocents. How many times has Kratos used a crate with a dude in it to hold down a switch under water, or in a fire, or jam a still living woman into gears to stop a bridge from lowering, or some other generally abominable bullshit? Could he have spared 10 minutes to open that cage, get the guy out, and then use just the cage to hold the switch down? Could he have maybe used a ROCK to jam those gears, instead of a lady? Yeah, he could have... but he's too concerned with being a murderous asshole to care.

3) He'll nail anything that moves. Even if he's currently in a dangerous situation. The two in the bed at the beginning of the first game, okay, it's still a three-way but at least there isn't a city burning down around him. The two chicks in the hot tub when I'm pretty sure he'd just fallen through the roof... well, here doesn't he have enemies to fight? Or how about the two persian slave girls, (pretty sure they're still in chains, btw) in the first PSP game? And then to round it out in God of War 3, he nails Aphrodite. Wait a second, didn't we learn that Kratos is one of Zeus' sons? Yep, interactive minigame to fuck your sister. GG Kratos. GG.

4) And this is the big one here.) He has NO redeeming virtues that come out at the end to balance all of the womanizing and selfishness and murder and incest. He doesn't kill the gods because they're WORSE than he is. Hell, he kills many gods who are actively BETTER than he is. Does killing the gods at least passively help people? NOPE! When he kills Poseidon, the fucking oceans rise and destroy every coastal city everywhere. When Apollo dies, the sun is obscured by clouds, presumably forever. Zeus' death brings about tornadoes and lightning, and by the very end, we have a hellish nightmare of an Earth AND he's killed the guy who would at least have taken care of everyone after they die.

Kratos! Fucked the entire human race, as well as a race of gods, all because he was buttmad that he was too goddamn stupid to recognize his OWN FUCKING VILLAGE and murdered his family.

No, fuck Kratos. He's more suitable to be an endboss than-
Holy shit, there we go. God of War 4 needs to be someone that we can actually IDENTIFY with, who goes out, kills Kratos, and sets the world right again.

 

[Mid Boss]

No, you can not use a raging sociopath for this... study. He is the ideal of raging prepubescent douche bags. NO ONE sane would look up to him.

If you would like some real results use someone like Dante (old Dante) or Phoenix Wright or Gordon Freeman.

 

[Tien Shen]

I find Kratos completely unlikable and impossible to relate too. He more or less slaughters everyone who gets in his way, showing absolutely no mercy or understanding. He's not funny or fun to watch. I fear for the future if anyone actually tries to take after him.

Physique wise, he's impressive but still way overdone.

 

[Hazy]

Kratos is always a bad example for this. He's the main character in a series about ancient Greek mythology. He's supposed to look like a Greek statue. All cut physique with plenty of muscle.

Wow, first post in and we've already hit the nail on the head. Good on you, Delta.

Most appealing male character though? Dante. It's always Dante. That finesse and grace mixed with that love for pizza.

 

[Korenith]

I don't think he actually serves as an aspirational character by design. Apart from physique which several people have mentioned he's not really presented as someone you want to be but rather a cathartic release of base desires (violence, sex, etc.) It's like the Mask in Splatterhouse or the Mask in... well The Mask. An expression of the more "primal" side. He's there for you to let your inner loony out for a bit but with no actual consequences because in his world he can do pretty much whatever he likes.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Kratos a role model? Aw hell naw. There are reasons why people like him, but him being a likable or inspiring character is definitely not one of them. Most of us could sure use a dash of that willpower and determination though. Would help my studies a lot.

I'm actually quite sad at how much shit people give Kratos for being a raging psychopath. I always saw him and his story as a sort of warning sign about what happens when someone loses their purpose in life and has nothing left. Not nothing left to lose, mind you, but absolutely nothing left, nothing to live for or strive towards and only wishes for all to end. After Kratos was denied being rid of all his memories, the single thing he'd striven towards for 10 years, and even being denied being able to kill himself, he went off the deep end. In becoming a god he had lost everything but gained literally everything (how much more gain can you get than becoming a god?). But because his only goal was denied from him, he only sought to continue the one thing he knew how to do: destruction.

Kratos' story is a tragedy, but he himself is also a tragedy. His lousy attempt at redemption with Pandora in GoWIII IMO demonstrated this. Kratos was so utterly engulfed in revenge and hatred that he grasped even the flimsiest straw to try to justify his actions. And in the end he ultimately failed, despite all the talk about forgiveness.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

No, he looks like a freak. And he behaves like a freak.

He's a very selfish and cowardly character. He cares only about his own survival. He kills his own family with his own two hands, he's so blinded.

He kills random innocents that he stumbles across as if they were inanimate objects. (for example, to lower a staircase or open a door, he would think nothing of having someone crushed in between two boulders).

Kratos is everything a man is not, and especially physically.

He also has a very small head that looks strange to me.

Despite this, you'll never see me cry that he defaces the male gender and is shameful or some such ridiculousness.

As much as it's frowned upon to simply say 'this'...yeah, I totally agree.
The grey, bald, overmuscled, snarling ragemonster with incredibly little character depth is not exactly a character I wish to in any way learn from or emulate.

 

[Denamic]

Purely physically, sure. His physique would be considered nothing short of magnificent in the real world, and it would certainly not be bad to consider it an ideal, though that depends on preference. Minus the literal corpse-paint.

As a character, though, no. Absolutely not. I love him as a character, but he is not suitable as an ideal in any way other than for his body as I said before, because he's a fucking lunatic monster.

 

[Virgilthepagan]

I think this might be a poor choice for this little thought diddy. Have I ever aspired to straight up murder the sun? And not metaphorically, but physically, with my bare hands. Then no, I'm not really the kind of guy who looks at Kratos in a positive light.

As others have pointed out, he's selfish, murderous, and destructive to anything in a ten mile radius. I don't know if the developers intentionally wiped out his few vaguely redeeming qualities, or if it just happened naturally somewhere in all that deicide, but by the end of game 3 he's essentially caused the apocalypse.

As to Kratos physically? I managed to get carpal tunnel just working at a bar. Clearly he's a bit out of what I could aspire too. I also like my hair.

 

[hermes]

Aspirational? No, he never has been.

During the first few games, he at least was relatable. Now he is just a big baby with a big gun that likes to throw tantrums left and right, nevermind the consequences. He is a genocidal, egocentric, psychopathic asshole, and the length the designers of the games go to sell us on the idea he is some sort of tragic antihero is laughable...

One of the few games I was rooting for the villains.

 

[SuperScrub]

I've played all of the God of War games, except Ascension, and I can safely say that Kratos is something no man, nay, nobody should aspire too. He has a tragic backstory and it's possible (but difficult especially in later games) to root for him, but any person who honestly thinks that excessive rage, violence, and suicide are intelligent or sane ways to solve their problems needs to be put in a mental institution so fast they'll be in straitjackets before they can say, "The voices in my head won't stop talking."

 

[DementedSheep]

I?m not male but I feel like commenting anyway.
Kratos is not heroic or someone to aspire to be like aside from in terms of power. I very much doubt he is meant to be.
He only the protagonist because the guys he is fighting are worse (in the first one at least, not so much after that). This is not a negative point for the game. It just a different type of story than usual. Not every story has to center around heroic idols.
I don?t know why he continually appears in that debate since he isn't a standard hero and he?s an ugly SOB. He not wearing much I suppose but his design makes him look intimidating and savage which I?m pretty sure is what the designers were going for...and because if I remember right when they did have him in historical Greek armour the play tester thought he looked to Roman so sandals and cloth it was.