Poll: Male Gamers: Do you consider Kratos aspirational?

[The Rogue Wolf]

Anybody who idolizes Kratos for his deeds is someone who shouldn't be trusted with anything sharper than a crayon.

A crayon that's chained down.

With a short chain.

Because we've seen what the dude does with things on long chains.

 

[azurine]

HAHA! NO!
Erin of Critical Miss said it best: "Kratos used some chick as a doorstop". I believe that's reason enough to find him despicable.

 

[Taggart3131]

Honestly I'm torn because on one hand you are looking at a antihero who was a pawn in a god's game who seeks redemption for his actions. But on the other hand he will happily kill anyone who is in his way or leave others to die because he doesn't care about those other people. I mean in the first God of War he picks up the ship captain in the Hydra's throat just to grab the key and then drops him. But if you want a flat answer I would say no I don't consider Kratos to be aspirational or maybe yes he is aspirational in the sense that he is someone I don't want to be.

 

[The Great JT]

No, I consider him evil. For one he's a Spartan, and if you know ANYTHING about the historical Spartans, you know they were massive, MASSIVE douchebags (being EXTREMELY kind) and at the same time being absolutely pants-on-head stupid (never adapting new military strategies, never incorporating new technology into military, legally forcing people to beat their slaves, and I'm not even touching on their views on gender politics) should be vilified instead of idolized (looking at you, Frank Miller), and for two his actions in the games are absolutely reprehensible. Murdering innocent civilians, deicide, and ultimately causing the end of the world do not a hero make. More than likely that puts you on the villain side. I mean, in God of War 1 his actions were kind of understandable (except for the innocent civilian murder) and he did TRY to atone by throwing himself into the Aegean Sea, taking himself out of the world to stop doing any more harm to it. Everything after he took up Ares' throne (all the while refusing to grow the awesome flaming beard) he was being outright villainous.

 

[Shadow flame master]

In the sense of his muscular tone, yes I would love to aspire to him. With his actions he chooses to do in the games? No.

I would prefer to aspire to any of the protagonists from the Kingdom Hearts series, even though they constantly run into hardships and turmoil because some people (fucking Xehanort) would love to cause an apocalypse just to see what would happen. They show compassion for their comrades and would do anything to protect their friends. I would rather aspire to that while fending off the many cosmic horrors that threaten my world than be whatever Kratos is.

 

[EvilRoy]

I'm not seeing where 'power fantasy' and 'reflect ideals of what young men want' are in any way synonymous. For example there's the word 'fantasy' there and then in the other it's asking about what you really want to be.

Somehow I think leaping to interpret power fantasy to mean "someone you want to be like" when they're talking about Kratos is not exactly a very solid logical path by any account. If you're going to make an assumption, making the one that would generally require people to be pretty stupid for no apparent reason is either poorly thought out, which is what I think it is here, or pretty dishonest.

In the end, people say 'power fantasy'. They do not say 'reflects ideals of what young men want to be'. That's the OP that made that one up.

You might question the assertion that 'reflect the ideals of what young men want' is related to 'power fantasy', but my question was 'are you able to provide sources.' That is, are you able to define 'power fantasy' uniquely and distinctly from the original posters definition, and do you have anything to back that up.

I ask this because my original statement was honest, I rarely see anyone define 'power fantasy' and I never see sources produced on the subject. I assumed based on your certainty that the OP was a "failure in that you are gathering data for a 'key point' that is not in fact a key point", you had resources on hand that would suggest so.

To be honest I don't find your argument to be particularly compelling, but that is a non-issue to my mind because I'm not especially interested in the discussion at hand. I just wanted to know if you had research I could see.

 

[Lunar Templar]

nope.

I find him to disgusting as a character to find anything about him worthy of emulation.

 

[Frankster]

Kratos a male power fantasy? Meh, maybe if you were from ancient greece but other then being envious of his abs and physique can't say I'd like to be like him in any way possible.

I'd say a male power fantasies would be more like a rugged adventurer wrestling bears, sporting a fine moustache and acts prim and proper and civilized whatever the circumstances. Or maybe that's just me.

 

[EvilRoy]

Snip

I don't think I need 'research' to tell the difference between fantasy and what I'd actually want to be. Or to guess that people probably don't mean that Kratos is supposed to be something people would *actually* want to be.

N=1, ultimately.

I am disappointed you don't have any information to share, but I suppose I should get off my arse and check it out myself if it interests me that much.

 

[EvilRoy]

Snip

I don't think I need 'research' to tell the difference between fantasy and what I'd actually want to be. Or to guess that people probably don't mean that Kratos is supposed to be something people would *actually* want to be.

N=1, ultimately.

Not in the least bit. Only if you ignore the fact that I just pointed out one has the word fantasy right in there and the other is talking about reality and try to pretend that fact doesn't apply regardless of the fact that it's only me that pointed it out.

You don't need a fucking sample size to be reasonable in trying to parse what a phrase means, seriously.

A person can aspire to a fantasy or fantasize about an aspiration. They aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[Blaster]

Originally, I hit the "NO" vote. After which, I reconsidered my decision entirely when I realized that Kratos has a Will of iron. When he wants stuff done, he gets it done. Granted he did some fairly nefarious things with said will, but dang...

 

[wulf3n]

Snip

I don't think I need 'research' to tell the difference between fantasy and what I'd actually want to be. Or to guess that people probably don't mean that Kratos is supposed to be something people would *actually* want to be.

N=1, ultimately.

Not in the least bit. Only if you ignore the fact that I just pointed out one has the word fantasy right in there and the other is talking about reality and try to pretend that fact doesn't apply regardless of the fact that it's only me that pointed it out.

You don't need a fucking sample size to be reasonable in trying to parse what a phrase means, seriously.

A person can aspire to a fantasy or fantasize about an aspiration. They aren't mutually exclusive.

As such any data gathered as to Kratos as a figure of aspiration cannot correctly infer anything about his role as a fantasy.

 

[EvilRoy]

Snip

I don't think I need 'research' to tell the difference between fantasy and what I'd actually want to be. Or to guess that people probably don't mean that Kratos is supposed to be something people would *actually* want to be.

N=1, ultimately.

Not in the least bit. Only if you ignore the fact that I just pointed out one has the word fantasy right in there and the other is talking about reality and try to pretend that fact doesn't apply regardless of the fact that it's only me that pointed it out.

You don't need a fucking sample size to be reasonable in trying to parse what a phrase means, seriously.

A person can aspire to a fantasy or fantasize about an aspiration. They aren't mutually exclusive.

There's a strong enough difference between the two that a leap like that is utterly inane and rather implausible. Fact of the matter is they are *not* one and the same, that is not what the word 'fantasy' refers to.

Actually, fantasy and aspiration have a very odd relationship. Fantasies can belong to the set of all aspirations, and aspirations can belong to the set of all fantasies. That's why you need a sample size.

Snip

I don't think I need 'research' to tell the difference between fantasy and what I'd actually want to be. Or to guess that people probably don't mean that Kratos is supposed to be something people would *actually* want to be.

N=1, ultimately.

Not in the least bit. Only if you ignore the fact that I just pointed out one has the word fantasy right in there and the other is talking about reality and try to pretend that fact doesn't apply regardless of the fact that it's only me that pointed it out.

You don't need a fucking sample size to be reasonable in trying to parse what a phrase means, seriously.

A person can aspire to a fantasy or fantasize about an aspiration. They aren't mutually exclusive.

As such any data gathered as to Kratos as a figure of aspiration cannot correctly infer anything about his role as a fantasy.

More or less. Even if the initial question had been phrased featuring Kratos as a figure of fantasy the data would still be somewhat questionable based on what I mentioned above. It's important to know if your respondents are basing their answer on Kratos as a fantasy they aspire to or an aspiration they fantasize about. Preferably we would find out the answer to both and compare them to see if there is any difference.

 

[Phil O'Sweeny]

My fantasies as a kid never involved becoming anything like Kratos even remotely. I did play with he-men and ninjas with the other kids, but I think having muscles was more about "meaning they had an ability". The same way as the figure with the gun had the ability to hit you from far away, the figure with the muscles had the ability to pick up a tree (or stick) and hit the other figures with it. I think characters like those made by Joss Whedon have made being muscle-bound 'logically' unnecessary within the movie world now.

 

[Mersadeon]

Whoo boy.

Ok, his body is easy - pretty much every bodybuilder already aspires to that kind of muscle mass, and it is healthy to be strong, so I guess that part passes.

His character? Hell no. Don't get me wrong, I love "kill your gods" storylines - fighting free of divine restraints and all that, especially since I'm one of those idealistic guys who thinks it's better to sacrifice your life than your ideals. Kratos pretty much doomed the entire world, but not because he was fighting for freedom from the gods, just because of his personal revenge. And sure, what Ares and Zeus did to him wasn't nice, but doesn't he overreact a bit? Like, sure, Ares tricked you into killing your wife, but you kinda agreed to do his bidding, so isn't it your fault that you expected the god of Bloodshed and Warfare to not be cruel and break you? Also, it was technically dishonest of you to break your oath to Ares.
And once he got his revenge on him and gained his powers, instead of saying "I accomplished what I set out to do - I have my revenge now, I can live in peace!" he completely went overboard with the whole "NEW GOD OF WAR" thing and started taking towns just for fun. Yeah, he ordered his Spartans to start war with cities, killing countless innocents (even if he told them to spare every non-soldier, there are always innocent casualties) just because "well, that's what a God of War does, right?". Because of him, many more soldiers came home to find their family dead. Did THEY get the chance to get revenge on the God of War? No, because this is all about fucking Kratos. He is egotistical in his deepest core.

And then, when Zeus essentially tricked him to give up his powers and said "you've been a douche, we're taking your murdering privileges!" instead of finally sitting down and thinking WHY he even fights and WHY all this bloodshed is needed, he just starts ripping through gods that legitimately just wanted to stop the murdering lunatic who stomps off to kill Zeus.

So, I can't see anything about his character as aspirational - because even though it is implied he did something good (freeing the world of Men from the rule of Gods, even if it meant extinction for both), he didn't do it out of principle, he just did it for his petty feeling of being wronged, when he was really just punished for being the most hypocritical asshat in the Greek pantheon.

 

[Bluestorm83]

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.

OBJECTION!

Ha, no, seriously, Phoenix is great. Currently binging on all of the existing games to prepare for the upcoming Phoenix Wright/Professor Layton crossover. SO mad I skipped the Ace Attorney games when they were new.