All For What?

I heard through the grapevine (and I'm just about to lose my mind) that a new God of War game is in development:



I've already made clear my exasperation of how Kratos has been handled in every game that's followed the original God of War - but to see him in yet another game strikes me that, again, Kratos is being handled by people who aren't sure what to do with him. Yes they got off to a great start with the big brute having being tricked into murdering his family and going to extraordinary lengths to undo it all but the end of the game (Kratos defeating Ares and taking his place) concludes a self contained story and seems unlikely to get a sequel out of it - thus the concluding line 'Kratos will Return' seems awfully presumptuous.

I've said it once and I'll say it again: Kratos had a decent enough motivation in the first game in achieving redemption so to have him commit so many atrocities in the subsequent games comes across as more puzzling. Kratos now is just violent for the sake of it, he's motivation now becomes and excuse and his whole insistence on some revenge now suggests he can't function properly as a human being. More importantly, the Kratos of GoW2+3 seems determined as possible to move away from whatever made him compelling in GoW1 - and this is a character who was first introduced to us by committing suicide. Some may try to defend the Kratos from GoW2+3 by a) saying the Greek gods were being jerks b) the plot is trying to replicate the plays from Ancient Greece and c) once a character scores revenge they have no further right to exist - but I don't buy that primarily because I choose not to turn my bullshit detector off.

I can't stress this enough: Kratos in every that game that isn't GoW1 strikes me as being handled by people who can't grasp what made him the work the first time. There was a tragic element in GoW1 that was interesting but someone must've thought it made him a pussy because since then he's degenerated into a killing machine. Thus, maybe it is fitting that the new GoW game be a prequel (as the video above suggests) because the psychotic Kratos would make more sense.

So do I think can do better? Of course. If I was given the opportunity to do something with Kratos I would continue the themes of remorse and redemption commenced in the first game. I would place Kratos in positions where his murderous/psychotic instincts are challenged. Say.....
 - He gets banished by Zeus to a desert with him being the sole inhabitant. It would be fun to see how long Kratos lasts with no one to kill.
 - Considering how much GoW3 seems to about Kratos destroying the world, wouldn't it be fun if he, in a brief moment of respite from the combat, suddenly forgot what he was fighting for?
 - Or better yet, have him challenged by someone whose wife was cut down by Kratos?
 - One of the ideas from GoW2 was him being met by heroic figures from Greek Mythology - so to me it was something of a wasted opportunity that he didn't meet Orpheus. After all, Orpheus went down to Hades to retrieve his wife Eurydice but failed. So it might be interesting to Kratos to find something of a kindred spirit - at least before he shoves Orpheus' lyre up his orifice (Oh Mamma!)