Kratos is seen by many people in forums as a one dimensional character only seeking vengeance which has actually spread through media. Many people just go with it despite not having played all the games, going by just a few games they have played or some footage they saw of Kratos ripping the head off of a gargoyle. That's not true, as he is tricked by the gods, lied to and used as a pawn to further their motives. There are spoilers ahead.

See some of the things I will say and you may be able to know his motives a bit better. He was tricked by Ares into killing his own wife and child and then the ashes of his wife and child were stuck to him by a witch who cursed him into having to live with it for the rest of his life and given the title, the Ghost of Sparta. That is brutal.

He then seeks to break his bond with Ares by serving the Olympian Gods and does so for ten years, killing huge creatures and taking the lives of those that threaten Greece yet the Gods don't free him from his punishment. He saves Helios and brings back the sun but gets nothing. He is reunited with his daughter by Persephone but in return he has to allow the world to be destroyed so he reluctantly leaves his daughter again to save the world. He still gets nothing from the Gods.

Kratos is then sent on a quest to kill Ares who plots to overthrow Olympus and the Gods promise to forgive him for his sins which was perpetuated by Ares and not his fault. He does as told but then they back out of it saying that he is forgiven for his sins but has to live with their memories.

After all this he becomes the God of War and then has flashbacks about his mother living in Atlantis. He goes there and is attacked by Scylla, a servant of Poseidon, an Olympian God. See they just don't let him live in peace. Then when he does meet his mother she turns into a hideous beast and he has to kill her too. She tells him about her brother who was taken away as a child by Thanatos, the God of Death, and he goes to find him. He finds Deimos who is angry with him and attacks him. After a short fight Thanatos takes Deimos away and nearly kills him but is saved by Kratos just in time. The two brothers then go on to fight Thanatos who kills his brother.

Kratos wins and is angrier than ever before. He goes on a rampage which is understandable as all the Gods treat him terribly and kill his family. He goes to Rhodes and is attacked by the Collosus which comes alive. Zeus sends him the Blade of Olympus to destroy the Collosus as if he was trying to help him. To use the sword he had to give all his power to it and become mortal again. He destroys the Collosus but after escaping as the Collosus dies one of his hands falls on Kratos severely injuring him. He goes to the sword to get back his godly power but Zeus arrives and takes it, revealing that he was the one who bestowed life to the statue and it was all a trick in order to turn Kratos into a mortal again. He then shoves it into Kratos torso when he is severely wounded. After all this Kratos seeks vengeance on Zeus. The other Olympian Gods weren't his targets but they stood between him and Zeus which is why he had to kill them. Ares, Persephone, Thanatos and Zeus were the only true enemies of Kratos, the rest just got in his way.

The only one I skipped was Ascension and I only played each one once but wasn't he already an asshole and a whore before he killed his family?

He's vastly overrated and one of the worst characters in gaming. Not to mention he's an idiot.Yeah tricked like the idiot he is to kill his family. He's so broken up about it he fucks some whores. Asura has the same concept but executed much better in the story. I'm sorry but the GoW games I played, GoW 2, Chains of Olympus and Ascension are some of the shittiest action games I've ever played. There is no way Kratos is underrated. Is Mario underrated or Master Chief? Only one of the most popular around. Bullshit. He's an asshole all the way through. It's no wonder Kratos sucks as a character. David Jaffe directed GoW. Jaffe thinks what is cool at 13 years old is edgy and mature. (just look at the garbage that is Drawn to Death.)

Yeah, the guy who uses a woman as a wedge in the gears to hold a door open. Great guy. Very misunderstood.

I saw him evolving during the games in response to what the Gods did. On GoW 1, he was a broken depressed dude with severe anger control issues (he was always a douche). Either way, he still followed the Gods, doing their deeds with the promise they would end his nightmares. Well, they order him to stop Ares so he does it and also gets a sweet revenge. Then the Gods act as even bigger douches and say "screw you, we won't remove your nightmares". He tries to kill himself because he is sick of living like that. The Gods, once again being douches, won't even let him kill himself and make him the God of War.

In the second game, he is losing his humanity. Frustrated with the guilt and nightmares, he is a total douche as God of War (well, I think it's part of the job). Focusing on his anger instead of being depressed. But, of course, the Gods don't want to leave him be and Zeus betrays him. So he is now pissed beyond belief and decides that Zeus must die so he can finally have some peace.

In the third game, he finally realizes that Zeus is not the problem. The Gods are. And he will never have peace as long as Olympus exists. So he is finally consumed by his thirst of vengeance and becomes only anger and nothing else.

That's the whole thing about him. He is a douche, of course, but nobody is perfect. The Greek Gods have total disrespect for mankind and just try to please themselves all the time. One of them ruins his life and the rest just toys with him (including Athena). The games are the history of a guy losing faith in his Gods until realizing that the only thing that could give him peace or freedom was to put an end to his Gods. During this mission, he goes from depressed victim to a man that has nothing except anger. The third game is quite clear about this when Pandora dies. She was the last thing that still had a meaning to Kratos other than vengeance.

He was an asshole, but not the kind he later became. Yeah he killed people and raided villages before, as the general of the Spartan army that was his duty, but he didn't kill for no reason and he wasn't seeking vengeance, nor was he perpetually angry and depressed. As you've played the games, you might notice that he becomes more and more bloodthirsty as the story moves forward as the Gods piss him off more and more and gradually kill the family he knew, his wife, daughter, mother and brother. So he actually grows as a character, as his quest for vengeance becomes stronger with every act that the Gods do. That was my point.

This.

Jack Cayman would whoop Kratos lol

Per your post history, it's like you think everything is shit.

Especially if it's Sony related.

Always liked Kratos, it's easy to see why people who've only played 2 and/or 3 think he's a shallow one-dimensional character but once you've played them all (forget GoW: Ascension) you'll understand his tragic backstory and see that his anger and relentless quest for vengeance is well justified.

Still, I'm glad that they've put an end to using vengeance & hatred as his motivation in the upcoming game, looking forward to seeing how he's developed since the end of GoW3.

Kratos is not misunderstood. He's just a poorly written character.