He's spreading the glory of Sparta to anyone and everyone, I don't believe it has anything to do with cities that are "owned" by gods.

Besides, it's not "if he attacked rhodes"....he definitely did, someone linked the video for you.

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Rhodes.html

Seems Helius is the patron of Rhodes, which would leave me to believe that it was "owned" by a god anyway.

Rhodes was a part of Athen..."Invasions by the Persians eventually overran the island, but after their defeat by the forces from Athens in 478 BC, the cities joined the Athenian League"...taken from wikipedia..........Im not sure where in the game but the J man is pretty sure they mention the city as athena's.

Jesus ! Go play god of war 2 nao !
Rhodes is an island which was a part of athens but isnt athens !

THIS THREAD FAILS.

The last thing I give a shit about when I'm stabbing a cyclops in the brain and pulling out his eyeball is whether or not there's a "purpose".

Of course he would have killed Ares either way, the point is, the gods refused to make his memories go away, and he took that as an offence. I don't get your last paragraph.. but GoW1 storyline was superior to GoW2 yes

Again, I do wish they explored free will and fate a bit more. The Illiad and the Odyssey, even when they weren't talking about the lack of free will (which a modern story like GoW does) made it even more obvious that the mortals were powerless and the gods controlled everything.

In fact the gods in the Illiad seem like pricks if you think about it. The huge war is over a trivial conflict like the apple, Zeus helps the Trojans because of Achilles' rage and his mother's favor. The playful dysfunctional family sitcom image in Olympus, while Hector has that really dramatic and tragic scene with his wife and child.

They need to portray the gods more negatively IMHO. Although the Titan story did help show Zeus as not being so nice along with his real intention of stopping Kratos.

Again though, Kratos isn't all that sympathetic IMHO. Hopefully we as players have some control over the story like the ending of GTA IV.

Akvod, it's possible to take Kratos as immensely sympathetic and the gods as almost monstrous - Zeus in particular. He's as negative a figure as there is. Kratos is tragic and sympathetic because his Greek flaw is rage - it's not quite pride, doesn't lend itself to being brought down in the same way, but it is invested with its own tragedies.

Well looking at it from a modern perspective, I think Kratos isn't all that sympathetic.

3:30 ish

Also I find the "wipe my memories and sins away" to be the wrong way out. You cannot undo your past, and just trying to "atone" or "relieve" yourself of sin like the Middle Eastern religions is wrong (look at the Chick tracts, and how criminals can just appeal in the end and "erase" their sins). The right way, IMHO, is to accept your past and sins, but move on.

Kratos, after the first game, constantly cannot let go and his rage and anger only leads to more and more destruction. His blaming of others for something that was his fault (and Ares's).

Athena's death words also signify that Kratos's desire to destroy the god is selfish and can lead to anarchy and disorder, while as much as Zeus is not sympathetic, Athena will sacrifice herself and be selfless to preserve that order.

Like I said, it's not completely black and white, that's all I'm saying. I really felt sad for Kratos the first time I saw him kill his family, and when he became the God of War at the end of the first game, and sad miserably on his throne for all eternity (or so I thought). But, Ares didn't completely manipulate Kratos. Kratos was happy to continue fighting a war, against his wife's wishes, until HE loses something.

And when he finally realizes that he cannot regain or undo his loss, he only continues to fight a war out of rage.

If Kratos in the end, finally lets go of his rage and accepts the past (sheds his ashes), and gives up on trying to fight a war that brings back nothing (the chains fall from his arms), then I'll think of Kratos being sympathetic in the end.

If Kratos doesn't acknowledge or realize his flaw and just blames the gods like he does in the second game though (Like when Kratos said "No" to Athena at the end of the game) then I'll just see Kratos as an unsatsifiable war machine, truly a God of War.

He never cared about becoming the God of War, what he wanted was for Athena to remove the memories of what he had done. She didn't, instead she just used him to save her own city. He wanted revenge on Athena for a her trickery.

EDIT: *The Gods used Kratos to get rid of Ares who was becoming a problem for them and they didn't give him what he asked for in return. 

He definetly had a grudge against the gods, even towards Athena, but I don't think his attack on Rhodes was truly a "revenge" on the gods. He just didn't care a damn about the gods anymore.