They put HIM in the game? | God of War Valhalla - Part 1

Freya: “Wanna get frozen yogurt?”

Kratos: goes to Valhalla to think

"Brother, you've gone to bloody Valhalla to avoid her"

Golden line from Mimir as always

1:02:37 I'm just imagining Kratos pulling out his journal to write all this stuff like "Dear diary, today I defeated this fearsome foe."

Kratos forcing open the doors to Valhalla, and nearly destroying it by breaking out mimir from the cage with brute force is just a testament to his limitless strength.

Kratos breaking into Valhalla and dying multiple times instead of talking about his emotions is probably the most kratos thing he has ever done.

I need to see Kratos carry Mimir on one hip, and Helios on another. And they never stop talking to each other, driving Kratos mad.

Sigrun jumping in to carry Kratos and Mimir out of Valhalla, even as she is being burned alive, is so metal. That was so cool.

Seeing Kratos punch wooden chests open reminds me of the time Atreus tried doing it and I can't help but chuckle

God hearing Mimir beg for his life in the cage and Kratos sounding genuinely worried and also panicking was heart-wrenching when I first played and hearing it again is painful.

Kratos gossiping with Mimir about his romantic outing with Sigrun is hands down the best thing ever, this is giving me so much life and I love that the DLC was free.

Tyr catching Kratos' punch like it was nothing was a top tier moment.

Jack: "What if that's actually Mimir?"
Helios turning into Mimir: ..Brother?

YOU FHCKING JINXED IT JACK

With a wee bit longer hair and glowing pair of eyes, Jack's gonna be the spitting image of Tyr

I love how the first thing jack says when he arrives at the destination is “what is this place, are there drinks” said like a true Irish men.

watching Seán go "i dont wanna change, i wanna just play" while actively skipping the blade of olympus rage as an option killed me inside, loving the playthrough ❤

Mythology/language trivia:

1:43 Valhalla is Odin's hall of slain warriors (einherjar), who blissfully live there until Ragnarok (when they will fight against the giants). So to get there mortals need not only to die, but to die in battle and be chosen by a valkyrie to become an einherjar (those who die of sickness or old age go to the underworld, Hel).

5:10 A literal translation (from Icelandic) of "Ráða sjálfr sinum háttum" would be "to rule oneself in one's own way", but it does express the idea of "(being) one's own master" (as Mimir said).

11:38 There's nothing about Valhalla about "drawing from the memories of those who enter", but since it's a place where the slain warriors prepare for Ragnarok, they do fight each other during the day, but are restored to full health every evening (that's probably what gave the devs the idea to use Valhalla as a setting for a roguelike mode, and the memory thing was just so they could reuse game assets).

15:15 "Leyfa" means "to allow, permit" in Icelandic (they're allowing Kratos to enter Valhalla, so I guess it makes sense that word would open the door).

15:44 "Valgrind" (the main entrance to Valhalla) comes from the Old Norse valr ("dead warrior", referring to the einherjar) and grind ("gate").

29:13 In Greek mythology, Helios is the god who personifies the Sun (while Apollo was linked to various domains like music, poetry, prophecy, healing, and light).

33:08 The omega (uppercase:Ω, lowercase:ω) is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, and because of that it usually represents some kind of "end(ing)". That's why it was chosen as the symbol of the God of War series, representing the concept of war itself (and the destruction/"ends" it brings).

36:26 The underworld judges are King Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus (Aeacus was the judge of people of Europe, Rhadamanthus the judge of the men of Asia, and Minos the judge of the third and final vote). They ensured every soul received a fair and appropriate judgment after death, sending them to Elysium if they were judged worthy, Tartarus if they had been wicked, or to the Asphodel Meadows otherwise.

42:26 Ares was the Greek god of war (in the series, Kratos became the god of war by killing Ares).

52:12 Bifröst was the rainbow bridge between Midgard/Earth and Asgard (the realm of gods), but in the game it's also an energy that acts as a status effect (it turns part of the health bar blue, and if hit by an attack that energy explodes, dealing additional damage equal to the blue portion of the health bar).

1:01:07 Fiske is a masculine name that translates to "fish" in Old Norse.

1:04:07 In Greek mythology, Hermes was the messenger of the gods and the conductor of the dead to Hades (the underworld).

1:12:08 "Okkar í meðal" means "between us/our" in Old Norse. It's part of a quote from the Njáls saga, in which the character Gunnarr says this after hearing the death howl of his dog Sámr (killed by his enemies): "You have been sorely treated, my fosterling Sámr, and it is to be expected that it is meant to be so that our deaths will not be far apart" ("Sárt ertú leikinn, Sámr fóstri, ok búð svá sé til ætlat, at skammt skyli okkar í meðal"). More literally, Gunnarr believes the time between their ("Okkar í meðal") deaths will be short, and that he will also die soon (following his dog's death).

Seeing Tyr throw hands in the DLC after Odin's BS is satisfying.

I like how Sean's face just glows white whenever the screen whites out

I also was wondering why they are just able to WALK into Valhalla. Then I remembered that Kratos canonically died SEVERAL times, and Mimir is just the reanimated head of a dead body. So if anybody can just casually walk into Valhalla it would be those 2

1:02:08 This interaction is so funny to me cuz Kratos actually takes the time to humor him by saying hello instead of just telling him to piss off and answer💀

Also god I love Crispin Freeman’s voice. My top 5 of the voices he’s done is Alucard (Hellsing), Chairman Rockwell (Outer Worlds WHICH NEEDS A SECOND GAME RIGHT NOW), Gottwald (Code Geass), Itachi (Naruto), and Kirei (Fate). A close runner up is Shizuo (Durarara)