Here's Why David Jaffe, Creator Of God Of War, Is Wrong About Kratos

God of War creator David Jaffe apparently doesn’t like character development. In a video on his official YouTube channel titled “GOD OF WAR- Does it need to be so...PERSONAL?”, Jaffe shares his thoughts on how Sony Santa Monica has treated main character Kratos in recent years. While insisting that he enjoyed the newer God of War games and that they were extremely well made, he objected to the idea that characters should change along with their developers and audience, especially if they’re part of an existing franchise. He also commended Sony Santa Monica for treating games as an art form but said that they should be telling their stories within th꧑e “pen” set up for them.

Jaffe justifies this by saying that franchise characters change far more slowly than regular characters. James Bond and Spider-Man face the same issues over and over again, without the core character changing drastically – layers are added over time, but they face the same coℱre conceit. Kratos in 2018’s God of War is not interesting without the layers of history behind him, Jaffe says. Later in the video, he says that God of War’s core audience is not interested in themes of family or raising children, and compares this to Martin Scorcese making an action film: interesting, but not what people go to action movies for.

On some of these points he’s not far off the mark, and on some he’s objectively wrong. For example, on his history feeding into his lore as a character and making him more compelling: yes, of course that’s right. But that’s how a character arc works – the character starts one way, things happen, and the character changes. It doesn’t mean that being part of a franchise means a character can never grow and evolve. It also implies that Jaffe wants Kratos to be a forever character, one that exists in perpetuity and ends his journeys where he started, so that future stories can start from the same point. There’s nothing wrong with that, theoretically, though it is frustrating to see him say that he’d rather see his character live on forever, never changing or growing, than see that chaꦇracter go through꧙ a satisfying character arc and evolve.

Another point that he’s wrong about: obviously, people do resonate with Kratos as a fatherly character, and it shows in the sales. God of War: Ragnarok sold over five million units in its first week, has sold 15 million units as of November 2023, and won six awards at The Game Awards out of eleven nominations. The game has seen immense commercial and critical success – showinꦫg that audiences are, in fact, very interested in seeing Kratos as a dad. Whether that includes Jaffe’s so-called “core audience” is hard to say, but he seems to be basing this statement more off vibes and his own echo chamber than anything else.

These are the concrete facts I can offer that he’s wrong about, but it’s far more interesting to consider what he gets to decide as the creator of Kratos. I’m not interested in litigating whether or not Sony Santa Monica has made the right or wrong choice with Kratos, only that character growth is generally considered a positive in fiction, and is necessary in this particular situation because it makes the series better. To be clear, Jaffe never says that God of War is bad because of the story it tells, he just says it’s not for him, an♓d that somebody should have stopped the developers frꦫom telling their own stories through his franchise.

The whole thing is ridiculous, because where does he think stories come from? Throughout history, in every artistic medium, artists have drawn from their own experiences and the experiences of others to tell stories and make work. I would go so far as to say it’s ludicrous that he thinks artists shouldn’t express themselves through their work – what on earth do we have art for, then? He calls not for the death of the author, but for us to make a statue of the author (him) and immortalise him forever. Not only must we care about his intent, but his intent can never be reinterpreted, his work can never change, and what he’s made must be cast in bronze and paraded for all time. Kratos can never die. He can never change. He must be as wrathful and vengeful as he was when he was a young man. Perhaps he should always be a young man.

Jaffe game journalists disagree with him.

The beautiful thing about art, and franchises that continue, is that artists care about different things throughout their lives. I don’t feel particularly strongly about God of War, but I do feel strongly about the value of art as a storytelling medium. We see film auteurs change the focus of their work throughout their lives, and looking at each of their movies in the context of their early and later works adds value to all of it. We can look at God of War 💜the same way, in that it continues a legacy while demonstrating increasing maturity. Jaffe is allowed to have an opinion on the direction his character is going, sure, but everybody else is allowed to say he’s made a bad take. Most people aren’t interested in characters that are frozen in time, they’re interested in character development. Jaffe doesn’t seem to see that, which is a shame.