Ares @ Alecto: In rage and insanity we will give birth to a warrior who will take down the very walls of Olympus.
Alecto: *rode him like a boy
Alecto *microwave ping*: here
Orkos: hi dad, hi mom and the other two moms, I love you!
Ares: dammit my loins, I conceived a sweetheart again, Zeus will strike him down and kill literally in half second, I should foresee this, I have only two fully divine sons who became warriors, why, what's the point...
What's going on here? IT'S FINAL
Million years ago, somewhere near the New Year Eve, when my ooak Ares's armor was complete, I was like: "naaaaaaaaah, accessories will be easy to make". It was a huge underestimation of the situation, as it can be seen now.
I actually had no particular reasons to do it, I mean, his sword would be enough to feed my appetites, but I was like 'I am already decided to make his weapon anyway, why not to replicate attributes of his spider personality from his bossfight with Kratos??'
It was the time when I still had a smile on my face, because at that moment it were problems for the 'future me', and at the first week of January I was very excited about the new challenge. Let's see what we had here under the cut!
It is not so much time passed since my return to tumblr, thanks to god of war games, but I feel like I want to chat or answer some questions! About fandom, craft or any other stuff.
So if you wanted to know something, but was too afraid to ask, it is your time now, do it freely!
I have a red end on my pencil, but it was too late to change it
Ares is here again and he is very pleased, who knows why
The way you draw Ares is sexy and I appreciate that. Had to get it off my chest
I appreciate your confession ❤ Thank you, Anon! Ares is sexy and he can't be another way
Aw, I haven't noticed before... Faye started to weave a tapestry, probably when she had fallen ill and had to stay in a bed, but she died and didn't finish it, and now it is just hanging on a wall near her bedside :c
I just have a thought that WHAT IF when Kratos told a story about Trojan war and mentioned that this was a "war over forbidden love", he meant not Helena and Paris, but Achilles and Patroclus?
It wasn't actually "forbidden" I suppose (maybe we can consider it as "it was forbidden to give up warrior duties for love and they were destined to beautifully die in the battle or because one of them was a demi-god and the other was mortal"), but.. a whole fuckin Achaean side cried over them?? And shipped them with a huge drama?? And "Illiad" was everyone's favorite fanfic about it
Okay, in post canon I wish for one thing.
I wish Kratos start to slowly returning to his roots after many sessions of therapy in Valhalla. I mean in a good way, not to his trauma, but to his ancestry.
In Ragnarok he had allowed himself to speak about Greece, when it is safe. But in Valhalla he got nearly in a full contact with his homeland. With his memories, with his mother tongue. With his spartan-self.
I mean he denied his greek origin for the hundres of years, not only as an olympian god, but as a man of his culture, because he saw only what he has lost back then and what he has destroyed with his own arms. He was agree to become a foreigner without a name and a past, but his homeland always was a part of him. Hidden and revealed by the Lady of the Forge when she crafted Draupnir for him.
I kinda see Norse saga as his personal journey of reconnection with his descent.
From complete closeness about his origin to sharing his memories one by one about the food, about the literature, about Sparta. To using spear - the first weapon he learned in his life as a Spartan. To facing and LIVING his memories of Greece directly in Valhalla.
And I wish to see him going further and further.
Red chitons or cloth around his hips instead of a trousers. Golden meanders at his clothes, which he embroidered or paint by himself. Bare feet, sandals. Playing flute of lyre he made. Evenings with telling the myths (shock-content about Olympians). Spartan war dances among his friends and teaching Freya to dance it with him.
That would be beautiful... 😭
Ares: *minding his own business Kratos: *dramatically crying for help somewhere on earth Ares: Are you serious? Right in front of my salad? Ares: *throwing away all his business and running to an aid ___
Yes, here is Ares/Aphrodite and eating some sea salted salad, because as Haephestus said in GOW3, Ares is a conquered god of war. And Ares kinda feels absolutely not ashamed of it, you know. But at the same time he has duties in his domain and plan of Olympus's fall.. And he wants to live his life in between.
Anyway, the point is that time is running a bit differently for gods and for Olympus, okay? That's why Ares managed everything during the Kratos's prayer and jumped from the sky right in the moment to save his life. A god of good endings!
Wanted to draw Lysandra, after a couple of months since her and Kratos's wedding. You know, it is wedding tradition for spartan brides to cut their hair very shortly (somewhere written they should be shaved very closely to the scalp). She did that too. Her hair is slightly grew up since then, and Kratos gifted her blue hair band which she wears in the first games. Actually, all this time he cheered her up about her man-like look, because she is the most beautiful woman and love of his life anyway, and if she were a man, he'd find her a place in his army and never left her alone.
Olympian gods: *blesses Kratos with gifts
Ares is just a big mama's boi and I am hyping over it Her firstborn. Her puryfied love and pain and righteous wrath. Her answer to Zeus's assault and their marriage trauma. Her little boy. The man who will never hurt her. Forever loyal and always at her side. It is not easy, when mother makes a husband out of her son, but being chosen for this role, chosen to carry Hera's desires, agression and saddness, Ares loved and accepted her the way she is. Even if it was just out of fear to be rejected... _ It is just painful to think that Hera presumably was in a drinking bout for the 13 years in a row after Ares's death. She has to be one of the most beautiful goddesses, but in GOW3 we (and Kratos) see her looks like she has lost her eternal beauty and youth. "Since you've killed my son Ares..." Commonly see comments that Hera was just drunk and pityful and died pityfully as well. I'd say, she died full of regrets, but at the same time fearlessly, because her biggest mother's fear has already came true.
Thinking about how Angrboda asked Atreus if Kratos draws and he laughed and said "no" but we see Kratos' journal and there are beautiful drawings of things he is describing haha
This post made return to the codex and one more time!! GOW Ragnarok and Valhalla blowed out my mind!! Valhalla's codex literally illustrated by Kratos, well, there is a bunch of Atreus's drawings too, but mostly Kratos do it himself and it is very interesting to analyze. ___ First of all, if you didn't notice, there is Kratos's greek handwriting on his drawings
Actually, sometimes it seems just like compulsively written letters, but nope, his handwriting completely shows his character and how busy with thoughts is his head all the time, like FASTER, FASTER!1
Just for comparison, here is Atreus's nordic handwriting
But let's return to Kratos's art style. His drawings are not very detailed in comparison with Atreus's and lineart is rougher and bolder, but the are very accurate anyway. Also his works are obedient to the certain rules, the more thoughts or feelings about the subject he has - the more angled geometry he put into it. Generally he draws square meanders - classic antient greek patterns, and when he draws these, he is THINKING and worrying.
Whrn his mind is calm, his drawings are just sketchy. Nothing special besides lil single meanders here and there. Kratos rarely do shades, and even more rarely do hatching. And his drawing are not very dimensional. Raeb by Atreus - Dead legioneer by Kratos
Also Kratos doesn't draw faces and hands properly. But in Valhalla his mind is pushing to the edge and his drawings sometimes starts to shows unspoken emotional responses about the things he forsed to remember.
Let's look at Helios.. GEOMETRY AND SYMMETRY appears. Meanders (agressively?) "looks" outside, seems like he didn't want to take efforts over this (but still made these drawings good %)). Honestly, he put more precision in drawing Ares's dead soldiers than in these two pieces. Understandable. Ares's soldiers can't speak.
OKay, we all know what Kratos feels about the Olympians, and here you can see the difference in a mood Orkos's stone, first lining of stone is rough, but then refined over it with a more precise, hard, black line, and all trapped in a circle. It is the first fully complete circle he drew, and all meanders "looks" inside (autoagression maybe or just a need to calm himself with familiar patterns? maybe both).
There is very much anxiety and saddness here, oh, and by the way, that's how Kratos see himself - an uneven, blurry shadow with swirling darkness inside - a "ghost" in one word
More geometry. Pandora drawing in a big BIG meander depicting a "maze". Small meanders "looks" inside again (autoagression?/need to calm himself?/both?) Oh and he wrote her name here.. Πανδώρα This drawing is not so compulsive as the previous, more thoughtfull. His actual frustration can be seen in this big "dot" near her name. Like he wanted to write more, but changed his mind. And the lowest meanders are inverted upside down like he forgot the direction he drew them.
Lysandra's pendant and Calliope's flute drawings Geometry, symmetry Pendan't patterns seems more trembling, insecure as he said he feels about his wife (but I also see "heart" shapes in it). His hand is more steady at flute drawing
What else did I found... After reviewing Ragnarok codex wishing to compare their art style, I noticed this piece. The Lyngbakr drawing made by Aterus, with his handwritings, fine detail, his significant swirls and wait- MEANDERS? this square geometry looks very outcast here, like it were drawn over swirles and circles turned into squares.
If you look at the banch of Atreus's drawings, you'll that he just doesn't draw square patterns, only round ones like waves, and these pointed ones which looks like uh claws?.. and and very rarely - schematic runic patterns
Well, if we remember, Lyngbakr's story impressed(?) Kratos very much.. Maybe Kratos returned to this pages in the codex and uh thoughtfully uh intervened in his son's drawing. %) Anyway, it was the single episode in Ragnarok codex and it can be just a coincedence, BUT THEN WE LOOK AT VALHALLA CODEX AND WHAT IS IT? Kratos is messing around with his symmetric geometry and meanders on Atreus's drawing again. He just misses his son, let's forgive him. And his scribbles are so dim like he tried to erase them..
Athena is just very happy that they will spent eternity together on Olympus. Kratos is just a bit autistic as always is not used to see her face to face. He spent last 10 years speaking to her statue.
@spoorotik2, for you 😭❤
