To me, I never took the character seriously until the new game, because most if not all game characters back then were more juvenile caricatures than anything. Like Saturday morning cartoons. I guess that’s why it never bothered me how he turned out, since I was conditioned to never become emotionally invested in that kind of writing or presentation.
Yes the early GoW games were very juvenile in their narrative strokes, and depiction of Kratos. He was a very barebones video game protagonist. Just there to facilitate a fun combat mechanic they had developed. They went for a literal greek tragedy, as those are often very broadly written, with easy to define characters and motivations, and you can make for some really awesome set pieces with the mythology. I think the issue they ran into, was they painted themselves into a corner with his motivation and caricature when they made the other games, without maybe thinking the game would blow up like it did. So then they had to try and course correct mid-story, which wasn't great. Plus, given the timeframe, I think they just didn't care as much about how Kratos was written. They were just making a fun game, and were a young team. But you know, time changes us, life changes us. Different events can make us look back at how we were before and be like "eeeehhh....wow, I was a fucking douchebag back then" I mean Steven Spielberg has gone on record saying that after having a family of his own, he wouldn't have done the ending to Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, the way he did.
So I don't really have a problem with the idea that Kratos, like the team that developed him, were young, hot headed, kind of oblivious to the grander impact of their actions over time, and how it would be represented. And, years later, with hindsight and retrospection, realize "ok yeah, that was a really bad thing we did, and it really doesn't hold up long term. So what do we do now?" Thus, GoW4. And frankly, at least for me, that's really the only way they could keep the franchise going, without just moving the protagonist to another, less shady character, like Atreus. Which I'd personally be down for, I fucking LOVE legacy stories, so if this is the start of the swan song for Kratos as the God of War poster boy, I embrace it. Not just because "he used to be a homicidal douchebag" *though that is a key part*, but because all stories should end, and legacy, is a powerful component of storytelling, especially in actual mythology tales.
But for now, since the series is still focused on Kratos, having the setup be an acknowledgement of his shitty, hotheaded, homicidal path, and thus acknowledge the flaws of the dev team from that time. But letting him try and be something more than just a mindless killer, fueled by rage at all times, yeah, I can handle that.
