The irony is that... he's right.
Kratos never truly grew in any God of War game until 2018's "attempt" at doing so. To say Kratos grew is basically missing the forest for the trees. That's the tragedy of Kratos:
He never became a better person till it was WAAAAY too late for that and Greece paid the price and even him giving back "Hope" to the world is not even seen as a good thing but a final, spiteful fuck you to Athena for putting him on this path.
It's why I laugh at people who think Kratos has any real emotional depth because he doesn't and the 2018 and Ragnarok's "attempt" is basically turning him into a cuck that ran away from the shit he did, created a whole ass new family and learned nothing while pretending he suddenly changed. That's not fucking depth, that's character assassination.
He does, or rather, he DID have emotional depth, when taking all the Greek games into account, primarily when it came to his family.(not named Zeus, for obvious reasons.) It showed us the other side to him, beyond the monster. What he could've been, had he never been Ares' puppet and killed his wife and daughter in a haze of bloodlust, and he'd not chosen the path of revenge which screwed over everyone.
It's like people miss the fact that Kratos' story was meant to be like an Ancient Greek tragedy, but not just for him, but for everyone involved, because of the actions taken against him, and his retaliation, as a result, which went way the fuck too far. Which was the whole damn point, if you were paying attention, to GOW 3 especially! The Gods are dicks, yes, and some absolutely deserve to die, but Kratos is worse. So much fucking worse by that point, when you know the lengths he's willing to go to, just for revenge.
Literally all of Kratos' 'development' in the new games, is fucking character traits he already had before then! GOW 2018 and Ragnarok gave us nothing new, other than Kratos becoming a goddamn pussy who kneels to his stupid, annoying son's retarded ideals, which as a Spartan warrior, who has seen the worst of humanity and gods alike, he should KNOW are nothing but childish fantasies. Yet he goes along with it anyway.
