Norse Myth Expert Reacts to God of War Ragnarok's Ending

Watch a Norse mythology expert react to the God of War Ragnarok ending. We asked Jackson Crawford, a Norse myth expert and media consultant for projects like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, to analyse God of War Ragnarök's ending.

From character deaths, to all the key figures featured in the events of Ragnarok, Jackson uses his Norse mythology expertise to break down what works and what doesn't in the final few God of War Ragnarok scenes.

#IGN #GodOfWar #GodOfWarRagnarok

[PharaohofCulture]

IGN wasted an opportunity. What we REALLY want are reactions to Mimir boat stories.

[flightlessagbsls]

There's literally a line at the end of the first game Mimir says that fimbulwinter has come 109 years early, and its because Kratos is there, interrupting prophecy and killing baldur before his time

[alxiong]

“It is the nature of a thing that matters, not its form”

-Brok

[Trifvas]

That's the whole point of the story, it doesn't end the way the prophecy says it should. That's the twist.

[MrBazBake]

The most clever part of using Freyr's other name "Yngvi" is that it's a hint that Ingrid is his sword. Ingrid translates roughly into "Yngvi's beloved, " so that was a total OH CRAP! moment for me when he reaches up his hand and says, "Wait for it..."

[sprrs]

Norse Myth Expert going into a lot of detail about Odin changing shape and how the team must’ve really reached deep and put a lot of research into Odin being Tyr.

Eric Williams randomly in a staff meeting: “Hey guys what if Tyr is Odin?”

[RingerDay]

The reason why so many events played out differently is from Kratos changing the destiny of those in Ragnarök by changing who he is as a person and admitting his wrongs and telling his son to open his heart to those suffering. He deviated from the destiny of Ragnarök and so, the prophecy was altered.

[psicologofernandomoreno]

Thing is, it's not really about norse mythology. The developers didnt say: let's turn norse mythology into a video game. It's a story about family, obsession, redemption, etc. In the setting of norse mythology. That's why they changed so much about People and events that happen in the sources.

[The_Story_Of_Us]

The cool part is that this whole game’s metanarrative is about the subversion of norse myth. The Jötnar predict it will go a more similar way to ordinary norse myth and all the characters have a struggle with the inevitablities of how Ragnarök will play out. Like the characters in the game, the writers and developers take liberties with the source material to tell a better story for their given context.

[apenasmaisumdiogo.]

It should be noticed that Týr is still a different entity from Odin in the game, he can be freed after Ragnarök ends.

[Blackmagic_]

This comment section is mad weird. Why are you guys mad? Dude is just comparing the liberties the gaming studio took to the actual mythology. Not shitting on the game. He did this on the last game and everyone seemingly liked it. Strange to see the change from last game to the next.

[gwentReznor]

"This doesn't really follow the original text.." Ya well the first trilogy was him murdering the entire Greek pantheon

[matthewambrose]

9:10 the multiple identical rings is probably a reference to Draupnir, the gold ring that odin possesses which can multiply itself 8 times every day

[rong]

I’m just thankful that you share your time and your knowledge with us, Professor Crawford.

[PogMcDog]

Also about 9:30 Hädan in Swedish means "Henceforth"

Etymology
From Old Norse héðan, cognate with Swedish hädan.

And if you'd say "sofna upp frá þessu" in icelandic that would translate to: Fall asleep from this.

So the spell is: "Fall asleep from this, fall asleep henceforth."

[makeda]

This is so cool to see how much the creators made Norse mythology their own that even an expert is like, ‘that’s pretty obscure’. It’s so cool to see the parallels but them still being completely different.

[MagicOmelet]

This was never about accuracy (I'm not saying that he said that). They wanted to tell a story about gods and prophecies and so much more other stuff and did a phenomenal job. Besides that its interesting to hear what happened in norse mythology.

[JesterfaceBassplayer]

Freyr asking Freya for mercy might be a somewhat scuffed "forgive me". But that begs the question why they didn't just translate him asking for forgiveness.

[matthewpimentel]

Oh please do a reaction to the boat stories. That is a goldmine of content

[ms.anthropia]

i'm so happy to see dr. crawford react. he's always super passionate about his job.