The Game You Can Play Again and Again 

Kratos and Atreus hold on to a bag containing the ashes of Laufey, Kratos’ wife and Atreus’ mother. The simple goal of “scatter me from the highest peak” changes all the Norse realms, as Kratos and Atreus become targets of Odin but evade capture. Throughout their trials, they hold on to the goal, despite its increasing futility and difficulty.

Kratos’ advice to his son is to behave more like a soldier, telling Atreus to “close your heart” to the suffering he sees from others. (It’s no coincidence that the name “Atreus” comes from a brave Spartan soldier Kratos deeply respected, and he commands the boy as a soldier’s general.) Kratos’ heart has been closed since the gods betrayed him, opening up only briefly when he finally saw his daughter in the afterlife, in Chains of Olympus.