Thread by @mattsophos

Whew. Mute button got a workout this weekend—granted, of my own doing. You probably know what this is about. And if you don't, bless you.

So I'm just going to address things here and hope (futilely) it will be the last time I have to do so. Saddle up... 1/11

Angrboda in our game is a young black woman. The vast, vast majority of players are thrilled and think she looks incredible—and boy, does she. 😊💪But a tiny, vocal sliver of the internet was offended at this notion. I'm going to address a few of the main topics of outrage. 2/11

"You caved to outside pressure."
I can count on 2 fingers the # of notes we've gotten for story changes to 2018 + GoW Ragnarok combined. This was not one of them. I'm grateful for the trust given to us to tell the best story possible without interference. So yeah, nonsense. 3/11

"You made it political."
As a writer, your job is to tell stories that are compelling & relatable. You bring pieces of yourself to stories and your opinions shine through. So writing is *always* political—it's just usually only called that if the politics aren't agreed with. 4/11

"It's not accurate to Norse mythology/doesn't respect the culture."
Hoo boy. The big one. Let me start with this:
God of War is our interpretation of mythology, not history—Norse or Greek. We tell a personal story with the backdrop of gods, Giants, etc. through our lens. 5/11

And that lens is *not* 100% by-the-Eddas. For instance, here's a quick review of some mythological main characters from GoW (2018)...

***SPOILERS AHEAD from the last game***
6/11

Brok: A legendary Dwarven blacksmith we made blue and talks like a foul-mouthed Texas prospector.

Sindri: Another legendary Dwarven blacksmith who we made gray-ish, germophobic, and knows about bacteria ("tiny beasties").
7/11

Mimir: Rooted in Norse mythology, in GoW he's Scottish. "Mimir" is the name he took when coming to Midgard, and we tied him to a character from English folklore (and specifically, from one of Shakespeare's plays).
8/11

Baldur: The god of light and purity in the myths, we twisted the basics of his invulnerability to (almost) all things, and made him unable to feel anything as a result of it.

Loki: We made him a half-Giant, quarter human, quarter Greek-demigod. Need I say more?
9/11

Loki's dad: We leaned into the translation of "Farbauti"—the "cruel striker"—to tie him to Kratos... a gruff, Greek demigod with quite the gods-killing history. He also happens to have been voiced consecutively by two incredible black actors. But I digress...
10/11

I guess what I'm saying is this...

We've consistently taken mythological characters and given them our own spin. So if the color of Angrboda’s skin is where you draw the line at how respectful we’ve been, it's probably worth some self-examination. Thanks for listening. 11/11