Flames of Olympus Scaling [Power of Hope Kratos]
Currently, Kratos is given access to all the abilities possessed by the Flames of Olympus while he wields the power of hope. This gives him death manipulation, curse negation, and some extra forms of immortality negation, as well as resistance to all of these abilities. The source of this claim is that hope is
stronger than the flames. We are not told the specifics of its superiority, just that the flames “pale in comparison” to hope. This just isn’t how hax scaling works; Being described as stronger or greater than something does not mean you gain the abilities of that thing; Kratos is stronger than many gods, but should he get all of their powers? This line of thinking makes no sense regardless of what the comparison is; The black plague pales in comparison to a supernova, but we aren’t giving the sun disease manipulation on that basis.
There’s a secondary problem in that the Flames of Olympus’ most notable trait - killing everything it touches - is also mysteriously absent from the scenes where hope plays a major role. Kratos as a mortal is unphased by hope entering his body, and while
Ares did die to Kratos using the power of hope, he still put up a good fight and wasn’t instantly incapacitated by these supposed instant death hax.
Kratos in GoW 3 and Zeus’ spirit are also not instantly killed by exposure to hope, nor does humanity die from Kratos
releasing hope into the world (they die from all the other shit that’s going on, of course). Hell, Kratos is even brought back to life by hope - The total opposite of killing everything on contact. It’s a truly baffling assumption that a force intended to counteract the darkest parts of our psyche, to give us strength in our time of need, is also somehow a force that instantly kills whatever it touches with no hope of return. What would the core message of GoW 3 be if hope killed whatever it touched? “Hope is found in death”? Is GoW 3 the first pro-suicide game?
