Look, I'm agreeing with you, i said that the oath he made with ares was totally his fault and his biggest mistake and what happened to his family is a consequence of that decision that he made. And i know that Kratos is a Ares servant and should obey to his orders, however you can't expect him to just shut up and do nothing when he get tricked into killing his own family, the only people he love in his life (since the same gods deprived him of the rest of his family), it's a totally unresonable reaction and or expectation. Like, it's not like staying one hour more to workplace because your boss say so XD These aren't really great comparisons imho. And Yes, Kratos is a selfish person, a person forged by the place he grew in, and by the actions of the gods.
Also I'm pretty sure he is also angry at himself, not only at Ares. Ares payed with his life for what he have done to him and his family, agreement or not, "rules" or not. By the way, where were this "rules" when Zeus killed Kratos im gow2? I thought there was a really important rule enstablished in the first game where gods cannot fight each other? I think you might be overanalizing all of this as someone have already said.
He never acknowledges it if so. The game is always about "I'm angry because of him, or her, or him again". I expect him to take responsibility, and think things out more before he jumps into deals with other dieties. But it's always the same old tired story with him. He gets into some kind of agreement wherein he works for one or the other, but then he does something the boss won't have, and then he views it as a personal betrayal regardless of what justification that the boss had. The severity difference is extreme, but the analogy I gave works on a functional level. The only real objection Kratos can ever give is that he doesn't like what he's doing, never that the opposing party willingly betrayed him. This was Kratos' deal, he accepted it full-on, and as upset as he may be, he really only has himself to blame.
So I don't buy that he's angry at himself. Maybe subconciously, if you're willing to be generous to the character, but I don't believe him to be aware that the shit he goes through is his own damn fault. There is no "you know what, this whole system is fucked" moment. It's only ever about what wrongs have been done to him personally. Everything else is gravy, and....man, that is just so unaware. He's a very stupid character, and it frustrates me.
As for GoW2, Zues is the boss. This was how it was in the original mythology, and how it's depicted in the game. If you're an olympian, he says, you do. If he wanted Kratos to stop his war path, Kratos was obligated to do so by the rule of Olympus which I'm assuming he agreed to when they ascended him. I mean, SURELY the gods wouldn't be so hopelessly stupid to just blindly give the guy godhood without any kind of oaths or anything.
I don't think you give you are giving enough credit to the unspoken portion of the "contract" that is here. Kratos "gives his life" to Ares essentially saying "You protect me Ares and I will protect you". There is no expectation that they are equals but that they are pulling in the same direction. Ares knows and believes this as well.
If Ares just wanted to free Kratos from the bond of his family, he would have given Kratos a specific order "kill your family". Ares does NOT do this. Ares knows he is not going by the spirit of the contract which is why he goes about getting Kratos to kill his family without full knowledge. Neither of these guys are great people, but don't absolve Ares, he knew what he was doing, knew it was against the spirit of their contract, and acted anyway.
Uh...no. There are no unspoken agreements, only the spoken parts. The Gods are NOT your friends, and when Kratos made the deal, the only reason they're 'pulling in the same direction' is because Kratos is obligated to pull in whatever direction Ares pulls. There is no spirit of the contract. Kratos didn't make an alliegance toward any goal except the preservation of his own life in that one battle, and Ares fulfilled it. Everything after that is a blank check for Ares.
Kratos and Ares were not friends or even allies. Kratos willfully sold himself into slavery. He's a slave. His opinions, preferences, hopes, dreams, whatever, none of them matter. Which isn't to say that Ares is a nice guy, but the simple fact of the matter is that there was no betrayal because you cannot betray a slave because you have no obligations to them, while they have every obligation to you. And if Ares decided to trick Kratos, well, that's a dick thing to do, but it's not a betrayal, because Ares doesn't have any obligation to be honest with Kratos.
And, again, I have to clarify, this is not a defense of Ares. He's clearly an asshole. But he's not a traitor to Kratos, which is what Kratos likes to pretend.
Edit: Also the "you protect me and I'll protect you" part doesn't even make any sense. What could Ares possibly need protection from. In the context of the game, Ares is immortal except for the box's powers, and Gods aren't allowed to fight amongst themselves. The titans are dead and in the ground and the Fates were allied with the gods, not doing anything even when Ares is fucking up the world. There was no threat to Ares life until Kratos himself was sent on the quest. Who did Kratos think he was going to protect him from? Kratos' job was to bring Ares glory, which just meant warmongering, which he was already doing as a spartan captain anyway.
