Baldur

Too Human

In Too Human, Baldur is heavily based on the Norse god of the same name. The youngest of Odin's children, Baldur is often regarded as the kindest, most humane of the gods. He considers his ties to humanity a great strength, where others believe he should shed such beliefs, and embrace the technological enhancements most other gods have undergone. Tasked with tracking down a robot that shows very biological traits, Baldur is forced to ask himself whether he remains human, or embraces technology, granting him greater power, but at the same time making him more akin to the monsters he is trying to stop.

Baldur was chosen to be the main protagonist as he is the god with the least amount of focus put onto him in Norse Mythology. This vague, blank slate allowed the designers a greater creative freedom.

In the opening scene of Too Human, a robot known as Grendel attacks a bar, leaving only when Baldur cuts off the monsters arm. This is a direct parallel of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.

God of War

God of War's portrayal of Baldur is radically different from his typical Norse portrayal. First, he angrily confronts Kratos at his home as a mysterious stranger, demanding "what he wants to know", mistaking Kratos' identity for that of his just deceased wife, the Jotunn Laufey the Just. After Kratos eventually incapacitates him with extreme difficulty by breaking his neck, due to having an invincibility spell cast on his person, he enlists his nephews Magni and Modi to help him hunt Kratos and his son Atreus and unsuccessfully interrogates Mimir on their whereabouts, whereupon Mimir calls him by name, identifying him to Kratos/Atreus. After a second confrontation with the Greek God and his son lands him and the duo in Helheim, we see Baldur's back story: He has become depressed and psychotic, since the invincibility spell, cast by his overprotective mother, Freya to prevent a "needless death" has stripped him of all feelings good or bad, rendering his life empty, and he has suffered this for 109 years. Finally, back in Midgard, he beats up Jormungandr, who was currently sheltering the protagonists as they reclaimed Mimir's second eye from a statue of Thor that the serpent angrily chewed up earlier, and then tries to attack one last time, only to get stabbed by mistletoe, finally lifting his spell. After being bested by Kratos, he attempts revenge on his mother Freya for giving him such a horrible life, only for Kratos to finish him off to save Freya, turning her against him for murdering her son.