Odin (God of War) (2024)

Odin, also known as the All-Father, is the main antagonist of the Norse Era of the God of War franchise. Ruling from Asgard over the Norse Pantheon and the Nine Realms, he is the King of the Aesir as well as the God of Widsom, Poetry, Magic, Frenzy, War and Death.

Similar to many of the Greek and Norse mythological figures from the same franchise, Odin is a far more sinister, barbaric and cruel figure than his classic mythical counterpart. In the God of War series, the All-Father proved to be a cruel, barbaric, power-hungry and megalomaniacal deity responsible for so much suffering across the Nine Realms.

Driven by the need to control everything and everyone, Odin secured his rise to power by murdering Ymir, the first being who came into existence. From Ymir's body and blood he then created Midgard and drown nearly all of the Giants in the process.

The tyrannical rule of the self-proclaimed All-Father was then marked by the genocide of the remaining Jötnar at the hands of Thor, and the Long War that devastated both Asgard and Vanaheim. Haunted by the prophecy of Ragnarök and his own demise, Odin desperately sought to prevent his death by seeking answers beyond his reach.

Three years after the death of Magni, Modi and Baldur at the hands of Kratos and Atreus, Odin came to the fore and gradually established himself as a surrogate father to Atreus by offering him what Kratos could not. Impersonating his son Týr to keep an eye on his enemies, the All-Father slowly but surely drove a wedge between father and son while strengthening his hold on Atreus, using the latter's innate gift in ancient languages to his own benefit.

He is portrayed and voiced by Richard Schiff, who also played Toby Ziegler on The West Wing and Harper Dearing in NCIS. While impersonating Týr, he is voiced by Ben Prendergast.

Personality[]

Odin is a cruel, heartless, sad*stic and barbaric god, as proven by having tortured Mimir every single day for 109 winters, and took his left eye to be hidden within the statue of Thor in Midgard. He is also a supremacist, having turned on his own creator Ymir and murdered him in cold blood with the help of his brothers Vili and Vé, under the self-righteous belief that the Aesir were superior to all the other races. He ordered his son Thor to commit genocide against the Giants for suspecting them being the ones behind Ragnarök.

According to Mimir, Odin is extremely paranoid toward anything that he considered a threat to his rule and the Aesir, similar to Zeus in the original trilogy, this included the Jötnar, the Vanir, and even his own son, Týr. Mimir also stated that Odin is extremely clever, almost as clever as Odin believes himself to be, as he was able to figure out that Kratos and Atreus had an important role in the upcoming Ragnarök, possibly due to prophecy of Groa.

Despite his reputation for cruelty, Odin is not unable to feel compassion for others, at least in his youth. He seemed to have been in love with his wife, Fjörgyn, even though he despised her kind. Her death affected him greatly, so much that it led Odin to fall into depression and feel loneliness. Mimir stated that his relationship with Freya was very much similar to his with Fjörgyn, treating her in a protective and loving manner, so much that he fulfilled many of her wishes such as giving the Valkyries some measure of their own freedom. Mimir even lost count to how many promises he fulfilled for her. Freya herself also supports this by stating while their marriage was primarily to maintain peace between the Aesir and Vanir, she tried to make it work and for a time, they were happy together.

Their marriage did not last as long, however, as Odin became too obsessed over preventing Ragnarök and eliminating the Jötnar, as well as being refused the immortality Freya had placed on Baldur, causing her to end their marriage. When Freya broke off their marriage, Odin felt deeply betrayed and this act of betrayal led him to not only punish her, but also curse her Valkyries into hostile monsters out of pure spite for her treason. He would also strip away of her power and wings and have her be banished to Midgard. This act alone caused Freya to feel nothing but resentment towards Odin and it would only grow further from how Odin treated their son, Baldur.

Odin has also shown to be incredibly manipulative when he "befriended" with the Jötunn seeress, Gróa, only to kill her and steal her library so he could learn more about the prophecy of Ragnarök. His relationship with Baldur demonstrates his more manipulative side further. While he considers Baldur to be his finest tracker, he was very much willing to toy with his emotions by promising to remove his curse for him if he succeeded in killing Kratos and Atreus. Otherwise, he would not hesitate to break said promise. Though he later tells Kratos that he was upset over Baldur's death, he admits it was only due to his value as a pawn of his, not out of genuine love and concern for him. Likewise, he views Magni and Modi the same, except he holds them with much less regard than Baldur, deeming them to be useless.

Initially, he appeared to have a good relationship with his son, Thor, placing his trust in him to fulfill the various tasks given to him. He even entrusted Thor the task of destroying the entire Jötnar race by himself, believing he is strong enough to do so. However, in truth, he has been forcing Thor to commit these crimes that have ultimately taken a toll on Thor's mental state, driving him into grief, depression and alcoholism. Odin sees Thor as nothing but his brute enforcer and tends to ridicule him for it, seeing his worth as someone whose only task is to kill whoever he tells him to. His labeling of Magni and Modi as worthless was to reinforce the negative self-esteem Thor had, since if his children were worthless, then so must he. When Thor decided to turn against him, Odin did not hesitate to kill him for it, showing how very little he cared for his son in the end.

He strongly disliked his son Týr the most, however, as he saw his pacifist nature as unfitting for an Aesir. Because of his affiliation with the Jötnar, Odin imprisoned him as punishment, showing that he was very intolerant towards even his own family. Odin's contempt for his son was expressed through his impersonation of him, portraying Týr as a broken shell of man who had lost his warrior spirit from his years as Odin's prisoner, leaving behind a pacifistic coward.

His son Heimdall, he treated with superficial respect, as his powers, especially mind-reading, were considered valuable by the All-Father. While Odin's emotional abuse against Thor was overt, his manipulation of Heimdall was much more subtle; Odin knew how desperate Heimdall was for approval, so gave him assignments that he dutifully fulfilled. However, no matter how well Heimdall did, Odin only gave the bare minimum of acknowledgement, and sometimes giving backhanded compliments, thereby keeping his son urgent to try again.

Odin exploited emotional insecurities of his obedient sons, Thor and Heimdall, while also driving them to become bitter rivals, which motivated Heimdall to undertake further missions for the All-Father; Thor's self-loathing and brutish demeanour meant he couldn't undertake tasks that required stealth, thus he lacked the need for attention like his brother, however, the rivalry ensured that they would never become allies, thereby never become a possible threat to Odin. Despite the usefulness of his sons, Odin considered them as nothing but tools for his ambitions, ultimately he would discard them without care or guilt, as he was willing to "trade" Heimdall's death for the dying Brok, and Thor, when he considered him "broken," (reflecting his view of him as an item) due to refusing to obey anymore, he kills him without mercy, albeit hypocritically claiming he "didn't want" to murder him.

Appearance[]

Odin is a remarkably thin and frail man, lacking the immense brawn of his son Thor, and his appearance is elderly, with balding black hair that has turned almost entirely gray, shaved close to his head alongside a well-trimmed grey beard. He is shown to be roughly a head shorter than the towering Kratos.

His arms and neck are adorned with many runic symbols and tattoos, and he wears an eye patch over his right eye. More often than not he wears a simple tunic, with a preference for light blue with Golden accents, and when traveling outside of Asgard also dons a brown cloak with silver shoulder pauldrons that falls down to his ankles.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

Odin is the King of the Aesir, the wisest and oldest among them. After a lifetime studying and learning the secrets of the Nine Realms, the extent of his knowledge was such that it made him an exceptionally gifted magician, full of tricks up his sleeves.

• Immortality: As a God, Odin is immortal, having lived for millennia and invulnerable to ageing or diseases, despite having an elderly appearance. Only divine weapon, other Gods, or extremely powerful beings like Freya, Thor, Kratos, Fenrir and Surtr can harm or even kill him. Like every being in the Nine Realms, he is vulnerable to having his soul extracted from his body, which is how Atreus was able to contain Odin's soul in a Jötunn Marble before Sindri smashed the marble, sending Odin's soul to Helheim.
• Superhuman Strength: Despite his frail and unassuming appearance, Odin possessed a tremendous amount of superhuman strength, far greater than that of Baldur and Týr. His strength was even enough to rival that of Kratos, being able to physically push him away when he impaled the Leviathan Axe on his shoulder, free himself of Kratos's grip and briefly push him to his knees before Atreus and Freya attacked him simultaneously.
• Superhuman Durability: Odin must be extremely durable as he was able to survive a clash with Ymir, the first being in existence and the most powerful of the Frost Giants. He was able to take numerous attacks from Kratos, Atreus and Freya.
• Superhuman Speed: Odin uses witchcraft in order to enhance his own speed. He is then able to project himself at lightening speed towards his enemies, or merely to stay out of their reach.
• Magical Manipulation: Odin was an extremely powerful user of Seiðr magic. He was believed to be the only one of the Aesir to use magic. This combined with his mastery of magical forces made him an extremely formidable foe. Odin has even experimented with newer variations of magic and learnt magic from others. These magical practices include the old magic of the Jötnar as well as the Seiðr magic of the Vanir, which he learnt from his former wife Freya, a highly efficient and experienced sorceress in her own right. His mastery of Bifröst was such that Odin was totally immune to its effects, a feat that not even Heimdall could perform.
  • Curse Enchantments: He's able to cast various powerful curse, enchanting Freya to never leave Midgard or harm others. The spell was too much for Freya to handle despite her own highly stated Vanir abilities. He even created an extremely dangerous corruption of Magic called the Black Breath, which could only be dispelled by the Light of Álfheimr.
  • Elemental Manipulation: Odin was allegedly able to control all forces of nature. In addition to the Bifröst from which he draws much of his power and to Seiðr magic he learned from Freya, the All-Father possesses Cryokinesis, Geokinesis, Photokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis and Umbrakinesis.
  • Raven Summoning: As the Raven God, Odin is able to summon icy ravens to observe and gather information from across the realms.
  • Einherjar Creation: He was even able to harvest the Souls (hugr) of deceased mortals from Valhalla to create Einherjar and greatly expand Asgard's military forces.
  • Memory Absorption: Odin was capable of absorbing the memories of people he chooses via magic. One of his most vile deeds was the absorption of Gróa's knowledge of Ragnarök after having murdered her in cold blood.
  • Shapeshifting: Odin was able to shapeshift into Týr during his deception and infiltration of Kratos' allies so that they unknowingly reveal to him the secrets which the Jötnar kept from him as well as learn of their plans.
  • Protection Magic: Odin was capable of casting a powerful protection magic which rendered the tree Mimir was bound to, invulnerable to damage. However, he could never figure out how to cast Baldr's curse upon himself as well. He was able to use a similar spell to prevent realm travel to Svartálfheim, Vanaheim and Asgard.
  • Teleportation Ravens: Through his pet ravens Huginn and Muninn, Odin can teleport across any realm or any areas within a few moments. He does not require the real travel mechanism of Týr's temple to accomplish this.

Skills and Abilities[]

• Genius-level Intelligence: Even without his powers, Odin's most prominent ability is genius-level intellect. Even Mimir, the smartest being alive in all the Nine Realms, acknowledged his cleverness, saying that he is almost as clever as he believes himself to be. His knowledge of the nine realms makes him appear to be omniscient.
  • Torture Methodology: According to Mimir, Odin is a master of torture and always comes up with newer, creative and experimental forms of torture, which makes Mimir fear being tortured by him. Mimir even went as far as to say that he would rather be killed than tortured by Odin ever again.
  • Manipulative Charisma: Even those close to him never underestimate Odin's wits, which allow him to manipulate and persuade anyone with no difficulty.
  • Deductive Analysis: From having heard the prophecy of Ragnarök, he was able to figure out that Kratos and Atreus will play a very important part in it.
  • Master Strategist: He was even able to deduce that given Nidhogg's radically protective behaviour regarding Yggdrasil's roots, he can use her to safeguard the spell he put on Freya that binds her to Midgard. He even deduced that he could tap into Valhalla's nearly infinite number of deceased people and use them as an endless supply of superhuman soldiers for the Asgardian military.
  • Occult Knowledge: As a collector of scholarly and mystical knowledge, Odin is well aware of the occult secrets of all of the Nine Realms. He is even aware of loopholes and can create newer and more dangerous variations of magical power. While not possess the capacity for languages that Atreus possesses, Odin was able to use his occult wisdom to help decipher the clues on the Mask.
  • Masterful Acting Talent: Tangential to his skills at manipulation, and combined with his shape-shifting powers, he is able to perfectly imitate a completely different person. In the form of his son, Týr, he is "rescued," ingratiating himself in Kratos' group. Any shortcomings in his performance, he is able to convince others it is merely trauma. His performance is so convincing that Mimir and Freya, who know Odin best, remained unaware of the subterfuge until Odin himself breaks character and reverting to his true form.
  • Political Authority: As the ruler of the Norse Pantheon, Odin is a supreme monarch who is obeyed without question by many across his realms of influence, thus even without facing others directly he can command entire armies to do his will.
• Master Combatant: As the oldest Aesir god, he excels in all forms of offensive and defensive combat abilities, armed and unarmed, having forged in centuries worth of battle training and experience. He is particularly proficient in fighting with Gungnir, as demonstrated when battling Kratos, Atreus and Freya during Ragnarök.
  • Spear Mastery: Although Odin heavily relies on his magical powers in battle, he remains exceptionally skilled when using Gungnir, having notably used it to kill extremely powerful beings such as Ymir and Thor himself. His spear attacks are aggressive and superbly choregraphed, Odin favoring dexterity and precision over brute force.

Vulnerabilities[]

• More Powerful Beings: Despite his immense power and being seemingly unkillable, Odin is vulnerable to beings of great power. Despite the fact that Kratos, Atreus, and Freya were all weakened from their battles in Ragnarök, they were still ultimately able to overpower Odin in a fierce battle. Odin was previously unwilling to get into a direct confrontation with Kratos when he was at his prime either. In prophecies, it was believed that powerful beings like Surtr and Fenrir (in Garm's body) can kill him as well.
  • When Odin's soul was contained in a Jötunn Marble, Odin becomes vulnerable to mortals as well. This was seen when Sindri smashed the marble containing Odin's soul, denying him any form of afterlife.
• Vulnerability to Magic: Despite being a master of magical forces, Odin was briefly overpowered by Freya's magics and when subdued him with a binding spell, and had his soul extracted from his body by Atreus's soul magics, effectively neutralizing him.

Victims[]

Relationships[]

Family[]

• Ymir (Great-grandfather) †
• Búri (Grandfather)
• Borr (Father)
• Vili (Brother)
• Vé (Brother)
• Fjörgyn (Wife) †
• Blóðughadda (Wife)
• Hróðr (Wife)
• Freya (Ex-wife)
• Thor (Son) †
• Týr (Son)
• Heimdall (Son) †
• Baldur (Son) †
• Sif (Daughter-in-law)
• Nanna (Daughter-in-law)
• Magni (Grandson) †
• Modi (Grandson) †
• Thrúd (Granddaughter)
• Forseti (Grandson)
• Freyr (Ex-Brother-in-law) †

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

• As the king of most of the Norse Gods, Odin is the Norse equivalent to Zeus who also the king of the Gods in his own realm. Both of them shares many similarities:
  • Both are kings of their own realms, and they ruled their respective domains with iron fist.
  • Both are extremely paranoid toward anything that they considered a threat to their reign, even their own sons.
    • Odin is much like Zeus and Cronos; both are paranoid toward anything that they considered a threat to their reign even their own sons. Odin imprisoned Tyr after he had suspected him plotting with the giants to overthrow him, while Zeus killed Kratos out of fear of The Marked Warrior prophecy, and Cronos tried to consume his own sons in fear of a prophecy. The difference however was Týr never thought of overthrowing Odin and only prevented him from accessing Jötunheim, whereas Kratos had intentions of vengeance against Zeus for killing him and previously torturing his mother and brother and for betraying him.
  • Both betrayed their own progenitors in a cruel way. Zeus imprisoned almost every Titans for eternity because of his desire to rule over the mortal world, while Odin killed his own great grandfather Ymir and almost his every Jötnar descendants under a self-righteous belief that he and his brethren the Aesir are superior to every race in the 9 Realms and deserved to be such.
  • Both imprisoned and tortured their former allies cruelly after they committed a little disloyalty towards them. Prometheus who was sentenced by Zeus to have his liver eaten by a giant bird for eternity after he gave the mortals the fire of Olympus and Mimir who was bound to a tree and tortured every day for 109 years by Odin after he tried to convince him to stop his cruel campaign against the Giants.
  • Both imprisoned loyal sons for perceived failures, as Zeus trapped Hephaestus in Hades due to Kratos gaining Pandora's Box, and Odin trapped Týr as the latter sealing Jötunheim and his peaceful ways were seen as failures to the Aesir cause.
  • Both are destined to die at Kratos' and his families' hands. Zeus was destined to die at the hands of the Marked Warrior who is Kratos himself, while Odin is destined to die at the jaw of Fenrir who biologically is the grandson of Kratos, but it didn't truly show as Odin was killed by Sindri.
  • Both requested one of their children to kill powerful beings. Odin commanded Thor to kill the Jötnar, while Zeus ordered Kratos to kill Ares.
  • Both are afraid of Kratos, while Zeus was afraid of him because he was the one destined to destroy the Gods, the Greek Pantheon and his killer, trying everything on his power to stop him and put an end to the circle of patricide only to be killed by him; Odin one the other hand is afraid of him because of his actions involving Ragnarok, accelerating it's coming because of Baldur's death, killing also his two grandsons Magni and Modi, who were prophecied to survive even after Ragnarök and his important role for his own demise.
• There are also contrasts between Zeus and Odin.
  • Zeus presents himself as immensely powerful and imposing, whereas Odin hides his power, acting as a frail old man.
  • Zeus directly commands his peers and children, while Odin subtly gives suggestions, manipulating his family into believing they are following their own decisions.
  • Zeus married once but took many lovers, whereas Odin was married twice and was faithful to them during the marriages.
  • Zeus openly acts elitist and dismissive of others, while Odin acts friendly and performs acts of seeming generosity.
  • Zeus became more evil because of being corrupted by the evil of Fear, whereas Odin was free from any disturbing factors.
  • Zeus and Odin both blamed Kratos for the destruction of their realms, for which Zeus wasn't entirely wrong, but Odin was projecting.
  • Perhaps a difference more for Kratos, as in Greece, Kratos had left a trail of destruction, having no living allies, thus forcing him to fight Zeus alone (albeit, powered by Hope), but a more mature Kratos in Midgard had far more restraint and could be considerate, thus Kratos, Atreus, and Freya fought together against Odin.
• In nearly all the murals Odin appears in, he is riding his mythological mount, Sleipnir. This is odd, seeing as Sleipnir in the Norse Mythos, is the offspring of Loki and Svadilfari who was the stallion who helped the disguised Jötunn build the walls of Asgard.
  • Despite being Loki in this universe, it's unlikely that Atreus is the mother of Sleipnir, seeing as the horse was alive thousands of years before even the World Serpent's first appearance, being with Odin when he and his brothers slew Ymir.
  • Another piece to support this claim is that in the Prose Edda, Loki distracted Svadifari from his task of helping the builder complete the wall in time by taking the form of a mare and the intercourse that followed produced Sleipnir. In the God of War universe however, Hrimthur was able to complete the wall in time and gain an audience with Freya.
• The final battle against Odin is the only one in the whole series where the four main protagonists unite their forces against a single foe. While Odin was desperately fighting for his own survival, Kratos, Atreus, Mimir and Freya rightfully fought him as an evil that had to be defeated once and for all.
• In an ironic twist of fate, Odin's efforts to prevent Ragnarök and his death from occurring could be argued to be the very reason to it, as this led many inhabitants in the 9 realms to be very hateful toward him and his brethren including the Vanirs, the wolf Fenrir, and the giants.
• Odin's efforts to learn more about Ragnarök and control it only caused him to lose more control of it at the same time. Odin's interferences altered Magni and Modi's fate from surviving Ragnarök to dying before it begins, likewise, Odin's interference also caused Baldur to die earlier than expected and cause the beginning of Ragnarök 100 years earlier than predicted. The new tapestry indicates that Odin changed the series of events by nearly committing a Jotünn genocide, which caused the surviving Jotnar to receive a new prophecy about a Jotünn who'd avenge the Jötnar by starting Ragnarok. In brief, Ragnarök was always going to happen despite Odin's efforts.
• As of the events of God of War, Odin is responsible for the desolation of five of the nine realms, those being Midgard (through his corruption of the Valkyries), Niflheim (by intervening in Ivaldi's creations), Asgard and Vanaheim (through the Aesir-Vanir war) and Jotunheim (through Thor's genocidal campaign).
• Odin made his first and only appearance in God of War Ragnarök, but is the main antagonist with the most screen time in the whole series.
• For a long time during the game's production, Odin was originally not impersonating Týr, who really would have been rescued in Svartalfheim. The idea suddenly came to the game's director and it was written into the story from there.

External Link[]

• Odin on the God of War Wiki

Navigation[]

Villains

Protagonists Kratos |Freya Greek Era Gods of Olympus Zeus |Poseidon |Hades |Ares |Athena |Hephaestus |Hera |Persephone |Thanatos |Erinys |Morpheus |Hermes |Helios |Artemis Titans Cronos |Gaia |Atlas |Perses |Typhon |Aegaeon Demigods Hercules |Pollux & Castor |Theseus |Perseus |Ceryx The Furies Megaera |Tisiphone |Alecto Sisters of Fate Atropos |Clotho |Lahkesis Persian Army Persian King Others Barbarian King |Callisto |Charon |Colossus of Rhodes |Kratos' Ghost |The Dissenter |Assassin |Icarus |Dark Rider |Dark Griffin Creatures Argos |Arms of Hades |Automaton |Basilisk |Bronze Talos |Centaurs |Cerberus |Chimera |Cyclops |Daimon |Doppelgängers |Dredge of Boreas |Elemental Talos |Elephantaur |Euryale |Geryon |Griffin |Gorgons |Gorgon Serpents |Hades Cerberus Breeder |Harpies |Hydra |Kraken |Legionnaire |Manticore |Minotaur |Medusa |Mole Cerberus |Pandora's Guardian |Piraeus Lion |Polyphemus |Satyr |Scylla |Skorpius |Sirens |Stheno |Stone Talos |Wraiths God of War Comics Cereyon |Danaus |Disciples of Ares |Giant Arachnid |Gyges |Hades' Phoenix |Herodius |Kerosians |Pothia |Rocs |Sea Snake |Therans Norse Era Aesir Odin |Thor |Heimdall |Baldur |Magni |Modi Elves Svartáljǫfurr |Alva Valkyries Freya |Hrist and Mist |Gná Einherjar Fiske |Sterkr & Stinnr Berserkers King Hrólf Kraki |Harðrefill the Callous |Bödvar the Fierce |Starólfr the Troublesome |Beigaðr the Feared |Haklangr the Bearded |Hjalti the Stolid |Svipdagr the Cold |Sisters of Illska |Frækni the Zealous |Hvítserkr the Bold |Skjóthendi the Unerring Dragons Hræzlyr |The Crimson Dread Trolls Dauði Kaupmaðr |Dauði Hamarr |Daudi Vördr |Máttugr Helson |Stonebeard King |The Grendel Trolls |Vísi Haglkorn Others Oluf Nautson |Gullveig |Grýla Creatures Dreki |Drake |Crag Jaw |Gravel Belly |Dark Elves |Light Elves |Revenant |Soul Eaters |Frost Phantom |Flame Phantom |Ormr |Gulltoppr |The Hateful |The Huntress |The Untamed Fury |Garm |Raven Keeper |Wulvers