An Observer of Nerd Culture

Unexpected Guests Chapter 10, Act Three: Page 16

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Sans isn't afraid to use his environment to his advantage--even when that environment sort of doesn't exist. But how long will Gaster put up with being chewed by the scenery...?

Alrik the Barbarian king kills Kratos. This starts a chain of events where it is Lysandra who ends up becoming the Ghost of Sparta. We don’t know a lot about her personality like we do Kratos, but as a Spartan woman I can see her having similar attitude to him. Nothing in the game has to change really. Badass goddess of War Lysandra going around slaughtering her enemies, having sex with attractive men and bringing an end to everything. Missing her husband dearly. While her daughter Calliope was snatched away by Ares and held prisoner in an attempt to keep her under his thumb, like the promise of removing Kratos’s memories/sins was.

Just some headcanon/more through ideas from a God of War AU I thought of a while back 

Lysandra has Pandora’s (unused) blue markings that were designed to be similar to Kratos’s own. But it fits Lysandra because, from what we’ve seen, blue is a color associated with her greatly: her blue dress and the blue necklace Kratos gave her

So where as Kratos’s color palette was warmer (reds,oranges, and yellows), Lysandra’s is cooler (purples, blues, indigo/violet)

Alrik killed Kratos, sending him to his master Hades, he then kidnapped Calliope and severely injured Lysandra,

Lysandra calls out to Ares and is blessed (after he rejected her husband’s call), pledging to serve him whole hardheadedly in exchange for this power

Kratos fought for the gods in order to have his memories (aka his sins) forgotten/erased, while Lysandra is fighting to take back her daughter, kill Alrik, and have her husband returned 

While still in love with Kratos, she still has sex with attractive men that cross her path 

It’s when she meets Kratos in the Underworld (having to go there to speak with Hades, Alrik is his champion after all), sharing a tender, sweet moment, that she realizes (like Kratos did) that they will not fulfill her desire (to have him returned) and they keep her away from fighting Alrik by having her fight others under Ares’s command

This turns her against Ares, and she goes after her daughter despite Athena trying to persuade her into following her plans and that both her husband and daughter will be returned 

KIlls Alrik on her own, but has the Furies sent after her for supposedly “disobeying” Ares and breaking her blood oath

Learns that Hades promised Alrik (alive or dead) to not return the fallen Spartan, so her journey to the Underworld had been for not. She was never going to have her husband returned. They lied. They all lied, even Athena (who had kept promising it so)

Also, it is when the Furies have her that she learns Ares had intentionally ignored Kratos’s cry, so as to appease Hades who was in turn appeasing his champion 

Ares then took her daughter when the Furies took her and locked her away 

Similar to Kratos’s experiences in Ascension - Lysandra is forced through illusions of Kratos, Calliope, and her as a family, as she tries to escape and defeat them. Eventually they are all killed and she rescues Calliope 

Athena manages to persuade her back to her side (“you did gain your daughter back? Maybe you can convince Hades to return Kratos now that his own champion is dead and you have betrayed Ares”) and she pseudo becomes Athena’s new champion and strives to defeat Ares as Athena demands and opens Pandroa’s Box

Becoming the new Goddess of Militaristic War (Athena is the Goddess of Tactics in War) she leads the Spartan army 

Eventually she too would turn that army on the gods when she was unable to convince Hades to return Kratos

Zeus taunts Lysandra about how her husband was his son- a demigod- and still managed to “die like a dog” and “what can she hope to accomplish against the gods”

Dragged down into the Underworld and is trapped there for years, as Calliope grows older and Kratos is just within her sight but out of touch….

Third (actual) part in “Lysandra of Sparta- Goddess of War” previous parts: 1 2

In both previous parts I mentioned I liked the idea of Lysandra in this AU having Pandora’s markings. So here are their pictures, where you can see Pandora’s original design and the blue associated with Lysandra through her dress. I discussed the symbolism of blue in both design and character here as well as her relationship with Kratos.

I was thinking of the potential relationship that could from between Lysandra and Pandora; Kratos bonded with Pandora because he saw his (deceased) daughter in her, but here, Calliope is alive and well. I think Lysandra would still grow attached to the girl and develop a maternal/mama-bear instinct towards her. Especially after having been stuck in the underworld for years and Calliope growing up without her, unknowingly being raised by her grandfather Zeus in the guise of the grave digger, who is claiming to be her only living relative (which is actually true)

During her quest, Lysandra never became as obsessed with vengeance and chaos as Kratos had. Kratos died in battle, and even though Ares abandoned him there when he could have helped, there was no “wrongdoing” towards his death. Her desire to have him returned was selfishness because she loved him.

Kratos and her arn’t the same people, and she’s not suddenly a gender-bent version of him, they have their own identities and feelings; where Kratos was driven by his desire to forget his sins of having killed Lysandra and Calliope, Lysandra is fueled by her selfish desire to have her family back together and whole again. Kratos wants to let go, forgive himself, and (try) to move on with his life, Lysandra can’t truly bring herself to let go and wants things as they used to be. 

This inability to let go factors into the relationship with Pandora too. She wouldn’t let go; Pandora would beg and cry for her too, but Lysandra wouldn’t. She would continue holding on to this poor girl (so much like her own daughter) until a blast from Zeus hit her, and forced them apart. That was when the rage kicked in, because Zeus had not only deprived her of the return of her husband, kept her apart from Calliope (who he partially raised), who was all grown up, but now the surrogate daughter she had bonded with was gone. 

Kratos was at his sweetest when interacting with the spirit of his daughter in Elysium, the memories (illusions by the Furies) of his wife in Ascension, and Pandora. Lysnadra too would be sweet and act protective and motherly towards Pandora. 

Kratos saw Calliope in Pandora, and while Lysandra would likely feel the same, I think she would also see bits of herself in the girl. If Pandora was hope (or at least became a piece of it) then she and Lysandra had that in common, because she had once been the stable piece in Kratos’s life and had given him hope and a home. 

(It’s fun analyzing characters, but there is a cool weird fun feeling when analyzing an AU version you made up for an established character) 

Lysandra of Sparta: wife, mother, and in this au god of war. 

This can be read as both a continuation of my “Lysandra, goddess of War” au (as I’ve mentioned blue being significant in her design) or a general analysis of her in regard to family, and the color blue. Though it is mostly because I wanted to talk about color symbolism and Kratos/Lysandra. 

Lysandra is distinctive with her appearance, she’s always seen wearing that blue and white dress, with the blue headband. Now the color blue represents depth and stability, symbolizing trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven and has a calming effect. Specifically the light blue her dress seems to be is associated with tranquility, understanding, and softness. Very different from Kratos’s bloodthirsty, vengeance fueled nature fitting someone of red symbolism (blood, war, danger, strength, etc.)

While her depth as a character is not very defined, her impact is definite. I’m not a fan of “women in the refrigerator” but I think Lysandra’s death was significant beyond bringing Kratos his man pain. Her death reminds me of Megara’s at the hands of Hercules, which, when you read it again, I think is intentional.

Lysandra was Kratos’s true love, she was all the good in his life. Which was why Ares had to remove her from the equation if he wanted to mold Kratos into the perfect little soldier. She was a stable point in Kratos’s chaotic, warring world, who could calm him down and even question him on his chosen actions. When she died he only descended further into madness.You can see the love they share in the joy on her face as he presents her the necklace (also blue- he is gifting her in a way that further symbolizes her as his stable point), and the way in which she waits for their daughter and him. Even the illusion (who also were a blue ring) conveys how she was the calm of the storm that was Kratos’s whole being, it’s how he fell for it so easily- he just wants to fall back into the dream that his love and stability is alive and wants him still. That tender look in his eyes when he sees her trying to comfort him. Kratos may have been a generally angry man, but he was a good husband and father and it’s sad that things turned so horrid for them all. 

It’s fitting then that hope, and by extension Pandora, were also blue. Lysandra and Pandora were calming parts for Kratos, two people he cared for deeply. Even Calliope’s dress is a lighter shade of blue. Kratos was crazed with war and the hunger for battle and yet these three people managed to keep him sane, and though he tragically lost all three, they never truly left him (no matter how hard he tried to forget). 

Kratos is literally surrounded by a sea of blood by the end of GOW3, a path he carved himself over the years with only that blue light to guide him. His first confrontation was with Calliope and Lysandra and in the end he managed to forgive himself.

young atlas,,

more doodles!!!

FINALLY GINALLY AFTER YEARS THEY DID IT THE LIPS TOUCHED

@killrbeetle

Y'all. MY HEART. IT IS FULL.

12 years, 8 months, and 25 days AFTER THE FINALE AIRED.

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