God of Conflict Ragnarok offers Loki a masks — similar to The Masks (1994)

[Ed. note: The following contains spoilers for God of War Ragnarök.]

Because the credit rolled on God of Conflict Ragnarök, I had one massive query: What’s up with that masks?

An honest chunk of the best way into Ragnarök, Atreus disobeys his father’s needs and heads to Asgard to satisfy Odin. As soon as there, Atreus hopes to search out out extra about his identification, his godly powers, and the identify his mom had initially meant to provide him: Loki. Odin has one thing else in thoughts — he needs Atreus’ assist to review a mysterious masks. Sadly, the masks has been damaged into a number of items, and Atreus should embark on a collection of missions to search out all of them and restore the masks to its full energy.

For some motive, Atreus feels an odd connection to the masks; he can learn the traditional language written upon it, in addition to sense the place the remainder of it has been hidden, permitting him to gather the items and rebuild the masks. On the very finish of the sport, Odin pressures Atreus into carrying the masks and gaining its energy, which Odin believes shall be omniscience. Atreus as a substitute chooses to interrupt the masks in half and throw it right into a mysterious portal that closes behind it.

This portal, in addition to the masks itself, stay a thriller on the sport’s finish. The place did the masks come from? The place did the portal lead? Why did Atreus, also referred to as Loki, have such a powerful reference to the masks? Is the masks destined to return to him sometime, maybe in a future sport?

Photograph: Valerie Macon/AFP through Getty Photos

As a result of this sport’s characters are based mostly on Norse mythology, I assumed it might be easy to search out details about a masks belonging to both Odin or Loki. As an alternative, I discovered completely no proof in any respect that this masks has any historic foundation or mythological significance in accordance with Previous Norse sources. The preferred reference to a masks belonging to Loki comes from the film The Masks (1994) and its sequel, Son of the Masks (2005).

Though the unique Darkish Horse Comics collection The Masks doesn’t confer with Norse mythological figures, the movies and animated collection identify Loki because the masks’s proprietor. Within the films and the present, the masks makes the wearer invincible, unrecognizable, and completely unrestrained by their very own inhibitions.

It’s not too arduous to see the parallels between these masks. The masks in Ragnarök has a really comparable look to the masks’s design within the comics, films, and animated collection. It’s made out of wooden and appears historical and cracked; within the sport, it glows with brilliant inexperienced energy when Atreus focuses on it, much like how the film model turns inexperienced when worn.

What I’m making an attempt to say is, I’m fairly positive Loki’s masks in Ragnarök is impressed by The Masks (1994). It’s positively not impressed by any masks that really exists in Norse mythology. Might or not it’s that the Ragnarök group remembered a narrative about Loki having a superpowered masks, however they couldn’t fairly keep in mind the place they discovered that bit of data? Or possibly someone thought the masks from the films had an precise foundation in Norse delusion, despite the fact that it doesn’t…?

Picture: SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Leisure through Polygon

Picture: SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Leisure through Polygon

Naturally, I requested the PR group for Ragnarök to attach me with the sport’s writers so I might inquire about this vital piece of lore. At first, narrative director Matt Sophos gave me this mysterious reply: “We intentionally by no means say the place the masks comes from. We do particularly say the Giants didn’t make it, however it’s a thriller to Odin that’s on the coronary heart of what he’s making an attempt to determine.” Sophos has but to answer a extra direct follow-up query from me about whether or not The Masks served as particular inspiration.

Anthony Burch, who additionally contributed writing to the sport, did give me a response that confirms he and Sophos had been conscious of the parallels to the film The Masks:

I very, very vaguely keep in mind:
– I beat out a number of the Loki/Odin plot arc and had them specializing in some kind of macguffin that represented Odin and Loki’s relationship
– Both myself or Matt Sophos…I’m nearly positive it was Matt Sophos…recommended the macguffin ought to be a masks as a result of Loki is trying to find identification and many others and many others

I very particularly keep in mind:
– Googling the The Masks masks, sending it to Matt and in addition idea artwork, and in some unspecified time in the future afterward summarizing the plot of the sport as ‘ssssssomebody cease Odin’”

In response to this, I did ask Burch whether or not he was joking, to which he replied: “I’m not joking!”

All this to say, if you happen to watched Ragnarök’s credit and also you had extra questions concerning the masks within the sport, chances are you’ll as nicely watch The Masks (1994), in addition to its sequel and TV collection. That’s the one different masks that has a connection to Loki and Odin, in spite of everything — and that story might even clarify the place the masks ended up after Atreus threw it into that unusual portal. Clearly, it ended up on Earth, the place it made its manner into the unwitting fingers of Stanley Ipkiss. It’s not a crossover that I ever anticipated to see on this sport, however not less than now I’ve slightly bit extra context on the sport’s most underexplained plot level.