Baldur

**Baldur** (Old Norse: **Baldr**) was the Norse Aesir God of Light and the main antagonist of *God of War (2018)*.

He was the son of Odin and Freya, half-brother of Thor and Týr, and the half-uncle of Magni and Modi.

Baldur is a recurring antagonist in the World Protection Security Agency stories, who makes his first appearance in WPSA: Rozen Maiden: Zurückspulen, initially aiming to destroy the Rozen Maidens by any means necessary and use their power in hopes of removing the immortality curse that Freya put on him, but his plans have been foiled by the WPSA.

## Appearance

Baldur is of average height and has an extremely lean, hard physique. His build is unique, as it makes him seem small in comparison to the other male gods in the series, who are generally of towering height and sport broad, heavily muscled builds. His most striking features are his woad-blue tattoos of Norse runes, which coat large portions of his limbs and torso and his eyes, which are distinctly icy blue, particularly noticeable when the camera is close-up.

He has handsome (if haggard) features, with a beaded but unkempt brownish beard and a shaggy, beaded horse-mane hairstyle. He wears a red belt, a hip pouch and a thin string of charms over a torn brown waistcloth sash, which is worn over loose, black cloth pants, bound at the calves with brown leather straps. He wears no top and no shoes.

## Personality

Baldur was once a kind and emotionally stable Aesir god, but he ended up becoming an extremely cruel, ruthless and sadistic monster after his mother Freya, out of misguided love, cursed him with invulnerability spell to ensure nothing can kill him at the cost of his ability to feel anything. To make matters worse, Freya refused to lift the spell out of fear of his death, which sadly, severing the bond between mother and son.

The invulnerability curse soon took its toll on his sanity and turned him into an emotionally unstable monster he is now. According to Modi, Baldur hasn't "seen straight in years".

Underneath his sadism, Baldur is an extremely miserable Aesir god. Baldur laments that he can no longer taste food or drinks or experience bodily pleasures, and angrily admitted that he would rather die than never feel again. A vision in Helheim reveals Baldur's regret of not killing Freya years ago for what she had done to him, blaming himself for being a coward for running away instead. Even after becoming a mad monster, his sense of honor still remains, as he was supposedly willing to leave Kratos alone without a fight had the Spartan given him the information he wanted. He also implies that unlike his brother, he is willing to show mercy. Despite this, Baldur did not have any reservations about taking hostages, using surprise attacks and threatening innocents during his battles with Kratos.

Baldur's relationship with other members of his family seemed to be remarkably better. He was loyal to Odin and trusted that his father would fulfil his promise to find a way to break his curse, even though he knew Odin normally couldn't. Although he clearly did not approve of Thor's absolute bloodlust, stating that he was not like the God of Thunder, Baldur still was on good enough terms with him to agree to take his nephews with him, and it was stated by Magni that despite Baldur's insanity, Thor still believed in his brother's ability to complete missions. Baldur seemed to also be the only Aesir who had respect for the pacific Tyr and the only one who had a good relationship with him, as he was likely taught by the God of War how to use the Bifrost in his temple and he even mirrored his brother's peaceful tendencies by first acting diplomatic and only resorting to violence when needed. Baldur has no hesitation of calling his nephews as idiots.

Baldur is rather talkative in a belligerent manner during a fight, as he taunts, mocks and rages at Kratos throughout all of their battles. The Spartan himself said in their first encounter that he talked too much.

Baldur's rage and maniacal behavior did not vanish along with the spell and Baldur chose to continue fighting Kratos despite being relentlessly assaulted with punches and arrows from Atreus. He actually enjoyed experiencing pain to his fullest and hated every time his mother tried to protect him. Free of the spell, Baldur is shown to be graceful as he appreciated both Kratos and Atreus for their efforts what his father, Odin couldn't. Despite given a warning by Kratos, Baldur still wanted to punish his mother and chose to strangle her even as she professed her love for him. Baldur's obsession for revenge to the point of patricide alarmed Kratos that the Spartan tried to reason with the maddened Aesir God, having understood what he felt too well from his past conflicts with Gods of Olympus which culminates of him murdering Zeus and realizing vengeance will bring nothing to its perpetrator. Sadly, Baldur refused to hear Kratos, and as a result, Kratos reluctantly put Baldur out of his misery by snapping his neck.

Baldur's final moments were not of anger or rage, but the joy that he could feel the snow on his face.

## Powers and Abilities

As a son of two chief gods Odin and Freya, Baldur was one of the most powerful gods, with Odin and Thor as the only known Aesir to surpass him. Baldur's power was great enough to pose a difficult challenge to Kratos.

* **Superhuman Strength:** As a son of Odin, Baldur possessed immense superhuman strength, far surpassing that of any mortal or monster. He had enough physical aptitude to harm Jörmungandr, easily throw and smash a giant boulder, jump high into the sky, and, despite his skinny and shorter body, proved quite a challenge for Kratos. In their first battle, when Baldur and Kratos have a test of raw strength, the ground begins to collapse, leaving a progressively larger and deeper fissure beneath them. Even after losing his invulnerability, Baldur still proved to be a difficult challenge and once managed to pin down Kratos and choke Atreus with one arm each until the former escaped using his Spartan rage, showing his strength remained just as great as after the curse was broken. However, he wasn't as strong as Kratos, and this, along with his deteriorating mental health, ultimately proved to be his undoing.

* **Superhuman Durability:** As among the strongest of the Norse Gods, Baldur was extremely durable, even without his invulnerability. Hence, after his mother's spell was broken, Baldur was still able to take extreme punishment, even what would be mortal blows, such as being chopped twice in the shoulder by the Leviathan Axe, being stabbed in the stomach by the Blades of Chaos and getting shot multiple times by Atreus's arrows, even so continuing to fight seemingly unhindered. It was only upon Kratos breaking his neck that he finally succumbed.
* **Superhuman Stamina:** As a God and his curse, Baldur has near limitless stamina, showing no signs of fatigue during his fight with Kratos or his tracking.
* **Immortality**: As an Aesir god, Baldur was immortal, and could only be killed by other Immortals or special weapons.
* **Regenerative Healing Factor:** Despite losing his invulnerability, Baldur seems still to have a certain degree of regeneration, such as taking an immense amount of punishment from Kratos and Atreus and still be able to fight without much injury. After the death of Thamur when was beaten to a pulp by Kratos, Baldur was recovering enough in a moment and almost choke Freya to death.

* **Light Manipulation:** As the God of Light, Baldur was capable of using light in combat. The runes on his body, as well as his eyes, will light up when he uses his power. He could use light to move at extreme speeds, send a shockwave through the ground, cause an explosion of energy, throw balls of deadly, shining energy; or increase the force of his attacks.
	+ **Superhuman Speed & Agility:** Baldur, perhaps due to his power over light, can move at extremely high speeds much faster than Kratos and Atreus. He uses this to effect in combat, darting around enemies before striking them. His reflexes are similarly fast and is able to block or counter Kratos before he can react.

* **True Invulnerability:** Baldur's greatest and most infamous attribute was his invulnerability to almost anything, even Kratos' Blades of Chaos. While he can be harmed, his injuries are only temporary, as the curse enhanced his existent supernatural regenerative abilities to heal him almost instantaneously. Despite his invulnerability, Baldur can be dazed and incapacitated for brief periods, such as when his neck was snapped when he first faced Kratos.
	+ **Immunity to Sensations:** He also cannot physically feel any injuries, nor any amount of physical exhaustion, enabling him to continue to fight without being slowed down. For instance, he was able to easily attack the World Serpent, a creature that gave his brother Thor a challenge and walks out of the cold depths of the lake within which it resided without any noticeable exhaustion. He could also survive in Hel unharmed despite the immense coldness of the realm. However, his invulnerability came at the cost of robbing him of most of his senses (touch, smell, taste, and pain), ultimately driving him insane. Also, despite his invulnerability, Baldur can be dazed and incapacitated for brief periods, such as when his neck was snapped when he first faced Kratos. His only true weakness was mistletoe. Upon striking Atreus and stabbing his hand with a mistletoe arrow, the spell was broken, and Baldur was not only vulnerable but able to feel everything, causing a sensory-overload and euphoria, even claiming he hasn't felt "more alive".
	+ **Self-Resurrection:** Thanks to the curse, even if Baldur was "killed", he would only be temporarily incapacitated. When he faced Kratos for the first time, Kratos snapped Baldur's neck and he had managed to revive himself and fully recover form a broken neck by the time Kratos left the wildwoods with Atreus.

* **Additional Elemental Affinities:** In addition to his light-elemental abilities, Baldur could gain the power to control any element he was exposed to by absorbing them, as shown when Kratos had struck him on the shoulder using the Leviathan Axe and Baldur, by grabbing it, was able to gain the power to control ice, allowing him to infuse ice into his fist to increase his strength, send out blasts of ice, and also cause icicles to erupt from the ground. Later, after Atreus had detonated the undead Giant's ring on top of Baldur during the final battle with him, Baldur acquired power over the fire by absorbing the explosion, allowing him to cause eruptions of fire around the ground and perform a fire-enhanced kick as well as summon a wave of flame. In the WPSA stories, Baldur is able to absorb the powers of anyone he encounters in a matter of seconds. Evident when he later gains control of *all* the Rozen Maiden's abilities and later use it as means to destroy the Rozen Maidens, as well as the WPSA, in hopes of destroying his invulnerability curse by stealing their Artificial Spirits. In the process, he is able to use the respective abilities coming from them.

* **Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant:** Most likely because of his physical abilities and invulnerability, Baldur does not use or need weapons in combat. He favors his own physical fighting capabilities above all else and is extremely skilled, despite having no known formal training in combat. He can quickly strike, utilizing punches and kicks. He also uses his elbows, knees and even some grappling techniques, in fact, he is noted to be especially good at wrestling, even suplex Kratos in their first and last fight. His skill in pure hand-to-hand combat is almost unmatched, capable of easily fighting against and even at times overwhelming Kratos in melee combat despite the latter's immense training, experience, and prowess, losing only due to Kratos' superior strength, weapons and coordinated attacks with Atreus. He can couple his moves with his superior speed, strength, agility, durability, stamina, and control over light to decimate enemies, and is one of the very few individuals capable of defeating Kratos in a straight match-up without help.

* **Expert Tracker:** Mimir stated that Baldur was Odin's best tracker. As such, his ability and persistence in finding a given target exceeded that of the other Aesir. Baldur managed to find Kratos's home and attack him, then again find Kratos when he opened the gate to Jötunheim. Despite being stuck in Helheim, across the bridge, from which there was "no way back", Baldur still found a way out and managed to track down Kratos and his son when they in were in the World Serpent's stomach.

## Relationships

### Rozen Maidens

Throughout WPSA: Rozen Maiden: Zurückspulen, Baldur crafted several plans to target the Rozen Maiden dolls and destroy them because of their Artificial Spirits, which have been revealed to have the same effects as a mistletoe, which is the mystical plant that counters Baldur's invulnerability curse, from his original world. These actions later lead to him becoming the archenemy of the Rozen Maidens, making him the main antagonist of the Zurückspulen arc.

Despite repeated attempts to target the Rozen Maidens for their Spirits, his plans are often foiled by the WPSA agents, as well as them. Therein times he bested them, however, when he managed to absorb all of the Rozen Maiden's Artificial Spirits in an effort to destroy the WPSA once his curse is completely broken. However, this plan failed, as well, when he is defeated by them.

### Jun Sakurada

Much like the Rozen Maidens, he is shown to have a penchant for mocking Jun for his "inability to fight", which refers to him being dependent over the Rozen Maiden dolls. That, however, later becomes his undoing, when he is later defeated by them.