Mimir was the only one to advocate for Atreus having somewhat of a normal childhood by trying to convince Kratos that “The Lad wants to make mistakes of his own”. Mimir will always be a homie.

To be fair about the doggos, there’s an entire side quest that addresses Kratos misuse of the dogs and he learns to show them compassion.

Anyone notice how the way Kratos' death is depicted in the prophecy (being held by Atreus while his soul leaves his body) is exactly how Odin met his demise

Kratos did have a personal growth in Ragnarok. Wasn't as major as 2018 but it's still there. Kratos trusted Freya with his past and was vulnerable in front of her, called Brok his friend and gave him the honour to bless the spear, he thanks Sindri when he gets missing items even tried to comfort him at Brok's funeral, he gets lot more emotional and human in this story, gave Heimdall the chance to walk away, gave Thor the chance to undo his mistakes and goddamn my eyes tear up everytime I see him smile.

I can think of a number of catalysts that changed kratos' fate in Ragnarok:
-Atreus coming back and embracing kratos
-The death of brok and the darkness enveloping sindri's heart
-kratos telling Atreus to open his heart to the suffering of others
And finally
-kratos holstering his weapon instead of finishing thor

There is a hidden theme in the game I think, and that's not taking our time with those we love for granted. Doing sidequests you can really see this being exhasturbated, especially in Alfheim. You play with Atreus for most of the game until by the end when you part ways. You can do sidequests later, though you are reminded, especially in Alfheim, that Atreus would love to be there with you saving the jellyfish. It's the reason you are pushed to do sidequests because even the characters know that nothing is certain.

I really do love the post game funeral for Brok. Where kratos calls him a friend, little moments like that is what make the game even better for me. Like the whole side story with the whale

Find it strange that everyone forgets time moves differently across all the realms. A few moments in one realm can be hours and even days in others

There’s actually in game lore that supports how easily Freyr got the light and dark elves to work together. They all absolutely love him, apparently he was the first person to appear in their lands, coming out of the light and ever since they trust him so much that for a time there was peace between both elf races. The once reason there was peace was cause they trusted him, not each other. The second he left their land to go to Freya’s wedding was when they started fighting again. He’s super important to them

After the truce with Freya, and after Loki ran off to Asgard, Kratos and Freya used the wolf-sled to seek out the Norns. With Freya commenting on the fact that Kratos and Atreus neglected them. Stating that the wolves have matted fur and should be better cared for. So the game did at least slightly acknowledge their neglect

I'd like to say that the reason Odin is so against changing his nature is because his whole goal is to know everything, ultimate knowledge and he has likely spent centuries gathering prophecies and insight for what's ahead and his world view is so shallow that if something were to make those prophecies null and void that his centuries would have been wasted and that idea horrifies him so he does everything in his power to hold everyone to the script

I love the themes of prophecy and fate in Ragnarok. It feels like it blends the personal scale for Kratos and all the bad choices he’s made, and the grand scale of apocalypse and magic that the Norse world is filled with

Sindri going from neat freak ocd to covered in blood looking deranged is crazy character development

7:54 On Brokk and Nature vs form : it should be mentioned that the line "it is the nature, not the form, of a thing that matters" is actually spoken by Brokk on the way to this version of the Lady of the Lake. He mentions it in regards to dwarf magic, when he captures "the sound of howling wind". The fact that Kratos re-uses this line, and understood it well enough to throw it back at its creator, makes it all the more powerful for Brokk, and more convincing.
13:53 About the Norns : listening carefully, the sentence the Norns use to guide Kratos' anger towards Heimdall is: "Heimdal intends to kill Atreus" - not that he WILL kill Atreus... I could be argued that they set the confrontation up...
18:13 On Surtr & Sinmara subverting prophecy: I would actually disagree... The point was that they don't both have to be "destroyed" to trigger Ragnarok, Surtr finds an alternative. But listening to Sinmara's lamentation after the end of the game, I would argue that, despite being alive, she is pretty much destroyed as well... Prophecy fulfilled, but not it the most literal sense.

Someone needs to make a video about how Odin is one of the most realistic and terrifying depictions of a genuinely skillful manipulator. I've seen a lot of people compare him to Tony Soprano, but more than anything he reminded me of my grandmother and my father. Every sentence he said made me want to wrap my hands around his throat, because I know what he's doing. Every moment he praises Atreus for doing something he wishes he could do. Every time he vacillates between praise and condemnation and back to praise in the same sentence. Every time he says something that seems reasonable and even-handed on the surface, but always serves his own ends. Every time he takes someone's side or instigates an argument with just a turn of praise or even an appropriately-placed word.

As much as the ending felt a little rushed, the execution of the main beats were still excellent.  When Atreus decided to sleep in Kratos’s tent, when Kratos encouraged his Atreus to keep his heart open, when Kratos accepts that his son is going to forge his own path with Angroboda, all of those moments were executed as close to perfectly as any piece of media can get.  The growth Kratos let’s himself go through for the love of his son is the emotional core of the game and I adore it.

The folktale about the scorpion and the frog was a nice touch, considering its either the first or one of the first stories kratos tells atreus in the first game

With this change of nature, I feel that with Sindri as well is an amazing example of it. In his early dialouge with Atreus when they were trying to find Freya, his remarks and quips, at least in my opinion, hint or at the very least foreshadow the change he goes through at the end, no matter how short.
Second, I also adore how fate was used in Ragnorok. It was not like in the old God Of War games, where basically sheer fucking force was used to overcome a desitny, rather how in GOW4 Kratos talks about fate is not predetermined, a point him and Odin align on. But in the Norse mythology, the nature of fate is the prophecies as you said, so be it avoidance or willingness would lead to the same outcome. If Kratos attempted to avoid Heimdall to prevent Ragnorok, I have no doubt in my mind that the prick would've killed Atreus. Then we would see the god he once was.
Also I saw a thing on twitter, someone saying that they miss the savage young Kratos, saying this one has gotten weaker. Just because he has spared people, does not mean he is any weaker. Its just that the choice to killing a person, god or mortal, with lives and others attached to them (lovingly or not) are not his to make. He is not a God Killer. He is just a God, trying to live as a man.

ALSO LOVED THE VID

I would argue too that Atreus had a hand in changing fate when it came to Thor. He looked at the man who would kill his father and chose empathy, a big contrast to when he killed his son for merely insulting his mother.

Thor was only receptive to Kratos in that last battle because "Loki" laid the groundwork. "Had me believing things could change" is what Thor said. Some of that must have stuck.

I would like to add, Kratos did go through personal growth, showing compassion and empathy, as shown when fenrir died, he did not care about Atreus' grief, he simply said "it's time to train" which the growth is shown with the moments like Brok and Freya, and when he tells Atreus to "Open his heart" near the end of the game.