Funny how much more Baldur’s issues make sense once you meet Odin

The truly twisted thing is that Freya knew how to break the curse and lied to his face about it for her own selfish desire to avoid feeling hurt without any regards for the torture this level of sensory deprivation did to him.

17:24 It’s a misdirect. He thinks that kratos is a giant, but the viewer only thinks about kratos’ Greek heritage at this point in the story.

Baldur was at peace in his last moments, ironically, because he could feel the snow on his skin, he went on about food, drink and women but that, that was his final thought. That last word, a small drawn out "snoooow", shows us that the simple pleasures really are the things we miss the most.

What's heartbreaking is you can tell Baldur loved his mother so much. She even says Atreus reminded her of him. Imagine a young boy, who was desperate for adventure, but always told no because it was too dangerous.

Then one day, she says yes. And you can finally see the world. But...there's nothing. No sensation, no joy. And to find out the one person in the world took it from you and COULD have saved you, but wouldn't for selfish reasons, combined with sensory deprivation, it's no wonder he went mad.

Even after all of Baldur's explanations to his mother, she still screams "NO" when the spell is broken. Obviously she didn't want it broken, however, it's what he wanted. I don't know how much more a person can explain "what you're doing/did makes me unhappy" and she still doesn't listen.

His arc is a really good metaphor for the results of overbearing parenting. Sure, he’ll be safe, but he won’t feel anything,  literally. It’s crazy how specific this was.

As far as I can tell, Freya never actually apologizes to Baldur at any point. She recognizes his suffering and even offers up her life to him, but she never says she's sorry.

I think the reason Baldur is so emotional is the fact he can't physically feel anything. So for lack of physical stimulation his mind latched onto his emotional stimuli, and cranked them all to 9000.

It’s interesting that Baldur is the only one of Odin’s children still loyal to him who refers to him by his name rather than “All-Father”

Just imagine this from Asgard's perspective. The giant stave protection finally breaks for whatever reason, but they don't really know what they’ll find within. Presumably something giant related, hopefully even Fey. But, as we know from Ragnarok, Fey has already fought Thor to a standstill. So, Odin can either go himself, or send Baldur. Naturally, he sends his 'tracker, his closer' instead of himself.

Baldur goes. But he doesnt find Fey. He finds a large, obviously not human man, clearly hiding something. He attempts to provoke him and fails. He escalstes, demonstrating his strength, speed and invincibility.

The mysterious stranger is ummoved, matching him blow for blow, strength for strength. Even though hes clearly old, he's suprisngly fast too.

And then Baldur rips a giant cavern through the area, taunts the man that he feels nothing, and heals all the damage the man has done so far.

The stranger shrugs, AND HEALS HIMSELF. Then he begins to utterly outclass Baldur, eventually wrestling him to the ground and snapping his neck.

...

So far as we know from canon, that's the first time ANYONE has won in a straight fight against Baldur, and the stranger wasn't even really trying, was unarmoured and utterly unprepared.

He then vanishes into Midgard, and whilst Asgard panics and starts wondering about what to do next, the Raven Keeper sidles up to Odin and quietly says someone is wiping out ravens.

The rest of the game is nothing but a long running nightmare of things going from bad to worse for Asgard, culminating in both Baldur, and Thor's sons, none of which are supposed to be CAPABLE of dying, are murdered by this mysterious guy.

And then at some point post game, Odin figures out exactly who he is dealing with and start to really panic.

I've just noticed that Freya's response of "I had every right, I am your mother" parallels Odin in Ragnarok demanding Thor follow his orders because "I am your father." And just... wow. Also, I love that when Freya claims that she can't undo the curse but still wants to preserve her relationship with her son despite lying to him and robbing him of pretty much all that is good in his life, Baldur's response is basically 'If you say you can't fix this curse, then I say we can't fix "us."' And I think that was exactly what she deserved.

⚠⚠ 18:00 It's important to note that Baldur mistook Kratos for Faye. As she's a Giant, he thought that Kratos was Faye or at least a Giant. Hence the whole "I thought your kind was supposed to be more enlightened than us", that's because Giants were more artisans than warriors like the Aesir.

It's just that, they played it up for us to think Baldur knew who Kratos really is, as an audience, because we know who he is.

I think one of the most messed up things about this, is Freya knew how to reverse the curse. She freaks out, and takes away Atreus' mistletoe arrows when she sees them, meaning at SOME point, Freya could have, at any point, reversed the curse, and freed Baldur, maybe even helping him reform as a result, but she chose never to do that.

Freya telling Kratos “I don’t need your protection” and then immediately telling Baldur “I was just trying to protect you” is crazy irony.

I just noticed that at no point, Freya does not apologize.

She's too prideful in her intentions to truly admit how she's wrong, despite the fact she's realized what she's done to her son.

My favorite line from Bauldur is right after he regains his senses and decides to fight, once Freya restrains him he yells "NOOO! MOTHERRR!". ( 38:50 ) It comes off so childish, resembling a temper tantrum. But then you hear the desperation in his voice begging her to stop controlling his fate. It's truly sad and the actor delivered the line perfectly.

10:08 Until watching this right now, I always thought he was aware of who Kratos was and referenced Greece. Now I believe he mistook Kratos for the giant he was searching for— enlightened, “bigger”, long way from home all make sense to a Jotun

The worst thing about Freya is she knew mistletoe would lift the spell from Baldur and she refuses to tell him despite his anger towards her and his explanation of how he doesn't want the spell to continue ruining his life.

The Norns actually did tell Freya how to save her son, they said “there is nothing you can do to save your son”, but that’s clever wordplay, because if she had done nothing her son would’ve been saved, so there was nothing she could’ve done, but she chose to do something which was why her son died a needless death