Kratos vs. Baldur Fight Mods

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Part of a series on God of War (2018). [View Related Entries]

About

Kratos vs. Baldur Fight Mods refers to modded fights between characters Kratos and Baldur from the 2018 video game God of War. Following the game's PC release in January 2022, videos in which characters from various franchises fought each other gained viral popularity on YouTube. In April 2023, video caption memes based on a modded fight between Leon Kennedy and Ashley Graham from Resident Evil 4 saw spread.

Origin

In the opening part of the 2018 video game God of War, protagonist Kratos fights Norse god Baldur, overpowering him and snapping his neck (scene shown below).^[1]

On January 14th, 2022, God of War was released on PC.^[2] On January 31st, 2022, YouTuber^[3] Omega Fantasy posted the earliest viral modded fight between Kratos and Baldur, replacing Kratos' model with the beardless Kratos from the original God of War trilogy. The video (shown below) gained over 5.2 million views in one year.

Spread

In the following months, Omega Fantasy posted more modded versions of the fight featuring various characters, with some versions replacing both Kratos and Baldur. For example, on April 8th, Omega Fantasy uploaded^[4] a CJ vs. Big Smoke version of the fight that gained over 1.4 million views on YouTube in one year (shown below, left). On May 4th, the YouTuber^[5] posted an Asura's Wrath version that gained over 1.1 million views in the same period (shown below, right).

In May 2022, other YouTube users started joining in on the trend. On May 31st, 2022, YouTuber^[6] Marcos RC posted a fight between Leon Kennedy and Ashley Graham from "Resident Evil 4" that gained over 64,500 views in one year (shown below, left). On October 2nd, YouTube^[7] user Talleybogie posted a One Punch Man version of the meme that gained over 111,000 views (shown below, right).

On November 27th, 2022, YouTuber^[8] NoThisnot Joel posted a humorous edit of the Leon vs. Ashley fight that gained over 1.5 million views on the platform in five months (shown below).

In April 2023, following the release of Resident Evil 4 Remake, the edit gained popularity in video captions. For example, on April 4th, an unknown Redditor captioned the video with a joke about gender equality that gained over 6,100 upvotes in /r/shitposting^[9] prior to being removed. Later on April 4th, Twitter^[10] account @LocalBateman reposted the video, with the meme garnering over 304,000 views, 3,000 retweets and 26,900 likes on Twitter in two days (shown below).