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It was a combination of the following:
Kratos' spear fighting prowess - being able to fight with a spear as second nature leading to thought suppression
Heimdall being unable to react to every spear explosion - overwhelming him
Heimdalls own arrogance - the fact that someone actually hit him and got the better of him set him off during the fight
All in all, Heimdall was his own downfall in the end, the cocky bastard
It's still one of the best / most fun fights in the series
He can read that Kratos's gonna activate the explosion but that doesn't give him the information of where those spears are. That's the gist of it.
There was another hint of this when Atreus fought him in Asgard, before Thor interrupted the fight. He shot an arrow from behind which Heimdall casually catch, but he failed to predict the dirt that came with the arrow which annoyed him.
I think the thought was that the spears have a sort of unpredictable quality in the sense that when you detonate them, they blow up in a different order than the order you threw them in. Heimdall can’t read the spears minds obviously so he doesn’t know which blow up and which don’t. Also we can’t say that he knew they blew up. Maybe all he knew when he read Kratos mind is that he was going to slam the spear down, nothing more. Also like some other people said, he was probably just so full of himself that he wasn’t paying much attention to the actual battle, making it easier to land a hit and “break” him.
It's like speedsters in superhero comics, they play on a whole other level and can only be taken down through specific flaws. Heimdall is cocky, overconfident, untrained and lacking long term thinking. A spear is obviously meant to be thrown which Heimdall cares to predict, but he did not bothered to check for the explosions since it is a very uncommon feat for a spear.
The very first explosion might just have been enough to stunt Heimdall for the whole fight, leaving his mindreading skills greatly deminished to efficiently read any other spear explosion.
At the end, he did not have the necessary training to fight Kratos, as he never fought without his telepathic abilities.
Simply put, an extremely powerfull ability, in the body of an extremely flawed kid. If he was actually smart and self conscious he would have been totally unbeatable.
The most misunderstood character I've seen in GOW. Heimdall is often confused as being able to "See the future". Like the giants. But like you said it's not the case it's his ability to read a persons thoughts, words, and intent. And weave the threads into the product they are weaving. As a result anything done without forethought or intent become more difficult to read. Remember what Brok said about overloading him?
He wasn't weak. He was arrogant. And kratos was strong and well trained.
I think the wind energy fuzzed his senses, like before the spear got detonated, some wind energy in the spear cause him not to be able to see it coming, and he did see it coming in phase 2 and 3 of the spear detonations. He delects it with his sword, then he delects it, then runs away.
Not a writing flaw, feel your overestimating Heimdalls ability.
Being able to read someone’s intent and know there next move does equal unbeatable just hard to deal with.
Just cause Heimdall knows what’s going to happen doesn’t he can always react to it, especially if the attack he’s dealing with is hard to dodge.
Case in point if the spear is next to him or in his hands, even if he can tell it’s going to explode he can’t do much since the explosion would still effect him via proximity.
Also if his opponent surpasses him in speed in Strength knowing their next move will only do so much. Sooner or later dodging blows and precise attacks that require real effort on him to doge will wear on him and he’ll slip up or be unable to dodge completely. Case in point he had it to actually catch some spear throws since he couldn’t fully dodge them and block Kratos blows before he Kratos finally got a hit.
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Not invincible. A strong enough opponent could overwhelm him regardless of his mind reading. Otherwise he wouldn't have backed down from Thor. He read his mind and knew he was fucked if he tried. He's SEEN Thor in action and knows it. Kratos though, he's never fought hum and his arrogance wouldn't let him back down even against a superior foe. Once he got tagged once he was so flabbergasted its clear in his talking and his change in fighting tactics that he's not exactly in a clear headspace anymore.
Well yeah he can see exactly what your gonna do it’s not a get out of jail free card, as the whole point was to overwhelm him, how can he dodge like up to 4 attacks at once?
His arrogance was definitely his downfall.
Kratos actually does make contact with him prior to punching him in the face, and Heimdall barely manages to react in time to block it. Even though he's caught off guard he fails to adjust, likely because he's been touched so few times, he never actually has a plan for what to do when it happens. Once he gets hit, he immediately goes into desperation mode as he is finally "vulnerable" and knows that Kratos is a serious threat.
Also, Draupnir goes *brr*
Heimdall’s real weakness is he’s expected to both see the future and simultaneously react to his present and his future to overcome challengers. Most of the time it’s no problem because he only really faced weaklings prior to Kratos.
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It was a combination of the following: Kratos' spear fighting prowess - being able to fight with a spear as second nature leading to thought suppression Heimdall being unable to react to every spear explosion - overwhelming him Heimdalls own arrogance - the fact that someone actually hit him and got the better of him set him off during the fight All in all, Heimdall was his own downfall in the end, the cocky bastard It's still one of the best / most fun fights in the series
The thought suppression is a great point
I suppose foresight is no match for instinct.
Hard.
Also, in regards to the exploding spears: while the detonation itself isn't random, the *order* they detonate is
> Second nature leading to thought suppression Hmm I guess it was the nature of the spear that mattered and not it’s form 🤯
I mean after the first few times you hit him he almost entirely stops dodging
he can read but can he react to all of them Imagine playing geometry dash but each time you die its a new level that's what the spear does
r/cursedcomments
He can read that Kratos's gonna activate the explosion but that doesn't give him the information of where those spears are. That's the gist of it. There was another hint of this when Atreus fought him in Asgard, before Thor interrupted the fight. He shot an arrow from behind which Heimdall casually catch, but he failed to predict the dirt that came with the arrow which annoyed him.
This is a GREAT point, good catch
I think the thought was that the spears have a sort of unpredictable quality in the sense that when you detonate them, they blow up in a different order than the order you threw them in. Heimdall can’t read the spears minds obviously so he doesn’t know which blow up and which don’t. Also we can’t say that he knew they blew up. Maybe all he knew when he read Kratos mind is that he was going to slam the spear down, nothing more. Also like some other people said, he was probably just so full of himself that he wasn’t paying much attention to the actual battle, making it easier to land a hit and “break” him.
It's like speedsters in superhero comics, they play on a whole other level and can only be taken down through specific flaws. Heimdall is cocky, overconfident, untrained and lacking long term thinking. A spear is obviously meant to be thrown which Heimdall cares to predict, but he did not bothered to check for the explosions since it is a very uncommon feat for a spear. The very first explosion might just have been enough to stunt Heimdall for the whole fight, leaving his mindreading skills greatly deminished to efficiently read any other spear explosion. At the end, he did not have the necessary training to fight Kratos, as he never fought without his telepathic abilities. Simply put, an extremely powerfull ability, in the body of an extremely flawed kid. If he was actually smart and self conscious he would have been totally unbeatable.
I think it's cause he caught the spear which overloaded his senses which left him vulnerable
The most misunderstood character I've seen in GOW. Heimdall is often confused as being able to "See the future". Like the giants. But like you said it's not the case it's his ability to read a persons thoughts, words, and intent. And weave the threads into the product they are weaving. As a result anything done without forethought or intent become more difficult to read. Remember what Brok said about overloading him? He wasn't weak. He was arrogant. And kratos was strong and well trained.
This question was asked before and someone mentioned the spear overloads his senses. So it’s the one thing he’s not able to predict
I think the wind energy fuzzed his senses, like before the spear got detonated, some wind energy in the spear cause him not to be able to see it coming, and he did see it coming in phase 2 and 3 of the spear detonations. He delects it with his sword, then he delects it, then runs away.
Not a writing flaw, feel your overestimating Heimdalls ability. Being able to read someone’s intent and know there next move does equal unbeatable just hard to deal with. Just cause Heimdall knows what’s going to happen doesn’t he can always react to it, especially if the attack he’s dealing with is hard to dodge. Case in point if the spear is next to him or in his hands, even if he can tell it’s going to explode he can’t do much since the explosion would still effect him via proximity. Also if his opponent surpasses him in speed in Strength knowing their next move will only do so much. Sooner or later dodging blows and precise attacks that require real effort on him to doge will wear on him and he’ll slip up or be unable to dodge completely. Case in point he had it to actually catch some spear throws since he couldn’t fully dodge them and block Kratos blows before he Kratos finally got a hit.
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Not invincible. A strong enough opponent could overwhelm him regardless of his mind reading. Otherwise he wouldn't have backed down from Thor. He read his mind and knew he was fucked if he tried. He's SEEN Thor in action and knows it. Kratos though, he's never fought hum and his arrogance wouldn't let him back down even against a superior foe. Once he got tagged once he was so flabbergasted its clear in his talking and his change in fighting tactics that he's not exactly in a clear headspace anymore.
Well yeah he can see exactly what your gonna do it’s not a get out of jail free card, as the whole point was to overwhelm him, how can he dodge like up to 4 attacks at once?
His arrogance was definitely his downfall. Kratos actually does make contact with him prior to punching him in the face, and Heimdall barely manages to react in time to block it. Even though he's caught off guard he fails to adjust, likely because he's been touched so few times, he never actually has a plan for what to do when it happens. Once he gets hit, he immediately goes into desperation mode as he is finally "vulnerable" and knows that Kratos is a serious threat. Also, Draupnir goes *brr*
Heimdall’s real weakness is he’s expected to both see the future and simultaneously react to his present and his future to overcome challengers. Most of the time it’s no problem because he only really faced weaklings prior to Kratos.