Kratos didn’t “remove” the chains in the sense of detaching them cleanly and keeping the blades intact. In the first God of War , Ares tears the Blades of Chaos away from Kratos by ripping off the chains that were bound to his forearms, which leaves Kratos without them until he later receives the Blades of Athena instead.

What happened

  • The chains were physically attached to Kratos’s arms as part of the Blades of Chaos.
  • Ares takes the blades away during their final confrontation.
  • After that, Kratos eventually gets a different set of blades rather than reusing the old chained ones.

Why it matters

The moment is important because it symbolizes Kratos being stripped of his old identity and forced into a new path. Later stories bring the Blades of Chaos back as his signature weapon, but the original loss was a deliberate story beat.

Quick scoop

So the simple answer is: Ares tore the blades and chains off Kratos during the original game’s ending, and Kratos did not remove them himself.