History Characters / AmericanGods2017

* MadeOfIron: The amount of punishment that Mad Sweeny can shrug off is honestly incredible. He more or less walks off being beaten senseless by [[spoiler:Laura]] several times and has survived two separate car crashes, at most only managing to knock him unconscious for a short while. In Season Two he outright states that, unlike Laura who's [[DrivesLikeCrazy driving like crazy]], he'll survive a turnover of their car if she keeps going like that. Justified, as he’s not human.

* ButtMonkey: After he gives his lucky coin to Shadow, he nearly gets his head blown off with a shotgun, survives a car crash, gets beaten up by [[spoiler:Laura]], and then arrested by the police.

* MadeOfIron: The amount of punishment that Mad Sweeny can shrug off is honestly incredible. He more or less walks off being beaten senseless by [[spoiler:Laura]] several times and has survived two separate car crashes, at most only managing to knock him unconscious for a short while. Justified, as he’s not human.

* GovernmentConspiracy: Wednesday claims that Argus's facility is a site of many conspiracy theories.

* DudeWheresMyRespect: He hates that the other gods do not show him much respect. When Shadow, a mortal, talks back to him, he has Shadow lynched. He hates that World and Media are willing to negotiate with Wednesday, someone he sees as powerless and obsolete but who treat him as a child.

* TheHandler: Acts this way towards [[spoiler:Bilquis.]]

[[folder: New Media]]

[[folder:Black Briar]]
!!Black Briar

A mysterious old man whom Mr. World meets following his encounter with Wednesday and Easter.

* NoNameGiven: He's never referred to as "Black Briar" as it’s the name which makes sense as part of conspiracies is not knowing the identities of those involved.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Despite all the other New Gods looking young and fresh like the ideas they represent, Black Briar is even older looking than some of the Old Gods.

*

* {{Foil}}: To Media. Media always manifested herself as different icons of pop culture, who were rooted in the past. New Media has her own identity and by contrast to Media is more in-tuned with the cyber-age in terms of sheer content and how it be manipulated.

[[folder:Argus]]
!!Argus
->'''Portrayed By:''' Christian Lloyd

Argus Panoptes, formerly the many-eyed giant in service to the gods of Olympus, reborn in America as the god of surveillance in-service to the New Gods.
----
*
[[/folder]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: She's mysteriously disappeared after the Season One finale. Mr. World tasks Tech Boy to find her, since he can't sell war to the other New Gods without his best salesman.]]

After Media's mysterious disappearance following Season One, New Media emerges to take her place -- the New Goddess of global content. She's a cyberspace chameleon, who is also a master of manipulation.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: InUniverse, seemingly the reason why Media vanished and New Media took her place. New Media is essentially the personification of the dark side of social network sites brought to life.

!The New Gods
[[folder: In General]]

->''"We're the coming thing. We are already here. We are self-driving cars and 3D printers and subdermal time-release insulin. And your old boss is still selling oranges on the side of the road. Not even organic. We are now and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. And he ain't even yesterday anymore."''
-->-- '''Media'''

The New Gods of the world. Younger and more powerful than the Old Gods, the New Gods embody modern concepts and beliefs.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: Fittingly as a new pantheon, they give of this impression, despite not technically being related. With [[TheDreaded Mr World]] and [[ManipulativeBitch Media]] as the AbusiveParents and [[TeensAreMonsters the Technical Boy]] as the problem child.
* DysfunctionJunction: The Old Gods are odd, there's no doubt about that, but they're also very human. The New Gods act in ways that imply they might be legitimately insane. The Technical Boy is violent to the point of trying to hang a black man from a tree, Media always appears in the persona of a famous character, and Mr. World's incredible [[LargeHam speech about individualism and salsa]] speaks for itself.
* InterfaceScrew: Occasionally when one of them is on screen the audio or visuals will distort strangely, with bursts of static like a bad radio signal. It usually only happens when one of them gets particularly emotional.
* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: However, unlike the Old Gods, they don't seem to need direct prayer and sacrifice. Dialogue throughout the first season implies that this is because they're getting small amounts of belief from all seven '''billion''' humans on the planet. A question of quantity over quality.
* JerkassGods: The three of them slaughtered an entire police station just to make a point to Shadow and Wednesday, and the Technical Boy tried to hang Shadow from a tree.
* OddlySmallOrganization: For being the new rulers of the world, there only seem to be three actual New Gods. Media, the Technical Boy, and Mr World. However there are also [[FacelessGoons the Children]] and the various Old Gods they've coerced, bribed, or bullied into joining them, like Mr. Wood, [[spoiler:Vulcan]], or [[spoiler:Bilquis]].
* SettingUpdate: They offer a version of this to the Old Gods as a form of bribery, 'rebranding' them to fit into the modern world. Ostara became Easter, Vulcan became the god of firearms, Mr. Wood became a parasitic EldritchAbomination, they offer Wednesday the 'ODIN guided missile system', [[spoiler: and Bilquis was given access to a Tinder-like app called Sheba to find new worshippers to feed on.]]

[[folder:The Technical Boy]]
!!The Technical Boy
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/technical_boy.jpg]]
->'''Portrayed By:''' Bruce Langley

->''"Wednesday is history, forgotten and old. He should just let it happen. We are the future. We don't give a fuck about him or anyone like him. They are consigned to the dumpster."''

New God of computers, smartphones and the Internet.

[[folder: Mr. Wood]]

* BeenThereShapedHistory: On Mr. World's orders, he orchestrated the Moon Landing, the Roswell Crash, and other such events.

* LoveGoddess: Bilquis is a darker version of this. She is the goddess of sexual love, lust and desire.
* SexGod: As the goddess of love and sex, she can rewards her worshippers with everlasting, amazing-sexual pleasure and joy.

* AllergicToRoutine: A dramatic example. She can't stand living a life where she does the same exact thing ever last day, even if she has everything else she wants. This first causes her to [[DrivenToSuicide attempt suicide]] because she was stuck in a crappy and repetitive job and later to attempt to rob her employer with Shadow's help because she was bored with her life despite being happy with her marriage.

* Ambiguous Situation: While he's the embodiment of Government Conspiracies, its not clear if he causes them or is simply more of a representation of the concept.
* BeenThere,ShapedHistory: On Mr. World's orders, he orchestrated the Moon Landing, the Roswell Crash, and other such events.
* BigBrother'sWatching: Can use a surveillance satellite that only the President of the United States has access to.

* Been There, Shaped History: On Mr. World's orders, he orchestrated the Moon Landing, the Roswell Crash, and others.
* Big Brother's Watching: Can use a surveillance satellite that only the President of the United States has access to.
* Government Conspiracy: He's literally the god of this Trope. His facility has access to a above-top-secret spy satellite and can order a hit man.
* No Name Given: He's never referred to as "Black Briar" as it’s the name which makes sense as part of conspiracies is not knowing the identities of those involved.
* Reasonable Authority Figure: Yes he has access to a beyond top-secret spy satellite but only the President is allowed to use it. He has to be forced by Mr. World to comply and use to locate the Old Gods.
* Younger Than They Look: Despite all the other New Gods looking young and fresh like the ideas they represent, Black Briar is even older looking than some of the Old Gods.

!Other Deities and Mythical Figures

[[folder:Nunyunnini]]
!!Nunyunnini
The ancient, and now forgotten, god of a tribe who migrated through the Bering land bridge into America during the last glacial period.

* AnimalMotif: He's represented by a mammoth skull. His worshippers, obviously, depended on mammoth to survive and when they migrated to America found little.
* HeroicSacrifice: Nunyunnini tells his last priestess to sacrifice herself to the buffalo god so her tribe may survive, knowing this will mean he'll be forgotten and thus perish.
* {{Unperson}}: Nunyunnini dies after his last priestess, sacrifices herself to a buffalo so the children of her tribe may be fed and adopted by the worshippers of the local tribe.

[[folder:Virgin Mary]]
!!Virgin Mary
->'''Portrayed By:'''
Jesus's mother. She appears taking care of Baby Jesus at Easter's party.

* TheCameo: She only appears once in Easter's party.
* HeavenlyBlue: She wears a blue robe, the staple of Virgin Mary's representations.

After Media's mysterious disappearance following Season One, New Media emerges to take her place -- the New Goddess of global content and in this age, a cyberspace chameleon, who is also a master of manipulation.

New God of information, global trade and interaction, and leader of the New Gods. He knows everything about every person, and tends to leave destruction in his wake.

After Media's mysterious disappearance following Season One, New Media emerges to take her place -- a New Goddess who is goddess of global content and in this age, a cyberspace chameleon, who is also a master of manipulation.

* {{Foil}}: To Media. Media always manifested herself as different icons of pop culture. New Media has her own identity and by contrast to Media is more in-tuned with the cyber-age in terms of sheer content and how it be manipulated.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: Seemingly the reason why Media vanished and New Media took her place. New Media is essentially the personification of the dark side of social network sites brought to life.

->'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/GillianAnderson, Kahyun Kim (season two, as "New Media")

* NiceGuy: Jesus exists as a martyr, so it's fitting he's the nicest of the gods so far.

* AffablyEvil: He might be an unscrupulous con artist, but damn if he isn't instantly likable. Due in no small part to being played by walking Charisma Bomb Ian [=McShane=], Wednesday charms just about everyone with his wit, his insight, his apparent honesty and his outstandingly genial manner.

* BigGood: SubvertedTrope. He may be the leader of the [[GoodOldWays Old Gods]] in their brewing war against the New Gods, but he's still a ConMan and, by his own admission, a horrible person, so that even his fellow Old Gods are weary of him. [[spoiler: He did after all send Shadow to prison and have Laura killed, all so Shadow would come work for him.]]

* MismatchedEyes: His left eye is brown, the right is golden. They both move normally, and considering who and what he is, it is hard to say which one is glass.

* MythologyGag: Vulcan holds a number of characteristics with Hinzelmann, a kolbold from the book that Shadow encounters. The two were 'old world gods' who found a niche for themselves by setting up in a rural small-town and set their own sacrifices. However while Hinzelmann was a serial killer and content with a single sacrifice each year, Vulcan goes for maximum casualties ensuring that workers die on the job along with the hundreds killed by his guns. [[spoiler:Also Hinzelmann never joined the New Gods or (directly) betray Wednesday.]]