History Characters / AmericanGods2017TheNewGods

->''"Mass delusions are as old as I am. I was there when the [[Radio/WarOfTheWorlds Martians invaded in 1938]]. What a panic. Powerful panic. Now there are starmen waiting in the sky. They believed it was true, and it was."''

* ModernizedGod: Whereas the Old Gods represent universal abstracts that have always pervaded society (War, Death, the Seasons, the Stars, etc.), the New Gods all represent things that could not have existed before the 20th Century like globalization, telephones, television, gun-culture, etc. When Old Gods of ancient universal abstracts are "updated" into their pantheon, their domains are placed into these modern concepts, such as the Spring Goddess Ostara being made the matron god of modern Easter traditions, the Roman forge-god Vulcan is made the god of gun culture, and the omnituens Argus becomes a god of SinisterSurveillance.

* PostModernMagik: Being [[TheModernGods gods born in an industrialized full of smartphones and the internal combustion engine]], all of the New Gods follow the same general rules and principles as the Old Gods, but through technology and modern values of secular America. They routinely meet each other and other people in a VR limousine, Technical Boy smokes a synthetic drug, Media and New Media take time wasted on screens (television for the former, social media for the other) as offerings to them, Mr. World can do things that only the highest ranking members of the government can do (like having access to satellites and A.R.G.U.S.), etc. In the case of Old Gods who join them, see ModernizedGod.
* 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 BotanicalAbomination, 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.]]

* PostModernMagik: Being gods born in an industrialized full of smartphones and the internal combustion engine, all of the New Gods follow the same general rules and principles as the Old Gods, but through technology and modern values of secular America. They routinely meet each other and other people in a VR limousine, Technical Boy smokes a synthetic drug, Media and New Media take time wasted on screens (television for the former, social media for the other) as offerings to them, Mr. World can do things that only the highest ranking members of the government can do (like having access to satellites and A.R.G.U.S.), etc. In the case of Old Gods who join them, see ModernizedGod.

* TechBro: The Technical Boy (new god of computers, smartphones and the internet) is depicted as a fashionable, technologically-attuned millennial. In the original book, he was much more a classic-style overweight geek, but the television show deliberately updated him to reflect the emergence of rich, powerful tech bosses.

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

** Behind-the-scenes material released by Colin Penman (then deleted, then re-posted several years later by Bruce Langley [[ https://www.instagram.com/p/C0hSMWktFOv/ here]]) revealed that there was a sequence shot for season 2 depicting a previous incarnation of Technical Boy that was supposed to be closer to the character of the book, thus playing with this trope. However the scene was never actually added into the final episodes.

** Behind-the-scenes material released by Colin Penman (then deleted, then re-posted several years later by Bruce Langley [ https://www.instagram.com/p/C0hSMWktFOv/ here]) revealed that there was a sequence shot for season 2 depicting a previous incarnation of Technical Boy that was supposed to be closer to the character of the book, thus playing with this trope. However the scene was never actually added into the final episodes.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Partly because she always appears in the guise of a famous movie or [=TV=]character and rarely drops the act. She implies that they'd help nuke Korea to empower Wednesday in the breathy voice of Marylin Monroe, and later threatens to destroy Easter completely and then calls her a friend mere minutes apart.

--> '''The World:''' The President is a cardboard cutout. I am the man, behind the man, behind the man. Operation Paperclip, the Moon Landing, Roswell, the Compton Crack Wars; ''you'' work for ''me''. ''You'' have always worked for ''me''.

* UnfortunateImplications: InUniverse, Media advises the Technical Boy to consider how it might reflect on his image that his temper led him to hang Shadow, a black man, from a tree.