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* ShoutOut: In one of Shadow's dreams, a brief mention is given to an "[[HPLovecraft octopus-faced]]" god.
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* ShoutOut: In one of Shadow's dreams, a brief mention is given to an "[[HPLovecraft "[[Creator/HPLovecraft octopus-faced]]" god.
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----
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----
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* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Sam, to Audrey: "You. Are such. A cunt."
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* ThisIsSparta: Sam, to Audrey: "You. Are such. A cunt."
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* WhamLine: Two of them:
** [[spoiler: "Jesus, [[ChekhovsGunman Low-Key Lyesmith]]...Oh, Jesus. Loki. [[LouisCypher Loki Lie-Smith.]]"]]
** [[spoiler: "It's a [[CallBack two-man]] [[MassiveMultiplayerScam con.]]"]]
** [[spoiler: "Jesus, [[ChekhovsGunman Low-Key Lyesmith]]...Oh, Jesus. Loki. [[LouisCypher Loki Lie-Smith.]]"]]
** [[spoiler: "It's a [[CallBack two-man]] [[MassiveMultiplayerScam con.]]"]]
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* KansasCityShuffle: [[spoiler: Wednesday and Loki's entire plan relies on misdirection and none of the Gods realizing they are being played.]]
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* MassiveMultiplayerScam: [[spoiler: Wednesday and Loki's entire plan relies on misdirection and none of the Gods realizing they are being played.]]
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** In one of Shadow's dreams, the people who had been hung in sacrifice to Odin smelled of the alcohol they had drunk beforehand. [[spoiler: Mr. Wednesday's corpse smelled of Jack Daniels, hinting that he was basically a sacrifice to himself.]]
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** In one of Shadow's dreams, the people who had been hung in sacrifice to Odin smelled of the alcohol they had drunk beforehand. [[spoiler: Mr. Wednesday's corpse smelled of Jack Daniels, hinting that he was basically a sacrifice to himself.himself - which is actually accurate to NorseMythology.]]
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* MinnesotaNice: The community of Lakeside deconstructs this, taking inspiration from famous portrayals of MinnesotaNice such as ''{{Fargo}}'' (extremely friendly police) and ''APrairieHomeCompanion'' (everyone being above average), before revealing itself [[spoiler: to be a TownWithADarkSecret. Hinzelmann is a small god who sacrifices young children in order to maintain the town's prosperity.]]
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* MinnesotaNice: The community of Lakeside deconstructs this, taking inspiration from famous portrayals of MinnesotaNice such as ''{{Fargo}}'' (extremely friendly police) and ''APrairieHomeCompanion'' (everyone being above average), before revealing itself [[spoiler: to be a TownWithADarkSecret. Hinzelmann is a small god who sacrifices young children in order to maintain the town's prosperity.]]
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* MinnesotaNice: The community of Lakeside deconstructs this, taking inspiration from famous portrayals of MinnesotaNice such as ''{{Fargo}}'' (extremely friendly police) and ''APrairieHomeCompanion'' (everyone being above average), before revealing itself [[spoiler: to be a TownWithADarkSecret. Hinzelmann is a small god who sacrifices young girls in order to maintain the town's prosperity.]]
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* MinnesotaNice: The community of Lakeside deconstructs this, taking inspiration from famous portrayals of MinnesotaNice such as ''{{Fargo}}'' (extremely friendly police) and ''APrairieHomeCompanion'' (everyone being above average), before revealing itself [[spoiler: to be a TownWithADarkSecret. Hinzelmann is a small god who sacrifices young girls children in order to maintain the town's prosperity.]]
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** All of which is a bit odd, as he's [[spoiler: the incarnation of Baldr]], who is White as white gets.
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* BattleInterruptingShout: Although he doesn't shout, [[spoiler: this is how Shadow defuses the impending war between the gods]].
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** All of which is a bit odd, as he's [[spoiler: the incarnation of Baldr]], who is White as white gets.
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* ChekhovsLecture: [[spoiler: "It's a two-man con."]]
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* MinnesotaNice: The community of Lakeside deconstructs this, taking inspiration from famous portrayals of MinnesotaNice such as ''{{Fargo}}'' (extremely friendly police) and ''APrairieHomeCompanion'' (everyone being above average), before revealing itself [[spoiler: to be a TownWithADarkSecret. Hinzelmann is a small god who sacrifices young girls in order to maintain the town's prosperity.]]
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* {{MIB}}: The Spookshow, minions of the leader of the New Gods, Mr. World. They exist, like all the gods, [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve because so many people assume that there must be a secret spy organization out there.]]
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* {{MIB}}: TheMenInBlack: The Spookshow, minions of the leader of the New Gods, Mr. World. They exist, like all the gods, [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve because so many people assume that there must be a secret spy organization out there.]]
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* LoadOfBull: As well as several briefly-mentioned minotaurs, we have "the buffalo man," who seems to be an AnthropomorphicPersonification of America itself.
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* LoadOfBull: ALoadOfBull: As well as several briefly-mentioned minotaurs, we have "the buffalo man," who seems to be an AnthropomorphicPersonification of America itself.
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* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Lots of 'em. For example, all the new gods, and the buffalo man (who seems to be the Anthropomorphic Personification of America itself).
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* LoadOfBull: As well as several briefly-mentioned minotaurs, we have "the buffalo man," who seems to be an AnthropomorphicPersonification of America itself.
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* TheVerse: Shared with ''Literature/{{Stardust}}'', although you would only know it by reading ''Wall: A Prologue'', and with "Literature/AnansiBoys" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same.
** Also with ''TheSandman'', since Delirium makes a brief appearance in San Francisco.
** Also with ''TheSandman'', since Delirium makes a brief appearance in San Francisco.
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* TheVerse: Shared with ''Literature/{{Stardust}}'', although you would only know it by reading ''Wall: A Prologue'', and with "Literature/AnansiBoys" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same.
** Alsosame. There is also a minor crossover with ''TheSandman'', since Delirium makes a brief appearance in San Francisco.
** Also
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** Also with ''TheSandman'', since Delirium makes a brief appearance in San Francisco.
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* LetsYouAndHimFight: TropeNamer, albeit without an example of the trope within the story.
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* LetsYouAndHimFight: TropeNamer, albeit without an example of although the trope within paragraph from which the story.name comes is merely {{foreshadowing}} for the real thing later on; [[spoiler:Wednesday and Loki pitting the new American gods against the immigrant gods so they themselves can gain power.]]
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* TheVerse: Shared with ''{{Stardust}}'', although you would only know it by reading ''Wall: A Prologue'', and with "Literature/AnansiBoys" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same.
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* TheVerse: Shared with ''{{Stardust}}'', ''Literature/{{Stardust}}'', although you would only know it by reading ''Wall: A Prologue'', and with "Literature/AnansiBoys" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same.
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* [=~Let's You And Him Fight~=]: TropeNamer, albeit without an example of the trope within the story.
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* [=~Let's You And Him Fight~=]: LetsYouAndHimFight: TropeNamer, albeit without an example of the trope within the story.
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* TheOldCon: Low Key.
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* TheOldCon: TheOldConvict: Low Key.
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* AmbiguouslyBrown: Shadow is asked on several occasions what his ethnicity is, with other characters guessing him to be Hispanic, Native American, or part African American. Shadow himself has very little knowledge of his heritage, but his mother died of sickle-cell anemia and is described as dark, so she is almost certainly African-American; his father is [[spoiler:a Norse god]]. His skin colour is described as [[StarbucksSkinScale 'coffee]] [[ButNotTooBlack and cream.']] Neil Gaiman [[ComicBookFantasyCasting sees him as]] [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]].
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* AmbiguouslyBrown: Shadow is asked on several occasions what his ethnicity is, with other characters guessing him to be Hispanic, Native American, or part African American. Shadow himself has very little knowledge of his heritage, but his mother died of sickle-cell anemia and is described as dark, so she is almost certainly African-American; his father is [[spoiler:a Norse god]]. His skin colour is described as [[StarbucksSkinScale 'coffee]] [[ButNotTooBlack 'coffee and cream.']] Neil Gaiman [[ComicBookFantasyCasting sees him as]] [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]].
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For what? Accusing a man that she believes is a dangerous criminal, whose wife was having an affair with her husband?
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* KarmaHoudini: Audrey
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* EvolutionaryLevels: Mr. Town is convinced that the people he works for and against aren't gods but merely mutant freaks.
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* TheVerse: Shared with ''{{Stardust}}'', although you would only know it by reading ''Wall: A Prologue''.
** And, presumably, shared with "Literature/AnansiBoys" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same.
** And, presumably, shared with "Literature/AnansiBoys" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same.
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* TheVerse: Shared with ''{{Stardust}}'', although you would only know it by reading ''Wall: A Prologue''.
** And, presumably, sharedPrologue'', and with "Literature/AnansiBoys" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same.
** And, presumably, shared
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* WannabeDiss: Wednesday speaks with particular disgust of a waitress who serves him and Shadow; he quizzes her about her religion, and she claims to be pagan, but when further quizzed about the particular flavor of paganism, she spits out some pseudo-mystical bullshit and acts offended when Wednesday brings up some of the more hedonistic aspects. Wednesday says she "doesn't have the faith and won't have the fun," with the implication that he could at least respect her if she enjoyed herself. He goes on to name her sins, which, from the petty to the actively criminal, show a similar propensity for half-measures and lack of commitment, with further implication that for this she is worse than the actively evil.
** The line about "does not have the faith and will not have the fun" is taken from a poem by G. K. Chesterton, about how dreary modern unbelievers are compared to ancient pagans. We can assume Wednesday had read the poem. Gaiman is a known Chesterton fan.
** The line about "does not have the faith and will not have the fun" is taken from a poem by G. K. Chesterton, about how dreary modern unbelievers are compared to ancient pagans. We can assume Wednesday had read the poem. Gaiman is a known Chesterton fan.
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* WannabeDiss: Wednesday speaks with particular disgust of a waitress who serves him and Shadow; he quizzes her about her religion, and she claims to be pagan, but when further quizzed about the particular flavor of paganism, she spits out some pseudo-mystical bullshit and acts offended when Wednesday brings up some of the more hedonistic aspects. Wednesday says she "doesn't have the faith and won't have the fun," with the implication that he could at least respect her if she enjoyed herself. He goes on to name her sins, which, from the petty to the actively criminal, show a similar propensity for half-measures and lack of commitment, with further implication that for this she is worse than the actively evil.
**evil. The line about "does not have the faith and will not have the fun" is taken from a poem by G. K. Chesterton, about how dreary modern unbelievers are compared to ancient pagans. We can assume Wednesday had read the poem. Gaiman is a known Chesterton fan.
**
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** And, presumably, shared with "{{AnansiBoys}}" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same.
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** And, presumably, shared with "{{AnansiBoys}}" "Literature/AnansiBoys" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same.
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** And, presumably, shared with "{{AnansiBoys}}" since Mr. Nancy not only appears in both, but even dresses the same.
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** The line about "does not have the faith and will not have the fun" is taken from a poem by G. K. Chesterton, about how dreary modern unbelievers are compared to ancient pagans. We can assume Wednesday had read the poem. Gaiman is a known Chesterton fan.
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* TheCameo: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance by [[MythologyGag Delirium]] from TheSandman.[[spoiler: The girl with the talking dog.]]
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* TheCameo: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance by [[MythologyGag Delirium]] from TheSandman.ComicBook/TheSandman.[[spoiler: The girl with the talking dog.]]
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[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px-American_gods_587.jpg]]
After a three-year prison term following an assault conviction, a man known only as Shadow is ready to be released back into society. He is not a bad man and wants little more than to go back to his beloved wife Laura, get a job at his friend's gym and live a quiet, simple life. Unfortunately, things are not that simple: Shortly before being released, Shadow discovers that Laura was killed in a car accident and gets out early. At loose ends in the world, Shadow finds himself sharing a flight with a seedy old con man who asks to be called Mr. Wednesday. Wednesday is strangely interested in Shadow, and offers to hire him on as a bodyguard and accomplice; Shadow, with nothing left of his old life and nothing better to do, agrees.
Shadow runs errands for Wednesday and travels into the very heart of America, visiting its small towns and meeting its people and its old, forgotten gods, struggling to stay relevant in the modern era. But unbeknownst to him, he has a much larger role in the oncoming conflict than he thinks...
A novel by NeilGaiman, interesting for its examination of the intersection between myth and Americana. It is interspersed at various points with stories of immigrants who brought their gods and their beliefs to America with them, and the gods themselves have integrated just as well as their former worshipers. The novel elevates the ordinary and the everyday to mythic status, finding significance in the smallest of things. This quality is exemplified by its protagonist, Shadow, who is both the eternal everyman and something more, something special.
The novel directly inspired White Wolf's tabletop roleplaying game ''{{Scion}}''.
[[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tom-hanks-playtone-productions-announces-197012 HBO has struck a deal]] to adapt the book into a TV miniseries, with a tentative debut of 2013. [[AndTheFandomRejoiced Gaiman is writing for it.]]
----
!!Tropes featured include:
* ArcWords:"Storm's on the way" and "I know it's crooked, but it's the only game in town."
* AllMythsAreTrue: No, seriously, ''all'' of them (except PaulBunyan).
* AloneWithThePsycho
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Shadow is asked on several occasions what his ethnicity is, with other characters guessing him to be Hispanic, Native American, or part African American. Shadow himself has very little knowledge of his heritage, but his mother died of sickle-cell anemia and is described as dark, so she is almost certainly African-American; his father is [[spoiler:a Norse god]]. His skin colour is described as [[StarbucksSkinScale 'coffee]] [[ButNotTooBlack and cream.']] Neil Gaiman [[ComicBookFantasyCasting sees him as]] [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]].
* AmericanTitle
* BatmanGambit
* BavarianFireDrill: Mr. Wednesday robs a bank (or, rather the people who are trying to make deposits at the bank). His con was based on a real-life con that [[CatchMeIfYouCan Frank Abagnale Jr.]] claimed to have once pulled off. [[LifeImitatesArt Some people attempted to pull off the same trick after reading the book]].
* BewareTheNiceOnes:
** Shadow is normally gentle and friendly, but he is a [[RunningGag very big man]]. It is not a good idea to piss him off. The aftermath of his rage is one of the reasons he was sent to prison.
** To a much more sinister extent, [[spoiler:Hinzelmann]].
* BigBad: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday, with Mr. World/Loki as his [[TheDragon Dragon]].]]
* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler: Low-Key Lyesmith is Mr World/Loki.]]
* BiTheWay: Sam.
* {{Black Helicopter}}s: The Valkyries.
* BrokenBird: Marguerite Olsen.
* CameBackWrong: Laura's a zombie. She could speak normally and still had her human memories and intelligence, and she never tried eating anyone, but she was a zombie nevertheless. She had already been embalmed when she was raised, so she rotted slowly over many months.
* TheCameo: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance by [[MythologyGag Delirium]] from TheSandman.[[spoiler: The girl with the talking dog.]]
* {{Casanova}}: Mr. Wednesday, in addition to conning men, loves the art of seducing females (especially virgins) via something as simple as ''asking for Christmas gifts.'' He uses spells to seal the deal once his natural charms have the subject warmed up to him.
* CatchPhrase: "Is good" from Czernobog and the three Zorya.
* CatGirl: Bast. Does not have cat ears, sure, but a rough tongue and feline eyes.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The apparently throwaway line about a few hitchhikers and kids going missing and never coming back in regards to the small town Shadow stays in.]]
* ChekhovsGunman:
** [[spoiler:Low-Key Lyesmith, who is both the God Loki and Mr. World.]]
** Easter, goddess of fertility and rebirth. [[spoiler: She resurrects Shadow after he dies on the World Tree.]]
* ChekhovsLecture: [[spoiler: "It's a two-man con."]]
* ChessWithDeath: Checkers, actually.
* CoolOldGuy: Hinzelmann.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: It is the fact that people believed in the gods that gave them purchase in America, and now that the belief is lessening they are fading away.
* ClusterFBomb: Czernobog.
--> "Fuck you. Fuck you and fuck your mother and fuck the fucking horse you fucking rode in on. [[{{Foreshadowing}} You will not even die in battle. No warrior will taste your blood. No one alive will take your life. You will die a soft, poor death. You will die with a kiss in your lips and a lie in your heart]]."
* CrossoverCosmology: Most Gods and Goddesses are there, with figures hailing from most continents and the majority of known religions. Jesus is mentioned, but is not a character encountered in the story. In the Author's Preferred Text, a man appears in a scene cut from wide release (prior to the 10th Anniversary Edition) that has Shadow talking with a man in a villa mentioned to have something like Moorish or Moroccan influences; he makes wears a baseball cap, a suit, jokes about turning water into wine, and is indubitably American Jesus.
* DayOfTheWeekName: Mr. Wednesday. The day name is derived from "Wotan's Day," which was another name for "Odin" in early Germanic Paganism. He goes so far as to point out during his introduction that "seeing as today certainly is ''my day''..."
* DealWithTheDevil: One of them, anyway. [[spoiler: The truth about the town of Lakeside.]]
* DeathOfTheOldGods: [[spoiler: All of the ancient deities who were forgotten completely by mankind.]]
* DeusSexMachina: Shadow's wet dream with Bast is another turning point for the protagonist.
* DivineParentage: [[spoiler:Shadow]].
* EncyclopediaExposita: From the book being written by Mr. Ibis.
* EurekaMoment:
** The greater your knowledge of NorseMythology prior to reading the book, the sooner you'll get it.
-->'''Shadow:''' Jesus, [[spoiler:Low-Key Lyesmith... Oh, Jesus. Loki. Loki Lie-Smith.]]
** [[spoiler:The Lakeside killings.]]
* EvolutionaryLevels: Mr. Town is convinced that the people he works for and against aren't gods but merely mutant freaks.
* FantasyKitchenSink
* FiveBadBand: Oddly enough, this dynamic is only revealed towards the end of the novel.
** TheBigBad: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday]]
** TheDragon: Mr. World [[spoiler:aka Loki Liesmith]]
** TheBrute: Mr. Town
** [[EvilGenius The Evil Genius]]: The Technical Boy
** TheDarkChick: Media
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The Christmas conversation. [[spoiler:(It's a two man con)]].
** In one of Shadow's dreams, the people who had been hung in sacrifice to Odin smelled of the alcohol they had drunk beforehand. [[spoiler: Mr. Wednesday's corpse smelled of Jack Daniels, hinting that he was basically a sacrifice to himself.]]
* GodWasMyCopilot
* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: The reason why the old Gods are dying, and the new Gods have arisen. Wednesday is very disdainful of Neo-Pagans in general considering them pretenders, strongly implying their worship is inadequate. It hit Easter hard when Wednesday showed her a self-proclaimed Pagan that did not even know Easter was originally a Pagan holiday, labeling it as "Christian" instead. In their world, Pagans without traditional rituals and well-defined gods and goddesses might as well be Atheist or Agnostic.
* GovernmentConspiracy: Subverted. The Spookshow is not part of the US Government.
* TheHeartless: Many of the gods
* HellHotel: The hotel at the center of the United States. Literally, for the Technical Boy, as it sits in a deadzone. In the night, Shadow hears him throwing himself against the walls as the unaccustomed isolation causes him to have a breakdown.
* HumanSacrifice
* IAmWho
* IDontPayYouToThink - Mr. Wednesday's answer to Shadow's questions about what's going on.
* IgnoranceIsBliss: A major plot point.
* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Possibly attempted; see DistractedByTheSexy
* IHaveManyNames: Mr. Wednesday explicitly says this; given the subject matter, it also applies to most of the major characters.
* IronicEcho:
** "This must look so undignified."
** "Rigged games are the easiest ones to beat."
* JekyllAndHyde: Czernobog and Bielebog
* {{Jerkass Gods}}: Considering the god's resemblances to humans in this book, [[HumansAreBastards it can be expected.]]
* KansasCityShuffle: [[spoiler: Wednesday and Loki's entire plan relies on misdirection and none of the Gods realizing they are being played.]]
* {{Leprechaun}}: Mad Sweeney.
* [=~Let's You And Him Fight~=]: TropeNamer, albeit without an example of the trope within the story.
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: Maybe not as awesome when your followers are dwindling, but the gods we see are all determined to survive even though their lives have gotten far less glamorous over the centuries or millennia. Except for Thor, who is mentioned to have committed suicide.
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Shadow discovers he is Wednesday's son.]]
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Mr. World (aka Loki) to the New Gods, and Mr. Wednesday to Loki himself.]]
* MeaningfulName:
** Shadow, as his role is to ''shadow'' Mr. Wednesday. Laura also states that he never really seemed alive or present.
** Mr. Wednesday has named himself after the day that is named after him.
** Mr. Jacquel and Mr. Ibis? [[spoiler: Anubis and Thoth.]]
* {{MIB}}: The Spookshow, minions of the leader of the New Gods, Mr. World. They exist, like all the gods, [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve because so many people assume that there must be a secret spy organization out there.]]
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday]]
* MythologyGag: At the World's Largest Carousel, Mr Nancy displays amusement at the prospect of riding a lion statue. This is a reference to Anansi's tendency to antagonize the god Tiger (the embodiment of all big cats) in traditional stories.
* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles
* NerdInEvilsHelmet: The "technology kid" acts tough, but other characters see it as rehearsed and kind of pitiful. The book narration describes him as somebody trying too hard and performing actions that ''should'' be threatening, but fall short because of his execution.
* NeverHeardThatOneBefore:
--> '''Shadow:''' Hey, Huginn or Munin, or whoever you are. Say 'Nevermore'.
--> '''Raven:''' Fuck you.
* NewWeird
* NoNameGiven: Shadow, known only by his nickname, at least until the quasi-sequel "The Monarch of the Glen", where we learn his birth name is [[spoiler:Balder]].
* TheNondescript: The god whose name and appearance Shadow cannot remember.
* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Media tries to sway Shadow, as [[ILoveLucy Lucy]], with the offer of nudity. [[FanDisservice It doesn't work]], to the point that it colors the rest of his encounters with her, and he goes so far as to avoid watching television wenever possible.
* TheNothingAfterDeath: Chosen by [[spoiler:Shadow]].
* TheOldCon: Low Key.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Shadow.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent
* PlaceOfPower: In the Old World people built temples on top of them, in America they built roadside attractions. Prominently featured examples include The House on the Rocks and Rock City.
* PlayingBothSides: [[spoiler: Wednesday and Loki are manipulating both the old and new Gods so they can draw power from the inevitable battle.]]
* PhysicalGod: All of them, at least part time (who knows what was up with Media).
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:The real reason why Lakeside is prospering compared to the economically depressed surrounding towns is because Hinzelmann is an old god who keeps the town thriving through murdered children without the townspeople's knowledge.]]
* QuickChange: Pulled by Mr. Wednesday
* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Spookshow
* ResurrectedRomance
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:''"It's a two man con. It's not a war at all."'']]
* ScienceIsBad: Played with. The New Gods represent different facets of America's modern, technologically advanced culture, but for a while we are led to sympathize more for the primitive -- and seemingly more benevolent -- Old Gods. Over the course of the story, however, we come to learn that a not insignificant number of the Old Gods were violent, bloodthirsty monsters in their time, and some of the New Gods are not as eager for conquest as they first appear.
* SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands: Media can inhabit the body of any TV character and use them as an avatar to spy on or communicate with anyone watching a TV.
* SurvivalMantra: "It's easy, there's a trick to it, you do it or you die."
* ShoutOut: In one of Shadow's dreams, a brief mention is given to an "[[HPLovecraft octopus-faced]]" god.
* StandingBetweenTheEnemies: [[spoiler: Shadow manages to stop the battle between the Old and New Gods by telling them both how they were [[PlayingBothSides manipulated into fighting by Mr. Wednesday and Loki]] so that they could gain power from the deaths of the other gods.]]
* AStormIsComing: Repeated by Mister Wednesday and Mad Sweeney.
* SueDonym: [[spoiler: Low-Key Lyesmith = Loki Lie-Smith]]
* TakeThatKiss: [[spoiler: Sam]] to [[spoiler: Shadow]], as a TakeThat against [[spoiler: everybody else in the bar at that point, but [[CountryMatters especially Audrey]].]]
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: Wednesday arranges his own assassination in order to convince a lot of reluctant Old Gods to join the war.]]
* ThisIsAWorkOfFiction: "The gods, however, are real."
* ThisIsSparta: Sam, to Audrey: "You. Are such. A cunt."
* TimmyInAWell: {{Lampshaded}} with a raven
* TownWithADarkSecret: [[spoiler:Lakeside--the only reason why it has continued to prosper in tough economic times was because Shadow's neighbor turns out to be a kobold that has sacrificed a child every year since the town was founded in a ritual to ensure the town stayed healthy and prosperous. Only the kobold actually ''knew'' the secret--all of the other townspeople seemed to have had no idea, many assuming the missing children were simply runaways or, in at least one case, kidnapped by their noncustodial parent from out of town.]]
* TreacherousAdvisor: [[spoiler:Wednesday]].
* TricksterMentor: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday and Low-Key.]]
* TrojanPrisoner
* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: [[spoiler:Low Key/Loki and Mr. World]]
* UndeathAlwaysEnds
* UnfazedEveryman (or [[UnluckyEverydude Unlucky Everydude]]): Shadow
-->Wednesday looked at him with amusement and something else--irritation perhaps. Or pride. "Why don't you argue?" asked Wednesday. "Why don't you exclaim that it's all impossible? Why the hell do you just do what I say and take it all so fucking calmly?"
* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Virtually all the old and new Gods, and Shadow himself, are pawns in Wednesday and Loki's KansasCityShuffle.]]
* UrbanFantasy
* TheVerse: Shared with ''{{Stardust}}'', although you would only know it by reading ''Wall: A Prologue''.
* ViolinScam: Commented upon by Wednesday.
* WannabeDiss: Wednesday speaks with particular disgust of a waitress who serves him and Shadow; he quizzes her about her religion, and she claims to be pagan, but when further quizzed about the particular flavor of paganism, she spits out some pseudo-mystical bullshit and acts offended when Wednesday brings up some of the more hedonistic aspects. Wednesday says she "doesn't have the faith and won't have the fun," with the implication that he could at least respect her if she enjoyed herself. He goes on to name her sins, which, from the petty to the actively criminal, show a similar propensity for half-measures and lack of commitment, with further implication that for this she is worse than the actively evil.
* TheWorldTree: The Norse version, more or less
* AWorldwidePunomenon:
** "I was just rotting away where I was." --[[TheUndead Laura]]
** "Look in the trunk."
** Wednesday gets the girls because of his ''charm''. One of the eighteen charms he learned while hanging from the World Tree.
* YourCheatingHeart: Laura was cheating on Shadow with his best friend.
* YouAllMeetInACell: Well, somewhat. [[spoiler:Loki and Shadow meet in prison.]]
----
After a three-year prison term following an assault conviction, a man known only as Shadow is ready to be released back into society. He is not a bad man and wants little more than to go back to his beloved wife Laura, get a job at his friend's gym and live a quiet, simple life. Unfortunately, things are not that simple: Shortly before being released, Shadow discovers that Laura was killed in a car accident and gets out early. At loose ends in the world, Shadow finds himself sharing a flight with a seedy old con man who asks to be called Mr. Wednesday. Wednesday is strangely interested in Shadow, and offers to hire him on as a bodyguard and accomplice; Shadow, with nothing left of his old life and nothing better to do, agrees.
Shadow runs errands for Wednesday and travels into the very heart of America, visiting its small towns and meeting its people and its old, forgotten gods, struggling to stay relevant in the modern era. But unbeknownst to him, he has a much larger role in the oncoming conflict than he thinks...
A novel by NeilGaiman, interesting for its examination of the intersection between myth and Americana. It is interspersed at various points with stories of immigrants who brought their gods and their beliefs to America with them, and the gods themselves have integrated just as well as their former worshipers. The novel elevates the ordinary and the everyday to mythic status, finding significance in the smallest of things. This quality is exemplified by its protagonist, Shadow, who is both the eternal everyman and something more, something special.
The novel directly inspired White Wolf's tabletop roleplaying game ''{{Scion}}''.
[[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tom-hanks-playtone-productions-announces-197012 HBO has struck a deal]] to adapt the book into a TV miniseries, with a tentative debut of 2013. [[AndTheFandomRejoiced Gaiman is writing for it.]]
----
!!Tropes featured include:
* ArcWords:"Storm's on the way" and "I know it's crooked, but it's the only game in town."
* AllMythsAreTrue: No, seriously, ''all'' of them (except PaulBunyan).
* AloneWithThePsycho
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Shadow is asked on several occasions what his ethnicity is, with other characters guessing him to be Hispanic, Native American, or part African American. Shadow himself has very little knowledge of his heritage, but his mother died of sickle-cell anemia and is described as dark, so she is almost certainly African-American; his father is [[spoiler:a Norse god]]. His skin colour is described as [[StarbucksSkinScale 'coffee]] [[ButNotTooBlack and cream.']] Neil Gaiman [[ComicBookFantasyCasting sees him as]] [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]].
* AmericanTitle
* BatmanGambit
* BavarianFireDrill: Mr. Wednesday robs a bank (or, rather the people who are trying to make deposits at the bank). His con was based on a real-life con that [[CatchMeIfYouCan Frank Abagnale Jr.]] claimed to have once pulled off. [[LifeImitatesArt Some people attempted to pull off the same trick after reading the book]].
* BewareTheNiceOnes:
** Shadow is normally gentle and friendly, but he is a [[RunningGag very big man]]. It is not a good idea to piss him off. The aftermath of his rage is one of the reasons he was sent to prison.
** To a much more sinister extent, [[spoiler:Hinzelmann]].
* BigBad: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday, with Mr. World/Loki as his [[TheDragon Dragon]].]]
* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler: Low-Key Lyesmith is Mr World/Loki.]]
* BiTheWay: Sam.
* {{Black Helicopter}}s: The Valkyries.
* BrokenBird: Marguerite Olsen.
* CameBackWrong: Laura's a zombie. She could speak normally and still had her human memories and intelligence, and she never tried eating anyone, but she was a zombie nevertheless. She had already been embalmed when she was raised, so she rotted slowly over many months.
* TheCameo: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance by [[MythologyGag Delirium]] from TheSandman.[[spoiler: The girl with the talking dog.]]
* {{Casanova}}: Mr. Wednesday, in addition to conning men, loves the art of seducing females (especially virgins) via something as simple as ''asking for Christmas gifts.'' He uses spells to seal the deal once his natural charms have the subject warmed up to him.
* CatchPhrase: "Is good" from Czernobog and the three Zorya.
* CatGirl: Bast. Does not have cat ears, sure, but a rough tongue and feline eyes.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The apparently throwaway line about a few hitchhikers and kids going missing and never coming back in regards to the small town Shadow stays in.]]
* ChekhovsGunman:
** [[spoiler:Low-Key Lyesmith, who is both the God Loki and Mr. World.]]
** Easter, goddess of fertility and rebirth. [[spoiler: She resurrects Shadow after he dies on the World Tree.]]
* ChekhovsLecture: [[spoiler: "It's a two-man con."]]
* ChessWithDeath: Checkers, actually.
* CoolOldGuy: Hinzelmann.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: It is the fact that people believed in the gods that gave them purchase in America, and now that the belief is lessening they are fading away.
* ClusterFBomb: Czernobog.
--> "Fuck you. Fuck you and fuck your mother and fuck the fucking horse you fucking rode in on. [[{{Foreshadowing}} You will not even die in battle. No warrior will taste your blood. No one alive will take your life. You will die a soft, poor death. You will die with a kiss in your lips and a lie in your heart]]."
* CrossoverCosmology: Most Gods and Goddesses are there, with figures hailing from most continents and the majority of known religions. Jesus is mentioned, but is not a character encountered in the story. In the Author's Preferred Text, a man appears in a scene cut from wide release (prior to the 10th Anniversary Edition) that has Shadow talking with a man in a villa mentioned to have something like Moorish or Moroccan influences; he makes wears a baseball cap, a suit, jokes about turning water into wine, and is indubitably American Jesus.
* DayOfTheWeekName: Mr. Wednesday. The day name is derived from "Wotan's Day," which was another name for "Odin" in early Germanic Paganism. He goes so far as to point out during his introduction that "seeing as today certainly is ''my day''..."
* DealWithTheDevil: One of them, anyway. [[spoiler: The truth about the town of Lakeside.]]
* DeathOfTheOldGods: [[spoiler: All of the ancient deities who were forgotten completely by mankind.]]
* DeusSexMachina: Shadow's wet dream with Bast is another turning point for the protagonist.
* DivineParentage: [[spoiler:Shadow]].
* EncyclopediaExposita: From the book being written by Mr. Ibis.
* EurekaMoment:
** The greater your knowledge of NorseMythology prior to reading the book, the sooner you'll get it.
-->'''Shadow:''' Jesus, [[spoiler:Low-Key Lyesmith... Oh, Jesus. Loki. Loki Lie-Smith.]]
** [[spoiler:The Lakeside killings.]]
* EvolutionaryLevels: Mr. Town is convinced that the people he works for and against aren't gods but merely mutant freaks.
* FantasyKitchenSink
* FiveBadBand: Oddly enough, this dynamic is only revealed towards the end of the novel.
** TheBigBad: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday]]
** TheDragon: Mr. World [[spoiler:aka Loki Liesmith]]
** TheBrute: Mr. Town
** [[EvilGenius The Evil Genius]]: The Technical Boy
** TheDarkChick: Media
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The Christmas conversation. [[spoiler:(It's a two man con)]].
** In one of Shadow's dreams, the people who had been hung in sacrifice to Odin smelled of the alcohol they had drunk beforehand. [[spoiler: Mr. Wednesday's corpse smelled of Jack Daniels, hinting that he was basically a sacrifice to himself.]]
* GodWasMyCopilot
* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: The reason why the old Gods are dying, and the new Gods have arisen. Wednesday is very disdainful of Neo-Pagans in general considering them pretenders, strongly implying their worship is inadequate. It hit Easter hard when Wednesday showed her a self-proclaimed Pagan that did not even know Easter was originally a Pagan holiday, labeling it as "Christian" instead. In their world, Pagans without traditional rituals and well-defined gods and goddesses might as well be Atheist or Agnostic.
* GovernmentConspiracy: Subverted. The Spookshow is not part of the US Government.
* TheHeartless: Many of the gods
* HellHotel: The hotel at the center of the United States. Literally, for the Technical Boy, as it sits in a deadzone. In the night, Shadow hears him throwing himself against the walls as the unaccustomed isolation causes him to have a breakdown.
* HumanSacrifice
* IAmWho
* IDontPayYouToThink - Mr. Wednesday's answer to Shadow's questions about what's going on.
* IgnoranceIsBliss: A major plot point.
* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Possibly attempted; see DistractedByTheSexy
* IHaveManyNames: Mr. Wednesday explicitly says this; given the subject matter, it also applies to most of the major characters.
* IronicEcho:
** "This must look so undignified."
** "Rigged games are the easiest ones to beat."
* JekyllAndHyde: Czernobog and Bielebog
* {{Jerkass Gods}}: Considering the god's resemblances to humans in this book, [[HumansAreBastards it can be expected.]]
* KansasCityShuffle: [[spoiler: Wednesday and Loki's entire plan relies on misdirection and none of the Gods realizing they are being played.]]
* {{Leprechaun}}: Mad Sweeney.
* [=~Let's You And Him Fight~=]: TropeNamer, albeit without an example of the trope within the story.
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: Maybe not as awesome when your followers are dwindling, but the gods we see are all determined to survive even though their lives have gotten far less glamorous over the centuries or millennia. Except for Thor, who is mentioned to have committed suicide.
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Shadow discovers he is Wednesday's son.]]
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Mr. World (aka Loki) to the New Gods, and Mr. Wednesday to Loki himself.]]
* MeaningfulName:
** Shadow, as his role is to ''shadow'' Mr. Wednesday. Laura also states that he never really seemed alive or present.
** Mr. Wednesday has named himself after the day that is named after him.
** Mr. Jacquel and Mr. Ibis? [[spoiler: Anubis and Thoth.]]
* {{MIB}}: The Spookshow, minions of the leader of the New Gods, Mr. World. They exist, like all the gods, [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve because so many people assume that there must be a secret spy organization out there.]]
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday]]
* MythologyGag: At the World's Largest Carousel, Mr Nancy displays amusement at the prospect of riding a lion statue. This is a reference to Anansi's tendency to antagonize the god Tiger (the embodiment of all big cats) in traditional stories.
* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles
* NerdInEvilsHelmet: The "technology kid" acts tough, but other characters see it as rehearsed and kind of pitiful. The book narration describes him as somebody trying too hard and performing actions that ''should'' be threatening, but fall short because of his execution.
* NeverHeardThatOneBefore:
--> '''Shadow:''' Hey, Huginn or Munin, or whoever you are. Say 'Nevermore'.
--> '''Raven:''' Fuck you.
* NewWeird
* NoNameGiven: Shadow, known only by his nickname, at least until the quasi-sequel "The Monarch of the Glen", where we learn his birth name is [[spoiler:Balder]].
* TheNondescript: The god whose name and appearance Shadow cannot remember.
* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Media tries to sway Shadow, as [[ILoveLucy Lucy]], with the offer of nudity. [[FanDisservice It doesn't work]], to the point that it colors the rest of his encounters with her, and he goes so far as to avoid watching television wenever possible.
* TheNothingAfterDeath: Chosen by [[spoiler:Shadow]].
* TheOldCon: Low Key.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Shadow.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent
* PlaceOfPower: In the Old World people built temples on top of them, in America they built roadside attractions. Prominently featured examples include The House on the Rocks and Rock City.
* PlayingBothSides: [[spoiler: Wednesday and Loki are manipulating both the old and new Gods so they can draw power from the inevitable battle.]]
* PhysicalGod: All of them, at least part time (who knows what was up with Media).
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:The real reason why Lakeside is prospering compared to the economically depressed surrounding towns is because Hinzelmann is an old god who keeps the town thriving through murdered children without the townspeople's knowledge.]]
* QuickChange: Pulled by Mr. Wednesday
* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Spookshow
* ResurrectedRomance
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:''"It's a two man con. It's not a war at all."'']]
* ScienceIsBad: Played with. The New Gods represent different facets of America's modern, technologically advanced culture, but for a while we are led to sympathize more for the primitive -- and seemingly more benevolent -- Old Gods. Over the course of the story, however, we come to learn that a not insignificant number of the Old Gods were violent, bloodthirsty monsters in their time, and some of the New Gods are not as eager for conquest as they first appear.
* SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands: Media can inhabit the body of any TV character and use them as an avatar to spy on or communicate with anyone watching a TV.
* SurvivalMantra: "It's easy, there's a trick to it, you do it or you die."
* ShoutOut: In one of Shadow's dreams, a brief mention is given to an "[[HPLovecraft octopus-faced]]" god.
* StandingBetweenTheEnemies: [[spoiler: Shadow manages to stop the battle between the Old and New Gods by telling them both how they were [[PlayingBothSides manipulated into fighting by Mr. Wednesday and Loki]] so that they could gain power from the deaths of the other gods.]]
* AStormIsComing: Repeated by Mister Wednesday and Mad Sweeney.
* SueDonym: [[spoiler: Low-Key Lyesmith = Loki Lie-Smith]]
* TakeThatKiss: [[spoiler: Sam]] to [[spoiler: Shadow]], as a TakeThat against [[spoiler: everybody else in the bar at that point, but [[CountryMatters especially Audrey]].]]
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: Wednesday arranges his own assassination in order to convince a lot of reluctant Old Gods to join the war.]]
* ThisIsAWorkOfFiction: "The gods, however, are real."
* ThisIsSparta: Sam, to Audrey: "You. Are such. A cunt."
* TimmyInAWell: {{Lampshaded}} with a raven
* TownWithADarkSecret: [[spoiler:Lakeside--the only reason why it has continued to prosper in tough economic times was because Shadow's neighbor turns out to be a kobold that has sacrificed a child every year since the town was founded in a ritual to ensure the town stayed healthy and prosperous. Only the kobold actually ''knew'' the secret--all of the other townspeople seemed to have had no idea, many assuming the missing children were simply runaways or, in at least one case, kidnapped by their noncustodial parent from out of town.]]
* TreacherousAdvisor: [[spoiler:Wednesday]].
* TricksterMentor: [[spoiler:Mr. Wednesday and Low-Key.]]
* TrojanPrisoner
* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: [[spoiler:Low Key/Loki and Mr. World]]
* UndeathAlwaysEnds
* UnfazedEveryman (or [[UnluckyEverydude Unlucky Everydude]]): Shadow
-->Wednesday looked at him with amusement and something else--irritation perhaps. Or pride. "Why don't you argue?" asked Wednesday. "Why don't you exclaim that it's all impossible? Why the hell do you just do what I say and take it all so fucking calmly?"
* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Virtually all the old and new Gods, and Shadow himself, are pawns in Wednesday and Loki's KansasCityShuffle.]]
* UrbanFantasy
* TheVerse: Shared with ''{{Stardust}}'', although you would only know it by reading ''Wall: A Prologue''.
* ViolinScam: Commented upon by Wednesday.
* WannabeDiss: Wednesday speaks with particular disgust of a waitress who serves him and Shadow; he quizzes her about her religion, and she claims to be pagan, but when further quizzed about the particular flavor of paganism, she spits out some pseudo-mystical bullshit and acts offended when Wednesday brings up some of the more hedonistic aspects. Wednesday says she "doesn't have the faith and won't have the fun," with the implication that he could at least respect her if she enjoyed herself. He goes on to name her sins, which, from the petty to the actively criminal, show a similar propensity for half-measures and lack of commitment, with further implication that for this she is worse than the actively evil.
* TheWorldTree: The Norse version, more or less
* AWorldwidePunomenon:
** "I was just rotting away where I was." --[[TheUndead Laura]]
** "Look in the trunk."
** Wednesday gets the girls because of his ''charm''. One of the eighteen charms he learned while hanging from the World Tree.
* YourCheatingHeart: Laura was cheating on Shadow with his best friend.
* YouAllMeetInACell: Well, somewhat. [[spoiler:Loki and Shadow meet in prison.]]
----
