Neil Gaiman's American Gods

You know something I've been mulling over is that by the functioning logic of American Gods (belief is power), Slender-Man (the fabled yet overdone internet figure) might be an actual deity. A manufactured urban legend many people ended up actually believing, and it wouldn't be hard to characterize all the fanart, games, webseries and the like based around him as "offerings" in the manner of ye masks and theater plays of olde. There was also the case about two girls trying to kill another in his name, which would be an attempted blood sacrifice, the most powerful form of offering of them all.

Wonder if they'll address that in some form in the show.

edited 5th Jan '17 5:28:40 PM by Gaon

He could be one of the New Gods. Same with Candle Ja

Would he be? Odin explained that manufactured legends don't work for creating gods. I don't know much about Slender Man but I don't think anyone ever actually believed in him.

edit: Based on what Odin said my general impression is that characters from most modern works of fiction would be ineligible. We're not going to see people like Paul Bunyan, Slender Man, or Captain America for example because everybody knows they're fictional.

edited 5th Jan '17 6:54:02 PM by Kostya

The mechanics are unclear. When Wednesday talks about Paul Bunyan he points the reason he doesn't exist is because nothing was ever dedicated to him. He was just a corporate brand and no one ever really believed he existed or worshiped him in any way, he was a fictional character from the get-go that rides on the coattails of John Chapman.

Slender Man is a foggier case because while he was created as fiction, his early years before he blew up in popularity (and indeed his entire raison d'etre) had a lot of the internet believing he was a genuine piece of folklore and mythology and you'll still find dumb kids legitimately afraid that the Slender-Man will get them (and there was the stabbing case I just mentioned had two girls fully believing the Slender-Man existed and wanted them to kill someone). For some time even our Tvtropes article didn't clarify his fictional origins.

Slender-Man would basically be a test to the inner workings of how gods are made in the American Gods universe.

EDIT: As it so appears there have been two Slender-Man-inspired stabbings by people who believed in his existence, one of them was mortal, meaning a blood sacrifice. If Wednesday's word is to be taken at face value (Bunyan doesn't exist because nothing was ever truly "dedicated" to him and no one believed in him), this stabbing should will Slender-Man into existence.

edited 5th Jan '17 7:04:24 PM by Gaon

I feel like there must be some kind of threshold though. Is one sacrifice enough to make a god? If that was the case I feel like almost everyone on Earth would have accidentally spawned a god at some point in their life.

Like I said, the logistics of American Gods are rather foggy on what constitutes a god and what doesn't. I imagine there must be some form of minimum amount of followers to will a god in existence, but Slender's case came to mind because there seem to be a decent number of people who believe he's real (certainly more than Czernobog, and he's still alive) and the Slender-dedicated stabbings qualify as blood sacrifices (i.e sacrificing a human life in a deity's name), which are repeatedly stated to be the most powerful form of sacrifice possible (Enough that Loki sacrificing a single individual in Wednesday's resurrects him briefly as a intangible ghost).

Basically Slender-Man would be a case study. Whether he'd classify or not as a god in American Gods would respond a lot about that universe's inner mechanics.

edited 5th Jan '17 7:14:14 PM by Gaon

Chernobog and the others probably still exist because some people remember them even if they aren't actively worshiped. My impression is that once a god comes into existence they're self sustaining until another god kills them. They might lose power over time though.

When it comes to Slender Man I'm thinking that if he did exist he'd probably be a fairly low level deity.

Funny; I know Apple John in American Gods referred to Paul Bunyan, but I figured it was because he did exist as one of the deities (which irritated John because Paul was more a fictional character). For that matter, what's dedicated to Johnny Appleseed/ Apple John that he should have been deified? The apple orchards (which would have shocked the real John Chapman, as he was an ardent Christian)?

edited 5th Jan '17 7:45:45 PM by Robbery

Odin says Bunyan doesn't exist so I'm inclined to believe him.

Appleseed probably exists because he's a folk hero that spread naturally. He wasn't created as a corporate mascot or fictional entity.

Maybe Horror is a god, in the sense that Internet, TV, Men In Black and the Stock Market are gods. Maybe Comedy and Romance and Science (Fiction) and so on are gods too. I think I might like that.

Don't tell me if you know since I'd rather be surprised, but I wonder how they're going to show Low Key and Mr World, since that's the kind of reveal that only works in text.

Dramatic Chair Swivel?

Well it's a different version of him but the MCU Loki uses illusions a lot. Maybe this show will do something similar and his Low Key appearance is an illusion. edit: I'll go a bit further and predict that when Shadow meets Mr. World the latter will treat him with familiarity. Shadow will be confused by this and say they've never met. This prompts World to shift into Low Key.

edited 5th Jan '17 8:54:13 PM by Kostya

They have cast Jonathan Tucker as Low-Key Liesmith and Crispin Glover as Mr. World. This means that Loki will "shapeshift" between forms, thus the different actors.

Is the shapeshifting confirmed? It's kind of implied but I don't remember them actually saying that's how they'd portray it.

I mean they're either different people in this adaptation (in a Shyamalan-ish twist) or he shapeshifts. There's no other way to explain the same character being played by two different actors.

It will premiere on April 30th at 9 PM!

Have they mentioned whether or not this will be available for free on their website or anything like that?

Isn't that the same time as Game of Thrones? Competing with them doesn't seem too smart.

The upcoming season of Game of Thrones won't premiere until July, so that's not a problem.

Since Starz is a premium channel, that's unlikely. Anyone watching their shows for free isn't subscribing to their channel.

edited 23rd Feb '17 12:31:24 PM by lrrose

Interview with Orlando Jones on playing Mr. Nancy (sort of spoilers in terms of describing the character/an upcoming scene).

I thought this was a great read and it gives me a good feeling both about the show itself and Jones' enthusiasm for the book/character. I had been somewhat iffy on his casting because he seemed significantly younger than the character is in the book, but it's really something to learn how much the book/character spoke to him, especially in term of learning Anansi stories when younger. It's really something that his grandfather, who told him the stories, sounds a lot like the Mr. Nancy character.

That's Anansi? I don't know. That's not how I pictured him. I trust them to pick a good actor though.

New trailer!

The first episode has also been screened at SXSW and the early impressions have been really great. Apparently it opens with the part where the vikings attempt to siege Native America and the people who've read the book can tell you exactly how well that went.

http://www.slashfilm.com/american-gods-review/ http://io9.gizmodo.com/american-gods-is-going-to-be-your-next-must-watch-fanta-1793203476

Saw the new trailer earlier, it looks really good.

Ha.