American Gods spoiler thread for book readers who can't shut it

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > American Gods spoiler thread for book readers who can't shut it

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Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Q: WHAT IS AMERICAN GODS?

A: You already know because you read the book.

Discuss all the book poo poo here, talk about what poo poo is different between the book and the show, speculate about what book poo poo is going to make it into future episodes, and keep that poo poo out of the other thread!

Q: WHERE CAN I WATCH AMERICAN GODS?

The first episode has dropped on Starz. It's available on Amazon Prime everywhere for free except :911:

where you need to input your Starz credentials

Q: WHAT'S DIFFERENT SO FAR?

Technical Boy in the book was a fat pimply nerd in a trenchcoat who wished he was in The Matrix. Since it's been a decade and a half since the book was written, the TV show portrays him as an annoying youtube personality. His limo now exists in virtual reality, and his henchmen, who were nondescript in the book, are now faceless assholes from the internet who are fans of the wrong parts of Clockwork Orange and have the polygon count of a PS2 videogame.

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 08:40 on May 2, 2017

# ¿ May 2, 2017 08:26

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 23:09

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Imagine my surprise when I found out Black Bart was actually a white Bart

# ¿ May 2, 2017 16:19

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Goddamn Particle posted:

It looks like Bilquis and her victim got updated in a similar but more subtle way than Technical Boy. In the book she's a sex worker, he's a john and he's kind of an rear end in a top hat, not a middle-aged divorcee getting back into the dating scene. The idea of a predatory woman going on Tinder and targeting a poor lonely dude who just wants to be loved is reminiscent of the things Red Pill types believe in. And most stories about gods have some element of "the belief shapes the god" so even though her origin is a millenia-old half-demon, she could have been changed somewhat by it.

Btw it feels like "ancient gods down on their luck and barely scraping by" was an idea Gaiman had in Sandman and decided to explore more fully with a whole book. In Sandman, Ishtar was a fertility goddess who turned into a pole dancer due to her lack of worshippers. I think Kevin Smith might've ripped that one off for Dogma as well.

# ¿ May 2, 2017 16:27

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Speaking of Americanized Eurogod worship

# ¿ May 2, 2017 16:59

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Crow Jane posted:

Wasn't Loki pretty heavily involved with killing Dream in Sandman? It's not the American Gods version, obviously, but I think he was able to pass himself off as a regular dude. Been a while since I've read it, though

Yeah, he took Hypolyta's son and made it look like Dream killed him, which gave her an excuse to want revenge on Dream. She got the help of the Furies who also wanted revenge because Dream's son made them cry once.

Loki was also a huge dickbag because Dream let Loki escape from Odin once and Loki still backstabbed him

# ¿ May 2, 2017 18:13

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

precision posted:

Scroll up: CGI dong

Well, it's not like they were going to find a stuntcock that was willing to be set on fire

# ¿ May 2, 2017 23:17

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

The only downside is now I'm thinking about the Inglourious Basterds deleted scene Tarantino wrote for her and never released to the public and now I want to strangle him

# ¿ May 3, 2017 18:47

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

BravestOfTheLamps posted:

Can you guess his character on the show?

# ¿ May 4, 2017 21:51

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Jesus being whitewashed is already great. What I'm really curious to see now is if Jesus is going to be portrayed as a liberal hippie or he's going to be Supply Side Jesus

edit: holy poo poo, I didn't know Al Franken came up with Supply Side Jesus

# ¿ May 4, 2017 23:03

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Man I enjoy having several Jesusi, but your idea of a schizophrenic Black Swan Jesus is so good too

# ¿ May 5, 2017 00:03

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Guy Mann posted:

The idea that a man who heard voices in his head and had violent mood swings between preaching peace and attacking people in a rage was schizophrenic is just absurd.

I dunno, beating up people who tried to make money off religion sounds like one of the sanest things a religious figure's ever done

# ¿ May 5, 2017 01:44

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Someone placed a curse on Bryan Fuller that would cause his shows to get cancelled no matter how good they were, so he decided to work on a show that would end in 2-3 seasons

# ¿ May 7, 2017 02:11

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

...or maybe he used Star Trek Discovery as a blood sacrifice to save American Gods

# ¿ May 7, 2017 02:22

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Zaphod42 posted:

drat that's some of the best acting Peter Stormare has ever done. He's always had more of a bit role so its great to see him really get to be the star for a bit.

He's had a lot of experience playing Europeans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1MNEqCr748

# ¿ May 7, 2017 23:53

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

When Shadow is visited by memories of his wife while he cleans his house, I could swear the music was channeling Blade Runner

# ¿ May 9, 2017 05:56

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

a kitten posted:

https://twitter.com/BryanFuller/status/861990044495560704

Are you here, a kitten? I'm in the third row.

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 03:51 on May 11, 2017

# ¿ May 11, 2017 03:48

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Okay, got to see episode 3 thanks to an event sponsored by GLAAD, which included open bar and hor d'oeuvres. Not only were the five guests on the above billing there, but also in the audience were Yetide Badaki, Orlando Jones, Bruce Langley, and Chris Obi.

Here is my spoilery review, mouse over at your own risk:

dong dong dong dong dong dong dong dong
dong dong dong dong dong dong dong dong dong
dong dong dong dong dong dong dong dong dong
dong dong dong dong dong dong dong dong dong
dong dong dong dong dong dong dong dong
dong dong dong
dong dong dong
dong dong dong
dong dong

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 09:36 on May 11, 2017

# ¿ May 11, 2017 09:16

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Escape Addict posted:

If all the Old Gods demand blood sacrifice, and Technical Boy and Media just want our time and attention, then this narrative is skewed in favor of the New Gods. They are more benign compared to this bloodthirsty version of the Old Gods. In the books, a lot of the old ones were more likable and less parasitic, which made the New Gods seem more sinister.

In addition to what Macdeo said, think of it this way; the old gods will take your body as sacrifice. The new gods (or at least Media so far) want to ruin your soul.

# ¿ May 12, 2017 07:06

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Escape Addict posted:

Are our souls ruined by consuming media and using technology?

The poison is in the dosage now isn't it.

# ¿ May 12, 2017 17:16

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Keep in mind that A) these seasons are 8 episodes long, and 2) Fuller's original vision for seasons 3 and 4 of Hannibal had to get condensed into one season because he couldn't come up with enough material, so things might change with American Gods as well.

# ¿ May 12, 2017 22:31

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Gaunab posted:

Posting from the awful app makes it easier to glaze over the titles of tv show threads. It's my fault. Please forgive my transgressions.

To attain forgiveness, you'll have to make a sacrifice to Crapfountain, the god of forums posting

# ¿ May 13, 2017 01:31

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Now that the episode has aired everywhere I can share some stuff from the Q&A

Mousa, who plays the Jinn, watched gay porn and called up gay friends to ask them about accurately portraying gay intercourse. When it came time to shoot, the director told Mousa and Omid how to act and Mousa got to use his new knowledge to correct the director on sexual positions.

The dong was originally going to be 11 inches. The production designer started with that, not conceiving that anyone would want it to be a different size.

Mousa and Omid knew each other before this show because middle eastern actors basically all know each other. They were extremely grateful they got to play middle eastern men who weren't terrorists or sidekicks.

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 08:35 on May 15, 2017

# ¿ May 15, 2017 07:54

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Zaphod42 posted:

Yeah the English-over- uhhh whatever that was, Hindi? was a really cool effect.

They're from Oman so I guess that means Arabic

# ¿ May 15, 2017 21:04

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

The whole concept of "Gods down on their luck and working menial jobs" is from Sandman too. Ishtar is a pole dancer who holds back her full power, but one day she lets loose with her sexiest dance ever and all the men watching her die from cumming too hard. You can see the line connecting her to Bilquis.

Sandman also shows Bast, bored because she doesn't have followers anymore.

Dream appears differently to different people. He appears as a cat to a dreaming cat. He has cat eyes when he meets Bast. Martian Manhunter sees him as a flaming skull. Anansi appears as a 70's jazzman to us and as a spider to his followers (in the TV show is this a Fuller thing or is this a Gaiman thing?)

I don't mind too much because I can pretend to myself that these are just additional stories in the Sandman universe.

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 20:25 on May 16, 2017

# ¿ May 16, 2017 20:19

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

For rules' sake, let's stick to the usual rule of using spoiler tags until it airs on tv in the Eastern US time zone (9pm eastern/6pm pacific). I'm not sure if we know an exact time when it gets posted on Amazon but we know the exact time it gets aired on broadcast; that lets people know an exact time to avoid this thread for spoilers

# ¿ May 21, 2017 18:28

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

I loved the music in the opening. I like how it cut out to emphasize and how it resumed to push the story forward again. Good job, Brian Reitzell.

# ¿ May 29, 2017 05:31

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

So many good lines.

(Media floats in as Marilyn Monroe) I Love Lucy?

Youre a loving rear end in a top hat, Dead Wife!

# ¿ May 29, 2017 06:02

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

jng2058 posted:

Not exactly. Mammoth God tells his people that the only way to survive is to sacrifice the adults (and the God himself) so that their children will survive as followers of the Buffalo God.

As a not-book-reader, I have to say the adaptation really doesn't communicate this idea well. As far as we're shown, Nunnyunnini shows the shaman a vision of a buffalo killing her, and a buffalo does kill her, but it wasn't clear what the buffalo's relationship to Nunnyunnini was. It could have been an avatar of Nunnyunnini for all I know. We're not shown in the TV version that the adults were all killed off, and we're not shown the kids worshipping the buffalo

The message I got from watching it as a newcomer to the material was that once the people were out of danger (they had food and defeated their enemies), they gave up on religion.

# ¿ May 29, 2017 10:56

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Mameluke posted:

As the American revival of those immigrants who used to truly believe in the Queen of Sheba, Bilquis's actually a native-born citizen

where's the long form

# ¿ May 30, 2017 21:34

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Clip of an upcoming god being introduced in episode 6

# ¿ May 30, 2017 21:47

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmZN8vIRiDE

# ¿ May 31, 2017 03:16

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Zeus could rebrand himself as the God of Electricity and instead of throwing lightning bolts as spears he throws fluorescent light bulbs

edit: did the book ever address when there were overlapping gods? Such as, how do Zeus, Thor and Raiden split responsibilities?

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 20:27 on May 31, 2017

# ¿ May 31, 2017 20:11

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG-I8UnX1wk

I feel kind of dumb for not picking up on this myself, but the Coming to America animation is relevant to the episode because Wednesday is being offered a subservient position in a stronger tribe, and unlike Atsula or Nunyunnini, Wednesday is unwilling to sacrifice his position to let his followers survive.

Of course, that's also a feint because you book readers already know the whole thing is a con

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 21:05 on May 31, 2017

# ¿ May 31, 2017 21:00

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

I know it's not going to happen, but Supply Side Jesus would have been so perfect for this show

http://imgur.com/gallery/bCqRp

# ¿ May 31, 2017 21:57

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Wow, the Nunyunnini story in the book is pretty different.

Atsula is forbidden from entering the New World for blaspheming against Nunyunnini, much like Moses being forbidden from the promised land for disobeying God.

The tribe entering America are the first humans there.

Nunyunnini isn't some kind-hearted god who sacrifices himself to save his people, he's very matter-of-fact. Go here and you live, stay here and you die. Don't like my commands? Fine, you'll die before you reach the new world.

There's no deal with a Buffalo god or anything, the tribe makes all these promises of worshipping Nunyunnini forever, but within a couple generations they neglect him and their kids pick out new gods based on animals they see in America. Nunyunnini dies from neglect, not self-sacrifice.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2017 08:33

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Okay, that morgue scene.

Here's the song playing in the morgue. It doesn't show up on Shazam or SoundHound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvAoSikNbsc

What is up with the employee there. He's browsing google image for shetland ponies. I wanted to laugh but I wasn't sure why it was so funny.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2017 17:42

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Zaphod42 posted:

It would have created Korean Odin and probably killed American Odin into obscurity. Which is exactly what the new gods wanted.

The book isn't clear about the rules but the ending makes it seem like that's how it would work.

My understanding: Mr Wednesday would be rebranded as the American Odin, they'd figure out some way to go to war with North Korea and blow them up. North Korea dies. The Odin satellite gets all this praise for being an awesome missile satellite and therefore American Odin gets power again, but subservient to Mr World, Media and Technical Boy since he will be operating as a tool of American globalism and needing Media and Technical Boy for PR.

Why would a Korean Odin arise from this?

# ¿ Jun 1, 2017 22:45

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXi9Zc_4Om4

New general-promo clip, a couple new gods who haven't been seen yet.

Something that occurred to me, and maybe this is old hat for you book readers, but is "gods" a metaphor for "culture?" Everyone who comes to American brings their culture from their home country, but in coming to America, the old culture is never the same, it takes on a bastardized new form, distinct from the original culture in their homelands; Irish culture in America is different from how it is in Ireland, for example. But all of these old cultures and now being forgotten and left behind by new cultures that are sprouting up natively in America, cultures that are less humanizing: internet culture, media culture, military-industrial-complex culture.

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Jun 1, 2017

# ¿ Jun 1, 2017 23:40

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Clip from episode 6, minor spoilers of upcoming god

:mexico:

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Jun 2, 2017

# ¿ Jun 2, 2017 00:37

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 23:09

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

Sorry for being dense, I'm new to this and was only thinking about it from a strictly religious perspective

# ¿ Jun 2, 2017 00:44

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > American Gods spoiler thread for book readers who can't shut it

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