American Gods 2.02
In which it's flashback time, and also the show's gods seem to operate on the same principle as the Endless in Sandman, which is news to me, but okay.
By which I mean: Czernobog and the others mention another Zoya the Evenstar taking her place if there are enough believers. Now, none of this happens in American Gods the novel, but it does sound familiar from another Gaiman work, to wit, the magnum opus, Sandman. If one of the Endless, who are anthromorphic personifications, dies, which pre-saga happened to Despair and which will happen to another of the Endless at the climax of Sandman, then this doesn't mean there is no more, say, Despair, but that another personification arises. These two personifications share memories, but aren't identical, and we see how it works via the second Endless to die in the Sandman saga, whose eventual replacement starts out as a very different individual. (The Cylons on Battlestar Galactica who share memories each time they resurrect operate a bit similarly while having not the same power - i.e. Boomer and Athena are two different individuals, but they're both Sharon, and Athena having access to Boomer's memories up to the point of the show's pilot was key to how they operated.
Now, the way Gods operate in AG the book is somewhat, though not completely different. At the end of the book, Shadow encounters an icelandic version of Odin who is not identical with Wednesday and never came to America, but who is aware of what Wednesday thought and did. During the course of the book, Wednesday & Co. mention Thor having committed suicide in the 1920s, and he seems to have remained dead. MacSweeney in the novel never makes it beyond the first hundred pages or thereabouts, never meets Laura, dies and remains dead. Ditto Bilquis. Otoh there is one major resurrection in the novel of the same individual as this individual, not another aspect, but there arre very specific circumstances. Generally: gods aren't easy to kill in the book, but they can die, and usually, it sticks.
For the show, they seem to be going more in the Endless direction, and now that i think of it, this might have been the point of the multiple Jesus thing last season beyond a cheap gag. (No Jesus of any type in the novel.) Presumably, the "another aspect of the deity takes over" is also how they'll deal with the casting change for Media. I do wonder, though, whether that means Laura's eventual fate will be different, because if they go for the Sandman model instead of the American Gods the Book model, then they might as well go for the full enchilada, in which case a human being can become an anthromorophic personification. And for show!Laura the declared atheist, it would be sublimely ironic to end up a goddess while also fulfilling her desire for a new life.
(Also, book!Laura's eventual fate very much depends on her deep connection to Shadow, and the show gave show!Laura the relationship with McSweeney instead.)
Back to the episode proper: the only bits from the novel are the flashbacks to Shadow's mother and his youth, which in the book happen at a far later point and not to that extent. I like that the woman in question gets fleshed out more this way, and wonder whether we'll see her again, via flashback, at an earlier point in her life? Otoh the heavy hinting on just who Shadow's absent dad was probably means we'll get that reveal far sooner, too. The young actor playing teenage Shadow was good, and I note that him having mostly grown up outside the US due to his mother's work here is explicitly coded to mean he hasn't experienced US style racism to that degree, i.e. has been socialized differently until the time of the flashbacks. Shadow having grown up mostly uproad until the death of his mother is from the novel which was published long before Obama became President of the US, but watching the tv episode, I was reminded of this being a key bit of Obama's backstory, too.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1334105.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
By which I mean: Czernobog and the others mention another Zoya the Evenstar taking her place if there are enough believers. Now, none of this happens in American Gods the novel, but it does sound familiar from another Gaiman work, to wit, the magnum opus, Sandman. If one of the Endless, who are anthromorphic personifications, dies, which pre-saga happened to Despair and which will happen to another of the Endless at the climax of Sandman, then this doesn't mean there is no more, say, Despair, but that another personification arises. These two personifications share memories, but aren't identical, and we see how it works via the second Endless to die in the Sandman saga, whose eventual replacement starts out as a very different individual. (The Cylons on Battlestar Galactica who share memories each time they resurrect operate a bit similarly while having not the same power - i.e. Boomer and Athena are two different individuals, but they're both Sharon, and Athena having access to Boomer's memories up to the point of the show's pilot was key to how they operated.
Now, the way Gods operate in AG the book is somewhat, though not completely different. At the end of the book, Shadow encounters an icelandic version of Odin who is not identical with Wednesday and never came to America, but who is aware of what Wednesday thought and did. During the course of the book, Wednesday & Co. mention Thor having committed suicide in the 1920s, and he seems to have remained dead. MacSweeney in the novel never makes it beyond the first hundred pages or thereabouts, never meets Laura, dies and remains dead. Ditto Bilquis. Otoh there is one major resurrection in the novel of the same individual as this individual, not another aspect, but there arre very specific circumstances. Generally: gods aren't easy to kill in the book, but they can die, and usually, it sticks.
For the show, they seem to be going more in the Endless direction, and now that i think of it, this might have been the point of the multiple Jesus thing last season beyond a cheap gag. (No Jesus of any type in the novel.) Presumably, the "another aspect of the deity takes over" is also how they'll deal with the casting change for Media. I do wonder, though, whether that means Laura's eventual fate will be different, because if they go for the Sandman model instead of the American Gods the Book model, then they might as well go for the full enchilada, in which case a human being can become an anthromorophic personification. And for show!Laura the declared atheist, it would be sublimely ironic to end up a goddess while also fulfilling her desire for a new life.
(Also, book!Laura's eventual fate very much depends on her deep connection to Shadow, and the show gave show!Laura the relationship with McSweeney instead.)
Back to the episode proper: the only bits from the novel are the flashbacks to Shadow's mother and his youth, which in the book happen at a far later point and not to that extent. I like that the woman in question gets fleshed out more this way, and wonder whether we'll see her again, via flashback, at an earlier point in her life? Otoh the heavy hinting on just who Shadow's absent dad was probably means we'll get that reveal far sooner, too. The young actor playing teenage Shadow was good, and I note that him having mostly grown up outside the US due to his mother's work here is explicitly coded to mean he hasn't experienced US style racism to that degree, i.e. has been socialized differently until the time of the flashbacks. Shadow having grown up mostly uproad until the death of his mother is from the novel which was published long before Obama became President of the US, but watching the tv episode, I was reminded of this being a key bit of Obama's backstory, too.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1334105.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.