Cli-Fi
John J. Falco
I'm left with a whole bunch of question. Maybe they're answered in the book. if so can someone elighten me?
SPOILERS INSIDE
1. Wednesday kills his friends Vulcan. But we also learn that Gods are born when people worship him and die when they stop. So does that not imply that the moment someone worships Vulcan he springs back to life. Or are they worshipping a dead God. But how can a God you worship to be dead. Seems to me that a God can't really kill another God unless they find a way for people to stop worshipping that God. But surely that is something one can only achieve over a great amount of time. Unless you're the God of Forgetting and make people forget about the other God or something. In any case I don't get how one God can kill another God given said premise of how God come into and fade from existence.
2. Is there a difference between worship and knowing a God? For instance I know of Poseidon, Zeus, .. but i don't worship them. Is it enough for a God to survive if he or she is simply remembered of does it truly require worship?
3. We are told that their are many Jesus's cause people think of Jesus in many different ways. But isn't that true for all Gods. I'm preety sure the image i have in my head of say Loki would be different from the image another have of Loki. With that said shouldn't there be a whole bunch of mr wednnesday's, odin's as well. Why is Jesus the exception and is there a need to be a bunch of them. Why isn't he centralized in one character like the other Gods.
4. Why is Jesus left outside of the battle? Is it because he is a god of forgiveness? But if so shouldn't that make him an enemy of Odin? Not because he wants to be, but simply because of what they both are and represent...
5. What about the Christian God? Unlike Jesus he isn't all forgiving. (Unless you go by the notion that Jesus and God are the same. Never fully wrapped my head around the part where the ghost, jesus and god are the same entity yet different entities.) In any case if we go by him being a different God (and Jesus his son, Jesus also a god cause belief in him and stuff) then I'm pretty sure he killed everyone but Noah and his family. Killed a bunch of Egyptians and stuff. Plus how does that work with the other Gods. By killing everyone of the none believers, does that not imply he at that time (Time of Noah and his ark) killed all the other Gods by killing all their believers. Meaning only Gods born after that event should still be alive. So where does he stand in all of this?
6. The christian god claims to have created the world, and i'm sure other gods do as well. How does this all fit? Where does Allah stand. Will Islam start playing a role as well? So far the show has shown most other major religions I know about. Though that cab driver seems to be a mixture of several religions. Or do Hindu's also sit on a mat and pray to their God(s) 7 times a day?
And I will try to answer them as best as I know personally myself this is without reading any of the books.
1. I think in Vulcans case Wednesday knew that the town only exists as it did because of the high worship of Vulcan. If Vulcan was out of the picture the town would cease to exist and if there were stragglers, Wednesday would probably just kill them too. Vulcan is a means to an end for Wednesday so that he can start his war with the New Gods. In episode 8 we see many, many Jesuses at Easter’s house, because many different types of people believe in many different types of Jesuses. Wednesday knew that only that town in Virginia believed in Vulcan so it’s much easier to kill him, without many people noticing.
2. I don’t think they go this deep in the show, but at the end of the season 1 Shadow basically claims he believes in Wednesday who turns out to be Odin after Odin recruits Ostara and she kills the Earth.
3. I think the different images of Jesus are the way they are because lots of people have a different representation of Jesus. Most people have the same image of Odin, what they study in the old Norse texts. There are images of him and statues of him and how he looks. I don’t think the Chinese, or African Americans have their own version of Odin (yes similar types of Gods but not the same guy), namely because he is not in their mythology. Due to globalization, over the past 2,000 years, most people around the world have their own image of Jesus. So this goes back to your first question about knowing a God or Worshiping a God. The cultures that worship Jesus all have different Jesuses but the cultures that only study about Odin, don’t remake him in their own image, simply because they don’t worship him. Hence why Wednesday seems very, very jealous of Christianity.
4. Honestly Jesus should be an enemy of Wednesday or at the very least an old-new God. I’m not sure why he is considered old, but then again in Episode 8 Wednesday says that Jesus is a man, so I am not so sure they think he is a God in their eyes. Jesus could be a type of unknown bother to them, because the Old Gods are so established that they only have one image and the new gods don’t care about Jesus. So they just let the people believe in Jesus as a means to an end. As in Easter’s case, she uses him to exist. Even though Wednesday points out the obvious flaw in her plan.
5. The show is very light (or very deep depending on your perspective) on Christian mythology and maybe not all the stories in the bible are taken literally. The reason for this is that Gaiman is talking about the American version of all these Gods. The American perspective on Odin, Czernobog, Mr. Nancy etc… Obviously, the main counterpoint to Christianity is that there is no other gods besides the one true god which may or may not be Jesus. It’s a very interesting thing to think about if you also take what I said in point 4. If Jesus is an unknown variable to the Old Gods they should be worried about his power. The fact that they aren’t shows that they either just let him be because they know he is practically untouchable or are so egotistical that they see Christianity as nothing but a nuisance taking up their territory. You can see this in the way Easter and Wednesday talk about Jesus like he is nothing. Just a toy to be used, a ploy to get people really believing in their own religions without them even knowing it. Christianity, could have been a pact that the old gods came up with to rewrite their own stories again for the New World in America. (which ask any religious scholar and that is exactly what it is) Then if that was the case, New Gods should be doing much better than they are.
2. I don’t think they go this deep in the show, but at the end of the season 1 Shadow basically claims he believes in Wednesday who turns out to be Odin after Odin recruits Ostara and she kills the Earth.
3. I think the different images of Jesus are the way they are because lots of people have a different representation of Jesus. Most people have the same image of Odin, what they study in the old Norse texts. There are images of him and statues of him and how he looks. I don’t think the Chinese, or African Americans have their own version of Odin (yes similar types of Gods but not the same guy), namely because he is not in their mythology. Due to globalization, over the past 2,000 years, most people around the world have their own image of Jesus. So this goes back to your first question about knowing a God or Worshiping a God. The cultures that worship Jesus all have different Jesuses but the cultures that only study about Odin, don’t remake him in their own image, simply because they don’t worship him. Hence why Wednesday seems very, very jealous of Christianity.
4. Honestly Jesus should be an enemy of Wednesday or at the very least an old-new God. I’m not sure why he is considered old, but then again in Episode 8 Wednesday says that Jesus is a man, so I am not so sure they think he is a God in their eyes. Jesus could be a type of unknown bother to them, because the Old Gods are so established that they only have one image and the new gods don’t care about Jesus. So they just let the people believe in Jesus as a means to an end. As in Easter’s case, she uses him to exist. Even though Wednesday points out the obvious flaw in her plan.
5. The show is very light (or very deep depending on your perspective) on Christian mythology and maybe not all the stories in the bible are taken literally. The reason for this is that Gaiman is talking about the American version of all these Gods. The American perspective on Odin, Czernobog, Mr. Nancy etc… Obviously, the main counterpoint to Christianity is that there is no other gods besides the one true god which may or may not be Jesus. It’s a very interesting thing to think about if you also take what I said in point 4. If Jesus is an unknown variable to the Old Gods they should be worried about his power. The fact that they aren’t shows that they either just let him be because they know he is practically untouchable or are so egotistical that they see Christianity as nothing but a nuisance taking up their territory. You can see this in the way Easter and Wednesday talk about Jesus like he is nothing. Just a toy to be used, a ploy to get people really believing in their own religions without them even knowing it. Christianity, could have been a pact that the old gods came up with to rewrite their own stories again for the New World in America. (which ask any religious scholar and that is exactly what it is) Then if that was the case, New Gods should be doing much better than they are.
6. I haven’t read the books although they are next on my list. So hopefully once I read those I can answer the questions about other religions. I hope my answers helped you somewhat. I love these types of deep-thinking shows, but sometimes you just have to sit down and think about them for a while before it clicks with you.
Does anyone think that Dead Wife = Zombie Worship and she will become a New God in the end???