"American Gods" S1E2: But when the new gods laugh, the old gods cry

Carmelo 2022-04-24 06:01:01

Getting better . "American Gods" finally showed its unique temperament and charm in the second episode, calm, quiet and deep and long enough to make people interested- provided that the audience can accept such a slow rhythm and long- lasting close-ups . The episode is nearly an hour long, but if only the plot is explained, the time can be compressed by at least one third. However, the series did not do this. The shadows did housework alone and played checkers with Zernenberg. It took a lot of space... We know that this story ended up in a big battle, but the protagonists did not. Anxious, just like the emphasis on Wednesday not to go on the highway: the destination is important, but the journey is also important. Who knows what kind of excitement we will encounter on the road? This is actually similar to serving faith: worshiping the gods is for praying for well-being, fulfilling one's wishes or looking for peace, and the long process of prayer and sacrifice itself is a manifestation of humility and piety and self-sacrifice.

The ancient gods around the corner

The opening scene of this episode is still the history of the old gods coming to the North American continent .

On a slave ship full of slaves, a black man began his prayer to Annecy. This prayer was like singing and shouting, and every word spoke of a desire for freedom.

Annecy (Mr. Nancy) is the god of deceit in African mythology, who appears as a person or a spider . With a loud call, Annecy appeared on the stage. On the slave ship in 1697, a group of naked black slaves suddenly appeared in front of black brothers in suits and leather shoes. There is no barrier between African dialect and modern English. Everywhere in the communication is weird.

Bewitched by Annecy’s ingenious words, the black slaves were agitated one by one, ready to obey each other’s words, killing the Dutch and burning the ship. Some people kept sober and asked, "If the ship burns, we will die too." Annecy replied without a doubt: " You are dead, fool, at least give your life to something more meaningful ."

With clever tongues and insidious deceit, Annecy successfully aroused the fear, panic, anger, hatred and wildness of the black slaves. His skill and eloquence can be seen.

In superstitious terms, that is, "Annash has revealed the spirit!" The black slaves who were shackled by the "miracle" liberated the other brothers, and the crowd set fire to themselves under the divine drive.

Regarding all these crazy and overflowing emotional behaviors, Anansi was quite contented... Mortals were driven to death by him, and he gained strength and contentment from them. When the ship was destroyed and the people died, he landed on the plank again and began to look for new believers.

Another ancient god Beeches also appeared again. [Correction: In the review of the first episode, the fire-breathing bull I mentioned should not be Beeches, but a native god representing the native Indians of the American continent. Thank you for your correction. 】

Probably after experiencing the high energy of the first episode, even if Beeches swallows more people this time, the shock will not make people feel restless.

It is not difficult to see that, in order to restore her supernatural powers, Beeches can be said to eat all men, women and children. Because everyone has desires, she will never lack "believers".

After that, Beeches came to the museum where her idol was displayed (it should be her), and stared at her accessories from the past, watching her plump body gradually appear in the empty glass cover, which can be seen here In the era of declining world, Beeches was "well going".

But when the new gods laugh, the old gods cry

So Beeches has a basis, that is, few other old gods have a good life ...

As expected, this episode did not delve into the shadow of who saved his life, but directly showed him receiving treatment, and then suffocated his breath to find the answer to Wednesday's question...

Shadow's angrily question was not answered clearly, but in exchange for more questions ...and double the bonus. For the sake of the old man's sincere attitude and money, Shadow chose to put up his breath for the time being and watch the changes .

"What happened in that luxury car, attacking you is equivalent to insulting me. Don't think that I haven't lost my temper. It means I'm not angry or helpless."

This is obviously not a trivial matter. What's more, he is still the militant god Odin. He made cruel remarks on the face-slapped behavior of the god of technology on Wednesday, to comfort the shadows, and secondly to take the opportunity to show his position and position to the new gods. backbone.

However, it was only handsome for three seconds...When the shadow was about to get on the highway, it was immediately stopped by Wednesday: " We don't take the high speed, not now, never. "

As for the reason, the author is also very convinced: the scenery on the highway is the same, there is no chance to encounter any beautiful scenery by chance, go to the possible place to discover the beauty! ——Of course, in addition to this point, I am afraid that there will be another new god "God of the highway" on Wednesday...

Leave three points to the lips. Wednesday has existed for thousands of years, so it is naturally well-prepared. And as the dandelion in his hand flew over the clouds, when a scene of lightning and thunder appeared, the smell of the rain and the wind filled the building quietly diffused .

How could the old guy really be so awkward, I think this is another hint .

After taking over the shopping task, he came to the mall and met the second new god who officially appeared on the stage: the god of media. Regarding "she", she can make it clear in her own words: "These are me, the shadow, this screen is an altar, and the object of sacrifice is me . Until now, from one golden age to the next golden age. They sat next to each other, ignoring each other, and dedicated them all to me . Now on their laps or in their hands, there are smaller screens so they won’t be bored looking at the big screen. Time and attention are much better than lamb’s blood. "

Incarnate as Lucy's god of media, he came to find the shadow to solicit . " I want you to join our camp ", to put it more simplistically, is " I want to give you a job ."

God is different from the arrogance of science and technology, choose not to have been tortured silence, God saw the unique qualities of the media shadow of the body -

If, in the future, a big battle really broke out between the old and the new gods, then, instead of cutting off Odin's hands and feet directly, it would be far more effective to turn these hands and feet into his own use.

The gods of the media have this confidence because the new gods have absolute advantages in the present . "We are the new forces of the future. We are right by your side. Cars, printers, medicines... We are the present and the future. And an infinite future ..."

The dying old and the immortal, or the new generation full of vitality? This choice seems to be easy to do. It is a pity that Shadow is still not very clear at this time. What kind of struggle he has been involved in, coupled with his honest and honest temper, has not changed his mind.

Seeing this result, the god of the media immediately increased the bargaining chip: I can give you more for money, and more importantly, I can help you not repeat the mistakes (of some predecessors) and save your life.

Of course, the various rhetoric of the god of the media are all to lure the shadow into betraying Wednesday . I am afraid that motives and credibility will be questioned... But is she all lies ? The answer lies in the shadow himself.

When I came back to look for Wednesday, the shadow still passed by the fire elf (Ifrit) ... Faced with the shadow’s doubts and the state of madness, he gave his answer on Wednesday: " They will ask you to do Greater sacrifice, not madness ."

In short, Shadow's anxiety was once again suppressed by Wednesday-this seems to confirm what he said in the first episode, "I can always get the faith of others."

After embarking on the journey again, the shadow kindly took out the cell phone he bought for the boss, but he did not expect to see it as a poisonous scorpion on Wednesday, and even threw the cell phone with the shadow...

If there is an excuse to be afraid of the god of highway before, then this time, Wednesday is a real fear, who is afraid of? The god of telephone, internet, media, technology... It seems that anyone can turn a small mobile phone into his own altar or window of surveillance.

The two then came to Chicago and first met with the three sisters Zoya . They are the goddesses of light in Slavic mythology . According to the arrangement in the play, Vichenyaya represents Chang Gung Star, Utenyaya represents Venus Star, and Polunosh Naya, who has yet to show up, represents Midnight Star.

"We came here a long time ago. The family is the people who survived with you when you need to survive, even if you don't like them." These ancient gods now seem to be in their dying years. They and another Slavic The characters in the mythology, Zernenberg, depend on each other , relying on fortune-telling and slaughterhouses to make a living.

It’s not difficult to find out from Zeng Ruoberg’s words that Wednesday was actually more interested in his other brother, Belleberg...

In the system of Slavic mythology, Belleberg is the god of happiness, light and sun, and Zenoberg is the god of death, darkness and sorrow, and they are two diametrically opposed gods . Combining with the words of Zenoberg, I guess these two should be two gods and one body , a bit like schizophrenia...

"In the old country, I was forgotten. Here, I was like a nightmare, so I had to find a job and I found a meat business."

There is no doubt that Zernenberg, like most old gods, has long lost believers and admiration, but he is one of the few old gods who is calm about the status quo. Even if he kills a cow, he doesn’t need him to swing a hammer to death. In the end, he also accepted the result of "no more killings".

It is for this reason that Schinnenberg is on guard for Wednesday and scorns the blueprint he has drawn.

He knows Odin’s character and behavior, and he knows what will happen next, so no matter how exhausted on Wednesday, Zernenberg is unmoved— he doesn’t want to regain the shitty glory of the past, he just wants to I live at ease .

However, this does not mean that he does not miss the pleasure brought to him by blood and death .

Unlike the old fox on Wednesday, the mellow shadow is very appetite for Zernenberg, and this favor even makes Zernenberg interested in a game of checkers with the shadow.

Down and down, Zenoberg became happier . The way he really likes people is to “tie up” the other person with himself - let’s make a bet, you win, I will go with your master, you lose, I Smash your head.

In a wicked way, Shadow agreed to Zernenberg, but he lost.

Of course, the shadow will not die so easily, but the more dramatic conflicts that follow will make the audience even more addicted, right?

The world is as real as illusion

In addition to watching the strangeness of these old and new immortals, the mental journey and various changes of the protagonist's shadow are also one of the highlights of the show.

One of the factors (or characters) that had a huge impact on him was his late wife Laura . It may be that under the action of the gold coins in the previous episode, Laura appeared in the shadow of the dream incomparably...

I don't know if there is a corpse, but what is certain is that Laura must have returned to life , and will continue to pester the shadow in the future, but it is not clear what kind of identity she will appear in the end, and what trouble it will cause to the shadow.

Speaking of the shadow, I thought he was more "faithful" in the first episode. His various performances at home in this episode confirmed this idea: In the room full of memory fragments, he carefully packed all the relics of his deceased wife. Go to the box left by the doctor.

Until the end, Shadow couldn't help but open it, and the result was the same as everyone else said. He was so green that he couldn't be green anymore.

It is self-evident how bad Shadow's mood is, and even in the photo frame he looked at the couple's photo are Robbie's big cock... But strangely, he is still working hard to clean the room...

It wasn't until he scratched his hand hard that we realized that he was not indifferent, but was secretly struggling with himself, and at the same time was deeply at a loss.

Before officially hitting the road, I asked the shadow on Wednesday: Will you miss this?

He only answered: Eagle Point Town? No, mostly Laura's memory, (I) never really lived here .

Even if he said something like "Your wife was holding someone else's penis when he died" on Wednesday, and he was ready to be beaten, it is strange that the shadow was not furious .

He just smiled and said " Thank you, remind me ". This is really "look away" .

In addition to being unable to compete with the dead, the open-mindedness of Shadow is mainly due to his lack of sense of belonging and identification with the life in Eagle Point. Now even the memory of Laura has become illusory. Now-what is true and what is false? Anyway, the world here is insignificant to the shadow.

However, if you want to directly transition to another world, you can't be so anxious...

After being "showed" by the god of the media, the shadow was obviously frightened. He ran to ask Wednesday to discuss: I admit that the world has become a bit strange after meeting you, but the things that happened to me one after another are too special. Isn't it weird? The weird index has doubled!

Unknown equals fear . After all, the shadow is a mortal body at this time. He instinctively wants to escape all the weirdness ... It's just that there is a "big flicker" on Wednesday, and he can't run.

And the most classic scene in this episode is the shadow when he agreed to Zernenberg’s bet: " Well, if these are true, the TV can speak, she can predict the future, the sledgehammer will bleed, if the world Below...there is the world, fuck him, okay ."

After a series of unthinkable and unbelievable, Shadow gradually began to accept this unprecedented new world . If all three views are subverted, what is the point of right and wrong? If the nature of the world is hard to distinguish between true and false, and the gods all walk in the world, what's the big deal of betting on life?

We are like shadows, slowly being taken into a certain "pit" by "American Gods".

In addition, thanks to shaw865, Vientiane Update and other netizens for their research and introduction, the Internet sharing spirit is the highest!

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