History Series / AmericanGods2017

* ADayInTheLimelight: "Git Gone" is all about Laura: her life, her relationship with Shadow, her affair with Robbie, and [[spoiler:what she was doing in between her revival and her reunion with Shadow]]. Shadow is the only other series regular to appear in the episode.

* JerkAssGods: Anansi tells the slaves on the ship that even hundreds of years from then, the only possible future for a black man in America is to suffer and die and the only thing to do to make their life worth anything is to kill the slavers and themselves as sacrifices to Anansi. He doesn't just teleport them back to Africa, or anything kind like that. Part of this is that GodsNeedPrayerBadly. Anansi and the other gods have recently been brought into being because of the belief of people newly arrived in the country. These gods are underpowered because they have only a fraction of their worshipers available. Anansi did not have the power to rescue those men. Not that he would have if he could have; sending his few followers to another country would weaken him. Sacrifice and belief are necessary for gods to gain more power.

* JerkAssGods: Anansi tells the slaves on the ship that even hundreds of years from then, the only possible future for a black man in America is to suffer and die and the only thing to do to make their life worth anything is to kill the slavers and themselves as sacrifices to Anansi. He doesn't just teleport them back to Africa, or anything kind like that. Part of this is that GodsNeedPrayerBadly. Anansi and the other gods have recently been brought into being because of the belief of people newly arrived in the country. These gods are underpowered because they have only a fraction of their worshippers available. Anansi did not have the power to rescue those men. Not that he would have if he could have; sending his few followers to another country would weaken him. Sacrifice and belief are necessary for gods to gain more power.

* JerkAssGods: Anansi tells the slaves on the ship that even hundreds of years from then, the only possible future for a black man in America is to suffer and die and the only thing to do to make their life worth anything is to kill the slavers and themselves as sacrifices to Anansi. He doesn't just teleport them back to Africa, or anything kind like that. Part of that is that GodsNeedPrayerBadly. Anansi and the other gods have recently been brought into being because of the belief of people newly arrived in the country. These gods are underpowered because they have only a fraction of their worshippers available. Anansi did not have the power to rescue those men. Not that he would have if he could have; sending his few followers to another country would weaken him. Sacrifice and belief are necessary for gods to gain more power.

* AscendedExtra: Some characters from the 'Somewhere in America' stories that are interspersed throughout the book will play a bigger part in the show.

* WhamShot: Two in the first episode.
** The coin Mad Sweeney gave Shadow and he in turn leaves on Laura's grave shines with an eerie light before being swallowed into the earth.
** Shadow staring on in the aftermath of a bloody massacre of the men who beat and hung him.

* JerkAssGods: Anansi tells the slaves on the ship that even hundreds of years from then, the only possible future for a black man in America is to suffer and die and the only thing to do to make their life worth anything is to kill the slavers and themselves as sacrifices to Anansi. He doesn't just teleport them back to Africa, or anything kind like that.

** In the book, Shadow is noted to be an UnfazedEveryman which even Mr. Wednesday lampshaded who also spoke politely and never cursed. The series sees him more emotional and swearing frequently.

* EarlyBirdCameo: The narrator of the "Coming to America" scene that starts the first episode is a spectacled black man, writing with a fountain pen in a book.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/american_gods.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[{{Tagline}} You are what you worship]].]]

* BiTheWay: Bilquis has sex with both men and women, which is not surprising since that way there's double the food.

* JerkAssGods: Anansi tells the slaves on the ship that even hundreds of years from then, the only possible future for a black man in America is to suffer and die and the only thing to do to make their life worth anything is to kill the slavers and themselves as sacrifices to Anansi.

* {{Leprechaun}}: Mad Sweeny claims to be one despite him and Shadow both being big guys and lacking an accent. He's got a lot of the traits in common including red hair and doing tricks with gold coins. He's also got the stereotypical Irish traits including drinking, loving to fight, and has a hell of a temper.

** The coin Mad Sweeny gave Shadow and he in turn leaves on Laura's grave shines with an eerie light before being swallowed into the earth.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: In the book, Shadow is walking back to the hotel from Laura's burial by himself, because he was dropped off by Wednesday, then rode to the burial with Laura's mother in a limousine. In the show, however, he took Wednesday's Cadillac to the funeral, and there's no scene in the limo, so one assumes he took that car to the burial as well. The reason, however, that it's important that Shadow walks back to the hotel is that it's on the road that he has his first run-in with [[spoiler: The Technical Boy.]]

* GroinAttack: [[spoiler: Laura was giving Robbie a blowjob seconds before the car accident. The resulting impact was enough to send them both flying through the windscreen, and whether from the force of the collision or brain damage, [[RealityEnsues Laura unintentionally bites off Robbie's penis.]] This in turn reveals to Audrey and Shadow that their spouses were having an affair.]]

-->'''Audrey''': Holy shit, Shadow. Nobody told you? [[spoiler:[[YourCheatingHeart [Laura] died with my husband's cock in her mouth.]]]]

** [[spoiler: The coin Mad Sweeny gave Shadow and he in turn leaves on Laura's grave shines with an eerie light before being swallowed into the earth.]]
** [[spoiler: Shadow staring on in the aftermath of a bloody massacre of the men who beat and hung him.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Shadow finds out Laura, at her funeral no less, [[spoiler: was cheating on him with his best friend while he was in prison.]]

* BlatantLies: Zorya Polunochnaya reads Shadow's future and rather unconvincingly claims he'll live a long life and have many children. Shadow is understandably unconvinced.

* BerserkButton:
** Shadow is understandably touchy about slights against his recently deceased wife. Mad Sweeney tries to goad Shadow into a fight but Shadow declines. Then Sweeney insults Laura and Shadow punches him in the face before Sweeney can even finish the sentence. After learning of [[spoiler:her infidelity]], he becomes more conflicted about her, as evidenced by his more sedate reaction during his first conversation with the Technical Boy.
** Lampshaded and discussed by "Low Key" Lyesmith and Shadow: Low Key tells Shadow the story of Johnny Larch, an inmate who tried to fly away after getting paroled, but since he refused to allow a airport worker to "disrespect" him by not taking his expired ID, he ended up thrown out of the airport, and soon back in prison. In prison, "not taking disrespect" is a survival mechanism, but it can get you into lots of trouble on the outside. [[HiddenDepths Shadow comments that perhaps the lesson is that behaviors that work in a specialized environment like prison can be detrimental when used outside said environment.]] Low Key responds that the moral of the story is, "don't fuck with those bitches at the airport." Remembering this story keeps Shadow from breaking his parole by blowing his top at the rude ticket lady at the airport.

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Laura.]]

* EarlyBirdCameo: The narrator of the "Coming to America" scene that starts the first episode is a spectacled black man, writing with a fountain pen in a book. If you've read the book, or even paid attention to the promotional material from Starz, you'll recognize the man as [[spoiler: Mr. Ibis, who Shadow will cross paths with during the series. Considering Ibis is an incarnation of Thoth, this makes the appearance a literal Early Bird Cameo.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: It took the Vikings to make war in order to summon Odin's favor. [[spoiler: It hints at Wednesday's ultimate scheme, inciting war in order to fuel his power.]]

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Shadow is quickly suspicious when Mr. Wednesday makes unusually dead-on observations, but he starts to chuckle at his antics when Wednesday deduces that Shadow had a hippie mom.

** Bookverse Mr. Nancy was fun-loving and laid back. Mr. Nancy's first scene in the series has him spitting a furious speech about what America has in store for its African-American population, inciting a 17th century ship full of slaves to break their chains, slit the throats of their enslavers, and burn the boat down.