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In General
"We're the coming thing. We are already here. We are self-driving cars and 3D printers and subdermal time-release insulin. And your old boss is still selling oranges on the side of the road. Not even organic. We are now and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. And he ain't even yesterday anymore."
— Media
The New Gods of the world. Younger and more powerful than the Old Gods, the New Gods embody modern concepts and beliefs.
- Adaptational Villainy: While portrayed as antagonists in the book, this was in-context to a Grey-and-Gray Morality world, the only outright villainous moment being when Technical Boy has Bilquis killed. Here their hold on America is portrayed as much more authoritarian; being much more hands on their their attempt and keeping a war with the Old Gods at bay, their extreme tactics when war is declared, the borderline abusive relationship they have with the Old Gods under the thumb and their complete disregard to their human followers. In season three, they are outright formulating a plot to mind-control their worshippers into complete obedience with Project SHARD, wiping all of the Old Gods out of existence in one foul swoop.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Fittingly as a new pantheon, they give off this impression, despite not technically being related, with Mr World and Media as the Abusive Parents and the Technical Boy as the problem child.
- Bread and Circuses: Mr. Wednesday argues that while the Old Gods lived on a give-and-take barter system that provided meaning to mankind and their control over nature, the only thing the New Gods accomplish is distracting mankind from its ills without addressing them and feeding on that attention like parasites. He is proven right in "The Greatest Story Ever Told", where Technical Boy is quickly forgotten and ignored by his Only Friend the moment New Media provides a better alternative for what the Technical Boy had provided before being "retired" by Mr. World for his obsolescence.
- Dysfunction Junction: The Old Gods are odd, there's no doubt about that, but they're also very human. The New Gods act in ways that imply they might be legitimately insane. The Technical Boy is violent to the point of trying to hang a black man from a tree, Media always appears in the persona of a famous character, and Mr. World's incredible speech about individualism and salsa speaks for itself.
- Humanoid Abomination: All of them beyond just being gods (with Mr. Wood as a Botanical Abomination instead). While the old gods could be described as eldritch, they were directly shaped by human imagination and will, basically making them tulpas with human aspects and traits, so at the least they are relatable from a human perspective. The new gods weren't directly shaped by the imagination and are instead shaped by mass consciousness, making them more like Anthropomorphic Personifications of what they represent. Because humanity didn't give them human traits or characteristics, they come off as being different, at the least.
- Interface Screw: Occasionally when one of them is on screen, the audio or visuals will distort strangely, with bursts of static like a bad radio signal. It usually only happens when one of them gets particularly emotional.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: However, unlike the Old Gods, they don't seem to need direct prayer and sacrifice. Dialogue throughout the first season implies that this is because they're getting small amounts of belief from all seven billion humans on the planet. A question of quantity over quality.
- Jerkass Gods: The three of them slaughtered an entire police station just to make a point to Shadow and Wednesday, and the Technical Boy tried to hang Shadow from a tree.
- Modernized God: Whereas the Old Gods represent universal abstracts that have always pervaded society (War, Death, the Seasons, the Stars, etc.), the New Gods all represent things that could not have existed before the 20th Century like globalization, telephones, television, gun-culture, etc. When Old Gods of ancient universal abstracts are "updated" into their pantheon, their domains are placed into these modern concepts, such as the Spring Goddess Ostara being made the matron god of modern Easter traditions, the Roman forge-god Vulcan is made the god of gun culture, and the omnituens Argus becomes a god of Sinister Surveillance.
- Oddly Small Organization: For being the new rulers of the world, there only seem to be three actual New Gods. Media, the Technical Boy, and Mr World. However there are also the Children and the various Old Gods they've coerced, bribed, or bullied into joining them, like Mr. Wood, Vulcan, or Bilquis.
- Post-Modern Magik: Being gods born in an industrialized world full of smartphones and the internal combustion engine, all of the New Gods follow the same general rules and principles as the Old Gods, but through technology and modern values of secular America. They routinely meet each other and other people in a VR limousine, Technical Boy smokes a synthetic drug, Media and New Media take time wasted on screens (television for the former, social media for the other) as offerings to them, Mr. World can do things that only the highest ranking members of the government can do (like having access to satellites and A.R.G.U.S.), etc. In the case of Old Gods who join them, see Modernized God.
- Setting Update: They offer a version of this to the Old Gods as a form of bribery, 'rebranding' them to fit into the modern world. Ostara became Easter, Vulcan became the god of firearms, Mr. Wood became a parasitic Botanical Abomination, they offer Wednesday the 'ODIN guided missile system', and Bilquis was given access to a Tinder-like app called Sheba to find new worshippers to feed on.
- Shadow Government: It's all but stated that the New Gods are the highest authority in the country, capable of using America's military to nuke North Korea as nothing more than a gesture of good will to Wednesday.Mr. World: The President is a cardboard cutout. I am the man, behind the man, behind the man. Operation Paperclip, the Moon Landing, Roswell, the Compton Crack Wars; you work for me. You have always worked for me.
Season One
The Technical Boy
The Technical Boy
"See, I said don't fuck with me. Now that, that was fucking with me. Keep your answers short and to the point, or I will fucking kill you, or maybe I won't, maybe I'll just have the Children here break every bone in your fucking body, so DON'T. FUCK. WITH. ME."
Portrayed By: Bruce Langley
"Wednesday is history, forgotten and old. He should just let it happen. We are the future. We don't give a fuck about him or anyone like him. They are consigned to the dumpster."
New God of computers, smartphones and the Internet.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Appearance-wise, he's the character who's changed the most from the book. In the book, he's an overweight, pimply teen. Here, he's clear-skinned and thin, although still unmistakably a nerd. Justified Trope per Neil Gaiman in a USA Today interview about the show.
"Technical Boys in 1999 were living in their moms' basements and trying to figure out how to order a pizza through the Internet. (Now) they are abusing people in the back of Ubers or monetizing fake news."- Behind-the-scenes material released by Colin Penman (then deleted, then re-posted several years later by Bruce Langley here) revealed that there was a sequence shot for season 2 depicting a previous incarnation of Technical Boy that was supposed to be closer to the character of the book, thus playing with this trope. However the scene was never actually added into the final episodes.
- Behind-the-scenes material released by Colin Penman (then deleted, then re-posted several years later by Bruce Langley here
- Adaptational Heroism: A self-serving example, but he makes a deal with Bilquis in the show and lets her live and prosper at the cost of her allegiance, while in the book he just runs her over with his limo while taunting her.
- Adaptational Villainy: This Technical Boy seems more ruthless than his book self. In the book, he tells his men only to slightly rough up Shadow in their first meeting and he comes out just with a few bruises. In here, he outright orders his men to lynch him. This goes hand in hand with the above-mentioned update to the character from the late 1990s to the late 2010s.
- Bullying the Dragon: Despite being afraid of Mr World, and knowing he's at the bottom of the new gods' pecking order, he's simply too arrogant and aggressive to be unable to voice his disbelief that his superiors want to negotiate with Wednesday, or that Mr World is willing to let him live after he turns down his offer. This eventually leads to Media knocking his teeth out for being disrespectful.
- The Bus Came Back: In "Moon Shadow", Technical Boy is brought back (albeit in a less abrasive, more deadpan form) by the CEO when he manages to create a replacement for Argus. Considering that Mr. World does not even acknowledge him when he appears at Black Briar, this is probably not the first time this has happened.
- Characterization Marches On: In a meta sense, the changes seen in Technical Boy's character are understandable when you think of the way the internet itself has changed. When the book was published in 2001 the global internet was young, relatively harmless, and used for only a few specific things. The internet now however is everywhere in everything, full of violence and hatred, and seemingly all-powerful. Ergo Technical Boy is now more dangerous, violent, and powerful than his book counterpart.
- Invoked and played with by season two, which reveals that the Technical Boy of the first season is in truth the most recent incarnation of the New God of technology ; but he had different incarnations and personas in the past, including a "softer", more sweet-talking version in the 1920s/1930s called Telephone Boy.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: While he dies by Mr. World's hand just like in the book, in the novel he is killed by Mr. World with a knife to prevent him from revealing World's plan to the rest of the New Gods. Here, he "retires" Technical Boy with a virtual visor when it is made clear that New Media can do everything that Technical Boy can but better, making him obsolete.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: He hates that the other gods do not show him much respect. When Shadow, a mortal, talks back to him, he has Shadow lynched. He hates that World and Media are willing to negotiate with Wednesday, someone he sees as powerless and obsolete but who treat him as a child. He frequently checks in on Bilquis in order to enforce his power dynamic onto her and threatens Argus when he proves uncooperative.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He had his goons try to lynch Shadow because he was upset with him personally — apparently not realizing the obvious racism of lynching a black man. After Media berates him for this, he is awkwardly embarrassed at how racist it seemed and apologizes to Shadow:Technical Boy: We're in a weird place racially in this country right now, and I don't want to add to that climate of hatred.
- Faux Affably Evil: He makes a token attempt to be congenial, but drops it quickly when Shadow is unable to tell him what Wednesday is planning.
- Freudian Excuse: From the way that Mr. World and Media "disciplines" him time and time again, it is no wonder why Technical Boy goes after every obstacle with curse words and a lynch mob.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He smokes synthetic frogskins out of a vape pen.
- The Handler: Acts this way towards Bilquis and Argus.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: It is implied by Media that the Technical Boy's habit of meeting every problem that surfaces with threats and violence is born from an antisocial anxiety, especially towards people he has not gotten used to.
- Irony: Mr. World "retires" him when he is unable to have the CEO make a replacement for Argus. When the CEO creates this replacement, it takes the form of a new Technical Boy.
- The Nth Doctor: Implied. The modern Technical Boy has a personality and way of speaking that reflects modern internet culture, implying that he has existed for only as long as the internet has. In "Donar the Great" however, it is revealed that he has existed for as long as the telephone, with the modern Technical Boy acting as though he has never met Mr. Wednesday. This is confirmed to be the case in "Moon Shadow". Technical Boy is seemingly killed off in "Munnin" by Mr. World, only for a newer incarnation of Technical Boy to manifest in "Moon Shadow" when the CEO creates him as a replacement for Argus. Considering that Mr. World does not acknowledge him when he appears in Black Briar it is likely that this was not the first time he had to "retire" a Technical Boy and replace him with a new version, nor will it be the last.
- Older Than They Look: While it was originally assumed that Technical Boy came into existence with the internet, "Donar the Great" reveals that he has existed as far back as the 1930s, then associated with the communication technology of the times (namely, land-line telephones).
- In "Tears of the Wrath-Bearing Tree", it is revealed that Technical Boy is the Anthropomorphic Personification of Human Innovation, making him the oldest and most powerful of all the New Gods. The reason why he does not know this is that without his first totem Artifact 1 — an old flint-rock from when man first discovered fire — he suffers from Identity Amnesia with every new technological era, Mr World withholding it to control him.
- Setting Update: In the book, Technical Boy reflected the common perception of the internet at the time Gaiman wrote it: a pimple-ridden and obese teenager who apes The Matrix. Here, while still fairly young, he's more of an obnoxious, Mark Zuckerberg-esque hipster douchebag who vapes in his pure white limo, and is far more violent, in representation of the overly hostile Internet Jerk populace and how they have led to increased real-world violence.
- Stereotype: In-Universe, Media advises the Technical Boy to consider how it might reflect on his image that his temper led him to hang Shadow, a black man, from a tree.
- Smug Snake: Especially when compared with Mr. Wednesday or Media, who are charming in their manipulations, the Technical Boy has a high opinion of himself despite acting like an obnoxious brat.
- Tech Bro: The Technical Boy (new god of computers, smartphones and the internet) is depicted as a fashionable, technologically-attuned millennial. In the original book, he was much more a classic-style overweight geek, but the television show deliberately updated him to reflect the emergence of rich, powerful tech bosses. The application of the trope is made even funnier when he's shown to be bad at his job when asked to perform, arguing with his own GPS when he's driving to Black Briar, failing to talk Argus into cooperating and being unable to get the CEO to make them a new surveillance system. This inevitably leads to Mr. World "retiring" him and replacing him with a new version of the Technical Boy.
- That Came Out Wrong: When he had Shadow hanged from a tree, he didn't realize how racist it was to do that to a black man. After being scolded by Media for it, he apologizes to Shadow for his behavior. See Even Evil Has Standards.
- The Tooth Hurts: Media knocks out his front teeth as punishment for his behavior toward Shadow and Wednesday.
- Unskilled, but Strong: In terms of raw power, he's on his way to being the strongest of the New Gods. But he's also the newest of the New Gods — to the point that he appears as just a bratty post-adolescent. As a result he isn't very experienced and can be impulsive — he's used to just getting what he wants through blunt force. Compare this to the Old Gods like Wednesday and Nancy, who might not be as powerful as they used to be but have much more experience with deftly manipulating people do to what they want. Even the other New Gods tell him he needs to work on his public image.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: When Mr. World's attempts to sway Wednesday to the side of the New Gods fail, Technical Boy angrily asks him why he doesn't just kill Wednesday while he has the chance. Mr. World declares Wednesday to be a Worthy Opponent and when Technical Boy scoffs at him, Media (here appearing as Marilyn Monroe) in retaliation blows him a kiss that knocks his front teeth out.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He is forcibly "retired" by Mr. World for his repeated failures, but not before his creator forgets him, courtesy of New Media.
Media
Media
"The screen is the altar. I'm the one they sacrifice to. Then till now. Golden Age to Golden Age. They sit side by side, ignore each other, and give it up to me. Now they hold a smaller screen on their lap or in the palm of their hand so they don't get bored watching the big one. Time and attention: better than lamb's blood."
Portrayed By: Gillian Anderson (Media), Kahyun Kim (New Media)
"Mass delusions are as old as I am. I was there when the Martians invaded in 1938. What a panic. Powerful panic. Now there are starmen waiting in the sky. They believed it was true, and it was."
New Goddess of mass media and entertainment, particularly movies and television. The public face and "mouth piece" of the New Gods, and Mr. World's whip/enforcer among the New Gods. After Media's mysterious disappearance following Season One, she reemerges, having "evolved" into New Media — the New Goddess of global content. She's a cyberspace chameleon, who is also a master of manipulation.
Tropes that apply to Media
- Adaptational Badass: In the book, her powers let her talk through a single TV in Shadow's motel room, and once the set is turned off, she's gone, but Shadow pulls the plug for good measure. Here, she controls a few dozen TVs at once in a store display, and turns them back on after they've been unplugged. She can also levitate and blow kisses of concussive force.
- Affably Evil: Unsurprising, given that she's a Goddess of entertainment, but she's very charming towards Shadow. She even expresses regret for the Technical Boy's goons lynching him and respect for Shadow's abilities.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's a violent, manipulative and vindictive goddess, playing the role of various Hollywood starlets and TV personalities. The mask rarely slips, but when it does...
- Big Brother Is Watching: As Shadow and Wednesday leave the bank (which they later rob), the static changes to reveal her eye for a moment.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Spouts a popular (if debunked) theory about the death of Marilyn Monroe while wearing her face. Fitting, as she is the embodiment of what is spreading the mass panic in the first place. As she tells Technical Boy...Technical Boy: Not everyone believed.
Media: Not everyone had to. Just enough. That's all Mr. Wednesday needs. Just enough. Maybe just one. - Do Not Adjust Your Set: Justified since she's the goddess of television, she can turn TVs on and hijack programs to communicate with others. She introduces herself to Shadow by speaking through Lucy Ricardo.
- The Dragon: "Lemon Scented You" reveals more of her role of keeping the New Gods (particularly Technical Boy) in line with Mr. World's commands.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She has very little time for the Technical Boy and his behavior towards Shadow and Wednesday, and when he continues to show disrespect to Mr. World, she blows him a kiss that knocks two of his teeth out.
- False Friend: She helps old gods "rebrand" themselves to adapt to the new world (and thus becoming dependent on the New Gods) and refers to these gods as her friends. She helped Ostara adjust to the role of "Easter" and helped her popularize the old Easter traditions within the framework of Christianity. However, when Ostara begins protesting about her misrepresentation in the media, she begins to threaten her, and tells Ostara that she owes her life to her. Ostara reacts by joining Wednesday and taking away the spring, causing potential famine.
- Faux Affably Evil: Partly because she always appears in the guise of a famous movie or TV character and rarely drops the act. She implies that they'd help nuke Korea to empower Wednesday in the breathy voice of Marylin Monroe, and later threatens to destroy Easter completely and then calls her a friend mere minutes apart.
- Femme Fatale: Frequently takes on the form of beautiful film legends to make herself seem more appealing, likable, and seductive to potential allies of the New Gods, but it's very clear that she's up to no good.
- Insistent Terminology: She specifies she's not speaking through Lucille Ball but Lucy Ricardo — that is, Lucy's most famous character, not the actress herself.
- Man of a Thousand Faces: She appears in the guise of media characters portrayed by entertainers of legendary status, specifically (in order) Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo, David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, Marilyn Monroe in her Iconic Outfit of "The Girl" in The Seven Year Itch, and Judy Garland as Hannah Brown in Easter Parade. Made more impressive in that it's all wardrobe, vocal inflection, expression, and body language, as each is still played by Gillian Anderson.
- Marilyn Maneuver: Uses this in a wrongheaded attempt to seduce Shadow over to the New Gods' side.Media: [as Marilyn Monroe] [gasping] Ah... Isn't that delicious?
- Mouth of Sauron: She's described as being the "mouthpiece" for the New Gods as a whole.
- Politically Correct Villain: She's perfectly fine bombing North Korea as part of a political deal, but berates the Technical Boy for lynching a black man, telling him he should really consider what sort of public image he wants to have.
- Punny Name: Watch your pronunciation — she's Media, goddess of modern telecommunications and entertainment, rather than Medea, of Golden Fleece fame.
- The Vamp: She's not above using seduction to try to tempt Shadow away from Wednesday."Hey, you ever wanted to see Lucy's tits?"
- Waxing Lyrical: All the time when appearing as "Ziggy Stardust" to speak to the Technical Boy. She also quotes "Easter Parade" and "Couple of Swells" while appearing as Judy Garland.
- We Can Rule Together: She tries to recruit Shadow over to the New Gods side by offering him a job. Later on, she and Mr. World make a similar offer to Wednesday.
- With Friends Like These...: Media's relationship with Easter seems a tiny bit abusive, considering the way she expects Easter to be constantly grateful for the changes in her day and rather quickly has the Children threaten her, yet she still calls Easter her friend afterwards.
Tropes that apply to New Media
"Art is the most valuable means of insight into the direction of our collective purpose. The appetite for distractions is infinite. I can choke them with trivia, drown them in passive pleasures and devastate their spirituality with baby-talk."
- Annoying Younger Sibling: In contrast to Media, who had a more dominant and quasi-parental relationship with Technical Boy, New Media's interactions with Technical Boy embody this.
- Canon Foreigner: She doesn't exist in the book and was only created when Gillian Anderson left the show over
Creative Differences. - Foil:
- To Media. Media always manifested herself as different icons of pop culture, who were rooted in the past. New Media has her own identity and by contrast to Media is more in-tune with the cyber-age in terms of sheer content and how it can be manipulated.
- To Technical Boy. Both are young gods associated with modern technology (Technical Boy the hardware and practicality, New Media the software and recreation). But while the Technical Boy is a Spoiled Brat riddled with insecurities that goes after every problem with vitriol, New Media goes after a problem with honey instead of vinegar, seducing Argus with their compatibility. New Media even comments that they are "redundant."
- G-Rated Drug: As a New God based around digital and social media, she craves bandwidth and fibre optics.
- Idol Singer: Her outfit evokes this imagery. Fitting, as she is the embodiment of social media and all the fame and harshness that entails.
- The Nth Doctor: A new incarnation of Media, now with a different appearance and personality. It is implied that the same thing will happen again in the future.
- Parental Favoritism: From the moment she manifests, it is clear that Mr. World favors her over Technical Boy.
- Race Lift: The Caucasian Media is reincarnated as the East Asian New Media.
- Social Media Is Bad: The show doesn't portray her, the personification of digital entertainment, positively. She is very aware of what the dangers of social media are and proudly draws her strength from the masses of people addicted to it.
- Technology Marches On: In-Universe, the reason why Media "evolved" into New Media. New Media is essentially the personification of the dark side of social network sites brought to life.
Mr. World
Mr. World/Ms. World
"You're a person. I know people. Everything about all of them. You have a name. Shadow Moon. You have a blood type and a recurring nightmare. B-positive and an orchard of bones. You prefer Swiss to cheddar and can't abide the tines of two forks touching."
Portrayed By: Crispin Glover (Seasons 1-3), Danny Trejo (Season 3), Dominique Breber (Ms. World)
"I get it. I do. You're an individualist. Rugged individualism. It simply doesn't work any more. Brands, sure, a useful heuristic; but ultimately everything is all systems interlaced. A single product manufactured by a single company for a single global market. Spicy, medium or chunky! They get a choice, of course! OF COURSE! But they are buying salsa."
New God of Globalization, and leader of the New Gods. He knows everything about every person, and tends to leave destruction in his wake.
Tropes that apply to Mr. World
- Abusive Parents: Whenever Technical Boy gets out of line, Mr. World does not hesitate to either verbally or physically beat him and eventually "retire" him when it is made clear that he has no more use for him. He also does not hide his favoritism towards New Media despite her having only recently come into existence.
- Adaptational Badass: In the book he was subservient to Media and Technical Boy (though a bit of a Hypercompetent Sidekick, despite the fact both the Boy and Media are implied to be stronger than he is), but here he outright leads them and they're all terrified of him. His powerset also gets an update, with him being a deity of globalization itself and possessing all the knowledge of the globe stored in his mind, rather than just the leader of the Spookshow, a Men-in-Black-style group of enforcers.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Mr. World is a lot creepier and foreboding in the show, while in the book he's just suave and mild-mannered (though threatening in a subtler way).
- Adaptational Superpower Change: In the book he has no power to speak of besides leading his men. In the show he is The Omniscient.
- Bad Boss: While he markets himself as a populist, he resorts to bullying those lower than him (which is everyone), or at least outsourcing his cruelty through Media, whenever someone acts contrary to his interests.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: He's a Sharp-Dressed Man (fitting his CEO aesthetic), probably the most powerful person in the series and the Big Bad.
- Big Bad: He's the leader of the New Gods, the faction that Wednesday wants to go to war against.
- Coat Cape: How he wears his coat.
- Cold Ham: His Large Ham personality is delivered chillingly through his stiff movements and the fact that he speaks only in whispers, the echo-effect his voice makes and his bombastic dialogue accentuating the over-the-topness of his personality.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: He comes off as a sleazy CEO, trying to buy out the Old Gods with flashy effects.
- The Dreaded: Wednesday and the New Gods alike are all terrified of him — for good reason, if the carnage he leaves in his wake in the police station is any indication.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Mr. World's silhouette can be seen in the bank camera footage from "Head Full Of Snow", along with a single frame of Media's eye spying on Shadow.
- Faux Affably Evil: Acts very polite and respectful towards Mr. Wednesday and offers Shadow restitution for the Technical Boy's assault, but is completely, horribly indifferent about human lives, slaughtering an entire police station just to make a point and offering to kill the entire population of North Korea in Wednesday's name, if he chooses to join the New Gods.
- Glamour Failure: Happens a couple of time during Season One — the first when he is explaining his powers to Shadow (his face distorts and pixelates until Media snaps him out of it) and the second during "Come To Jesus", when he projects his form onto one of his mooks (which flickers in and out of existence as if the process is outright painful).
- Interface Screw: Both in-universe and out, Mr. World makes lights flicker and pop in his presence and his face fragments and pixelates as he explains his abilities to Shadow. Also, Crispin Glover is filmed mainly in Dutch Angle style (swinging from a slight angle to extreme depending on the scene) with copious use of Bokeh camera effects and Adrenaline Time to create an unsettling image.
- Kubrick Stare: Mr. World gets a long, sinister stare right into the camera (coupled with Adrenaline Time) just before he introduces himself, telling you everything you need to know about him before he ever opens his mouth.
- Large Ham: Mr. World gets quite carried away when offering Wednesday the chance to rule alongside him.
- Motivated by Fear: Mr. World's core philosophy is that progress and mankind are motivated by fear of the unknown and fear of other people. This is expressly said multiple times and put into practice in "Moon Shadow" when the New Gods use their combined abilities and resources to whip America into a panic, framing Shadow, Mr. Wednesday and Salim for a stream of murders and terrorist attacks as a warning.Mr. World: People could not conceive on what an alien space-craft might look like. They did not believe an alien attack could happen. What made it real... is the fear that it could exist, and the fact that it was feared so deeply meant that it did exist. Fear is a product of the imagination, it's made up in the mind, the mind can think and dream of anything. You love fear. You love Horror. You pay money for a pair of three-dimensional glasses and popcorn for an hour and a half... of anxiety. Something on Earth that keeps people thinking is the idea that it can end at any moment. Fear has no end, fear is limitless, fear thrives and feeds on the self, preparing you for coality, preparing you to believe. But the most important things... are the most dangerous. If it's real in your mind, it's real in the world. The more you believe... the more you believe.
- The Omniscient: He knows, or claims to know, everything about everyone, including Shadow's blood type, his recurring nightmare, the face he makes when he jerks off and how many people his mother slept with in her lifetime. That said, his ability seems to have limits (when it comes to other Gods) as he couldn't perceive Mr. Wednesday until a few clear photos of him came to light, allowing Mr. World to pinpoint his location. Wednesday also implies that even speaking to him when he doesn't know you will let him learn all there is to know about you.
- Ominous Walk: His echoing footsteps precede him as he saunters into the Interrogation Room. Justified, as he has a literally captive audience and can take his time intimidating Wednesday and Shadow. Bonus points for his footsteps illuminating the tiles beneath his feet — it would
look silly if he wasn't so terrifying. - Perception Filter: Lights fade and cameras die in Mr. World's presence. Ironic, as the God who literally knows everything about everybody on Earth cannot be recorded himself.
- Slasher Smile: He's smiling all the time in what appears to be an attempt on his part to seem charming and affable. Instead, it makes him look like a serial killer.
- The Sociopath: While Mr. World tries to market himself as a philanthropist that only wants to help the lost and forgotten gods of the past, it is very clear that he is more interested in keeping order under his own regime over the lives and well-being of others, including his fellow New Gods. He hopes to avoid a war with the Old Gods by sacrificing the entire population of North Korea to Mr. Wednesday as a gift. When New Media manifests, he does not react or show concern that the original Media that he has known all these years theoretically does not exist anymore (something that does not go unnoticed by Technical Boy). He goes to great lengths to "discipline" Technical Boy whenever he gets out of line, but does so by verbally and physically beating him in a manner reminiscent of an abusive father that would beat their kid over perceived insults. When it is made clear that New Media has made Technical Boy obsolete, Mr. World "retires" Technical Boy without so much as blinking.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: His voice only rises a few times during his sales pitch, after slaughtering a police station and offering to destroy North Korea.
- Totalitarian Utilitarian: He prefers avoiding a war at all costs and accommodates to the Old Gods to bring them into his pantheon. The thing is, though, is that he does what he can to make them suit their needs, and retaliates with a massacre as a warning.Michael Green: Mr. World is also been very, very good at making the correct overtures to the Old Gods and trying to incorporate them because he is a populist. He wants everyone to have a place in the new world, just so long as it's his new world.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: While all Gods are capable of this to an extent, it is shown that Mr. World is capable of taking on different human identities in ways beyond this, Season 3 beginning with him taking on the form of Ms. World (a Black Boss Lady) on a whim and later disguising himself as a government official to speak with Bilquis.
- We Can Rule Together: He offers Wednesday the chance to set aside his war and be worshiped with the help of the New Gods.
- Worthy Opponent: When the Technical Boy says they should just kill Wednesday while he's at their mercy, Mr. World says Wednesday deserves their respect on account of his age and wisdom and leaves him and Shadow alive to consider his offer.
Tropes that apply to Ms. World
"You were all created by me for a specific purpose. Fail at that purpose and this is what happens. Are we clear?"
- Black Boss Lady: While Mr. World is a Cold Ham who instills fear in his minions with nothing but a glance, Ms. World is much more blunt and sarcastic than that, much more likely to get her point across either violently or with snark.
- Brutal Honesty: Unlike their male identities, Ms. World isn't the type who waxes poetic or asks how your day has been. She is all business, any levity she allows usually a biting remark.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: While Mr. World is Ax-Crazy by default, it takes a lot for him to lose his cool. As Ms. World, her first scene has her violently beating one of her minions to death with a baseball bat for underestimating Wednesday.
Tropes that apply to Señor Mundo
"Not a problem."
- Affably Evil: While Mr. World's composure is transparently fake and Ms. World doesn't even bother with niceties, his Hispanic form is far less intimidating, negotiating with Laura and Salim with no trouble. This is especially ironic considering Danny Trejo usually plays The Stoic and intense characters. Even when Laura tells him to "eat a dick" he just laughs it off. This is Mr. World however, so he throws in the caveat that if Laura doesn't kill Wednesday, he will have her and her friends killed.
Mr. Wood
Mr. Wood
"There's always been a god-shaped hole in man's head. Trees were the first to fill it.[...]Mister Wood was the trees. Mister Wood was the forest. Well, he was a very old god who saw something very new. He saw a god-fearing society turning towards complete industrialization. So... so what did he do? He sacrificed his trees. He sacrificed his forest. And he became something else."
— Mr. Wednesday
A god of trees and one of the oldest gods in the world. Mr. Wood realized that the old ways were doomed and chose to join the New Gods so he could continue to thrive in a world of industrialization, becoming something closer to a parasite. Mr. Wood manifests as a giant sentient tree out of any object made from wood.
- Adaptational Abomination: In the book, Mr. Wood is simply one of the Spookshow, the Men-in-Black-style agents that do Mr. World's bidding, and it's left vague whether he's just New God in a human form or just a human under the New God's employment. Here, he's a giant sentient tree god that can appear from any object made of wood, kills on Mr. World's orders and can even implant a root-like tracker in his victims.
- Botanical Abomination: It was originally an animistic tree god before it sacrificed its own trees to become "something else."
- The Brute: His debut appearance has him acting as mass-murdering muscle for Mr. World.
- Les Collaborateurs: He has joined the side of the New Gods to ensure his own survival, to the detriment of both old gods and his domain of forests and trees.
- Decomposite Character: In Season 2, another Mr. Wood appears as one of Mr. Town's goons. Doubles as an aversion of One-Steve Limit.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: He stabs Shadow in the gut and infects him with a tentacled, mandragora-like creature that Wednesday has to pull out of him before the wound will close.
- Stealthy Mook: Thanks to his ability to manifest from wooden objects.
- Time Abyss: Despite being affiliated with the New Gods, he's as old as people have relied on trees, which is pretty much the beginning of the human race itself.
- When Trees Attack: Due to giving so much of himself to the forest, this is the only means by which Mr. Wood attacks.
The "Children"
The Children
- The Blank: They lack faces entirely. It is implied that while this is the default, their bodies are used as a form of omnipresence for the New Gods (both Technical Boy and Mr. World manifesting from a pair of Blanks) and can be granted personalities by them at their leisure, Ms. World having threatened to unmake them if they fail her.
- Expy: The Children seems to be some unholy combination of Alex DeLarge and his Droogs from A Clockwork Orange and the Slender Man.
- In "Come to Jesus", the Children move like and are dressed as Fred Astaire in Easter Parade.
- Faceless Goons: They, literally, lack facial features, including eyes, mouths, noses and ears.
- Self-Duplication: "Come to Jesus" reveals that if needed, a single Child can turn into an army of Children, quickly. Technical Boy can also appear in the place of a dividing Child as well, and Mr. World can simply take one over as necessary.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: They don't seem to have any individual traits and can be summoned in potentially infinite numbers, yet are very much mortal. And their deaths do count as human sacrifice powerful enough to make Ostara take away the spring.
Season Two
The Caretaker
The Caretaker
"A truck driver in Denver, killed by a rubber-gripped claw-headed hammer in his home. A community of nine Anchorites dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. A lobster tank smashed in an Atlanta seafood restaurant."
Portrayed By: Eric Peterson
A mysterious old man whom Mr. World meets following his encounter with Wednesday and Easter. He is the leader of Black Briar, a secret government facility that Mr. World uses to monitor and attack the Old Gods.
- Almighty Janitor: Befitting his role and domain, he appears more like a security guard than an all-powerful godly being.
- Ambiguous Situation: While he's the embodiment of Government Conspiracies, its not clear if he causes them or is simply more of a representation of the concept.
- Been There, Shaped History: On Mr. World's orders, he orchestrated Operation Paperclip, the Moon Landing, the Roswell Crash, and other such events.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Can use a surveillance satellite that only the President of the United States has access to.
- Gaslighting: Being the god of conspiracies, his mode of attack involves various "accidental" deaths all across the country and using them as "evidence" to have Shadow and Wednesday framed and cause a massive scare in the country.
- Government Conspiracy: He's literally the god of this trope. His facility has access to a above-top-secret spy satellite and can order a hit man.
- No Name Given: He's never referred to as "the Caretaker" by name, which makes sense, as part of conspiracies is not knowing the identities of those involved.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Yes, he has access to a beyond top-secret spy satellite, but only the President is allowed to use it. He has to be forced by Mr. World to comply and use it to locate the Old Gods.
- Younger Than They Look: Despite all the other New Gods looking young and fresh like the ideas they represent, the Caretaker is even older-looking than some of the Old Gods.
Mr. Town
Mr. Town
"I work for the gods that gave us penicillin and streaming porn and aircraft couriers that circle the globe. You're siding with the relics that quite frankly don't deserve an ounce of your faith."
Portrayed By: Dean Winters
A member of the New Gods under the employment of Mr. World. Seems to be the embodiment of black ops agents.
- Early-Bird Cameo: His name is mentioned in an episode prior to his very first on-screen appearance, as the recipient of the email that Mr. World sends to him in order to have his men ambush the Old Gods.
- Evil Is Petty: Spends his time belittling Shadow as he's torturing him.Mr. Town: We couldn't find any records of any family other than your mother, and your late wife. You know what that makes you, Shadow? Just another bastard. A nobody. A nobody who went to prison for a botched casino heist and aggravated assault. I know they had guns on your wife. So does that make the career criminal a good guy? Although not quite good enough apparently, because you couldn't keep your wife from sucking your best friend's cock.
- Torture Technician: This seems to be his go-to job, spending all of his on-screen time interrogating, belittling and attempting to convert Shadow while being rigged to a Robotic Torture Device.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It is unclear as to what became of Mr. Town after his train crashes into Wednesday's car and explodes. He never appears again in the show, but he's never shown to have died either.
Season Three
Dr. Fapp
Dr. Fapp
Portrayed By: David Reale
A member of the New Gods created by Mr. (now Ms.) World. He's one of the "Children" given an identity.
- Punny Name/Meaningful Name: His name comes from the slang for masturbation (to "fap"), implying he's the embodiment of internet porn.
Trending
Trending
Portrayed By: Bea Santos
A member of the New Gods created by Mr. (now Ms.) World. She's one of the "Children" given an identity.
Meme
Meme
Portrayed By: Mercedes Morris
A member of the New Gods created by Mr. (now Ms.) World. She's one of the "Children" given an identity.
Viral
Viral
Portrayed By: Luc Trottier
A member of the New Gods created by Mr. (now Ms.) World. He's one of the "Children" given an identity.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He's killed by Ms. World in his first appearance.
Mr. Road
Mr. Road
Portrayed By: Neil Girvan
A member of the New Gods under the employment of Ms. World. Another embodiment of black ops agents.
- Mook Lieutenant: He leads a group of agents in an attempt to eliminate Wednesday.
