[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

Spoiler!

The Viking battle change, Anansi on the slaver ship (which, btw, major props to Orlando Jones) and the Bilqis focus likely is heavily foreshadowing what you figure out by the end of the book: the old gods thrive on mortal sacrifices in order to sustain themselves.

I think, especially with Bilqis, that they are setting up the power they gain from human sacrifice and we'll probably see Bilqis go on some totally manufactured plotline that shows how much power she has.. only as a prop to show how powerful the new gods are when Technical Boy runs her ass over with his Matrix limo. The example of a new god killing a demonstratively powerful old god will be the shorthand of the 'point' of the show: that we mortals are sacrificing our lives for 'powers' beyond our control, in the past it was for bloodthirsty deities in order for earthly favors but now, in the present, we're sacrificing our lives for technology.

Recall Laura's reasoning for cheating on Shadow: because Robbie, for all of his faults, was alive and "filled the space" while Shadow was something of the opposite. Once we allow ourselves to be sacrificed to the gods (which is what Shadow was before meeting Wednesday but wound up self-sacrificing himself anyway; and what we currently do in allowing media and the Internet to consume our waking hours), we cease to be alive.

Pertaining to book vs show differences:

Spoiler!

They added a "new" old god to the story, and I think given what I was spoiled on by looking at the wiki, it'll be beneficial to the overall show story.

I understand a lot of the consternation with what's been changed so far, especially early on with the funeral differences / setting / not spelling out Low-key in saying his name / Laura not appearing in her revenant form to Shadow, but you gotta remember that Green, Fuller and Gaiman (to an extent) have to make sacrifices (heh heh) to stretch the plotline out to at least two seasons if not all the way to three.

Good points all. I'm less sanguine than you I think where it comes to rewrites whose only purpose is to stretch a story. The scene in the Russian's house dragged on forever to the point of boredom. Strict adherence to the book I know is rarely possible and it is early on so I'm not giving up on it yet. All in all it's pretty 'meh' so far. (And Shadow needs to be bigger.)