American Gods/Characters

The "Old Gods" and Their Allies

Shadow/ Baldur Moon

• Ambiguously Brown: It's not entirely clear what race he is, although his mother is implied to have been black.
  • Gaiman has said that Dwayne Johnson/The Rock, who has black and Samoan heritage, would be the perfect actor to play him.
• Beware the Nice Ones
• Dark Is Not Evil: Look at his nickname and compare it to his actual identity as a Light Is Good deity
• Divine Parentage
• Genius Bruiser
• Gentle Giant
• The Hero
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: And the cat goddess loves him too.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is never mentioned by the third-person narrator. It's finally revealed to the reader in '"The Monarch of the Glen.
• Smarter than he looks: Everyone asumes he's just a big dumb guy until he starts talking.
• The Stoic
• Tomato in the Mirror
• Unfazed Everyman: He takes it rather calmly that there are tons of deities all all around him. Makes sense since he is one himself, so he isn't a pure example of the trope.

Mr. Wednesday/Odin

• Big Bad
• Casanova
• Con Man
• Dirty Old Man
• Jerkass
• Luke, I Am Your Father
• The Social Expert: It goes along with his con man tendencies.
• Technically a Smile
• Thanatos Gambit

Mr. Nancy/Anansi

• Cool Old Guy
• Dirty Old Man
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Nice Hat

Mr. Ibis/Thoth

• Don't Fear the Reaper: Like all Ancient Egyptian gods connected to death, he's a nice guy.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness

Mr Jacquel/Anubis

• Don't Fear the Reaper: Like Mr. Ibis, he's not such a bad guy.
• I'm a Humanitarian: While conducting autopsies, he has a habit of eating some of the corpse flesh. Respectfully.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Into a jackal, naturally.

Bast

• Catgirl
• Intimate Healing: She provides some for Shadow.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Into a cat, of course.

Czernobog (Czernobog)

• Cain and Abel: He's known as the "evil" brother; his brother, Bielebog, is the "good" one.
• Dark Is Not Evil
• The Eeyore: Not as demonstrative as many examples, but he's a very gloomy guy.
• God of Evil
• Jekyll and Hyde: He and Bielebog are the same person.
• Vegetarian Vampire: Gets his powers from sacrificial murders, but after his followers dried up, he worked at a slaughterhouse rather than becoming a Serial Killer.

Mad Sweeney

• Leprechaun
• Fighting Irish

Samantha Black Crow

• Agent Mulder: Delivers an amazing and lengthy monologue to Shadow about all the things she believes in to get him to open up to her.
• Badass Normal: Faces Mr. Town and Mr. World, and not only does she refuse to tell them anything about Shadow, she makes fun of their names. She also hitchhikes with Shadow, who's kind of scary before you get to know him.
• Braids, Beads, and Buckskins: She doesn't dress like it, but she's proud of her Indian heritage.
• Bi the Way
• Genki Girl
• Girl Next Door: Well, technically, the girl next door's little sister.
• Granola Girl
• Little Miss Snarker
• "Take That!" Kiss: She plants what she terms a "fuck off" kiss on Shadow in a bar, although it was to tell everyone else there to fuck off.
• Tomboy

Laura

• Back from the Dead
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Even when she was alive Laura was not as nice as she seemed. But she really does love Shadow which keeps her on the sympathetic side of the trope.
• Came Back Wrong
• Dead All Along: Not that it's a revelation; the twist is that she comes back.
• Dead Person Conversation: Whenever she talks to Shadow, or anyone else.
• Death Is Cheap
• Lady Macbeth: Seems Shadow's involvement in the robbery that got him in prison was her idea.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Deconstructed. Because of that personality, she cheated on Shadow with her best friend's husband while he was in the clink. She also puts on the MPDG act to charm Mr. Town before gruesomely killing him.
• More Deadly Than the Male: She is far more likely to kill you than her husband is.
• Our Zombies Are Different
• Out with a Bang
• Poisonous Friend: Very big on protecting Shadow and quite violent about it.
• Took a Level in Badass: Twice. Her revenge on Mr. Town and her confrontation with Mr. World/Loki.
  • She actually took it much earlier in the book. When she kills a bunch of guards in order to save Shadow with her bare hands.
• Violently Protective Wife

The "New Gods" and Their Allies

The Technical Boy

• Badass Longcoat: Subverted. He dresses like the characters in The Matrix but is a physically weak nerd.
• GIFT: Since he is the Anthropomorphic Personification of the Internet, it's only natural he acts like this.
• Jerkass Woobie: Even Shadow feels a little sorry for him in the Hell Hotel.
• Otaku
• Super Loser: He may be a god, but nobody gives him much respect, and the narrative tends to refer to him as "the fat kid."

Media

• Stepford Smiler

The Spookshow

• Avenging the Villain: Mr. Town is not happy about his buddies getting killed, but leaves Shadow alone because Mr. World says so.
• Flat Earth Atheist: Mr. Town thinks all the gods are just mutants with mind control powers.
• The Men in Black: What they seem to be the archetype of.
• Mooks: They work for Mr. World and the New Gods.
• Punch Clock Villain
• Those Two Bad Guys: Mr. Wood and Mr. Stone.

Mr. World/Low-Key Lyesmith/Loki Lie-Smith

• Chekhov's Gunman and Chekhov's Boomerang
• Distinguishing Mark: His scarred lip; it's a reference to a story in Norse Mythology where Loki's mouth was sewn shut and he had to tear it open.
• The Dragon: To Wednesday.
• Evil Redhead
• Louis Cypher
• Reliable Traitor
• Two Aliases, One Character