Yes, Jesus was in last season's final episode.
The name 'American Gods' refers to the gods of modern America that people are coming to worship... Technology, Finance, Media, Globalization, Social Media... in place of the 'old gods' from antiquity and other cultures. The 'old gods' are mounting a battle to regain their worshipers and wrest them from the new gods of the new world.
So maybe you should have done some research before jumping to conclusions about the premise, which clearly you know nothing about... hmm???
Yes, Jesus was in last season's final episode.
The name 'American Gods' refers to the gods of modern America that people are coming to worship... Technology, Finance, Media, Globalization, Social Media... in place of the 'old gods' from antiquity and other cultures. The 'old gods' are mounting a battle to regain their worshipers and wrest them from the new gods of the new world.
So maybe you should have done some research before jumping to conclusions about the premise, which clearly you know nothing about... hmm???
So what is the role of Jesus?
My view:
I have a problem with using Gods from other religions in a Marvel like setting, especially if it is reinforcing stereotypes. As you are a Hindu you probably know there is a lot more to Goddess Kali then being a demon fighter and that there are different traditions of Kali. Christians tend to zoom in a later tradition of a sect and grossly misrepresent that to create a false picture. That is what Abrahamic religions do in their conversion practices.
In the original tradition Kali is one of the manifestations of the mother Goddess, but she is not the one that kills the demons, that is Durga. Kali is not the killer, but this is easily misunderstood by the symbols she is carrying, like chopped off heads and swords who are misunderstood by westerners.
The Story of the "blood seed" demon tells that Durga chopped of the heads of the Demon but from the blood drops falling on the Earth new demons arose. So then another Manifestation of Mother Goddess catches the droplets of blood to prevent them from rebirth. In the most popular variation of the story she stretches herself out on the earth to catch every droplet (in another she catches the blood in a cup).
Kali is considered the darkness in which everything exists before it is born. Kali is the womb. It is Durga who kills the blood seed demon, but it is Kali who prevents it from being reborn. that is her task. She keeps them in the womb. This only happens at the end of the Kali era (Iron Age). In this way she brings about a new cycle.
These story is related to Shiva, the male aspect of Shiva-Shakti or both of them. A Story like Shiva drinking the poison after churning the celestial ocean to save the world has similar meaning. (possibly the story of Odysseus and the Hydra). Westerners easily misunderstand the iconography with Kali sticking out a red tongue as being a "bloodthirsty" killer. This the opposite of the truth. To Kali the blood of the Demons is like poison. To overcome that she bites with her white teeth on her red tongue, The blood is actually guna rajas and the with teeth represent guna sattva. Still she get so over-exited by all this blood and starts dancing so violently that it shakes the world and threatens its existence and Shiva has to calm her down with Tamas guna, He does that by laying down over the earth protecting it this way, and so she can release the energy in a safe way.
Kali is not some Goddess in the Indian pantheon whose task it is to kill of demons. And she not part of a team of avengers saving the world. These are the wrongful ideas of westerners about what they consider polytheistic religion. But Kali is simply an aspect of the Divine mother that is an aspect of Shiva-Shakti. These things are so far beyond American understanding that is so filled with dichotomies that any use of Gods from other cultures can only create misconceptions and sadly in the mass media these misconceptions then endure for centuries. Also in Europe, historians are often horrified by the popular books that Americans write as they do there best to create a better understanding, but they simply can not compete with tv-series and books that are made to be juicy and sell content and make $.
The idea that Technology, Finance, Media, Globalization, Social Media are Demons are not Hindu ideas either. This is rather an idea found in Judaism that revering anything that is not their God is worshiping idols. If you are a baseball fan? That is worshiping idols too in this thinking. Abrahamic thinking is based on idealistic thinking. This is not the same but rather the opposite of Dharmic thinking. The strong dichotomy of good vs evil is Abrahamic in nature.
The battle described above is not the battle of man fighting against Evil, but rather a description of the phases in cycles we go through. It is how the Gods preserve the Universe. They do that by acting out their Nature. Te stories explain their role in nature and how they interact with each other. This is not a moralistic concept like in Abrahamism, in which man is made to choose for the right side or the wrong side in a moral war. It is much more nuanced, complex, subtle than that. The things that American writers let out because it does not sell well to the masses.
In another post you argue that creating more interest for Hinduism is good. But Hinduism does not seek expansion through promotion which is basically a form of conversion. In fact this kind of interest only brings down traditions. I can see it my country. At first there were people who were generally interested not only in Yoga but the philosophy behind it and its place in broader way of life. They became good yoga teachers. But their success then sparked something else.
Today Yoga has become big business with endless variations from power yoga to healing yoga surrounded by nonsense and is mostly in the hands of imposters that have found it a way to make an easy buck. They have driven out the good schools with schools based on western taste. That is what popularity does. I do not believe these TV-series do Hinduism any good, on the contrary. It turns into commerce. Do companies like McDonalds help promote good food? No in countries like France and Italy they are destroying the eating culture, both economically and by the use of taste enhancers that destroy peopleś pallets making then unable to distinguish quality food.
That is why such TV-series is in itself a paradox as it is itself part of the demonic manifestation that in the series is battled. And the American way of battling evil is actually throwing more fuel on the fire.
No if demons are to be fought this way that is part of Western tradition not Dharmic traditions. And most of all it is American tradition because the US is probably the most Abrahamic fundamentalist country in the world. And American politics have made the idea of fighting demons a justification for foreign politics, like calling countries part of axis of evil and that kind of stuff. So let Abrahamic Gods fight this battle, it is their battle against their own demons. Because that is what happens when you descend in the lower roams of consciousness. Everything becomes the enemy and constant wars must be fought by man to overcome evil. But never does this lead to a restoration of balance and harmony.
No Hindu Gods are not going to side with the "Avengers" in there everlasting battle against evil. That is a misrepresentation of the complex role of all the aspects of Nature Gods. and if American Commerce organizes it, it is more like a demonic spell. Of course everybody is free, but I would not promote this.
