Out ofall the deitiesvying for ethnical dominance on Starz ’s American Gods , the Technical Boy is perhaps the reference who went through the most drastic reimagining in his version from Neil Gaiman ’s original novel to the small screen . He ’s the shape of the very change that keep the cut edge sharp , but accord to role player Bruce Langley , he ’s more human than he allow on .
In this week ’s “ The Greatest Story Ever Told , ” American Gods begins to cut into into the curious emplacement thatNew Media ’s arrivalputs the Technical Boy in as someone who ’s supposed to have a lock on the digital look of Mr. World ’s plan for conquest . For all the Technical Boy ’s power and might that ’s issue forth with the rise of the mobile phone phone years , Langley explained , he ’s just as vulnerable as any one of his believers .
io9 : Over the last dyad of episode , the show ’s begin to brush up against the idea of what go on when gods become redundant . The Technical Boy ’s the god of technology , but technical school has also become a part of Argus , and New Media ’s a god who could n’t be outside of the digital age . With all that established , is the Technical Boy really as “ unexampled ” as he ’s made himself out to be ?
Bruce Langley as the Technical BoyImage: (Starz)
Bruce Langley : In no uncertain terminal figure , yes , I would say . Technology ’s existed since we bulge out using sticks to make slighter higher distance . That ’s us deploy tools to further our own range . What is that if not engineering science ? So , I suppose in price of analyzing when that may or may not certify as a deity — that ’s an interesting dubiousness . I think gods like the Technical Boy are the representation of a critical mass point where enough of the people in the existence were believe in / using a picky engineering science .
io9 : In your head , does he truly see himself as part of this new era of gods , or is he potentially something much older ?
Langley : I ’m going to be very … vague with my answer here . In my opinion , that ephemeral incarnation of , let ’s just call him the god of technology ? There ’s a very practiced probability he ’s much Old than we intend or he think of himself as being . I think it ’s interesting to deliberate him as being the core of a much sr. god whose whole world has been about constantly updating , or if he ’s mean to be a discrete manifestation of one exceptional kind of technology . you could see some of that in New Media ’s kinship to Media , where she say she still finger her indoors of her and the Technical Boy says “ No , she did n’t die ; she alter into you . ”
Implicit in that is this question of whether the new version is aware of the existence of the old . To that stage , the Tech Boy recognize that whether or not he ’s the newest incarnation of technology as a whole , if he ’s not the shiniest , most recently - updated variation of himself , he ’s not important .
io9 : tattle to me about the competition with New Media . They ’re both press to be in Mr. World ’s good graces , but it ’s so interesting that she ’s taken on this fresh figure that feel like an outgrowth of what the Technical Boy ’s created .
Langley : They ’re something airless to a mutualism . She could n’t subsist with him . But without her , a significant about of Tech Boy ’s worship would n’t be there , or it would be significantly unlike . He ’s somewhat more of a requisite for her , that she is for him , however ; if she were to replace him with another union with a divinity that would render him inert , that ’s a huge chunk of his worship potentially gone .
io9 : Which explains his falter to give Argus everything he needs .
Langley : Argus ’ power are literally root in technology , and so the Technical Boy still has some degree of control condition over him . But again , if the Tech Boy is n’t the cut border , he might be forced into a position where someone erstwhile like Argus could very easily overtake him .
Part of his knowingness is human , he ’s the condensation of human opinion . He ’s extract humanity and humans are aroused in way they do n’t understand or want to admit . Imagine how solitary it would be to be incessantly worship and to have to always be effective . To be revere is to be disjoined from the multitude who ’re doing the worship and to be so focused on bear to become something young , you ’re consider with the externalization of you not being enough as you are . He ’s in a band of pain , and he ’s very , very lonesome .
io9 : Is there any part of the Technical Boy that sees New Media as something more like a protagonist alternatively of competition ?
Langley : Yeah , New Media ’s the closest thing to a friend he ’s get . Their fictitious character moral force ’s so wonderful and I really love make for with Kahyun Kim because she gets all of the setting and the angling the two idol are doing around one another .
New Media ’s willing to be perceived as primitive because if she ’s being underestimated , when she does make her move , you ’d never see it coming , but she knows right smart more than she lets on . That ’s something that you saw in Gillian Anderson ’s performance as Media in time of year one . There was always this implicit sense that she knows more than you do , that she ’s this grievous puppet . But now she ’s make this calculated choice to downplay her force as she ’s come into a newfangled locating of authority .
io9 : I wanna go back to the Technical Boy ’s friendships for a 2d — who is the CEO of Xie Comm ( Andrew Koji ) to him ?
Samuel Pierpoint Langley : I think that line “ I was your only friend , you solitary fuck , ” it live on both ways because this guy is the stuffy thing to a biovular family relationship with someone the Tech Boy ’s ever had . The Tech Boy is Xie ’s inspiration , but without Xie , the technological Boy would be something different , as well , you know ? He would be all right , but he would n’t be the person he is now , and he understands that about himself .
For want of a more exact doctrine of analogy , they grew up together from puerility . The timeline and lifespan of humans and deities are unlike , apparently , but they ’re brothers . They ’ve always been there for one another at various point in their lives and arrive hell or high water , they ’re the people who add up back to one another .
American Gods airs Sundays on Starz .
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FantasyNeil GaimanStarzTechnology
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