On Foreshouting

You know the Red Lanterns planted a little hate seed in our planet? And that the hate seed is supposed to like turn our planet into Hell and make it the new Red Lantern base? I know you probably don’t read Green Lantern comics and so don’t care, but I’m just amazed that I’m only just now finding out about this. This should be big crossover material, and instead the last big crossover was about alternate evil versions of Batman coming in from the Multiverse’s dark side or something?

Don’t add up, is all I’m saying.

Also there are some SPOILERS for American Gods in this article. You’ve been warned.

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On Foreshouting

You’re familiar with foreshadowing, yes? That wonderful literary tool your English teacher drilled into your brain, in which the author hints through symbolism or dialogue or narrative about what’s going to happen later on? Like when Luke’s uncle says he’s afraid Luke will turn out like his uncle in A New Hope, or when Norman says his mother is as harmless as the stuffed birds in Psycho. When it’s done well, it’s excellent, and you hardly notice it’s there. Even when you do, it’s vague enough that you don’t know for sure what it means.

Yeah, foreshouting is like that, but done terribly.

I’m not that good of a fiction writer, I’ll admit, so I don’t think I’m good at this at all. But foreshadowing takes a certain amount of skill. And some people can’t do it in a way that’s really subtle. And that’s fine! Really, it’s fine if you can’t do foreshadowing well. Nobody’s going to be a perfect writer in every aspect, so you can’t expect it out of everyone.

But foreshouting is worse than that. It’s when you practically scream to the rooftops what’s going to happen. Not in a ‘this is prophesied to happen’ sort of way, but in a ‘Did you get it? We need you to understand this? Please understand this! It’s going to be relevant later on!’

The second season of American Gods is stumbling in this regard. While the first season introduced Mr. Wednesday, the American incarnation of the Norse god Odin, and showed him as a wily conman and ruthless war god who nonetheless was trying to rally the Old Gods against the New Gods, and was somewhat sympathetic. Ish. Well not really, but you could get why Shadow might think so, yeah?

And then the second season has several storylines, of which Shadow is a part of, displaying that Wednesday is and has always been a violent, power-hungry, backstabbing douchebag, and he’s not telling Shadow very important information, and yet Shadow still goes on trusting him, willing to fight other people for him. And this doesn’t make any sense. The show is practically screaming “WEDNESDAY IS GOING TO BETRAY SHADOW!” And from reading the book this is given. But Shadow doesn’t work it out no matter how it’s spelled out, because narratively he needs to keep working with Wednesday.

It’s as if they want to make sure you know that Wednesday is shifty, but because they don’t do anything but tell us this you wonder why any sane person (or god) wants to work with him at all. We’re not given a satisfactory answer. Compare this to the book, which has several bits of his douchiness, but also sympathy, where we see him worn out and tired and (seemingly) honestly working his hardest to let the Old Gods team up to survive. We don’t always see him in control. We know that’s he’s a dick, but he’s on our side, so we let it slide. The greatest bit of foreshadowing we get is where Wednesday tells Shadow his favorite cons, and Shadow works out that they’re all two-man cons, and that he used to have a partner.

So when the show keeps throwing up flashing signs saying “WEDNESDAY CANNOT BE TRUSTED AND WILL ALWAYS BACKSTAB THOSE AROUND HIM” we’re going to come to the conclusion that hey, we shouldn’t trust this guy, so when that betrayal comes we’re not going to be surprised at all. Maybe we’ll be kind of bored. Which is a shame because it’s so great in the book.

Rick Riordan’s also not great at foreshadowing but really great at foreshouting. In Kane Chronicles, at least, it’s at his worst: the second and third books practically scream that Walt is going to be hosting Anubis. He gains new powers that no one else can explain, involving death and disintegration. He mentions he’s talking to Anubis. Anubis brings up not having a human host. It’s all there, and yet when it happens the characters act like it’s a massive shock.

The same goes with Zia and Ra. She’s put in stasis holding Ra’s symbols of power. She’s good with fire. Ra himself gives her a piece of his soul. And yet when she hosts Ra, Carter is blown away and stunned. Although he seems to see it coming a bit beforehand, so some credit is due I suppose.

Readers and viewers might be able to guess what’s going to happen, but it shouldn’t be because you straight-up told them when you were trying not to. If you want to tell them so badly that early, then just say it and move the Plot forward. Otherwise, keep your mouth shut and work on other parts of the story.