Susano-o, god of storms, sounds like he'd be perfect for you.
I dunno offhand if he has a son. He's the brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun. He's a rude, crude asshole, and he's probably got a son, because it seems like every Japanese god or goddess does. And yes, you can totally write him as a Japanese Jayne Cobb.
(That pantheon also includes a trickster goddess whose name I forget, who once tricked Amaterasu -- who had gone in her house to sulk, and refused to come out, thus plunging the world into darkness -- by putting on a hysterically funny lewd dance, and having other gods hold a mirror to Amaterasu's door, so as soon as she opened the door a crack to find out what everyone was laughing at, she'd see her own reflection and think it was so beautiful she'd have to pursue it... until she was all the way out of her house, at which point everyone else showering her with praise and gratitude for coming out would gratify her ego enough that she'd stay out. You gotta love a female trickster.)
I also sympathize with your point about the shapeshifter. I have a character who's in essence a bodiless entity, but he has taken human form on Earth to try to do some stuff he can't do back home. One of his tricks is that he can blend in pretty much anywhere; he can just convince people that he belongs here, and no one questions him. And I actually want to have him point out, at some point, that that trick only works because he's manifested as a white male; if he were in the form of a woman or a non-white male, there would be places where people would question him unless he applied full-on mind control rather than the light touch he's using.
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Date: 2011-01-20 08:20 pm (UTC)I dunno offhand if he has a son. He's the brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun. He's a rude, crude asshole, and he's probably got a son, because it seems like every Japanese god or goddess does. And yes, you can totally write him as a Japanese Jayne Cobb.
(That pantheon also includes a trickster goddess whose name I forget, who once tricked Amaterasu -- who had gone in her house to sulk, and refused to come out, thus plunging the world into darkness -- by putting on a hysterically funny lewd dance, and having other gods hold a mirror to Amaterasu's door, so as soon as she opened the door a crack to find out what everyone was laughing at, she'd see her own reflection and think it was so beautiful she'd have to pursue it... until she was all the way out of her house, at which point everyone else showering her with praise and gratitude for coming out would gratify her ego enough that she'd stay out. You gotta love a female trickster.)
I also sympathize with your point about the shapeshifter. I have a character who's in essence a bodiless entity, but he has taken human form on Earth to try to do some stuff he can't do back home. One of his tricks is that he can blend in pretty much anywhere; he can just convince people that he belongs here, and no one questions him. And I actually want to have him point out, at some point, that that trick only works because he's manifested as a white male; if he were in the form of a woman or a non-white male, there would be places where people would question him unless he applied full-on mind control rather than the light touch he's using.