> Attempts to draw conclusions about the AMS world from parallels to
> Norse myth tend to fall over when carried too far, because
> Fujishima-sensei has used it more as a source of names and images,
> than carrying over a whole structure of interrelated concepts and
> myths.

Do do-do do-do! *gets jiggy wit' it*

> I visualize him as trying to start out with the initial concept and
> saying, "Well there's this little guy in college: and suddenly he has
> this fantastic girlfriend: everybody thinks she's a gaijin, but she's
> really a goddess..."

Yup, I totally agree. _Specifically_ the ambiguity of the term 
"goddess/megami". There are so many connotations to the term that he could 
run nearly _anywhere_ with them; if he wants something, he only need pillage 
a tenuously similar goddess role-model in a mythology from anywhere in the 
world (a recent ML example being fairies from Celtic myth).

> Although, one might argue that in the course of the story line the
> role of "bad girl" has been handed around a bit: early on, Belldandy
> was a bit of a scandal herself, but that seems to have worn off.

Bell to Urd to Mara to Peorth to... ? (Chihiro possibly comes into this as 
well).

Sam the man