Which of these is the better episode of Almighty Johnsons?
S3.E9 - "Mike in the Mirror"
S2.E9 - "Everything Starts with Gaia"
Voting ended onApr 8
Use whatever metric you like! Personal preference, technical aspects, whatever! Feel free to make your case in the notes, and reblog to help spread the polls! :)
Possibly spoilery episode descriptions and screenshots below the cut to help you decide!
S3.E9 - Mike in the Mirror
Zeb awakens from a dream with a brilliant idea: a casting call for actresses to play Frigg in a beer commercial. Axl likes it, as Frigg would come to him. The auditions go poorly: Axl rejects all the candidates and gets a black eye from the boyfriend of one of them. Although blinded in one eye, Axl is granted extraordinary insight. He has a conversation with Mike in his bathroom mirror. Mike says that he, Ullr, is Odin and that he will find Frigg before Axl does. Zeb remembers the story of Mímir's well, in which Odin sacrifices his eye to gain wisdom. Meanwhile, Michele, with Ingrid as assistant, begins holding "Goddess Healing" sessions for women, to earn cash. Anders wangles his way in by threatening to tell Mike, then outlines a more profitable and discreet business plan. Dawn confronts Ty about her memories. At first reluctant, he follows the advice in an anonymous note (from Martin, who has also visited Dawn) and admits they were lovers. He explains he is a god. At a family meeting, Mike is livid that Axl, Ty and the goddesses are risking revealing the secret of the gods' presence among mortals in Auckland. Axl tells Mike he is not Odin and never will be.
--
S2.E9 - Everything Starts with Gaia
Gaia is having strange dreams and behaving erratically. Bryn and Jacob arrive, insisting she leave with them immediately. Eggthér, a jötunn, also arrives, intent on killing her. After knocking him out, Axl takes Gaia and the others to Mike's bar. Olaf's sense of smell reveals Bryn to be a (short) giant and Jacob a (tall) dwarf. When Olaf, Mike and Axl identify themselves as gods, they run off, shocked. Later, they admit they had been sent to kill Gaia as an infant, to avert disaster for giants and dwarfs alike should she become Frigg, but instead had chosen to protect her. Eggthér takes Zeb hostage, threatening to kill him unless Axl hands over Frigg. The gods prepare for battle and call on Derrick (Thor), who hates giants, for help. Meanwhile, Anders drags Ty out drinking, and in the process meets his soul mate, Helen (Iðunn). Axl and Bryn tell Gaia that she is to become Frigg, but she just laughs.
absolutely wild thing to me about the finding nemo musical (big blue and beyond specifically) is at the very end after marlin and nemo have their "bye dad" "bye son" exchange, GILL IS THERE. as nemo leaves the stage gill SHOWS UP and he and marlin share affirmative nods
i just sat there like "WHAAAT" and openly gasped when i saw it (... recently, i don't know how i missed this before or maybe i just care a lot more suddenly). because gill being a parental figure to nemo during his separation from marlin is something that canon never explicitly acknowledges this much i don't think?? marlin and gill hardly interact and we never get so much as a mention about the tank gang from nemo to marlin. so HERE in this SHORTENED VERSION of a MUSICAL ADAPTATION of the film we have gill consistently watching over nemo, lingering to the side during nemo's scenes, and that culminates to this moment of marlin and gill sharing a brief, nonverbal thank you as they're standing at opposite ends of the stage. legitimately cool addition
Will expand on this more when I don’t need to be awake in 6 hours but: I wish TAJ S3 would have expanded more on the parallels between the Bragi/Idunn and Hodr/Hel subplots, in terms of the godly hosts losing control/being influenced by their gods. I’m always surprised there weren’t more callbacks to that? (I mean, it’d weaken the argument of how angry Axl is at Anders, but I’ve got a couple complaints with that whole bit, haha. Still don’t think it tracks that the brothers would be laughing at Anders passing out from blood loss, even if it’s Anders doing so.) I have more thoughts on it, but I think it could have led to some interesting conversations and character development, between Anders and Ty especially (who are already a great duo, especially in the later parts of the show).
Cleaning before moving tomorrow and wow, I have found an absurd amount of half-finished fic written out in notebooks from a couple years back. Maybe should dig through and finish some of these… (90% TAJ / 10% One Piece, I’d guess?)
things the fandom needs to talk about: the fact that zeb has a box full of costumes for fancy dress parties
things the fandom needs to talk about even more: the fact that not only does zeb have a box full of costumes, but the fact that he has costumes in axl’s size, aka for axl
I just finished my first rewatch of taj. This time around, I noticed more than the first time I watched. I was actually paying more attention to the storyline instead of just watching Dean in every scene and how good he looked lol.
I felt bad for Anders and how everyone treated him, even up until the last episode. Yeah there were times when he acted like a prick but hey that’s his character and I understand him putting up a wall and acting the way he does because if how others treat him. Still loved Ty. Yeah at times it was a little creepy with his approach to Dawn but I love the ending how it all turned out for them. Still cried. Mike, still can’t stand him. I think this time around I found him even more annoying. I almost got to the point where I had to wither mute when he was talking or just outright skip it lol. Axl was better this time around. First time I found him really annoying but this time he was better. Love Zeb, hilarious! Love all the goddesses still, except Gaia. Don’t even get me started on her! Especially the storyline with her and Anders. Nope hated that part, couldn’t watch it this time.
I loved it even more this time around! Since finishing it, it got me thinking about it they did go ahead with a season 4 and what would play out. I would’ve loved to see how each of them adapted to their life now without their god powers and who would embrace the new change, who would struggle the most, would they change anything about their life or try and keep it steady? Who knows!? And then what about Axl moving back in with Zeb, do you think he’d eventually start telling him everything or just leave that all in the past and build a new friendship? What are your thoughts on if they did another season and what they would tackle?
Yay, talking about TAJ is one of my favourite things!!
I fully agree re: Anders. I often feel sad for him when people who watch the show accept his brothers' opinions of him as fact, despite Anders himself repeatedly trying to tell them that he does the right thing often, that he's trying to protect them, etc. -- and the audience even being shown that effort on his part multiple times. It grinds my gears that other characters thinking Anders is a shallow jerk is taken as a statement of fact from the writers and not, y'know, the character's opinion.
Anders may not have the same set of ethics as Mike, but he clearly has his own set of ethics (which he brings up in S2 when he's uncomfortable with Helen's ideas for his powers, in S3 with Colin's ideas for his powers, etc...) and doesn't see his own actions the way his brothers interpret them, and I think it's a very uncharitable reading of his character to think of him as flat and selfish, instead of the very complex character that was actually written into the show, with flaws and good points and complicated family dynamics where mostly there's a lot of misunderstanding of each other going on. I could probably ramble on about that forever, but I'll refrain.
Mainly I wish that viewers would take Anders word for it what his own motivations are, because he does outright state them at multiple points, right from the first season where he explains that the thing that got him BANISHED FROM HIS FAMILY was done in an attempt to protect Mike.
I really disliked Mike my first viewing, because I felt like he caused a lot of strife for other characters by being inflexible and believing he knew best. As I've rewatched, I've come to better appreciate his character and the immense burden he bears. I think his attempt at controlling his family is his own way of trying to protect them, and that this was caused by the events surrounding both the toxic relationship of his parents and that he was forced to be the head of the family at age 21. (I still get annoyed with him during the S3 Odin contest stuff but I also headcanon that it was a "fate" thing to force Odin and Frigg together.) I try to remind myself that every character on the show thinks they are in the right, and why that might be.
I have a theory about Gaia, but that's a whole other essay lmao.
My answers to your questions re: S4 will be somewhat colored by the deleted scene from the final episode, which reveals what Colin was doing tossing a red gem on the ground before the Ga.
In the deleted scene (which they filmed in case they got renewed for S4), Loki comes out of the gem, and we were left with Loki and Colin standing in the woods, apparently about to cause some problems.
With that in mind, I have to assume that the Johnsons would discover Loki was in Midgard and try to do soemthing about it. I further assume that at least some of the other characters would have god spirits inhabit them again (mainly because that's more interesting than them coming back to Earth on their own and interacting with mortal Johnsons).
I think it would be REALLY interesting if they didn't necessarily get the gods they had the first time around. Maybe Odin doesn't want to leave Asgard, so Axl becomes another god. Maybe Freki, just for the lols. Maybe they find some new McGuffin that allows other mortals (liek Zeb and Dawn) to take on god spirits!
Re: Zeb and Axl living together, given how long their friendship was, I headcanon that - much like Dawn - Zeb would eventually start to remember Axl, and maybe everything. Alternatively, maybe part of the season is Axl finding a way to make Zeb remember!
Just re: the Johnsons being mortal in general, I have a bit of a hc where, since Mike's career wasn't based on his powers, he'd go back to construction (maybe rebuild the bar to sell it), and Axl would work for him. Anders (who I assume does know how to do his job, despite no longer being able to just Bragi his clients) might even do promo for the construction business. Ty could still be a courier, and as the only one to actually live as a mortal since turning 21, I think he'd have the easiest time of it, especially with Dawn remembering him and all.
I think initially there would be a lot of razzing Mike by challenging him to games and beating him, but overall I think Mike might actually feel really happy to get to be included in those games again after so long. I think losing Ullr would really help Mike chill out. Or, at least, I hope that for him.
I don't really see Michele and Anders working out long term unless Michele started to take Anders seriously. She didn't really seem to understand him very well even in S3. I did feel like Anders seemed to want a more serious relationship (not necessarily that he wanted what Ty or Mike would want, but just that he seemed to be looking for emotional connection in S3, and not only physical, perhaps because of the whole Idun plot?) so I could see with not having Bragi anymore that he might settle down a bit and get a gf. I've always sort of thought maybe mortal women didn't seem like suitable gf material to him because they couldn't know about everything going on (like he saw how being with Val was complicated for Mike) and that's why they're always little flings. We do see him treat Michele and Helen pretty well imo (not cheating on them, taking them seriously as people, etc.), so I thought maybe he would do better with a goddess gf. (See Lofn fic lmao)
Ahhh that was a lot of rambling, but I'm always happy to talk more about TAJ!! Thanks for the ask :)
i love an ot3 as much as the next person but its kinda wild how some people seem incapable of conceptualizing polyamous ships outside of closed triads. i cant even think of any popular ot4s off the top of my head. an untapped market tbh.
Forgot to post for uhhhh..... a year+ at this point? Oops.
Mini life update: finished grad school, started a (very busy) job, left said job recently, and now moving multiple states away + starting a new job. Haven't had a whole lot of time to write or watch anything over the last year because of that, but hopefully changing that soon. (Currently focused on Persona 4 Golden and Hamlet of all things, haha. Maybe TAJ again if I start rewatching it...)
I don't really check my fandom discord account anymore, but I do check messages here if you ever want to poke me for something!
Old art. Here, have Anders Johnson from an Au of mine
Don't mind the blurriness
I tried out a more cartoony style again, as I can't really get out of my comfort zone of semi realism, need to do more cuz man, man. Semi realism is annoying.
I actually re-read my draft for the fanfic, wondering if any of y'all would want to read it?? I haven't published any of my written works in like 5 years, would be interesting to see what would happen...
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