Alright folks, i've been replaying my favorite GTA game, San Andreas, for the 10nth time. And for the 10nth time, i find the tension between CJ and Sweet to be fascinating and complex one. So, I wanna know you guys opinions.
BEFORE VOTING: check out my analysis of CJ under the cut before voting.
In GTA:SA, which one of the Johnson's boys do you think is more right about shit/with whom would you side with in an end-of-the-game argument?
I'm 100% down with CJ! Sweet owes him a lot of respect.
I'm mostly with CJ, but I can't ignore some of the things Sweet say.
I'll side with CJ out of principle, but Sweet's right on calling him out.
Both brothers have good points. They need to reach reconcile their differences.
I'll side with Sweet out of principle, but CJ deserves more respect.
I'm mostly with Sweet, but CJ had done some good things too.
I'm 100% down with Sweet! CJ, you're a running buster!
Bah! Both of 'em are full of it. I'll side with Kendl. She's the real Queen.
Actually, I think I'll side with Smoke (wtf???)
Voting ended onAug 17, 2024
Now, let's take a good look at CJ's Pros and Cons.
Pros
*With one call from Sweet, he left his life in Liberty City (and his mob boss) to come back to SA.
*Once he saw his family and how fucked up the hood was, he decided to stay, even when everybody was giving him shit and asking him to leave.
*He did everything, and i mean EVERYTHING he could to help his family/homies.
*He befriended Cesar, which ultimately lead to Kendl being safe and put CJ on the path to hunt down Smoke and Tenpenny.
*He seemed to have learnt his lesson after what happened to Brian, and now, he wants to do everything he can to ensure his family is safe.
*He took out a drug cartel almost by himself.
*He worked for Torino, one of the (funniest) scariest character in the franchise, doing impossible and near suicidal missions, just to keep Sweet safe in jail. Eventually, CJ's work is the reason why Sweet is freed.
*Unlike Sweet, who listen to nobody, CJ is open to feedback. He welcomes advice from everyone (Cesar, Woozie, Kendl, The Truth...), and that grants him the upper hand and a few good allies.
*Except for a few moments, CJ treats his friends and family with respect. And when he'd wronged them, he apologizes.
*Overall, he seems to be unprejudiced, except against agents of the law (which is, like, understandable...). He befriends black people, latinos, chinese, white folks, and pretty much everyone that treats him right, gets treated right.
*He's a shareholder in a CASINO. And this is after ROBBING a rival casino, which is after he TAKES OUT THE THREE MAFIA FAMILIES that owned that Casino. Oh, and the robbery? Its an optional mission, that CJ planned 90%, and that he executed full James Bond style.
*He's your go-to man. For like... ANYTHING. You need something done? CJ will do it, even if it seems impossible. Granted, yes, this comes with being a GTA protagonist, but even by those standards, the shit he'd managed to pull off is mind-blowing.
*Look, this is a GTA game. CJ is a gangbanger. Of course he's gonna be violent. BUT, compared to other protagonists (Tommy Vercetti), he uses his wit, gadgets and stealth to solve problems more often than with just straight up murdering everyone on sight.
*Take a look at the wider picture: in his five years absence, the hood had got from bad to worse. The families are beefing, the Ballas and the cops are working to turn everyone into baseheads, and there's only three GS' OG still active: Sweet, Ryder and Big Smoke (those two being moles). In a few weeks, he turned GS into a force work reckoning. In fact, the only reason they failed into culling the Ballas was because Smoke and Ryder snitched on them. And after CJ was thrown into the Badlands, does he give up? NO. He works with a psycopath woman and earns money by all means necessary to get a strong foothold in San Fierro. Does he stop there? NO. He buys property, earns money, becomes chummy with the Triads and takes out a drug cartel. Does he stops there? NO! He allies himself with a MIB to work towards Sweet freedom. Does he stops there? NO!! He helps to rise up a Casino and runs out THREE mafia gangs out of the city. DOES HE STOPS THERE? NO!!!!! HE recovers Madd Dogg crib to use as base of operation to wait for Sweet. And when Sweet gets out of jail and calls CJ out and demands he helps with the hood, what does CJ do? Exactly that, taking down Smoke's yay operation and Officer Tenpenny, Pulasky and Hernandez. All in the span of a few months. Say whatever you want about CJ, but he is NO BUSTER.
*He reassures Sweet that "whatever's mine is yours". And he means it. In the previous game, everything Tommy did was for himself. Everything CJ did was for the Johnson Empire. For his family.
*HE FLEW WITH A JETPACK! Come on. This alone should put you on his side.
Cons
*We don't know the details, but we know that he let his little brother Brian die. In itself, that sucks. But the twist of the knife is that after Brian died, CJ ran away to the other end of the country, and from what we gather, he didn't write, call or visited his family in FIVE YEARS. AND THE WORSE PART is that CJ's mom apparently got sick through that time and Kendl was still going to school, so Sweet had to man up... And CJ was not there to help him.
*Let's be honest: CJ doesn't have much of a care for the hood. He cares about his family, yes, and he wants to be accepted, but everything he does for Grove Street is just so his homies and Sweet would take him back.
*In his own words, he "tries not to pay much attention". And it shows. Literally, CJ is your go-to guy, which is good but also bad. Damn, he made Madd Dogg life a living Hell by stealing his rhyme book and, oh yeah, KILLING HIS MANAGER! A man that did nothing wrong except saying that Jeff-OG LOC rapping was "whack" (which is true). CJ saves MD life later on and becomes his manager... but he never comes clean about what he did to MD. Thats pretty cold.
*He complains. A LOT. Its mentioned several times by several characters: whenever things are slightly off, CJ whines about it. Special mention goes to when Cataline gaves him the garage in Doherty as pink slip. He throws a tantrum to the ages just because the place is a bit of a fixer-upper.
*Related to the above, Kendl calls him out about how CJ always "wanted something out of nothing", meaning CJ wanted to be respected but didn't want to put much effort into it.
*Honestly? He's a bit of a slacker. Until he reaches Las Venturas, he'd shown little leadership material. And the few good calls he had (buying ZERO's shop, buying the car dealership), were someone else's idea.
*Its fair to say that, even after becoming rich in Las Venturas, he still remains humble, and still wants to work to get Sweet out of jail. Its also fair to say that he's so dazzled by the success they had that he couldn't care less about the hood. Damn, the man saw his childhood home being used as a base spot and he didn't give a damn. That's cold.
*Through all the final act, he struggles with his new found responsibilities with his business against the responsibilities with his brother and his hood.
*To be honest, its debatable if he took out Smoke and Tenpenny out of desire to help the hood or because it was personal for him.
*He goes as far as accusing the hood (and by extension GS and Sweet) as "holding him up". Kind of a high horse you have there...
*It's not outright said, but Its obvious the reason Tenpenny was declared innocent was because of everything CJ did for him. Taking down witnesses? Killing reporters? Destroying evidence? All of that helped Tenpenny. CJ was being held by the balls, yes. But his actions led to Tenpenny being declared innocent, which in turn lead to the LS riots, which no doubt caused lot of material and human lives...
I was gonna write a list of Sweet pros and cons but it would be redundant.
So there you have it! Fell free to vote and comment!
