Johnny

Artwork by Emily Kray (@troctopus)

**Johnny** is the protagonist of the 1985 TV series *Johnny and the Warriors of Chronos*; on Earth, Johnny was a normal little boy until the Warriors of Chronos came to Earth, told him he was a wizard and that his real father was none other than Merlin. Starting as a child who can hardly control his magic powers, Johnny grows up into the leader of the Warriors of Chronos, proving that he was the hero everyone expected him to be.

## Development

Johnny was the first character created by Jamie-Leigh Gale when he adapted the toyline to television. In response to why he added Johnny to the cast of characters, he said in an interview with 2nz:

> *"I found that even though kids are interested in muscular heroes and cool villains, the thing that makes them stick with a series are kids, simply. No surprises here, kids like kids, and if they see a little boy like them fighting alongside their favorite heroes, it makes them wish it was them. Jennifer Dodd did it with Mythical Pals, and I wanted to do the same with Warriors of Chronos. Zaid did not create any kids for the hero team, so I did. He wasn't happy with it at first, but time went by and he learned to like the kid."*
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In first drafts of the pilot, Johnny was an orphan, and Mika and Josie were other orphans in Johnny's orphanage; this was decided so that when Johnny decides to stay in Chronos, he doesn't have to leave any family behind. In the end, Gale decided he wanted Johnny to have a normal and happy family life so that kids could find him more relatable. On the matter, Zaid Campbell said that:

> *"[...] we had something going for Johnny; not only making him an orphan gave him more layers, but the story made more sense. But fuck that, Jamie wanted a generic kid with some happy family so we got a 12 year old boy who leaves his family without warning for more than 10 years."*
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While Campbell added that he hopes Johnny returned to see his parents on Earth after the show ended, Jamie-Leigh Gale once said that despite not being stated anywhere in the show, Merlin removed the memory of Johnny in his Earth parents' minds, so they wouldn't remember or miss him. This is the explanation used in the *Warriors of Chronos* comics, but they were proved to be non-canon after the release *The Dragon War.*

## History

### **In *Johnny and the Warriors of Chronos***

Johnny is the secret son of Merlin and Queen Talitta; because Amazon law forbids the union of Amazons with humans, Johnny's birth had to be kept secret, hence Merlin sent Johnny on Earth. To be sure Johnny would have a good life on Earth, he put a spell on a family so they would believe Johnny to be their own son, and he gave Johnny his Hyperstone, a powerful magical stone forged from a thousand hyperplants by a thousand wizards, to protect him.

In the first episode of *Johnny and the Warriors of Chronos*, Johnny is called by Merlin, who he doesn't know is his father, to fight alongside the Warriors of Chronos and use his Hyperstone to stop Shang-Tsei and his henchmen. Johnny doesn't believe Merlin at first, but when he sees what he can do with his Hyperstone, he decides to stay in Chronos so Merlin can teach him how to become a great wizard like him.

When he started being part of the Warriors of Chronos, Johnny, unable to control his magical powers properly, felt useless and powerless, and in episodes "Super Johnny" and "Johnny the Warrior", he tried to prove the Warriors that he was worthy, even though it only put him in trouble.

In some episodes, Johnny would visit Earth to see his friends Josie and Mika, or invite them to the castle. Josie and Mika were the only people Johnny would see from Earth; Johnny's Earth parents were very rarely seen, and Johnny barely referred to them either.

Since the coronation of Marcus and Leana, Johnny became leader of the Warriors of Chronos. The many missions he had with the Warriors trained him to become the leader, even though teammate Sergeant Cyborg, Fangs and Felina have been warriors for longer than him. As a leader, Johnny showed to be as good and reliable as Marcus; he made choices not according to what was asked of him, but based on what was fair and just. When Merlin died, he was originally expected to take his place as Royal Wizard, but his friend Luna, former apprentice of Sinistra and fellow Warrior, assisted Morgan Le Fay in this task, leaving Johnny to take care of the Warriors of Chronos exclusively.

In the parallel dimension Luna visited in the story arc "Luna and the Warriors of Chronos", Johnny was still the child Merlin and Queen Talitta, but was stolen by Sinistra as a baby when she killed his parents. Johnny taking the place of Luna in this dimension, the Wolf Tribes were never extinct and Luna never became a Warrior, instead, the Cat Tribes were extinct and Fangs and Felina were killed. Johnny grew up thinking Sinistra was his mother, and holding on the Hyperstone given to him by his real father, he became the powerful protege of Sinistra, helping her in her vile aspirations. It is believed that Merlin and Talitta revealing the birth of Johnny to the Amazons and crowning Merlin as King of the Amazons was what caused the changes between the world of Chronos and this alternate Chronos. Johnny causing controversy, it weakened the Amazons, inspiring Sinistra to attack them and killing their Queen along with their new King.

### **In *The Dragon War* and *The Rise of Ruthlan***

In the films, Johnny is ten years older; as an adult, Johnny is still the leader of the Warriors of Chronos and he has to assume the same responsibilities Marcus did in the first season of the series.

In *The Rise of Ruthlan*, Johnny's Hyperstone is destroyed by Ruthlan; he only retrieves it when Merlin's spirit powers him to defeat Ruthlan, only then his Hyperstone magically reconstructs out of thin air.