Spoiler Warning: Plot and/or ending details are in the text which follows.- ❝You gotta love your hood like you love your homies. It's always been that way, and ain't nothing ever gonna change, I done seen it all.❞
- — Sweet to GSF members in the mission Grove 4 Life.
Sean 'Sweet' Johnson is a main character and deuteragonist in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas HD. He is the leader of the Grove Street Families, and older brother of Carl Johnson, the protagonist of the game.
Description[]
Sweet with his Bravado Greenwood on Grove Street, 1992.
Sean 'Sweet' Johnson is the older brother to protagonist, CJ, and leader of the GSF set of the Families, he is also the older brother to Kendl Johnson. Sweet is known for his strict views, especially when it comes to gangs, and selling drugs in his neighbourhood, which he is against. He is somewhat of a supporting character, during the early missions, later getting incarcerated after the Green Sabre mission, and later be released under the orders of Mike Toreno. After this, his role and impact on Carl is much larger, with him appearing in more or less all missions after this.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Childhood[]
Sean Johnson was the first child born to Beverly Johnson and Calvin Johnson, in February of 1965, he would be greeted with three more siblings over the years, with Carl Johnson, his younger brother, being born in March of 1968, his younger sister, Kendle being born in October of 1969, and finally another younger brother, Brian Johnson, being born in October of 1971.
Sweet was very strict in the house, with their father never being around, he took on the role of man of the house. Making sure that his siblings were in check. Sweet, along with his siblings, befriended various other children, in the neighbourhood, especially on Grove Street. Such as, Melvin 'Big Smoke' Harris, Lance 'Ryder' Wilson, Mark 'B-Dup' Wayne, and Barry 'Big Bear' Thorne. Sweet's natural leadership skills would make him the leader of the friend group, over the years the friends would commit various petty crimes in the city of Davis.
Involvement and Leadership of Grove Street Families[]
In Davis, during the 70's various sets of the Eastside Families began to break down, with Grove Street Families coming out as one of the strongest sets. Sweet joined the gang in 1982, and eventually became the leader in the same year, both of his brothers, and all of his friends joined the set, bring a new younger generation to the gang. Over the years, under Sweets leadership, GSF flourished to become the strongest set of the Families, and the strongest gang in the LS metro area, by 1985.
Death of Brian Johnson & Fall of GSF[]
Sweet in 1991.
In December of 1987, tragedy would strike the Johnson family, as the youngest Sibling, Brian was killed at the hands of Ballas of members in drive-by shooting. Carl was present at the time, but failed to act before Brian was shot, leading to their younger brother's death. Sweet and Big Smoke tracked the Balla down, the same day and brutally killed him. Out of pure anger, Sweet kicked CJ out of the Johnson house. CJ then moved to Liberty City a few days later. GSF would begin to face struggles as the Ballas and Vagos Crack businesses encroached and eventually usurped much of the Grove turf. C.R.A.S.H, a corrupt sect of the LSPD, begun to bother many GSF OG's, a few months prior, bringing about the eventually fall of GSF, which would only see a resurgence in 1992, when CJ returned from LC.
Events of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas: HD[]
Upon CJ's return to Los Santos, Sweet was not happy to see him, when Carl and Smoke arrived, Sweet proceeded to chastise him about abandoning his family and the grove, this was interrupted by Kendl leaving to see her boyfriend, Cesar, which Sweet also criticises. Carl's supposed abandonment of his family, had led to Sweet growing a bitter resentment towards him. Sweet's leadership and dedication to the gang often strained his relationship with CJ. CJ resented Sweet's unwavering commitment to the gang, as he felt that it was responsible for their family's struggles. Sweet, in turn, criticized CJ for leaving the neighborhood and the gang to pursue a different path. This tension between the brothers forms a significant part of the game's emotional core. He considered CJ out of the gang, and would give him various missions that primarily demeaned the influence of rival gang, the Ballas, in order to 'win' his place in GSF back. When CJ completes these missions, Sweet eventually becomes more friendly to his brother, often times vouching to other Groves about his reliability. After CJ, Sweet and other Groves successfully kill Kane at Little Weasel's funeral, Sweet fully reconciles with Carl, restoring their relationship.
After some more hits on the Ballas already fading influence and morale, Sweet plans one final attack to end them once and for all. He informs CJ to meet him and other Groves under the La Mesa Freeway were the attack will be taking place. CJ is called by Cesar who tells him to meet him, they see that Big Smoke has betrayed GSF for C.R.A.S.H, and had the same Green Sabre that killed his mom. CJ realises that Sweet is walking into a trap, he tells Cesar to take Kendl some place safe and rushes to save Sweet. He finds Sweet poorly injured and proceeds to fend him and the remaining Groves off from the waves of Ballas attacks. He does this until the brothers are arrested by Cops, CJ is taken by C.R.A.S.H, and Sweet is sent to a Prison hospital, Ryder who was also present in the shootout is arrested. Sweet remains in prison for the remainder of the story up until his release towards the end.
Events of Busta To Riches[]
Sweet makes appearance in the Busta To Riches DLC, as a fellow inmate to Ryder, when they are both locked up after their arrest in the gang war. Ryder believes that CJ has abandoned them again and possibly betrayed them, due to the fact that he showed up to the attack late and being set free by the LSPD, but Sweet knowing the truth managed to convince him that Smoke betrayed the Grove and CJ tried to save them both before the police came.
Ryder and Sweet defend each other from various Ballas and Bajos attacks, with the help of fellow Grove, G-Lock.
When G-Lock starts a riot in the prison, Ryder manages to escape and tries to persuade Sweet to come with him, Sweet declines as escaping will compromise CJ's mission to get him out legally. Ryder and G-Lock leave without him, and Sweet wishes Ryder good luck in the outside world, and asks him to inform him of the current state of affairs in South LS, and the status of the Families. Sweet makes no more appearances in the game, afterwards.
Release from prison[]
After his stint in Prison, Sweet is released under the orders of Mike Toreno, thanks to CJ. CJ comes to visit him and is excited to inform him of his new life outside of the hood, Sweet chastises him for his abandonment of the Grove and his new high-class life. Sweet then informs CJ that he'll be going back to the Grove, CJ knowing that he won't survive down there alone follows him back, and it's there when the brothers decide to retake Families turf back and exact revenge on Big Smoke and Tenpenny.
The brothers come home to far worse off Grove, Davis is flooded with Drugs and most GSF members are now either drug friends or are in hiding. The two manage to bring the GSF back together, and remove the internal drug problem from their neighbourhood. Here they find Ryder, who has already got many Groves off of drugs and has formed a splinter section of GSF members who are against its use within the gang.
Sweet, along with Ryder assist CJ heavily with taking back Families turf, they progress very quickly, managing to take back Strawberry, Chamberlain Hills, and the OSF territory in Rancho. Sweet also tells CJ to help Cesar retake Aztecas territory back from the Vagos, which he and Cesar do successfully, further solidify the GSF-VLA friendship and alliance.
Despite recent successes, Sweet begins to feel overwhelmed by the destruction of his hood to drugs and a cheap prostitute is sent by B-Dup to get Sweet hooked on drugs, this is almost successful until CJ comes in last minute and prevents this. The woman then threatens them with B-Dup, in which the brothers dismiss this and decide to deal with B-Dup. The brothers meet with Ryder, and the trio arrive at B-Dup's new high end house in Mirror Park, they take back the neighborhood for Families, eliminating Ballas from the area, thus leaving him defenceless. Sweet and Ryder point a gun at him forcing him to give up information on Smoke, he declines and demands that Big Bear deal with them. Bear finally stands up to him and punches him in the face, B-Dup now in fear for his life gives up information on Smoke and his organisation. Sweet and Ryder head back to the Grove to gather ammunition and other necessities needed to take on Smoke for the final time. CJ brings Bear to rehab and gives him $200 to stay clean which does successfully.
Riot and Fall of Big Smoke[]
Sweet was there with many other friends of CJ when they saw the news that Tenpenny had beat all of his the cases against, due to the lack of witnesses, indirectly due to CJ. After this the city erupted into riots, Sweet saw and reluctantly agreed to the 1992 OSF-SRB truce. He and CJ decided it would be the perfect time to finally strike at Big Smoke, due to the unrest in the city. Ryder and Big Bear gathered additional intel on his whereabouts. And the brothers took back the Del Perro turf for MDF and the Palomino Beach turf for PTF, bringing the Families to their territorial peak.
Sweet offered to help CJ take down their final enemy, but CJ declined, stating that he was doing it alone as a repayment for letting Brian die and letting down the Grove. Sweet respected his wishes. CJ successful got passed all of the obstructions on his way to finally kill Smoke. CJ then killed Smoke and his guard's, in which Tenpenny finds smoke dead and tries to leave on a fire truck, to get a plane to Vice City. Sweet climbed onto the fire truck and was pursued CJ. Sweet fought off the cops defending Tenpenny and jumped back into CJ's car where they continued chase. Tenpenny finally met his fate when the truck swerved and crashed into the Davis Bridge the truck fell off the bridge. And Tenpenny in his last breath tried to call for backup but he was not heard. Tenpenny succumbed to his wounds seconds later, as Carl was about to put a bullet in him, Sweet stopped him, as doing so would make police treat it as a homicide, instead Tenpenny's death was seen as an accident or an act of suicide.
Appearance[]
Sweet has a rather average appearance of an African American male, though he is above average height, at about 6'1 in. He has brown eyes, a goatee, and fresh fade cut. He is almost always seen wearing his casual Families attire, which consists of a Baggy Green Tall Tee, a rolled sleeve White Sweater, Dark Blue Jeans, and Black Crevis Sneakers, and a Green LS Corkers Fitted Cap. In some missions he can be seen wearing a Black Corkers Leather Jacket, with a White T Shirt underneath, Grey Jeans, a Gold Chain, and White Eris Trainers. In Beta Files of the game, Sweet also has a prison outfit, for when CJ would visit him, the outfit consists of baggy orange prison pants, Black Eris Trainers, and a Baggy White Tall Tee, with two Green Wristbands. In BTR and SCH DLC, this outfit is used throughout the entirety of the prison missions in both DLC.
Personality[]
Sweet on the front has a stern and strict personality, he almost always prioritizes the gang above all other things, at times, including himself. He will go to extreme lengths to secure the survival of GSF, and the Families as a whole. Sweet displays excellent leadership skills, and is able to persuade many with his strong speeches about loyalty, and commitment to the gang. These skills are likely the reason he managed to climb the ranks of GSF from an early age. Sweet's years on the streets of Davis has conditioned him to be disciplined in regards to the gang life, and he has no issue on killing others if it will result in the betterment of the Grove Street Families. He also has a strong anti-drugs attitude, and will not allow for any of his gang members to take or distribute hard drugs, much to the dismal of fellow Grove leader, Big Smoke, who eventually betrays him for these reasons. Sweet, however does have a sense of empathy and compassion to those around, his family in particular, and he is seen to be very defensive over them, as seen when he chastises Kendle for her clothing choice and her relationship with Cesar. He cares for CJ very much, despite not showing it in earlier missions. Despite Sweet's street smarts and gang mentality, he is quite naïve, often times more than his younger brother. He is very quick to walk into a Ballas trap, and he almost has no suspicions of anyone in his gang, hence why Smoke was able to get so far with his drug empire. Though by the end of the game, after his release from prison, Sweet has gained much more experience and is seen to be far less naïve in regards to his approach towards fellow Groves, and even enemy gang members.
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