The Guardian

Jaffa
Personal details
Status	Alive
Residence	The Island Phoenix Mall (Former)
Also known as	Jaffa (Real name) Goldilocks (By Ebony) Fruitcake
Physical description
Sex	Male
Skin color	White
Hair	Blonde
Affiliation
Tribe	Zootists The Chosen (Former) Locos (Former)
Position	Guardian of the Zootists Guardian of The Chosen (Former)
Relations
Parents	Unknown †
Appearances
Introduced	Series 2 Episode 1
Last appeared	The Tribe: (R)Evolution
Portrayed by	Damon Andrews
S2 • S3 • S5 • ANW • AND • (R)E

"I need you by my side if I am to rekindle the faith." - The Guardian

Jaffa, known by his title The Guardian, was the leader of The Chosen, a cult worshipping the teachings of Zoot.

Personality

The Guardian's personality is that of extreme fanaticism. He may truly believe that he is serving the just cause by obeying, unconditionally the words of Zoot but oddly he sees no conflict in persecuting Trudy, who is the mother of Zoot's Child, Ebony who could be considered Zoot's consort, and Bray who is Zoot's brother.

The Guardian can go from compassionate and quiet to a furious fit of rage in seconds. He has no tolerance for deviance from his and the only philosophy that matters to him. He believes that he is truly doing the work of Zoot.

History

Series 2

The Guardian kidnaps Brady

The Guardian was originally a Loco but after the tribe disbanded, he managed to form a new tribe called The Chosen with many former Locos. Under his leadership, they kidnap Brady and Trudy. Months later, Trudy returns to the Mall Rats claiming The Chosen had fallen apart and had taken that opportunity to escape. While most of the Mall Rats believed her, Cloe and May had their suspicions about Trudy as she seemed to have changed after returning.

In reality, Trudy had been brainwashed and was secretly working with the still active Chosen, plotting the City's downfall. Not long after, The Chosen executed an invasion of the city which was successful. The Guardian moved The Chosen's headquarters to the Mall and had many of the tribal leaders taken away, such as Danni.

Series 3

At first he names Trudy as the Supreme Mother based on the fact that she is, after all, the mother of Zoot's child, and Brady is to be a sacred child amongst the two. However, when Trudy finds out that the Guardian had been meeting with Tai-San in secret and comes onto him out of desperation, the Guardian banishes her and replaces her with Tai-San who becomes the next Supreme Mother.

As the Guardian comes to know Tai-San, he begins to respect her out of her purity and spiritual beliefs. Hoping to convert her, he meets with her privately to discuss spiritual matters and her views on things. Tai-San, noticing that the Guardian is developing an interest in her, uses this to her advantage by attempting to lead him astray and see the errors of his ways. Her attempts manage to get him to be confused on the way he feels towards her; thinking her to be the most pure out of all the Mallrats, and manages to get him to set up a sort of "date" where they go drinking in his room. All times she meets with the Guardian, he gets close to Tai-San, nearly or almost making physical contact with her, but all times he backs away and sends her away to pray with Zoot. The Guardian is quite fond of her and, although he would never admit it, he does like her, despite her being with Lex.

When the Guardian attempts to implode the mall with a bomb, killing everyone in it, there's only one thing to stop the action: to get the code from the man himself. When Bray appears on the scene, dressed like Zoot, he believes that he is Zoot that has finally come to his "shrine". However, "Zoot" says that he's unhappy with The Guardian, trying to destroy his sacred ground. Bray says to give him the code and put a stop to this, and the Guardian collapses to the ground, with Tai-San asking him what the code is. He first whispers "Six", and then "Six" and then, hesitatingly, "zero". Tai-San notices something is off and instead answers "Six", which proved to be the correct code. The bomb was diffused.

The Guardian is then taken captive and spends time in a cell, locked to himself apparently losing his mind. Tai-San makes an effort to feed him daily, three times a day, and she eventually passes this job onto Lex, who passes it onto Andy. When Andy takes the Guardian's ring, the Guardian tells him to get the key or he'll bite his hand off. Due to this and later encounters with the Guardian, Andy finds that the Guardian is far from insane, and is well aware of what is going on, terrifying anyone who sees him.

When he was released from the cell by Ned and put into a coffin, being taken to the hideaway of where Trudy and Amber were, he managed to kill Ned and run away, looking for Tai-San. His one-sided infautuation with Tai-San eventually lead him to begging her to join him to recreate The Chosen, again as the Supreme Mother. Tai-San explains that he must get away, to which he replies, "Yes. Far away. Together. You and I. Together. You must. I need you by my side if I am to rekindle the faith." When Tai-San expresses disapproval and rejection, he shouts at her, "Don't argue with me! I forbid you to argue!" She realizes his mental stability and apologizes, causing him to smile and say that they should go that night. Tai-San declares that she cannot, and leads him to come to the realization that they still need Brady to recreate the Divine Family. Tai-San agrees to deliver Brady to him and they can leave the next day. However, Tai-San tells the Mall Rats of her plan to ambush The Guardian instead, and the next day, they manage to capture him yet again. Ebony urges the rest of the tribe to arrange an execution immediately -- all the while The Guardian tells Bray and Amber of Ebony's plan to set him free.

The Guardian about to kill Ned

Later, Alice sneaks into his cell room to kill him, since he killed Ned, whom she loved. Luke appears on the scene, attempting to coax her into letting the Guardian out of the headlock she has him in, and to let him go. Alice yells that she must do this for Ned. She lets him go, and collapses to the ground, and Luke rushes to her aid. While doing so, the Guardian begins to choke Luke, telling him, "Thank you for saving my life." The Guardian kidnaps Luke and offers him to rejoin The Chosen, attempting to leave on a boat for to a "safe-house for all the believers." Just then, the Technos planes invaded the city. The Guardian somehow was aware of their coming, having apparently seen something before he was recaptured by Mall Rats, but for a time it was unknown how he truly knew this.

Series 5

A maniacal Guardian in a cage

He is seen with Alice and KC locked in a cage, having apparently been captured by the invading Technos and sold into slavery. His behavior suggests that he has indeed truly lost his mind and is every bit just as fanatical as he once was, praising Zoot and giving thanks for everything to Zoot.

The Tribe: A New World

The Guardian reappears briefly with Eloise and the Zootists, having a maniacal smile when he watches Bray being subjected to Reality Space experiments. He is not seen for the reminder of the book and the circumstances of his release from captivity by The Collective isn't known until the next book. However at the end, Lex thinks that when The Guardian told him that the "true bringers of Power and Chaos" were coming (in Series 3), he was not necessarily referring to the Technos, but to The Collective.

The Tribe: A New Dawn

Ebony is later brought to the same base where Bray was previously tortured and meets both Eloise and The Guardian. She was shocked to learn that the Zootists had spread beyond the city and to their island base, realising that The Guardian was responsible for doing so, but was clearly being manipulated by Eloise for her own selfish ambitions. Eloise later reveals she found The Guardian on a slave ship and decided to free and use him to further her goals.

Eloise had received instructions from The Collective's leader, Kami, that she was to go to Eagle Mountain to retrieve the secrets the adults left behind. The Guardian works with Eloise in capturing most of the Mall Rats and takes them back to the city where they imprison them in the Mall. After Trudy's capture, he wanted to execute her for betraying the faith back in Series 3. But Ebony, seeing that The Guardian had clearly lost his mind, decides to turn things in her favour by saying she had a vision from Zoot, who claims that Eloise and The Guardian are liars. This causes a division amongst the Zootists and a intense battle occurs, where The Guardian is captured and locked in the cage with Eloise.

The Tribe: (R)Evolution

The Collective invade the city to free The Guardian and Eloise from the Mall Rats. With the Mall Rats captured and sent to Eden, The Guardian and the Zootists regroup under Eloise's commands and they do not appear after this. But later, The Collective become reformed after the Mall Rats made their leader, Cami, realise the horrible abuse her commanders had done. Cami ponders if The Guardian, Eloise and the Zootists, who are mentioned to be residing in the Northern Provinces, will be apart of the future, to which she thinks not.

Gallery

Series 2

Series 3

Trivia

• In a 2020 podcast, Raymond Thompson mentioned that The Master from Doctor Who was partly the inspiration for The Guardian.
• In Series 2 Episode 14, the Guardian was originally called Jaffa and was in the same class as Martin. He sat behind Trudy in class but she did not seem to remember or notice that he was in her class as she was confused at Ebony calling him Jaffa.
• It is mentioned in Series 3 Episode 11 that The Guardian used to be a Loco.
• The Guardian's code to diffuse the bomb in the Mall was "666", the sign of the Devil, Satan. This was probably intended as in The New Tomorrow, Zoot is seen as a Satan-like figure, thus making sense for the code to be as such.
• All the characters in the show continue to refer to him as The Guardian (despite his real name being Jaffa) even after The Chosen's downfall.
• When Series 5 was still airing, an article was released on Tribeworld.com that teased possible storylines of how the season would end. One of them being that Mega finds The Guardian's file and brings him into VR to be reunited with Zoot. None of these teases ultimately came to pass.
• When The Guardian told Lex "the true bringers of Power and Chaos" were coming during the Techno invasion, it might suggest he had some inside connection to The Collective as it was revealed he was not necessarily referring to the Technos in The Tribe: A New World.
  • This revelation causes a plot hole as he was originally a Loco and later formed The Chosen, then was sold into the hands of Eloise and the Zootists on the Island, who closely worked under the instructions of Kami. How he knew of The Collective before meeting them is not yet revealed.
• The Guardian was voted by fans as 1st Greatest Villain in a 2015 poll.