Gaia

Gaia
First Appearance:	It's Kind Of A Birthday Present 1x01
Last Appearance:	This Thing Inside 3x02
Played By:	Keisha Castle-Hughes
Reason Left:	Needed to get away from gods
Gender:	Female
Age:	23 (false), 21 (actual)
Occupation:	As Gaia: *Nurse As Iðunn: (formerly) *Goddess of Youth
God/Goddess:	Iðunn (formerly)
Power:	Formerly: * Spring, Rejuvenation & Immortality
Relatives:	Bryn (Adoptive father) Leon (Half Brother) Tyr (Biological father's God name)
Residence:	Auckland, New Zealand (formerly) London, England
Nationality:	United Kingdom

Gaia is a hospital nurse, and she’s also Axl and Zeb’s flatmate – which is a good thing since there is at least one person in the flat who’s got their act together.

She is also the daughter of a Maori Goddess and a Norse God, and was the living incarnation of A Major Goddess Iðunn; The Goddess of Eternal Youth, Spring and Rejuvenation, The keeper of the Golden Appels.

Biography

Early Life

Gaia was born to the reincarnation of the Norse God Tyr and the Maori Goddess, Apakura, under Southern Stars. Though by Bryn's account, they were unfit to be parents, even by the low standards of Gods (As they were Criminals). When she was a baby, the unusually small Giant was sent to kill her in an attempt to stop the prophecy of Frigg and Odin's reunion. However, Bryn was unable to complete the task upon laying eyes on her, and hid her on Waiheke Island, pretending to be her father and sending word that he had killed her to the Giants.

When Jacob arrived to follow up the task of killing her on the behalf of the Dwarves, he fell into a similar predicament but constantly lied about not locating her. As she grew up, Bryn made arrangements to look after her, including changing her age slightly so that she would be two years older than she actually was. (Everything Starts With Gaia)

Season 1

After shopping for beer, Gaia watched as Axl was nearly run over by Stacey, and was clearly annoyed when Axl invited her to their party. While cleaning up afterwards, she gave Axl a hug for his 21st. When it was time to go to the party Mike and Valerie had organised, she surprised Axl with a nice dress, and commented on his strange sword. At the party she was saddened by Axl’s happiness with a pair of ladies Anders had brought with him, but took an opportunity to try dance with him before Zeb interrupted. When she tried to comfort Axl when he was upset later, she was disheartened when he went off with a woman who looked like another Anders had brought with him. when Anders Ty and Mike ask her where Axl is, she reveals that he left with one of the ladies Anders brought, she is later at the hospital after Axl got hit by an Arrow. (It's Kind Of A Birthday Present)

Season 2

Gaia returned to the old flat, and after hiding in a closet to avoid Jacob, who was looking for her there, asked Axl if she could move back in. (Frigg Magnet)

Gaia's party-girl look

However her behavior was extremely and increasingly erratic, to Axl and Zeb's surprise, wanting to go out drinking, cursing more, and flirting with a complete stranger. Bryn arrived to try and take her back to Waiheke, though Axl eventually managed to convince him to back off. (Charlie Truman)

Later, as Gaia was rearranging furniture following a dream she'd had and quitting her job, Bryn and Jacob arrived without warning and demanded that Gaia flee with them, though she refused, sneaking out the window, but spraining her wrist. As she tried to start the car, Bryn, Jacob and Axl came bursting out of the house, claiming that a large man had walked in looking for her, and Gaia assumed that it was part of a drug-deal gone wrong on Bryn's part.

As they arrived at Mike's bar, Michele agreed to tend to her injury, and after Gaia explained that she had quit her job, Michele called Stacey and Ingrid over for a drinking party. Whilst chatting, Gaia said that she had been doing odd things lately (although she did not think she was being weird), which intrigued the three Goddesses. After smoking a joint Ingrid had offered, Axl arrived back and said that Bryn wanted to explain things. At Gaia favorite place, the beach, Bryn and Axl told her that she was to become the Goddess Frigg, though she burst out laughing in disbelief (Everything Starts With Gaia)

Realizing that she wasn't going to listen while she was partially stoned, Axl and Bryn took her home. The devastation to their flat, the arrival of a man named Derrick or Thor, who seemed to reinforce what they had been saying, and Axl's insistence made Gaia insecure, and fled the flat to Mike's bar. Asking to speak with Mike in private, Gaia told him her suspicion that Axl and Bryn were losing their minds, however Mike was able to convince her of the truth, and asked the Goddesses to ease her transition into her new reality.

The Goddesses tend to Gaia

With Zeb's life on the line since he had been kidnapped by the Giant Eggther, Gaia agreed to go and try and save him since it was her Eggther wanted. However as the meeting wore on, Eggther gave up on trying to kill Gaia, even though she was at his mercy, after Zeb managed to convince him not to. Though the celebration at Mike's bar lightened everyone else's spirits, Gaia was afraid that because she and Axl were bound to be with one another, she would no longer have a free will. At that moment, a van pulled up and masked men kidnapped her and drove off. (Magical Fluffy Bunny World)

When Axl, Mike, Bryn and Michele found the assailants' home, they found Gaia having a pleasant cup of tea with Maori Gods while waiting for the Norse gods to arrive. Revealing a similar prophecy between Maui (Jerome) and Papatuanuku to that between Odin and Frigg, the Maori Gods told them that they believed Gaia to be Papatuanuku. While discussing the issue of Gaia's godly identity, the Maori Gods revealed that Bryn had first killed Gaia's parents - a fact he didn't deny. This angered Gaia, inducing her to run back to George's house that night.

She was present to perform the Karanga for the Norse Gods at the Hui to formally discuss Gaia's role amongst the Gods. This was punctuated by Gaia's half-brother Leon pronouncing that Bryn return to Waiheke Island to produce hydroponic weed as utu for their mother's death. Gaia returned to the flat with Axl but they both left that night to deal with their individual divinity. (The House of Jerome)

However, during the ceremony that turned Gaia into a Goddess, it quickly came to be that she was now Iðunn, as Helen had been killed earlier. She presented herself to Anders / Bragi, oblivious to Axl and Jerome's despair. (Does This Look Like Asgard?)

Season 3

However she quickly snapped out of her reverie around Anders and went back home with Axl. She assured him that she felt nothing for Anders and that she wanted to be with him, and the two slept together. When Zeb woke them up the next morning, it appeared that their passion had caused Gaia to grow an apple tree in their couch, and explained whom she had become to their flatmate. As they were cleaning up for a flat inspection, Gaia suddenly experienced an illusion of Anders in front of her, and dragged Axl off to her bedroom, hoping that it would lessen the feelings of the bond between Iðunn and Bragi, however she only felt worse for it.

When the flatmates went to Mike's Bar, they encountered Anders, and a tense conversation followed in which Gaia and Anders both claimed to despise one another. Later on, Axl states that it doesn't matter if he's supposed to be with Frigg, that he loves Gaia and proposed to her, which she accepted. Despite their own happiness, everyone they told were not as enthusiastic, and later that night Ingrid took her aside to explain that it was pointless trying to fight the universe. Gaia admitted that it was Anders that she now felt an attraction to and that she felt terrible about how things were going to end up. She then went to Anders' apartment, almost walking away until someone let her into the building, and she and Anders proceeded to sleep together. (An Orchard of Trees)

Feeling immensely guilty about sleeping with Anders, Gaia fled back to the flat, lying to Axl about her whereabouts and claimed to want to bring their wedding forward. However as they were planning details, Anders sent Gaia a sexy-text, and Gaia went to Stacey to vent, and Stacey recommended that she try and avoid all contact with Anders. However Anders then called her and asked to meet, and a reluctant Gaia told him that she wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. However they both quickly succumbed to their Gods' bonds and fell into bed together once more.

Unable to keep the truth from Axl any further, Gaia admitted the truth to him, leading him to storm off. When he returned, Gaia admitted that she loved him, but that her becoming Iðunn made them being together to difficult, and decided that she was going to go to the U.K. to work on her OE to avoid the God world, and Anders, for a while. The next day she left for the airport, leaving behind a teary-eyed Axl. (This Thing Inside)

Later on, Martin Larson / Heimdallr, told Ingrid that he had been the one to allow Gaia and Anders to get close, since his sister Hanna was Frigg (and had been before Gaia even ascended, making the Giants' prophecy about her completely false) and that her and Axl's destinies were not intertwined. (Late to the Point of Knowledge)

Personality

Considering her mother died when Gaia was born, and that she was brought up on Waiheke Island by her solo father Bryn, who is an organic vegetable grower who discovered, in mid-life, that he was gay, Gaia is a modern miracle of genetics, proving that common sense can overcome many obstacles.

Gaia is one of those people who, most of the time, gets what they want, not through tantrums and hand-bag tossing but through reason and quiet determination. She negotiated her freedom and passage off the island of Waiheke from an over-protective father who wanted her to live at home forever; she bargained her way into a flat with a guy who she thinks is pretty cool over the opposition of his best mate; and she gets on with life and work the best she can – even with a seemingly unrequited crush on the cool guy in question.

Gaia is a good chick. She holds the flat together. She tells the guys off when they’re being dicks. And she keeps her true feelings under wraps because, well, that’s the way she rolls.

Relationships

Axl Johnson

She has had a crush on Axl for a long time, attempting to show this at his 21st by offering to make the night 'special'. When he declined, oblivious, she instead watched as Axl attempts relationships with other women. She eventually decided to find someone else and through her father met Jacob, whom she has had a brief fling with, however she couldn't stop caring about Axl and eventually decided to break it off. However when Axl admitted his feelings for her, the two made love, with the intention of breaking it off with their respective partners. Yet Axl's apparent reluctance to call off his marriage to Eva put Gaia off, not wanting to be 'the other woman', and decided to move with Jacob back to Waiheke.

Upon her return, Axl was concerned by her new behavior, and tried to look after her, but she refused to trust him after what had happened between them. When it was revealed by Bryn that Gaia was set to become Frigg, Gaia was unhappy with the fact that she was going to have no choice in her relationship with Axl. However when the Maori Gods had deemed her to be set to become Papatuanuku, she let herself draw closer to Axl, accepting that she had dual destinies, and they were happier together. But when Gaia ended up becoming Iðunn, she had a newfound attraction to Anders (Bragi).

The two tried to keep their relationship afloat by deciding to get married, however Gaia eventually slept with Anders. After telling Axl, she admitted that she loved him, but wanted to get away from the whole God-business for a while, and reluctantly broke things off between them.

Jacob

While he acted as a close friend during Gaia's early life, Jacob stayed away as Gaia grew older so that she wouldn't notice his apparent lack of aging. Following Bryn's suspicions of Axl, Jacob stepped up to become a boyfriend for Gaia (even though he was actually gay, so how this affected their overall relationship is unknown). However when she ran off, Jacob proposed to her in an affort to convince her to stay with him, though she instead kicked him in the balls, having being creeped out by his strange behavior with Bryn.

Jerome

When Gaia learned that the Maori Gods had a prophecy claiming she would be Papatuanuku, she was far from pleased, especially since Jerome (Maui) was a dick. She pretended to be alright with her lack of options, but was in fact frustrated with having no choice regardless of what happened her. She acted polite around Jerome, but couldn't help but not like him. While she decided that she would prefer Axl over Jerome, he had no choice but to forget her when she became Iðunn.

Anders Johnson

Upon her ascension into Iðunn, Gaia became destined to be with Bragi, who happened to be Anders, As soon as she saw him, she presented herself to him. Axl feared that this would lead the pair to a happy marriage and a child in the future, however Gaia did not want to accept her newfound attraction to Anders and tried sleeping with Axl and agreed to marry him in a failed attempt to forget about Anders. Despite both of them claiming to despise one another, Gaia admitted to Stacey and Ingrid that she couldn't help but feel something for Anders. After they slept together, she tried to avoid further contact with him, only to fall into bed together again after a failed to-be-civil meeting. Gaia admitted that she couldn't help but have feelings for Anders, but wanted to get away from the whole God-business for a while, and left the country.

About the goddess Iðunn

Iðunn, also spelled Idunn, or Iduna,  in Norse mythology, the goddess of spring or rejuvenation and the wife of Bragi, the god of poetry. She was the keeper of the magic apples of immortality, which the gods must eat to preserve their youth. When, through the cunning of Loki, the trickster god, she and her apples were seized by the giant Thiassi and taken to the realm of the giants, the gods quickly began to grow old. They then forced Loki to rescue Iðunn, which he did by taking the form of a falcon, changing Iðunn into a nut (in some sources, a sparrow), and flying off with her in his claws.