The Visitation
Month: April 2021
Sneaking into the Castle
The Duchess’ maid has asked me to come into the castle at night, when the guards will arrest anyone out and about, to secretly visit Aelinore in her chambers.
Right.
I’m brave, I’m wonderful. aren’t we naughty, etc., and then the Duke arrives for a surprise visit. Hide!
And . . . he’s calling her by a similar but different name, begging forgiveness, and choking her to death.
Technically, I could let her die, but I come from behind the screen and confront them.
And . . . to save her own skin Aelinore accuses me of sneaking in and accosting her. I’m arrested and whipped (offscreen).
But then she apologizes, calls me her darling, and gives me the keys to escape.
Such is the life of a hero.
ROBERT BARATHEON (TV), SEVEN
In a way, he’s just waiting to die. Stories about killing fill the space around drinking, eating, and wenching. His family is unimportant, the realm is uninteresting. His loss of Lyanna took a lot of caring out of him. It’s ironic that she loved someone else (as we learn later) while he pines. If she hadn’t died, he may have learned the truth about her and moved on.
And his character doesn’t arc. We, the plot watchers, are also waiting for him to die. Motivations swirl about, on hold until he steps out of the way. Credit to Mark Addy for making a placeholder interesting.
What does Robert Baratheon want? What motivation is Addy playing? “I want to die” isn’t right. He’s not even marvelously tragic. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. This is no way to treat a character.
This Robert is a Seven. Life is dull and he doesn’t care. Without luster, without fire and challenge, a Seven will wither. Only the hedonism is left.
Jet
This is a very strange episode. Jet is a beloved character, one who recurs in an important storyline, yet he’s not a nice person here. He’s the antagonist, yet we’re not to see him as a villain.
ONE
A forest location. Momo chases a bug.
TWO
Berries are bait in a trap that Momo activates. Suspended from tall trees are two more traps with baboons caught in them. Aang, bending, jumps up and frees them all.
THREE
The traps are Fire Nation. Sokka wants the team to move on but without flying. His instincts tell him they’ll be spotted in the air.
Okay, I have a problem with traps appearing at both beats. They belong at the Three, which we’ll see when it mirrors at the Six. The Trouble, the Two, is actually the forest. Hidden amongst the trees are Jet and his Freedom Fighters, but also the Fire Nation. This is what Aang battles at the Eight.
Continue reading “Jet”JAIME LANNISTER (TV), NINE
I’ve just begun rewatching Game of Thrones so that I can refresh my memory on these characters and what Enneagram numbers they might be. I don’t need to dig too deeply, though, to know that Jaime’s a Nine. It’s pretty classic.
In the first episode he’s an incestuous child-killer. (Remember that?!) He comes a long way throughout the show’s run, though.
He’s physically gifted. Being a knight comes easy to him. When his hand is taken in a later season he falls apart. His physical prowess, but also his physical ability to communicate, are integral to his character.
His relationship with his sister is a dark Nine trait. He is so intent on avoiding conflict with her that he agrees to something dangerously disordered.
Near the end of the seasons Jaime becomes heroic. A Nine’s sense of justice and fair play moves him into relationships that strengthen him, such as with Brienne.
I’ll continue watching, and perhaps I’ll feel I need to add more to Jaime TV later (I’m also rereading the novels), but for now, going by memory, this seems accurate.
Quina the Healer
I return to the Abbey to check in on Quina. She’s working with flowers and feels she has a talent as a healer. Can I take this flower to a priest for his opinion and recommendation?
They’ll send her to the Grand Cathedral to study! Her only objective is to learn more about the dragon, and this seems to be the best way to go.
Lantana
I thought the colors were appropriate for Easter. Here’s the funny part, though. This is a repurposed background. I was never satisfied with the original (as is often the case, lol), and I thought that a former Halloween piece becoming an Easter piece was profound, in some strange way.
The Waterbending Scroll
ONE
The gang flies on Appa, as they often do at the One. Travelling onward.
TWO
Aang worries. How is he supposed to master the elements before the comet arrives next summer? This is an ongoing Trouble. Possibly, when we look at the Enneagram for this entire season, or even the three seasons of the entire show, this worry will be the larger Two. It’s an essential question.
Also, though, this episode has another, more specific Trouble. Katara offers to teach Aang the waterbending she knows.
THREE
With the two benders busy, Sokka is at loose ends. He uses a long fuzzy frond to clean Appa in the river, particularly between his toes. Sokka does regular human things at the Three. I really like how the story writers deploy him at key beats.
Continue reading “The Waterbending Scroll”CATWOMAN (2012), NINE
Anne Hathaway physically hearkens back to the TV series casting: leather, long legs, sultry. Her Catwoman is in an obvious trajectory from the Newmar typing.
This Catwoman isn’t a thief for the thrill. She’s poor and hustling. When she hits a certain level of monetary comfort, she’s done. And, if we pay attention to the ending of The Dark Knight Rises, she lives contentedly in Italy with Bruce Wayne after the ultimate villain is defeated. Both of them walk away from the costume business.
She’s built like a Four, which could be casting coincidence, and Catwoman has that emotional engagement that could indicate a Four. Is she?
No. She’s a Nine. One clue: the Batcycle. Batman rides a physically complicated bike. You don’t just get on and balance. Catwoman jumps on and is instantly competent. This is probably for story concerns; no one wants to watch Bruce tutor Selina on the motorcycle details. However, we’ll take it as an Enneagram indicator. This Catwoman is a Body Type.
Another clue: Selina begins the movie primarily concerned with herself. She’s not heartless about the downtrodden, but her own needs motivate her. This changes. She helps Batman because it’s fair. Justice, that Nine balancing of diplomacy, moves her to participate in the Eight.
And then we have the finale. The piazza trattoria with Bruce. They’re almost companions, war survivors. Although romance is implied, it’s not the driving motivation. They’re just comfortable together. That lack of drama says Nine.
The long legs? The sultry? Nines don’t usually deploy those tools, but they can if they want, and when they do it’s a knockout.
Saving Selene
A little group gossips in the town square as we come down from our castle visit. (These people and this quest are easy to miss.) The Duke is sending troops to question the Witch. We already know that Selene is alone in the Witchwood and that she doesn’t understand Wyrmspeak.
Off we dash.
Outside of her treehouse a mob clambors at her door. “Hang the witch!”
As we rush forward, a rock formation activates and rises up. It’s a golem monster that had been sleeping peacefully as a boulder. That sends the mob scurrying, and we’re left alone to do battle with it.
The trick to a Golem is to hit its glowing discs, and this can only be done with brute force. Magic is useless, and I’ve just idiotically changed my pawn into a sorcerer. I have arrows and daggers, though, so up I climb.
When it’s defeated, we see that it guarded a gated passage. At the end of it, in a graveyard, we find Selene safe with a glowing, ghost-like woman. With no lead up, these two drop some plot bombs:
Continue reading “Saving Selene”