September 2021 – Enneagram and Encaustic

JESPER FAHEY, FOUR

He’s tricky because he’s got a secret. A lot of his character is facade of his own making and also of his childhood fears. As a gambling addict he must always present a lie, as any addict will.

Like the rest of the Crows, his show persona matches his book persona. I love the moment in the show when he clutches the goat, it’s so character revealing and clever.

He’s not a strategist. Leave that to Kaz. His is easily socially wounded, so possibly a Heart Type. But he’s also so physically brilliant, so possibly Body. He’s not heroic enough to be an Eight or Nine, and not fastidious enough for a One, though.

Ah, of course, he’s a Four. He’s stylish in his gunplay, lol! The way he masks his gentle heart seems Four-ish, as does his emotional recklessness. He doesn’t really guard his heart, leaving him open to further hurt. Yet he throws himself into relationships and events fearlessly, regardless. Really only a Four is willing to be simultaneously vulnerable and brave with their feelings.

We Interrupt This Program

I actually gush after the breakdown. A rare moment, lol.

LEFTOVER 9

Echoing voices and a pixelated mist that resolves into Geraldine, bedside in a hospital room. She’s reforming, and others all about do the same. It’s chaos. Now we realize this is the moment after the blip when everyone comes back.

We really get a sense of the confusion and terror of all these people returning to the place they left off, while around them are the people who didn’t disappear, the ones who’ve had lives for the past five years.

Someone recognizes Geraldine and names her as Monica. For her it’s been twenty minutes, the moment she started napping in the hospital chair. The doctor who knows her, who hears her asking for her mother, says, “She died, honey.” Her cancer came back and she passed away three years ago, two years after you disappeared.

Cut to credits.

Grigori Battle

Here we go. We pass through the Greatfort and climb the mountain path, the same one we traversed in the opening tutorial. New beasts — succubi, hellhounds, geo-saurians — confront us. At the place, the courtyard, where we fought the first chimera, we now face an enhanced version, a gorechimera. This is the point when the tutorial ended and we built our avatar. Now we continue on to face the dragon.

First, he tests us. Goblins harass our beloved while the dragon looms. By completing the Quina quest, and Valmiro’s, either one had a good chance to be selected by the algorithm as our dear one. I’m pretty sure, though, that by doing the Aelinore quest, I cancel out any other option.

The choice is: kill the dragon, or . . . sacrifice love. Let her die, and the kingdom will praise me. I will be granted the duchy. That’s how the current duke ended up on the throne. (The scene where the duke chokes Aelinore, apologizes, and calls her by another name makes a lot more sense now.) “Wealth and power are sweet anodyne for heartache,” Grigori says.

Of course I shoot him with an arrow. Now we battle.

MATTHIAS HELVAR, NINE

If Nina is a Four, Matthias is a Nine. That pull these two numbers share, a conflicted romance, is baked in. We can also see his Nine-ness in his skill: big man. He’s no Grisha, no rogue; he’s pure tank.

He’s basically a Hitler youth who grew up to realize the system he was taught as a child was horribly wrong. To go along unquestioning, seeking the camaraderie of the group and avoiding any conflict of dissent, is Nine. To realize the truth, to reexamine his principles, is also Nine. One of the only things that will move a Nine to battle is justice.

He’s written as stodgy and dense — a bit of a Buzz Lightyear. The joke’s often on him. Underneath, though, he’s a hero in a very traditional sense. He’ll never be the protagonist, as is common for a Nine, yet he has those traits. I think the author could’ve leaned in a little stronger on that aspect. His physicality is given its due, but his innate bravery is turned into comic relief a little too often for my comfort.

Episode 6

What we have here is a series of “then this happened” events. See my Critical Notes after the breakdown for why I’m disappointed.

ONE

Downton’s grounds. Mary pushes Matthew in a wheelchair across the front of the property on a sunny day. Other recuperating soldiers also stroll the area. Matthew regrets that William isn’t here.

TWO

In the library, Richard and Robert watch from the window. Richard asks if he should be jealous. Robert changes the subject. Richard intends, it seems, to buy a neighboring property. Edith laments the times they’ve spent there growing up, and now it’s to change hands. Richard will modernize the property. Carson announces the Doctor, interrupting the discussion. Someone named Patrick Gordon wants permission to convalesce at Downton. No one seems to know who he is, but he’s welcome.

ARRGH

Just a few complaints from yours truly. See Critical Notes after the breakdown.

ONE

Mr. Krabs with a spyglass peruses the area outside the Krusty Krab door. Ah, no customers in sight.

TWO

From inside, Spongebob gives an excited yell. He and Patrick look down at eight gold doubloons. Mr. K hurries over, lol, and pounces. Oh, it’s just a board game. They play “The Flying Dutchman’s Treasure Hunt,” based on a real treasure map, Patrick says.

Did they clean off the tables already? And did they clean the gum off the underside? Cut to Spongebob and Patrick chewing and blowing bubbles. (Ack.) Well, Mr. K agrees to play.

THREE

Game antics. (It looks like fun!) Mr. K gets to dig for treasure with a leetle shovel, and becomes way too excited about the tiny treasure chest.

NINA ZENIK, FOUR

She’s a Four. This is a character who shouts her Enneagram number to the world.

Her passions are large and out in the open. Everyone feels her joie de vivre. She also has that Four stubbornness — remember, for a Four each day has a 50/50 chance to be terrible, so they aren’t dominated by bad times — that we can see when she’s caged in the ship’s hold. She’s a survivor, even through the worst that life offers.

I have a difficult time with Nina in both the show and the books. Her character is fine, but her romance with her captor is deeply problematic. This is a man from a culture that kills her people, a culture that has imprisoned her for being grisha, and she has every expectation that when the ship reaches port she’ll be tortured and put on trial with no hope of reprieve. She can come to see the good in Matthias, that he, too, is a victim of a culture that raised him from boyhood to hate her kind, but not as quickly as she does. The whole relationship is too fast, and it taints my impression of her character. It’s a shame, because she’s brave and loyal. There’s a lot of heroism in Nina, but it’s buried by this cringe-inducing rush to romance.

The Corbomite Maneuver

Oh, dear. Critical Notes are after the breakdown.

ONE

We’re on the bridge, but from a very strange camera angle, swooping and rising. Lol, what in the world? Why would a bird’s eye view that zooms down to a console button be necessary? (Did someone get a new lens toy?) Spock leads the crew in some kind of experiment or test. Some Lieutenant assists him.

TWO

Noticing a blinking red alert, Sulu says an object moves toward them. Evasive maneuvers. They slow and stop, and we see the object on the view screen.

It’s a Rubik’s cube, lol. Close-ups of everyone looking at this spinning, neon-colored block.

Ahead slow, and steer a course around it. Naturally, it moves to stop them. Condition alert. Captain Kirk to the bridge.

Roll credits.

THREE

(There is no Three.)

The Avatar State

I have one early complaint, detailed below, but mostly this is a great season opener. Questions are answered that may have dragged down future episodes. We have a clean slate now.

ONE

Fog. A dream. Aang sees himself in his first Avatar State at the Southern Air Temple. Avi Aang attacks Dream Aang. Now the Ocean Spirit Aang attacks him. He startles awake. They’re still at the Northern Water Kingdom.

TWO

Master Poku gives Katara a parting gift, a water-filled amulet from the spirit oasis. He gifts Aang a box of water bending scrolls. And for Sokka? A pat on the shoulder, lol. Our team leaves on Appa. Eventually, Aang will learn earth bending from King Bumi. They must stop first at another Earth Kingdom destination.

Iroh, after three weeks floating on a piece of driftwood, gets a massage. Meanwhile, Zuko recognizes that it’s his three year banishment anniversary. “I want it all back,” he says.

THREE

A Fire Nation ship. Everyone onboard bows as a canopied chair is carried forward. Azula steps out. (That grating voice!) She gives a speech about the shame that’s been brought on the royal family. When the captain tells her they can’t dock until the tides turn, she terrorizes him.

MAL ORETSEV, NINE

Mal is a man’s man. He can shoot, he can fight, and he can hunt. Women swoon.

Of course he’s a Nine. Physically, he dominates, even against grisha power. Conflict finds him, not the other way around. He wants a quiet life and ends up at the center of a maelstrom, valiantly heroic.

It also explains his relationship with Alina. He is her Enneagram strength number, she is his weakness number. This is why she’s drawn to him and he shies away from her.

In the first season of the show we don’t see how complicated their relationship is. They’re portrayed as hesitant romantics. In the book, though, they’re much more co-dependent. Because Alina has stuffed her sun summoning power, she’s psychologically and physically harmed. And Mal carries the weight of the trilogy (spoilers, darling), which shapes his character in ways the show has not yet addressed. Like Alina, the book version of him is not as likable. His Nine-ness, his reluctance to engage and shape his destiny, turns to nihilism, and the heroism a Nine carries is more of a burden for him. I like the actor and how he plays Mal; I hope the show can sidestep some of the darker aspects of his arc.