KA Byrnes – Page 39 – Enneagram and Encaustic

Pressed Update

The hot weather here is over, and it’s time to revisit the encaustic studio.

First of all, let’s check in on these two pieces that used ironed flowers. Remember them? The hibiscus is almost six months old, and the yellow bell is seven months. This is how they look today.

Not bad!

Both have retained their color better than a non-ironed piece. After six months, any other organic encaustic I’ve made has faded to white. The leaves in the bottom right of the hibiscus show this. I didn’t press them, only picked and added them at the end. All the green from them is gone.

I feel vindicated and on the right track with this process! After months away from the studio, the start up is hard, but let’s get in there.

One other note to the experiment: Flowers with deep color seem to fare better than pale flowers. Winter in the desert is our blooming season. I hope to post many more pieces as I ramp up. Stay tuned.

The Swamp

Not bad, just not a favorite. The only point of interest is the young woman in Aang’s vision, and she’s only interesting if you’ve seen the series before. I whine in more detail after the breakdown.

BOOKEND

Iroh sits roadside, begging. Zuko finds it humiliating because they’re royalty, while Iroh is so humble it’s embarrassing. A mean person forces him to dance for money, using swords to prod him. Zuko looks on, angry.

ONE

The team flies on Appa. Relaxed, Aang thinks and dreams. Below them is a swamp.

TWO

Appa’s headed down, waking everyone. What’s wrong? I think the swamp is calling me, Aang says. It wants us to land. Sokka resists, scoffing that the earth could be speaking.

A whirlwind attacks them. Aang bubbles Appa and everyone on his back, but the ball explodes and all are thrown clear. The humans land together, but Appa and Momo are gone.

THREE

Aang air bends his way up a large tree to look around. Nothing in every direction but swamp, and no sign of the animals.

PAUL ATREIDES (2021), FOUR

Over a year ago I speculated about Paul in general, specifically using Kyle MacLachlan’s portrayal. The Villeneuve Dune was releasing screenshots, jazzing up interest at that time. Then Covid hit and all productions and release dates slid. Now, though, it’s finally here and I’ve seen it. So, who is this version of Paul?

Well, he’s not a Nine, that’s for sure, lol. Chalomet’s Paul is more intense, more angry, more disturbed by visions. Whoa, Four? Isn’t that interesting! He’s a trained fighter but doesn’t have a love for it. He’s interested in the politics of Arrakis — “desert power”, as Leto says — but only because the Fremen culture captivates him. He disdains playing The Game. The Emperor and the Bene Gesserit, the levers of this universe, barely register for him.

And isn’t it curious that his visions of Chani mostly involve emotion? In reality when they meet, she’s impersonal and businesslike, helping him prepare for what she considers his inevitable death. Paul’s inner world is colored by connections: to Chani, his mother, and especially Duncan. It’s a Heart Type relationship. He spends much of the movie in quiet torment.

This Paul is no diplomat, as a Nine would be. He’s a vengeful angel, a conduit for a repressed people, the Fremen. In terms of dramatic potential in future movies, a Four Paul is an excellent choice.

Balance of Terror

Not bad. You’ll see. Critical Notes are after the breakdown.

ONE

A ceremony. Crew prepare some kind of podium and gather on benches. Scotty sets up a camera to broadcast to all viewing screens.

Before Kirk can take the stand, though, he’s called to comms. Two Earth outposts have gone silent. Maintain course to the next outpost. He approaches the podium.

Oh! It’s a wedding! He’s officiating. Janice lights candles and Scotty takes the arm of a young woman with flowers arranged in her hair. He’s giving her away. As Kirk proclaims the words, Janice stands just behind his shoulder in a not-so-subtle two-shot.

TWO

He’s interrupted mid-ceremony by a red alert. Outpost Four reports they’re under attack, space vessel’s identity unknown. Everyone dashes, including the young couple.

Roll credits.

Return to Omashu

ONE

We start up right where the last episode stopped: Omashu is under Fire Nation control. Sokka says, you’ll have to learn earth bending from someone else. No, Aang’s going in. Bumi’s my friend, he says.

TWO

He shows the gang a secret passage into Omashu: the sewer. Aang air bends the muck and Katara water bends it, while Sokka’s left to just wallow.

In the streets Sokka comes up out of the sewer like a monster. Katara washes him, and Aang dries him. A kind of cute, pink leech, a pentapus, is attached to his face. Aang tickles it and it releases, leaving behind red sucker marks. When a Fire Nation patrol comes upon them and asks what’s wrong with his face, the team invents pentapox. It’s contagious! Sokka acts like a zombie, and the patrol dashes away.

THREE

Azula’s old lady mentors offer her advice. Form a small elite team, they say.

PETER QUILL, TWO

He’s an orphan. As far as he knows, his father is a deadbeat dad (whatever the romantic stories his mom spins) and his mother dies while he’s young. It isn’t until the second Guardians that Quill comes to see Yondu as a father figure. Much of Quill’s character is defined by this. He wants a family, and he’s very forgiving of someone like Rocket, who’s so hard-shelled he can be impossible to know.

I do think that his openness to life, regardless of his childhood loss, is part of his Enneagram. Different numbers would react differently to being an orphan. He’s still so willing to engage and believe in people. When he gets to Ego, he believes a little too much and too easily.

So I want to say Heart Type. His inability to form a plan is a running joke in the Avengers. (Not a Head Type.) He’s physically competent, but it doesn’t define him. (Not a Body Type.) He’s no Three; his luck is too haphazard. And he’s not acerbic enough to be a Four.

Two. He collects songs, of course.

On a Very Special Episode . . .

Solid structure, combined with an overwhelming amount of character development. Mostly, I feel regret and a sense of lost opportunity. Critical Notes at the end.

ONE

A ranch-style house. Inside, Wanda holds one of the crying babies, begging it to go to sleep. Vision jiggles the other twin. I’m not sure what sitcom era we’re in, but he wears jeans and she has big Pebbles hair. A magic gesture won’t stop the crying, and neither will binkies. The laugh track, mysteriously, finds all this funny.

TWO

Here’s Agnes, wearing atrocious ‘80’s workout gear. Auntie Agnes, she calls herself, ready to help with the babies. Vision, for some reason, worries she’s not clean enough (?) to care for the twins. Smiling, Agnes looks at Wanda and says, “Shall we take that again?” When Wanda and Vision share a confused look, Agnes reiterates: Shall we take it from the top? Now Wanda gets it, and nervously laughs. Vision, though, doesn’t understand. What was that about, he asks. Did you really not see what I saw, he wonders. Wanda deflects: she’s just being neighborly. (Meanwhile, Agnes is chugging alcohol in the kitchen while exercising, lol.)

THREE

The room goes suddenly quiet. The babies fell asleep? No, they’re gone. Turn to the staircase and there they are, now five years old. Agnes knocks back a slug and shakes her head: Kids, amirite? Wanda and Vision give the boys hugs and say hello to their new children.

Down the Everfall

We fall. It’s kind of wonderful, actually, because if I miss a ledge, I just come out the bottom and start over at the top, falling forever. The Everfall, the place under the city we visited early on, spiraling downward, has broken away. Pieces of the walkway still exist, and these are what we grab.

It’s really a brilliant piece of game design.

Wherever I grab on my first fall will go to an explanation. “If you would heed my call, prove now your worth. Show that you’ve the strength to break the yoke that binds you.” I’m not sure who’s speaking, but a Pawn awaits us. She, like the other pawns who wander the Everfall, have been abandoned here when their masters died on quest. I think.

On every level is a room with a battle in it. (Some, like the hydra, are more challenging than others.) Dead monsters drop wakestones, and when I’ve collected 20 of them, this Pawn will send me onto the next task.

Pawns climb the neck. Mage lights the heads on fire. I stay waaay over here and go pew pew.

THE DARKLING, THREE

What happens to a Three who lives for hundreds of years? Even success becomes boring eventually. He, Alina, and Mal are in a love triangle, plotwise and also in the Enneagram. Three to Six to Nine and around again. Strengths and weaknesses rebound back and forth. It’s all slightly inbred and squirmy.

He’s not only respected because his power is so overwhelming. He genuinely works to improve his Grisha army. Although his goal is basically world domination, he wants it for his team, not just for himself. It’s possible he cares for Alina as more than a tool. It’s hard to say; over the years he’s whittled away a lot of human frailty. What’s real and what are sales tactics with him isn’t always clear.

Again, Three. He’s fooled himself along with the rest of society. And the threat that he’ll take over all of civilization is not just a product of his evil power. He has the talent and personality of a Three that make his chance of success genuinely possible.

Episode 7

ONE

Soldiers load supplies into an ambulance outside of Downton’s front door. (I assume the hospital here is closing up.) Edith watches them leave. 1919. Hughes remarks that the Drawing Room is now back to normal.

TWO

Robert walks through the house, his good doggo prancing alongside. He checks in with Cora. They argue whether or not Matthew, the last patient, should now go home. The married couple are . . . not a strong team at this time.

Now we follow Carson with a tea tray for Matthew and Lavinia. He makes clear he looks forward to the return of a footman who would do this job. Ooh, a little Matthew dig at Carson for leaving to butler at Mary’s new house.

Strolling the property, Robert comes upon Maid Jane who’s dropped her basket in the path. They have a chat, all twinkle eyes and smiles. In asking how Jane fares without her husband, Robert goes into a moving count of all the lads on the property who are now gone, including William. He’s in a dark mood.

THREE

An arriving car breaks them apart. It’s Richard. Robert brings him inside.