Character Ones – Enneagram and Encaustic

EVA STRATT, ONE

Please don’t read about Stratt if you don’t want spoilers for “Project Hail Mary”.

My first instinct was to call her a Head Type, but she might be a One. Rules are very important to her. She’s in charge of saving the human race and she won’t shirk her responsibility. A One with a vision is indefatigable. They make a good leader when survival is on the line because they aren’t swayed by feelings. Their coldness is their strength.

Also, Stratt’s karaoke scene suggests that little twinkle that a One has. Her job is too serious to let her dip into humor, but for a small moment we see that she’s got a hidden trait.

Stratt as a One and Grace as a Six leads to the confrontation they have. Both are rule-following Enneagram numbers. Grace, who’s convinced he’s not fit for space, won’t budge. Stratt, who has no other option than Grace for her team, will do anything to advance her mission, including drugging and forcing Grace to go. Not many numbers would act so ruthlessly, but a One with a purpose will.

In Stratt’s final scene, we see how implacable she is. Years have passed; her face is lined with age. She’s sailing on a freezing body of water. This is the state of the world as the sun dies. I doubt she’s in the arctic; she’s probably near Hawaii, although the movie doesn’t specify that. All this time, she’s continued on mission. I actually get chills thinking of how dedicated she is and how her belief in Grace comes to fruition. It’s a beautiful moment when she holds Rocky’s sculpture and gives a slight smile. For Stratt, this is the equivalent of jumping up and down with joy.

You don’t have a story without Stratt and her stringency. A One is an excellent choice for a difficult character. She’s implacable. Perhaps some think her villainous. However, all of her decisions feel true to her nature. Her believability is essential.

ANTHONY AND KATE, ONE AND FOUR

Of the three Bridgerton seasons, this was my favorite. Our romantic leads are interesting people played sympathetically by beautiful actors wearing gorgeous clothes.

Anthony is this season’s Bridgerton protagonist. The eldest son, he’s a Viscount who has been competently running the family estate since his father’s early death. The pressure and weight of his position, laid on his shoulders when he was a teen, are his main conflict. He must marry and produce an heir, regardless of love. When the Queen favors Edwina, Anthony decides that she’s the one.

Edwina’s older sister and staunch defender Kate decides Anthony is not the one. Their antagonism is Kate’s conflict. (They are obviously destined to be the love interest, which is classic romance novel stuff.) Kate will do anything for her sister’s happiness, even deny her own feelings.

So who are these two and what are their Character Enneagrams?

The easy answer for Anthony is a One. His financial acumen in managing the family property is a clue. He rides his horse daily and seems rejuvenated by physical exercise, as a Body Type would. And he’s a terrible stickler for rules and order. He knows in his heart that he loves Kate, yet he proposes to Edwina anyway because she is the woman who meets his criteria for a wife.

The tricky character is Kate. She also loves horseback riding, but it’s more of an emotional outlet than a physical one. She also denies her feelings so that Edwina can marry her choice of Anthony. In many ways she’s a good match for Anthony because they share similar traits. However, her impulses come from a different place. Her love for her sister is central to her character. When Edwina learns that Kate has been lying to her and distances herself, Kate is devastated by her sister’s cold shoulder. Proper and ladylike on the outside, Kate is volatile on the inside. I want to say she’s a Four. Because Ones and Fours are strength/weakness numbers to each other, it feels like a good guess. I like Kate as a Four; her highs and lows are mostly contained inside, only bursting out occasionally. It makes her an appealing character for a Regency story. She’s the anti-Marianne of Sense and Sensibility, someone who keeps from wearing her passions on her sleeve. Mostly.

Fallout Enneagram: LUCY MACLEAN, ONE

Four main characters in Season One of Fallout have their own separate Story Enneagrams. Lucy is the first post-apocalypse character we meet in the series.

ONE

Lucy is selected to breed. Let’s not sugarcoat her opening situation. Although she’s cheerful and spunky, she, like every other person of a certain age in the Vault 31-32-33 triangle, is forced to marry a stranger. The show encourages us to gloss over those details.

TWO

Continuing Episode One, Moldaver kidnaps Hank. Not until the final episode do we learn why. This is such very clear Trouble for Lucy. Even her violent raider husband wouldn’t prompt her to leave the vault. It’s only her beloved father who jump-starts her journey. Also, Moldaver tells her, “You look like your mother.” This is another mystery unsolved until the finale. Although it hides in the background, this comment is part of the Trouble.

THREE

Lucy exits the vault. The opening of the door to Vault 33 is the Three. Interestingly, it’s also Norm’s Three (which we’ll see in a later post). The Sixes for each character are very different. I really like that their stories lead them in different directions after they share this beat.

ANNA, ONE

She’s so efficient that we never get a plotline about her job at Downton. All of Anna’s troubles are personal. I’m immediately thinking about a One. She feels like a small, cheerful dynamo. And she has that moral comfort a One or a Six possesses. She’s not a worrier, though (beyond regular human emotion) as a Six would be. It doesn’t define her.

So, a One.

Nobody in this era is going to jog about the park, but Anna is often shown walking to town. A Body Type would have few other outlets for exercise. She’s physically vibrant and brisk. Also, lol, I think she manages the finances for her marriage (a One trait). Everyone upstairs and downstairs is at ease around her. She has no Envy in her, so she can’t be a Three. Like a Three, though, a One is universally liked and successful. It makes her a useful character to the writers for a terrible rape plotline. No one wants to see Anna harmed, and her physical exuberance is convenient as a pivot point to put her in danger. That’s the dramatic nature of a soap opera, and I can’t complain that the showrunners have integrated Anna’s Enneagram into the story. I just don’t want to watch it.

MIDGE MAISEL, ONE

Any comic who does live shows will be very quick-witted, very spontaneous. (Do all comedians fit into a certain Enneagram slot? Wow! There’s a thought!) Midge, however, has something more than a gift for stand-up: an impulse control problem. She should push the boundaries, of course. Like Lenny Bruce, she goes to jail for saying forbidden words. It’s more than that, though. She damages her career and her friendships by blurting out jokes that she regrets in hindsight.

Immediately I go to One. They are some of the funniest people and some of the quickest. A One is not afraid to shock. (How many professional comics are Ones or Eights, lol? They are the most willing to speak bald truth in a way that surprises and delights.) Is Midge an Eight? No, she’s not aggressive enough. Her weapon is her incredibly fast brain. Her best routines are when she riffs rather than when she goes with prepared notes.

Also, as Body Types, Ones can cultivate an unhealthy obsession with their physical shape. When Midge measures her thigh circumference, it’s creepy. It’s supposed to be. In the show it represents her focus on being the “perfect little wife” trope, including her nighttime cold cream and curlers that she hides from her husband. She breaks free from these restrictions, which is the point. But, lol, it’s also a One indicator.

However, a One will not necessarily sabotage their own professional life with loose lips. That trait belongs solely to Midge. It’s her fatal flaw. It bugs me, actually, that she doesn’t seem to learn from her mistakes and adapt her behavior. A One is extremely competent. I would like to see Midge in future seasons get a handle on her carelessness. It would help her to have an Enneagram character that rings true. And it would help me to not curse at the TV. Heh.

TOM HOLLAND’S PETER PARKER, ONE

Holland’s Peter is nice because he’s young. He’s respectful to his elders. Obviously he’s a good person, too, but much of his wide-eyed aw-shucks is due to youth, not an inherent character trait.

Without Spiderman Peter still has an athletic comfortableness. The suit helps, the bite helps, but this Peter had some skills before all that. Odds are that this rule-following young man is a One. He has a fast way of moving, a physical quickness, that speaks of Body Type. He has ambition and charm — very One — while still trying to do as he’s told.

When I think of the old Spiderman cartoon TV show, a One is a great choice for Parker. The wise-cracking, the physical speed and dexterity, the moral certainty — these are the traits that define Spiderman for me. This is who he is in my memory, and Holland’s Peter brings that Spiderman to life.

BLACK WIDOW, ONE

Poor Natasha. Even in her own movie she’s basically a sidekick. The closest we get to specific character traits is in Endgame when she tries to keep the team and the world post-Blip together. Her willingness to run a radio base and contact station in the midst of chaos is one of her most interesting moments.

Otherwise, Natasha is a competent assassin with a monstrous origin story. All credit to Johansson for giving humor and stoicism to a one-dimensional character.

So who is this Black Widow? All of the girls in the program are trained physically. Can she claim a Body Type, or is every Widow forced into excellence? Let’s say no, and see where that takes us. She longs for community, yet keeps herself apart as someone undeserving of friendship and intimacy. Child Natasha is written as an Eight, the way she fights for her sister against soldiers and authority. It never felt right, though, because adult Natasha isn’t an Eight. Wait, is she a One?

Ah, of course. Her wit, her fast-paced fighting style, and her moral code (“there’s red in my ledger”) all point to One. This is why her movie isn’t good. The showrunners went dark. With a One, the tone needs to go light. A One’s quickness, their cleverness and problem-solving optimism, would shine more in an Antman-style format. Natasha’s so focused I can see why they went in the direction they did, but it was a mistake. The beauty of a One is the surprise: they’re physically dedicated and morally serious, yet they’ll come up with the sharpest jokes and insights. Natasha is given these gifts in movies like Winter Soldier, yet they forgot about them during her own project. Oh, man, that’s sad.

INEJ GHAFA, ONE

Without a doubt this is a Body Type. The Wraith is an athletic phenomenon. She’s small, which suggests a One. Is this true?

Of course. She’s no Eight, certainly. Anger and impulse are not part of her character. She’s a dart, an arrow. A stab. These are not the movements of a Nine. Her quickness, litheness, and stealthiness all say One.

The orderliness of a One is there, too. Her gathering of secrets, her accumulation of knowledge, it’s like a filing system in her head. The city, its rooftops, are another filing system to Inej. Everything is so tidy.

She’s a One and Kaz is a Five. I love them both, but I don’t have high hopes that these Enneagram numbers will make a match if their story were ever to continue.

MARTY McFLY, ONE

He’s not a rule-follower or particularly organized. We know this by the amount of school tardy slips he’s racked up. He’s not chivalrous; he leaves his unconscious beloved unattended on a porch swing in a dicey neighborhood. He’s a loyal friend and well-liked by strangers. He’s fairly athletic, riding multiple iterations of a skateboard with ease. If it weren’t for the tardy thing I’d call him a One. He has a certain can-do attitude and a love of adventure that might indicate a Seven. His ability to charm the past and come out a winner, and his hatred of being unfairly labeled a “chicken”, suggests a Three. So, what have we got?

He’s not interested in how Doc invents things. He doesn’t chime in or brainstorm, or even try to understand. Not a Seven.

Besides being a time traveler, Marty really has no vocational plan. What did he like to do before Doc intervened? Drive a 4×4 is about it. Not a Three.

He’s a man who needs a mission, and when it’s given to him — save the past to save the future — he’s engaged and active. The tardies are a sign he’s drifting, looking for that motivating moment to come from outside himself and change his life. One.

LITTLEFINGER (BOOK), ONE

He’s short, sly and manipulative. And he’s in charge of the money. One?

He likes secrets, holding them and sharing them. He likes knowing more than others. He likes messing with your mind. Sarcasm and deceit. Yet, I want to believe. I want to find something worthwhile in him. He’s an underdog, actually. We’re supposed to suspect him. He tells Ned not to trust him, yet he helps Ned in ways he could’ve ignored. It’s as if The Game is playing constantly in his head, pieces shifting, and he’ll attend to you and reality in his spare time. He may even watch the tokens move afterward, seeing the effect of his words.

When Ned asks his advice after Robert’s deadly injury he gives an excellent answer. He openly shares a treasonous idea. When it’s rejected, Littlefinger moves on. Open, then closed. He’s like a door. His honesty combined with practicality, and his dry wit, really say One. Also, his use of money, the purse, as a tool screams One. What about his ability to spin on a dime, to negotiate with Ned, and then stab him in the back? Much can be justified when a One believes they’re in the right. A One can be a flat-out villain and have no idea. They relentlessly pursue a worthy goal in their mind. How the rest of the world sees them is not only invisible, it’s unimportant.