Episode Enneagrams – Enneagram and Encaustic

Appa’s Lost Days

This is a long episode. Appa doesn’t speak, so the entire story must be show rather than tell. No shortcuts with language.

LEFTOVER NINE

Four Weeks Ago. It’s a flashback to the dunes and the sinking library. Appa fights against the sandbenders tying him up. Toph, holding the turret, can’t properly defend him. When the benders anchor themselves in the sand, Appa isn’t strong enough to fly free of their ropes. They ride away on their sandsailers, towing Appa behind.

ONE

Dissolve from Appa’s eye to the sun in the sky. Time has passed. The benders, sending little dust devils into the sails, pause. The leader, the self-important son, tells his gang to raid Appa’s saddlebags for treasure. When they jump on him, sand swirls up into Appa’s nose. He sneezes, blowing one of the boats into a sand dune. Leader Boy doesn’t care, though, because it’s a boat they stole.

THREE

Goods from the saddlebags are tossed onto the sand, including Sokka’s club. The gang considers it all garbage and leaves it behind.

Tales of Ba Sing Se

Each tale, amazingly, has a mini-Enneagram. How charming!

The Tale of Toph and Katara

ONE

Aang shaves his head, Sokka shaves his meager mustache, and Katara arranges her hair loops.

TWO

Cut to Toph in bed, her hair like a wild animal pelt.

THREE

Katara suggests a girl’s day out.

FOUR

At the Fancy Lady’s Day Spa, the girls are pampered. (A pedicure for Toph, whose feet are her connection to seeing the world, does not go well.)

City of Walls and Secrets

ONE

Our group rides the train from the outer wall into Ba Sing Se. Sokka jokes about their bad luck, and Katara reassures Aang that they’ll find Appa. As the train passes through the inner wall, the city stretches before them for miles in each direction. Even a giant bison might be hard to find in such a dense metropolis.

They disembark at the train depot. Aang blows his bison whistle with no result.

TWO

An overly-smiling woman approaches. It’s Joo Dee, come to show the Avatar the city. She knows all their names. When Sokka interrupts, insisting they tell the Earth King about the coming invasion, Joo Dee ignores him. He tries again. The camera goes close on Joo Dee’s smiling face: the city is perfectly safe.

THREE

They tour the city in a carriage. Joo Dee explains that the city has many walls to help maintain order. Katara asks why all the poor people are blocked off into this part of the city?

The Drill

Although this is a stand alone episode of the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender, it’s also a continuation — a second part — of the last episode. I’ll look at the Story Enneagrams of both. Let’s start easy, though, with the episode in front of us.

ONE

Fire Nation tanks and the immense drill, looking like a Dune sand worm, drive across the cracked plain toward the wall of Ba Sing Se. Hissing, the drill expands with a steam mechanism.

TWO

In an overlook tower on the drill are Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. The War Minister in charge of the drill is unimpressed that earth benders prepare to attack, but Azula sends her gang out to take care of them.

THREE

In a small canyon, Sokka, Katara, Toph, and the refugees approach the wall. Aang and Momo fly up to meet them. He and Toph earth bend a rock platform with everyone on it up the side of the wall. When they get to the top, the gang gets a good view of the drill.

The Serpent’s Pass

Wow. It’s been almost two years since my previous Avatar: The Last Airbender post. I definitely intend to finish this second season no matter how long it takes, lol.

Since my last look, the live action version of Airbender has dropped. Of course I watched it immediately. Some day I may write an Enneagram Story Breakdown for the season. I would love to compare the two versions, including Character Enneagrams. What changed from animation to live action? And — spoiler — what was lost in the reboot that kept it from being as enjoyable?

For now, though, the guilty weight of the unfinished animation review takes precedence. Let’s go! The next two episodes run together under the title: “The Secret of the Fire Nation”. Will they each have an Enneagram, or are they one complete story?

ONE

The gang — Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Katara — rest and swim at a pool formed at the base of a waterfall. They seem congenial. Sokka looks at the map he stole from the Owl’s library that shows the location of Ba Sing Se. The only path through a series of lakes is “The Serpent’s Pass”, a thin bridge of land.

Sokka mentions that, without Appa’s flying, this is their only option. Katara shushes him, but Aang calmly says he’s okay. He just wants to get to Ba Sing Se and tell the king about the solar eclipse.

TWO

As they prepare to pack up, three “fellow refugees”, including a pregnant woman, greet them.

Dragon’s Dogma 2

Since I shared my great love of the first game in this series, I thought I’d write a few words about the sequel, which released a few months ago.

My sorcerer pawn and my toon, a Beastren (a cat person).

At level 86 on my second build (level 56 on my first) I can say I played a lot. It’s a fine game. The fight mechanics are good.

Lol, it’s obvious I’m disappointed. The story, which again centers on reincarnation, is not as complete or logical as the first game’s. The end game, the Unmoored World, is overly complicated and unsatisfying. Who thought a pus-dripping dragon fight was a good idea?? I’ve seen reviews that extol the variation available; that wasn’t my experience. The game became repetitive and the replay value dropped for me.

Perhaps, like DD1’s Dark Arisen, a DLC will release that takes the game to a whole new level.

It’s no surprise that playing DD2 only led me back to replaying DD1. The battles are more varied. The outfit options are more flattering. (Don’t underestimate the value of a cute avatar.) And the bread and butter — climbing on monsters and whaling on them — is more consistently designed.

This post is here to relive the glory of a fabulous gaming experience and to promote my Enneagram breakdown of it.

Also, my old lady witch pawn is totally cool.

Fallout Enneagram: NORM MACLEAN, SIX

Four main characters in Season One of Fallout have their own separate Story Enneagrams. In this case, Norm’s Enneagram is also the story of Vault 33.

ONE

Establishing the vault world is Norm’s One. He’s introduced as Lucy’s brother with no indication he’ll have any importance. Hank seems more critical, especially when he greets “Overseer” Moldaver. (Why doesn’t he recognize her from pre-apocalypse times? After watching the entire season we know that she was alive then, even if we don’t know how she managed it. She clearly says that she knows Hank.)

TWO

Norm wanders through the opened door into Vault 32. Moldaver and her raiders have already seemed suspicious. Now we know that the vault is derelict. Norm finds mutilated corpses and comes running home. The mystery of the Vault 31-32-33 triangle is the overall Trouble, but Norm is on his own detective’s journey that starts here.

Fallout Enneagram: MAXIMUS, TWO

Four main characters in Season One of Fallout have their own separate Story Enneagrams. We don’t meet Maximus until halfway through Episode One when he’s thrust upon us. It’s not a heroic introduction.

ONE

Fellow companions of the Brotherhood haze Maximus. In class he fails tests and looks like a dunce.

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.

Fallout Enneagram: COOPER HOWARD, THREE

Four main characters in Season One of Fallout have their own separate Story Enneagrams. The entire season begins with Coop, so let’s start with him. He’s the only character to have a —

LEFTOVER NINE

Cowboy Coop performing tricks for a child’s birthday party is a brilliant choice. We see the pre-apocalypse world, and then the moment when the bombs fall and it all ends. Clues about Coop are dropped: he’s paying alimony, he’s famous (or infamous) for a thumbs-up gesture, and he’s called a Commie. Much later in the season these quick throwaway lines will gain context. However, some moments aren’t explained. Where is Janey? How does Coop go from riding a horse ahead of the fallout to becoming a 200 year old ghoul? Structurally, this is a beautiful Leftover Nine. Hopefully, Season Two will have a Leftover Nine that continues to answer these questions.

ONE

The entirety of Episode One goes by before Coop returns. In the cemetery bounty hunters dig up Ghoul Coop. His character is completely changed, or so it seems.