As always, Avatar sets the scene quickly. Where is our team now? They’re resting in a forested area. Sokka can only find nuts for dinner. They’re hungry, pickings are meager, and Sokka is the butt of the jokes. Remind me to look back sometime and see how many episodes begin with this formula!
TWO
The next thing that happens is Momo, who holds a rock that was mixed in with the bag of nuts, tries to break it open. Slam. Only the sound is a huge SLAM. The gang goes to see what’s making such a noise.
THREE
The next thing that happens is an earth bender, Haru, practices on the sly. When Katara says hello he runs away.
You probably have guessed I have a problem with these two beats.
We were given a mysterious slate to decipher for the Wyrm Hunt. I run around town looking for clues, but it’s not clear who I need to meet.
So I cheat.
I know where I need to go ultimately. Not too far north is a hillside with a large rock formation. I just jump to the end and go there. As we walk up, the game goes to a cut scene.
The “my heart has been ripped out” chest scar is a clue.
This guy and his weird young doppelgänger greet me.
She’s brave and bold, of course. This Maid is married, but she only had one night with her husband before he left for the Crusades with Richard. She lives now in the role of daughter-in-law, which is similar to ward. Only in the most technical terms is she a wife. Our Maids are very similar.
Blanchett’s Maid is more physical than de Havilland’s. She’s an archer and a farmer. She knows how to use a dagger if necessary. Let us completely ignore the movie’s climax when Marion pretends to know more physicality than is believable. Until that moment she was a great character, a great iteration of the Maid. I choose to erase that scene from my memory.
This Maid is no Three. She’s not particularly deft at social situations, and she has a sense of failure that swirls around her. I want to say Body Type. Her first instinct, right or wrong, is to engage physically. When her people are locked in the barn, threatened with burning, Marion uses a sword to pry the boards loose and free them. Her answers to most problems involve a physical response.
One, Eight, or Nine? She’s too feisty to be a Nine. Eight is the obvious choice, because Hollywood tends to write strong women characters as Eights. Bold and aggressive are not the same, but using confrontation is a shortcut writing technique to suggest bravery.
I kind of like a One, though. It’s her prickly shyness with Robin that turns me away from an Eight. She has a sharp, witty tongue, particularly with Sir Walter, and a managerial competence that feel very One-ish. It’s interesting!
Much to my surprise I liked this version of the Hood story very much. This is no Errol Flynn Robin, though. Not only is the fantasy-level wearing of tights not here, but the world feels more gritty and realistic. Also, the historical telling of King John and the negotiations around the Magna Carta are not often portrayed. I love stuff like that.
This Robin is honorable. He will return a dead man’s sword because he gave his word, even though no one would know if he reneged. He’s honest. Richard asks for his opinion and Robin gives it, regardless of the consequences of displeasing the monarch. He also has an interesting belief in fate. When he’s asked to pretend to be Marion’s husband, he agrees because this is where events have led him. It may not be a wise choice, but he has a trust in providence.
Of course he’s physically capable. On Crusade he’s an archer. At home he wields a sword. Does this mean he’s a Body Type? Not necessarily. A yeoman had to be competent in weapons. The focus of this Robin is more on his integrity. We must believe that Marion would come to trust him over a short period of time. What Enneagram number can sell sincerity?
Eh — he’s probably a Nine. He’s physically comfortable, beyond what a medieval soldier would feel. He’s a diplomat, gathering many friends (as Robin Hood does). He’s a fair judge, as a Nine can be. In his own way, as a poor man serving under a king, he is a philosopher, a seeker of truth. This is why others trust him. Crowe plays Robin with an interesting depth, but ultimately it’s the same archetype, the same Enneagram build as Errol Flynn gave us.
We’ve been told to ask some thieves about the location of Salomet’s Grimoire, so off we go to the Ruins of Aernst Castle. The thief leader, Maul, won’t help, though. He confirms that he has the tome, that’s it.
How did I first discover the answer to this quest? I don’t remember. The book is up high on a broken parapet. I must — ugh, ack, geh — platform to get it. Afterwards, Maul has no idea we’ve taken it. It’s a weird fetch.
The team arrives at the city of Omashu. Later it will become clear that they’re only here for Aang to have fun on his way to the North Pole. They have no other agenda at this point.
TWO
Aang knows he wants to stop at Omashu because he’s been here before. His friend, Bumi, lived here. More memories come later, but this is the introduction of a character critical to the episode and to the Eight. Trouble.
THREE
The arrow tattoos will be recognized, so Aang must wear a disguise. Using Appa’s itchy fur, the team crafts a wig and mustache that turn Aang into an old man.
He’s a young man in our fishing village. I think he’s supposed to be sympathetic because of his yearning to explore. However, he ends up crashed out on the ground, depleted, in a rather pitiful display of ineptitude.
First he’s outside the village gates, nearby at the shore. After, he’s down the lane outside of the Encampment. Finally, he’s inside the Witchwood, barely across the threshold. Each time he says, “Sorry,” and then goes even further. It’s a very unheroic journey.
We chase him around, though, because it’s worth it later. We’re not done with Valmiro, the lad with a drop-shoulder peasant shirt and a fishing pole.
He’s not an Envy person, that’s for sure. Darcy would drive him crazy if he were. And he’s quite content to take advice from Darcy, sometimes without engaging his own feelings or thoughts.
He’s the most easygoing person on the planet. As Mr. Bennet says to Jane, “You are each of you so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on; so easy, that every servant will cheat you; and so generous, that you will always exceed your income.”
So, who is this pleasant, placid man? Head Type or Body?
He really isn’t a thinker in the mold of a Five or Six. Seven, possibly. He has no consciousness of money, obviously, so he’s no One. Not an Eight! Oh, that’s funny. I’d like to see some version of Bingley who tells Darcy to stuff it, but that wouldn’t be Austen.
His ability to avoid conflict leads me toward Nine. His willingness to party leads me toward Seven. Heh.
His modesty is of no help whatsoever. In some ways it keeps him from having a defining personality trait. He doesn’t break forward with a fault or a strength. He’s just the nice lad who goes where he’s told.
Nine. Although a Seven can blow with the wind, they also seek new experiences. Bingley has no appetite for grand adventure. A quiet life and amiable friends are enough to satisfy.
She’s so modest she damages her own prospects, or at least according to Charlotte Lucas. She’s handsome enough to win Darcy’s opprobrium and too beautiful for even Caroline Bingley to feel jealousy. When her heart is broken she rallies herself by keeping busy and thinking well of others.
What Enneagram number is a saint?
Just kidding. We can all be saints! Jane, though, is truly good. Is that a character trait that points to a number?
Well, not a Body Type. Exercise is not something she seeks. Of course she’s Heart, the best kind of Heart. Her empathy for others seems like it must indicate a Heart Type. She’s a thinking person, but she’s not a Head Type.
She’s a Two. Women Two, such as (probably) Marilyn Monroe, have a sweetness that make them beautiful beyond their physical blessings. She seems almost inhuman, but then her vulnerability comes through. Bingley has hurt Jane deeply, but she keeps it inside. A Two should move to Four in strength and ask for some of what’s due her. She won’t, though.
If she’d been more forward, more demonstrative, when she first met Bingley he might have proposed then. We’d lose an entire plot line if that happened, though! Austen has created the perfect Jane: a generous person who thinks the best of everyone while completely not thinking of herself. Two.
We’re wandering. I have a portcrystal, something I can drop at almost any location I find on the map, and thereafter I can fast travel to it. If I want I can pick it up and use it elsewhere. These things are the BEST.
On the town notice board are escort quests. Someone wants to go somewhere, usually someplace dangerously far away. The easiest way to do these quests is to have gone there by ourselves already and drop a portcrystal. Boom — take the quest, greet the traveller, zip to the location, and clock the completion.
This is why we’re wandering. I know that Quina will have an escort quest, and I know her travel isn’t random like most of these quests are. I’m headed to the Abbey to drop my purple stone.
Quina’s already there, dressed in nun robes. Dangit. Her escort request would’ve been on the village notice board, and I didn’t check there. At least, that’s what I think. We’ve missed whatever she would’ve said about her reasons to go to the Abbey.
Sorry.
She gives a “tee-hee” and says everyone’s talking about the Arisen.
Now that it’s too late for Quina, I go to the village. Valmiro, a local fishing lad, is missing. He is prone to mad quests, apparently, and we’re to find him.
Also, one last little surprise: as I manage inventory at the inn, Pablos chats about Gran Soren guards and how drunk they are. If the dragon brings trouble, he would “sooner turn to sisters of The Faith for protection”. Quina’s Abbey quest takes on more meaning. She’s in the robes, right? She’s become a postulate of some sort.
This game can be very particular about timing and order of quests. I’m sure it won’t be the first story moment I miss.
