Holiday Themes – Enneagram and Encaustic

Story Enneagram of Season One of “Moon Knight”

As a pre-Halloween treat I looked over my review of the MCU’s 2022 release of Moon Knight. I realized I never gave an overview of the season’s Enneagram. I’m a completion freak, so obviously I need to do that. Also, I thought the review was pretty chaotic. I began by liking the show, became more disgruntled as I wrote the review, and liked it all even less when I read back over what I posted three years ago. I really want to look at the whole thing again and see if I now hate it. Heh.

Alrighty, then. Let’s make it a Halloween post. If all else fails, I can still recommend the soundtrack scored by Hesham Nazih.

ONE

Introduce Steven and his sleep ritual. Although he seems to know more about Egyptology than his boss at the museum, he works in the snack shop.

TWO

Steven wakes in an Alpine meadow and faces Arthur’s judging ritual. He’s chased, he swaps bodies with Mark (although we only see Steven’s perspective), and he’s demeaned by Khonshu’s voice, unidentified at this time.

He finds the scarab in Mark’s coat pocket.

Steven notices more inconsistencies: the goldfish is wrong, and he misses his steak date, which devastates him. The hidden phone leads him to discover Layla.

THREE

In the museum, Arthur confronts Steven. Your scales won’t settle, he says, because you’re more than one person. He wants the scarab.

When Arthur’s beast attacks, Steven willingly turns control of the body over to Mark. The Moon Knight costume is revealed.

The Cursed Girl

Sebastian has asked me to visit his sister with him to cheer her up. She’s been cursed, and it appears to be incurable. She’s left Hogwarts to live in the village of Feldcroft with their uncle.

Throughout my time knowing Sebastian he’s been looking for a cure, and he’s very determined to get his sister back to the way she used to be.

The uncle is strict and abrupt. Anne is sick and that’s the end of it. (He’s an unpleasant, angry fellow.) He has no patience for Sebastian’s curiosity and determination.

Sebastian takes me to the nearby, ruined estate where Anne was cursed. We fight through Ranrok’s Loyalists, and then look for clues. The home has been abandoned for years, although rumor says a Hogwarts professor once lived here.

Now I recognize the view from the yard. This was Isidora’s house when she was a child. It’s the scene I saw in Rackham’s memory. On the other side of the village is Rookwood castle.

Five Year Anniversary

Happy Fourth of July, and Happy Anniversary to me! Looking back at my first posts is hilarious. Here’s the category listing for the month of July 2020. It runs for seven pages! Hahaha! Wow, I was a lunatic. I eventually learned that generating that much content per week was unsustainable.

When people ask what I do with my time and I reply that I create a weekly blog post, it doesn’t sound that impressive. But posting weekly for five years straight is worth celebrating.

Galaxy Quest (1999)

Happy Ship Weekend! As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, our personal family holiday originated when the Pirates of the Caribbean movies released annually on Memorial Day weekend. Before each new installment, we would watch the previous film to build enthusiasm. Eventually we branched out to other tall ship stories. When we included Disney’s Treasure Planet, it seemed appropriate to diversify into a wider definition of ships. Now Ship Weekend includes air ships, space ships, and fishing boats. If we’re in the mood we’ll stretch the definition all the way down to the tiniest ship possible, the surfboard. The best movies combine our ship holiday with the official memorial for the fallen. Battleship and submarine stories are wonderful. However, the grandaddy is Master and Commander. It’s a near-perfect film. Maybe next year I’ll take a look at it. Until then, I have a holiday-appropriate Story Enneagram review that’s been sitting in my completed folder for a while.

ONE

Heroic music and a television’s aspect ratio introduce a show called “Galaxy Quest.” A clip from an episode plays, showing us the crew and tone. Catch phrases are spoken. “Activate the Omega-13”, with dramatic music, transitions into a “to be continued” screen.

We’re at a fan convention. Cosplayers applaud. An enthusiastic host (Guy) prepares to announce the actors from the show.

Cut to the green room where, in costume, they all wait. Everyone except the Commander. As they complain, we meet their characters. These actors have had this very conversation innumerable times. When Jason finally enters, everyone’s dislike of him is evident.

Three Kittens

A Christmas present for my daughter-in-law.

LITTLE WOMEN (2019)

My breakdown of this version, Little Women (2019), is going to be very strange. If the filmmaker decides to take an extremely well-known story and change its ending, chaos can ensue. In this case facts about Louisa May Alcott are incorporated into the climax. I didn’t know any of these details and found the end confusing and infuriating.

It felt Author’s Message to me, and in a way it was. No matter how interesting real life information is, if you go against audience expectations, especially ones so deeply ingrained as they are for this story, you have to be crystalline. LW2019 doesn’t cross that bar.

It makes for a very interesting Enneagram pattern.

ONE

The girls are adults. The beginning of the movie starts near the end of the characters’ arcs. Okay, fresh and interesting. Jo sells a story, Amy is in Paris, Meg spends money recklessly, and Beth plays the piano. Professor Bhaer is introduced; he and Jo see each other at a pub and dance together.

I don’t understand why this scene exists. (The movie, at two and a half hours, needed trimming.) It’s Four-ish stuff put in the middle of the opening. That’s the danger of leading with your ending, it seems.

Jump to Seven Years Earlier. Meg’s hair is burnt by the curling iron and Jo’s dress is burnt by her carelessness. Classic scene. Laurie comes to the dance and the March family meets their neighbor. Meg twists her ankle, Laurie’s carriage takes them home, and here’s Marmee, Hannah, and the bustle of Orchard House.

You see the problem here, right? This is all Four stuff! Where is our anchor to begin the story? No scene is edited to stand out.

Except one.

LITTLE WOMEN (2017)

Every filmed version of a beloved story will have some things that are ho-hum and some that are the best of any of the movies. For Little Women (2017), a three-part miniseries, Emily Watson’s Marmee is a triumph. Top actresses are cast as Marmee, so the field is particularly strong. Watson’s work and the script she’s given to deliver are truthful, painful, and joyous. This is a must-watch.

Some of the other choices, however, are not as strong. Let’s look.

ONE

At three hours runtime, LW2017 can add details the others leave out. We get Father March at the war right away. Both parents are much more present throughout, giving a complete family in the storytelling.

The very first scene has the girls trimming a lock of hair to send to him for Christmas. It’s a very weird sequence, though. Close-ups, corset laces, shadows, scissor blades . . . why shoot this like soft-core thriller content?

TWO

As Marmee returns home she crosses paths in the road with Laurie in the carriage, coming to Grandfather’s house for the first time. Laurie is Trouble, of course. He disrupts the March life in many ways. It’s not the most visually descriptive or inventive Two, though.

THREE

I am utterly and totally making something up here. We see Father, still nursing the sick in the war, cover the body of a man who’s died. Again, this is a strange choice. It establishes Father, the war, and, most pertinent of all, death. We all know what happens later with Beth. Does this moment foreshadow or portend that? I don’t think so. We know nothing about this corpse and have no connection to it.

But here it is, sitting after the Two and before the Four, so it’s what we have to work with.

LITTLE WOMEN (1994)

(In honor of the month of December, I’ve pulled out a series that was written for my book but didn’t make the cut.)

For me, this version, Little Women (1994), is the gold standard.

ONE

Credits, beautiful music, snow, and a Christmas wreath. Time of year and era are established visually. Jo narrates. As you may know, I’m not generally a fan of narration. It’s more of a “tell” than a “show”. Because this story is a novel, Jo’s narration feels like she’s just reading to us. It’s not the worst use of narration.

Marmee comes home, chilled, and the family gathers to read father’s letter. Throughout, the film is beautifully framed, like a portrait. The arranging of the five women is evocative. You’re watching a time gone by. Perhaps you’re remembering illustrations from books you read as a child. This family is loving and close.

Also, this family is missing its father. The women are surviving and thriving, despite hardship. Whatever guidance a father would provide, whatever comfort or strength, is not weighed.

GHOSTBUSTERS

This review was originally written for my second book, but I didn’t consider the piece good enough to include. I still think about it, though. The franchise has continued to add more content, and I can see myself diving into the extended stories and characters. In honor of Halloween, I post this rejected child.

This is my first time watching Ghostbusters (2016), and it is an astonishingly bad film. I thought maybe people were hating on it because it remade a beloved franchise, but no, it’s genuinely not good. I’ll go over its Enneagram, and then I’ll tell you where it really went off the rails.

ONE

First caveat: I’ve seen Ghostbusters (1984) many times, but I couldn’t recite the specifics of its Enneagram to you without watching it again. I suspect, though, that this movie hits the same highlights as the original. Certainly, its One is similar.

A museum, the Aldridge Mansion, has a ghost appear to the tour guide. We all remember that the original movie begins at the library with an apparition. Introduce the supernatural: check.

Then we go to campus and meet Erin (Kristen Wiig). She links up with Abby (Melissa McCarthy), with whom she’s been estranged for years, and Abby’s associate Jillian (Kate McKinnon). The three of them go into the Aldridge to investigate the apparition. In the original we meet Bill Murray scamming psychology students; Dan Aykroyd reels him in for the library investigation. Again, we have the character we’re supposed to like best (Wiig/Murray) who’s the voice of skepticism and the long-time friend (McCarthy/Aykroyd) who is the enthusiast. They team up and away we go.

It’s strange. Murray’s Venkman practically begs you to find him repulsive, and yet we’re captured. Wiig’s Erin is much nicer and more sympathetic, but the whole opening is flat.

WILLOW, SIX

Is it fair to call Willow (1988) a St. Patrick’s Day film? There’s nothing particularly Irish about it at first glance. However . . . The brownies are small and puckish, like leprechauns. Fairies flit about. The baby who plays Elora Danan wears a red wig. (Heh.) Something about the tone of the movie feels appropriate for the holiday. Well, that’s what I proclaim, and let us proceed accordingly.

Who is our eponymous hero, the young and earnest Willow?

He’s a family man, a farmer, with a dream to become a wizard’s apprentice. His children and his wife rescue a mysterious baby from the river. Although he’s worried, he accepts the change in his fate Elora brings. He’ll need to make a trip to protect her, leaving his family behind.

In the village, Willow doesn’t envy his fellows. He wants to be picked to study with the wizard, but he doesn’t begrudge the other contestants. He’s not a Heart Type.

He’s also not a Body Type. He will never be one of his village’s warriors. He goes on the mission to return Elora because of responsibility and compassion, not for any pursuit of adventure or activity.

He’s a Six. That commitment to right and wrong drives him forward. It’s how he can hector Madmartigan, a large foreigner in a cage, without thinking of his own safety. He disrupts the evil plans of Bavmorda, despite his fear, because he loves Elora. He strives to transmorph Fin Raziel not because he will learn magic from her, but because she will help the baby.

Willow is a man who does his duty, quietly tilling the land, while dreaming of a different career (which is likely to never materialize). Sixes hold a longing that breaks my heart.

Maybe that’s the reason it feels so Irish to me.