Tag: Hercules Syndrome

The People of Stranger Things

July 13, 2018 / Calise Sellers

{Dunda dun da… Babum babum bababum bumbabumba bababumbaba bumbum} The music starts and red lights appear in darkness, angles slowly revealing flickering words, and my heart grows fluttery. This is my best description of an intro that I refuse to skip unless under duress. Because it gives me a sense of the ride I’m starting on, of a story that feels somehow both intimate and distant, both like childhood and like falling up into the stars.

It’s really funny to me that the only two group-dynamics character spotlights I’ve fully done up to this point have been scary works (Marble Hornets and this), because that makes it seem like a large proportion of the things I watch are scary and Lovecraftian, which isn’t the case. I do think H.P. Lovecraft was a boss, taking his INFP(ip) Great Pumpkin Distraction and turning it into a powerful catalyst: using the sheer terror that an IP feels at the all-consuming size of an endless cosmos, and turning it into a beautiful humility before a world outside of your control, bowing to the eternity that might otherwise have swallowed him whole. That is an epic example of how to properly last-step, imo.

So yes, I do actually really love Lovecraft (and using the word “really,” you’ll find if you stick around for long). But scary stuff… I’m usually “eh” about it at best. So I guess that’s why, when I find a work that truly encapsulates the awe that I believe reality has behind the curtain, while concurrently making me fall in love with characters that are so real and alive you never want to let them go, I just can’t help sharing the emotions that such works evoke in me.

Honestly, as I embark on this journey to convey the individuals I see when I watch Stranger Things, I find myself quite daunted. There are just too many moments I care about, too many facial expressions that evoke more than I could ever say in a post, no matter how ridiculously long this one is sure to be. I’d be terribly embarrassed if anyone could see my YouTube history of late, and how many times I listened to “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by the Clash, or interviews with the cast, etc. etc. Because it comforts me, which is an odd thing to feel about a scary show, but it’s true. The *people* of Stranger Things comfort me.

Because, sure, there’s the things everyone talks about—Eggos, walkie talkies, big hair, bikes, and Christmas lights—and I love all those things about Stranger Things, I do. But those things would mean nothing without the people who make those things matter; the characters who make you laugh despite danger and cry because, it doesn’t matter if you never saw the 80s (I can claim 5 months and 5 days in the 80s) or if you don’t have supernatural predators stalking you, long before the journey is over you want these people to be your friends.

Guys, this show is beyond epic. Continue reading

Type Specializations: What Makes My Type Special?

February 12, 2014 / Calise Sellers

There’s an age-old outlook, put blatantly by Syndrome of The Incredibles in his Moriarty Fear, that if everyone is special, then *no one* will be. To this longstanding catch-22, I offer the following rebuttal: What if everyone is special in a way that is both utterly unique and utterly essential?

What if, like colors, genders or flavors, Personality Types create a beautiful cornucopia of complexity and balance, where each member contributes to the whole, an equal and necessary component, without which there would be a gaping hole? And what if becoming special is simply a matter of owning who you are and choosing to pursue the very thing *you* love most?

These are Type Specializations.

This topic is one of my very favorite things about personality typing because it’s so wrapped up in what every type *is* and not only what every type specializes in, but what *drives* every type. It’s easy to focus on cursory traits that may or may not come with a certain type – yes, ISTJs are usually fond of rules and yes, ENTPs often like taking risks; yes, INFPs spend a lot of time exploring inside their own heads and yes, ESFJs can often be found being great hosts and hostesses – but why? What is that common thread that laces itself through a personality type? What means the world to *your* personality?

Type Specializations are made up of two components, Scope and Objective. Continue reading

Comment Response: Of INFJs, Principles of Typing and Characters that POP

November 9, 2013 / Calise Sellers

The other day, I got a fantastic comment on Type Heroes: INFJ – The Paladin by a cool INFJ named Match. In addition to comments about liking the blog in general, he brought up some great questions about why I typed some of the characters in the INFJ collage the way I did. Because it was a fantastic and well thought out comment, I thought it deserved a well thought out response. I started typing and this behemoth came out. Rather than try and fit it into like 50 comments all broken up, which would end up feeling like I was spamming everyone on my own blog -_-, I decided to turn it into a post that might set the precedent for future response posts that deserve this kind of care and attention.

I hope you really wanted that reply you asked for, Match 😀

Intro and Principles of Typing

Okay, important things first: Match is a really cool name! Can I just say that?

Also, I’m *so* happy you’re enjoying the blog! The things you said about Hercules Syndrome and the stick figure post make me feel giddy 😀 This is exactly why I write and it thrills me to know it’s working and that I’m touching individual people. That’s really my purpose as an ENTP, helping people see their own individual potential and know how to reach for it; helping people be awesome in their own unique ways 🙂

You brought up really excellent points about those individual characters. I also *loved* what you said about people making personality typing about cut-and-paste horoscopes! I couldn’t agree more. I think the one principle I’d like to bring up before going into specific character typings is that, while you’re obviously looking past the surface of types and I can tell you don’t type shallowly at all, it’s important to remember that personality types are a measure of the way a person *thinks* which ends up resulting in their actions, but *isn’t* their actions. I know you know that principle, but it’s easy to forget that when other people are judging by the surface. It’s easy to forget that two people may make the *exact same* decision for *entirely* different reasons. Make sense?
Continue reading

The Personalities of Marble Hornets

August 11, 2013 / Calise Sellers

Today I have for you a typing that is particularly special to me. Not only is Marble Hornets my very favorite webseries ever, but it is in fact one of my favorite things to watch ever. I have to say right now, I’ve never liked horror before in my life. Why is Marble Hornets different? It’s all about personality.
Continue reading

INFJ Hercules Syndrome – definition

August 6, 2013 / Calise Sellers

“You know when I was a kid,
I would have given anything to be exactly like everybody else.”
Disney’s Hercules

“Hercules Syndrome” is the classic INFJ weakness of feeling like they’re strange and don’t belong *because* of the very thing that makes them special. INFJs with Hercules Syndrome feel like there is a universe of potential and principles just at their fingertips… and everyone else is down on the ground saying “how dare you fly.” Floating around in the aether, wishing they could come down to the ground and not be so alone, but not willing to give up what they’ve seen up there, the INFJ may believe that they can never be liked and enjoyed for who they really are and what they can offer, but at best must be merely tolerated for the “eccentric” they are.

Hercules Syndrome can be a factor whether or not the INFJ has learned how to use their strength correctly. If they have not yet, you can expect awkward moments and embarrassment about said strength. If they have developed their strengths, it’s usually through years of training, but without their Hercules Syndrome in check, the INFJ is likely to feel guilty for having their strength at all, even though they’ve had to double their effort to develop it *in spite* of guilt all that time.

Examples:
Hiccup, How to Train Your Dragon
Avatar Aang, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rapunzel, Tangled
and so many more…

Click here for an in-depth look at INFJ, “The Paladin”! Click here for more on Hercules as an INFJ.

Type Heroes: INFJ – The Paladin

May 6, 2013 / Calise Sellers

All the typings and observations in this post are based on definitions and information presented in the aLBoP Guided Tour 😀 So if any of it bugs you, please go read that before leaving me a grumpy comment… Or, you know what? Let’s just skip the grumpy comments! Have a nice day! <3

INFJ
The Paladin

“A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship…but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!!”
Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Film

The INFJ Paladin is heroic to the core. They have an incredible sense of scope and justice and desire above all to show others through example how to be heroic themselves (as quite aptly put here). They go on their own unique quests through life, hoping to inspire others to do the same. They long to be heroic, but usually don’t believe that they’re anything special, so they believe and preach that anyone can be heroic.
Continue reading

Disney Typed: Hercules

April 6, 2013 / Calise Sellers

INFJ

“I have often dreamed of a far off place,
where a great warm welcome will be waiting for me
and the crowds will cheer when they see my face and the voice keeps saying,
‘This is where I’m meant to be.'”

“I want to become a hero, a true hero.”

Disney’s Hercules is one of my favorite characters to reference when helping people understand INFJ’s, because he’s just *such* a classic example. He typifies an INFJ archetype which I love so accurately, I call it Hercules Syndrome… as of right now. Seriously, I just named it.