Creators — The Duffer Brothers

Ross Duffer
ESFP(ep)
The Natural Morale Officer
A Natural Approach to Enjoyable Reactions

“To us when it really comes down to it, it is just about these characters and even when there’s darkness, people leave the show feeling a bit of hope there.  [Things] in life get dark and they get scary.  I mean, maybe it’s not interdimensional monsters, but still for everyone I think it gets like that.  And good people can overcome that by working together.”
ESFP(ep) examples: Wernher Von Braun, Pablo Escobar, Tom Bombadil – The Lord of the Rings

Matt Duffer
INTJ(ij)
The Deliberate Dragon
A Deliberate Approach to Expectable Trends

“Everyone was really distraught, and it was very upsetting for everyone to watch, except me.
I guess I had a big smile on my face the whole time.  People started to wonder [if something was wrong with me].  I was enjoying watching a child in severe pain… [But] it was exactly how I wanted it to be.  Noah was crushing it.  Why wouldn’t I be smiling?”
INTJ(ij) examples: Steve Jobs, Emma Watson, Sauron – The Lord of the Rings

Can I just say how much it pleases me that the twin creators of Stranger Things are exactly opposite letters, down to the subtype?  Again, balanced Toi in works of fiction demonstrate great effort, and seeing outside of yourself, but I think we owe a massive part of that balance within Stranger Things to the equality of relationship and mutual respect shown in the Duffer Brothers’ awesome friendship.

“Opposite” types actually have a lot in common, and often a great camaraderie, but it still demonstrates appreciation of ways of thinking beyond one’s own to have such sympatico with opposite and balanced strengths.  And when we discovered the Duffers’ types, we had to smile because it just explains everything about the IJ/EP balance of Stranger Things.

It is such an INTJ show, with the joy it takes at swimming around in the zoomed-out scale of the numinous and keeps coming back to its themes with unyielding intentionality.  But it’s such an ESFP show too, giving us hope and safety by grounding us in the joy of people and how their struggles and tender moments make all the scope of the supernal matter.

ESFP(ep) is the Observation corner, embodying a love of who people already are, and finding methods to help them find joy through protecting what makes them, them.  And INTJ(ij) is, for lack of a better description, the power-collector, setting out to find new Principles to make the world produce the Useful Trends they want.

Being halfway between the two, as ENTP(ep), no wonder the show makes me giddy.  It champions the Individual (EP’s Scope), while encouraging each to turn their gaze higher (NT focusing on getting more Use, T, by adding new things, N), and to shoot for a larger world (IJ’s Scope), all the while still managing to keep us feeling safe (SF’s focus—protecting, S, Meaning, F).  Such an incredible balance of opposite Scopes and Objectives.

Honestly, I don’t know much about the Duffers personally, other than what I’ve gleaned from behind the scenes stuff (which makes them seem pretty awesome, imo).  But their work really speaks for itself about how they view both people and the universe.

It’s hard to find storytellers that you feel like you can truly trust, no matter how many episodes, novels, seasons, or sequels a story goes on for.  Often times it seems that stories have a half-life, where if creators are left to their own devices too long, their natural talents aren’t enough to carry a work through to the end with consistency of theme, characters, plot, and details.  Portrayals of beloved characters let us down, plots meander and lose focus on established goals, plot holes gape, and we begin to wonder if creators even know what they’re trying to say (or we feel bludgeoned by forceful “the world works this way” crap).

I believe a lot of this problem comes back to needing others to round out our own weaknesses, both cognitively and of life experience, but I also believe that where stories fall off the rails says a lot about the individuals steering them.  Crappy worldviews and motives can’t be hidden for long in story, as story, whether intended or not, is a thesis on how we believe the universe and people work.

So, while I could geek extensively on what mediums like Netflix have done for story—the benefits of longer stories released all at once, and what that does for cohesiveness of a story’s direction and message (giving us Netflix’s Daredevil too, which is another all-time fav)—I don’t think that’s all we have to thank for the exquisite consistency between Series 1 and Series 2 of Stranger Things.

Snatched this pic from Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven). I just think it’s so cute how Matt Duffer is wearing a “Hawkins Middle AV Club” shirt.

I trust the Duffer Brothers, and that’s not something I would say so carte blanche about most storymakers, in any medium.  But I think these guys, these twins who are relatively young in the film world, between my and Justin’s ages (although at 28 I’m feeling older all the time), honestly and truly understand story, people, and it seems the world as a whole, and why archetype matters.

By the end of Series 1, sure I was totally in love with the characters and couldn’t wait for more, but that’s the stage where so many stories tank.  They start with something classic, and then seem to forget the who, what, why, and how of why their story shined in the first place.  And Series 2 of Stranger Things didn’t do that; in my opinion it only shined brighter, with both the themes and characters being exactly what we fell in love with the first time around, only turned to 11.  (Eh, eh?  I know, I’m hilarious.)

My point is, that to have true consistency of story, you need consistency of creators, and that is what I believe we’ve found in the Duffer Brothers.  I trust them with Series 3 and beyond, as well as when they choose to stop, because I believe all their story decisions (and everything I’ve heard them say, and others say about them) demonstrate two individuals who know how to be better together, and show firm desire to portray truth in fiction, to display true Principles and thorough consistency of Individuals, no matter how surreal the circumstances.  And as an audience, that rings true for us, and keeps us coming back for more.

All the INTJs

Justin likes to joke that all four INTJ subtypes are in this show, which is really only true if you count Matt Duffer, lol.  But it is a really great way to see subtypes in practice, comparing the INTJs of Stranger Things.  And it also pleases me that not *one* of them is a villain.  Take that internet typing.  Okay, well fine, there’s one farther down our list.  But just one!

Eleven
INTJ(ej)*
The Supercharged Dragon
A Supercharged Approach to Expectable Trends
“Mike, I’m sorry…  The gate, I opened it.  I’m the monster.”
INTJ(ej) examples: Natalie Portman, Henry Ford, Queen Elsa* – Frozen

Eleven is everything that makes paradoxes wonderful.  She’s intelligent and wise, but has the vocabulary and experience of a toddler when interacting with most civilization.  She has the weight of the world on her shoulders, but she still gets excited about Eggos, romantic TV, and Trick or Treating.  She’s a death ray who worries she’s not pretty enough.

She speaks to the contrasting sides in all of us.  Even if we don’t have supernatural powers, we each have areas where we feel strong and ready to kick butt, and areas where we feel small and vulnerable and need others to help us make it through.  Basically, we all have areas where we can save others, and we all have areas where we need them to save us.

I’ve seen criticism around the internet about S2E7, “Lost Sister,” where Eleven takes her rebellious coming-of-age adventure to Chicago, right in the middle of the action back home.  Complaints about the episode disrupting the pacing, or separating Eleven so she couldn’t bounce off the rest of the characters, have seemed to be frequent. I’ve even seen several speculate that Kali’s gang was brought to the forefront for pure spin-off potential.  I think all of these opinions miss the mark on not only Eleven’s walkabout episode, but on her entire character arc.

By the end of S1, we saw how epic both Eleven and her abilities were.  Her ability to take down the Demogorgon when literally no one else could, not even swarms of armed men with guns, or lighting it on fire, demonstrated her as-yet unparalleled strength.  Even before that, we saw Eleven levitate Mike in order to save his life and even flip a frickin van over their heads.

By the time S2 begins, we’re not on the edge of our seats wondering if El can handle herself, physically.  Therefore, that’s not the challenge that El needs to face, going into S2. In fact there are so many reasons that Eleven’s journey in S2 can’t just be coming back with nosebleed-vengeance after five minutes in the Upside Down and juggling demodogs with her mind.  Besides not being a challenge that would grow her in any significant way, it would undermine her heartfelt sacrifice in S1.  It would undermine Mike’s pain at her loss (although he would want to punch me in the stomach for saying his missing her was necessary).  And it would take away everyone else’s opportunities to have to handle things without her.

But those are just extra reasons that Eleven’s character arc requires isolation in S2.  The main reason that Eleven couldn’t be out kicking evil puppies is the classic Spider-trope:  With great power comes great responsibility.  Responsibility that, as good as Eleven is, she had not learned yet as a teenager, especially raised as she was.  Eleven’s story is really a superhero story.  And in the absence of Kryptonite (which can really undermine your hero) or an Achilles’ heel, how do you make a superhero story challenging?  How do you hamper someone with supernatural powers without literally hampering their supernatural powers?

That’s right, you give them internal struggles instead.  I mean, honestly without internal struggles, external ones are pretty pointless for any protagonist, but especially for supernaturally strong ones.

Eleven’s entire journey so far has been trying to figure out what “home” is and how her home defines her as a person.  Over and over again, people tell Eleven to find home with them, but she has to figure out for herself what home even means, and let herself see that she’s the kind of person that deserves one.

Let’s trace this internal evolution in Eleven, learning to define home, starting with the first time we see her.

When Eleven steals from Benny, she’s not looking for home, as such; she’s just trying to survive her first time outside the lab.  She doesn’t even seem to know what a “name” is.  She’s just the number on her wrist, just 011.

But Benny Hammond, in his ISTP(ep)* utter realness, gently breaks down her barriers a little, and gives her a proto-home with things like smiles, loving consequences in the form of food and ice-cream for working with him and answering his questions, and even a comfy t-shirt instead of her lab clothes of hospital gowns and deprivation tank harnesses.  It’s the warmest she’s ever been treated, and makes a lasting impression on her, even though that very first true “home” experience only lasts a matter of hours.

So when Mike asks for her name, because of her interaction with Benny, Eleven not only now knows that the-title-that-defines-her is what Mike is asking for, but she wants to tell him, to trust him, immediately showing him her wrist tattoo.  She wants to feel that safe feeling again, like she did in that fleeting time with Benny.

And right from the beginning, Mike makes her feel safe and wanted, like so much more than a weapon or a number.  I don’t think she would have been so quick to show Dustin her tattoo, and certainly not Lucas, who questions her every motive.

Right away, Mike sees her as both a person and a girl, two things she’s never been allowed to be.  She’s never even been allowed the right of physical privacy, as demonstrated by her willingness to strip, which makes the boys panic.  And the way Eleven’s face lights up with hope and surprise when Mike nicknames her “El,” it’s like the first time she’s been allowed to have her own identity her entire life.

Newly christened El.  Holy crap, could she be more adorable??

But El also feels dangerous, especially after what happened to Benny.  

We’re going to be talking about Type Angsts a lot in this post, and basically what a Type Angst is, is the core fear that comes part and parcel with a cognitive type’s strengths and weaknesses, and different ways that individuals cope with their cognition’s core fear.  They stem from the later half of our cognition process, where we feel the weakest and most vulnerable, since it’s the lowest priority for our minds.  We naturally fear that the areas where we struggle will keep us from succeeding in our most beloved pursuits.

IJs struggle most with Observation and Motives, and Observation starts with oneself, and so IJ Type Angsts all center on feeling like their selfness isn’t truly known or wanted.  And Universal NTs (INTJ and ENTP) fear they aren’t conventional enough (ST – established use).  So this combination means that INTJs fear that their Motives and what defines them as a person, are just too intense, too turbulent.

And INTJ’s Type Specialization is knowing how to use Principles to get exactly the desired useful result they want, on a huge scale.  INTJs know exactly how to get the World to wiggle the way they want, able to predict through useful concept (NT) how choices will set up large-scale trajectories or Trends, which (like all Type Specializations) is really awesome.

But that means that INTJs feel their ability to control very ardently.  All IJs tend to feel like if they don’t do something, it won’t get done, but INTJs tend to feel this most of all.  Once a person feels like they can change the trajectory of how things will unfold, it’s a natural progression to feel responsible for how things will unfold, to feel like if they don’t go 100% to plan, then it’s 100% your fault.

That is INTJ’s Type Angst, lovingly nicknamed “Anakin Angst” for the distress that caused Darth Vader: INTJ’s fear that everything is their fault.  (I won’t go through the in-depth formulas for each Type Angst as we go through this post, but hopefully that gives you a taste of what forms a Type Angst, in case this is your first intro to them.)  And each INTJ subtype deals with this fear a little differently, as we’ll explore as we continue to talk about the INTJs of Stranger Things.

Eleven knows and is pleased with her own power.  Her handling of the annoying fan at Benny’s, stopping it with her mind like she was waving away a pesky fly, her unimpressed reaction to Mike’s description of Yoda’s powers, and her refusal to levitate the Millennium Falcon model just because Dustin tells her to, all show us that she knows what she can do, is proud of it, but also doesn’t feel the need to flaunt it.  She feels capable, useful, and independent in her Actions.

But when things go wrong, like when Benny is shot, we see Eleven’s panic.  When she tells Mike about the “bad men,” we see the far-off scared in her eyes.  She feels a looming danger following her, watching for her to slip up, like the very person she is isn’t ST practical.  Even with all her power, she fears its limits.  What if she can’t control things sufficiently to protect the people she loves, the growing family and home that she’ll give anything to keep safe?  Can all her abilities actually be of practical benefit to the people she loves?

She’s proud of her power, but is it ST Practical enough to actually keep people safe, here and now?  Is it any more useful than a freaky sort of parlor trick?  Or worse, do her powers themselves endanger those she cares about?

When Lucas calls Eleven a weirdo and a freak, it feeds into the fear that she already has, that everything is her fault and that she only brings destruction.  It only reaffirms to her that, for all her powers, they aren’t practical (which Lucas specializes in and excels at as an ST); they’re just “weird.”

But maybe, maybe if she can use her powers to keep people safe, to make them happy in their lives, then maybe she can have a practical use after all?  Maybe the world will actually be better because of her being in it, not worse.  Then maybe she won’t be a monster, maybe then she’ll even have a home.

But she fears that if anything bad happens to anyone she cares about, it must be because she was just too much monster, and too little friend.  She fears she’s just a broken weapon, just not right.

A phrase that comes up recurrently with Eleven is “What is wrong with you?!”

Lucas says this sentiment often in S1, which obviously hurts Eleven, but when Mike yells it at her after they find Will’s “body,” that sticks with her much harder.  If the only person who has ever truly seen her believes something is broken inside her, then maybe she really is.  So that hurts, but she knows she’s not lying, knows Will is still really out there, so she keeps at it with the walkie talkie and shows Mike the truth.

But as soon as the boys find out that there’s a Gate to the Upside Down, you can see El’s panic.  She tries to steer them away from the Gate that she knows exists, that she believes is entirely her fault to have opened, that she is the monster that escaped from the lab (which Lucas affirms to her).  She wants to protect them from the thing most out of her control: her own selfness.  When Eleven says “it isn’t safe” with tears in her eyes, I think what she’s really saying is “I’m not safe, and I should really leave you to protect you, but I don’t want to be alone, so instead I’ve been hoping to just protect you from what I am and what I’ve done.”

So then when Lucas is saying things about Eleven that she’s terrified are true, that she’s a liar and a traitor… and a monster, and Mike and Lucas start fighting, she panics and throws Lucas backward.  She’s clearly stunned by what she’s done and Mike says it again, much more intensely this time:  “What is wrong with you?!”

Eleven no longer has the comfort of just hoping that if she gives Mike more information, then he’ll no longer blame her.  She has more information, and that information makes her feel like a freak who opened the Gate and started it all.  So she leaves, and becomes home-less and alone, once again.

I find Eleven’s relationship to Nancy all the more potent and sad, given that Nancy is another of Stranger Things’ INTJs.  Every time Nancy comes up in S1, we can see Eleven’s longing.  When she calls Nancy “pretty” or explores her room, we can see Eleven mourning the life she might have had, were she allowed to grow up as a normally precocious INTJ girl, instead of a weapon and lab experiment.  When Eleven wears Nancy’s old dress, makeup, and wig out into the world, and feels “pretty… good” for the first time, it’s like she’s dressing up in Nancy’s younger, carefree life in a way, able to blend in with other kids and be out and see the world.  But then when her wig gets crumpled and her face all dirty, it makes her feel like she was only pretending to be anything besides a weirdo, a weapon, and a monster.  That earns a supersonic yell, I think.

Hungry, and still wishing she were like any other girl, Eleven ventures into town for food.  She’s so sick of being stared at like a freak, so tired of scientists in the past and now the people of Hawkins looking at her like something behind a “Please Don’t Tap the Glass” sign.  So by the time she calls the grocery store manager “mouth-breather,” she’s so done pretending to be normal and mundane, because clearly it wasn’t working anyway.  She smashes the doors, and strides out into the sunlight to go be alone with her Eggos in peace.  Might as well be singing “Let it Go.”

Let Eggo, Let Eggo

But as much as she wants to pretend that she and the Eggos can live a happy life frolicking in the forest together, when she hears Mike calling her name, she follows.  Maybe he does really care and want her, even if she’s a freak; it’s worth watching and seeing anyway.  And so she’s there to save his body, and he’s there to save her heart, to let her know that her intentions make her the hero, not the villain.

That episode is “The Monster” with the double-meaning of learning more about the Demogorgon, and Eleven’s reveal to the boys about why she’s sure she’s the monster.  (Maybe a triple meaning, with us finding out more about what made Brenner a monster.)

When they get back to the house, for a very brief respite, Mike tries to convey how much having her back means to him:

Mike: “I’m happy you’re home.”
El: “Me too.”

This is the first time the actual word “home” comes up with El, and this shows how easily she’s identifying being with Mike as equalling home.

Joyce serves as Eleven’s first mother-figure, and she’s not used to anyone telling her that it’s okay for her to be a little girl and be scared, even that it’s okay to say “Stop, I’m done!” when the things she sees with her powers are too scary.  And when Eleven is in the bathtub and it does get too scary, she’s certainly not used to someone reaching out to her, through the darkness and loneliness, and saying that she’s safe.  That’s something “Papa” certainly never did for her.

Anyway, there are all these contributing factors to Eleven discovering in S1 that she deserves to feel safe and loved and to have a home, climaxing I feel with Mike telling her his sweet idyllic version of how their lives can be once the conflict is resolved, together.  He paints a beautiful picture of the home he wants to offer her, capstoned by the idea of their attending the Snow Ball together, and sealed with the most precious little kiss that is more of a promise to Eleven than any words he could say.

Which makes it mean so much more when Eleven sacrifices everything in order to save Mike and Dustin and Lucas, and really everyone who would eventually have been affected by the Demogorgon.  Eleven sacrificed the only real home she had ever known, for the sake of that home existing without her.

Even right before, as she lies drained and Mike tries to reassure her that she can still have a home, still have a happy future, you can tell her plea of “Promise?” feels little hope.  Maybe a home where she could be loved as “El” instead of a number was too good to be true, as she sees it fading away like a vision in the bath.

And so while Eleven didn’t sacrifice her life itself, as so many of us feared (perhaps until Hopper placed the Eggos in the woods), she did sacrifice everything that had ever made her life matter, only to end up alone and without home, once again.

We see in the flashback in S2 that when Eleven woke up in the Upside Down, well firstly she called Mike’s name (?), but then the first thing she did once she was out was to try and go home, to try and go back to Mike and all her friends, and her Eggos and her blanket fort, only to find out that they had been infiltrated by the danger that had hounded her her whole life.  It seemed that Eleven would both never be truly free of the lab, and never really have a home, as much as Mike had finally shown her she had a right to one, that she was worthy of a home.

Hunted, scared, and hungry, it’s unclear how long Eleven lived in the woods eating squirrels, but it was long enough for her to grow skittish again, like an abused animal that found love, only to be beaten once more.  She’s scared enough to throw flaming squirrels at strangers, rather than attempt to talk her way out of things.  (And now I have “Don’t take candy from a Stranger, Things like that could lead to danger” stuck in my head.  Thanks a lot, Bad Lip Reading.)

She reacts so much like a scared animal when she finds the food that Hopper left her, including Eggos signaling that he hopes she’s out there.  She watches him from a distance, scared to trust, until finally it seems she works up enough courage to hope that “her policeman” can lead her to some semblance of safety again.

And Hopper does truly care, and sets out to be a true, permanent home for Eleven, though he feels inadequate to provide her with one (although we’ll get into that more in the Hopper section).  But he tries his best with things like Jim Croce, trip wires, and getting her to eat peas.  And most of all, he loves her, and they both begin to fill holes in the other one’s heart.

Okay, I don’t have a good segue for this next set of thoughts, so just pretend I did, alright?

It says a lot about Eleven’s relationships in Hawkins Lab, how she interacts with the boys at first, and “mouth-breathers” in general.  Even though she didn’t have the word before, it’s clear that she was used to obeying Papa, but that the way she was raised did teach her that most people have lesser intelligences than hers, sort of servants to plans like Papa’s, and Papa taught her that they were expendable.  People have to earn Eleven’s respect before she deems them worth a second glance.  Which, while condescending, is adorably Eleven, and part of what we love about her, and many of us might wish we could emulate a little better, not wasting time or emotional energy on people who far from earn our attention.  But really, that’s not just how Eleven was raised, that’s also just INTJ (especially (j) subs), used to steering their Principle-based plans around people who get in the way…and maybe a little jaded about people not understanding the potential of their world-scale vision.

But in a way, Hopper is right when he’s angry; Eleven can be a little bit of a brat.  (For the record, so can Hopper…)  But for so long Eleven only had two extremes: either submit entirely, with your will mattering not at all, or take what you want, by force.  She was rewarded for force, treated like a precious weapon.

In a weird, tragic way, Eleven has been taught that being forceful is how you show love.  By being impressively powerful, the people you love are proud of you, and by applying your power to something for them, you show you’re on their side.  And she believed Dr. Brenner loved her, so if he was that forceful to her, maybe that shows love, in Eleven’s consciousness.

Eleven’s last step of character judgment is always her greatest liability in the story, and she struggles over and over again with who to trust.  Which makes it all the more impressive that somehow Eleven, when the lab is all she’s ever known, is willing to listen to her first step of Principles enough to let it show her that even Papa is “bad.”  Without ever being told, in fact always being told the opposite, Eleven realizes that hurting innocent living creatures is wrong.  She won’t hurt a cat on command, even when she’s so powerful to defend herself.  And even though we don’t see her escape out the Hawkins Lab pipe, it’s clear that by the time she runs away, she’s beginning to realize something is very wrong with the Lab’s sense of morality.  Her Principles tell her that good and bad exist outside of what the people around her are saying.  Principles tell her that there’s a world outside of Hawkins Lab that exists on its own, with truth that no one, not even scientists with a big government budget, can change.

Maybe at first she’s just scared, just knows she has to get out of there, but once Benny gets shot, there’s no question in her mind: these are bad people.  I think it really takes until the end of S1 for her to apply that term to Papa and his choices, and even afterward she still dithers on his character.  But Eleven demonstrates great bravery in her last step (which is what last steps call for) in that she is willing to see people for who they are, even when what she sees is terrifying.

It’s something we all need to look at in our lives, even if we weren’t raised in a government lab where we didn’t even know the definition of the word “friend.”  We have to examine our own environments, our own microcultures, and see where they don’t hold up as much as we always believed.  We have to see where the people we care about the very most can be terribly wrong, to the detriment of everything we hold dear.  We have to examine our own beliefs and those of our best friends and the ones who make us feel safe, and sometimes we have to realize that the things that we thought made us safe were actually “bad.”  But once we do that, then we can really come to understand the world outside of just what we’re used to, and look up and truly see the stars for the first time.

It’s easy to look at someone else’s life, from the outside, and say, “What that person has been taught is so wrong.  How can they think that way?  How can they not reject something so stupid/mean/narrow/dangerous?” etc, etc.  But it’s much harder to look at the same things we’ve been blind to in our own lives.  It’s like those Febreeze commercials where you don’t know how bad your house smells because you live in it all the time.  Or how it’s harder for us to observe certain things about the Milky Way than other galaxies, because we’re inside it.  And it can come back to that whole “mote in your eye” thing; sometimes we focus so much on the piece of lint blinding the other guy, and we fail to notice the tractor trailer sticking out of our own ocular.  Actually, a big purpose of aLBoP is to help people see themselves and their environments correctly, for good and for bad.  And we’ve seen it help people examine the things they took for granted, over and over, but that still never makes it easy.  Realizing you’ve been wrong sucks, but for most of us, realizing the people you love are wrong is even harder.

So let us appreciate how epic Eleven is, because recognizing all the ways our environment teaches us things that don’t line up with reality is excruciatingly difficult, no matter your age, let alone when you’re 11 (actually, I think she’s supposed to be 12 in S1, but I had to make the joke).

But Eleven doesn’t understand what makes Hopper different from Dr. Brenner, she doesn’t understand how very different their motives are.  And because she doesn’t understand him, Hopper makes a great scapegoat antagonist for the journey Eleven needs in S2.  Hopper being the private INTJ(ip) he is, doesn’t make it any easier to know his motives, concealing from her the very reason he feels so protective: fear of losing her like he lost his birth daughter.

With Eleven’s mind on missing Mike, she watches Frankenstein on TV, where a little girl shows the monster her flower, treating him like a person and showing compassion and the things she cares about.  The parallel is subtle and sweet, but clearly Eleven is relating to the monster, and Mike is her little girl (okay, maybe I just wanted to say it that way, for reasons).  She feels like he saw through her monstrocity to the person she was, and even though she has felt home and safe with Hopper in many ways, she’s still missing her first home of Mike.

She checks in with him every day, and sees that he’s still thinking of her, still trying to contact her.  She tries to get Hopper to let her go to Mike, even if it’s just as a ghost on Halloween.  But he’s getting sadder, giving up hope; she feels like she needs to see him before it’s too late.  She tries to “com-promise” with Hopper, but then when he breaks his Halloween promise (and doesn’t trust her enough to explain why, in attempts to keep her safe), she begins doubting that he’ll ever let her go see Mike.  If it’s a choice between her new home and her first home, there’s no hesitation for El: she wants Mike and all the freedom and self-ness he meant to her.

But when she “sneaks,” not so sneakily, out to see Mike, it seems she is too late, and her home has moved on.  To see Mike smiling at another girl, as if she never existed, breaks Eleven’s heart.  And knocking Max flat on her back doesn’t heal the pain and loneliness that Eleven finds herself consumed by.

As she heads home, I think she feels stupid already, and then an angry (read: panicking) Hopper rubs her face in it.

But Eleven isn’t just being a brat who wants to watch TV.  The TV is her only tie to the outside world, not just with programming, but even more so as she uses it as her new “Bathtub” to reach people she could otherwise only imagine… like Mike who she’s not even sure cares anymore.

Without the TV, Eleven feels like her autonomy is gone, like she might as well be back in the lab where she got thrown in closets for not making the decisions Papa wanted her to make.  She makes the correlation, saying Hopper is just the same as Brenner, and uses her powers against him, refusing to be coerced anymore.

Hopper, hurt, betrayed, and terrified, lashes out back and their fight escalates.  Now, after all this time, Hopper yells the dreaded words that Eleven had seemed to escape: “What is wrong with you?!?”

Cornered, trapped, and alone as she’s felt her entire life, Eleven screams and the world around shatters.  Well, the windows, but that’s how it feels.

Every time I watch, it strikes me how close Hopper comes to apologizing the next morning, to approaching her softly, to telling her he cares.  But honestly they’re both too proud at that point, neither letting themselves see the other’s point of view.

Eleven almost surrenders a little too, starting to clean up… until she sees the files demonstrating how much else Hopper didn’t trust her with.

But by this point, Eleven has come to believe that she deserves a home; she knows herself that well at least.  I believe her thought process is, “Fine. If Mike doesn’t want me, and Hopper doesn’t like me, then I will find better.  Maybe Mama will want me!” and I think that’s what begins her voyage through “Lost Sister.”

Unlike others, I like how “Lost Sister” puts an abrupt hold on the rest of the story, cliffhanging the Hawkins Lab catastrophe while Eleven is completely unaware of it.  It’s like how in the novels of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien had long periods of time where subplots weren’t intermixed.  Frodo and Sam don’t know what’s happening with Rohan or Gondor, they’re just plodding along trying to do their best with little hope.  As a reader, that makes us feel isolated along with them, making everything feel more dire.

While I think it was better for the LotR films that the subplots be concurrent, I think the effect works for “Lost Sister.”  I mean, it’s not a big reveal that Eleven can save the day; the reveal is the emotional journey that will get her back to Hawkins, in the right headspace, in the nick of time.  And in stories when we’re shown as an audience what’s going on meanwhile in subplots, it’s easy to roll our eyes at characters and say “she should know better” (apparently that theme is coming up a lot with Eleven, lol).

Frustrated, feeling like if no one will give her a home she must take it, and trying to discover who she even is, Eleven leaves Hawkins and tries on “Jane” for the first time.

Because what is a home?  Because surely our unconscious definition is more than just a place where you sleep and eat.  I think a true home is a place where you feel safe, but not just that either.  A home is where you feel known and like you can be yourself; a place where, whether you’re happy, sad, scared, or angry, you are known for your true character and motives.  That’s why, when we feel like we don’t have people to give that to us in our lives, sometimes we feel the most at home when we’re alone, because then everyone present understands us.  I know I’ve felt that way, although thankfully not anymore, not for a long time now.

“Jane” hopes she’ll be better known at her Aunt Becky’s, where she has roots, a full past—an origin story if you will.  And she mourns the life of the normal little girl she could have been, had Mama been allowed to mother her.  But she doesn’t feel known by Becky.  And her Mama, though still strong inside, can’t help her.

ISTP(ip)* Becky offers her a home, but as we saw in S1, Becky has a strong Type Angst of Snape Superiority (which we’ll talk about more in the Jonathan section), and doesn’t accept things outside her previous experience unless they’re proven to her.  She rejects Eleven before she even has a foot in the door, until that door is forced open.  And even once Becky accepts Jane as the long-imagined “make believe” daughter of her sister, she determinedly wants Eleven to be normal.  But Eleven isn’t a normal girl; that ship sailed long ago.  Eleven does try to just be normal, to just have a normal home with a bedroom and family, but she doesn’t even really know how.  Eleven’s “weirdness” is part of who she is.  She doesn’t even consider pretending that Mama isn’t trying to talk to her through the lights.  She doesn’t even consider just ignoring it, so she can try to have a normal life.

Eleven knows that her powers are a part of her, and she is done trying to hide that in Hopper’s cabin.  She sought out her Mama in an effort to find someone who actually wanted her, the real her, not some domesticated half-happy half-version of herself.  So she’s crushed when she finds that her Mama can’t be a mother for her, can’t take care of her.  But when Mama sends her to go find the other little girl from the rainbow room, Eleven leaps at the quest, not to leave her Mama, but because she knows her Mama understands her, and she trusts to go where Mama directs her.

She’s been alone in the forest, stifled with Hopper, and unaccepted by Aunt Becky’s tiny worldview.  Eleven can’t wish her history away, make herself not “wrong” inside, so maybe her home is with the outcasts instead, other people rejected by normalcy.  Surely this other girl, who went through the same torment Eleven did, surely this girl will accept her!  Surely she’ll be a home.

When El arrives in the big city, she’s utterly unafraid of the attempted intimidation from Axel (ESFJ(ej)*), intent on finding the one person who might want her for who she is, and she doesn’t really see him as any more dangerous than Troy, the middle school bully whose arm she broke with ease.  And then how does the girl she was sent to find greet her?  With a hug, and accepting her as a sister.  Finally, El hopes she’s found a home, a place where she can really be herself.

And she clings to this hope for a home with such tenacity, such dedication, that she quickly starts subverting other parts of herself.  Eleven was so afraid of being rejected for being too weird, but now Kali’s gang is making her reject the parts of herself that seem too normal.  But El is both; that’s why we love her, she’s a walking contrast.

So it’s exciting to see El open up to her power, to explore these untapped sides of herself, but at the same time it feels… off.  In the process of finding herself, she’s in danger of losing the parts of herself that she took for granted.

This is a danger we all face, whenever we get too focused on defining who we are.

There is a tremendous difference between accepting ourselves and defining ourselves.  When we accept ourselves, we accept our own past, our own failings, and our own limitless potential to become anything, good or bad.  We take responsibility for our capacity to fall, as well as taking charge of our ability to grow.  When we accept ourselves, we let ourselves be complex, even contradictory, and we let ourselves have a right to change, to be whoever we may grow to want to be.  We let ourselves surprise ourselves.

By contrast, when we try to define ourselves, as thirteen year-olds of all ages are often tempted to do, we limit ourselves.  We insist “This is who I am! …no wait, now this!  No okay, this time for sure, this thing is who I am!”  We put ourselves into self-limiting, and hence self-defeating little boxes.  We hide behind labels, such as “outcast” or “rebel,” “misunderstood,” “popular,” or “free thinker,” etc, etc, etc.  And in doing so, we reject the complexity and contradictions that make humanity shine.

And we may try to escape, rewrite, or sneer at our own past selves.  In order to attempt to prove that our latest impassioned defining of ourselves is our real, true self, we have to disown every part of our past, our hopes, our quirks, and our secret desires and fears that don’t happen to fit our narrow mold for ourselves.

“Jane” thinks she’s found freedom by releasing the parts of herself that Hopper, in his well-meaning fear, had made her keep hidden.  She needs to let go, to let loose, to let out all her bottled-up feels that have stood in the way of her accepting herself.  And when she releases her “conceal don’t feel” barriers and moves a whole train car, it’s a massive turning point in her coming-of-age journey.

But Kali, like so many people in our own lives, doesn’t want the whole Eleven.  She wants only the new parts, the power and the rage.  And so El has to make a choice.  Does she care more about pleasing these new friends, or about accepting herself—her *whole* self, including the parts of her that her new friends say are weak, childish, and naive?

Kali attempts to use the memory of Dr. Brenner as a monster to scare Jane into seeking vengeance, but instead it causes El to finally face her past.  She doesn’t need to try to erase her past by erasing the people who made it awful; she can accept even Papa’s evil as part of the long, dangerous, heart-wrenching path that led her to the person she has become.

When Eleven finally understands—and accepts—her whole self, she no longer has to desperately seek a home.  She no longer has to constantly look to others to accept her.  El is home now, wherever she goes, because she knows who she is.  So when she replies to Kali’s self-serving mantra, “They can’t save you, Jane!” with, “No. But I can save them,” it’s a fist-pump worthy one-liner that encapsulates the whole of who Eleven is:  She’s a hero, someone who is ready to give of herself to help the people she loves.

She’s ready now to completely forgive Hopper, because she no longer views him as a threat to her acceptance of herself.  She’s ready to see Mike again without needing him as an emotional crutch, because she doesn’t need any crutch anymore.  She might even be ready to face Papa again, with fury yet without fear, were it necessary.  And she is ready to have a kick-butt showdown with a self-serving, self-obsessed smoke monster.  She couldn’t find a full home with others until she was at home with herself.  Through her walkabout, separated from the people in her life who truly want her for the whole person she is, she’s finally ready to go home and give them her whole self, nothing held back.  Slick hair included.

“I’m going home.”

An awesome ESFP(ij) (like Dustin) once told me this essential piece of wisdom:  Don’t prioritize people unless they 1) love you 2) want you 3) need you.  All three.  Even two out of three isn’t good enough.

Because people can love you but not want you—all of you, not just picking and choosing.

We often quote Hiccup (INFJ(ij)*) from How to Train Your Dragon, “You just gestured to all of me!”  Stoick, his ENTP(ej)* father loves Hiccup, but doesn’t want him, for who he is.  (Interestingly, Hiccup and Stoick are the same types as Will and Lonnie… however I’d venture to say that Lonnie doesn’t even love Will, let alone want him.)

And people can want who you are, and need you, but not love you.  This often happens in unbalanced relationships.  Someone can want to be around you and even need your help navigating life, but not really care about your needs as a person with true compassion.

And if people both love you and want you for who you are, then awesome!  But if they don’t need you, then there are sure to be other people who do need you and those who don’t need you should be placed on the back burner.

How much I feel like that ESFP intelligence could have helped Eleven throughout her journey.

Becky doesn’t really need Eleven, okay with her world not extending beyond her experience.  Kali and her gang need Eleven, but don’t really want her to be herself and have her own perspective on right and wrong.  And even though I believe Kali actually does love “Jane,” she has so much hate, that love gets far overshadowed.

And Hopper does truly love “Ellie” and wants her for all of her, but he struggles to let himself need her, as I’ll talk about far more in his section.  But he comes to realize how much he does need her, just in time for Eleven to realize how much her true home belongs with her friends, the only people who want, need, and love her, all at once.  Just in time for her to save everyone.

She started her journey being treated as a mere number, just 011.  But then she did find selfness, belonging as Eleven, as El with Mike and her friends in Hawkins, a side of her she almost forgets along her journey.  When she fears rejection in her original home, she tries to reset and be Jane, the girl she would have been without Hawkins Lab, without her past, without her pain and her weirdness.  But she’s not really that person either.  With Kali’s gang, she’s “Jane” again, still attempting to reset her past, this time not for normalcy, but to say, “this is the person I should have been, if the bad men hadn’t tried to take that away.”  She tries to destroy them with the very powers they gave her.  But she discovers that’s not really her either.

El, unlike 011 or Jane, is strong, but she’s also soft.  She knows how to be tender and she lets her past be a part of who she is.  She’s the kind of person who saves people with her powers, instead of being driven by hatred and destruction.

So Eleven’s climactic trial at the end of S2 does require her to be stronger than ever.  But in order to heal the rift in Hawkins, she has to first heal the rift in herself.  Her past is festering within her, and she must go back to the place where all the pain originated, where she was taught that she was nothing but a number, a weapon, a tool, where her will was never truly her own.  But this time she’s not alone.  She’s not unloved, unknown, or unwanted, any longer.  So for the first time ever, she takes her home with her into Hawkins Lab, and is able to seal up the breach in both Hawkins and her heart.  And Eleven is made whole for the very first time.

Chief Jim Hopper
INTJ(ip)*
The Comfortable Dragon
A Comfortable Approach to Expectable Trends
“Listen to me.  I’m gonna find him.  All right? You’ve got to trust me on this.
I am going to find him.”
INTJ(ip) examples: Harrison Ford, JRR Tolkien, Princess Luna* – My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

For all his many flaws, Chief Jim Hopper immediately draws us in.  His quirks, his dad-bod, his chill-and-yet-not approach to the whole world, from the moment he brushes his teeth and then immediately smokes and drinks a beer, Jim Hopper is genuine in a way that he himself clearly doesn’t understand.

We see quickly how smart Hopper really is.  How fast he realizes what’s not right in the case of Will Byers missing, how the pieces don’t add up, the Sherlock of the show both seasons (with the same cognition as BBC’s Sherlock).  How he adapts to changes as the case opens up, knows what to do when he needs to get in somewhere or when he’s in peril; all these things show how much quick thinking is going on inside Jim Hopper’s mind.

So how can the same man whose mantra to Eleven is “We don’t take risks.  They’re stupid, and we’re not stupid,” go take insane risks, like punching state troopers, breaking into Hawkins Lab, or going into an infested, sentient hole in the ground without any backup whatsoever?

For such a smart guy, Jim Hopper sure is an idiot.  Does that make him inconsistent?  No, because the ways that Jim Hopper is really truly stupid, are very INTJ(ip).

You’ve got to go and dig those holes…

Because Hopper only considers risks to be stupid if they’re putting other people in danger, not himself.  INTJs specialize in knowing how to interact with the World to get the results they want, aka Expectable Trends, and so for Hopper, his choices just feel like the requirements for the outcome he wants.  Know that something isn’t right with the Byers boy’s autopsy?  Then you have to get in there somehow and see the body for yourself.  Know Hawkins Lab is lying to you?  Get in there and find out what they’re hiding for yourself.

Because Hopper feels, as IJs do, that if he won’t do it, no one will.  So, no matter the risk, he feels the drive to dive in headfirst and get his hands dirty.

But with INTJ’s Anakin Angst being driven by the fear that everything is their fault, that someway, somehow, they should have been able to keep things from going wrong, Hopper copes by trying to control everything.  (ip) denial of his Type Angst comes in the form of “no, it’s not all my fault… If there is no error, then there is no fault!” so he constantly tries to mitigate damage so there’s no blame to be had.

But he can’t do it all, so things still go wrong.  Will gets lost, Benny gets shot, people disappear, and Hopper shoves down his fear that he’s helpless to save everyone, that things keep going wrong and underneath it all, he’s sure it’s his fault somehow.  I find it interesting and realistic that Hopper doesn’t want to believe in supernaturally good things in the universe, but he doesn’t have a hard time in believing the bad, feeling cursed.

We see in S2 how Eleven is filling in the hole in Hopper’s heart, in ways that probably feel way too vulnerable to admit.  He isn’t addicted to pills or meaningless sex anymore.  We don’t see him take pills once second season, and when the other officers tease him about “lady problems” it’s a joke to the audience because we know Hopper is having major little lady problems.  Loving and protecting Eleven has become the focus of Hopper’s life, seeming to give him aim and hope that he had previously lost.

But he’s terrified of losing that, so he falls into clenched controlling.  This is an (ip) version of the most common reaction to Anakin Angst, like talked about in the original Anakin Angst definition post.  So often, in an attempt to protect the things and people that matter most to an INTJ, they’ll end up falling into the very flaws they were trying to fight, and we see this with Hopper.  His entire aim is to keep Eleven safe from the people who have trapped and forced Eleven her whole life.  But then what does he end up doing in pursuit of that goal?  Trapping and forcing Eleven to stay and wait until he’s sure she can be safe.

Eleven calls him on this, saying that he’s like Papa, by which she means that he is locking her away and can’t be reasoned with, not fully understanding the character implications of what she’s saying Hopper is.  Like I said in the Eleven section, she doesn’t fully comprehend the evil motives behind Brenner’s bad actions.  But, in typical IJ form, she’s correct that Hopper is going about the situation wrong, even though she’s wrong about the intentions behind his decisions.

And in turn Hopper feels unknown for who he is and his motives, and I think rejected, honestly.  He has been giving her all his care and worry, dedicating his fatherly heart to her, and putting his emotions on the line for her sake, and their fight feels like a spitting in the face of his love for her.  He claims he’s upset because he does the useful actions of feeding, clothing, and protecting her (the real emotion coming out more with “protecting” in that list), but in actuality, it’s not his useful actions that Hopper is defending; it’s the meaningful experience that he felt their relationship had.  He feels like if she can’t see how much he cares, as evidenced by his worry and efforts, then maybe she doesn’t really care about or see him at all.

I think they’re both left feeling like maybe they cared far more for the other person, than the other ever cared for them.  Because on the flip side, of course Eleven does love Hopper, but feels like if he doesn’t see the freedom she needs, then maybe he doesn’t see her at all either.

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that Hopper and Eleven’s relationship has too much NT Éros.  Which before that sounds creepy, if you haven’t read that post, the concept behind aLBoP’s Four Types of Love is that every relationship should have a balance of all four, as based on the 4Toi, in their own ways, and both romantic and platonic relationships have their own versions of each (meaning Éros needn’t have a sexual connotation ).  Éros as defined in that post is the ToL of contrast, of wills pulling one on the other, and the joy of two individuals being strong and independent.  It is the passion/fire ToL. Obviously Hopper and Eleven have that up to their eyeballs and that’s why as an audience we love their dynamic.  But the Four Types of Love require balance, just as the 4Toi do, and any relationship overburdened with one ToL without being tempered by the other three, will end up spinning off kilter.  And this is at the root of Hopper and Eleven’s relationship problems.

Too much Éros leads to feeling unheard and like you have to struggle for control in order to feel like an equal partner in a relationship (gaining the Type Angst of the Éros corner, ENTJ’s Great and Powerful Trixie Tantrum).  And both Eleven and Hopper clearly feel unheard and like they have to push their own will to get what they want.

Really, neither understands that “compromise” doesn’t have to mean “halfway happy,” as adorably INTJ as it is for them to think that way, like people are obstacles to personal will, that we sacrifice happiness for because we care.  Like I talked about in this post, INTJ as opposed to INFJ, tends to go around people.

Whereas meaning-centric INFJs feel their Actions haven’t fulfilled their purpose unless the people aspect of the world has been worked-through, use-centric INTJs often find it more convenient in the scope of their aim to just step around people, as long as people are going to be a difficulty.

It’s interesting, in observing what ToL Hopper and Eleven are missing in their relationship, I expected it to be the opposite ToL from Éros, SF Storge, but on closer examination, Hopper leans too far into Storge too.  As an (ip) that makes sense, as ISFP(ip) is the Storge corner and Storge is the ToL of comfort, safety, and minimizing pain.  Whereas Eleven leans more toward NF Agápe: exciting, meaningful, individualized love that Mike showed her (which we’ll talk about more in the Mike section).

And so, with their powerful Éros wills, they’re pulling in different Meaning directions.  Eleven wants to get out and feel excited about the world, stretch her personal legs and see what she can do, in her supercharged “you can’t stop me” (ej) way, while Hopper wants to minimize pain and create a stasis of safety so that things don’t break.

After what happened to Sara, it’s no wonder that Hopper has run to a desire for safety, emphasizing Storge even more than his (ip) would naturally, and gaining ISFP’s Type Angst of Banner Trepidation: the fear that you can’t keep anything from breaking.  And Banner Trepidation steers so many of Hopper’s actions, coupled with his native INTJ Anakin Angst. The combination of the two causes him to constantly react to the fear that “Everything will break, and it’ll be my fault.”  So yes, Hopper has plenty of Storge, to the point that he starts crippling Eleven.

Quoting from the Storge section of the 4ToL post:

“But Storge’s ultimate desire for safety and comfort can end up actually undermining the needs of its protectorates…  [One] form of unhealthy Storge is like a stream that has set its course and refuses to deviate, demanding calm and composure of its participants, treating peace as if it’s something that comes only from not ruffling feathers.

“This kind of unhealthy Storge often goes to the point of acting like legitimate problems that members of the relationship have get in the way of the safe atmosphere if brought up, so issues go unaddressed and un-dealt with, everyone just pretending that things are okay, as if that actually makes them so.  It often takes love for granted, assuming that because things have been in a repetitive rhythm for so long, surely everyone knows where they stand, not realizing that just because things fall into places, doesn’t mean they fell into the right places, just by chance.”

And while we see Hopper making those exact Storge choices, it’s funny to me because INTJ’s approach to Storge is so intense and stubborn, lol.  I mean, Storge can often be stubborn when it comes to safety, and (ip)s are often super stubborn in a way that is so cute when healthy.  I guess what I’m noticing is that when ITs favor Storge, they don’t pretend that everything is okay, they just insist that they don’t want it to change anyway, heh.  Pessimistic approach to safety, I guess, feeling like the only way to keep everything safe is to keep things “halfway happy,” not daring to hope that full happy is even possible.

So Hopper has gotten to a place where he’s (relatively) okay with Eleven being miserable and even angry at him, so long as he can keep her safe… and Hawkins safe, and Joyce safe, and all the kids safe and… Trying to do it all, alone.

I think David Harbour, Hopper’s actor, said it much better than I can, in his 2018 Critics Choice Award acceptance speech.  This is so beautiful and puts poetry to Hopper’s emotions and the things he’s initially blind to.  (Watch the video if you can find it; I love watching how shocked he is to be winning the award, and how much the speech means to him.  His inflections are so touching.)

“In Stranger Things this season, Hopper spends the majority of the fall of 1984 holed up in a cabin with a maturing young woman, desperately, stumblingly, trying to care for her as her ever adapting, evolving needs slip though his unsophisticated fingers, his rigid beliefs, his fear that the world isn’t ready.  The world isn’t ready for the secret inherent power she has inside her.  She’s feral.  He her guardian.  The cabin is safe, comforting, and it’s dangerous out there.  And yet she leaves, and when reconnected with her sister, she is lit aflame.  And she carries this fire, this light back to Hawkins, and reunites with Hopper.

“And now he, himself, must be guided the North Star of her powerful coming to being, because he loves her, and because he needs her.  She is the key to suturing the wound, resurrecting life, cleansing the infection, closing the rift.  If it likes it cold, she brings heat.  And so he grabs his shotgun to blast some smaller beasts, to give her time to confront the dark, monstrous shadow that bathes Hawkins in darkness, that grows like a mold under the entire town.  And when all’s done, Hopper can offer her one thing: he can get her a birth certificate.  He can offer inclusion.  He can offer her freedom from exile.  And he does.  And it is my great honor to play him.”

At the beginning of S2, Hopper loves Eleven.  He feels the soothing river of how she heals his heart and he desperately wants to protect everything she means to him.  But Hopper doesn’t realize that he’s failing to respect Eleven, and in turn she lacks the experience to realize how much he deserves her respect.

Most of the Hopper/El flashbacks in S2 take place in “The Pollywog,” including Hopper’s epic dad-dance.  But, whether the double meaning was intended or not, I like applying the episode title not only to Dustin and his sweet blindness to what the the little lost creature he found and is nurturing will become, but also to Hopper’s sweet blindness to his own nurturee.

Eleven is a bit of a pollywog (as all teens are in a way), between being a child, desperate for help and nurture, and a full-fledged adult with strength and the need to make her own choices.  I will restrain myself in talking about how many teens get the worst of both childhood and adulthood, being expected to know how to handle the world already and yet not being given the freedom to test their own wings and feel capable.  And Eleven serves as a very literal example of being underestimated in power, out of an attempt to mitigate stumbles and pain.  In clenching with both hands onto Eleven’s safety, Hopper fails to take into account that maybe she shouldn’t be kept safe, for her own sake and everyone else’s.

And that’s where ST Philia comes in; the ToL of respect, endurance, dedication, and trust, which is what both Hopper and Eleven are missing.  Hopper asks Eleven to trust him that he will free her when it’s safe, without reciprocating that trust in her.

Philia is a love by choice, and Hopper and El have to communicate to each other that they aren’t going anywhere, that they have a Father/Daughter relationship because they want to, not because it just happened or because they have to.  And that’s what we see when they’re having their heart-to-heart on their drive in “The Gate.”  With the mutual respect they’ve gained for each other while apart, they’re able to truly listen to each other and communicate to the other that they’re there because they want to be, not because circumstances made them.

As Hopper escorts Eleven to the Gate, he’s still terrified for her safety, but he’s come to respect her power, her decisions, and her growing adulthood enough to let her shoulder some of Hawkins’ burden.  I think he’s come to realize too how much she saved his life, even before she was tossing demodogs like bean bags, how much she saved him internally even more than externally.  And he acknowledges how much he needs saving and can’t just go it alone.

When Hopper finally opens up to Eleven about Sara, seeming shocked that he’d never told her before, I always think it’s akin to Bob Parr in The Incredibles when Helen is challenging his similar need to do things on his own, accusing him of an ego trip.  Mr. Incredible finally opens up and admits what’s impelling his choices:  “I can’t lose you again!  I can’t.  I’m not…strong enough.”

And that’s why Jim Hopper has been dumb enough to go it alone for years, why he misses Halloween and gets stuck in tunnels with only a bad smoking habit to save him.  Because to Jim Hopper nothing, not monsters or guns, not toxic fumes or psionic ire, is as scary as the idea of losing the precious embodiment of everything that made life matter, all over again.  Whether that’s treasured Eleven, or Will or Joyce as similar Sara surrogates, Hopper will do anything it takes to keep that loss from happening again, even willing to give up his own life if it means protecting the precious ones who made life mean anything.

So admitting that he can’t do it all, that he can’t keep everyone safe, and that he doesn’t feel strong enough to handle if they aren’t kept safe, shows great bravery on Hopper’s part, even more than punching out state troopers, breaking into Hawkins Lab, or going into the Upside Down on his own.  It takes great trust and real vulnerability on Hopper’s part to let Eleven go back to Hawkins Lab, to face her past and to bear the brunt of danger, but he does, just there to back her up and let her fly.

Because just safety and powerful will aren’t enough.  Sometimes hard things must be faced and sometimes we have to let others face them, even if that’s a bigger challenge than just facing them ourselves.  Healthy Philia knows that there is power, strength, and joy in the difficult times, not just the easy, safe ones, and Philia uses those times to forge bonds that are stronger, better, and happier than ever before, no halfway happy necessary.

Nancy Wheeler
INTJ(ep)*
The Natural Dragon
A Natural Approach to Expectable Trends
“I want to finish what we started.  I want to kill it.”
INTJ(ep) examples: Jane Austen, Matt Damon, Tigress* – Kung Fu Panda

Dear Nancy Wheeler, before I embark on analyzing your character and motives, I have to get some very important advice from the future out of the way.  So I very much approve and relate to your feelings on the topic of one Tom Cruise, having harbored similar feelings myself around about 15 years of age.  I had pictures of him taped to the underside of the top bunk above my bed, and I still know his birthday (July 3rd, 1962) and most of the years his movies were released.

In light of that, I must forewarn you: Next year, in 1985, he will release a movie called Legend.  I’m sorry.  But it’s okay.  Despite the weirdness that is that movie, take solace in the fact that he does actually look pretty hot in little green shorts and that Tangerine Dream is cool, and be patient, because in 1986 Top Gun will come out and be adorably cheesy and epic at the same time, saving the day with lines like “I feel the need: the need for speed” and “Son, your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash.”  As opposed to Legend’s “They express only love and laughter, dark thoughts are unknown to them.”

Tom Cruise gives 1986 the thumbs-up.  1985 he gives a frog-like stance.

(Okay so I may be exaggerating my disdain for Legend a little, when in fact I had most the movie memorized at one point and it may have sparked me to write stories about princesses and boys with aquiline noses that I still have spinoff iterations of to this day…  But Ridley Scott was still on something that year and the storytelling is iffy at best and I’m still embarrassed that I made my friends watch it.)

Anyway, hold out for the highway to the danger zone, Nancy; it’ll be worth it.  And take good care of that poster!  My Minority Report poster is totally beat up by this point.

Having gotten that public service message out of the way, let’s talk about Nancy Wheeler.

There is so much to be said about how hardcore Nancy Wheeler becomes in the pursuit of justice for her best friend, how much she’ll stop at nothing and how her quick, tactical thinking saves the day over and over again.  But I feel like others have focused plenty on that, and I feel like I can talk about sides of Nancy that others might not see, using aLBoP tools.

Because a core part of why Nancy makes all her decisions after the disappearance of Barb, is her Anakin Angst, particularly how she approaches it as an (ep).

Again (as I believe I’ve conveyed by this point with all these INTJs), the core fear of Anakin Angst is “everything is my fault,” and we see that, after she begins to realize Barb is truly missing, and especially after Eleven cries, “Gone! Gone, gone, gone…” about Nancy’s very best friend, Nancy’s entire existence is being wracked with guilt.

(ep)s are the most cognizant of their Type Angsts, the “grizzled veterans” of being aware of and dealing with their core fears.  And yet they (we) feel like there’s no escape from a Type Angst defining them (us).  Nancy knows that she’s blaming herself for Barb’s demise, and has gone around and around her mind with that guilt, a thousand times, but still doesn’t feel like she can escape how that self-blame seems to define her.

Unlike Hopper’s (ip) denial about how he feels like he should have been able to do something for Sara, or Eleven’s (ej) embracing that maybe she is just a monster, Nancy approaching her Anakin from an (ep) angle causes her to spend day in and out of the beginning of S2 thinking about how, through her decisions, she “killed Barb,” constantly haunted by the fact that if she had made different decisions, Barb would have still been alive.

Nancy keeps trying to find outlets to cope with her guilt and grief.  Nancy’s actress Natalia Dyer wanted it to look like Nancy had cut her own hair before S2, on a whim.  She visits Barb’s parents all the time, hoping that will atone, a little.  She thrusts herself into Steve’s arms, and she gets stone drunk from pure desperation to do something to stop feeling like the guilt will eat her alive.

As a Universal NT(ep) as well, I know what it’s like to push people away when I’m angsting, because they just “don’t seem to get how much guilt I should be feeling.”

But letting herself realize whose bad intentions are truly to blame, frees Nancy.  When she realizes that, even though she was being a bad friend on the night Barb disappeared, that it’s the “bad men” of Hawkins Lab that caused Barb’s death through worse than negligence, then Nancy is able to let go of her control-angst controlling her, and actually accomplish #justiceforBarb.

And so we see again the lesson that Hopper’s journey with Anakin Angst taught us about control:  Trying to take responsibility for the whole world squishes it.  And in Nancy’s case, as we blame ourselves for damage beyond our reach as a single human being, we make ourselves less able to actually effect change, to negate our actual damage in the world.

We all cause damage; it’s the way life is as imperfect humans, no matter how good our intentions.  We hurt others, we make mistakes; we fail.  But if we can both bring ourselves to recognize that damage, those weaknesses, and yet overcome the guilt and self-blame that would cripple us, we can manage to make so much more out of our choices, and net such a greater positive effect than we could have if we either closed our eyes to our own damage or let guilt take over.  Nancy is able to effect real change (plus save Joyce’s life with a hot poker), because after she grows, she neither ignores, nor is a puppet of her own failures.

Mike Wheeler
ENFP(ip)*
The Comfortable Standard Bearer
A Comfortable Approach to Edifying Reactions
“A friend is someone you’d do anything for.”
ENFP(ip) examples: Winston Churchill, Carrie Fisher,
Radagast the Brown – The Lord of the Rings (book and Lord of the Rings Online, not in The Hobbit movies)

Even more than most of the other sections, I’m going to talk about Mike by discussing his relationships to others because, perhaps more than any other type, ENFPs see the world via that lens: their context to other individuals.  This can create a competitiveness in ENFPs, as seeing oneself in the context of others can easily lead to comparison.  But in sweet, healthy ENFPs, it just engenders a sense of closeness between themselves and others, a sort of overlapping of selfness.

It’s so fitting that our first glimpse of Mike is him leading the boys’ Dungeons and Dragons game as DM (Dungeon Master… yes, that’s actually what the role is called).  It demonstrates the role that Mike always serves for the group.  He lifts all of their expectations about how much of an adventure life can be, and how heroic they’re allowed to be in it.  I think in S1 this starts out a little young and overexcited, yet Mike quickly adapts to real danger and the need for real bravery.  When Will is missing, Mike rouses exact-opposite-type Lucas and fellow EFP Dustin into hopeful action, reminding them of Will’s bravery as a motivation for why they should be the kinds of friends to go save him.

Mike and Eleven, as ENFP(ip) and INTJ(ej), are true Paradoxitypes, which is a special type relationship we talk about a lot on aLBoP.  Paradoxitype is like your hidden inner self, that comes out when you feel safe, upset, or passionate.  It’s surprising, but paradoxically true, like your childhood self that you might not always show the world.  And so having that relationship, Eleven has a tender, romantic, excitable but Comfortable Standard-Bearer like Mike inside of her, caring deeply for the reactions and edification of others.  And reciprocally, Mike is found to have an intense, determined, Supercharged Dragon inside him, precisely set on how to make use of the wide world.

From first sight, Mike sees Eleven as so much more than a weirdo with no hair.  Doing his Type Specialization justice, he sees her for the person she both is and can be, her Meaning in the context of everything.  Right away Mike sees her as a person, as a girl, and as a friend.  He sees how she’s both terrified and awesome.

True ENFP intelligence does that.  It helps us see past appearances to the person inside.  Like I talked about in The Four Types of Love, the ENFP corner of Agápe focuses on similarity of selfness, shared passions, shared hopes, and shared pain.

There’s so much emulatable Agápe in Mike and El’s relationship: excitement, pureness, openness, hope, and happy shyness.  I love how Mike is so excited to show El everything important to him, from his favorite toys to how the La-Z-Boy works, in such an adorably ENFP way: “And here’s this thing, and this is why it matters to me, and here’s this other thing and here’s why it matters to me… and I’m showing you because you matter to me!”  Agápe also sees people in the context of all time, both the past that formed them and the future of who they can someday be.  Mike, even without knowing everything Eleven has experienced, sees both her pain and her power from her past.  And when he believes her truly gone, it’s like that entire possible future has been cut off, both her future as a person, and their potential future together.

As much as Mike wants to be awesome and meaningful enough to be worthy of El, he is never competitive with her abilities and powers, or even down on himself, feeling like her powers are too special for him to live up to.  He’s always happy to be her banner-guard, waving the flag of how much she matters as a person.  He lets her be powerful and mighty, while also having a great handle on how to protect her soft heart, seeing how much she needs that.  It says so much about Mike’s strength as a person that he is okay with that, both as an ENFP, since ENFPs tend to struggle more than any other type with knowing their own value, and as a male love-interest.  Mike is never intimidated by Eleven.  He’s forever in awe and happy to be so, and that says so much about his own internal mightiness.

Finn Wolfhard (a name Justin says you’re not allowed to say without explosions in the background, because it sounds so hardcore), Mike’s actor, said the following on the official behind-the-scenes, and I love the insight it gives on the very sweet version of ENFP’s Type Angst, McFly Conviction, that Mike has in S2:

“Emo Mike.  That’s what we called him on set.  [A year later,] he doesn’t really have anyone to impress anymore… [they’re] not playing as much DnD, so he can’t really impress, you know, people on that level… Mike can’t really impress anyone with finding a missing kid.  He can’t impress anyone with getting a girl.  He can’t really do anything.  So, he sort of turns into this loner who can’t really develop as a person.  I think he just kind of stops, because he just feels like there’s no one there for him to fall back on.”

I love Finn’s insight (fittingly as an ENFP(ip) himself), that ENFPs feel like if they can’t impress with who they are as a person, pushing the boundaries of self-meaning, then they can’t go forward.  Growing their own meaning feels pointless with no one to share it with, no one to bounce meaningfully off of.  And that’s why Mike is so grumpy and “emo” in S2.  Eleven saw him, and he saw her.  And as long as he could show her meaning and watch her reactions and see her smile, he felt like everything mattered.

ENFP McFly Conviction is the fear that not only are your feelings totally invalid and even imaginary, but also that, by association, the things that you’ve invested emotion in are themselves totally blown out of proportion.  So I think, almost a year later, Mike feels like he can’t be sure that Eleven was even the person he remembers and loves.  And I bet he definitely worries that he built her affection up to be much bigger than reality.

So he’s not okay with Lucas and Dustin seeming to move on without Eleven, and especially not okay with what he perceives to be an attempt to replace Eleven with Max in their group, thus why he’s really a jerk to her.  (I also suspect he does find Max to be cute and cool, and feels guilty and resentful because of it, because the last thing he wants to do is replace El inside himself.)

But I love how Mike finds purpose again in helping Will, and I love their close moment after trick-or-treating.  And in the same BTS, Finn says this about that part:

“You could see the character sort of light up again, and be like, ‘Oh, I found my place again.  I can save someone again.’”  Very sweet, and super ENFP in the best way.

Mike and Will have a neat cognitive relationship.  Both being Universal NFs, they’re what we call Patronatypes (yeah, we don’t have a post on that one yet, but it’s named after Harry Potter-verse Patronuses).  Patronatypes aim for the same Objective, but for different yet complementary Scopes, so it’s like they’re going the same direction, but covering different bases along the way, which makes for a cool buddy effect.

Like in the scene after trick-or-treating, Mike and Will both feel like they’re “going crazy.”  But for Mike, it’s because he can’t stop thinking about Eleven, an Individual, her reactions, and what the Concept of her Means to him—EP, NF—and for Will it’s because he’s not sure if the universe is going to eat him, pretty much, thinking about what the new Trends he’s seeing in the World’s behavior Mean Conceptually—IJ, NF.  And so they get each other, and are able to lay aside their candy and talk about the bigger things on their minds.  They’re able to help each other feel understood and safe for a little while, comforted in the promise of going “crazy together.”

Bonus Patronatype points for holding their arms the exact same way, just mirrored.

When it comes to Hopper, Eleven’s secret jailor, he and Mike are Paradoxitypes like Mike and El.  Yet unlike Mike and El, Hopper and Mike are the same subtype as each other, instead of opposite subs the way “true” Paradoxitypes are.

(Note: I meant to have Justin include a section in the subtype post about type relationships and how subtypes make relationships such as Paradoxitype and Patronatype “true” or not, but we were rushing to get it out and I totally spaced about it.  But it’ll probably be better to take time to go into depth on it in a post about type relationships later anyway.)

Same-sub Paradoxitypes often have an affinity, where they understand each other’s paradoxical inside, and yet throw the opposite approach spin to it; basically it’s like someone who has external behaviors similar to your own, while applying them to what you feel deeper down.  It tends for serious “I feel you bro” moments.

Mike thinks he wants someone to blame for all of both his and Eleven’s pain of being apart, and for making him feel like everything their relationship meant to him was all just in his head.  For making him feel like it was fleeting, imaginary, and blown way out of proportion.  When he discovers that it wasn’t, that she really was caring and hurting just as much as he was, the pain comes intensely and jarringly, and he needs some outlet.  That’s why I love the scene where he starts punching Hopper.  Hopper sees and understands Mike’s pain, and he’s all too used to blaming himself, so he takes it.

But Mike doesn’t really want someone to blame, he just wants someone to understand the pain he went through, and to show him that everything isn’t lost, due to that pain.

Mike is also Paradoxitypes with Nancy, but it’s what we call Half-off Paradoxitype.  This is when the subtype is just one letter different; just different enough to bug each other.  Especially with same-j/p, this can often cause a lot of bonking heads.

One of the prime examples we like to use is Tony Stark (Iron Man), ENTP(ej)* and Steve Rogers (Captain America), INFJ(ij), in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  As the same types as Lonnie and Will (and Stoick and Hiccup), Tony and Steve bump heads over how their Type Specializations and Paradoxitypes should be handled.  Tony sees Steve (ij)-owning heroism and that they should be the ones to defend Principles in the World, which sends Tony’s Megamind Complex Type Angst into a tizzy.  Tony’s true Paradoxitype is INFJ(ip), like Yoda and the animated Cinderella, demure and casual when it comes to owning being a good person.  And Steve doesn’t like that Tony owns his swagger with (ej) intensity; Steve’s Paradoxitype is ENTP(ep) like R2-D2 and Mulan (and yours truly), very “yup, I’m here” when it comes to swagger, not in-your-face like Tony is.

In any case, half-off Paradoxitypes can make us feel like both our own Type Specs and our inner hidden selves are being done wrong!  And we see this with Mike and Nancy, as she seems to find his “just run in and save people” INTJ(ej) Paradoxitype to be reckless, as opposed to how she waits for all the information to filter to her in a natural (ep) way.  And Mike seems to find Nancy’s ENFP(ij) Paradoxitype to be so far from chill when it comes to affairs of the heart, like Steve or how upset she gets when he “borrows” her quarters.

But as with all half-off Paradoxitypes, we see that as Nancy and Mike get closer, they have a lot to learn from each other too, showing each other how both passion and caution can be applied to each other’s Type Specs, for desired results.  Lucas and Dustin also have this half-off Paradoxitype relationship, and we see how it can cause alternating closeness and irritation in their friendship.

Mike tenderly fingering Will’s drawing of their party.  I’m guessing their characters LtR are drawn Dustin, Will, Mike and Lucas.  Aww.

Mike champions each of the other kids individually, for what they each uniquely bring.  Each person has their special role in the party; each person is loved, needed and appreciated for the unique concept of person-ness that they bring.  Lucas doesn’t understand this at first; he fears that Eleven will replace his special place in Mike’s heart as his best friend, since conventional “logic” says you can have only one best friend.  But Mike calls bull on the shallow assumptions of such so-called logic, since he wants each individual for themselves, intrinsically and independently.  In Mike’s ENFP eyes, every person is an eternally special, utterly unique concept of their very own self-ness, and that leaves literally limitless room for co-existing, co-equal best friends.  And even if experience-based ESFP Dustin doesn’t quite get that at first, he seems to like the sound of the idea.

This sets up Mike as a complete opposite of the Mind Flayer’s finite-minded mentality that all other selves are a threat and an insult to its own.  Since Mike sees each person as an independently precious and limitless source of person-ness, he understands that the Meaning, Usefulness, and overall individuality of one self in no way infringes on that of anyone else.  Reality is large enough for everyone to freely grow as high and as far as they choose, which is exactly what Mike’s ENFP Standard-Bearer Type Spec hopes for.  Any mentality that sees individuality as a competition is a mentality with a very limited inner world… which might explain the homogenous death and dreariness created by the vastly clever yet stupidly small-minded Smoke Monster in the Upside Down.

Mike’s ability to view everyone as an intrinsic, independent self gives him one of his most crucial strengths in the Stranger kids’ party: that he sees person-ness in everyone.  Even in the Bad Men, and even in an interdimensional, inhuman evil like the Smoke Monster.  This allows him to notice the Motives and desires of even faceless villains, and adapt accordingly.  Rather than attempting to work against opposition as mere obstacles, as Hopper sometimes might, Mike is ever aware of the Motives of those in his way.  Such EP Observation is power, so much more than mere force, because it equips us to appropriately react to, and even preempt, everything and everyone we Observe.

When all hope seems lost, Mike is the one who realizes that they need information from Will, because he views the Smoke Monster as a person.  An incredibly powerful and alien person to be sure, but a person nonetheless, still a self with desires and Motives.  He talks about the Mind Flayer as a person, referring to “his army” of demodogs.  Mike is also the one who realizes that if they kill the Mind Flayer before they free Will’s person-ness from him, that they’ll kill Will too.

Throughout the show, Mike embodies hope.  Hope that Will is still alive, when all mundane forces suggest that he shouldn’t be.  Hope that Eleven is still out there, even after 353 days without any sign.  Hope that Will can overcome the Mind Flayer, and hope that they can make a difference by distracting a force that seems so impersonal, unknowable, and unbeatable.  Mike gives everyone else direction, constantly waving the banner of hope and saying, “Hey guys, we can be truly heroic inside.  Even when it’s dangerous, it’ll be worth it.”

He shows everyone else that hope isn’t easy, but it is worth it.  Hope isn’t blind or naive, and it isn’t empty cheerleading.  It deserves a persevering investment of both emotion and action.  It takes bravery to back it up.  Over and over, Mike stands as an example of courageous hope, showing everyone that if they hold on, Observe, trust in the unique strengths of the people around them, and then move forward and act, then hope pays out.  As the heart of the party, Mike keeps everybody going, arming them to use their own strengths while he constantly watches for any last ray of hope.

Dustin Henderson
ESFP(ij)*
The Deliberate Morale Officer
A Deliberate Approach to Enjoyable Reactions
“Sometimes your total obliviousness just blows my mind.”
ESFP(ij) examples: Chris Farley, Eleanor Roosevelt, Pinkie Pie* – My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

ESFP is, in my experience, one of the most underrated, underestimated types and Type Specializations, along with the angle of intelligence that defines ESFP being one of the most frequently cast aside.  And so I really want to take this opportunity to demonstrate how important and rock-awesome they really are as a type, via Dustin.  Which shouldn’t be difficult, because c’mon, who doesn’t love Dustin?!  (Humans, I mean, and Stacy doesn’t count.  Kidding… mostly.)

Although they bring so many needed things to the table–such as a unique approach to figuring out what method to use in a situation, based on the resources they already have and the Meaning involved–I think where ESFPs shine the most is in making individuals feel wanted, for who they are now.  And for Dustin, as an (ij) sub, that specialization of making individuals feel safe and like it’s okay to be them, is very calculated and intentional. I had to use Pinkie Pie from MLP for the fictional example of ESFP(ij), because I love how she does the same.  “I’m going to make people happy, and I’m going to do it on purpose!”  The beautiful mantra of ESFP(ij).

Dustin turning Mike and Eleven’s hug into a group hug, in one of the most tender moments of the whole show, is exactly what I was trying to get across with the Morale Officer’s stick figure.

Healthy ESFP thinks about what individuals need to keep going, whether it’s feeding them nougat, reminding them of lessons learned from disastrous Dungeons and Dragons adventures, or recharging Eleven with chocolate pudding.

I had such a hard time picking a quote for Dustin, because he really does get a lot of the cream of the crop, great line wise.  Lines like, “She’s our friend and she’s crazy,” show how Dustin does his Type Spec so well.  He doesn’t make El feel like a monster for her gifts and intensity, instead he excitedly owns, “that’s right, she’s that intense and we love it!  We need it!”

But I had a difficult time figuring out what to focus on, for both Dustin and Lucas.  I was so frustrated: “I love them and they’re both so integral to the story… so why can’t I explain why?!?!”  But it turns out that why they’re integral to the story is exactly what I needed to talk about.  Both play very important audience surrogates, in totally different ways that bounce off each other excellently, and reflect their cognition perfectly.

Everyone loves Dustin, and it’s tempting to label him “comic relief” and move on, but even that role is an expression of his larger role in the story.  Dustin is the ultimate lampshade hanger of Stranger Things; he’s the Meta Guy, the Genre Savvy observer who sees what’s going on and conveys it to us as an audience.  He’s there in our place to say either “dude, that’s awesome” or “uh, this is a really bad idea,” as the need arises.

This is why I had such a hard time picking a quote for Dustin.  Pretty much everything he says is an epic way of telling us what’s happening, while endearing us and lightening the mood.  Dustin is the best form of exposition ever, in my personal opinion.  Some of my favorite examples:

“Did you ever think Will went missing because he ran into something bad?  And we’re going to the exact same spot where he was last seen?  And we have no weapons or anything?…I’m just saying, does that seem smart to you?”

“She tried to get naked!  She just went like…” [mimes pulling off shirt]…[repeatedly mimes pulling off shirt throughout the rest of the conversation.]

Lucas:  “We’re. In. Mourning.”
Dustin:  “Man, these aren’t real Nilla Wafers.”

Dustin:  “Did you see what she did with the van?”
Mike:  [Sarcastically] “No, Dustin, we missed it.”

And of course, Dustin is always the one to know how to apply DnD to real life, genre savvy to how the real world mirrors the “manual.”

Sorry Dustin, it’s not going to happen.

So then it does make it all the more frustrating when Dustin is so un-genre savvy in his entire Dart experience.

[Talking to an interdimensional pollywog that will later crave flesh] “You’re pretty cute, you know that?  I’m glad I found you.”

But that’s true to cognition too.  Just like ENFP Mike is Observant when it comes to the intrinsic worth of individuals, but totally oblivious when it comes to Lucas feeling hurt and left out (because Mike doesn’t realize his own friendship is worth that much), so too is Dustin oblivious to certain areas of Observation.  When EPs run into Observations that hurt, it’s easy and often unconscious to just ignore the ugly parts of what we see, just as any type can ignore its first step when the resulting information hurts too much.  And for ESFPs, with Fry Future Phobia, that comes in the form of fearing that they can’t effect change in those they love, so they might as well love and make those individuals happy as they are… whether those they care about are middle school girls or demonic tadpoles.

Dustin shows pessimistic-optimism (being inaccurately optimistic for pessimistic reasons) that often plagues EFs, of pessimistically believing that the specific people around him are the best he can get.  Now when it comes to his best friends, that’s cool because his friends are awesome, but when it comes to girls, Dustin doesn’t really believe that he could find better ones than the girls at Hawkins Middle.  And so when Max shows up, being way cooler and less shallow, it seems, than all the other girls at Hawkins Middle, no wonder Dustin feels like he must employ any method (including said demonic tadpole) to grab her attention and interest, because when is someone else as awesome going to fall into his life??

Through all his encounters throughout both seasons, Dustin never cries out of fear.  He cries from sad when he believes Will is truly dead, and when El sacrifices herself, but that’s different.  Through the fear of facing supernatural enemies, facing men with guns and having them killed before his eyes, and then in S2, running toward danger with facing down Dart, and being the one who comes up with the plan to distract the Mind Flayer by running into danger and lightning it on fire, and then hoping that nougat and friendship will be enough to keep him from getting killed as he stands to protect the others, by S2E9 it’s clear Dustin is anything but a coward, and he never cries from fear of the forces tearing his safe world apart.

But what Justin pointed out is that, after everything he’s seen and everything he’s been through, after fearlessly facing down forces of interdimensional eldritch horror, what brings this hilarious and tough character to tears?

Girls.  Feeling utterly rejected, not by just one girl, but seemingly by all girls.  That’s what leaves him trying to keep it together, sitting on the bleachers alone.

Because Dustin honestly doesn’t think much of himself.  Well, he does and he doesn’t, in that way that most EPs do.  He knows he’s a good friend, and he probably realizes he’s a good problem solver and that he’s smart at the stuff he loves.  But why does he think that he needs to make a new scientific discovery of a freakish lizard, in order to get a girl?

For all that EPs are constantly watching people, they are often afraid to see how they themselves shine.  Even though EPs see their own Motives naturally, it’s hard for them to feel like Motives alone are enough.  (And for people who know me giving me a look, I know I know, notes-to-self too.)

They feel like they need to show off impressive feats of their last step of Action in order for anyone to think they’re worth anything.  Forget who they are as a person; unless they can be faster, stronger, better at doing, they feel like they’ll only have a chance of being worthwhile when demodogs fly.  As an EP it’s so hard to feel like anyone else would even care about who you see yourself being, because it’s hard to make your Actions as impressive as the person you see you are inside.

ESTP(ij)* Steve handles this fear by showing off, deliberately and idiotically hiding the soft, tender, vulnerable person he is inside.  Yet as he grows into himself, Steve is able to help Dustin feel worthwhile for the person he is, apart from any action he can do.  He shows respect to Dustin in a very guy way…by threatening to kill him if Dustin is trying to prank him.  But then he shows ever more respect for Dustin as an equal, giving him heart-to-heart girl advice (even if some of it is terribad), and even letting him in on his deepest, darkest Farrah Fawcett secret.  And then threatening his life again.

Steve treats Dustin as a man, not in a demanding way, but in an appreciative and even loyal way.  He doesn’t need Dustin to impress him by showing off, and he doesn’t feel any need to make Dustin compete with him.  Steve is a good older brother, a good mentor, and he’s just what Dustin needs to fill the Max-shaped hole in his heart.  In a very real way, Steve becomes Dustin’s Max, making him feel valid, cared about, and manly, just for the person he is.

So after lame girls reject him at the Snow Ball, I love when exact-opposite-type Nancy (they have the Duffers’ types with the subtypes switched ) wades in to show Dustin that he’s not the problem, that the girls are being idiotic to not see that he’s a catch, and to show him that he deserves better and can hope for more.  That just because other people’s EP Character Judgment may suck, it doesn’t mean Dustin can’t Observe himself and be deservedly proud of what he sees.

My brain just suggested that he can hope for a human girl version of Dart, and things got weird.  But I think what I mean is that Dustin can hope for someone who appreciates his dedication to individuals, his humor and cleverness, and his adorable D-face smile as much as Dart, Steve, and the other Stranger kids do, and as much as we as an audience love everything about him.

We all have some, or maybe a lot, of Dustin in us, regardless of our cognitive type.  We all struggle, in different ways, to see our own worth, our own courage, and the heroic qualities that we already have, and which others around us need us to own up to.  And when the creepy Stacys in our lives sneer at us like we’re something from the Upside Down, it’s so easy to let such insecure people confirm all our worst, and sometimes silliest fears about ourselves.

And while we all need great friends like Dustin is lucky enough to have, and while we all need wise and brave Nancys to come over and lift us up off the bleachers, sometimes we aren’t that fortunate.  Sometimes we really do end up alone, at least for a little while, with nobody there to put their arms around us.  But even when it seems like we’re surrounded by sneering Stacys who can’t seem to do anything but tell us how worthless or disappointing we are, we can try to see ourselves the way ESFP(ij) Dustin sees everyone else: that we already, intrinsically, have more worth than can be measured.

We don’t have to earn it.  Of course we all want to grow, to get better, but that doesn’t mean that we’re a disappointment until we do.  Just as Dustin doesn’t demand perfection from others in order to like them, just as he’s so eager to embrace his friends exactly as they are, we can find our inner Dustins to remind us that we, too, are already worth loving.  And the more we learn to love ourselves as we already are, the more we’ll find ourselves able to be a Nancy for somebody else, to come and lift them up from their own cold and lonely bleachers.

Lucas Sinclair
ISTJ(ej)*
The Supercharged Sentinel
A Supercharged Approach to Practical Trends
Lucas: “Stop talking. You’re going to get us killed.  Do you understand?”
Max: “You’re serious?”
Lucas: “I really wish I wasn’t.”
ISTJ(ej) examples: Christopher Lee, Meryl Streep, Sebastian the Crab* – Disney’s The Little Mermaid

Okay, the real reason that it took me forever to find my thesis for Lucas was because I wasn’t willing to be hard enough on him S1.  Because, let’s face it, as much as I love Lucas, he’s a real jerk for a lot of S1.  Though this serves an important purpose, and makes us love him all the more once he has his change of heart about Eleven.

Lucas serves as a different sort of audience surrogate from Dustin.  Lucas both grounds us in what normal reactions to paranormal situations realistically are, and also serves as the audience’s surrogate skeptic in S1.  Since Lucas is skeptical of Eleven, we don’t have to be.  It makes us feel like someone is questioning her behavior and motives, so we don’t have to play Bad Cop as an audience.

And then, we end up feeling more protective of El, in turn.  Like “Dude, if you only knew what she had been through, you’d understand!  Why you hatin’?!”  (I think I have literally never used that phrase in my life, but it seemed to express my emotion in that moment.)

But Lucas as a person serves this role perfectly, as it reflects the real life struggles of ISTJs and the struggle between the two battling sides of their Type Specialization.

ISTJ is “The Sentinel,” and they truly stand as the gate-wardens of Principles, turning experience (S) of the entire World (IJ) into Useful (T) Action, armed with a thorough understanding of how to use the world that has gotten them to where they are now.  It’s a beautiful Type Spec and I love them for it, the timeless guardians of the effort and toil that has gotten us to where we are now.

But in an unhealthy culture—and Stranger Things explores the long-reaching effects of the culture that has brought us to where we are now, for good or for bad, in nostalgia and in criticism—ISTJs seem to truly struggle between their IJ Scope and their ST Objective, leading to a result Justin calls the “ISTJ Jekyll-Hyde effect.”

ISTJs in our current culture get pulled hard between the IJ of the everlasting Principles they naturally see reflected in the entire world around them, the zoomed-out cosmos and the elegant and meaningful complexity of things that are always consistently true, versus the ST of protecting the way things in the current culture presently exist.  STs naturally try to work within what already exists, and that’s great and adorable, it’s a powerful advantage that leads to effective in-the-moment practicality.  Yet when it gets unhealthy, it leads to excusing the current as the best things could ever be, just because it’s what we already have.

When this happens, STs end up ignoring what their first cognitive step is telling them, in favor of the status quo.  Which, in IJ-ST’s case, takes the form of ignoring the everlasting Principles that they naturally see of how the world really works, in order to excuse and hide the flaws of the present culture, denying that it could be improved.  Like I said with Dustin, when our first step hurts too much, we tend to ignore it, to universally adverse effects.

ISTJs struggling with this dilemma tend to pendulum wildly between the happy, free, open Dr. Jekyll of “Aren’t the universe and history and principles incredible?!  I love truth and standing up for things!!” (well, tbh, being ISTJs they’re usually less effusive than that, but inside I know that’s what’s happening), and the grumpy, closed-off Mr. Hyde of “How dare you say that we didn’t do everything right as a culture leading up to this point?!  Sure people suck, but that’s only because they aren’t hard-working and enduring enough, not because our culture did anything wrong!  Blame Individuals more, it’s all their fault!!”

*Reads back over what she wrote to see if it’s too much of a caricature… thinks, “No, that’s really quite accurate,” and moves on.*

When ISTJs get caught in the painful tug-of-war of Jekyll-Hyde, they turn to their last, weakest step of Observing people’s Motives and character in an attempt to hide from their first step and the uncomfortable Principles it reveals.  They get pessimistic about people who show flaws in the present culture, while getting loudly and inaccurately optimistic about those who embody the culture as it currently exists.

We all fear our last steps, as the old saying is true that people fear what they don’t understand, which is the definition of our last steps.  They are the thing that we will forever understand the least, out of all the Types of Information.  We can grow in them just like anything else, stronger and healthier, and yet they will always comparatively remain our weakest, most vulnerable area relative to all other areas of growth.  Our last steps are the most outside our control, our least reliable step, and our greatest sources of insecurity.

And each of the four types of IJs fears people and their Motives, each in a different way.  For ITJs, their last step of Motives can make individuals seem naturally scary and uncontrollable, even a threat to the world as they wish it to be.  As my very dear ISTJ(ip) friend put it, (quoting the best I can remember) she sees the beauty of the world like a full tapestry of how we got here… but then, oh no, she sees all these holes!  Why are there so many holes?!?!  Who did this??  Why do people have to ruin the world’s perfect tapestry??

This heartbreaking disappointment at how individuals seem to ruin the world, can make it easy for ISTJs to lose hope that the world can ever be any better.  This leads to the internal tug-of-war of Jekyll-Hyde, since it’s better to cling to the world as it is, than to risk losing even that.  Whenever we feel hopeless about our Type Specialization, we tend to ignore what our primary cognitive steps are telling us.  So when Lucas feels hopeless about protecting the world as it already is, especially as his world seems to spin further and further out of control after Will’s disappearance and Eleven’s unreal abilities, it’s actually only natural for him to turn away from his first cognitive steps, and become a bit of a turd.  That doesn’t mean he can’t grow past that, but it is completely understandable.

While watching S1, Justin took to constantly referring to Lucas as “Dooku” or occasionally “Saruman,” two villainous ISTJ(ej)s motivated by their utter lack of hope in people.  It also helps that Lucas’s actor, Caleb McLaughlin, as an ISTJ(ej) himself with their telltale and adorably fitting facial structure, looks a lot like a miniature Christopher Lee.  This also led to one of Justin’s most commonly said phrases while we watched S1: “Shut up, Dooku!”  (Also saying “Sarumaaaan” like an uruk-hai every time he thought Lucas was taking himself too seriously… my husband is weird sometimes.)

We like to joke that Saruman is an orc pimp, with his blinged out robes and cane, but it works a little too well once you hear the phrase “half-orc”…  Image by Justin, of course.

But I understand that, while Lucas bothered me during first series, especially with his butchery of my first step of Motives, he bothered Justin even more.  ISTJ Jekyll-Hyde absolutely spits in the face of his Type Specialization of how the world (IJ) could potentially be (N), if the correct Meaningful (F) Actions were taken.  When Mr. Hyde rears his sneering head and insists that the current culture cannot ever be any better, that all its apparent flaws are simply due to the ignorance of the person pointing them out, it’s tantamount to saying “we don’t need no stinkin’ INJs.  The world can’t be improved.  You’re a fool if you think you can make it run any better than it does.”  It portrays the IJ-NF pursuit of a greater, more edifying, more soul-building and healthy world as naive, fundamentally futile, a childish and infuriating waste of time when you should be spending your energy jumping through the bizarre hoops of the culture as it presently is.

And when it comes to IJ-NT, as embodied in Eleven, Lucas’s struggles with Jekyll-Hyde lead him to fear her NT focus on how the world could be improved.  Everything Eleven is constitutes a constant reminder that there is more to the world than what Lucas has already experienced.  Especially in S1, despite repeated evidence of the abnormal things panning out around him, Lucas insists that even if those things are happening, they shouldn’t be.  He tries to bar the gate on anything that doesn’t belong in the world of his experience, especially Eleven, as everything about her reeks of otherworldliness.

“Her name is Eleven?!”  She doesn’t speak?  There’s no way to tell where she came from?  Yeah, all these things are red flags that she doesn’t belong in Lucas’s established world of how things work.  And even when she starts moving things with her mind… okay, well maybe that establishes that there’s more to the world than Lucas realized, but that doesn’t make those things good!!  She’s still a freak, still a weirdo.

Lucas and Eleven are exact one-offs; they’re both ITJ(ej)s (which are intense types to begin with) with only a one-letter difference between them.  And I lovingly facepalm at how much they talk past each other for most of S1…even though Eleven rarely talks with her words.  My sister and her daughter have that same type-relationship, although they’re both ITJ(ij)s instead of (ej)s, and it’s cute seeing how similar they are in a lot of ways, but so different in others.  And as much as they love each other, they do often struggle to see why the other is using almost the same thought process and approach, in such a seemingly backwards way from their own.  Likewise, Lucas looks at Eleven and wonders “why are you doing it wrong?”  It’s their near similarity that makes Eleven so ironically mystifying to him.

So in more ways than one, more ways than a few, Lucas in S1 sees Eleven as a threat to his place in the world, which feeds directly into his ISTJ Type Angst of Thranduil Denial (which, come to think of it, Thranduil is probably (ej) as well).  He feels the need to compete with her for the same turf cognitively, in addition to competing for his friends’ attention.  His friends are his place in the world, especially Mike who has always been so close by and such a steady source of friendship for him.  And now in S1 he finds himself losing MIke to not just a girl, but a weirdo girl.  He’s losing Mike to an unrecognizable world.

So the combination of Eleven’s INTJ(ej) “what could the world become?” Type Spec, her constant destruction of the world Lucas knows from experience, and the effect she’s having on lovesick Mike, all make Lucas feel like her very presence is a danger to everything that matters to him.  He just wants to find Will and set everything back to how it’s supposed to be again, back to the world he knows from experience.  And the very existence of Eleven promises that that cannot be the case.  Things can never just go back to the way they were, and El is a constant reminder of that.

Lucas’s struggles with Eleven, and the far wider world that she represents, sharply bring out one of the major themes behind all the conflict of S1: “What are you willing to go through for your friends?”  No matter how strange things might get, no matter how contrary to the safe world you’re used to, what are you willing to do for the ones you love?

Joyce is willing to look completely crazy if it will help her save Will.  Hopper has to grow willing to hope again, to emerge from his cocoon of sorrow and self-blame and see that he can be the hero everybody needs him to be.  Nancy has a complete turn-around from initially trying to be as normal as possible—at Barb’s expense—to dropping everything and facing mortal danger in her efforts to try to save, and then avenge, Barb.

And Lucas is willing to do whatever it takes to save Will…so long as it’s within the safe boundaries of the ST already-established ways of doing things.  His S1 character arc therefore requires him to get outside those comfortable boundaries, to truly grow willing to sacrifice everything, even his cherished IJ-ST view of how the world already works, for the sake of the people he loves.

And at first, Lucas tries to resist that growth, as we all do so often.  He tries to solve a new problem using his same old tried and true methods.  What Lucas really wants is to be a good soldier, like his dad in ‘Nam, proudly following in the footsteps of history.  From what we see, he does have a great family, and he clearly and sweetly believes that the way his parents do things is The Right Way to Do Things.  But Lucas gets consistently uncomfortable with the idea that maybe the world of 1980s Hawkins, Indiana is not the entire world, or even a very large part of it.

So he goes out on his own to find Will, with military-camo bandana firmly in place, the lone Sentinel of the way things have always been done.  He’s searching for some mysterious, compass-warping magnetic gate, so he’s surprised when his compass leads him straight into the fence of Hawkins Lab.  At first, he tries to go around, but it quickly becomes clear that the compass is pointing him straight into the lab; that’s where the gate is.  And this seems to be the beginning of Lucas’s real turning point, after all the buildup and drama leading up to it.

The moment Lucas sees the sinister vans rolling out of Hawkins Lab, piled full of men with guns, he’s forced to see that the Establishment itself is the very thing that’s been endangering them, the very thing that hurt Will in the first place.  He had gone out on his own using his soldiery tools to find some weird, otherworldly cosmic gate, only to find that the gate was part of the established world he thought he knew, and not in a good way.

So when Lucas bikes back to his friends at superhero speed, he finally reaches out to them to warn them, and he even uses Eleven’s terminology: “The Bad Men are coming!”  It’s a huge deal when Lucas emphatically tells El that her flipping the van was “Awesome,” and admitting he was wrong about her character (to the point that Justin joked it was “the most unrealistic part of the show” because people are usually so unwilling to admit when they’ve been wrong).  Lucas is finally willing to welcome Eleven into his world, to use her abilities to make the world better than it already is.He makes her so fully and integrally a part of his established universe, that when they’re hiding at the middle school, he states that nothing is more important than keeping El safe.  He boldly faces the demogorgon, which has just torn through dozens of soldiers with automatic weapons, armed with nothing but his wristrocket and the “monster-killer” rock, to keep it from getting to El.  He has grown to use his mighty ISTJ Sentinel-ness to protect Eleven, rather than to protect himself and his established worldview from her.  And when she sacrifices herself, the tears in his eyes show that he feels as much loss as Dustin or Mike.  Well…maybe not as much as Mike.

I snatched this observation from Pinterest, but I love that when the boys are recapping to Will everything that has happened, Lucas mirrors the same phrases that Mike had said of Eleven, back when Lucas had been so skeptical of her:

Then:
Lucas: “Her name is Eleven?!”
Mike: “El for short.”

Later:
Dustin: “Her name is Eleven.”
Will: “Like the number?”
Lucas: “Well, we call her El, for short.”

By S2, Eleven and all the Hawkins strangeness has become so much a part of Lucas’s world, that things like “True Sight” are just natural to him.  He’s allowed his established history of the world to expand, rather than clinging only to what he already knew.  And so, it only makes sense that he wants to bring Max in on that world, so that he can share his precious, larger world with her.  He knows it’s a big deal to be able to tell her, and yet by that point in his growth, it doesn’t even cross his mind that Max wouldn’t believe him.  It’s just reality; it’s how the world really works.  He knows that now, and he wouldn’t lie about that.  When Max mocks his heartfelt sharing of this larger world with her, he isn’t even tempted to wonder “maybe I am making too big a deal out of this.”  It’s just what’s real, and he’s going to show her how serious real life is.

None of this is to say that Lucas is wrong for being an IJ-ST, that it’s bad to fiercely defend the established world of the way things already are.  Every type is needed; every type is a result of the basic and intrinsically equal 4ToI, making no type better, stronger, smarter, more sensible, or more necessary than any other.  They each represent vital and different ways of viewing the complexity of life.  Lucas’s problems in S1 arise not from being ISTJ, but from denying other types as being as valid as his own.  When he views Eleven’s NT “how can things be improved” as a threat to his own ST “how are things already,” when he treats Mike and El’s NF Agápe as foolish, when he acts as if his established worldview is the only rational way of thinking, he’s closing off fifteen-sixteenths of intelligence.  So it only makes sense that he makes some rather foolish decisions, all while convinced everyone else is being foolish.

Yet Lucas shines when he embraces his own ISTJ(ej) Supercharged Sentinel-ness, without fearing that other cognitive approaches pose a threat to his own.  In S2, he stands as a welcoming gate-warden to induct Max into the wider world he’s experienced.  He wants to handle relationship issues with Max the same way his parents always have, looking to learn from history and the established way of doing things, rather than reinventing the wheel on his own.  He has grown out of his militantly insecure, self-imposed boundaries, so that instead of standing as a stern Sentinel against perceived threats, he has become a bright, inviting Sentinel for the world he knows and the people he loves.

Will Byers
INFJ(ij)*
The Deliberate Paladin
A Deliberate Approach to Edifying Trends
“It was a seven… the roll: it was a seven.
The demogorgon; it got me.”
INFJ(ij) examples: James McAvoy, Carl Jung, Gandalf – Lord of the Rings

It might seem silly to use the quote above for Will, when between both series he has so many amazing moments and lines, especially in Series 2.  Some other iconic Will lines, just off the top of my head, would be “Should I stay or should I go,” “R. U. N.” or “He likes it cold.” *Shiver* But for me Will’s character is demonstrated more through his choices, expressions and body language than just the lines he says.  Well, actually that’s one of the things I love most about the whole show is how much is said without being said, but I think Will and Eleven are my favorite examples for their ratio of as few lines as possible for the most said.

But that part, the first real taste we get of Will Byers, foreshadowing the rest of his journey, in that first episode named for his disappearance, says so much about who Will Byers truly is.  In the basement with his friends, he feels like he really belongs… at least he hopes so.  With Hercules Syndrome making him feel like he can never be truly liked as himself, he always hopes so.  So even though he has as much right as any of them to be there and play his character with his own choices, when it’s his turn to face the DnD demogorgon, he freezes.

He knows the odds, weighing them with (ij) deliberateness; getting a thirteen or higher on a die with 20 sides is not a statistically great chance of success.  But he also wants to please his friends and fit in with the group.  He knows the choice says something to his friends about his last step of who he truly is, but also cares about which choice will be the most effective.  Fireball, suggested by TJ(ej) Lucas, might not work, but it’ll show his willingness to stand in the face of opposition, which is an important part of who Will is.  Protection, suggested by SF Dustin, is the safer bet, but might portray Will’s motives as weak and yielding (like Lucas straight out says it would be).  Will knows himself, he knows he’s brave, but he doesn’t feel seen for who he is.  So in the end, he makes the decision to stand his ground and fireball, to be brave for his friends, even though he knows the likelihood of success is low.  But because he knows it’s the social decision, not the effective one, Will has to force the choice, emotionally “closing his eyes” and throwing the dice.  As my INFJ(ij) is putting it, “Yeah this will work!!…please?”

And the die jumps off the table, out of sight.  Which then leads to that quote.  When Will finally finds the die, the roll was only a seven, unsurprisingly.  Lucas tells him that if Mike the DM didn’t see the roll, it doesn’t have to count.  Nothing lost, he can roll again next time.  But that’s not who Will wants to be.  As a healthy INFJ he knows that things work better when they line up with reality.  He wants to play the game right, even if the consequences aren’t ideal.  So, after the other guys leave, he tells Mike the truth: that because he stood his ground instead of going for safety, the demogorgon got him.  Which foreshadows the rest of, really not only S1 for Will, but both S1 and S2.

Okay, getting personal here.  While I don’t really have any un-favorite characters in Stranger Things (even the douchey characters are written so well), I’m not gonna lie Will Byers is my very favorite character.  There are so many factors behind that, but one certainly is how much his every choice and facial expression reminds me of Justin, my own INFJ(ij).  Before we typed Will, and as little as we see him in S1 after his disappearance, every time there was a flashback or we would see him hiding in the Upside Down, I would melt and tell Justin, “Aw, I really like Will!… Poor Will, I just want to glomp him!”  And really really early, like in the first couple of episodes, he was already striking me as INFJ(ij), both in appearance and decisions, although I didn’t get Justin’s second opinion about it until S2 because he gets shy about characters being like him.

And Justin wants me to give the usual disclaimer:  There isn’t anything better about INFJ, unlike the internet might tell you (also be very skeptical if a test spits out INFJ for you like we’ve talked about elsewhere, because tests tell, I swear, like 95% of everyone that they’re INFJ.  Wish I were exaggerating).  But since I’m very protective of my INFJ(ij), and it’s my Paradoxitype, I think I’m allowed to have a favorite there.  Plus Will is just so sweet about how he approaches INFJ(ij).

I had to laugh when Jonathan basically quoted the Hercules Syndrome quote to Will in S2E1, “Do you want to be normal?  Do you want to be just like everyone else?”  Because even before, but especially after Will goes through the trauma of the Upside Down, he wishes he could just be like everybody else.  As befits INFJ type angst and tropes, Will wishes in a way that he had never fallen up into a wider world, where things are bigger than the people of Hawkins can comprehend.

Every cognition feels unwanted in its own way, and several fear they don’t belong in the group for various reasons, but what defines Hercules Syndrome differently from other Type Angsts is the INFJ core fear that, sure they can be liked and fit in when they hide their true selves, but if they were to show their true love of Principles and the wide world of Conceptual Meaning, that they would immediately be ostracized.

From the beginning, Will is happy to go along with what other people want, even if it’s not his first choice or favorite, just to feel accepted for a little while.  In order to feel accepted by his father, he goes cheerfully to baseball games, even though, as Jonathan points out, it’s just a ploy for Lonnie to get him to like “normal” things, showing how little Lonnie respects his son.  In S1 Will is bullied and called “fag” and “queer,” not actually for showing any sexual preference whatsoever (um, people discussing the sexual preferences of children always kind of squeems me out), but because he’s a sweet kid who likes to draw and think about good and evil, isn’t confident in himself and isn’t especially into sports or hunting, or things that people like Lonnie deem “manly.”  (Although, random note, I find it interesting that Jonathan hasn’t been hunting since he was ten, but Will knows how to load and aim a rifle in the first episode, which demonstrates that this isn’t a stupid, helpless kid, as much as people treat him like he can’t handle himself.)  But Will doesn’t feel the need to push the things he likes on other people; he just enjoys stuff, privately, and with others on those rare occasions when he finds other people who enjoy the same things.

And after he gets back from the Upside Down, it’s even worse.  Will just wants to have fun and tag along while his friends are “stalking” Max, or while they’re arguing the merits of nougat.  Heck, he’s even up for lame movies with Bob, if he can just feel like he’s just like everyone else for five minutes.  But he has been changed.  He’s like Frodo coming back to the Shire after being stabbed by a Morgul Blade; he can’t just pretend to be a normal little Hawkins Hobbit anymore.  And being hounded with the moniker “Zombie Boy” just serves as a constant reminder to Will of what’s really going on with him.

Because every time Will tries to just relax and have fun, his “episodes” are there to haunt him and to take control out of his hands.  So when Will reluctantly catches a ride to school with Bob, and Bob, in his sweet clueless way, shares his own experiences with fear that he honestly and naively thinks are the same as Will’s, Will has already been looking for solutions to his own problem.

I love the look on Will’s face as Bob tells him how “easy-peasy” it was for him to banish Mr. Baldo from his dreams, because I know that look.  It’s the look of an INFJ(ij), the deliberate corner, thinking “I can use this!”  Finally, after feeling as helpless as a baby, swept along with whatever the Smoke Monster wanted to do to him, finally he can take charge, of both his own mind and his own future.  He won’t have to have his mom at his elbow the rest of his life like he’s made of porcelain.  He can stand up to it like the man he wants to be.  The next time, he’ll be ready.

And the result of his attempt to simply tell the Smoke Monster to “go away!” is story gold and one of my favorite moments on film.  Seriously, I haven’t kept count of how many times I watched that single moment on repeat… which in a way makes me feel really terrible because it’s such an “Oh *beep*” moment, but it’s just done so well.

There’s a story mechanism that Robert McKee (ISFJ(ep) and so awesome) talks about in his book Story, called “the Principle of Antagonism” that Justin and I love to geek out about.  It’s essentially that moment in a story where the thing that you didn’t think was allowed to possibly go wrong, does; where as an audience we are like “surely the line of crap that can happen is here” and good authors go “um, nah, I’m going to take it over here.”  Not just putting characters through terrible things just for the sake of it, but instead taking your plot to a place where it seems like there can be no recovery and the audience has to wait and see how you didn’t just write yourself into a corner where the only answer is “they were dead all along” (speaking of smoke monsters…).

Justin’s favorite Principle of Antagonism moment to talk about is in Batman Begins: he always says that as soon as Ra’s al Ghul was allowed to actually release the fear toxin on Gotham, Justin thought “Okay, this is a good movie.  They actually did it!”

And that’s how Stranger Things S2 is for me.  I was enjoying every moment, and as an even mildly genre-savvy audience, we know that following Bob’s advice is a bad idea, as brave as it is when Will stops and turns to face a malicious sky octopus made of smoke.  But as soon as it kept going, right into Will’s very face, as he recalls with irony Bob’s couldn’t-be-more-incorrect words, I truly knew “I love this show.”

Okay, I know I’ve spent too long on Will, even though I could spend post upon post talking about facial expressions and reactions and the motives that each shot of Will Byers relays.  But I am fully aware that I haven’t gotten this obsessed with anything on film since I was a teenager and would pause our VHS of Mission: Impossible with Tom Cruise’s face upside down (only time I don’t have to capitalize that phrase in this post), or when I would watch all the hours of all the behind the scenes of all the Lord of the Rings movies into the wee hours of the morning.  (Okay, I still do that, but not as frequently as I used to.)  And I’m going to pretend that as an “adult” I know when to stop.

But it sufficeth me to say that I continued to want to glomp Will Byers throughout S2 (even though I’m terrible enough to have all his most traumatic moments be my very favorite in the show), if for no other reason than because I wish I could go back to when my little INFJ(ij) was 13 and glomp him.  I wish I could go back in time to let my little awkward preteen Paladin know that it was okay that he looked up into the stars and saw so much more there than most people did.  I wish I could tell him that it was not just okay that his mind worked the way it did, but that it was good.

Justin around age 10.  He put a ton of effort into making this Earth-egg with as accurately drawn continents as possible.  Thankfully, since this was taken in the early nineties instead of the early eighties, he does not have a coconut-head haircut.

I wish I could go back to when kids called him “Casper” and “Powder” (he actually tried taking iron for a while in response, to try to bring more color to his skin, my pale baby lol), or “Stupid Brainer,” that not only was it not because of anything he did wrong, but that someday when he got older… Well, honestly that people would call him terrible things as an adult too, because apparently most adults in our culture are middle schoolers too… but I would tell him that after that there would be a time where he would find people who really wanted him, for all he is and because he thinks the way he does, not in spite of it.

Although, with this one, taken in High School, you can kinda see his nineties butt-hair style under the gift bows.  The book he’s holding up, by the way, is the tabletop RPG GURPS, which, if you let him, he will still adamantly argue the advantages of, over DnD… You have been warned.

Because, Will Byerses of the world, even if you don’t have Joyces, Jonathans, Mikes, Lucases and Dustins in your life now, there are people out there who want you to be you, for the way you think and the things that matter to you.  And if you hold out for being friends with those people, instead of ones that make you feel like the stuff you care about is weird and unlikable, then all you have to say is “yes” when Mikes come into your life and ask if you want to be friends.

One last thing, even though I’m trying to avoid predictions (mostly because I don’t want the Duffer Brothers to be vengeful gods of changing future plot points based on audience guesses), but I have to throw out there that I hope Will gets to have more–how to put this–prowess, next series.  We’ve seen all along that Will isn’t dumb and that he isn’t weak.  By this point he’s figured out how to hide from an interdimensional venus flytrap/shark stalking him as prey, how to survive in a toxic, freezing parallel dimension of his hometown without food or water for a week, how to communicate with his mother from said dimension using only lights and a Clash song, and then has the mental and emotional strength not to totally lose himself while being mind-raped for an entire season.  If you don’t think by now that Will is a boss then we can’t be friends.

All that being said though, Will has spent two seasons having to be saved by other people, which he both appreciates and chafes about.  As Justin put it, he’s been a bit of a damsel in distress, two years in a row (which made me giggle for reasons).  Will deserves a chance to show what he can do when not up against ridiculously bad odds all by himself (being alone both in the Upside Down and in his own mind), and to show how strong he’s gotten through his ordeals and how much he can contribute to the group when he’s allowed to be actually present and himself.

Millie Bobby Brown, Eleven’s actress, in one of the official Behind the Scenes episodes, teased the possibility of Will getting powers of his own, (and Matt Duffer gave her a death stare) and while I’m afraid that invoking the possibility will keep it from happening (I need to go out in the cold, spin around three times and spit or something.  Such is my superstition at the writers’ altar), I think character arc-wise, that would be pretty perfect, in both a trope-tastic “villain giving his enemy powers” sort of way, ala Harry Potter, but also as it would give Will a little payback for all he had to go through.  Plus, you know, when filled with Smoke, he could affect lights and crap so… just saying, it has my vote.  #superWillByers2019  Just kidding, don’t start that as a hashtag, then it’ll never happen!

{Update: The Will section was one of the first I wrote, because of the weird hopping-around way I write things, but now they’re actually filming S3… which means you can probably hashtag anything you want and they probably can’t change the script too drastically at this point!  >:D muahaha!  I mean, probably… right?}

Joyce Byers
ISTJ(ep)*
The Natural Sentinel
A Natural Approach to Practical Trends
“Maybe I’m crazy.  Maybe I’m out of my mind!
But God help me, I will keep these lights up until the day I die,
if I think there’s a chance that Will’s still out there!”
ISTJ(ep) examples:  Ayn Rand, Arthur C. Clarke, Lady* – Disney’s Lady and the Tramp

Sometimes we like to tease that ST stands for “STubborn,” but that trait serves Joyce Byers well, as her persistence in the face of opposition from multiple dimensions leads her to be able to save and protect her boy over and over, when repeatedly the common consensus was to give up on him as lost.  But her bravery, sticktoitiveness, and loving practicality save not just Will over and over again, but give everyone the heart and strength to keep going against terrible odds.  Since so few adults know the whole plight of the ensemble, Joyce moms everyone involved.  She really is the Stranger Things mom in so many ways… no offense Steve.

A moment that says everything about Joyce Byers as a character is the first time she notices the lights being affected.  She’s just heard Will’s voice over the phone, instead of just his breathing.  She’s been following her natural (ep) hunches, in ways she can’t really explain deliberately, hoping they’re steering her in the right direction.  But now, after he said “Mom,” she knows he’s alive.  She’s trying to figure out where he is, and then it’s stolen from her with her second phone shorting out.  She’s scared and frustrated, and feels like she’s reached a dead-end.  But then the lights start blinking.

She’s known something weird is going on, but since she specializes in making Use of the World as it is, she’s really not okay with being thrown this curveball of the world not acting the way it’s supposed to.  And yet her love for Will, and her desperation to find something, anything, any clue that might possibly help her find out what has happened to her son, overcomes any temptation she may have had to turn a blind eye and ignore any instances of the world not behaving in the ways she’s used to.

And then the wall bends.  And she gets the crap out of there, fueled by pure adrenaline to get to her car.  She’s ready to pull away, run as far and as fast as possible… But then the lights start blinking again, and the Clash is playing again.  It’s like Will himself is singing to her.  She’s still not sure what is going on, but she is not going to leave her baby back there alone with whatever just happened.

So, with no idea what she’ll find if she returns inside the house, Joyce goes back anyway.  She doesn’t go back because she isn’t scared, she goes back because that’s who she is: the kind of woman and mother who refuses to let her boy down, no matter the odds and no matter how crazy she might sound.

Things keep getting in the way of her Usefully Protecting her family—death, illness, demogorgons and smoke monsters—but Joyce is intrepid.  She won’t be fooled when the Establishment itself tries to replace her son with a dummy.  She doesn’t care about her own image at a farcical funeral.  She fearlessly faces Dr. Brenner when imprisoned in Hawkins Lab, when he tries to manipulate her the way he’s manipulated everyone else, looking him in the eye and saying, “I know who you are, and I know what you’ve done.”  She even strides into an alternate hell-dimension without hesitation, because she knows she is so close to saving her boy.  And after she gets Will back, she doesn’t want to let him leave her sight.  She’s ready to kill when she finds out Will’s being bullied, and she doesn’t doubt for a moment that the smoke-monster, as revealed on Bob’s camera, is a real danger.  Over and over, Joyce Byers is the unstoppable mother bear ready to protect not only Will, but anyone else endangered by the sinister forces at work in her world.

I think I’ll forever remember the way I felt the first time I saw S1E3, “Holly Jolly.”  After the tender excitement we feel along with Joyce when the Christmas lights first light up, unplugged and on their own, and after it’s even so effective as to let Will spell out words, we feel real hope with her.  Maybe now, finally, she and we can get some answers.  But then the kids follow the cops to the quarry, and they pull “the body” out of the water.  (Peter Gabriel’s cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” is just perfect in that part.)  I think I was still watching alone at that point (I watched the first few by myself before telling Justin how much he needed to see it).  And when I saw the body with Will’s puffy vest thing, my gut reaction was, “But…no… but he was just talking to Joyce!  It was him!  We know he’s alive! Don’t we…?”  I second-guessed my conclusions, even as an audience member.  Maybe I was missing something, and Will was really truly dead.

It makes so much more sense that Will simply fell into the quarry.  It’s the simpler answer.  There’s nothing weird or magical going on; Will just died, and Joyce is just in denial.  Perfectly normal.  That’s how reality works, after all, right?  The simpler answer (as if that’s not a subjective word or anything) tends to be the right one.

So how much more must Joyce doubt her own experience, as she’s the only person she’s aware of who believes Will is still alive?  When Lonnie, the police, and even Jonathan tell her that she’s losing her grip on reality?

It’s hard for me to share how much I know that feeling.  When you know the things you’ve felt and seen and what you’ve been through, and you’ve gone over them a million times, looking for bias or flaws in your perception, and you still can’t deny what has literally happened.  But you know how much standing by it makes you seem just totally bonkers.

ISTJ’s Type Angst, Thranduil Denial, has the core fear of not having a place in the world.  We see for Joyce that, after her relationship with Lonnie fell through, most likely along with many of her hopes and dreams, she really found safety and refuge in her boys.  They became her place in the world, maybe especially Will who still needed her to protect him, in a way that Jonathan tried not to.  So when Will is suddenly snatched out of her life, and when Jonathan doesn’t believe her, it’s as if any place she may have still had in the world is now gone.  She’s left completely alone.

But she knows what she heard on the phone.  She knows what happened with the wall, and the Christmas lights, and the painted letters telling her to run, and the monstrosity without a face.  Even before she sees the poor excuse for her boy on the autopsy table, she doesn’t believe it can be him.  And after she sees it, she knows for sure, and it doesn’t matter how much Jonathan shouts at her on the street or how much Lonnie calls her insane; Joyce Byers holds on.  It’s who she is, as a healthy Natural Sentinel.  When she knows there is even a small chance to save the people she loves, she is not going to let go, and nobody is going to get in her way.

Joyce could have let her ISTJ Thranduil Denial cause her to collapse into bitterness.  She could have given into her fear, letting it tell her, “Maybe I don’t have a place in the world.  Maybe I am just crazy.  I must have imagined what I saw…and heard…and experienced…yeah…”  And if she had, she would never have found Will, or been there to comfort and protect Eleven, and maybe the demogorgon would never have been stopped.

But throughout both S1 and S2, Joyce stands as a quiet, natural rock for all those around her.  She is a Sentinel of hope and tenacity, of enduring and uncompromising love.  She doesn’t give in to her fears, because she knows they aren’t true.  In her case as a natural ISTJ, she knows that she does have a place in the world, that her boys are depending on her, and that Hopper, Eleven, and the other kids need her too.  Joyce will always have a place in the world, because the world will always need someone willing to stand and defend people in danger from those callous enough, evil enough, or simply selfish enough to let them suffer.

She’s an example to all of us of how to handle our deepest, most persistent fears, no matter what they are.  We can give in, we can try to appear sensible to people around us, or we can have the guts to stand for what we really know needs to be done.  And when we do, we can save the Wills and Elevens in our lives, even if we have to look crazy or stupid in the meantime.  We can be such a rock of stability, safety, and warmth to everyone we interact with, lifting the lives of those who need it the most, simply by having the courage to stand for the things we know.

Jonathan Byers
ISTP(ij)*
The Deliberate Weapons Specialist
A Deliberate Approach to Practical Objects and Situations
“…you shouldn’t like things because people tell you you’re supposed to.”
ISTP(ij) examples: Theodore Roosevelt, Kurt Cobain, Natasha Romanoff* – Avengers

I guess the Jonathan section is the ideal place to talk briefly about how much I love the music of Stranger Things, as Jonathan serves as the emissary for a lot of the music.

I’ve always loved “oldies” and I blame/thank my mom for that; my first crush was Paul McCartney and I knew bands like Three Dog Night, The Monkees, and Herman’s Hermits before I knew the 90s stuff that was on the radio when I was a kid.  But in High School I kind of discovered 80s music on my own.  I’d already known 80s party music (Cyndi Lauper, “Forever Young,” that sort of thing), but once I really discovered Tears for Fears and the Cure, I just melted.  There’s a thrilling quality to 80s rock that I struggle to define, something that finds hope and excitement in the electric future, and yet a quiet, sad nostalgia at the past.  Those are attributes I find enticing, if you haven’t gathered that by this point.

My friends always thought I had odd taste, and would often make faces when I popped in a CD I’d burned myself.  My genre and decade tastes were just all over the place.  I just liked what I liked.

And like Jonathan, I’ve always sort of immersed myself in my music and let myself get the feels out by letting music express the feelings I just don’t feel like I can.

If you’re interested, you can find my “Stranger Things Radio” here, the Pandora station that I made to assist with writing and have listened to for 8 months straight.  Hopefully it passes along the songs okay.  It has not only 80s classics, but soundtrack stuff that goes along with the incredible vibe that Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein created for the show.  It’s got all the good stuff.  (And I would now totally pwn in an 80s “Name that tune” competition.)

And I love 80s music all the more now for it, and Jonathan has excellent taste.  Sometimes The Smiths are so beautiful and lingering that I want to cry.I really think of Joy Division’s “Atmosphere” as Jonathan’s song, seeing as it’s the song he decides to use for comfort when they find his little brother and best friend’s “body.”  And that sequence really shows the contrast between how Jonathan and Joyce are handling the news of Will’s supposed demise.  (I actually hadn’t heard of Joy Division before Stranger Things and I originally thought Jonathan said “Joey Division” lol.  I blame actor Charlie Heaton’s Britishness slightly coming through in that moment.  I had loved New Order since high school and I just discovered they were the spiritual successor.)

Both ISTs, Joyce and Jonathan specialize in the Use of how things already are.  Neither of them feel at all safe with the world they knew suddenly being swept away from under their feet.  When Joyce insists that Will is somehow still alive, Jonathan shows some of the coping effects of ISTP Snape Superiority, however understandably, denying things that are outside his experience.  He’s not okay with acknowledging it even as a possibility that this thing so far outside his experience could happen, so he’s really afraid that his mom is just losing it.

Our Type Angsts like Snape Superiority are an interesting mix of how we interpret all interactions based on our desires and fears, and the way that people actually treat us based on how our way of thinking is different from the rest of humanity.  (And when we get unhealthy, our fears often lead us to fall into the very things we fear, creating self-fulfilling type fears, but that’s a discussion for another day.) Every time I hear the line of Atmosphere, “People like you find it easy” sung rather angrily, I feel like that’s how Jonathan feels about people.  That everyone around him finds it easy to be open and vapid to the world, “Naked to see, Walking on air.”

What is often misunderstood is that ISTPs similar to Jonathan Byers aren’t distant because they’re socially unaware; instead, they dislike the lack of authenticity that accompanies so much of human interaction.  Since ISTPs focus foremost on the useful conclusions that can be drawn from situations as they’ve experienced them, for them Data is just right there, in the palm of their hand, totally authentic and candid.  Yet I’ve seen too many ISTPs treated like that up-front Data-tangibility lacks social subtlety.

Sure, sometimes ISTPs can be super goofy and loud and social, especially some subtypes.  After all, we’ve never defined cognitive Introversion/Extraversion as social introversion/extroversion around here, and my cognitive Introvert can often be far more talkative than I am, given the right audience.  We love when ISTPs feel comfortable being boisterous and social, like we see in ISTP(ij) Chris Pratt or ISTP(ip) Adam Savage of Mythbusters.

But as cognitive Introverts, ISTPs operate inside themselves first, processing Data for its useful applications, and then they follow that up in their second step with Observing possibilities that can be generated from how things currently exist.  Yet I repeatedly see ISTPs being guilted for being internal foremost, and for the utterly frank way in which they view the Situational Details that construct the world around them.

As an EP, Observation of people is my first and strongest Cognition Step, but I’m often in awe of what healthy IPs bring to Observation.  Sometimes I’m especially in awe of ISTPs, as they have that fascinating two-off relationship to me, where changing two letters can often have more similarities than changing just one.  So I love to hear the insight that a healthy ISTP can bring to the Observation of people, noticing what experienced Situations reflect about individuals in such a straightforward way, when my ENP people-concepts brain often makes things way too complicated for its own good.

I stand to benefit so much from Observations like the ones Jonathan makes in Stranger Things, but which I often struggle to state and internalize so matter-of-factly on my own.  Jonathan’s situational sum-ups are some of my favorite verbage in the show, whether it’s the quote I picked for this section, his incisive monologue to Nancy about the future that awaits her, or his epic explanation to Will as to why he’d “rather be best friends with ‘Zombie Boy’ than with a boring nobody.”  And then “nobody normal ever accomplished anything meaningful in this world,” is one that hit me like a truck, and I still have a hard time internalizing it.

Jonathan knows what he likes and what he doesn’t like, and he doesn’t like things because others tell him to, as he states.  But in S1, he’s also struggling to like himself.  He knows that he doesn’t want to be a vapid teenager, and he worries that even though Nancy stands out, that she’s becoming that way.  I think that’s at least part of why he watches her from a distance, even though he gets pegged as a creeper for it: because he’s hoping she’ll be more mature and real than the other girls, like he’s seen her be over the years.  But he’s also afraid he’ll be disappointed in her, like everyone his age has seemed to disappoint him.  He hopes she’ll still be the smart, strong, independent, and confident girl he’s seen her be in the past, yet he’s worried that the more she spends time with the shallow people that he’s avoided for so long, the more she’ll end up becoming just like them.

But Jonathan doesn’t really feel confident in how he approaches the world either.  In some ways, he defines himself by his ISTP fear of never being a part of the group, which is still, beneath it all, defining himself by the group’s rules.  It seems to be a recurrent theme in Stranger Things that if you try to define yourself as not being part of the establishment, then you end up playing by their rules.  You end up just as controlled by them as if you tried to define yourself by blindly fitting in.  Only by growing to know ourselves can we be more than puppets of the same-old-thing herd, and growing to know ourselves is never easy.  It requires facing our fears rather than hiding from them, admitting when we were wrong rather than running to a moral high-ground, and maybe most of all, learning to see the world through the eyes of those we thought we could never agree with.

By S2, Jonathan knows himself much better.  He goes towards the things he loves, instead of away from the things he hates and fears.  He still dislikes vapidity, but he doesn’t feel the need to hide from it anymore.  And that self-knowledge is what enables him to give Will that epic speech about not being like everyone else.  I’ve received a new love for ENFJ(ej) David Bowie from it, and it helped me embrace that it’s okay to “Be a Bowie” and that standing out doesn’t have to be a bad thing.  You know, it’s one of those things you already know in your head, but you need to hear someone say anyway.

Jonathan and Will are true Enigmatypes, which is a fun type relationship (yet another type relationship that we haven’t explained in-depth here yet).  Your Enigmatype is someone who’s similar to you at heart, and yet so tantalizingly different, that they never stop being a constant mystery to watch.  It comes up fairly often in healthy marriages and epic friendships.  Enigmatypes use all the Functions in the same direction (inward or outward), and also Perceive in the exact same way.  For cognitive Introverts, that means drawing Observation from an understanding of the Situation, and for cognitive Extraverts, it means the opposite order, drawing Situational understanding from people Observation.  This results in a letter pattern where Enigmatypes share only their first letter (E or I), with all others being different.  So each of our Enigmatype’s cognitive steps functions very similarly to our own, yet they put it to such different purposes than we do, that they constantly surprise and intrigue us.  And while Enigmatypes of any subtype share this exciting and close relationship, “true” Enigmatypes are the same subtype as each other.We see this relationship between ISTP(ij) Jonathan and INFJ(ij) Will, and it’s very sweet.  They get each other, and yet continually provide a fresh, ever-new point of view for one another about everything.  Jonathan never gets enough of Will’s sincerity, his unassuming wisdom, and his quietly confident poise.  And Will is always in awe of Jonathan’s social self-sufficiency, his straightforward practicality, and his independent enjoyment of the things he likes for his own reasons, and nobody else’s.  Throughout the show we see how incredibly important Will is to Jonathan, and what a steady mentor Jonathan is for Will.  They each support, encourage, and inspire the other, in such nearly opposite ways.  Each makes life and the whole world so much fuller, safer, and better for the other.

I don’t have a favorite type.  They’re like my bebes ?, no favorites.  But I’ve had particularly endearing interactions with some of my favorite ISTPs lately and it’s made me think about them with even more caring and compassion.  I’ve come to have a lot of concern lately for how often ISTPs are actually estranged from the group, as they fear they will be, simply because their way of approaching the world is regarded unfairly.  All too often, I see ISTPs being treated like they must interact with the group in the same way as others in order for their offering to the group to be acceptable, instead of being invited to offer what they alone can.

So ISTP’s core fear does often happen, at least in the short term; they are often not a part of the group, although the reasons for that vary.  Yet I think a lot of cool ISTPs would be well-served to know, as Jonathan seems to know pretty well, especially by S2, that if the group doesn’t want the awesome way that they process and interact with the world, then they’re probably better off remaining on the outside until a better group is found.

Steve Harrington
ESTP(ij)*
The Deliberate Spartan
A Deliberate Approach to Practical Reactions
“I may be a pretty $#^&@* boyfriend, but turns out I’m actually a pretty d@^# good babysitter.”
ESTP(ij) examples: Tom Cruise, Chloe Bennett, Disney’s Aladdin*

Steve was going to be a cliche, just the typical teen-movie jock trope, but I love that the reason he became such a three-dimensional character with his very own plot arc, and even an epic bromance in S2, was because actor Joe Kerry was just too dang charming.  Just like, from what I gather, Poe Dameron in Star Wars; actor Oscar Isaac, who is also ESTP(ij) (as is the character) was just too lovable to get killed in Episode VII like he was supposed to.  ESTPs, I tell you, how can we not be won over?

But in all seriousness, I love Steve’s character arc so much.  Rewatching the thirdish time, I really studied Steve’s decisions to see when and how he really changed.  Because Steve Harrington really does start out being a douchebucket.  Barb reads him right; even though Nancy does stand out among the girls he’s dated, he does seem to expect her to be basically the same as the other girls he’s conquested.  Sure, she’s more of a challenge, and he does clearly respect her more, with as much respect as Steve feels for anyone early on.  She is a more worthy conquest, but still a conquest.

So why does he change?  Well to understand the answer to that question, we have to understand why he was being such a jerk in the first place.  What makes such a charmer, who shows so much growth later, be such a self-centered tool to start out with?

I really think this comes down to the low expectations placed on Steve throughout his life.  He’s an EP living in an EJ (Action) world.  On the one hand, he feels like the king of Motives and Observation, being able to charm girls with ease by seeing exactly what they want and surfing their reactions as ESTPs excel at, and able to charm his way out of trouble too.  But on the other hand, he’s used to no one observing his true motives or calling him on anything.  He doesn’t have to be real with anyone because no one will see the difference.  Everyone just looks at his actions and no one expects or really cares if he’s actually a good person or anything.

And his parents don’t care.  As long as he doesn’t get caught for doing stupid stuff and grows up to be able to get “insurance and benefits and all that adult stuff,” then what difference does it make to them?  After all, between whatever Steve’s dad’s business is, apparently he has wandering eyes and hands (as Steve implies his mom is right to not trust his dad when he leaves on business, like it’s just how things are).

Steve’s been taught that no one gives a #=@$ about the kind of person he is, so long as he doesn’t get caught doing some action he was told not to.  He doesn’t even expect his friends to be decent.  He has that very ESTP pessimism of “have to work with the people I have, because no one is really good.”

And already at the beginning of the show, Nancy is changing that some.  She’s special to him, the princess in the tower, not just another easy girl.  She does expect more of him and he likes that.  But even as late as when Steve sings into the bat and teases Nancy that he looks like Tom Cruise (I have to rofl any time Facial Typing is referenced without knowing it, heehee), he is still expecting to get away with the bare minimum of action.  “I’m doing what you do to apologize!  I’m doing sorry actions…  That’s supposed to work and you’re supposed to fall all over me…”

But Nancy doesn’t.  As she realizes the consequences her bad motives had on Barb, she doesn’t find Steve’s imitation of caring to be enough anymore.  But it isn’t until she really truly chooses defending Jonathan over him that Steve really stops to consider his own flaws and consider that it isn’t just his actions that are being douchey, but his motives too.

He knows better than to let his terrible friends call Nancy a slut, but he hopes that she’s in the wrong enough for him to take the high ground.  He certainly feels hurt enough to tell himself it’s all her fault.  And he really knows he’s pushing the limits by saying so many terrible things about the Byers family to Jonathan, especially when…  Wow everyone thinks Will is dead at that point, so yeah that’s really horrible.

But I know that feeling, at least to some degree, when you feel so hurt that you want to maim someone else’s feelings, even though you know it’s a terrible, mean thing to do, but you just want to damage in turn.  When Steve is being awful, he isn’t justified, but he is understandable, which is different.

Then, after getting his butt kicked, Steve has some hard reflection.  He grows truly ashamed of himself, and ashamed of the sources he’s trusted in his “friends.”  And I think the embarrassment helps too.  This is how far he’s fallen?  He’s desperate enough to fight for Jonathan Byers’s scraps?  But Nancy isn’t scraps, and he treated her like she was.  He realizes how much he sucks, tbh, and how much he doesn’t want to be like the “miserable” people around him.

I think that’s when Steve realizes how much he looks up to Nancy, when he was previously treating her like he could teach her so much about the world, and protect her.  Which makes it all the funnier when he shows up to apologize for real to Jonathan, to try and be more the man she would want, and Nancy waves a gun in his face.  Not only does Steve suddenly realize he has no crap what is going on, he realizes Nancy is not at all a damsel in distress, but a hard-core knight fighting her own battles.

Which brings up another aspect of Steve and Nancy’s relationship which I think is too perfect: they’re true Covetypes.  Now I don’t have a post on the main site about Covetypes yet, but it’s what it sounds like: the type you covet/feel jealous of, for the way they get treated and their strengths.  It can actually be very powerful to learn from your Covetype, after you stop being so jealous of their results.  EP and IJ Covetypes are reciprocal, while it’s different for EJs and IPs, but I’m not going to go into that atm, but anyway ESTP(ij) and INTJ(ep) are true Covetypes, down to the subtype.

Early on, we see that longing from Nancy; she wishes she could be a part of Steve’s exciting, charming world, getting the reactions she wants and living seemingly free from consequences.  But the course of the story shows a Nancy who doesn’t want that anymore.  She stops being ashamed of her INTJ and starts owning being a girl with a useful plan.  Then in turn, Steve starts to see not only that he wants to deserve someone like Nancy, but how much he wishes he were like her.

And I feel like once he really lets Nancy be her own woman, be truly strong and in charge of her own destiny, that’s when Steve Harrington is able to become so much more than charming or even sweet, like he’s become by the end of S1, but truly heroic and self-sacrificing as he demonstrates being in S2.

I mean, for the record, he acts truly selfless by the end of S1, more on that later.  But I love how in S2 he helps Dustin and protects the kids without expecting any sort of acknowledgment from Nancy, just because he cares and, in his words, is that good of a babysitter.

I’ll never get over how in-there ESTPs always get.  Doesn’t matter how dirty or difficult the situation, ESTPs throw themselves at it like a nail-bat at a demodog head.  Totally in whatever moment, full of selfness, Steve earns the title “Spartan” with fierce getting-it-done-ness.

Human bait?  Sure, why not, if it’s what needs to be done.  Farrah Fawcett spray?  Hey, if it works; the proof is in the hair.  Steve isn’t above doing what it takes for the reactions he wants, using what’s right there at his fingertips with impressive uptake.  He obviously feels his Jayne Justification fear of not being smart enough, especially compared to Covetype Nancy, but he clearly underestimates just how situationally and possibility-intelligent he truly is.

While I think Jonathan and Nancy are a great pairing and I think I ship them, Steve is a particular favorite of mine.  (Although, for the record, Covetypes actually seem to get together a fair amount with often great, adorable success, especially ETP guys and ITJ girls as a trend.)

By the end of S2, Steve has become a true hero, and not for the reasons that I think he originally expected.  Steve wanted to do the charming, manly actions and get the princess, but instead he lets her go, and cares about helping Dustin and the other kids when nobody is watching.  He does it because caring defines the person he’s become, instead of the person he was acting like.

Sure, Steve claims he’s just protecting the kids because otherwise he’ll get blamed if they get hurt.  But honestly, his actions demonstrate much better motives than his loving name-calling lets on.  He doesn’t have to go ahead of all the kids into the very bowels of the beast, but he does.  He doesn’t have to stay behind to get eaten by a pack of demodogs charging toward them, in order to get the last kids up the rope, but he does.  And he certainly doesn’t have to be Dustin’s ride to the Snow Ball and try to give him girl and hair advice, but he does.

Steve is no longer focused on “how can I look like I care, in order to get the reactions I want?” instead he actually cares.  So that in the end, Dustin’s right: Steve’s awesome.

“Mad” Max Mayfield
ISTP(ej)
The Supercharged Weapons Specialist
A Supercharged Approach to Practical Objects and Situations
“See?  Zoomer.”
ISTP(ej) examples: Christina Ricci, Les Stroud (Survivorman), GoGo Tomago* – Big Hero 6

A rare case for Stranger Things, MadMax is one of the few characters not played by an actor of the same cognition.  Although with Sadie Sink (which I think is an adorable name) being ESTJ(ej), the actress and character are same-sub Patronatypes, which is a relationship that shows up as having an affinity often.  They both have the Supercharged approach to Specific ST.

But Max’s Type Angst fear of Snape Superiority plays a large role in her arrival in the show.  Actually, part of what makes Max work so well as a new character in S2 is her struggling with ISTP’s core fear of not being part of the group.  Which then Mike throws in her face, telling her essentially “that’s right, don’t think you’re one of us.”

Max struggles back and forth to know if she should keep trying to see if these “stalkers” actually want her and if she can fit in with the misfits, or if she should pretend she doesn’t even want to fit in, owning her (ej) “that’s right, I don’t fit in the group” and just go play Dig Dug and skateboard alone the rest of her days.

Max seems used to being ignored, and like at home she prefers it, as opposed to getting undesirable attention from Billy, her step-father, or even her mom, who the few times we see her seems overly focused on appearances.  When she’s alone, Max can play by her own rules.  She doesn’t have a problem going into the boys’ locker room or picking locks; she’s proud of being able to fend for herself.  She’s a specialized Zoomer, and she knows she’s good at what she specializes in.

In a similar way to fellow ISTP(j) Jonathan, Max knows her own worth, and would rather be enjoying situations alone than surrendering to other people’s way of doing things.  But that often means she truly is outside the group.

Lucas works hard to include Max, even when it puts him in deep water with both Mike and jealous Dustin.  But then when Max listens to her Snape Superiority, it makes her skeptical not only of Lucas’s far-fetched story, but also of the idea that he’d include her in something so personal, especially when no one ever does.  She’s never experienced anything so fantastical as dimension-hopping creatures with no faces…or being included in life-altering secrets, which may be the harder thing for her to believe.

So she throws it in Lucas’s face, considering both his story and his motives to be far too ludicrous to be believed.  Easier to believe that they just don’t want her around; that’s what she’s used to by experience, after all.  It’s as if she’s testing him: “I won’t trust that you care about me, unless you can handle me at my worst.  Try my Snape Superiority on for size, and if you run away, then fine, you’re just like everyone else ever.”

Lucas tries to prove his honesty with the noble ISTJ Principle, “friends don’t lie.  Never ever, no matter what,” but Max immediately calls him on the apparent exception, that he just lied to her.  His response shows his healthy awareness of Motives (which has grown so much since early S1), explaining why she had left him with no choice.  In other words, she had not been being a friend to him, thus necessitating the Dig Dug out-of-order lie.

Lucas gets across to Max that the situation really is that dire, despite being outside her experience.  He’s learned, through his epic growth arc S1, that there’s more to the world than his own personal experience had ever imagined.  So now he’s equipped to use his IJ-ST first step of World Trends to help Max with her last step of knowing how the world as a whole works.  He’s prepared now to show her that there is so much more than she realizes going on…if only she’ll give him a chance.

And though she’s still wary, Max does begin to see that Lucas is actually trusting her with things that matter in his life.  That he never wanted to treat her like garbage, he never wanted to exclude her or make her feel unwanted.  It was just that these things were that dangerous, that special, and that far outside of what she knew.

So when a frustrated Dustin goes overboard in pushing her away, it’s really the last straw in pushing her into Lucas’s arms.  Lucas put effort into pulling her into the group, repeatedly.  He kept at it even when she was trying to push him away, like she probably has pushed everyone away for a long time, in an effort to feel safe.

And on top of the bus in the night, she apologizes.  She lets Lucas know that she’s sorry she closes up and comes off hard, sorry that she gets angry.  The last thing she wants is to be like Billy, with his anger and hatred and belittling of other people.  But in that moment, Lucas gives her hope that she’s not like that at all, that she’s “cool and different and super smart…”  Basically, he lets her know that he does want her, all of her, even after seeing her angry and scared and hopeless.So when Max initiates the kiss with Lucas at the Snow Ball, and then leans against him, it’s like it’s the first time that she’s ever felt fully safe with anyone else; safe not being alone.  She doesn’t have to hide behind Snape Superiority anymore, hiding in her specialized skills to dull the pain of feeling forever rejected.  No matter what ends up happening with Max and Lucas’s blossoming romance, Lucas has shown her that she can be accepted for the passionate, intense, Supercharged Zoomer that she is.  She never has to feel outside the group, ever again.

Murray Bauman
INTP(ip)*
The Comfortable Alchemist
A Comfortable Approach to Expectable Objects and Situations
“You’re being naive, Nancy!
Those people…they’re not wired like me and you, okay?
They don’t spend their lives trying to get a look at what’s behind the curtain.
They like the curtain.  It provides them stability, comfort, definition.
This…this would open the curtain, and open the curtain behind that curtain, okay?”
INTP(ip) examples: Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Stalin, Ben Urich* – Netflix’s Daredevil

I went back and forth on the INTP(ip) examples for Murray because we’ve found so many examples of the Data corner, all of whom have been prime examples of specializing in how to find the right Data and Details to get the most use out of situations, in a comfortable, water-like manner.  I considered Mark Twain, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sergei Eisenstein, Charles Darwin, or Douglas Adams, but ultimately went with Stalin because vodka.  I also really like “because vodka” as an explanation for doing something, and it seems appropriate to Murray’s character.

Murray dispels the annoyingly recurrent stereotype that Perceivers don’t have drive.  He’s a charmingly intense rejection of the ubiquitous and ridiculous simplification that those who focus primarily on exploring options and branching out into more possible ways to act, couldn’t be imagined to work toward goals, be ambitious, or get things done when the topic is of value to them.  Murray will stop at nothing to find out the truth he knows is hidden deep within the wells of Data he’s collected in his jazz hermit cave.  He just has to figure out how all the pieces fit together.

I think at the core of Murray’s drive to pursue Barb’s disappearance the way he does, is a healthy desire to find the truth that makes situations tick.  Yet there is also the pull of his own Type Angst, Moriarty Fear.  INTPs fear that if they aren’t the very best, the cream of the crop, in their chosen specialization, then they’re totally obsolete.

From his backstory described behind the scenes, Murray has been shamed and derided for pursuing hidden data in the past.  He struggles to find his way back to feeling the best at what he does, with intense effort, (ip) denying the voice in the back of his mind telling him that it’s all a worthless waste.  Just a one-off of Lovecraft, including subtype, Murray has a reverence for the size and complexity of the world, even if it drives him to cynicism and drink.

I like seeing the similarities and differences between Murray and Ben Urich, from Netflix’s Daredevil; both clever diggers in the field of truth, and yet both with enough painful past experience to know that you don’t tango casually with your enemies, especially enemies with money, power, resources, and social perception on their side.  Though it’s interesting how Ben Urich tries to play by the established rules, staying way under the radar when he colors outside the lines, while Murray feels so burned by that same establishment that he lives his whole life coloring as far from the lines as possible.

Data, data, data, data, all connected, data, data, data…

Also, I like comparing the similarities in relationships between Murray and Nancy, and Ben and Karen (INFJ(ep)*, so just a one-off from Nancy’s INTJ(ep)*), raising investigative protégés and helping them navigate the dark world of media perception.

In the official behind the scenes, Murray and Nancy’s actors, Brett Gelman and Natalia Dyer, talk about this dynamic:
Natalia: “I think there is definitely a Nancy-Murray connection, of their need to figure things out.  He’s like way more on it, and Nancy’s sort of just figuring it out about herself…”
Brett: “I think he sees [Nancy] as like, ‘Oh, this is a young me.’”

Murray refuses to sugar-coat the situation for Nancy, in usual INTP fashion.  But you can see how much he cares about her future and potential, bringing some of his ENFJ Veteran Paradoxitype to bear.

I think Nancy gives Murray hope.  Not just hope of discovering the truth, but hope that he can teach someone not to make the same mistakes that he feels he’s made along the way.  Writing this now, I realize that that’s the same reason my INTP(ip) dad teaches me things: to try to protect me from making mistakes that he feels like he’s made.

I think that’s why Murray is also so pleased to be insightful into Nancy and Jonathan’s relationship.  He feels like he can pave the way for them to be more honest and real in their relationship than maybe he was able to be in his, and can kind of live vicariously through a relationship with a happier ending than his own.  Aw, poor Murray, that makes me really sad.

But Murray does see success of his own.  Through his patient sitting on his nest of Data, and knowing exactly how to use it to get the expected Situation he wants, he is able to bring closure to Barb’s family, closure to his own disgrace, and triumphantly sit and gloat in the sun over pulling Hawkins Lab’s pants down.

And I am far too proud of his stick figure robe and comb-over, so marvel at your leisure.

Barb Holland
ESFP(ep)*
The Natural Morale Officer
A Natural Approach to Enjoyable Reactions
“This isn’t you.”
ESFP(ep) examples: Emily Murphy (Canadian activist), Andrew Zimmern, Peregrin “Pippin” Took – The Lord of the Rings

We’ve all been Barb.  Where you go to the party or to hang out with people, who you know in your head aren’t safe people to spend time with.  Maybe you go because you hope it’ll be fun, or because you want to be a part of things, of “normal” teenagedom.  Or maybe, like Barb, you go because you want to support a friend who wants to feel a part of things.  But you go and it’s even worse than you thought.

Everyone is being dumb, and trying to prove to each other how cool they are, and if you don’t want to do the things that they’re doing, which are obviously going to get them hurt, possibly physically but at least emotionally, then you’re ignored at best, and at worst treated like a wet-blanket with negative implications on your character.  And you wish you could just go home, but all you can do is sit there, stuck painfully people-watching, because it doesn’t matter if individuals there are supposed to be your friends, in truth you are entirely alone, and wish you could be literally so, because that would be better than having to watch someone you know and love totally betray themselves for a brief stint in the social sunlight.

No?  Just me?  Okay.  Well, I was definitely a Barb in High School.

A picture I took of myself at 17 after going stag to homecoming (which wasn’t even my homecoming), and trying to pretend I’d had a good time. I was somewhere between Barb and Nancy at that point, as far as feeling like it was my responsibility to work hard to fit in. I still totally have and fit into that dress btw.

I’m trying to decide though if I would have stayed, for my Nancy, if she had asked me to leave like Barb.  A lot of the times that I’ve felt like Barb in my life, I didn’t really have a choice if I wanted to leave or not.  I had ridden in someone else’s car, or had some obligation to stay.  I think now, as an adult, most of the time I would leave for helpful reasons, “you’re on your own while you’re being this stupid, call me when you figure it out” reasons, but I wonder if I would have stayed when I was Barb’s age because I was so scared to burn bridges, so scared of losing friends.  But I think Barb’s reasons for staying are more than that.

I think part of Barb is so stunned by how much her very best friend, whom she knows (and as an EP, nothing means more than knowing someone through and through), is being so untrue to the clever, strong person she knows she is.  “You’re not this stupid,” Barb says beforehand, but she’s shocked to see that maybe Nancy is being that stupid.  With Nancy’s last step of character judgment being Barb’s first step, Barbara has to just look on in stunned horror as she sees Nancy totally failing the Observation game of Steve’s intentions and the bad place where Barb can tell those intentions will lead: first and foremost of Nancy being a puppet over a boy’s affections, letting him lead her down whatever path he wants, with just a charming line and good hair.  Okay, really good hair.

So I think at first Barb hopes that Nancy will come back downstairs, make some excuse with Steve, and leave.  But when Nancy outright rejects Barb’s Observations, basically saying “back off, I want this thing, even though I know it’s dumb,” I think Barb stays because she’s worried.  Because she’s aching for Nancy and scared to leave her alone, not scared to leave her with Steve so much as with this new version of herself.

I know the feeling also, all too well, when you feel so slapped in the face by what just happened, that you just don’t know what to do.  I think it’s a particularly EP(ep) thing (speaking from too much experience), when all of the Action options seem too painful and consequence-inducing, so you just sit, and sit, and hope that something falls on you that makes the world feel right-side up again.  Heh, I didn’t even pick that wording on purpose, but it’s tragically fitting, given that what comes for Barb next isn’t the hope she so desperately needed, sitting there alone, but something that would mean that her world would never be right-side up again.

Makes me wonder how many tragedies in real life have followed the words “it’s no big deal.”

Bob Newby
ENFP(ep)
The Natural Standard Bearer
A Natural Approach to Edifying Reactions
“It’s gonna be okay.  Remember, Bob Newby, superhero.”
ENFP(ep) examples:  C.S. Lewis, Stephenie Meyer, Cory Matthews* – Boy Meets World

I don’t feel like I have a lot of words to say about Bob Newby.  Like everyone else, at the beginning of S2, I was thinking, “Well, I love Sean Astin, but he sure is good at playing this guy as a goober.”  (That’s a super my-dad-name to call someone lol.)  He was sweet, but so dorky and out of it, and I could understand why he felt safe to Joyce, but it seemed a little bit like she was using Bob to escape the terror of the year before.

And I facepalm/cringed when he applied the very sweet ENFP “conquer your fears by being confident in yourself” advice to Will, without understanding the last-step consequences it would cause.  Which, granted, that does usually work for ENFPs, like ENFP(ij) Maria in The Sound of Music (*same as Julie Andrews), singing “I have confidence in me” to pump herself up.

But we do quickly get flashes of Bob, behind the guy with the slightly dorky music and movie tastes, who feels at home with bologna sandwiches and silly puns.  He does truly care about Joyce and her boys, worried about Will getting bullied and encouraging Joyce to be her strong, feisty self.

Really though, as soon as he got hooked on the Hawkins tunnel puzzle, I was hooked on Bob.  He really came alive with the ability to help, as ENFPs do, finding true meaning-of-self in the opportunity to be useful on-call.

Bob’s story is a testament to how the ability to be a hero is all in the motives.  Yes, Eleven is physically able to save and protect, but it’s the choices she makes with those abilities that makes her heroic.  And Bob might not be a sharpshooter or even a one-liner slinger, but when it counts, we see who he really is in his willingness to put others first and see things through to the bitterest ends.

I love that it’s Mike who gives his little eulogy to the group, about Bob and AV, since they share the same ENFP Type Spec: The Meaning of Individuals as they can be.  Mike pays tribute to how, as underestimated as he was, Bob lived up to who he could be.

Now for something a little self-indulgent on my part, I was already planning on making the main video for this post when the one below popped into my head.  You may have ascertained by this point (even though I was being so subtle ) that I love The Lord of the Rings.  I mean, since it’s referenced pretty often in Stranger Things, I figured my references would be apropos, but I also just super love Tolkien.  So I thought it was only fitting to combine my two very favorite film works, because it’s not only the presence of Sean Astin that unites them.  I’m very pleased with how well I was able to convey my emotions both with my favorite part of the LotR film trilogy, and with everything I feel makes Stranger Things matter.

I realized that as Covetypes, Bob would probably love ISFJ(ij) Samwise and long to be like him, and so I think he’d find it pretty special to be associated with the character and be played by the same person (interestingly, Sean Astin is ESFP(ej), halfway between the two).  Is that a weird train of thought, thinking about how excited a fictional character would be to have their actor cast as them?  Maybe.

Either way, I’m glad we got to meet Bob Newby, superhero, and how he reminds us that even though sometimes people disappoint us, others rise to the occasion and show us what they’re really made of, just when it matters the most.

Because there is good in this world, and it is worth sacrificing for.

Lonnie Byers
ENTP(ej)*
The Supercharged Swashbuckler
A Supercharged Approach to Expectable Reactions
“Tell your mother she’s gotta get you out of that hellhole.  Come out here to the city.  People are more real here, you know?”
ENTP(ej) examples: Robert Downey Jr., Zooey Deschanel, Megamind*

Lonnie Byers is interestingly the only ENTP thus far in Stranger Things, and I’m okay with that, despite him being quite the unhealthy example of his cognition.  The dark side of a cognition that gives us gems like Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr. (both) and adorable Zooey Deschanel, takes a cringeworthy turn when that same charm, sass, and ability to poke for just the desired reactions, is used to serve an ENTP(ej) as self-centered as Lonnie Byers.

I picture a young, slightly rebellious Joyce getting totally swept off her feet by an also young, very attractive and charming Lonnie in late high school.  He probably knew just what to say, and how to show all the right interest in everything she cared about… as long as she was giving him the reactions he wanted.  And poor Joyce, with her last cognition step being the motives of people, believed that when he teased her and was affectionate, that she actually had a place in the world, as her Thranduil Denial so desperately wanted.

Actually, I think, although Jonathan has that amazing monologue about Nancy and her suburban “rebellion,” which implies that she and Steve are likely to end up just like her parents, with Steve as washed up and emptily suburban as Ted Wheeler… I wonder if the person Jonathan is truly comparing Steve to is his own father, Lonnie.  I think it’s interesting that Joyce and Lonnie’s relationship is just the S/N flip of Nancy and Steve’s relationship, almost down to the subtype, which makes Joyce and Lonnie Covetypes too (although not down to the subtype, but with Covetype that’s just splitting hairs).  And it actually makes a lot of sense if Jonathan made that correlation in his head (which, with something as personal as his own father, how could he not?); after all, Steve starts out as that skin-deep-charming ETP, just like Lonnie is, just getting the reactions he wants from girls.  Thankfully, Steve decides to be more.  But wouldn’t Jonathan be afraid of Nancy, this strong, intelligent ITJ girl, making the same mistakes as his mother, who was also a strong, intelligent ITJ that let herself get swept up in Lonnie’s deceptions?

But Joyce is by far not the only one who has fallen for Lonnie’s charm.  I always think it’s very telling that when Hopper shows Earl (the white haired guy… I had to look up his name…oh and the actor was in October Sky, that’s what I know him from!) the picture of Will, he immediately identifies Will as “Lonnie’s kid,” meaning that, in Hawkins, Lonnie is still just one of the guys.  Sure, he and that Joyce girl broke up, but that happens.  Whenever he comes back in town, once in a while (to advertise that he still “cares” about his children), he still has a place at the local dives, talking about sports and politics and money, whereas Joyce is thought about around town as that scatterbrained mom with a few screws loose.

Jonathan finds Joyce letting Lonnie back into her life.

When Lonnie comes back for Will’s funeral, playing grief and a desire to make amends, Joyce is not the only one who welcomes him back.  And I find it to be a masterwork touch, which wasn’t required of the creators, that in the background at Will’s wake, who is the primary person engaged in conversation with Lonnie and patting him on the back?  Ted Wheeler.  Because people like Ted, the type who love the “Curtain” Murray speaks of in S2, don’t want to make correct character judgments of people like Lonnie; they want to be taken in, to act like the idea of someone so close to home being a “bad person” is just too dramatic.  “Bad people” are the ones who do obviously bad actions, like burglars or Soviets or the guy you didn’t vote for.

Which, I don’t even need to explain that I’m not excusing those parties, right?  I’m just saying there’s a much more insidious form of bad.  In a culture that doesn’t treat Motives as a science, the Lonnies of the world are able to slip past the crap radar, knowing exactly what people want to hear, and giving it to them, completely aware that if you toe a shallow society’s lines, you can get all the praise while being full of total—“language!”  People like Lonnie don’t cause explosions or wars, but through their uncalled bad intentions they are able to quietly and law-abidingly go around ruining people’s lives.

Also, as a side note, I wonder why Joyce kept her married name.  It may have been because it was a small town and it would be more effort to get everyone to call her by her maiden name again in the 80s, but I also wonder if it’s because she didn’t want anything separating her from her boys, even suddenly having a different surname from them.

Lonnie being an ENTP, even if he’s a different subtype from me, brings up an issue I had to address in myself.

Now, I’ve known since the beginning of aLBoP, that there are good and bad versions of each way to think.  We began using the terms “healthy” and “unhealthy” fairly quickly on aLBoP, because we liked that those terms don’t implicate blame.  If someone is a “bad” person, that implies that they are choosing to be bad, and have bad motives making them the person they are, at least currently.  But “unhealthy,” just like with physical health, can be someone’s own fault or not.

If I become malnourished, it can be because I refuse to eat anything besides Jujubes (first thing that came to mind), or it can be because I don’t have access to proper nutrition.  And if a person becomes unhealthy, cognitively, it can either be because they’re choosing to use their Type Specialization to fulfill crap desires, or it can be because they were raised in an environment that didn’t nurture their Type Specialization healthily.  And I’d venture that most people who are cognitively unhealthy are a mix, of the cultures and microcultures they were raised in, and of their own decisions.  After all, there are plenty of Elevens in the world, who overcome the way they were raised, and choose to be good people, despite everything they’ve experienced (although Eleven is exceptional in being a transitional character).

Anyway, it was never news to me that the same type could be used well or poorly.  After all, one of Justin’s favorite examples to share has always been “I think the same as Hitler!” to demonstrate this principle (although he has mostly always used it to demonstrate that he isn’t trying to be a Mary Sue), and even our discovery of Subtypes and realizing that Hitler was a different subtype than Justin (being INFJ(ej) instead, the same cognition as Shirley Temple) doesn’t stop him from using the example.  But, you know, Osama Bin Laden vs. Thomas Paine (both ENFP(ij)), Mao Zedong vs. Alfred Hitchcock (both ISFP(ip)); I was always aware of the vastly different choices that could be made with the same cognition.

But in a way, I always had the opposite problem; I often justified people too much based on their cognition.  I mean, I knew that bad people had bad motives, despite their cognition, and I still now believe it’s important to understand people and their motives, even though understanding why someone did something is never supposed to justify their doing of it.

But I was too quick to let people’s Type Specializations and cognition overall give them reasons for infractions.  “Yes, that’s a terrible way to treat others, but he’s an ISTJ(ej); he was doing it to protect the world as it is.”  “I know she’s being closed off and pretentious, but it’s her Great Pumpkin acting up.”  Stuff like that.  Worthy angles to see of people, and the kind of stuff I’m supposed to illuminate with aLBoP, but still missing a core element.

But then early 2017, our friend asked us to type her abusive stepfather.  I hope it’s okay to share his type and the effect the experience had on me, as long as I don’t attach it to this friend.  She had been pretty sure of his type beforehand, which actually made me procrastinate typing him for a while.  Also, I just didn’t especially want to see his face and see the lies there.  But we typed him and she was right; it turned out that he was ENTP(ep)… like me.

I was really upset.  I felt like I needed to apologize on behalf of my Type Spec, on behalf of everything it truly meant to be ENTP(ep).  And she wasn’t blaming me, but I suddenly felt like it was somehow my fault, everything she’d been through, everything he’d done, because it was in the twisted pursuit of the things that matter most to me.  I could see how his manipulative, destructive, terrifyingly creepy motives and actions were a parody of my mind’s deepest loves.  And even though I wasn’t afraid I would ever desire the same base, practically inhuman things, I felt tainted by association, a feeling that in the midst of dealing with other challenges of knowing and trusting myself, took me months to overcome.

I realized that my previous attribution of people’s harmful decisions and motives to mere effects of their own cognitions and environments was being unintentionally condescending on my part, to all the other types.  I didn’t realize how much justifications based on Type Specialization insult everything that type truly is.  This despicable example I suddenly had of everything that ENTP(ep) was never supposed to be, showed me how opposed unhealthy ENTP(ep) is to everything I am.  His decisions and desires in fact demonstrated a direct inversion of the ENTP core desire to elevate the use of individuals to new heights, starting with oneself.  Any ENTP that says “you should justify me in everything small I’ve chosen to be” is in direct violation of everything their cognition ever was.

And that’s true of every type and subtype.  Following unhealthy cognition through to its conclusion always leads to the subversion of that type’s core desires.  It’s cognitive physics.  And I apologize to all other types for not recognizing in full the parody that unhealthy versions are of the things that matter most to you.

Long story short (and I thought Lonnie would be a short section, haha), I’m really okay with Lonnie being the only ENTP in Stranger Things thus far.  It demonstrates how the desire to become everything you can be, can be flipped on its head when driven by selfishness and the refusal to see people outside oneself as valid.

I used that quote for Lonnie at the top of his section because it’s so very classic.  People like that always have to project their motives onto others and say essentially “I know you are, but what am I?”, accusing others of their own bad motives as a diversion.  “People are more real here” – a powerful mimicry of individuals who actually care about genuineness, imitated to win points.  Ironic and exceptionally true to life.  Also, people like that always have to pretend that their misery demonstrates honesty, like all people who are happy or cheerful must be fake, so “at least I’m honest” about being a jerk.

Lonnie makes fantastic artificial sweetener, the kind of stuff that tastes mostly okay on the tongue, almost like the real thing even, but then makes your stomach churn in hindsight.  Unfortunately well done, because of just how common he is.

Dr. Owens
ENTP(ij)*
The Deliberate Swashbuckler
A Deliberate Approach to Expectable Reactions
“Listen.  I understand what you went through last year.  I get it.  But those people are gone.  They’re gone.  Okay?  So if we’re gonna get through this I just… I need you to realize I’m on your side.  I need you to trust me.”
ENTP(ij) examples: Helena Bonham Carter, Dustin Hoffman, Neal Caffrey* – White Collar

Okay, so Lonnie isn’t the only ENTP in the show.  But poor Dr. Owens, I forgot him when I was writing the Lonnie section, and I actually was okay with Lonnie being the only ENTP… but he wasn’t lol.  (I’ve done that before too.  Let’s just pretend it’s part of my charm, okay?)  “Mistakes have been made;” let’s move on.

I really like Doc Owens.  When I put him under the “Questionable Motives” character section, Justin wondered if that was really where I wanted to put him, and he does stand out amid the others, from Lonnie through the Mind Flayer.  Doctor Owens isn’t consumed by hatred, he doesn’t want to manipulate everyone to get his way, and he certainly doesn’t want to see anyone killed in the pursuit of what he’s trying to achieve.  He actually wants to help Will, and all of Hawkins, recover from the damage that was caused the year before.

And yet, his attitude, however well-intentioned, of “do the fixing action” of continual burns to keep the Gate under control, seems to be the very thing that causes the Mind Flayer’s tentacle-tunnels to spread wide and deep, in retaliation.  Dr. Owens’s attempts to responsibly fix the mistakes of the past via Action alone, his last and untempered step, ends up exacerbating the very problem he was trying to fix in the first place.  And countless scientists, soldiers, and civilians die on his watch because of it.

ENTPs who try to defiantly assert how responsible they are, often end up falling into the pitfalls of “responsible” people, even if they have better motives than those other people.  This seems to be the case with Dr. Sam Owens (totally hadn’t remembered his first name was Sam, btw, had to look it up) who, while he acknowledges the bad motives of his predecessors, still falls into plenty of governmental dehumanizing pitfalls in the name of doing the most responsible thing.

So what could Dr. Owens have done differently?

Like I said, we see right away that he obviously cares.  We see his tender care for Will and his jolly bedside manner, even when at first he thinks that Will’s visions are nothing more than flashbacks or hallucinations.

He slowly realizes something real is going on as things aren’t quite adding up.  How does Will know about the storm that he’s seen with his own eyes is happening in the real, current Upside Down?  Why does the chief keep finding dead crap around town?  He shows respect to Nancy and Jonathan by giving them an actual explanation, yet also gives them a serious threat if they push the borders of the safety he’s worked so hard to maintain.

But Dr. Owens doesn’t want to see what he’s Observing, hoping that if he trusts in the Action he’s expected to carry out in Hawkins, everything will be contained, stabilized, kept safe…enough.  So he takes his worry out on his stress ball, ignoring the signs that holding down the fort just isn’t cutting it anymore.

We’ve talked about this in previous sections, that scared people often ignore what their first, strongest cognitive step is telling them.  And as much as he tries to hide it by stress-squeezing a blue foam ball, Dr. Owens is really really scared.  He’s scared by the gate; he’s scared by learning how many people died the year before from something so outside their control; he’s scared that people within a system he loves would let children die so fecklessly; he’s scared that things are actually getting worse and he has no *beeping* idea what to do about it.  So he ignores his first step of Observation rampantly.

The number one way he does this is by failing to scrutinize his sources.  Anyone who put Dr. Brenner in charge in the first place, shouldn’t be trusted, and I think it’s clear that although Hawkins Lab’s management has changed, its bosses haven’t.  Whoever Sam Owens is reporting to is not so well-intentioned, and he should know better.  And he should trust Hopper and Joyce more.  Hopper knows Hawkins and Joyce knows Will; they know when something isn’t right.  When EPs get too caught up in doing “responsible” Actions, they can look to those established as responsible by those they’re trying to please, instead of looking to people they can personally tell are experts where the rubber hits the road.

So by the time Dr. Owens lets himself realize just how dire things are, the tunnels have already spread throughout the area, Hopper has almost died in them, and Will is part of an evil hive-mind bent on his own soldiers’ destruction.

And he really does try with all his might to fix it.  He stands up for Will against the dehumanizing “then we let the boy die” attitudes of other scientists.  And he tries to make up for not listening to Will before… but it’s too late and now Will is not a good source, which EP Mike Observes before anyone else.

I don’t know if it was intentional, but we found it very fitting that Mike is the only one wearing normal clothes; you have the doctors, the patients, and Mike is “I’m the only one being normal.”

Poor Doc Owens has dug himself too deep a hole, every choice seems to make things worse.  But he still shows what he’s made of by how he handles the life-threatening crisis: he doesn’t panic, he doesn’t reveal himself to be an empty bureaucrat; he stays behind in the heart of the danger, to help guide everyone else to safety, willing to go down with his ship as its captain.  Though terrible mistakes have been made, Dr. Owens has honor.

So Hopper knows how to handle the good doctor when he finds him barely alive in the lab: he treats him like a reasonable person, while adding a little threat of his own by tightening his tourniquet just a little bit too forcefully.  And I think, after everything, that’s when Sam Owens realizes he’s been on the wrong side all along.

As much as he wanted to use the power and responsibility of the lab to save everyone, it’s this young girl whom the lab screwed over who ends up saving him, and everyone else.  When all his Action attempts to put band-aid solutions onto bullet wound problems keep making everything spiral downward, it’s the very people who were shunned by the sources he believed represented safety, that end up swooping in and repairing his errors.

So I think Sam Owens is happy to pass Eleven’s birth certificate across the diner table, even though his career is likely over, because he knows to whom he owes his life and the fate of Hawkins, which could have been so much worse.  And hopefully next time, he’ll let himself see the signs, check his sources, and let his Actions follow from his good Motives.

Dr. Brenner
INTJ(ej)*
The Supercharged Dragon
A Supercharged Approach to Expectable Trends
“Today is a very special day… today we make history.  Today we make contact.”
INTJ(ej) examples: Bill Gates, Anne Boleyn, Thorin Oakenshield – The Hobbit

Okay, so maybe there is an INTJ villain in Stranger Things.  Note to self:  In the future, type all the characters from a work before starting to write the post about it and making statements about how many or few characters there are of each type!  (Especially if I’m going to base theses on them, like why I’m okay with Lonnie being the only ENTP in Stranger Things…)  But at least I admit when I messed something up.

Speaking of messing things up (that’s as good a segue as any), it’s clear to see that Martin Brenner had a plan when it came to everything at Hawkins Lab—a plan that did not go according to plan.  He seems unfazeable about the twists and turns along the way, taking them in useful stride, and happy to observe rather than dictate the workings of the world of power that 011 gives him access to.  It’s just what he’d hoped when she can start crushing cans with her mind; he’s pleased as punch to find that she can telepathically project audio instead of just hearing and repeating it herself from far away, and he’s even giddy, it seems, when she discovers something far beyond the USSR spywork he had for her in the void.

What’s Brenner’s reaction to hearing, surely described in detail, that there’s an alien horror just a bathtub away?  To try and push further, try to use this new discovery toward his already-in-motion plans; to try and make contact.

But he never imagined, for all his sweeping plans and schemes, that such a creature could push right back, with power greatly beyond Brenner’s own, even ripping space itself.  And that’s when Brenner stumbles, where we see his fear for the first time: as he suddenly realizes how completely out of his control things really are.

We’ve talked about Anakin Angst a lot in this post, about the different reactions and approaches to it, and about it being mingled with other Type Angsts.  And we’ve even already seen the INTJ(ej) approach in Eleven (whose type resemblance we’ll talk about in a minute).  But I want to bring up a new concept about it now with Brenner.

We don’t actually have an official name for this yet.  Justin calls it “Jerkitype” but I don’t feel that’s strong enough, and my working title isn’t the most family-friendly (“Type Dickery”), so it remains as yet unnamed.  Although, okay, Justin just suggested “Type-Hole” and that might be my new favorite; as in “Dude, stop being such a Type-Hole!”

Anyway, you can call it whatever you want, but it’s pretty simple.  “Jerkitype” is the pattern that each type tends to fall into when unhealthy, of saying “I’m the only one who is good at __________,” where [blank] is the opposite-type’s Type Angst.

So, for example, in less healthy INFPs than Lovecraft, we often see the assertion “I’m the only one who is Meaningful,” which pushes ESTJ’s Threehorn Pride on everyone, because ESTJs fear they aren’t meaningful enough.  Or in less healthy ESTPs, the insistence that “I’m the only one who is wanted as me,” shoving INFJ’s Hercules Syndrome at everyone else (Steve actually does do this to Jonathan in the first series).  ENFJ’s Jerkitype implies that others don’t belong in the group (ISTP’s Angst), etc.

Jerkitype is a sort of sour grapes, saying “I don’t even want to be good at the areas where I feel small!  But, ha, I’m good at this and you’re not!  Nyeh nyeh!”

But then Super Jerkitype (just doesn’t have the same ring as “Super Type Dickery”), is a step beyond that, to saying “I’m the only one who is good at [my own Type Angst].”  Super Jerkitype is not only mean, like regular Jerkitype; it’s also in denial of one’s own Type Angst, trying to prove that it’s the strongest where it’s really the weakest.

Lonnie is a good example of Super Jerkitype, constantly trying to assert that Joyce, his Covetype, is nowhere near as responsible as he is, and in fact that he’s the only responsible one, so much more on top of Action than anyone in that crap hole Hawkins.  ENTP’s Type Angst of Megamind Complex gets projected onto everyone else but him.

Both are mean and damaging, but usually Super Jerkitype requires more dishonesty with oneself.  Steve is a real jerk S1, but he’s not dishonest with himself the way Lonnie is.  And for the record, you can be both at once, a Type-Hole and a Super Type-Hole.

So coming back to Dr. Brenner, we do see him shoving ESFP’s Type Angst of Fry Future Phobia at everyone around him, as a Type-Hole; acting like he’s the only one who can have any significant impact on the world around him, trying to convince others like Joyce to just give up and let him take the reins, because he’s the only one who can stop people from being hurt.  But even more, we see Super Type-Holery from him, which in INTJs comes in the form of blame, blame, blame!  “Everything isn’t my fault!  Actually it’s your fault!  And yours, and yours and yours!”

But I love Joyce’s reaction when he tries to make her feel out of control and blamed.  She throws Anakin Angst back in his face and makes him look at it: “Excuse me?!  People are hurting because of you, not anyone else.”

Brenner’s face at that moment is so classic.  Not only are his tactics not working, she sees right through him and throws his weakness in his face.  Bam!

Now, regarding Brenner and Eleven; yes they are the same cognition, down to the subtype.  I was struggling both to type him and to know what to say about him, because in a lot of ways he frustrates me, even though I think he’s very well written.  I don’t know why exactly he bothers me.  But Justin began enthusing about how much he loves every time Brenner comes on screen (we’ll talk more about why Justin has always had heart-eyes for villains, in the Mind Flayer section).

In a much sweeter version of the same-type-down-to-the-sub relationship between Brenner and Eleven, Justin had an awesome INTJ(ej) friend his first year of college, the same one mentioned in the Phase 2 Intro, who would come up with arguments like why Darth Vader was a good guy and the Rebel Alliance were terrorists, just to troll people.  I’ve heard many great stories about this INTJ(ej), but anyway, apparently he had a massive crush on a particular celebrity: Natalie Portman.  Now if you noticed the examples at the top of the Eleven section, Natalie Portman is INTJ(ej) too.  When Justin discovered the type similarity he thought it was hilarious that his INTJ(ej) friend had a crush on his own cognition without even realizing it.

That happens with people of every type, but I do think there’s something particularly INTJ(ej) about ending up with an obsession with another INTJ(ej).  IJ as it is, with their own motives as their last step, can really have the desire to see their own selfness under a microscope, prodding it like an alien test-subject because their own motives can feel so distant and unknowable, compared to their earlier cognition steps.  (“What is me?” Justin says, lol.)  And finding someone else of the same or similar thought processes and watching them, can be a way to discover their own selves.  That’s great and needed; part of why I love sharing examples of every type and subtype is to help people examine their similarities and differences with others of the same cognition, and use that information to both understand themselves better and love themselves more.

On top of that, NT wants to push the limits by finding new ways to use things (myself included ), so the IJ-NT combination I picture singing “What’s This?” from The Nightmare Before Christmas about discovering their own motives or someone who represents a way of thinking like their own.  “Ooooh, what is this funny/odd/intelligent thing??  I like it!  HOW CAN I USE IT?!?!”  Heehee, I really like that analogy, for all INTJs, but especially for (ej) subs who just can’t turn off the intensity.

And I think Brenner does feel that way about 011.  Even though there have been at least ten others similar to her, it’s clear that 011 is special to him.  I’m sure he had a manipulatively-nurturing relationship with 008 too, but I really can’t imagine him treating Kali’s group-oriented thinking with as much respect as Eleven’s focused intent.  Little ENFJ(ep) 008 would have craved affirmation too desperately, in my estimation, for Brenner to freely bestow her with his respect.  Plus villains, by definition, never fully look outside their own Type Specialization and Toi.

Brenner sees 011 as a little, purer, weaponized version of himself, like a god-given little protégé of himself.  He is almost worshipful about her gifts; cautious, slow, and reverent, cradling her brain like that’s his baby, with the rest of her merely the vessel for it.  He is proud of 011… when she does exactly what he wants.

Come to think of it, that’s why Brenner bothers me, because of how closed-off he is; cutting off people cuts off options.  It bothers me that he closes off possibilities, in that “there’s only one way to do this” sort of way.  It offends me on behalf of Use when people do that.  It’s just not useful to refuse options and ways of seeing the world, just because they’re not yours.

That tends to be a pet peeve of mine in general, when TJs especially, act like the only valid form of Use is useful Action, as opposed to useful Data that forms useful possibilities and useful people.  Unhealthy TJs like Brenner act like they are the sole gatekeepers of Use (Type-Hole!) while I’m over here waving both arms saying “Hello?!  You missed literally hundreds of other ways you could have done this more efficiently, in pursuit of your almighty plan!”

*Ahem.*  Every type has its own way to ignore all of the other ways of thinking, that one is just offensive to my own personal Type Spec.  And I love INTJs when they’re healthy; they’re my Patronatype!  But that’s when they respect that people are an asset, not just as cogs in a plan, but as a resource for ideas and information beyond what one person can imagine.

Billy Hargrove
ENTJ(ip)
The Comfortable Crusader
A Comfortable Approach to Expectable Events
“You disobeyed me, and you know what happens when you disobey me. I break things.”
ENTJ(ip) examples:  Malcolm X, Thomas Edison, Demona* – Disney’s Gargoyles

ENTJ(ip)s are sometimes such paradoxes in and of themselves, to me.  The intensity inherent in ENTJ (which, when healthy, I absolutely love about them), mixed with the comfortable, nearly laissez-faire repose of (ip) sub, can seem jarring at times.  Also, since (ip) subtype’s driving approach to behavior is “steering wheel = no; pedals = yes,” I typically expect to see changes in behavioral speed from (ip) subs, and most often a casual, precautious slowness from (ip)s.  But ENTJ as a main type, maybe even more than the other Action-centric EJs, often has only one speed: pedal to the metal.  (This can make EJ(ej)s O_O full-steam-ahead machines, especially to an EP(ep) like me.)

In healthier ENTJ(ip)s, this leads to a sort of casual-breakneck charm of the kind we see in Chris Pine, Ellen Degeneres, or Sean Connery.  With less healthy ENTJ(ip)s, however, it seems to lead to a sort of pressurized desperation, like a soda can that looks calm until it gets punctured and then totally explodes.  And this is what we see in Billy.

Like most of the angriest people in life, Billy seems to be motivated by fear.  ENTJ’s Type Angst, The Great and Powerful Trixie Tantrum, arises from their fear that nobody cares what they have to say; that no one wants to listen to them, because nobody finds what they say worthwhile.  With a last cognitive step of the Meaning of Data and Details, ENTJs feel vulnerable and potentially defensive about the specific Situational Details they see.  So they naturally fear that the thoughts they have to share, which feel so Meaningful to them, will seem Meaningless, silly, and stupid to everyone else.

This seems to be exactly how Billy’s father treats him: that nothing he could possibly have to say has any merit.  It’s his job to listen, obey, say “Yes, sir,” and then shut up.  He feels totally disrespected and unheard by the man from whom he’s likely to desire approval the most.  And no matter how much they might pretend otherwise, ENTJs very much crave the approval of those close to them, since as with all EJs, they gather their worldview from their Group.

Of all the subtypes, (ip) subs most frequently handle their Type Angsts by denying that the underlying fear is even there.  “What do you mean I fear that?  No I don’t; that’s not a problem for me at all.  In fact, I’m the most [insert thing they’re afraid of not being] person around!”  Rather than face the discomfort of their type’s core fear, they often avoid it, seeking the path of least emotional resistance by building a growing wall of denial.

We see this denial a lot in Billy, as he swaggers around posing as the center of attention, the new king in town, intent on convincing himself most of all that everyone should rightfully hang on his every word and glance.  But as frequently happens with (ip) subs who seek emotional safety in denial, Billy tries a little too hard at it.  Or a lot too hard.  He doesn’t genuinely enjoy strutting around the way formerly-douchey Steve used to; he has to constantly trumpet his own arrival, persistently advertise how cool he is, and carelessly insult even the eager girls who vapidly cling to him.  In his desperate marathon to escape himself, he tries ever harder to deny his Trixie fear that, after all his shouting and posing are done, nobody really cares what he thinks.

And so he tries harder, and harder.  Not only does he spend a rather endearingly silly amount of time in front of his mirror, spraying fragrances down his pants, but he crosses more and more lines in his desperation for his desires to matter.  At first he simply redefines the limits of the word “jerk,” showing callous disregard for everyone, threatening Max, nearly running over the Stranger boys at high speed, and pushing Steve around way more than necessary (even while a little childlike, albeit muddled, humanity manages to leak out as he subtly seems to flirt with Steve).  But then he pushes it farther and farther.  As if the slimy, transparently manipulative tactics that he uses on an all-too-willing Karen Wheeler weren’t enough to make our stomachs turn, his all-out brawl with Steve goes way beyond the bounds of any typical fight.  Jonathan and Steve threw furious punches at one another in S1, landing Jonathan in a police station, and leaving Steve with his hilariously awful bloody eye.  But with Billy, it passes the line into an outright murderous rampage, throwing out all semblance of a fair fight the moment Billy smashes one of the Byers’s plates over Steve’s head.

Had it not been for Max intervening, shoving a sedative needle straight into her hated step-brother’s neck, Steve Harrington might well have been killed there on the Byers’s floor, as Billy unleashed all his irrational, repressed rage onto Steve’s helpless face.  In a world where demodogs lurk hungrily in the nearby lab, it’s Billy who becomes a life-threatening danger in human form.  Even sedated and paralyzed on the floor, Billy just laughs, unhinged, when Max threatens him with Steve’s nail-bat.  It takes a convincing near-miss of nails to his most vulnerable area to snap him to a moment of lucid surrender.

Billy is a fascinating exploration of the human potential for evil.  The Duffers said that after Steve became such a sympathetic, redeemed character in S1, they wanted a character who would truly be a human villain.  And yet, in spite of their best efforts (or maybe because of them), I think it’s awesome that they still had to make Billy a person, with understandable Motives and pain.  We actually feel for him when we see his violently abusive father torment him both physically and emotionally.  Suddenly, Billy is no longer the big bad alpha-jerk that he’s been pretending to be; he’s simply coping by following in his father’s toxic footsteps.  He’s a sobbing child huddled in a corner, throwing rocks as hard as he can at anyone who ventures too close.

And yet, none of this excuses Billy’s destructive hatred.  Yes, he came from a terrible upbringing, but we can always choose.  We can choose to say “No.  This stops with me.  I will not merely be a puppet of the people who hurt me, reproducing their violence like a virus.  I won’t pass this on.  This stops with me.”  Look at how Max chooses to handle her parents, compared to what Billy has chosen so far.  Max seems to have no illusions about her parents’ unhealthiness, and while it makes her bitter, she handles it by seeking to escape.  First she escapes into her ISTP(ej) specialization, into being a Zoomer and a goddess of Dig Dug, and then, once the unthinkable opportunity comes, she escapes into real friends.

Billy, by contrast, lives by shoving down even his eager toadies.  He styles his life loud, revving his engine in a demand that everybody look his way…just so that he can flip them all off.

Of course we always need to be compassionate and understanding of people for the background they come from, for the pain they’ve suffered, and for the difficulty they’re having at dealing with it all.  Especially when people are coming from a background of abuse.  We do our best to work with people, even and especially those who are the most broken, and the most dangerously ill.  And yet, we also cannot turn a blind eye to the danger they may pose to others.  We cannot let innocent people get trampled in our self-conscious desire to be understanding.

And we must always remember that the EP ToI of Motives and Character exists; Motives are a thing.  Everyone can always choose, always.  That’s part of being intelligent.  No matter the pain or abuse, nobody gets to relinquish their immutable personal right and responsibility to choose how they’re going to handle it.  This does not mean everyone should or can always be positive or perky.  This does not mean that depression, rage, or years of pain can be overcome simply by “trying harder.”  But it does mean that we always have a choice; no matter how deeply we’re buried, we can always choose to dig one inch farther down, or scratch our way one more weary inch toward the light.

And the instant we choose to dig toward freedom instead of deeper imprisonment, we suddenly cease to be a danger.  No matter how deep under the depths of hopelessness we may feel, it matters most not where we are, but what direction we’re facing.  The moment we turn toward simply trying to be better, to no longer tearing down everyone else with us, in that moment we cease to be a threat, and people respond to that.  Rather than attracting insincere, competitive toadies, we suddenly make ourselves available to real friends.

So where will Billy go next?  Will he explode and send shrapnel spinning out into everyone around him?  Or will he find some outlet for his boiling pressure?  Or maybe a mix of both?  Will he explode in a frenzy of self-destruction, and then afterward simmer down?  Maybe it will turn out that Billy has special super-powers, and that he was actually Eleven in disguise all along!!  We never see them in the same place at the same time…  Okay, maybe not, but we’ll have to wait and see.

In other news, I accidentally discovered that George Michael of Wham! was INFP(ep) like Billy’s actor, Dacre Montgomery (and Zac Efron), and now I can’t unsee the similarity.  So now I really want to see Billy perform “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” next season, while wearing a fluorescent pink shirt and two-tone hot pants.  The song was even released in 1984.  Surely that’ll fit thematically for Series 3, right?

Kali Prasad (008)
ENFJ(ep)
The Natural Veteran
A Natural Approach to Edifying Events
“If you wanted to show mercy, that is your choice.  But don’t you ever take away mine.  Ever.”
ENFJ(ep) examples: Barack Obama, Mother Teresa, Princess Cadence* – My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Being named for the Hindu goddess Kali perfectly communicates the role of this Dark, but empathetic, Veteran; the mother of destruction, gathering in her chicks to destroy everything that might get in their way.  The Hindu Kali is portrayed as the goddess of empowerment, with a gentle smile, while simultaneously wearing a garland of severed heads.  I see why the reference was chosen.

ENFJ’s type specialization is all about the edification of their beloved group’s meaning, which is a beautiful thing when well placed and filled with the encouragement and love that healthy ENFJs excel at.  But as a dark side to their Faramir Dilemma, which makes them fear there’s no hope of changing the choices of those around them, ENFJs can turn a blind eye to the wrongs of members of their own group, unfairly weighing outsiders’ faults and offences as more weighty than those of the people they care about.

Also, with a last step of Data, Details, and Situations, EJs can be guilty of situational fudging: believing that your team is correct enough that you can ignore situational clues that show bad intentions.

I read someone’s observation, that I can’t find again for the life of me (honestly I thought it was from a BuzzFeed post of all things, not typically where I go for complex thought on the internet…), about how fittingly symbolic Kali’s punky purple half-shaved hairstyle is to her internal turmoil.

(Which as a total aside, I love that color purple for hair.  I attempted to go purple just before my 25th birthday, but it was an utter fail because I was unwilling to bleach first and my hair is quite dark.  But I was scarred as a teenager when I wanted to look like Rogue from the X-Men movies, tried to bleach white forelocks at home and it turned bright orange instead.  It was Christmas time and I had to go to a nativity festival with it that way, even though my hair was Halloween colors instead.  This has been useless Calise trivia.  You’re welcome.)

The purple side of Kali’s hair loudly insists she is free; free to make her own choices, go her own way, with no one controlling her or telling her what to do.  But on the other side, somewhat underneath and hidden, she keeps her head shaved… just like Eleven’s was in the lab.

Honestly, since the little girls in the Rainbow Room have hair, we don’t know what instigated the shaving of Eleven’s head, but it’s likely that Kali’s head would have been shaved at some point in the lab too.  And it works well as a demonstration of Kali’s torn insides, the Two-Face nature of her hair.

No matter how loud she shouts that she is free, part of Kali is still the little girl, locked in the lab, who can’t break free.  As much as she tries to manipulate Jane with the threat of the past as a canker, Kali’s whole life revolves around the festering wound inside her that is her life as 008.

Kali has never truly left the lab, and it’s forever affecting her, driving her actions as she tries to prove it was wrong in how it treated her.  Because that’s the thing about hatred: it controls us, letting the people who have hurt us in the past continue to hurt us because we can’t put it down.

She pretends that her hatred means that she hasn’t run from the past, that she’s faced it head-on.  But you know what?  Hatred is a means of escape as much as choosing ignorance is.  Hatred makes us feel protected from our pain by closing off vulnerability, which protects us from looking at how our pain makes us feel about our own worth.  People who escape into hatred always hate themselves most of all.

Kali teaching “Jane” to embrace her past and her anger has real truth to it, truth that helps Eleven grow stronger because she has good motives which turn half-truths into full ones.

There is truth behind embracing anger, truth behind the Sith Code:

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

(Wow, I’m actually using the Sith Code to illustrate a point in a post… and linking to Wookiepedia.  I believe new levels of nerd-points are in order.)

The way in which peace is a lie, is honestly if it’s not really peace: if it’s forced serenity covering a tumultuous sea of unresolved emotion and pain.  Fake peace and fake smiles are like prettily painted dams holding back pressurized sewage just waiting for the right event to come along and leave a chink in our emotional armor, that’ll release everything just at the worst possible time.  Real peace comes from understanding, not ignoring.

But passion does lead to strength, in often underestimated ways.  Passion fuels, as Kali teaches Jane, but it also illuminates.  Passion, like all emotions, demonstrates to us why things matter (which is why Feeling, as a function, and Meaning are synonymous at aLBoP.  That is the purpose of Feelings).  Feelings, as we come to understand them, give our thoughts the perspective they lack, preventing the unuseful, directionless pull of nihilism and helping us understand what truly needs to be done.  But our emotions are always there, whether we’re willing to deal with them or not, affecting our every choice and consequence.  (Don’t get me started on how recklessly emotional nihilism is.)

And as far as strength → power → victory leading to your chains being broken, overcoming external chains is worth so little without breaking our internal ones first.  Which is why money, power, etc. don’t buy happiness; it doesn’t matter what your external circumstances are, you will still be miserable if you’re in emotional bondage.

Anyway, Kali has a major point when it comes to Jane “using her aggressive feelings… Good, gooood!”  Eleven deserves to let the past fuel her into a much stronger person than she ever was before.

But hatred demonstrates fear of the thing hated, and fear cripples options.

Unlike Dr. Brenner, Kali understands the importance of having a group of individuals with abilities and perspectives outside her own, gathering her band of merry punks to round out all the needed roles for what she believes needs to be done, and actually loving and appreciating them individually.  So she doesn’t cut off the options that multiple perspectives have, the way her “Papa” did.

Left to right:  Mick – ISTJ(ij)*, Axel – ESFJ(ej)*, Kali’s actress, Linnea Berthelsen – ESFJ(ep) (one-off from Kali), Funshine – ISFP(ej)*, Dottie – ESTP(ij)*

However, her fear-driven hatred of her past and the individuals in it, amputates her reaction options.  She can’t actually go forward and build anything, because she’s so busy reacting to the people who hurt her.  Hatred means she’s constantly fighting yesterday’s battle, unable to adapt to the current needs of the people she loves, and constantly basing her actions on the actions of the villains in her life.  Because of her hatred, Kali will always be a victim to her past, instead of its victor.

While deciding on examples for the Billy section, I ended up reading the Wikipedia page on Malcolm X, and jotting down my thoughts, but it wasn’t until later that I realized how perfectly those realizations fit here, instead of randomly thrown in with Billy.

I was struck by how very much Malcolm X was a Magneto to Martin Luther King’s Charles Xavier.  I told Justin the X-Men parallel and shared MLK’s condolence note to Malcolm X’s wife after his assassination, and Justin said by the end he was hearing it in Patrick Stewart’s voice.

I find it fascinating that the two were just T/F different, with Malcolm X being ENTJ(ip) and MLK being ENFJ(ip).  (Random note, but both Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. were ENFJ(ip); is not that awesome??)  But Malcolm X referred to Martin Luther King as a “chump” for hoping he could inspire people to be essentially “the better man,” for saying things like, “I have decided to stick with love.  Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

And choosing to be on one side or the other of this dynamic is not a type thing.  The only cognitive difference between Martin Luther King and Kali is subtype, and only (i/e) at that, and Xavier and Magneto are often written as both being INTJs, like Eleven.  It’s not that Ts are hateful or can’t take people into account or any such crap.  (Although as a trend, there seems to be a lot of NJs taking passionate roles on both sides of these equations.)  Being a transitional character is a decision, not something that comes naturally or easily to any cognition.

The comparison to Kali just makes me respect Martin Luther King all the more.  To react in the face of inexcusable oppression, violence, hatred, and belittlement, not in turn with reciprocal hatred, violence, and belittlement, but with love, forgiveness, and attempts to heal the world, even for those who haven’t earned forgiveness, shows such courage and true peace-with-self that I’m in awe.  It takes real strength to see your oppressors as human, even when they don’t deserve it.

And I love that “Lost Sister” makes Eleven make that choice.  As abused as she and Kali have truly been, as seemingly justified in hatred, violence, and doling in kind the oppression which they were treated, Eleven chooses to be brave enough to break the cycle of hatred and work instead on healing herself, her friends, and Hawkins of the true festering wounds within them.  She chooses to be a Professor X instead of a Magneto, and in doing such is able to save everything that matters to her, and I believe come huge strides in loving herself.  Like MLK said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

I’m going to be fascinated to see where Kali’s journey takes her in S3, as I don’t believe she’s bound for a Robin Hood-inspired spin-off series.  Instead I believe she’s likely to be an antagonist that Eleven has to defy, once again ala Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr, two people with shared history, pains, and loves, divided asunder on how that pain and those who caused it should be dealt with.  I suspect we’ll see Kali’s hatred continue to take its toll on her, leading her to break everything she originally set out to save, broken inside by the demons of her past that she refuses to set free.  I only hope Eleven can save her too, somehow.

As Kali’s gang drives away from Eleven and the police, Kali’s nose bleeding, I think her expression says it all.  Even though Eleven ran off alone into the distance, going back to embrace her life as a number, it’s Kali who is truly alone and doesn’t know who she is.  Feeling more abandoned than she knew she would at Jane’s departure, Kali is left with only her hatred to comfort her, and with no buffer to protect her from how much she hates herself.

The Mind Flayer
INFJ(ij)*
The Deliberate Paladin
A Deliberate Approach to Edifying Trends
“What do you think the evil wanted?… To kill you?”
“Not me.  Everyone else.”
INFJ(ij) examples: Morena Baccarin, Dan Shive, Ra’s al Ghul – Batman Begins

There were complaints after I published the Marble Hornets post that it was dumb to think I could type The Operator, Marble Hornets’ iteration of Slender Man.  The implication was that it was foolish to think I could isolate the cognitive process of a faceless eldritch being of unknown origin, who uses mere mortals like playthings.

*Cracks knuckles*  Well, watch me work.

While humans being “cosmic playthings” definitely invokes the mind-defying expanse of IJ as a Toi, beings that feel such ways don’t have to be IJ.  Like I mentioned in the intro to this post, IP Lovecraft revelled in this trope, passing onto us the reverence and terror he felt in the face of the sheer size of the universe.  But from the Lovecraft I’ve read (or really mostly heard Justin gush about at length), his gaping maws of antagonists often didn’t possess IJ motives and cognition themselves.

From what I know of Lovecraft’s Azathoth (which I am no way claiming Lovecraft expertise), the “blind idiot god” as he is nicknamed, is motivated by nothing more than being in possession of a self, and letting nothing get in the way of the self that he already is, which according to definition is a twisting of ESTP motives.  He doesn’t scheme or plot any action, he merely sits there, ready to react and destroy you should you interact with his self-ness incorrectly.  He even invokes to us a creepy version of Jayne Justification, using his willful lack of intelligence like a weapon.  To me, what makes a being like Azathoth most terrifying is the utter inability to reason with it.  It seems to toe the line of sentience to the point that it can have malice, and yet almost seem pleased at its utter lack of lucidity.  It’s like an ugly cosmic baby that hates you, made of all arms and no eyes, except maybe one pointed at its own self.

As a more humorous example, Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the basically all-powerful space-troll, is ENTP(ej), using his “cosmic plaything” powers to poke people for reactions, to see who they really are.  Also Discord, who, also being voiced by John Delancey, is basically Q with ponies.

I was thinking of more examples and Justin told me about one from the lore of the Elder Scrolls games.  Sheogorath, the Daedric god of Madness, (besides having a pretty cool lovecraftian name) is portrayed as an utterly unpredictable entity of unknowable motives.  But when playing Skyrim, Justin ran into Sheogorath and was like “unpredictable?  Unknowable motives?  He’s just a straight-up ENTP(ij) with cosmic troll powers!”  But then again, sometimes ENTPs might seem unpredictable and unknowable to their victims friends ?.

And yet, for all the writers’ efforts to create a mad god of total trolling unpredictability, they ended up with a consistent character with an identifiable, clear, and hilariously fitting cognitive type.  Even inconsistent, unsatisfying characters end up being simply a patchwork of shifting cognitive types.  It’s remarkable that as soon as you adequately define intelligence, every intelligent being imaginable ends up unavoidably following the patterns of the 4Toi.

Whether it’s near-inanimate yet immensely powerful beings like Azathoth, cosmic trolls like Q, Discord, or Sheogorath, or grimly mute terrors like the Operator, every intelligent being imaginable ends up surprisingly comprehensible.

This doesn’t mean it dispels the tantalizing eldritch magic of mysterious beings.  Understanding the Operator’s motives makes him arguably more terrifying, just as understanding astronomy makes the stars all the more amazing, incomprehensibly huge, and unimaginably distant.

As Justin says, in super IJ form:  Satisfying answers don’t ruin a mystery, though unsatisfying or over-simplistic answers most certainly do.  And the biggest, most mysterious questions, like Lovecraft’s, demand the best, most difficult answers.

My point:  If it’s intelligent, if it thinks, even just a little bit like Azathoth, it always ends up following the patterns of the 4Toi.  And, with enough effort and time, I suspect I could write a post illustrating beings with unfathomable cosmic powers of all types, akin to A.I. Typed.

My “Facial Typed Correctly” asterisk up there is a little tongue-in-cheek, as obviously the picture above has no literal face.  However, that visual typing is fulfilled both through the Smoke Monster’s primary conduit, as he and Will are the same cognition (so many props to Noah Schnapp who plays both characters epically), but also through the recurrent INFJ trope of the ethereal monster who takes all the mind-blowing scale of the cosmos, and flips it all upside down and turns it against you.  That unembodied malevolence which glares down at your petty mortality, a sneering darkness which snorts derisively at your frail attempts at having a self, despising their own last step of Individuals and their Motives, treating people as insignificant specks in the shadow of the cosmos.

Like this guy.

Yet the Mind Flayer does seem to have a distinct respect for Will, as much as it can respect anyone.  Will is someone to use, not just consume, because of their like thinking and way of seeing the world.  I really didn’t expect for that to be a mirrored theme between Brenner/Eleven and Mind Flayer/Will, but it seems to be: a villain only seeing the worth of thinking in their own way.  It’s a villainous narcissism, able to respect only those who function as lesser mirrors to their own beautiful selves.

INFJ’s Type Angst of Hercules Syndrome has many possible reactions.  One common reaction, that I talked about in What If I’m Not the Type I Thought I Was?, along with the following picture, is the attempt for an INFJ to disassociate themselves from the universal, to pretend disinterest or even distaste at Edifying Trends and Conceptual Meaning Principles which are the very lifeblood of INFJ’s mental prioritization.

“But why, what did I do?” says Universe. “I am just universing! Why you no be my friend??”

We see this described response from INFJs often to their Type Angst, with the desire to fit in with “normal” people, Covetyping ESFP, suppressing their desire to be themselves and to see how the world really works in an edifying manner.

However, the reaction to Hercules Syndrome that I’m about to talk about is the opposite extreme.  It’s a resentful disdain of the “ordinary masses” as mere muggles, unworthy of the air they breathe because they aren’t aware of the larger opera of meaning occurring all around them.  This twisting of the Paladin’s Type Specialization itself turns INFJ’s last-step fear of individuals and not being SF safe and enjoyable enough to the group, into painting the group as shallow, meaningless herds, ripe for the fire.  It sees normal humans as crawling bugs and takes gleeful pleasure at seeing them cower in the face of the infinite.

I think that’s a pretty good description of Dark Paladin motives: a subversion of the accurate trend-observation that some people do truly want to be ostriches in the face of larger meaning…

And yet, where this resentful Hercules Syndrome really goes off the rails is, unsurprisingly, understanding the intrinsic worth of the individual (IJ’s last step), pretending that if a person’s chosen motives are not in line with a narrow definition of purity and goodness, then they’re as good as dross on the path to a golden world.  This line of thinking often appeals to true Principles, and yet relies on fallacious character judgments as scapegoats.

And the recurrent glimpses of the Mind Flayer’s motives that we get throughout S2 are the embodiment of this disdain.  Just as with cognitive Type Specializations, the nature and source of Type Angsts means that even multidimensional beings of darkness, bent on human destruction, will be found to have them.

I didn’t anticipate bringing up INFJ(ej) Hitler twice in this post, and I worry about it undermining the post, but not only did Steve bring up the parallel first (granted, following Steve is not necessarily a great reason to do something), but we’re already examining powerfully dark INFJs with disdainful Hercules Syndrome.  And I’m personally of the opinion that if we don’t examine not only the actions of the past, but the motives also, then we’re doomed to repeat them.

Adolf Hitler’s original, somewhat tantrumy title for his hateful autobiography “Mein Kampf” was (deep breath) “Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice.”  Or in other words, “See how much I have suffered in pursuit of true world meaning?!  It’s all these evil people’s fault.  Stupid, shallow, worthless people.”  The parentheses in an actual book title are just the cherry on top.

When people’s motives, and perceived weaknesses, get in the way of Meaningful Principles, Dark INFJ deems them unworthy of living; such people don’t deserve to exist, because they’re inferior.  And like the Dark INFJ doctrines of the Nazi movement, the Mind Flayer sees all other beings as lesser, as blemishes on existence, and therefore unworthy of existing.

So when poor Jayne-ing Steve suggests that the Mind Flayer’s intentions are like the Nazis, he’s more right than he knows… even if it’s good that Dustin corrects him from painting all Germans as Nazis.

Steve’s 2-watt light bulb moment 

Even among healthy INFJs, I’ve noticed a trend among (ij) subs, guys especially, of loving to get inside the head of the villain.

I’ve had a Google search tab up on my phone for a few months now, that says “Noah Schnapp serial killer” lol.  But I was attempting to re-find interviews where the then-preteen actor said prior to filming S2 that he would love to play a serial killer, and that he thought it would be cool because of how unexpected that would be.  (Young IJ knows his tropes.)

So I’d already had this in my notes for this post for months, and then I saw a recent interview in which Noah said he’d love to be in a superhero movie, and when asked if he would want to play a hero or a villain, he instantly responded villain.  I might have been very proud of my people-trend-spotting abilities.

Likewise, James McAvoy said he’d rather play a Bond villain than James Bond himself, and his performance in Split was so intensely immersive into the complex multi-mind of the movie’s villain.

And my INFJ(ij) has been obsessed with evil empires since childhood.  At the centerpiece of his own fiction, since the first version when he was in second grade almost 30 years ago, has always been an INFJ(ij) villain who is smooth, calculated, even kind, who understands Principles and doesn’t make any mistakes.

I asked Justin why the villain would be so recurrently fascinating to INFJ(ij)s.  He said that, among other things, what villains have to offer is ultimately freedom: power without limitations.  Villains embody the conflict of a tale, and in many ways propel the themes and questions at the heart of any story.  Villains act; they have a vision and they are going to use their considerable power to make it a reality, rather than merely reacting to a threat posed by someone else.  While heroes, archetypally, are usually the underdogs, not fully developed in their own might, not as yet.

Villains present the opportunity to see power fully unleashed, a thrill to someone focused on the Meaning of what Can Be, especially for the most Deliberate of them.  Also healthy INFJs seem to have an inherent understanding that it’s as important to understand the power of darkness as much as the power of light, not underestimating the potency of power itself, even when fueled by evil things.  A healthy respect for evil is the key to undoing it, and to even using its power, drive, and initiative for good.

But I think the fascination with powerful evil is also due to how underestimated INFJ(ij) guys themselves are used to being.  With sweet big-eyed baby faces and an always-elsewhere demeanor that belies, to the untrained eye, the wormholes of thought deep inside, INFJ(ij) guys (in particular, but not exclusively, mind you) get tired of being treated like good little boys who just don’t quite get the “real world.”  And so the idea of playing the villain, especially an unexpected one, with complex darkness behind a pleasant, smiling exterior, excites them.

Honestly, while we’re analyzing it, I think this is also why James McAvoy is so keen on sex jokes and struggles to finish an interview without dropping the F-bomb; it’s not like he’s just pretending, but rather it’s a deliberate “I am showing you this side of myself” decision.  “I’m going to make sure you don’t oversimplify me.”  If you watch carefully, so many INFJ(ij) choices demonstrate this intention: “I’m not just idealistic and soft; don’t underestimate me.”

But I think sometimes, Noah plays the Mind Flayer so seamlessly with Will, that it’s almost forgotten that most of the Mind Flayer’s character is played directly by him.  And I think while Will is utterly terrified by the thing taking him over, it does intrigue him too, drawing pictures of it in an attempt to understand who he’s dealing with.

It would be all too easy, and shallow, to call Will weak for being dominated by the Mind Flayer.  But it’s just as shallow as attitudes that call Frodo (INFJ(ep)) weak for Sauron slowly taking him over, as he carried the Ring farther than anyone could ever have been expected to, or calling Harry Potter (INFJ(ij)) emo or whiny when his mind is gradually being taken over by Voldemort.  But those attitudes simply don’t get the sheer size and power of the villain.

Will, Frodo, and Harry Potter: all INFJs who carried the soul of the villain.  These INFJ characters have to stand as lone trees against a hurricane, so that others can have the chance they need to escape, to survive, or even to find a way to help.  They could use more Mikes, Samwises, and Ron-Hermiones to see them through the storm.  Because in real life, it’s not easy to stand in the face of actual evil and darkness and attempt to make the world better than previously imagined, and it’s pretty dumb to expect someone to be perky at the end of it.

But just as Will is one of my favorite characters ever (no exaggeration), the Mind Flayer is one of my favorite villains ever.  He embodies fear, but in such a classy, stylish way.  So much more calculating and intelligent than the demogorgon before him, who was terrifying in its own right, but in the end just an animal.  I’m so excited to see where they take him next, and to learn more about the cold, heartless world that he seems to have created.  But most of all, I’m excited to see where his decisions take us next, as he can’t be pleased that such little squishy beings have gotten in the way of his grand almighty vision.  He’s sure to be building up and waiting to strike…

Conclusions

There, we did it!  We typed and analyzed all the main characters of Stranger Things!  So what does all this mean together?  How can we bring all these unique and powerful character stories back to a main, unified theme?

Well, there’s definitely a recurring theme in Stranger Things that if you don’t stand up to oppose evil, you end up being complicit to it.

Whether it’s ISFP(ip) Ted with his melodic “What’d I dooo?”, ENFJ(ij) Karen who just wants to keep her family safe, but ends up letting in the very people who are putting all of Hawkins in danger, or even early S2 Steve who thinks the only way to keep Nancy safe is to pretend like nothing happened; the show repeatedly tells us that if you turn a blind eye to evil, people get hurt and it’s at least partially your fault.

But on the other end of the spectrum, it shows that if you try and face evil alone, it overwhelms you.

We see in S1 as Nancy leaves Barb alone in the face of petty, shallow “friendships,” that that is when Barb is overcome and pulled down to the depths, masterfully juxtaposed with the fateful alliance that Nancy chose over being there for her friend.  And while having friends and family who refuse to leave him behind in S1 is ultimately what saves Will Byers from the same Upside Down fate as Barb, in S2 it’s Will’s attempt to stand his ground alone against a smoky embodiment of evil itself that loses Will his own will.  (Yes, I have totally been saving that play on words. )

Even Eleven, who up to this point hasn’t met an enemy or obstacle she hasn’t been able to best with her powers, when left to her own devices, fell victim to her own lack of understanding evil when it appears in individuals, almost pulling her to betray herself and not be there for her friends in the end.

On my second watch-through, our friend who was watching the show for the first time commented that there were situational “coincidences” that his friends would have been picky about.  Like, for example, it was good that Bob just happened to know BASIC (the programming language), otherwise they would have been really screwed.  Basically, my friend was worried that others would have grounds to critique the show because characters were miraculously saved from dire situations based on being lucky enough to have the right skills or correctly timed occurrence.  He was kind of (granted, on behalf of others) accusing Stranger Things of Deus ex Machina (“god from the machine”); overly convenient outs to seemingly impossible corners that the author has written themselves into.

I was instantly protective of the plot and characters I love so much and gave him an earful, lol, which was basically the summarized, rough-draft, verbal version of the following, although I’ve realized more that has made me all the more excited on the topic.

Okay, so there’s another story device called “Chekhov’s Gun” which is essentially that if an object or detail appears in the story, it should have a use later on, or it doesn’t deserve page or screen time.  And because of Chekhov’s Gun, if you’re genre savvy, every time a detail gets off-handedly mentioned, you’ll expect it to pop up later.  Here, check out the TVTropes page on it for better examples than I can think of at the moment.

But because of audiences savvy to this awesome tool, who are likely to spot an object’s relevance before it’s useful, I love Chekhov’s Boomerang which means the object/detail gets used one time, so you let your guard down about it, but then it comes back when you least expect it, and it’s amazing.

I bring Chekhov and his arsenal up (oh no, now I’m getting lost in TVTropes, as usual…let’s close some of these tabs…) because most amateur story critics (despite their pay grade.  Yes, to be clear that was a burn on critics.) are aware on some level of foreshadowing, and that if you set-up situational elements ahead of time, you’re allowed to use them without it being considered “cheating.”  However, Chekhov’s Gun and similar variations are the IP form of this kind of elegant story set-up; foreshadowing with intentional use of objects, situations, and details, which is IP’s jam.  Anton Chekhov himself being ISTP(ij), should it be any surprise that he would excel at using already established situational details to their best advantage, deliberately?  That’s literally the definition of his cognition, heh.

But people don’t typically understand the EP version of this set-up.  Like I said, “creative writing” in our culture tends to lean overly-specific.  What does elegant EP foreshadowing look like?  I’m going to dub it “Chekhov’s Chekhov;” that the ultimate EP foreshadowing is when things happen based on who a character was all along.  And Stranger Things makes fantastic use of Chekhov’s Chekhov.

Why is it fitting instead of “cheating” that Bob comes up against a challenge only solved by knowing BASIC?  Because, to use the tabletop roleplaying game term, BASIC was on “Bob the Brain’s” character sheet all along.  He’s a sweet, adorkable guy who works at Radioshack and forgot to “speak English” about techie stuff before.  He loves brain-teasers and started Hawkins AV Club.  It’s not surprising that Bob knows BASIC; of course he does.

Now if he suddenly saved the day with previously unrevealed ninja moves, we might be a little more skeptical.

However Bob’s choice to go alone to fix the security system shows us something that wasn’t already established for his character, although by that point it was hinted at: that he isn’t just a dork.  He’s actually brave and cares more about Joyce and her sons, and even everyone else, than he does about his own survival, and that is in fact what saves everyone.

As many times as I yelled “Dustin, no!” at the TV screen in S2, as he kept befriending, protecting, and defending Dart, it was that super-ESFP Morale Officer act of loving and defending who an individual is currently, for all their flaws (even if their face opens up and they eat your cat), that ultimately saves them down in the tunnels.  It’s not “convenient,” it’s Dustin having the ESFP intelligence that the rest of the party lacks.  Dustin being Dustin saves everyone.

Over and over again in Stranger Things what might at first appear as Deus ex Machina is actually more like “Amicitia ex Machina” – friendship from the machine.

Mike jumps to his seeming doom, to protect Dustin from bullies; why is he saved?  Eleven being Eleven, coming to the aid of her friends over and over again, even when she feels like the monster they need to be saved from.

Jonathan is pinned down by the demogorgon, evil flower in his face; how does it end up okay?  Steve is the Element of Loyalty and whacks at it with the nail-bat that’s now becoming signature gear for him.

When Hopper is a moron and goes into the tunnels without telling anyone where he’s going or even bothering to leave himself any way to climb back up, what saves him?  Will using his invader’s power against him, showing the strength to turn terrible power against itself, which he also uses later.

When Steve, Dustin, Lucas, and Max are surrounded by far more demodogs than they can possibly take on, what’s the solution?  …The Mind Flayer being the Mind Flayer with Will as its conduit, actually.  But it’s still a character being consistently themselves.

People are the indispensable resource, and not just enough people numerically.  The entire show demonstrates that each of the ensemble cast is needed and necessary in overcoming the insurmountable odds that evil presents, for who they themselves are personally.  It’s not big governments, scientists, or doctors with lab coats and official titles that save the day repeatedly in Stranger Things, nor is it just Hopper being beyond awesome and kicking the trash out of everything he meets.  Instead, it’s the combination of an ensemble that cares enough about each other to face evil in its wide varieties.

Like I said in the Marble Hornets post, when you have a villain who doesn’t understand people, and why their individuality and connections are so powerful, the best way to beat them is to use that human connection and will against them.

Probably my favorite sequence in the entire show (which is saying a lot because I love every moment), is where Will Byers is strapped to a chair and they’re trying to communicate with him past the Mind Flayer.  The whole S2 “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” scene is just so incredibly well done.  But one of my favorite elements to that whole string are the expressions on Will’s face.  The distinctions between when the monster is in control of Will’s face and voice, versus when Will is in control of himself are astoundingly clear.  As Will’s mother, brother, and best friend recount cherished memories of why he means so much to them, the monster just sort of stares at them, almost childlike in its lack of understanding, wondering why they’re talking at him this way.

The self-limited inverse of Will’s “I can use this” face, described in his section, the Mind Flayer’s expression on Noah Schnapp’s face seems to shout “I can’t use this!  What is this??” in response to all their tender stories.  He knows only the power of his own desires, and doesn’t even get why interpersonal connections would matter.

He doesn’t know how to use this human dribble to his advantage; he doesn’t know how to weaponize this.  But they do.  They know if they can just get through to Will and who he really is, they can access his strength, his intelligence, and his caring about other people; and they know that those things can be the monster’s downfall.

And they are.  I love that Will responds in Morse code, also part of his character sheet since all the boys are adorkable AV nerds, showing that not only is he stronger than the monster’s influence, but he’s using the connections he has with the others to connect right back.

Because what rings the truest in Stranger Things isn’t something limited to either the early 80s, or a little town where otherworldly things happen, but something universally true:  That people, being truly themselves and bringing their unique strengths to bear, undaunted by the fear that would have them cower, and united, however unexpectedly, by the desires to discover truth and to protect what truly matters, together can actually do something in this world.  It’s never easy, but it’s always worth it.

And that’s the reason why Eggos, walkie talkies, big hair, bikes, and Christmas lights have come to mean so much to me.  Because of the *people* of Stranger Things.

Actors and Honorable Mentions

This section is really bonus, so if I didn’t lose you 40,000 words or so ago, you can feel free to go now; this is the after-credits type stuff.  Although, hey, if you made it this far, maybe you’re a completionist and want to see this thing through to the end.  Or maybe you love Stranger Things as much as I do (although I’m pretty sure you didn’t spend 8 months writing 50,000 words about it, so I think I win… or lose, depending how you look at it).

Just as I struggle to trust story creators unequivocally, the people who portray the characters I love often disappoint, not living up to the quality of character demonstrated by their fictional counterparts.  However I’ve found myself generally quite pleasantly surprised by the cast of Stranger Things.  I mean, they aren’t story characters, and shouldn’t have to be.  I personally believe that if we expect actors to be anything other than regular people, we’re in for serious disappointment.  But as regular people, in the spotlight, they have immensely impressed me with their caring, graciousness, intelligence, and ability to see outside themselves.

This is where my embarrassment really comes into play lol.  As an EP, I often feel like my desire to catalog individuals and their reactions can seem overly impassioned.  I am obsessed with people, which is where aLBoP comes from.  I want to see people, truly see them… but often times people don’t want to be seen.  Being seen for who you are is vulnerable, and sometimes people don’t want their insides to show.

And so, especially when observing people who don’t even know who I am to observe me back, it can feel really intrusive observing them at length, especially with teenagers.  So I hope none of this is too presumptuous of me.  (That’s a good thing, right?)

But like I said, these individuals stick out to me, and so it’s a little embarrassing how much they’ve come to mean to me in the course of this post.  I was really excited for the premiere of S2 back in October, but didn’t binge right away.  But when I saw the Stranger boys on Jimmy Fallon (ENTP(ij)) they were just so shiny and good feeling (and the show clip so well done) that I was like “Okay, I need to watch ASAP.”

Teenagers always have a special place in my heart anyway because they tend to be so much less jaded and world-grimed than adults, and I loved to see how real these ones seemed.  Hollywood culture can be so vapid, underhanded and one-sided in so many ways, and so when individuals stand out, I’m not entirely sure if they themselves realize it.  I’m really hoping that as these kids grow up, they have stand-out people as a source-infrastructure to help them stay as cool as they are now, to become just as awesome adults, not just another L.A. Devotee.  (Man, can that kid seize on command or what?!)

I’ve become unexpectedly protective of them all.  Anyway, I won’t spend as long on the non-fiction people of Stranger Things as I have on the fictional ones, and I don’t have time to talk about the whole ensemble (which doesn’t mean I don’t think the ones unmentioned aren’t really cool), but I wanted to take a quick look at the Stranger kids… and David Harbour, because David Harbour.

Finn Wolfhard – ENFP(ip)
The Comfortable Standard-Bearer – A Comfortable Approach to Edifying Reactions

I’ve noticed how much Finn, Mike’s actor gets understandably frustrated when fans don’t treat them like real people.  And ENFP’s Type Spec is the Meaningful Concept of Individuals and who they are, starting with oneself, and so having strangers assert who you are and demand your attention all the time, almost as if they own the concept of who you are… yes, I understand why that would be infuriating to an ENFP.  Especially one getting as much attention and crush-love as Finn Wolfhard.  Bad fanfiction is annoying enough… fanfiction of your real life and character is so much worse.

I think Finn Wolfhard may be a little bit of a goober, but I mean that in a good way.  He really comes off to me as that classic ENFP attitude, on the outside being very “I’m cool, I’m cool, see I don’t care what people think of me, I’m super chill!” while internally they’re really “?I-care-so-much-what-people-think-holycrap-what-are-they-thinking-right-now????”  (And sometimes (ip)s of all types take their chill vibe way too seriously, imo as an (ep). Like ENTP(ip)s sometimes… But I digress.)  But despite that, sweet, young gooberness, I love the real place that Finn’s acting clearly comes from.  Mike comes from such a vulnerable place and I know that can’t be easy to share with the world.

And I love watching  his facial expressions as he’s actually super easy to read.  He seems like someone who really wants to be known, not just for his roles but for the subtly passionate way he cares about music, humor, and the people in his life.  And it makes me wonder if, like most ENFPs, he struggles to feel as awesome as the people around him, whom he probably sees the awesomeness of with ease.  But I think he’s a lot more awesome than he feels safe showing the world.

He also has mad ventriloquism skills and probably the coolest name ever.  I will probably never escape Justin intensely bursting out “WOLFHARD” as often as possible.

Gaten Matarazzo – ESFP(ij)
The Deliberate Morale Officer – A Deliberate Approach to Enjoyable Reactions

I love how the cast and crew talk about how Dustin wouldn’t have been Dustin without Gaten, as he seems to fill the character with himself brilliantly.  Clever, gracious and hilarious, Gaten seems to be himself wherever he is.

And he is so cool in his attitude about his cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD), which they also gave Dustin in the show, so positive and using it as an opportunity to help other people and encourage understanding.  He even sold a line of t-shirts featuring his own iconic missing-teeth smile so the proceeds could go to the charity CCD Smiles.

I think that’s not only turning some life-lemons into some pretty bad-a lemonade, but also just totally owning that even though it’s a difficult disorder to deal with, it just makes him all the more awesome and memorable.

The first time we hear about Dustin’s CCD in the show, it’s when he’s being bullied about it.  In contrast, Gaten effectively anti-bullies numberless kids, those who have CCD or anything they might be afraid might ostracise or hinder them, and tells them the ESFP motto of “You are wanted for all your struggles, not in spite of them.”  And we think that’s a pretty epic thing to do with the world looking at you as a teen.

Caleb McLaughlin – ISTJ(ej)
The Supercharged Sentinel – A Supercharged Approach to Practical Trends

I know that all the Stranger kids are musically inclined, with both Caleb and Gaten having been on Broadway, Finn’s band doing awesome, etc.  But every time I see Caleb McLaughlin, Lucas’s actor,  dance… daaaang!  Even if he’s just busting moves while acting out cutting through ooze (is that the right word?  Blame TMNT for putting that word in my head), he brings it epically.

A random rant of Justin’s (of which there are so many) is how he wishes there were more masculine dance styles and how he might enjoy fast-dancing more if he didn’t feel socially pressured to dance like a girl (his inability to dance 11 years ago was a sticking point when we were first dating).  Anyway, he likes to say and I agree, how masculine African-American dance styles such as hip hop are (not that there aren’t feminine styles of hip hop and omigosh you know what I mean), and I think of that every time I see Caleb and his classy ISTJ(ej) approach to dance moves.

I’ve noticed a big dance and music trend among ISTJ(ej)s in general, which surprised me at first, but in retrospect it makes sense as a good way for someone to celebrate culture in a Supercharged way.

Some examples: Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Tyra Banks, and Chief Bogo* from Zootopia, when he lets his horns loose, and I’ve known more in-person examples.  (ej) as a subtype, like EJ as a Scope and Toi in general, is really the most group-aware of the subtypes and I think ISTJ(ej)s’ approach to dance shows it.  They jump in with both feet saying “here’s a physical way to manifest what my chosen culture means to me, with everything that brought us here,” with style, sass and a little bit of… junk in the trunk.

And now that I’ve seen the type similarity, I really want to hear Caleb sing “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid!

Sadie Sink – ESTJ(ej)
The Supercharged Cannon – A Supercharged Approach to Practical Events

I want to learn more about Sadie Sink, Max’s actress.  Especially since she’s the only one of the Stranger kids not playing her own cognition, I feel like there’s not as much about her cognition in here.  But she seems like a really sweet ESTJ(ej), the Action corner, sharing her type with Queen Elizabeth II and Gwyneth Paltrow as two lovely examples.  Also HK-47 from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, whom I find lovely. ?

I just wish that interviewers would let Sadie Sink talk more.  All the kids get talked over frequently, but I swear every time I see Sadie trying to say something in an interview, she gets talked over, and she seems very thoughtful and well-spoken, so that’s dumb.  Problems with being the new kid, I guess.

But I think she’s quite elegant… probably a lot more elegant than Max, lol.

Noah Schnapp – INFJ(ij)
The Deliberate Paladin – A Deliberate Approach to Edifying Trends

Okay, we’ve over-established by this point that I have a special place in my heart for ‘dem INFJ(ij) boys.

I mean when I was 14 I created a teen protagonist that basically was Justin, three years before I met him.  (Fun fact: a lot of my earliest experiences with personality typing was scouring the internet in the mid-2000s for information on how to type my characters.  Shockingly, I actually typed Ellic, my sixteen-year-old INFJ scrawny, pale prince protagonist correctly at that time, as well as a couple of the other main characters, and that was with really poor definitions.)

Prince Ellic, image made circa 2004 with cutting edge internet dollmakers, plus my amazing Microsoft Paint skills that still come in handy today.

You know, and Paradoxitype and all that.  But all of that is really a roundabout way of saying that 14-year-old Calise would probably have been pretty obsessed with Noah Schnapp.  (I’m picturing a certain ENFP(ij) guy friend of mine saying “Because this doesn’t count?” to which I would say “? Shut-up!”)

But I do love how Noah displays a side of INFJ(ij) that people often seem to forget can coexist with the serious, simultaneously brooding and mild-mannered side.  I love to see how the kid who studied historical accounts of possession to understand his role, is the same kid who gets stuck in chairs, sticks straws up his nose, and has the Moves like Jagger.  (For the record, all four of the boys’ Lipsync Battles were really epic.  Now here, go watch them all singing on James Corden and break your repeat button.  Oh man, I could spend so much more time analyzing each of their facial expressions and movements throughout that video.)

And as much as I love the serious, timeless side of INFJ(ij)s—a side that makes Noah Schnapp seem much older than his currently 13 years—it’s merely complimented by their adorably dorky humor.  Like Noah’s meme faces or how he apparently loves the smell of his own farts ?.  I love how they can flip so quickly from solemn to utterly ridiculous.

It’s honestly a side I didn’t understand myself at first.  Justin was much more on the Will end of INFJ(ij) when we first met; sweet and real, but with so much weighing him down.  He always looked so tired.  And then when he would let himself be goofy, I just didn’t get it. (Social pressure from people close to me to break up with him, which I eventually did, certainly didn’t help that confusion.)

But as I came to know him, and I think being around me helped him feel safe to be himself, then he was just so funny to me, all the time.  Like I said in the 4ToL post (near the end), he’s endlessly surprising me and so never ceases to make me laugh.  Pulling humor from the way the world works is just so insightfully hilarious.

So my boy that is an endless well of WWII analogies and can pull Principles from literally anything, is also my boy who made this face in our Elsa and Aladdin give each other advice video:

Because INFJ(ij)s are both, just like we are all multifaceted in our own ways.

…Also Noah Schnapp is a cutie and I am so leaving it at that! ?

David Harbour – INTJ(ip)
The Comfortable Dragon – A Comfortable Approach to Expectable Trends

David Harbour is so hilariously curmudgeonly in that wonderfully INTJ(ip) way.  (Seriously, I know INTJ(ip) teenaged girls who are equally curmudgeonly and adorable about it.)  I love his relationship with his fans, like how he agreed that for enough retweets he would be in a fan’s yearbook photos—so long as he could hold a trombone—and actually went through with it!  And then he used his newfound Twitter power to get Greenpeace to take him to Antarctica so he could dance with penguins and learn from their parenting advice.

So I really really like David Harbour, even though he has all Hopper’s cynicism and then some.  He seems to me like a guy who wants to believe that there’s Principles and meaning that still make the world a beautiful place, and yet he’s seen so much crap that he’s… skeptical.  I need more amplifier words.  Exceedingly skeptical?  Undupably skeptical?  Something to that effect.

But it seems like Stranger Things gives him hope of greater meaning in the world, that the Duffers’ zoomed-out sensibilities make him feel like maybe it’s worth donning his dad-bod supersuit once in a while, because there are still good things and good people out there.

You can tell he cares and feels deeply, like all ITJs do under their common cloak of unaffectedness, (ip)’s often coming in a “but whatever” form, like Hopper says.

Millie Bobby Brown – INTJ(ej)
The Supercharged Dragon – A Supercharged Approach to Expectable Trends

I’m pretty sure I’ve exceeded my limit on using the word “adorable” in this post, especially when it comes to discussing the Stranger kids, but Millie Bobby Brown really is, in all her Britishness.  She’s classy and fiesty and dresses great.  Her BFFness with Noah makes me super happy, as bonding fellow INJ(j)s.  And her looking-up-to coworker crush on David Harbour couldn’t be cuter (and he clearly has super protective heart-eyes for her as well).

I also think she tries really hard with her fame platform to try and make a positive influence on everyone, promoting things like UNICEF.

All that being said, Justin pointed out that it makes him sad that, when compared to Eleven, she does seem very jaded.  Although, I can’t really blame her.  In the current world culture, it’s hard for a young IJ to know who to trust, and being disappointed in people is fairly inevitable.

I was actually already going to mention that I have learned to stop scrolling down to the comments section on Millie related things, just because so many people are irrationally mean to her in them, pretending like she was annoying, and wouldn’t let anyone else talk and had a big head about everything… which is just not the person I see.  But that was even before the poor thing has had to shut down her Twitter account recently because of cyberbullying reaching that extreme of a level against her, including outright slander and the hashtag “#takedownmilliebobbiebrown” ?.  Even though she seems to be taking it like a champ, stuff like that makes me so mad, especially when it’s wrongfully impugning someone’s character.  All the same, it just proves to me one of my favorite Taylor Swift lyrics ever: People throw rocks at things that shine.

Millie is beautiful and mature and has fame and fortune and everything that goes with it (sometimes my brain randomly quotes Queen, sorry), and it’s no wonder that when small people see something that soars higher than they do, they irrationally hope hitting it out of the sky will make them feel better about themselves.  Which it never does, but I’m not holding my breath until they figure that out.  So sometimes you just have to dust yourself off from their flung verbal feces and shine all the brighter, because even if they won’t listen to your message of “you can shine brighter too,” then maybe at least you can blind them with the sun off your wings.

That turned into a larger, more convoluted metaphor than intended.  Or analogy?  (That’s what you’re worried about??)  But I hope it gets across anyway.  Even though it involved throwing poop.  Now I’m trying to find a way to end the Millie section which doesn’t end with “poop.”

Um, she’s dignified, she can rap and she rocks the color pink.  She gets official Sunglasses brand sunglasses in my book. ?

See, I didn’t end with poop!

Shawn Levy – ESFJ(ej)
The Supercharged Cavalry – A Supercharged Approach to Enjoyable Events

I had to give a nod to Producer/Director Shawn Levy, because he just seems really awesome.  Generally my opinion of the title “producer” is very low, because it seems like too many producers (not just of movies and tv, but video games as well) are the pushy people behind the scenes that focus on pandering to the lowest common denominator of audience in order to bow to the bottom line, and don’t really care about the quality of the story itself.  And Shawn Levy has struck me as very not one of those people.  Not only has he directed some of my favorite episodes (“Holly Jolly” is probably my favorite of S1, on the whole, and I already talked about how much I loved the end of “Pollywog”/ beginning of “Will the Wise”… and I also thought the movie Night at the Museum was classic and adorable), but from everything I’ve seen of him, it’s about letting the story speak for itself, and trusting that a good enough audience will be able to appreciate the worth of that good story.

His approach to story seems like the embodiment of ESFJ’s Type Specialization, a focus on what Actions will bring the Group the most Enjoyment, together; namely the audience, first and foremost.  And with the Duffers both being so zoomed-out Universal, it seems like Shawn Levy brings a healthy Specifically focused perspective, to ground the show.

I’m also proud of catching his cameo as a morgue worker in “The Body” all by my lonesome. ?