Author Archives: Mercy

Typing Autistic Characters in Media

Finding a fictional character who is explicitly stated (or at least heavily implied) to be autistic has always been a surprise for me, no matter how old I get. I grew up relating to a lot of characters who were not intended to be on the spectrum, but were nonetheless influenced by the creator’s life in some way.

In recent years, there have been more frequent attempts to create thoughtful and accurate depictions of autistic people in the media, which I appreciate. Despite the many creators who are careful about these portrayals, many people consuming said media reduces the characters to stereotypes. 


A phenomena I’ve personally encountered lies on the website Personality Database, which is a forum-turned social media site dedicated to voting on the personality of celebrities, historical figures, fictional characters, etc. Although the comments section is not usually filled with the best arguments, I find an especially annoying disparity around canonically (or heavily implied) autistic characters. 

Many autistic characters do happen to be either ISTJs or INTPS, but it is absurd to believe that autistic characters (and therefore people) will all have functions such as high Si and Tx, and low Fx. This shows a blatant misunderstanding of cognitive functions, behaviour versus personality, and the overall meaning behind what it means to be autistic.

In order to prove my point, I will be comparing and contrasting Abed Nadir of the TV show Community (2009) and Gin Ibushi of the video game Your Turn to Die (2017). These two characters showcase how sharing autistic traits does not equate to being the same personality type (seeing as they are an INTP 5 and ESFP 7, respectively).

Abed Nadir is implied to be autistic throughout Community, with jokes and references to being on the spectrum since the very first episode. However, underneath the comedic aspect of Abed’s “awkwardness” and “obsession with movies” lies an accurate representation of the autistic experience.

In many episodes (including his first appearance) Abed is clearly shown to be collecting and infodumping facts without prompting. This is usually either dramatized to a ridiculous effect for a joke, or serving a distinct narrative purpose, such as giving Jeff (who doubles as an audience stand-in) exposition for the 5 other main characters.

Aerodynamics of Gender is based on the common autistic trait of being blunt in terms of speech. The women of the study group pick up on this aspect of Abed, and manipulate him into being a jerk to other people for their own entertainment.

There is a cold open in Curriculum Unavailable where Abed is seen being comforted by Troy and Annie while the study room’s clock is being changed for daylight savings time. This is clearly meant to show the common hesitate to accept change in our environments and need for consistency.

In Advanced Criminal Law, Troy explains how friends sometimes mess with each other by lying. Abed doesn’t understand that the other person is supposed to know that it’s a joke, and goes completely overboard for the entire episode in order to keep up the lie that he is an alien. 

These are all examples of ways in which autistic traits are exhibited in areas related to communication, interests, and sensitivity to changes. 

Next we have Gin, who was widely considered autistic-coded throughout the first few chapters of Your Turn to Die, but was explicitly stated as being diagnosed in chapter 3 through a flashback to his past.

Gin wears an outfit consisting of a hat attached to a cape, paw gloves, and a tail, with patterning similar to a cat and a plushie that he is often seen holding onto. He feels most comfortable talking to other people with these clothes on, but was discouraged from wearing the outfit at school. 

Gin also has vocal stims, often saying “meow” or “woof” at the end of sentences (which I actually share, as one of my biggest special interests is cat behaviour). Each of these elements is tied into his interest in animals; his favourites are cats and dogs, but he enjoys alligators currently. 

Only one other character has been shown to have a gameplay gimmick; the detective Keiji uses his experience as a detective to interpret other characters’ true thoughts.

In comparison, Gin is able to see clues the other characters miss, as his perceptive abilities are quite pronounced. Many autistic people have similarly strong perception, with the caveat of being more sensitive to sensory input. 

Finally, Gin is shown to have Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), which is an aspect of autism that has been proposed to be added to the official list of traits. 

PDA describes someone who avoids expectations being placed on them, due to a feeling of excessive anxiety and lack of autonomy. These feelings are triggered even when the individual usually enjoys the activity, and describe Gin’s experiences in school very well. 

In Gin’s case, his most prominent traits seem to be stimming and sensory perception, but he also presents intense interests and bluntness similarly to Abed. 


From these character examples, we can surmise that autistic traits and personality traits are separate aspects of a person’s identity, and are not a 1:1 match in most cases. The constant bickering over whether an autistic character is a Si dom for liking routine has no reason to exist, given that these are completely different discussions (and Si ≠ liking stability in the first place!).

I hope this post might encourage others to expand their definitions of autistic people (and correct their interpretations of the cognitive functions, for that matter). 

Relegating autistic people to just a few possible personality types is not only unrealistic, but also serves to deny us of the autonomy which is automatically given to others.

☆.

Trina from Falsettos (2016) is a Clear 6w7

Falsettos is a 1992 musical about an unorthodox family living through the AIDs epidemic while exploring themes of gender roles, sexuality, and Jewish identity in New York City around the 1970’s/80s. The original musical was remastered for a Broadway run starting in 2016, which is the version I intend to talk about today (with spoilers, of course).

There is a primary cast of 5 characters (plus 2 which are introduced in the second act), but I wish to deal with the often underappreciated character of Trina. Trina is Marvin’s ex-wife, Jason’s mother, Mendel’s partner, but she is also a complex person in her own right.


When discussing Trina’s enneagram type, many people instinctively declare her as a 2. I’d like to make a case for Trina being a type 6w7, specifically the self preservation subtype. I’ll go over some core aspects of the two types to explain my reasoning, and then analyze each of her solo songs in more detail. 

Twos and self-preservation sixes are commonly mistyped because of their outwardly warm disposition and devotion to others, but the key difference lies in motivation. From what we can tell in Trina’s lyrics, she cares for and attends to the needs of the people in her life in order to gain a sense of security for herself.

There is something to be said about the particular role that Trina is cast into as a housewife in the late 1970s, though I believe that to be ultimately unrelated to this analysis. The character of Whizzer is similarly burdened with unfair gender roles forced onto him, but he is clearly shown to be handling that like a typical 7.


The first of three solo songs performed by Trina is “I’m Breaking Down”, a satirized version of a cooking program with plenty of innuendos and thinly-veiled metaphors. It is a tragic first glimpse into Trina’s inner world, filled with nods to her unfulfilling life before the musical takes place. Trina’s desperate motives line up with a typical 6, showing a deep sense of responsibility while also lacking confidence in her own judgement. This leads Trina to seek out someone, anyone, with whom she can satisfy her need for companionship and safety.

“I only want to love a man who can love me….
Or like me…
Or help me…”

Genius Lyrics from I’m Breaking Down

Trina’s emotional reactivity is on full display and her sense of self clearly hinges on the attachment to important people in her life (both traits of the harmonics and object relations group that 6 belongs to).


Trina’s song” (which is grouped together in the official recording) a few minutes later shifts the tone quite considerably, serving as a pained letter to the men in her life. At this point, Trina’s primary strategy for staying in control of her life is to lie low and take on her assumed role. Appeasing other people to assure a support system that won’t leave you is a defence mechanism commonly seen in self-preservation 6s. 

“That said, I’ll be his wife
I’ll wed and change my life”

Genius Lyrics from Trina’s Song

In the subsequent reprisal of this song, Trina demonstrates strong growth by denouncing her previous promise to keep things as they’ve always been. 

“I’ll commit, that’s agreed
And with wit and precision
I’ve made a decision
To get the things I need”

Genius Lyrics from Trina’s Song (Reprise)

The last song that Trina plays a primary part in is “Holding to the Ground”, which is perhaps the most obvious example of her true feelings. Trina grapples with her assumptions around how families are defined and the pressure placed on her since birth to live within the mainstream narrative. She also deals with themes of trying to find comfort in a world unlike anything she prepared for.

“Life is never what you planned
Life is moments you can’t understand
And that is life”

Genius Lyrics from Holding to the Ground

Trina discovers a certain clarity at the end of each of her songs, in which she attempts to solve every problem in her life with carefully planned actions (which never work). After this realization, Trina gains the insight necessary to cope with the reality that her world will be changed at every turn.

Trina’s character development is firmly rooted in breaking out of the expectations placed on her and learning to trust her own guidance and strength. She experiences immense progress from act 1 to 2, and ultimately is able to find solace in the found family she has cultivated, despite being so completely different from what Trina or her parents would have expected.

And she’s definitely a 6.

Trina is one of my favourite characters from Falsettos and I appreciate that she isn’t shoved aside by the writers for the sake of the main 4 men in the show. I had no idea what to expect from her on a first watch, but I found her character to be deeply relatable and immeasurably important to the story. 

☆.

Process Post #9 – Analytics

Analytics are an aspect of website design that I see mentioned quite often, with videos and articles discussing how to best utilize the information you can get from built-in metrics and website additions such as Google Analytics.

In the artist world, you would only need to focus on analytics if you’re trying to find freelance work or an industry job in the field. Since I make art as a hobby, I have little use in analyzing the pieces I post (especially since they’re made for fun 90% of the time). 

In the past, I have lost motivation and passion for art because I was constantly checking my engagement rates, optimal timing, and post formatting. Although I don’t resent the art I’ve made purely to appeal to trends and popular media, I find that it doesn’t genuinely represent me and my style. My personal art journey has also been stunted from such attempts for engagement, since I try not to add anything experimental or “weird” in order to appear more palatable.

Because of these reasons, I choose to ignore analytics on social media and focus on engaging with my friends, creating art that is true to myself, and relying on the miraculous and constantly shifting nature of the algorithms and individuals to decide how each post fares.

When discussing this website, I have a much more impersonal view of the content I create. I am less confident in my writing, and analyzing works will always be more stressful to make public than something like art which can be interpreted in infinitely many ways. 

On the rare occasion that I do check my analytics, I’m mostly looking for information about the people who use my website and whether I’m meeting their needs well enough. For example, I found that 89.4% of my user base views my website on desktop which helps me prioritize which elements to update or fix. I also enjoy seeing which posts people visit my site for; there are a surprising number of users who choose to view my classwork instead of the blog content itself. 

I enjoy browsing different user reports and seeing if there’s any visitors who come back to the blog often (35.7% currently). Interestingly, a majority of my audience finds my website through organic searching, which suggests a user base outside of just my fellow classmates. My overall bounce rate is 52.63% which I hope will stay in that range for the rest of this term. 

I keep a filter on known bots and spiders, but there’s always a gnawing feeling in the back of my head that much of these analytics are taken up by non-human users. Despite this, I still find it fun to peruse the different tabs and wonder why each person has chosen to stop by my site.

I am usually on my computer into the late hours of the night, which has always been reflected in when I post my art. Surprisingly, that trait has carried over into the content of this website, with many posts being completed after 9pm. While posting late would typically be considered a bad practice (afternoons are usually more preferable), many people happen to visit my blog in the evening. This could also be due to different time zones (where it would be earlier in the day for the rest of North America), but there are very few users reading outside of the lower mainland.

As a whole, analytics are a valuable source of user feedback, especially if you don’t receive more obvious sources like comments or emails like me. 

☆.

Untangling Morality in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Character archetypes have a fairly predictable lifespan of solidifying themselves in pop culture, going through subversions, and subsequently creating new archetypes based on those subversions over the course of many years.

A musical by the name of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog presents one such subversion of the conventional villain. Once again I will be showing spoilers, as this is 15 years old, has been available on YouTube for free since 2012, and only lasts around 40 minutes.


Dr. Horrible (real name Billy) is the titular protagonist and atypical supervillain of this musical. At his core, Billy is an idealistic man who believes that society is deeply flawed and seeks to reform it. His self-focused yet strong morals clearly show the decision making abilities of an Fi user, an INFP to be more specific. It’s rare to see a villain character who uses Fi as they are usually cast into the role of quirky side characters or sensitive heroes. I’ll be analyzing how Billy’s idea of morality intersects with his position in the story and showcases a great example of a realistic INFP character.

Despite Billy being generally correct that society has plenty of problems, he doesn’t actually seem all that interested in the important work that people like Penny (his crush) undertake. His primary goal is much more ambitious than that, seeking to rule the world in order to dismantle the issues he sees in it. In reality, his methods to reconcile these values turn out to be ill-defined and naive (in line with the poor planning and indecisiveness of low Te)

Billy becomes the supervillain Dr. Horrible in order to infiltrate the Evil League of Evil and use their resources to govern (and therefore “fix”) the world. In order to get accepted by the leader, Bad Horse, Billy needs to commit increasingly cruel objectives which only starts to become a problem when he is forced to assassinate someone.

Captain Hammer (Dr. Horrible’s nemesis) also preoccupies much of his time, leading to an unfortunate mess of priorities which ultimately ends with Billy alone and unsatisfied after accidentally killing Penny. Despite having achieved the one thing he needed, Billy is left without any reason to still be working towards that goal.


Billy starts off with fairly good intentions and is endearing and personable, if a tad awkward at the beginning. I firmly believe that Penny would have been open to a relationship with him if his rivalry with Captain Hammer didn’t get in the way of everything else. That’s precisely what makes it hurt so much when Billy becomes obsessed with making it into the Evil League of Evil, as his ordinary life falls apart and it all culminates into a tragic but captivating character progression. 

Aside from Billy’s obvious lack of preparation, the Evil League of Evil is an organization which we can deduce would not allow someone so outwardly open about his plans to actually overthrow their governance. We can see how the league breaks people down with their absurd and cruel standards, and can presume that even if Billy could change anything, the person he’d committed his life to is already gone.

At this point, Billy is so hopeless that we can presume he has lost his original goal and any motivation to dismantle anything at all. We see hints of his sense of self being degraded in service of the Dr. Horrible persona throughout the musical, but I certainly rooted for him despite the clues suggesting it wouldn’t end on a positive note. What starts as a comedic musical with air-headed characters and obvious tropes shapes into a deeply tragic story with a surprisingly dark ending. 


One of the most emotionally jarring moments happens right before the credits roll. Dr. Horrible is seen chatting up the other villains in a triumphant montage at the league, seemingly having moved on from the previous events. He has a stylish new outfit and is finally being taken seriously in front of his peers, and the music swells before the doors slowly close.

We cut to Billy, sitting in front of his video camera with the desolate expression of a man who has lost everything, including himself.

☆.

Essay – False News in the 2016 US Presidential Election

In a survey conducted by the PEW Institute, Facebook was shown to be the leading social media site for adults in the US to obtain news, with 31% of participants regularly getting their information from the site. This figure is not much of a surprise, since Facebook has a certain reputation for being propagators of reactionary information and false news. The aforementioned study also stated that the percentage has been steadily going down in the past few years, which I postulate is likely because of an aging main demographic and the rise of newer social media apps.

My primary issue with Facebook as a possible source for news (and every other social media site, for that matter) is the ability for people to rapidly spread misinformation and a general lack of critical thinking when it comes to such news. A prime example of this phenomena was on full display around the 2016 US presidential election, where disinformation and conspiracy theories ran rampant on Facebook. Of course, this kind of false news has existed forever, but the rise in prominence was especially apparent in the aftermath of such an influential event.

In “Misinformation with Fake News”, Mircea Botei (2017) described this as a turning point, where the public suddenly became more concerned about social media’s possible influence on democracy. Botei further expresses false news as “[an attempt] to appear truthful and thus to be accepted and transmitted further. It is news that tells what the audience wants to hear.”(p. 138) I have to agree with this sentiment, as reactionary headlines are a common sign of an untrustworthy source.

Political campaigns have taken advantage of current media trends to further their reach for decades, using whichever method was most popular at the time. Kathleen Jamieson (1996) mentions the widespread use of radios and television in the 1900s, with her book Packaging the Presidency: A History and Criticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising sourcing the ridiculous advertisements political candidates were able to make about their opponents as an example. Still, the massive coverage of the 2016 US election in particular highlighted this mass move from television to the internet.

Fortunately, some good has come of this tragic spike in false news; many social media sites (including Facebook) were pressured to provide transparency reports over political ad campaigns hosted on their sites, according to Efe Sevin (2021) in “New Data Sources and Presidential Campaigns”. Following the 2016 election, Facebook joined companies like Google and Snapchat in revealing their advertising archives to the greater public (Sevin, 2017). However, we should not underestimate the intentional role that social media companies play in these spaces. Many social media sites are anything but guiltless for the rise of false news and influence of political proceedings; some are just better at hiding their involvement than others. 

In the article “Social media ethics in the data economy: Issues of social responsibility for using Facebook for public relations “ Candace White explains how Facebook uses aggregated data from users to target those who are most vulnerable. This fact directly relates to the presidential election, as Cambridge Analytica—a company hired for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign—was revealed to have stolen user data from over 50 million people through a data breach of Facebook. I have been suspicious of the content and news circulated on Facebook since I first made an account, with this mistrust only growing as I learned more about their unethical business practices. 

All this is to say that there is a distinct need to modify the existing structures that facilitate the spread of false news. Diogo Andrade introduces such an idea in “Paving the way for regulation: how the case against Facebook stacked up”, which lays out a few different strategies that the US was discussing at the time. The most viable and comprehensive solution in my opinion is ending the monopoly Facebook holds as the top company in its field. Andrade mentions dividing up the website (and its acquired companies) into competing forces, creating laws to restrict website’s abilities to harvest private data from users, and “limiting and eroding Silicon Valley’s power” (2019, p. 125).

Although Facebook has only gotten more powerful since the previous articles’ publication in 2019, I still hold onto the hope that future US elections won’t be at the mercy of malicious advertisers and complacent social media giants.

☆.


Reference List

BOTEI, M. (2017). Misinformation with Fake News. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Series VII: Social Sciences. Law, 10 (59)(2), 133–140.

Jamieson, K. H. (1996). Packaging the Presidency: A history and criticism of presidential campaign advertising. Oxford University Press, Incorporated.

Queiroz Andrade, D. (2019). Paving the way for regulation: how the case against Facebook stacked up. Observatorio (OBS*), 13(3), 113–128. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.15847/obsobs13320191388

Sevin, E. (2021). New Data Sources and Presidential Campaigns. American Behavioral Scientist, 1. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1177/00027642211021634

“Social Media and News Fact Sheet” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (September. 20, 2022) https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet.

White, C. L., & Boatwright, B. (2020). Social Media Ethics in the Data Economy: Issues of social responsibility for using Facebook for public relations. Public Relations Review, 46(5), 101980. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2020.101980

Process Post #8 – Copyright

I’d like to spend this post talking about the world of intellectual property, and the growing dialogue over how to include Indigenous works in copyright law. This is a current topic which includes many people who know much more than I do, but I wanted to use this platform, however small, to raise public perception of such an important concern.

So much of Indigenous knowledge is relayed orally, yet we are offered little to no legal protection over this vital medium. Of course, we still ask for permission to perform drum songs or retell an individual’s story, for example, but we are often not given that same level of respect back.


In Traditional Knowledge Exists; Intellectual Property is Invented or Created, Gregory Younging discusses traditional knowledge. Traditional knowledge is a term for traditions such as agricultural techniques or astronavigation, which are based on experiences passed down through communities and generations.

Many First Nations communities have their own customary laws, which state how a piece of traditional knowledge may be used, whether it be kept to a certain group of people, used in a specific setting, with the guidance of a trusted individual, etcetera.

Despite the longevity of these systems, they are not officially recognized in western law for a variety of reasons:

  1. First Nations people most commonly communicate teachings through spoken word, which means that our knowledge is typically not recorded in written form.
  1. A vast majority of traditional knowledge is reliant on the land it was conceived on, so it may not even be relevant to those outside the community.
  1. Traditional knowledge specifically denotes techniques that have been used for so long that they would automatically be placed in the public domain anyways.
  1. Furthermore, there isn’t always a specific person to which legal rights could be granted to.
  1. These systems can also interplay with eachother in many different ways, which makes it even more difficult to pin them down legally.

One of the biggest concerns with how traditional knowledge isn’t properly covered under western law includes the appropriation of closed practices by people who are okay with encroaching on our intellectual property, provided it is technically legal to do so.

There has subsequently been a push for Indigenous communities to adapt their customary laws into the systems of intellectual property. Unfortunately, many factors including those above make it hard to reconcile these two forms of copyright.


It would be a shame for the preservation of traditional knowledge to be undermined by intellectual property laws that were created and forced upon us, while also not recognizing our complex systems that had worked perfectly fine for thousands of years. 

I hope that eventually traditional knowledge will be held to the same standard as western copyright law, and that we may be protected against appropriation and plagiarism of our work without needing to fundamentally alter our entire systems in order to do so.

☆.

Mini Assignment #4 – Remix

For this mini assignment, I chose to make a video edit of all my Splatoon 3 clips I’ve taken since the game’s release last September (minus my embarrassing failures; if you really want to see them check my media tab on Twitter LOL).

I used music made by the synth-pop artist GUM, who you might know as Jay Watson of Tame Impala; his work overlays vocals and creates remixes with itself in really interesting ways! Another reason I chose this song in particular was for the lyrics near the end, which is a sample of Herbie Hancock where he talks about how “[a machine] doesn’t program itself…Yet”. I feel like this entire line of thinking was ahead of its time, especially as the limits of technology are now being pushed past what anyone was ever imagining back then.

☆.

Process Post #7 – YouTube

I’ve been on the internet for a long time. I’ve seen first-hand how news and entertainment has shifted and changed over the years, for better or worse. I’d like to talk specifically about YouTube’s major role in the lives of children, adolescents, and teens from its humble beginnings to the present day.

In elementary school, my classmates and I viewed computers as a novel concept. They were innovative devices that deserved their own rooms, whether that be in offices, toy rooms (my friend was *very* middle class, okay), or my own families’ downstairs living room.

At school, my friends and I would be huddled around a browser window while clicking on whichever YouTube videos had the coolest titles, brightest thumbnails, or most views, naturally. Some of my favourites from around the early 2010s included the hilarious satire music of Rhett and Link, the silly but fascinating experiments of the Slow Mo Guys, and even the terrifying video series Don’t Hug me I’m Scared.

I had pretty childish reasons behind making a YouTube account in the first place, since I initially signed up just so I could dislike Justin Bieber’s song “Baby”, which shows you the kind of common attitude among preteens at this time.  

There were famously a lot of challenges emerging on YouTube around this time, which I can’t say I completely avoided. Many of my friends recognized that the cinnamon and ice bucket challenges were dangerous, for instance, but a friend and I still did the chubby bunny challenge while hanging out at her house. 

I was a very gullible child who fell for internet pranks constantly; I was even tricked by my older brother into playing the scary maze game before I had heard about the prank. I have friends now who would watch gore videos for fun as a child, but most of us stuck to the YouTube home feed, which was fairly innocuous, all things considered.

One time, I decided to look up “videos to watch before bed” hoping to find a calming video I could put on before sleeping. Nowadays, that search entry would turn up various ASMR and “satisfying” compilations, but on that late night I instead stumbled upon a video of a car slowly driving down a hill (if you know, you know) which ended with a jumpscare, as many did. 

A few years ago, I was watching the theme songs for old children’s cartoons, discussing the nostalgia with some internet friends, when a screamer appeared (a jumpscare alongside a loud scream). I was shocked of course, but mostly just baffled that people were still posting pranks like this, especially for a video that would overwhelmingly be viewed by children.

I think YouTube intended to prevent sick pranks like these from reaching today’s children with their new video classification system, but there have certainly been mixed results. James Bridle perfectly encapsulates the concern I feel for the children of today in his article titled Something is wrong on the internet, as a vast majority of the internet has been taken over by advertisements, mature content, and scams.

When I was a kid, I had (somewhat) free flash games like Animal Jam and Moshi Monsters, content creators I could rely on for innocent entertainment like TheRunawayGuys and Rachel and Jun, forums for discussing Pokémon and art (even if I was a little young and immature for the environments). I don’t see that kind of age-appropriate media and games for children anymore. Instead they are pushed towards creating social media accounts and visiting the same 10-20 most popular websites, which are rife with targeted content and negativity.

Since the death of flash and the worrying descent of children’s media, the internet has lost a lot of the spaces that kept us occupied in our youth. I can only hope that these companies will put in the effort to make their websites fun and safe again, but there is only so much we can expect to be done when profit is the sole motivator, like it often is in a society like ours.

In the meantime, I try my hardest to be clear about my intentions online and manage how others engage with my content; I hope others will do the same.

☆.

Zero Escape 999 and the Misrepresentation of Enneagram

I started playing AI: the Somnium Files last night, which reminded me of other works by Kotaro Uchikoshi. The Zero Escape series includes some of my all-time favourite video games, particularly the most popular first entry: Zero Escape: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors. (commonly shortened to 999)

This analysis will NOT be spoiler-free (especially since this game has been out since 2009, go and play it already!) but I will try not to make comparisons to later games in the series. I will be using their code names just for convenience sake.


It is well-known that Uchikoshi bases many of his characters off of the Enneagram theory of personality, which is most notable in 999’s prevailing symbolism associated with the number 9. 

Despite the following being an official statement given by Uchikoshi in an interview, I have some issues with his perception of the character’s types.

Here are the Enneagram archetypes he associated with each character, with the names replaced by the actual numbers and my own analysis in square brackets.

…So I based each character off of my own interpretation and rearranged things a bit.

It’s not so much that this character fits this enneagram, at least to my mind.

Still, they fit together about like this:

3/Achiever: Ace [so/sp 3]

5/Investigator: Snake [sp/so 5]

7/Enthusiast: Santa [sx/sp 8]

6/Loyalist: Clover [sp/sx 2]

8/Challenger: Junpei [sx/sp 6]

9/Peacemaker: June [so/sx 5]

2/Helper: Seven [so/sx 9]

4/Individualist: Lotus [so/sp 8]

1/Reformer: The 9th Man [who cares]

Source: question #58

I’ll start with the most accurate matches, and move down the list until I reach the bigger mischaracterizations.

The 9th Man (does it matter?):

There isn’t much to say about the 9th man; he is given very little time on screen before violently dying which shows in how he isn’t even given a name until the characters discover his identity much later on. I can’t say whether he would be a type 1 or not, but I’m willing to bet that Uchikoshi simply wanted a nice even 9 with one character for each type.

Snake (self-preservation/social 5):

Snake is a great example of a self-preservation 5, especially when juxtaposed with June. He is incredibly insightful and perceptive, with a calm and collected demeanour. Snake is knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects, as opposed to June’s deeper wisdom of conspiracies, paradoxes, and science. He can be conceited at times, and only reveals important information when the others have started to give up in order to show off his own intelligence. He is normally a rather private and withdrawn person, seeing his inner self as an aspect of himself that needs protection from the probing of others.

Ace (social/self-preservation 3):

I don’t really have anything against Ace being 3 since I agree, although I’ll expand on this a little with his subtype as a social 3. We only see a facade presented by Ace for much of 999s story, but his past experiences are shown in a few endings and give some context to his true self. Ace’s motivation to create the first Nonary games was a self-centered quest to cure his prosopagnosia, fueled by the funding given to his company. Ace is greatly concerned with how he comes off to the public, and would ruthlessly cover up his misdeeds in order to save face. 

Junpei (sexual/self-preservation 6):

Junpei’s Enneagram has been the source of many arguments within the fanbase, with some people agreeing with type 8 and others bringing up 6 instead. In my opinion, Junpei is clearly a type 6 under the sexual countertype, which is often misread as 8. He is a determined and clever man, with a strong sense of justice and a deep level of compassion towards others. Junpei never really confronts his own sense of fear, instead rushing into dangerous situations and hoping to overcome obstacles through sheer willpower. He often seeks out risky scenarios and enjoys being seen as a sort of ‘hero’ to others. Junpei can also be quite the contrarian, providing oppositional ideas for many of the game’s puzzles.

June (social/sexual 5):

There is a lot to unpack with June’s Enneagram, seeing as she is taking on a persona for most of the game. Despite this attempt at hiding her true personality, I still assert that June is a very good example of a social 5. She is largely disconnected from the group, playing a naive and peaceful woman to detract suspicion away from her. However, in the subsequent series June is shown to be grand in her ideals, seeking to create a better world no matter what it takes. Her tunnel vision leaves little room to explore relationships with other characters, and she is rather cold in reality. June spends much of her time alone, excelling at worldly knowledge and solitary work. In most cases, June would pick the timeline that allows her to ‘save the world’ in some way, even when that means sacrificing a life with Junpei, showing her commitment to her beliefs. 

Seven (social/sexual 9:

Seven is quite a simple character, who spends much of the game recovering from a case of amnesia. He is a social 9, which represents the countertype of this Enneagram. Seven follows the others without much complaining, preferring to spend his energy on helping solve puzzles and attempting to remember his past. Despite his passive role, he is the most optimistic of the group, providing a supportive hand and lighthearted conversation to break through even the most stressful of situations. 

Clover (self-preservation/sexual 2):

I’ll admit that I originally typed clover as a sexual 6, lending to her outward tension and high level of distrust towards everyone but her brother, particularly in the bad endings. I realized that this is a ridiculous way to type any of the 999 characters, since anyone would have a similar fear response to being placed in such a high-stress environment. I explored it some more and landed on self-preservation 2, since her motivations would perfectly fit as the countertype. Clover indirectly seeks protection and feels as if she is owed special attention for no particular reason, using her child-like charm to negate responsibility for herself. At the same time, she resists the idea of being dependent on anyone else, and is moody when criticized or rejected in any way, isolating from the others at many points and refusing to admit that there is anything wrong.

Santa (sexual/self-preservation 8): 

Santa is introduced to us as a standoffish, smug, young man who is against displays of vulnerability and likes to make hard and fast decisions. We get few opportunities to explore the inner workings of his mind, since he is usually quite closed off. However, there are a couple moments where Santa reveals parts of his past. Late into the game, he tells Junpei and June a short story about how he needed to raise his sister after the death of their parents, yet he quickly ends the conversation without mentioning it again. All of these factors lead me to surmise that Santa is an 8w7, specifically the sexual subtype. Santa is a rather stereotypical sexual 8, being confrontational and okay with disturbing the peace, while refusing to give up any level of autonomy, even for the sake of the group.

Lotus (social/self-preservation 8):

Lotus appears to be a brash woman, who is especially prone to irritation when being insulted. In many parts of the game, she makes decisions selfishly and prioritizes pure logic over the lives of others. There is a softer, more protective side to her that she shows as time goes on and she is able to trust the group more. Lotus is a prime example of a social 8, contrasting Santa’s ‘lone wolf’ attitude with a strong level of solidarity with other characters, especially towards the end. Although she can react explosively at times, Lotus is usually able to remain level-headed in times of crisis and reassures the others when they’re overwhelmed.

I trust that Uchikoshi has a strong understanding of his own characters and that this is just an oversimplification of Enneagram, which would make sense given his use of the archetype titles instead of numbers.

☆.

Peer Review #2 – 1794466544

It’s time for another peer review! The subject of this post will be Simona’s website 1794466544, which is titled Outdoor Adventure. From what I can tell, her blog is much like a personal diary, logging her travel plans and interests.

A gorgeous header image, striking uppercase title, and neatly laid out posts intrigued me upon visiting Simona’s website for the first time. These major design choices speak to the adventurous nature of Simona’s posts, as they often leave the reader with the urge to explore the world around them. 

I love the contrast between the white text of each title and Simona’s header images for her home and about pages, though there are some problems with other links. When you locate the Publishing-specific categories under a dropdown menu, the header becomes a white strip which leads to difficulty in reading titles unless you are actively hovering over one.

I also wish the background images for the other pages/categories (blog, contact, etc) fit better with the theme seen on Simona’s homepage. Most of these problems I suspect come from the default settings of this theme, such as the unfunctional “take action” button on the top right of her page. 

I love how she makes use of all-caps text for titles sometimes; I think it would look really cool if used more consistently! Simona used subheadings with bright pink highlighter in her review of Zara, which was a bold decision that I hope might continue in other posts.


I like Simona’s homepage, which shows the typical blog post excerpts with a rounded edge that works particularly well with her featured images. Simona’s photography and videos are high quality and professional looking, while also showing off everyday parts of life like studying, eating with friends, and her adorable puppy Dilei.

My favourite video of Simona’s was the short vlog shown in her third mini assignment; I’m so jealous of all the fun places her and her friends visited! She clearly has experience with filming, judging by the clean cuts and precisely lined up music.

In terms of issues, Simona sometimes uses different styles (bold, font sizes, etc) without much reason, which could easily be fixed by making regular text more uniform. As well, there are many spelling and grammar mistakes but I understand that English isn’t Simona’s first language and it doesn’t detract from the meaning behind each post.

Otherwise, her writing is highly descriptive, seamlessly blending casual language with prose (maybe purposefully, maybe just how she writes?) which I find very enjoyable to read. 

One line that stuck with me upon reading her process post for reading week was her mention of how “Sometimes I don’t choose to take pictures to record my life. I think it’s just a moment, and many beautiful things are just a moment.” I appreciate this sentiment, as I often fall victim to taking too many photos and missing out on memories because of it. 

Simona’s website is overall very well-designed and responsive, despite a few nitpicks here and there. I look forward to browsing her website more in the coming weeks!

☆.