#very good archy and woody

[stokesy55]

Alright, I'm liking this

[dualnaturedscientist]

"Thank you." Tristans attempt at calming down Gene had been quite effective. Corbin turned his nose up at it. Though they couldn't care what he thought. "What should we do?" Tristan thought for a moment, wrapping his arms around his spouse. "I think you shouldn't be out and about. I don't want you going missing next, my love." There was genuine concern and a touch of fear in his tone. The mad scientist frowned at that but he couldn't argue with Tristan. Knowing he just wants him to be safe. Not to have gone missing like the others. "Fine but I'm going to make sure you will be alright as well. I'll dig up some of my old inventions, they'll help you defend yourself against this mystery kidnapper." Tristan nodded. Of course Gene would do anything to keep his loved ones as protected as they could be. Corbin groaned, dramatically sinking into the couch and pinching his nose. "Get a room. Why don't you?" This earned him glares from everyone in the room. "We do have a room. Our living room. Which you are in!" Carl felt protective of Gene, placing himself between his son and the demon. Corbin found this amusing. Shaking his head as if he just heard the funniest joke. "What do you want?" Corbin looked like he was in deep thought for a moment. "Well, I did come for a reason. I need to discuss something with Matty. But he is busy doing whatever. So I'll just stay here while I wait for him. I thought, hey. Why don't I introduce myself to the family while I have the  chance?" They didn't look pleased with Corbins response. "Well you met them. Now you can go. You can see pops later. Right now we're dealing with issues of our own." Corbin actually laughed this time. "How unfortunate for this to happen. I should stay with you. During this time of need. After all, We are family." He grinned that shark-like grin. They'll never get used to that. Gene felt that it was no use. Corbin wasn't going anywhere. Despite the harsh glares he was getting. "Fine, but you have to keep your comments to yourself as we figure this out." Corbin waved his hand as if to brush off Gene. "Very well." Carl turned to Constance, frowning. "I'm sorry. For dragging you into this,Connie." He felt guilty for dragging his friend around and involving her in situations. Constance shook her head though. “It's fine Woody. If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be. I want to support you. I don't regret coming along.” Carl gave her a small smile. “Thank you. How about we go?” Gene didn't like the idea though. “Hey, dad. How about you stay awhile? Until Pops gets off his community service? I just don't want anyone else going missing.” He then turned over to Tristan. “Love, I'll have Victor pick up Becky from school while I dig up old inventions and tweak them. How does that sound?” Tristan gave a nod. “That sounds good, my love.” Constance was silent for a moment, thinking to herself. When she spoke up, the retired villainess tapped Carl's shoulder. “I'll stay here with you until then.” Carl felt grateful to have a best friend like Constance. A few hours had gone by until finally Victor had come to the house with Becky. They were still waiting for the four to come as well. They were still busy with lab work that had to be finished. It didn't help that Hugh was so tired that he barely got it done. Thanks to Archie and Patricia, he managed to get his work done. Jenkins had made sure that no one bothered him when he took his naps. So he got a little bit of rest. Victor entered the house with Becky right behind him. “Hey,Nibbles! We're here!” Victor had known what had happened as Gene filled him in on the details before he picked up Becky. None of them wanted to worry the poor girl more than she already was. Though they didn't want to keep her in the dark as well. They planned to gently break the news about Alex going missing to her. Victor was surprised to see Corbin sitting in the living room. With Carl and Constance. Becky was cautious around Corbin and made a beeline for Gene when he came out. Looking so disheveled from working nonstop. “Hey sweetie. How was school?”

Heart of chaos

A year had passed since the B.E.A.W Labs organization had fallen. Since all the events had taken place. Becky being taken along with Bob. The poor girl being experimented on by a cruel scientist who had no love for anyone but himself. Matthew had broken out of the facility with her, Carl and Steven. Gene's true identity being revealed along with losing his Dr.Two-Brains persona. Shocking revelations unfolded. Betrayals and redemption. Things had calmed down significantly since but that didn't mean life had been dull. It certainly wasn't for Fair City. Especially with the villains, heroes and its eccentric inhabitants livening up the city. Becky had been making a wonderful recovery. Though she still wasn't at her full recovery Becky was still making so much more progress than the year prior. Gene still had identity issues, dealing with the loss of Squeaky. Though he didn't go through it alone. The still mad scientist had his family and friends help him through everything. Matthew and Carl took up residency within the city. A house that wasn't too far from their sons. Life in this place was definitely lively and peaceful in comparison to the hellish place many innocent souls were imprisoned in. Matthew was less exhausted than before. Relaxing within the living room in his son's house, watching whatever was put on the television. Matthew felt his eyes beginning to droop. Sleepiness hitting him out of nowhere. He simply allowed himself to doze off, not fighting it. Knowing that he was safe there. It wasn't until he felt weight on him that Matthew opened his eyes. Usually a dog or cat would be the cause for this but Matthew met many eyes. Fluffy had snuck into the house yet again. A small warm smile spread across his facial features, patting the spider on its head. Fluffy leaned into Matthew's hand, making soft happy noises. It was funnily cute to him. Though he understood as to why Gene was so afraid of him. Even Carl was squeamish around the giant spider. “Aw, who's a good boy? You are! You're a good boy!” Matthew couldn't help but baby talk the arachnid. He looked up, wriggling his chelicerae in response. As to say ‘Me! I'm a good boy!’ He chuckled at that, giving Fluffy gentle scritches. It was like a huge puppy in a spider's body. Though the peacefulness was interrupted by a sudden shout. “NO! WHY IS IT HERE AGAIN?!” Gene was in the doorway of the living room. Looking quite terrified at the huge arachnid. Fluffy instantly moved around on Matthew's lap to look at Gene. Excitedly jumping off of the supervillain's lap in favor of his son. He bolted right for the mad scientist, causing him to yelp loudly and make a run for it. “SOMEONE KEEP THAT ABOMINATION AWAY FROM ME!” Matthew gave a small laugh. “Can't help but feel abit rejected there.” Archie, who was quiet until then, responded. “I know that feeling.” This caused Matthew to jump up startled. “Don't do that! I'm old. Also I could accidentally blast you.” Archie blinked in confusion. “You didn't notice me? I came in with Fluffy. He got loose and snuck into the house. I just came to bring him back before he got to Gene. Too late for that now.” Archie frowned. “I can't help but be jealous at how much Fluffy loves him. Though Gene is terrified of him. That spider just won't listen to me when it comes to his favorite person.” He shook his head disapprovingly. “You want me to help you?” Matthew was being genuine with his question. He didn't want his son dying of fright from the giant arachnid. “That would be greatly appreciated. I have to take him back home. He can't avoid taking his medication this time.” Matthew got up, stretching first before doing anything else. This earned him a strange look from Archie. “What? I said I'm old. If I don't stretch I'll pull a muscle.” The hero shrugged. “Let's go get him soon. I have to look after Charlotte as well.” Archie always had the brightest smile when Charlotte was brought up. Either by him, Sunshine or anyone else. It was sweet. “Alright, alright.” They were completely unaware of an enemy observing them. Waiting.

Miss Power growled in frustration at the display she was witnessing through a window to the Boxleitner or rather the Woods household. A display she thought was very disgusting. How badly the alien conqueror wanted to charge right in their and obliterate everyone in her sights. She couldn't do her usual tactics and tricks right now, not after what she learned after coming back. She was still ticked off after that little alien brat Wordgirl and her parents dupe and tricked her into leaving the planet in defeat. There was no way she could go back to her planet and face her people with such a shameful stain to her otherwise brilliant record. Fueled by revenge and hatred, Miss Power spent her time preparing, training, and waiting so she could exact her revenge against those who wronged her, against the little hybrid girl and her freak of a family that humiliated her. Sadly when Miss Power and her loyal sidekick Colonel Gigglecheeks did decide to return, they were not prepared for the recent changes that had happeend in their absence. Miss Power did not care much for this Darius person or B.E.A.W labs, she had seen those like them a dime a dozen before on other worlds. The alien wished she could have congratulated the person who tortured and dehumanized Wordgirl and her sidekick. If it was up to her, Professor Ross Moran would receive high honors among her people for his actions. She did give her condolences at his unmarked gravestone. While the recent trauma Wordgirl and her sidekick have suffered gave Miss Power an opportunistic advantage, the alien conquerer unfortunately could not risk using it especially with her grandfather around. Miss Power was amazed at hearing about the past and recent exploits of Maddrix the Malicious. She was shocked that someone so bloodthirsty and powerful was the father of that scientist who used to have a mouse brain attached to his skull as well as a weird cheese obsession. To her disappointment, Miss Power could clearly see the man was too human and had regretted his actions in the past. Actions that would have made him highly respected among her people despite him being human. Still Miss Power wasn't going to risk striking back while that old coot was still alive. Age did not always equate to weakness according to what she had been taught. Even though he was old, Maddrix was clearly still powerful. It was likely that her and Gigglecheeks would wind up dead by the man's hands before they could claim revenge and victory. A chittering sound snapped Miss Power out of her musings. She turned her head to see her sidekick give her a concerned look. He chittered again and asked 'So what are we going to do?' Miss Power smiled and scratched her sidekick's head which he enjoyed. "Don't worry Colonel Gigglecheeks. We'll get our revenge soon. We just need to learn more about Mr. Malicious and what weaknesses he might have so we can use it to defeat him." Miss Power cooed. She then took her sidekick and flew off without anyone being the wiser. Miss Power was brash and bold and could be tricked sometimes, but she was no fool. The alien conqueror learned long ago that the best way to win your battles was to be prepared and know your enemy more than they know themselves. Carl sighed with relief and slight exhaustion as he sat down in a comfy chair. He had just finished sweeping the floor of his and Matthew's home. Now all he had to do was sit and relax until his husband got home. Carl wanted to try a nice 'mom and pop' owned restaurant that one of Gene's friends, Chuck, had recommended to the man. Carl had been itching to get out and do something more and more recently. If he had to be honest, he was getting bored. In the past, Carl had his job and work as a scientist to keep him occupied along with spending time with his husband and kids. Unfortunately after his 20 year imprisonment, Carl couldn't step in another official science lab ever again without a severe anxiety and panic attack @dualnaturedscientist

[ourobororos]

you want asks ill give you asks

heres a silly one: if you blended up the rr characters. what flavor would they be. like. every flavor. from blueberry to mildew to the flavor of a long lost memory. what is their essence. would they be an appealing fucked up smoothie

this is a good one. i should be asleep rn i have a morning class but i wanna answer this TBH this is for you 🫵

giovanni would be like a smokey woody flavor like cooked over a fire. also quite herbal and complex more than you would initially expect. it has a type of comfort to it but also a mystique like you don’t exactly know the recipe to make it like that but it Is very familiar

maxie would have a charcoal flavor like your food is definitely a bit burnt. meaty and also quite spicy like not an aggressive spice but that kind that creeps up on you and lingers. still tasty though past the burnt bits

archie would be quite a bit salty like a seafood flavor. hearty and rich and delishes with butter a comforting and kind of heavy flavor that definitely doesn’t need much else added to it to do its job

cyrus would taste kind of Bad. a little bitter but mostly pretty bland, would probably be useful to enhance/bring out the flavors in something else but on his own is preddy nothing. he would be satisfied with this answer

ghetsis’ flavor would have that same burning sensation that hard alcohol brings in your throat. it also tastes Cold idk how to describe it simultaneously hot and cold. more sour and bitter than anything else but something not comprehendible or explainable in words, bizarre but not bad

lysandres flavor would be very sophisticated like a coffee or a pastry made with high grade ingredients like a rich density to it. its good but also a Lot like too much, a sweetness but also very much a present bitterness

if you mixed them together it would be Bad so much conflicting messages. a bit spicy but also sweet bitter sour savory salty i fink it would too much. this smoothie tastes like shit guys (it would look bad too)

[fictionalnormalcy]

Thoughts that literally kept me up last night. I always browse my explore page on Insta before I finally stow away the phone. The last post I saw was one where something pointed out a cameo in a Disney Pixar movie. That thought came to a tangent where it came to Tales of Arcadia and their cameos. And I swear to goodness, I still have the continued insistence that this series in set in the same universe of How to Train Your Dragon.

In 2018 I made a post where I literally went through all of Trollhunters and drew out each cameo and compared them to DreamWorks Dragons. I’ll admit, I can’t think of any right now that stood out to me in 3Below and Wizards. But the fact that 3Below and Wizards are literally still set in the same universe with the same characters, I feel it still applies.

And to this day, I’m still trying to fight myself. Debunk it that it’s another DreamWorks thing, and it’s essentially what Disney does with their movies and shows. DreamWorks movies do their handful of cameos as well, but I’d like to say not as extensive as Disney, and to a further extent Disney Pixar. I guess you can say this will be a DreamWorks vs. Disney post.

It’s not like Disney where we catch a glimpse of Rapunzel and Eugene as they walk through the opened gates in Frozen, or the Woody and Buzz piñatas in Coco, or the little elephants wearing Anna and Elsa dresses in Zootopia, or the Pizza Planet car in Monster’s Inc. and a majority of Disney Pixar movies.

DreamWorks movies, perhaps I haven’t paid as good attention to detail, but there’s few I remember. If someone remembers any, please tell me. I strongly want to know. Of the few I think of Penguins of Madagascar where Classified says to release the sheep and what’s shoved out of the barn is a sheep that looks like the ones from HTTYD. Then in Rise of the Guardians, where in Jamie’s bedroom you can see a dragon plush, said to be a Monstrous Nightmare, so also HTTYD. But otherwise they’ve slipped my mind.

Sorry I’ll bring this back to Tales of Arcadia. Okay, so I say that they are in the same universe because of the many DreamWorks Dragons cameos. I’ll give the link here as to the cameos I found in Trollhunters. There are seven I listed in that post, and there are two more I’d like to add now. In the literal first episode of Trollhunters, you see Toothless on the screen of a laptop.

The most notable one is in Season 2 when Draal, AARRGGHH!!!, and Blinky play Maces&Talons together. That one, when I saw it is when the notion started forming in my head. Because even though they do cameos, you never see the characters actively engage with it. And that’s what these characters did! They were so engaged in this game that they called attention to themselves with the yelling! Although I do have the inkling, that they probably weren’t playing it right. In the few scenes of Race to the Edge where we see it played, I don’t remember seeing cards beside the board. Heather and Fishlegs simply moved the pieces without much discussion. In the live person game Viggo and Dagur played it seemed like chess, I move this piece and now these players are vulnerable, then your turn. How the trolls played it, it gave off the vibe of Dungeons&Dragons. I’ll post the visual so y’all can see.

Which with my mindset implies this: The trolls may have found a game set of Maces&Talons with these cards alongside it, and interpreted the game was played in a different way. Or even provided their own additions. Because in RTTE we definitely never see dice, and there were never cards visible. I will concede that we weren’t given a detailed explanation of how exactly the game was played. But look at the board, those are the same figurines we see, the same placing of the rock and mock water. There can be no mistaking it’s a game board of Maces&Talons.

The only other cameo I can think that sort of compares to this one is when Boo hands Sulley a Nemo squeak toy in Monster Inc. Engagement with a cameo. But that was a single second where it squeaked he put it in his hands and that was that.

The other was a very active scene where you first heard the yelling and the cries, hear Blinky’s enjoyment and then the pounding of the table. It was intentional in getting your attention, and if you’re a viewer who’s also seen RTTE, you would’ve thought “OMG that’s Maces&Talons, these trolls are playing it in this modern day?”

Individually, I will admit you could say there was another reason the cameos were included. But the reason why I believe the strong suggestion that they’re the same universe is because there were so many, and so obvious too. Toothless obviously put in the shot so you couldn’t miss it, then AARRGGHH!!!, Blinky, and Draal, playing a game so obviously that you knew it was important. (if you had seen the other show). Here’s the thing though, the cameos were strictly of HTTYD. Not of other DreamWorks shows or movies. I will admit there may have been a Madagascar one, from the scene where Otto said they had a piece of the Bridge sent over from Madagascar. The mention seems like a cameo, because they really could have chosen any cryptic place but chose a place where DreamWorks has had a hand in.

Then another thing that I consider a cameo, was actually one of the new characters introduced in Wizards. I am going to be writing my thoughts again if I write out the whole thing, so I’ll link another post where I talked about it here. To summarize, it discusses Archie the Familiar, how the voice actor is Alfred Molina. Who voiced Viggo Grimborn in Race to the Edge. Evidence provided in the post where the familiar could be Viggo reincarnated. To me it makes sense. And it really does seem utterly convenient that they cast Molina for another character with the exact same voice he used for Viggo.

I mean Mark Hamill who voiced Alvin the Treacherous in DreamWorks Dragons also voiced Dictatious but the voices don’t sound similar in the least. I don’t hear Dictatious and say omg the voice is uncanny to Alvin. But with Molina, I hear Archie and I can picture those words seamlessly coming out of Viggo’s mouth. Nothing differing in the voices. While with Hamill and the characters he voiced, yes he indeed used different voices. But Archie and Viggo legit sound the same.

I will also admit it this as it crossed my mind, when you reincarnate you don’t remember anything from your past life. And usually, I can bet you don’t sound like the person in your past life. However I do want to outline this. In Wizards there really isn’t a mention of Vikings, suggesting it’s after the Viking times. And here’s also another thing about reincarnation. The new life you’re born into, it’s certainly distanced enough where you aren’t around anyone who knew your past life. So there is the possibility that your voice is the same as your past life. There’s no one around who can point it out.

I also can bring this to another extent. As is a voice actor, it depends on the crew you’re working with to determine how you bring a character to life. For RTTE, of the little that’s been released for behind the scenes it was revealed that the voice actors were allowed to improvise for their characters, as they knew who they voiced best. Meaning Molina was given the freedom to voice Viggo as he saw fit, hence why we were given “My dear Hiccup.” So the voice we heard for Viggo was how Molina wanted to animate this character. Yet, we have no way of guessing if Molina was allowed that same courtesy when voicing Archie. Based on the similarities these two characters had, perhaps Molina was asked to use the same voice.

But I have to say that even if he chose it or was asked to use that voice, it fuels my belief. Because the crew of Tales of Arcadia put in all those HTTYD cameos. To wind into specifics, the Maces and Talons board. And then later they put a character who sounds like the character who wound that board game into reality. It locks it in for me.

But yeah, this was why I struggled to fall asleep.

[rosepetals-flyingbirds]

Curiosity.

With: Modern!Finan x Reader.

Word Count: 1,711.

I got the idea from this post.

"No, don't! No. Son. I- Alright that is it. Y/N?" Finan shouted and you got up from the chair examining your loud husband.

Finan came with your son in his arms, the two-years-old boy beating his hands together as if clapping, you kissed his hair and looked at Finan confused. "What are you so mad about, love?"

"Well, this little fella here wants to lose his hands." Archie grinned at his father and Finan gave you a look.

He was at the garage building some new shelves to make a gazebo. "He was sitting in his little rug playing with the toy story's toys that uncle Sihtric gave him and then he came running grabbing the nails."

"What?" You examined your son's hands completely desperate. "But he seems fine, he isn't hurt."

"Yes, and that is because you married a perfect man, so I caught him before any damage could be done. And when I told him no, he sat down again to hold Woody, but when I grabbed the hammer he ran to hold the shelf support which is very pointy." Archie looked at you, guilty eyes shinning.

"Archie, what daidí (daddy in Irish) is saying is true?"

Finan glanced at him and you held your smile, Finan could be very imposing, but he was a softie. "Yes."

"And why you grabbed the things daidí told you not to?"

"Cause its preti." Finan leaned down to place him on the floor and Archie looked at the ground, avoiding your eyes. 

"But its dangerous and that is why he always tells you to ask him to see pointy things, so he can show you. What if you hurt yourself, uh?" Sensing that Archie felt cornered you crouched down to speak eye level with him. "Look," You grabbed his hands and gave Woody to Finan, who was with his arms crossed and staring at the small kid. You moved his hands so the palms were upwards and touched it. "Your hands would be bleeding and we would be racing to the hospital, we are only protecting you. So if you want to hold something that you know you shouldn't, what will you do?"

"Ask you and daidí."

"Yes. And for disobeying daidí and doing something wrong what do you say?"

"Sory." Nodding your head at him you stood up and touched Archie's head so he would look up and then glance at Finan, who the small kid was scared to look at. "Sory, daidí."

Finan looked at you and crouched down touching Archie's arm. "I forgive you, but don't do that again."

Archie nodded so Finan gave him a smile and handed Woody. 

"Alright, now you stay with him because I guess I'm on edge and won't be able to concentrate." He pulled your waist and gave you a sweet kiss before going back to work.

Pulling Archie's hand you walked to his bedroom to find a book to read to him, he loved to stay with Finan -almost like shadow- so you had to make him occupied.

                               -

Archie was sleeping peacefully and you were dead tired, but Finan hadn't come out of the garage yet. 

"Love." You called opening the door and finding all the parts of the gazebo done, he only had to put it up. He was sat on the floor, shirtless and hammering something in a piece of wood. "Babe." Looking back at you he took the nail out of his lips and smiled at you. "It's 11 pm, what are you doing?

Finan got on his feet and pulled the wood board up showing you his extra work of the day. There was a mix of things nailed on the board, old keys that used to be of the front door, keys chains, door knocks, an old calculator, a landline phone, colorful buttons, a small lantern that didn't glow strong enough to hurt Archie's eyes but shone sufficient to make him interested, a frame with letters joined by magnet, pictures of you, him, Sihtric, and the dogs that made part of the family. "I assume this is for Archie?"

"Yeah, he is curious and i believe we are right in telling him what is right and wrong, even when he is only 2, but he is discovering things so normal toys won't keep his attention for a long time as it used to. And I thought that making a board for him would be helpful."

He never ceased to surprise you, the idea was stunning and how he thought of Archie even after he got tired of telling a toddler no over and over again was very tender. "That is amazing, my love. You are the best, and I'm so grateful that Archie has you in his life."

Locking you in a tender hug and blushing he shrugged. "Yeah, you got lucky." You frowned in a playful way and pulled him back to the house so he could rest.

                                   -

Archie adored the board, at first, he was confused but when Finan told him it was okay to touch and was his own ''tools" to explore, it took 20 seconds to Archie smile clicking in the old calculator and being perplexed by the numbers shining on it. "Thankz." He grinned, missing teeth showing.

He looked up to you and started to jump as the lanterns got on.

The board was Archie's new favorite thing, he even sat Woody and Buzz in front of it showing how to touch the small devices.

You and Finan succeeded to place the shelves outside and a comfy gazebo was created. 

Archie begged you at least 30 times in a space of two days to call uncle Sihtric to show his big-boy-tools, and after speaking with his uncle for twelve minutes trying to show him how cool it was, Sihtric invited Archie to sleep at his house. 

But since Archie was still too young you didn't feel comfortable with him being far, so you settled with a day at his uncle's house.

                              -

Sihtric arrived and kissed your cheek before running after Archie who began to frantically yell and run away from his favorite person.

Finan approached with Archie's bag and you told Sihtric about all the things he should know. "Y/N, you know that I'm very good with kids, we will be fine. Right, Archie?"

"Ya!" 

"Bring him back at 9 pm." Finan said.

Sihtric smirked and shrugged. "Are you sure you don't want to s-l-e-e-p  a-l-o-n-e." He spelled so Archie wouldn't understand, he would be confusing with the idea of you and Finan wanting to sleep alone.

"He is too young, a baby still. So thank you Sih, but no. Maybe in a couple of years." Suggesting you heard Finan chuckling and Sihtric accompanied with a devious smirk.

"Some years uh?" He took Archie's bag and you rolled your eyes at him. Before being pregnant you and Finan were almost inseparable, and it was true that sexual life after having a kid slowed down, but you could handle having silent sex under the covers in the middle of the night for some time. "Let's go then, kiddo. Where are Woody and Buzz?" Sihtric looked around the living room finding it weird that he didn't have his favorite toys attached to his chest.

Archie walked to the couch and pulled the board dragging in on the floor before crouching down on his little legs trying to put the wood up. Sihtric giggled and held the thing up examining it, yes Archie showed him on the video call but the kid revealed more the ceiling than anything else. "That is great, very creative, original." He subtly praised Finan. "But let's go, lets grab Woody so we can go, okay?"

"No, uncle, tools will go. Not Buzz!"

Being confused momentarily Sihtric looked at you as if questioning Archie's words. Finan smiled and pulled the wood board walking out of the living room to reach Sihtric's car. "He will take it with him, he has a whole set of things to show you."

Kissing Archie's cheek and forehead you hugged Sihtric quickly and followed them outside, Finan placed the board on the car trunk, but you saw him moving something to his pants pocket before closing the trunk and grabbing Archie up to kiss and hug him. "Bye, mac." (son in Irish) "See you at night. Behave." Giving him a last kiss on his head he pulled Archie down and shook Sihtric's hand before giving a fast hug. "Take care of my son."

"Always. Come on, buddy."

Archie relaxed at the child safety seat and since Sihtric was already an expert on it, Finan went to hug your side waiting for them to go. 

Sihtric chuckled at the big wood board on his trunk but was glad to have his godchild near him to spend some time. 

Closing the door and going to the driver's seat he waved at the two of you before smirking. "I'm glad these are soundless."

Smiling at his relief you knew what he meant, when a kid received a new toy they would spend hours on it, and when they made lousy noises it was unbearable. "Uhn, about that..."  Finan spoke up and Sihtric moved his head as if he knew Finan made something just to pester him. "Some of them magically gained their sounds back."

Biting his tongue to not curse under his breath, Sihtric only waved at the two of you driving away.

"What have you have done?"

"Placed the sound pieces back again."

"Great." You chuckled and started to laugh imagining Sihtric’s face when he comes later on to bring Archie.

Walking to the house Finan grabbed your ass and kissed your head. 'We have some hours all by ourselves uh?"

"Yeah." Kissing him you two rushed to the bedroom.

But as you laid in bed, you yawned and started to feel drowsy within the kisses. Finan yawned too and murmured something of resting his eyes for a bit. 

After twenty minutes you two were passed out. 

Yeah, it was a tiring job to raise a human being. But you wouldn't change your little family from anything in the world.

                      -

[merspots]

Gone

Just posting an old Order 66 fic of my OCs here because of the new episode. Feel some people might enjoy it :)

---

Astro hated waiting. He, like the rest of his company, was half-crouched at the bottom of a dry creek bed, waiting for their General and the troops she had taken with her to return from their scouting mission. She had gone to find a way around the ridgeline ahead of them, which had been hidden by the tall trees of the forest. They could not go directly over it; doing so would leave them visible to the droids on the mountain that loomed above, and that would mean death in a hail of plasma. This dry creek bed at the bottom of the small gully was the best cover around, shallow as it was. But it did nothing to protect them from the parching heat in the air, and nor would it offer much protection against battle droids if they were found. He figured they should be returning soon, and again scanned the sclerophyll forest for movement. Seeing none, he let out a sigh and wondered why she hadn’t asked him to come with her; exploring – and finding safe paths in dangerous territory – was something he loved. Armstrong always said he had a good nose for danger, though Quanda used to say that he was a magnet for trouble. He felt his breath catch in his throat and forced his teeth together. Now wasn’t the time for those thoughts.

Turning away from the forest and back towards his brothers, he slipped from crouching to sitting. The two closest to him, the shinies Jara and Rhaz, were quietly talking to each other. Shinies? he thought as he felt a slight wry smile form on his face. They weren’t; not really. They had been part of his squad for months now, since Nyrooine, but they still felt new to him. They hadn’t graduated with him on Kamino, or experienced relief missions to devastated worlds under General Kofi and Commander Ner. All they had known was General Peeta leading them into battle against Separatist forces. Many of the troops making up Narglatch Company were like them; most of those who had served under General Kofi having been transferred to other units or lost in the front line battles their company had participated in under their new General. Of the small handful that remained there were even fewer he considered close friends.

He missed them. He missed them so much he could almost feel the ache coiling behind his sternum. His eyes closed involuntarily as he wished he could talk to Armstrong again, ask him why, why he betrayed them all. It all went wrong when you deserted, he spat at the image in his head. You broke the spell. Their blood is on your hands.

He couldn’t fight his memories anymore, and he returned to the day after Armstrong ran. He could feel once more the exhaustion that had dragged at his limbs, exhaustion not solely due to the lack of sleep the night before. His hope for Armstrong’s return had grown cold as the morning light had strengthened, and so he had focused on the battle ahead. There was no time for mourning while there were still Seppies on the planet, and under General Peeta’s directions they had gone out to destroy the last holdout of droids. It was there Angle was lost, when they encountered droids among the rocky tors marking where the mountain forests met the valley grasslands. Like always, before he had dived out from behind the grey granite lump they had been sheltering behind, Angle had boasted how he would destroy the most droids. The image of him getting hit in the chest by a blaster bolt, his feet slipping out from under him as he fell onto his side, replayed in slow motion. He could still hear the sharp grunt that accompanied it, before the worrying silence. It had felt like hours, waiting for the blaster fire to lessen so he could go out and drag Angle back to shelter, but he knew it had only been a handful of minutes before he had been able to dart out and pull him to safety. At that point he was still alive, though the charred mark on his chest plate had warned not for long. The agonising minutes it had taken Astro to carry him to the medics waiting in the forest behind them, however, were too long and he had died before they had a chance to save him.

The images in his head seemed to rush past, slowing down only when they reached a tropical world. Nyrooine. That campaign was a blood bath; so many of his brothers were lost in the world’s cities and canyons. General Peeta had tried to keep the casualties to a minimum, but even her strategies were unable to cope with the number of droids and gunships the Seppies had amassed. Quanda had died there, killed during their retreat from the main city. He had gotten separated from the rest of the squad, and Astro still wished he hadn’t. A few weeks after that an off-course Seppie proton torpedo had killed Spark, roughly around the same time the Republic decided to abandon the planet. That world marked the point where Narglatch Company started to change. The influx of new troopers combined with a change in purpose under the new General altered everything. General Peeta even encouraged everyone to paint sky blue marking on their armour, something General Kofi had never seemed interested in. That campaign became the first of many under the new General, campaigns that had cost him close friends. A few months after Nyrooine Atom had died shielding Archie from a Super Battle Droid’s missile, then a few weeks ago Archie had been killed during a patrol, when a mine was remotely detonated. Now there was only Woody left, and he was little comfort, never wanting to talk about the past. Astro loved his younger brothers, but they would never soothe the loneliness of losing those who he had grown up with.

“Astro.” The call broke him out of his thoughts, and he opened his eye to see Jara looking back at him with concern. He knew it was Jara, because while both Jara and Rhaz had dyed their hair an identical shade of orange, probably because of a lost dare, Jara had bleached back in his characteristic white stripe.

Astro gave him a weak smile and murmured, “I’m alright,” though he doubted he’d actually reassured either of them. Jara still looked worried as Astro released his grip on the creek bank, his fingers leaving deep gouges in the sandy soil. Rhaz nudged Jara and then they returned to their conversation, leaving Astro to let out a sigh of relief. He could understand their concern, with how weird Haywire and Woody were. They wouldn’t want their only other normal squad mate suddenly acting strange. This was why he hated waiting. It almost always ended up in moments like this, his thoughts wandering down well-worn trails, though it had been a long time since he had got this caught up in them.

Trying to focus on something else, he looked to where Haywire was resting against the bank. His eyes were half closed, but Astro knew from experience that he wasn’t nearly as relaxed as his worn face seemed to suggest. Haywire was never relaxed. Though he is better than when he first arrived, Astro reflected, stuttering less and not glaring if someone touches him. When he was brought in to replace Armstrong, he brought trouble with him. He was older than them, and wanted nothing to do with anyone, meeting any order not given by a Jedi with a disdainful stare. Sometimes, when the order was particularly risky, he very nearly ignored it altogether. Astro figured that the only reason he had not already been court marshalled for insubordination was because he followed General Peeta’s orders, and seemed to trust her, if no one else. His attitude had gotten on everyone’s nerves, but none so more than Spark’s. Spark’s almost pathological desire to follow orders always led to conflict, and he and Quanda had been forced to stop the arguments that occurred almost every other week. That was until Quanda had caught that blaster bolt. After that he no longer felt like intervening, only doing so when the verbal baiting turned physical. Haywire had done something unexpected, though, when Spark was killed. Though Astro was sure that Spark genuinely hated him, Haywire refused to leave his side while he was injured and unconscious. He sat with him until he died, even going so far as to threaten the medic that tried to make him move. He never explained why; all he said was that he didn’t want Spark to feel alone, even though Spark probably never even knew he was there. Haywire never talked about what happened before he joined their company, but Astro guessed that someone had done the same for him once, probably during whatever left the scars on his face and his trust.

Shifting back into a crouch, he scanned the forest once more for the Jedi, but saw no one. He hoped they hadn’t got lost. The paths that had seemed so clear from the air seemed to disappear between the twisted trees and the lanky bushes, which looked more like bundles of twigs than living things. The entire forest seemed dead, all white and grey and black.

A sudden shuffling of feet drew his attention back to his squad. They were all crouching, with Woody leaning forward with one hand on the ground and the other on the side of his helmet. His shoulders were drawn up, though his tense posture told Astro nothing useful. Woody was always tense. What made Astro’s stomach clench was that his three other squad mates seemed just as tense. Grabbing his helmet from where it sat beside him, he slipped it on. Immediately, he heard a familiar voice, though it sounded both harsher and more satisfied than he had ever heard it before.

“… Sixty-six.”

Woody’s shoulders relaxed.

Astro felt his breath catch in his throat, and he immediately looked towards Woody, who had straightened up and leaned back on his heels. There was a moment complete silence, like even the wind was holding its breath, before their captain spoke over the comms. “Narglatch Company, execute Order Sixty-Six.” His words were quiet, but heavy with vicious anger.

Sickly confusion shot through Astro, and a single word slipped out unbidden. “What?”

Woody slowly turned his helmeted head towards Astro, and Haywire balled his fists. “Execute Order Sixty-six,” Woody repeated, his words slow and drawn out. His tone, that of furious anger, disconcerted Astro as much as his words. He hadn’t heard Woody speak with that much anger, that much emotion period, since Gallias.

“But General Peeta would never, could never, betray the Republic. She’s no traitor. We can’t kill her!” Astro snapped back, confusion chilling to deep fear. If the Chancellor had called Order 66, that mean that the Jedi had become traitors. But he knew, he knew, that their General would never betray the Republic.

“You’re a soldier, follow your orders,” Rhaz snarled, his tone mirroring Woody’s. Astro shot a look around the creek bed and saw the other squads getting ready to head out into the forest, to look for and kill their General.

He looked back at Woody, looking him dead in the eye though neither could tell given they were both wearing helmets, and muttered, “Yes, sir. I shall go search for the General.” Mechanically, he stood and vaulted himself on top of the bank, scanning for movement in the trees. All was still. He sprinted off in the direction he had seen the General leave in.

He had to get to her first, warn her to get away. He had to stop his brothers from doing something he knew they would regret. He had to protect them. All of them. It didn’t take long to see the three troopers she had taken with her. Slowing down, he called out “Where’s the General?”, careful to keep his voice neutral.

“Coming.” The trooper’s voice was harsh, and from that Astro knew they too had heard the order. The only reason he could think as to why they hadn’t acted on it was because she had a greater chance of escaping them than escaping the entire company. Returning to his sprint, it only took him a few more hammering heartbeats to see General Peeta deeper in the forest. The Trianii blended easily into the environment even though she stood two meters tall, her sandy beige robes a similar colour to the soil and the black stripes on her grey coat like the shadows on the trees. Now, however, she was framed against stark white trunks. As he ran towards her, he switched off his helmet’s comms before pulling it off to ensure no one could listen in.

She stopped walking as he drew close and regarded him with concerned amber eyes. “What is it, Astro?”

“General, you have to run. We’ve been ordered to execute you as a traitor to the Republic. You have to go. Now!” His words were breathless rush as he skidded to a stop. She stood there, frowning at him for a heartbeat, before her eyes shifted to look behind him. He felt ice fill he chest as her ears flattened sideways and her long grey and black tail began to sweep from side to side. Clenching his teeth, he turned around and took an involuntary step back. Moving towards them was a wall of clone troopers, their armour marked with light blue. He took another step backwards and collided with something solid. Glancing over his shoulder he realised his was standing back to back with his General. The rest of his company had encircled them. Dropping his helmet, he pulled his blaster from his belt and raised it in silent warning. He heard the sharp sounds of two lightsabers igniting before feeling a light pressure at his side and seeing an orange glow. Sparing a glance over his other shoulder, he saw General Peeta holding her green-bladed lighsaber before her in a defensive position, while she was using her prehensile tail to hold her orange bladed shoto at his side.

“Kill the traitors!” A hail of blaster bolts flew towards him, and he felt the pressure at his side change as the orange blade flicked up in from of him. It started to move almost incomprehensibly fast, protecting him from incoming fire. He took a breath and narrowed his focus down to no dying, pushing the thrumming fear away. He fired off shots whenever he saw a gap, aiming for limbs and blasters. Even so, he couldn’t stop his mind for scanning for familiar markings. He would not be able to bear it if he saw Woody or Jara or Rhaz or even Haywire. But he did not see the bright green Haywire had painted on his armour, and the light blue patterns seemed to blend into each other. He heard a soft grunt from behind him and hoped that the light armour General Peeta wore under her robes was protecting her. He felt a dim burst of pain shoot up his right leg and looked down. The outer side of his lower leg plate was smoking.

He heard another gasp from behind him, this time sharper. Looking up and around, he realised that while they were holding the company back for now, there was no escape. “I have an idea,” he muttered over his shoulder.

“What?” General Peeta rumbled back, voice slightly strained.

Taking his left hand off his blaster, he reached into a belt pouch and pulled out three small, round objects. “Once I let off these smoke grenades use the Force get us a path out of here.”

“Right,” she murmured, and he felt her posture shift. Astro took one last, deep, breath before he activated and dropped the grenades. As soon as they hit the ground they started to spin and release a smothering cloud of white smoke. It only took a few moments for the thick smoke to engulf them, blocking his view of his brothers.

“Duck.” The General’s voice was soft, but he obeyed immediately, crouching close to the ground. He heard the hiss of sheathing lightsabers followed by the distinctive clatter of plastoid smacking together, then the blaster bolts stopped. He felt something briefly wrap around and tug at his left arm and looked up to see the General sprinting away through the smoke. Astro sprang to his feet and charged after her, not paying attention to how the smoke seemed to cling to them, hiding them from the chasing blaster bolts. He could hear many feet behind him, and as soon as the smoke started to clear he dived behind the nearest tree. Keep going, he whispered in his mind as he watched his General run deeper into the forest, before turning to look for their pursuers.

He could see them now, emerging through the smoke, and he fired a few blaster bolts in their direction, purposefully aiming wide. Once he saw a few break off to run in his direction he sprinted towards another tree, further away from his General’s path. Blue blasterfire chased him, igniting hope within him. He’d hoped that at least some of his brothers would decide to chase him rather than the General, and he hoped that if that happened then she would have a greater chance of survival. Looking around, he spotted a clear path towards a fallen tree thick enough to hide behind. He took a deep breath and threw himself towards it. Before he had taken more than two steps he felt something hit him from behind, throwing him forward. More impacts followed, and all he could feel was pain. Everything fizzled to black, and he heard a shrill scream. It took a few long moments to see again and realise he was lying half on his side, head resting on his arm, which was stretched out above him. Immediately he tried to move his fingers, but that only elicited pain than lanced through his body and black clouds that burst over his vision. He tried to move some other part of him; there was nothing. Astro felt his throat tighten at the thought of being paralysed, and he prayed to the Force that he had bought Peeta enough time.

His world constricted around him, pain and fear almost overwhelming. All he could hear was the staccato pants of his breath, punctuated by the painful thud of his heart against his ribs, each beat seeming to take longer than the last. His throat felt dry and tight, shadows crouched on the edge of his vision. He couldn’t move, just stare helplessly in the direction Peeta had run. He watched as she leapt up into a tree, a dark shape stark against the twisted white trunk. She seemed to hang there for an impossibly long heartbeat before vaulting herself further into the canopy.

The shadows started to move further across his vision, and the ground seemed to undulate in time with his pulse. He saw a dark shape leap from tree to tree, the path she took dashed with blue light. Bursts of flame erupted from the foliage when the bolts hit a tree, each gout of orange short lived.

The pain seemed to intensify with each breath, pushing into his chest, his back, his skull like a million needle-sharp daggers. He could barely see. It forced a dry, soundless sob from his throat before ebbing away, stealing every other sensation with it.

A dim shape fell from the trees. Blasterfire converged where it landed, painting the trees with pale blue.

He felt a soft breath escape as the shadows overtook his eyes. He was sinking. He couldn’t hear anything, feel anything.

Everything was gone.

[classicfilmfan64]

Yes, his autograph is part of my character Actor autograph collection. I found this extensive biography online.

Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor in films, radio, theater, and television.

Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian-Jewish immigrants, the first of three children.

According to newspaper interviews with Stander, as a teenager, he appeared in the silent film MEN OF STEEL (1926), perhaps as an extra, since he is not listed in the credits.

During his one year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he appeared in the student productions The Muse of the Unpublished Writer, and The Muse and the Movies: A Comedy of Greenwich Village.

Stander's acting career began in 1928, as Cop and First Fairy in Him by E. E. Cummings, at the Provincetown Playhouse. He claimed that he got the roles because one of them required shooting craps, which he did well, and a friend in the company volunteered him. He appeared in a series of short-lived plays through the early 1930s, including The House Beautiful, which Dorothy Parker famously derided as "the play lousy".

In 1932, Stander landed his first credited film role in the Warner-Vitaphone short feature IN THE DOUGH (1932), with Fatty Arbuckle and Shemp Howard. He made several other shorts, the last being THE OLD GREY MAYOR (1935) with Bob Hope in 1935. That same year, he was cast in a feature, Ben Hecht's THE SCOUNDREL (1935), with Noël Coward. He moved to Hollywood and signed a contract with Columbia Pictures. Stander was in a string of films over the next three years, appearing most notably in Frank Capra's MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936) with Gary Cooper, MEET NERO WOLFE (1936) playing Archie Goodwin, THE LEAGUE OF FRIGHTENED MEN (1937), and A STAR IS BORN (1937) with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.

Stander's distinctive rumbling voice, tough-guy demeanor, and talent with accents made him a popular radio actor. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was on The Eddie Cantor Show, Bing Crosby's KMH show, the Lux Radio Theater production of A Star Is Born, The Fred Allen Show, the Mayor of the Town series with Lionel Barrymore and Agnes Moorehead, Kraft Music Hall on NBC, Stage Door Canteen on CBS, the Lincoln Highway Radio Show on NBC, and The Jack Paar Show, among others.

In 1941, he starred in a short-lived radio show called The Life of Riley on CBS, no relation to the radio, film, and television character later made famous by William Bendix. Stander played the role of Spider Schultz in both Harold Lloyd's film THE MILKY WAY (1936) and its remake ten years later, THE KID FROM BROOKLYN (1946), starring Danny Kaye. He was a regular on Danny Kaye's zany comedy-variety radio show on CBS (1946–1947), playing himself as "just the elevator operator" amidst the antics of Kaye, future Our Miss Brooks star Eve Arden, and bandleader Harry James.

Also during the 1940s, he played several characters on The Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda animated theatrical shorts, produced by Walter Lantz. For Woody Woodpecker, he provided the voice of Buzz Buzzard, but was blacklisted from the Lantz studio in 1951 and was replaced by Dal McKennon.

Strongly liberal and pro-labor, Stander espoused a variety of social and political causes and was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. At a SAG meeting held during a 1937 studio technicians' strike, he told the assemblage of 2000 members: "With the eyes of the whole world on this meeting, will it not give the Guild a black eye if its members continue to cross picket lines?" (The NYT reported: "Cheers mingled with boos greeted the question.") Stander also supported the Conference of Studio Unions in its fight against the Mob-influenced International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Also in 1937, Ivan F. Cox, a deposed officer of the San Francisco longshoremen's union, sued Stander and a host of others, including union leader Harry Bridges, actors Fredric March, Franchot Tone, Mary Astor, James Cagney, Jean Muir, and director William Dieterle. The charge, according to Time magazine, was "conspiring to propagate Communism on the Pacific Coast, causing Mr. Cox to lose his job".

In 1938, Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn allegedly called Stander "a Red son of a bitch" and threatened a US$100,000 fine against any studio that renewed his contract. Despite critical acclaim for his performances, Stander's film work dropped off drastically. After appearing in 15 films in 1935 and 1936, he was in only six in 1937 and 1938. This was followed by just six films from 1939 through 1943, none made by major studios, the most notable being GUADALCANAL DIARY (1943).

Stander was among the first group of Hollywood actors to be subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1940 for supposed Communist activities. At a grand jury hearing in Los Angeles in August 1940—the transcript of which was shortly released to the press—John R. Leech, the self-described former "chief functionary" of the Communist Party in Los Angeles, named Stander as a CP member, along with more than 15 other Hollywood notables, including Franchot Tone, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Clifford Odets, and Budd Schulberg. Stander subsequently forced himself into the grand jury hearing, and the district attorney cleared him of the allegations.

Stander appeared in no films between 1944 and 1945. Then, with HUAC's attention focused elsewhere due to World War II, he played in a number of mostly second-rate pictures from independent studios through the late 1940s. These include Ben Hecht's SPECTER OF THE ROSE (1946); the Preston Sturges comedy THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK (1947) with Harold Lloyd; and TROUBLE MAKERS (1948) with The Bowery Boys. One classic emerged from this period of his career, the Preston Sturges comedy UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948) with Rex Harrison.

In 1947, HUAC turned its attention once again to Hollywood. That October, Howard Rushmore, who had belonged to the CPUSA in the 1930s and written film reviews for the Daily Worker, testified that writer John Howard Lawson, whom he named as a Communist, had "referred to Lionel Stander as a perfect example of how a Communist should not act in Hollywood." Stander was again blacklisted from films, though he played on TV, radio, and in the theater.

In March 1951, actor Larry Parks, after pleading with HUAC investigators not to force him to "crawl through the mud" as an informer, named several people as Communists in a "closed-door session", which made the newspapers two days later. He testified that he knew Stander, but did not recall attending any CP meetings with him.

At a HUAC hearing in April 1951, actor Marc Lawrence named Stander as a member of his Hollywood Communist "cell", along with screenwriter Lester Cole and screenwriter Gordon Kahn. Lawrence testified that Stander "was the guy who introduced me to the party line", and that Stander said that by joining the CP, he would "get to know the dames more" — which Lawrence, who did not enjoy film-star looks, thought a good idea. Upon hearing of this, Stander shot off a telegram to HUAC chair John S. Wood, calling Lawrence's testimony that he was a Communist "ridiculous" and asked to appear before the Committee, so he could swear to that under oath. The telegram concluded: "I respectfully request an opportunity to appear before you at your earliest possible convenience. Be assured of my cooperation." Two days later, Stander sued Lawrence for $500,000 for slander. Lawrence left the country ("fled", according to Stander) for Europe.

After that, Stander was blacklisted from TV and radio. He continued to act in theater roles and played Ludlow Lowell in the 1952-53 revival of Pal Joey on Broadway and on tour.

Two years passed before Stander was issued the requested subpoena. Finally, in May 1953, he testified at a HUAC hearing in New York, where he made front-page headlines nationwide by being uproariously uncooperative, memorialized in the Eric Bentley play, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been. The New York Times headline was "Stander Lectures House Red Inquiry." In a dig at bandleader Artie Shaw, who had tearfully claimed in a Committee hearing that he had been "duped" by the Communist Party, Stander testified,

"I am not a dupe, or a dope, or a moe, or a schmoe...I was absolutely conscious of what I was doing, and I am not ashamed of anything I said in public or private."

An excerpt from that statement was engraved in stone for "The First Amendment Blacklist Memorial" by Jenny Holzer at the University of Southern California.

Other notable statements during Stander's 1953 HUAC testimony:

- "[Testifying before HUAC] is like the Spanish Inquisition. You may not be burned, but you can't help coming away from a little singed."

- "I don't know about the overthrow of the government. This committee has been investigating 15 years so far, and hasn't found one act of violence."

- "I know of a group of fanatics who are desperately trying to undermine the Constitution of the United States by depriving artists and others of life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness without due process of law ... I can tell names and cite instances and I am one of the first victims of it. And if you are interested in that and also a group of ex-fascists and America-Firsters and anti-Semites, people who hate everybody including Negroes, minority groups and most likely themselves ... and these people are engaged in a conspiracy outside all the legal processes to undermine the very fundamental American concepts upon which our entire system of democracy exists."

- "...I don't want to be responsible for a whole stable of informers, stool pigeons, and psychopaths and ex-political heretics, who come in here beating their breast and say, 'I am awfully sorry; I didn't know what I was doing. Please--I want absolution; get me back into pictures.'"

- "My estimation of this committee is that this committee arrogates judicial and punitive powers which it does not possess."

Stander was blacklisted from the late 1940s until 1965; perhaps the longest period.

After that, Stander's acting career went into a free fall. He worked as a stockbroker on Wall Street, a journeyman stage actor, a corporate spokesman—even a New Orleans Mardi Gras king. He didn't return to Broadway until 1961 (and then only briefly in a flop) and to film in 1963, in the low-budget THE MOVING FINGER (although he did provide, uncredited, the voice-over narration for the 1961 noir thriller BLAST OF SILENCE.)

Life improved for Stander when he moved to London in 1964 to act in Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards, directed by Tony Richardson, for whom he'd acted on Broadway, along with Christopher Plummer, in a 1963 production of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. In 1965, he was featured in the film PROMISE HER ANYTHING. That same year Richardson cast him in the black comedy about the funeral industry, THE LOVED ONE, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh, with an all-star cast including Jonathan Winters, Robert Morse, Liberace, Rod Steiger, Paul Williams, and many others. In 1966, Roman Polanski cast Stander in his only starring role, as the thug Dickie in CUL-DE-SAC, opposite Françoise Dorléac and Donald Pleasence.

Stander stayed in Europe and eventually settled in Rome, where he appeared in many spaghetti Westerns, most notably playing a bartender named Max in Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. He played the role of the villainous mob boss in Fernando Di Leo's 1972 poliziottescho thriller CALIBER 9. In Rome he connected with Robert Wagner, who cast him in an episode of It Takes a Thief that was shot there. Stander's few English-language films in the 1970s include THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT (1971) with Robert De Niro and Jerry Orbach, Martin Scorsese's NEW YORK, NEW YORK (1977), which also starred De Niro and Liza Minnelli, and Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979).

Stander played a supporting role in the TV film Revenge Is My Destiny with Chris Robinson. He played a lounge comic modeled after the real-life Las Vegas comic Joe E. Lewis, who used to begin his act by announcing "Post Time" as he sipped his ever-present drink.

After 15 years abroad, Stander moved back to the U.S. for the role he is now most famous for: Max, the loyal butler, cook, and chauffeur to the wealthy, amateur detectives played by Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers on the 1979–1984 television series Hart to Hart (and a subsequent series of Hart to Hart made-for-television films). In 1983, Stander won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

In 1986, he became the voice of Kup in THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE. In 1991 he was a guest star in the television series Dream On, playing Uncle Pat in the episode "Toby or Not Toby". His final theatrical film role was as a dying hospital patient in THE LAST GOOD TIME (1994), with Armin Mueller-Stahl and Olivia d'Abo, directed by Bob Balaban.

Stander was married six times, the first time in 1932 and the last in 1972. All but the last marriage ended in divorce. He fathered six daughters (one wife had no children, one had twins).

Stander died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California, in 1994 at age 86. He was buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

[madelainesvixens]

Can you do 40 and 41 for joavin please.

To make up for the tragic and heartbreaking episode that was 3x06, here’s some Joavin prompt, xx 

Please continue to sent requests from this list of prompt!

40.‘‘You did what you had to do.’��

41. ‘‘I love you.’‘

.

Kevin had drunk a lot of Cristal during Veronica’s inner-circle birthday sleepover. Like…a lot.

Beside a beer or two during parties or a cocktail at the Pembrooke on Fridays, Kevin wasn’t a big drinker. Although he loved the buzz the alcohol gave him, he didn’t need to drink to have fun. He’d much rather snap videos of his drunk friends making fools of themselves on the dancefloor or singing badly - and very off-beat. Kevin had several of Betty and Veronica from Cheryl’s summer party. What an eventful night!

He was often - always - the designated driver, therefore, he had to stay sober and make sure everyone gets home safe.

Tonight was different. Tonight was a sleepover which meant Kevin won’t have to take his truck until the next day. In other words, the alcohol could flow. It flowed so much he lost count after Veronica poured him a third re-filled.

“Has Archie planned anything for your birthday?” Kevin asked, sipping his umpteenth glass of champagne. They had gone through two bottle of Cristal and Veronica was about to pop the third. Crazy, considering its high price but, Hiram couldn’t say no to his adored daughter. After all, it was her seventeenth birthday.

“I like to think he did although he hasn’t said a word.” Veronica turned to Betty. “Did he tell you anything?”

“My lips are sealed,” Betty replied, miming a zipped lip.

Veronica squealed. “Oh my god! He did! He planned something. Can you give me a hint?”

“I promised Arch I wouldn’t tell you anything. Sorry, V.”

The birthday girl huffed, a pout on her berry colored lips. “And you call yourself my best friend…”

Knowing Hiram had rented a whole venue to celebrate her Sweet Sixteen, Archie had to step up his game. Unlike with Betty, burgers at Pop’s weren’t an option. He had to go big for Veronica Lodge.

Betty rolled her eyes, grabbing the bottle and pouring the last drop of Cristal in her glass. “I had a dirty dream about Jughead last night. I was wearing a dark lingerie and…a wig. You know, the black one. I’ll spare you the details but, a whip was included.”

Kevin and Veronica sat in shock and turned to their blonde friend.

“Betty Cooper!” Veronica gasped. She didn’t know her best friend was into…that. They all perceived her as the innocent one due to her pastel colored closet but, little did they know, she was the less innocent soul of the group. And Jughead didn’t have to corrupt her.

Betty shrugged her shoulders and grinned. “It’s just a dream. We haven’t done anything of that sort.” She took a sip of her drink. “Yet,” she added, hiding behind her glass.

A wave of warmth washed trough Kevin’s body and he suddenly felt dizzy. The champagne was starting to get to his head and he knew he had to lay down. So, he did.

Laying on his back on the white carpet, he stared at Veronica’s ceiling, noticing how the lilac paint was perfect. Even the wallpaper was glued to perfection. Guess that’s what you get when you pay professionals to do your home decor.

The girls continued chatting about their boyfriends while Kevin zoned out.

“Talking about hot males, how are thing between you and Joaquin? Have you rekindled?” Veronica said, pulling Kevin out of his bubble.

“Eh, not really. I texted him but, he didn’t text back.”

“Try again, maybe he didn’t get your message? The signal is horrible on Southside,” Betty encouraged.

Kevin scoffed. “It’s unnecessary. He has already replaced me…”

The sadness in Kevin’s voice tugged at the girls’s hearts. They genuinely thought Joaquin was it for Kevin but, a silly misunderstanding made everything crumble and now the brunet was brokenhearted.

Betty pursed her lips in a thin line, feeling helpless while Veronica concocted a cocktail to cheer him up. While alcohol was only a temporary fix, it would make Kevin forget about his sorrows for a few hours.

“Here. Drink this.”

Kevin sat up, eyeing the drink suspiciously. “Is this vodka?” Veronica grinned, pushing the glass in the brunet’s direction but he shook his head. “I’ll pass. Last time I mixed champagne and vodka I threw up my insides on the carpet and died for two days.”

Two cocktail of happiness later, Kevin had completely forgotten about Joaquin and their breakup and was dancing with the girls to some Beyoncé. Veronica’s bedroom wasn’t dancefloor appropriate, it was safer than going clubbing illegally downtown. And, they had full control of the playlists. Dancing evolved to karaoke and Hiram’s ears were probably bleeding in his study. Sorry, Daddy.

“-must confess I still believe,”

“Still believe,” Betty and Kevin echoed.

“When I’m not with you I lose my mind. Give me a siiiiign. Hit me baby one more time. I must confess, that my loneliness is killing me noooow. Don’t you know I still believe. That you will be here. And give me a siiiiign. Hit me baby one more time.” Veronica posed, hitting the last note.

After karaoke, everyone clocked out.  

Well, everyone except Kevin.

Unlike the Betty and Veronica, the alcohol hadn’t put him to sleep yet. On the contrary, he was wide awake, browsing on social media via his phone.

The effects of alcohol were starting to reverse and his thoughts returned to his ex-boyfriend when he fell on a cute picture of Troye Sivan and Jacob Bixenman on Instagram. He started thinking about the night it ended. How his nosey ass got him to assume Joaquin had cheated on him with a certain Bianca. Kevin had called him all kinds of nasty names and ended their relationship without letting Joaquin explain. Well, Joaquin did explain himself but Kevin didn’t listen. He left the trailer with one last 'fuck you’ and slammed the door.

Then, he thought about all the good memories they had together. Those late night watching old classics on Kevin’s laptop in the darkness of the trailer. Secret makeout sessions at the back of the Bijou during Kevin’s breaks. All their casual dates at Pop’s.

That’s when it hit him how much he missed Joaquin. He missed his arms around him, tanned skin tattered with black ink. He missed his woody scent. He missed his soothing, calming voice. He missed his kisses, soft lips over his. He missed everything about the raven haired Serpent and it was his fault they’re not together anymore.

Without realizing what he was doing, he picked up his phone, scrolled down his contact list and pressed dial. It rang two times before someone answered.

“Preppy? It’s…one in the morning. What is it?” a sleepy Joaquin answered.

Kevin furrowed his eyebrows. “Is it really? I…I needed to hear your voice.”

“Oh. Eh, okay?” Joaquin furrowed his eyebrows, a bit perplex.

There was a long pause until Kevin’s voice filled the phone again. “I miss you, Joaquin. I miss you and I love you and I’m sorry for going through your phone. I’m such a nosey bitch. I know you’re not a liar, I should’ve believed you when you said you didn’t know this girl and that she was Sweet Pea’s bootycall and not yours and-”

Joaquin cut off Kevin’s ramble. “Wow, wow. Slow down,” he coaxed, having trouble catching half the words. He just woke up, his brain was still slow.  

“I don’t want us to be apart anymore. It’s so lonely without you, I…” Emotions got the best of him and Kevin felt his eyes prickle with tears. He tried blinking them away but failed.“Fuck.”

“Kevin. You okay?” Joaquin asked worriedly. He sounded out of character and the Serpent had a feeling some alcohol was involved. “Do you need me to come to you?”

He wanted to scream 'yes’ but he wasn’t at home; he couldn’t invite him over.

“No. I’m at Veronica’s.”

“Oh. I see.”

“I wish you were here, holding me.”

Joaquin closed his eyes, feeling a sting in his chest. Me too, he wanted to say but he had a feeling drunk Kevin wouldn’t be able to handle it. Because, that’s what he was, right? He was drunk. Sober Kevin would’ve never called him in the middle of the night to ramble and messily apologize.

“But, it’s never gonna happen because I fucked everything up,” Kevin slurred right before he started crying.

“Hey, hey,” Joaquin said softly. “Shh, stop crying. I’m not mad at you. You did what you had to do. You’ve been toyed with so many times, I understand your thoughts went there. You were looking out for yourself.”

Hearing Kevin cry like this and not being able to comfort him was difficult for Joaquin. If he hadn’t been at Veronica’s, he would’ve drove over and pulled him into his arms until his tears stopped. 

After a minute of sweet taking from Joaquin, the tears were still running down Kevin’s cheeks but he wasn’t ugly sobbing. The alcohol was to blame for this random crying session and Kevin was going to be embarrassed in the morning. He hated crying with a public.  

“You should go to sleep,” Joaquin suggested. If Kevin was drunk enough to be an emotional mess, he was certainly going to be hungover the next day. “We can talk about this when your mind is clear.”

Kevin hummed, feeling his eyelids become heavy. 

“And…maybe we could watch a movie after? If you want. No pressure.”

“Like we used to?” Kevin murmured, 

“Like we used to,” the Serpent confirmed, knowing it was one of Kevin’s favorite thing to do together.

“Night, Joaquin. I love you.”

Kevin hung up and fell asleep almost immediately, his phone still in his hand. 

“Goodnight, Preppy. I love you too,” Joaquin said although the line went dead.

[raymondtylermedia]

MAY23All In The Family /The Jeffersons Live On ABC Review Last night (May 23, 2019) ABC put together a cast of some of sit coms and sketch comedy's heavy hitters to revisit The Jeffersons and The Bunkers. Spoiler alert...It was a good try , but fell short of the mark for several reasons. Still over all I would give the one hour-live showcase of All In The Family and The Jeffersons passing grades. Instead of getting great writers to tackle 21st century problems....the producers go to two of my favorite scripts from the shows. In the case of All In The Family ...Henry's Farewell.  The original show marked the very first appearance of George Jefferson (played by Sherman Hemsley.) However, why I always loved this episode is because Mel Stewart as George's brother Henry was featured. When ever Henry Jefferson and Archie Bunker got into discussions of God, Santa Claus or anything....the ideology was always breath taking and funny. In the case of The Jeffersons they revisited the first episode A Friend In Need. I loved early episodes of The Jeffersons as a kid because of the insults. I love the early episodes now because of the subject matter that people sill don't like  to discuss... like inter-racial dating/marriage. Over all I give both efforts a C. I was excited about the prospect of watching these shows in prime time but disappointed with the product. To be fair I don't know if I could have been satisfied. Woody Harrelson as Archie Bunker just didn't work. His Queens, NY accent sounded high school production quality. I guess I am glad he tried. I know it was live television so I am thinking after his nerves settled he got better. He did much better after the first commercial break. Marisa Tomei as Edith Bunker did not get better. No only was she and Woody cast wrongly in these roles. The less said about Tomei's "Edith" the better. Wand Sykes as "Weezy" Jefferson-One of the stronger performances...but over all shows why the casting was off.  Sykes is a great stand up comic...while Isabel Sanford was an accomplished actress with decades of experience before she came to All In The Family.  It may be unfair in asking Sykes to be comparable with one night in an iconic role on live TV...however. I could see the difference in the presentations. Still I am giving Sykes a B-. Jaime Fox as George Jefferson....nope. I was grossly disappointed with his cartooning the iconic character. I won't say much more. Anthony Anderson was actually great. He did not try and recapture Mel Stewart's performance as Henry Jefferson. He let he situation come to him. Also great was the surprise cameo by Marla Gibb. Here is what I would suggest. A. Go to youtube or Dailymotion and watch the original shows. B. If they do this again...and I think  they should. They should follow the way One Day At a Time is presented on Netflix. Same set as the original...21st century problems that still are rarely touched even on cable. One Day At A Time on Neflix gets consistent A level performances from their cast and crew. C. Two Words "ROC" Live! D. Perhaps next time if not an update or new scripts? Then just rebroadcast the original shows in Prime Time much like CBS does with The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy!

[mondofunnybooks]

MONDO FunnyBooks: Bunker Down.

Were you a recent visitor to the wonderful world of comics fandom and discussions between professionals in the business, you might have the idea that comic customers were essentially a superstitious and cowardly lot.

Current sources of outrage, retweets and outbreaks of delusional authority run riot have been ranged from the fairly embarrassing to the downright worrying. Arguments in this writers memory have been about: 'Is The Joker doing something not very nice to a human being?', 'How dare a movie studio choose to cast who they like in the film they're paying to make without consulting US first?', 'This man who draws and has been drawing people in a particular fashion has drawn this person in his particular fashion. How dare he?' We reached peak David Icke/Alex Jones levels of hilarious Othering this week when an X-Men artist referred to SJWs as 'Nazis'.

Irony and Satire have apparently given up on humanity and gone for a pint.

The usual conservative, tribal viewpoints of people who've confused an artistic medium with a constant stream of politically free distraction designed only to anatheize rather than engage and stimulate thought, then. It's more important to harass Ruby Rose for being cast as 'Batwoman' until she feels compelled to leave Twitter or be upset at the news of Michael B. Jordan playing Johnny Storm for reasons that were absoultly nothing to do with racism but rather the...uh...misportrayal of the modern American family which defintly traditionally couldn't contain a black man. Also something something tradition or something.

When we've brought this up before, we're usually countered with something like 'Oh, you should see Harry Potter/Overwatch/Hunger Games/Fortnite fandoms, they're JUST as bad.' Which we are willing to assume is true, having seen YouTube comments, but it does seem that the entertainment industry has a bad habit of emulating the worst excesses of the comics industry.

Whether it's Empire or TV Guide running variant covers, Toy producers doing convention exclusive figures and then selling them at a premium afterwards or even, HighFather Keep Us From Laughing, the application of the words 'Limited' or 'Collectiable' to a product to imply both a scarity that requires instant purchase and a possibilty of high resale value when in fact those are words that could be applied to any physical product ever.

We can almost guarantee that there are only a limited amount of copies of 'Night Rocker' by David Hasslehoff in the world and should you decide to purchase one or more copies, you have collected them, but neither fact is hard evidence that anyone will offer you more than you paid for them ten years in the future.

This is a rather..odd state of affairs to have come about. With the exception of poetry or graffiti, Before the medium was hijacked into becoming one more vehicle to sell corporate superhero products, work like George Herriman's 'Krazy Kat' explored the nature of language via abusive animals against the unrelenting tedium of the desert. Little Nemo In Slumberland by Windsor McCay was a continous attempt to map the subconscious in a strip adaptable to any format thrown at him by publishers. Sigel and Shuster commericalised the Jewish notion of a charismatic Golem who would maintain balance against an American society that had been taught to hate them. Fly By Night publishing types would use the form to glamourise the world of true crime and vaguely condemning tales of drug abuse to create an entire sub-culture by showing a willingness to adapt to the times.

These were the early days of comics and sequential story-telling and by now there ought to be work making these masterpieces look like the plinkings of Woody Gutherie against the all out assault on the cortex that is an Atari Teenage Riot. Instead the front end of the medium seems more concerned with dotting the I's and lining the t's of it's previous output (our favourite example being Marvel's 'Secret Wars Too: A comic that explained to readers why the comic it was parodying would be late. They charged money for this, as well.)

Comics were long considered the Outlaw Artform, so capable of shaping the public psyche that the content and distribution were brought up in Congress to see if it was necessarily to regulate the avalibilty of them to children. It's a longer story than will run here but the essence of the events is that while the 1954 hearings saw Congress conclude that comics were NOT a harmful product that would negatively influence children's minds, the comics industry decided that it would be best to settle public hysteria by establishing 'The Comics Code Authority', which would impose a series of standards and regulations upon comics seeking to be distributed on the newsstands.

Ironically, one of the people on the earlier incarnations of the board that would make up The CCA would be John Goldwater, one of many who takes credit for the creation of Archie Andrews'.. This writer likes to think Mr Goldwater was probably a little resentful of EC Comics's Archie parody 'STARCHIE!' (MAD Magazine Issue 12. Remains funny but now also looks like any episode of 'Riverdale'.) and was more than happy to choose the phrasing of a code that also happened to regulate the key words in EC Comic's top selling comics out of publication. All the resentful little men in comics complaining about being mocked are 'Happy Days''s Howard Cunningham wearing his Grand Poobah hat in our head.

We say 'ironically', because the current Ickeian theory is that comic sales in the direct market are so low due to Marvel and DC 'giving in' to the demands of the 'SJWs'. What with their unreasonable demands for more realistic representation in mainstream comics, we can see how 'Could you produce more comics we'd be willing to buy?' would definetly be an agenda designed to bring down the entire comics industry.

Because we are given to facts, we can't dispute a lot of the problems the new comics industry faces. Sales on New Comics to The Direct Market ARE down.

It would take the same sort of mind that blames Barack Obama for his Presidential inaction during Hurricane Katrina to think that the problems of new comics are the work of those damned SJWs, though. Not unless Heidi MacDonald has a time machine.

Unless Laurie Penny staged a hostile takeover of The Marvel Editorial Summit and said 'Right. Here's what we want: Please keep raising the prices of your comics by roughly about a dollar every few years, do more $150 crossovers that will have no significance in about 4 years or so. Please spin off as many comics as possible from one of your prime brands. Make sure your top staff behave like Obnoxious King Nerds on social media whenever possible.Instead of focusing your sales team on promoting the comic as a good read, keep pitching your comics as must buy investment issues aimed at speculators who won't be back for the next issue. As soon as your readership have begun to settle into a book, it's direction and it's creative team, that's probably the best time to relaunch your titles.

Be sure to confuse readers and retailers by pretending each relaunch is a 'Season' without ever referring to which season is currently published in advertising or trade dress. Come up with any justification whatsover to publish an anniversary issue that's triple the price of a regular comic as frequently as possible. Try to devalue the contribution and sales cache of your creative team over the amount of variant covers offered to retailers. Have your top writers actively and vocally hostile to the notion of second printings and finally publish no comics that even vaguely resemble the TV and Movie versions of your characters so new readers can come into a shop after seeing "Avengers Assemble" and be offered 7 books called "Avengers" but they'll mainly be about some men chatting at a table.'....then the reasons why new comics are failing aren't at the hands of SJWs.

They're at the hands of the publishers. The above list is the main reason for the decline in sales of new comics in specialist shops that we saw in our days behind the till. All things we were saying over a decade ago at retailer meetings with Marvel and DC. We were brushed off in order to try and wave shiny new 3D variants back then.

A few years later, when it was apparent that the law of diminishing returns was in full effect, was when finally The Big Two turned to the 'gimmick' of appealling to a wider audience. When oddly, that half-hearted effort to win over a new readership by publishing the books in the same venues as usual didn't work,with little support from their publicity and advertising departments both Marvel and DC quickly threw these efforts under the bus as proof that trying to expand your salesbase beyond a Wednesday crowd was a waste of time.

Except that''s nonsense of course. Any analysis of pre-order charts will tell you that the sales have been in heavy decline since 2007's 'Civil War' from Marvel. The constant attempts to repeat that success in that format are the problem. Marvel and DC trying the 'Social Justice' route and it's subsequent failure is a shameless attempt to rewrite history for the benefit of an agenda of tired Poobahs scared of time and their limited views of the comic medium making them irrelevant.

In fact, Marvel's recent attempt to appeal to Muslims,AND teenagers (imagine.) at once was quite late in the game with 2013's 'Ms Marvel' while the 'Feminazi Bible' Mockingbird wouldn't begin threatening Poobah Egos until around late 2016. Meanwhile, Archie Comics had smelled which way the wind was blowing several years earlier....

Archie Comics were always smarter than the ongoing superhero titles because they never set themselves up to tell an ongoing story, but rather worked like an extended cartoon strip. If you read three random issues of any Archie comics, you were probably as clued up on the cast of Riverdale as you were going to need to be to understand the dynamics of what was going on. Archie was perptually out of sync with the world around him, Betty was goal driven and meant well, Moose wasn't quite sure what day it was but loved Midge more than anything, etc. etc. All you had to do was set up a situation, add two or more of the characters and let the rest play out.

Even better, since the characters weren't obliged to be a certain age given the backstory (Peter Parker can't be worrying about teenage problems since he's been around long enough to get married, be a lecturer, etc.) the backgrounds and fashions could simply be updated to reflect the times of publication.

So no awkward retcons such as Reed Richards and Ben Grimm starting off as veterans of World War 2 and suddenly having gone through The Gulf War instead, prompting questions like 'Which comics have and haven't happened, then, because The Avengers definitely went to Saigon in the 70's but the existence of The FF precedes The Original Avengers finding Captain America in the block of ice and Cap turned out to be fighting Richard Nixon during The Secret Empire Saga so...argh!'

Archie managed to stay on the newsstands long after the self absorbed and inside baseball nature of superhero comics rendered them unsaleable in your average W.H.Smith's or Wal-Mart, since any issue of Betty & Veronica could be read by anyone with no need to check out previous issues. It was very rare that any one tale would run more than one comic and the few times it did, it was with fantastic results. We'll get to that.

In 2010, Marvel was wasting everyone's time and money on 'Siege; or 'What If Asgard wasn't in space but in Oklahoma instead?' while DC insisted on spreading the myth that people who grew up in Liverpool talk like they're from Shoreditch by adding John Constantine to the line up of 'Brightest Day'.

During the same year, Archie dragged mainstream comics kicking and screaming into the future with 'Kevin Keller', a comic featuring an openly gay male lead out in the real world and everything. This annoyed some American Mary Whitehouse wannabes called 'One Million Moms!'. They campaigned against the title being sold in children friendly areas such as Toys R Us but only really proved their basic inability to count to 1 million.

In the same year they published covers featuring Archie kissing Valerie, the black bassist from Josie & The Pussycats. If this doesn't strike you as a big deal for a comic being published in the mid-west of America, well, you might be one of those guys suggesting that there's always been adequate representation in comics.

They didn't sell as many comics in specialist shops, but while The Big Two continued to tread water, Archie kept moving forward, kept looking to crossover with big name brands, parodied the biggest comic crossovers, featured the likes of Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, paid homage to EC Comics and got Adam Hughes to draw covers. They even explored exactly what WOULD happen if Archie finally chose Betty. And Veronica. And heartbreakingly, how deep Archie's love for his fellow man ran in the conclusion to the marriage stories in 'The Death Of Archie.' Oh, and he also met the Predator.

Then they stepped everything into higher gear with our second favourite horror comic of the 21st Century with Afterlife With Archie. It was a book we'd recommend to new readers as a good alternative to the horrendously overpriced, badly drawn horror or just too boring to be scary books glutting the market with 'Torture Porn Variants'. AWA would feature at least one chilling moment per issue likely to stay with you long after you finished reading. One issue of tie-in book 'Sabrina The Teenage Witch; is worth 3 or 4 'Walking Dead' trade paperbacks in terms of actual horror instead of people talking around a trailer park.

If you had been a fan of the Archie world before and hadn't read it for a while, though, our glee would be magnified. While the horror/jump scare bits of AWA are genuinely well done and actually quite intense, the bits between undead assault are where the real horror lies as relationships between all the characters are twisted forever, new angles and revealations would stop you ever being able to see Midge, Cheryl, Reggie and more in quite the same light.

This moving with the times meant that the Archie readership were quite capable of seeing the characters they loved for so many decades in different modes of storytelling and art styles laid the groundwork for two things: The relaunch of the line in 2015 with high profile creators such as Mark Waid, Fiona Staples, Chip Zdarsky and Adam Hughes doing new and interesting takes on a universe we all knew so well (A bit like The Ultimate Universe but with a point and a plan.) and also the hit show 'Riverdale'.

It will not surprise many of you to learn that the Grand Poobahs Of Comics (TM MONDO FunnyBooks 2018) hated 'Riverdale' and frequently grumbled 'Not MY Archie.' but then, by folding their arms and threatening to hold their breath until the artform of comics goes back to being what THEY want, they've proven time and again that they're constantly wanting to find a straw man to blame for the world moving on without them. These were the same people who moaned about 'Archie Vs Punisher' for not taking Frank Castle seriously enough and thought the parody crossover 'Love Showdown' (Which promised that Archie would finally choose a permanent girlfriend) would break the Archieverse once and for all.

There are lots of ways to improve the state of comics. Indulging the whinging of grumpy old men and refusing to believe the rest of the world might be interested in comics are not on that list of ways.

And as a wise man once said 'The people want BeBop. And who I am to tell them that BeBop is wrong?'

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 20 August 2018

Quick Bits:

Aphrodite V #2 is pretty damn great. Jeff Spokes’ artwork is instantly compelling, drawing in the reader with darkness and interesting angles into this increasingly enthralling story of a machine cult from the future by him and Bryan Hill.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Avengers #6 concludes the first arc in widescreen fashion. Lots of action and big ideas from Jason Aaron with gorgeous art from Ed McGuinness, Paco Medina, Mark Morales, Juan Velasco, and David Curiel. Again I’m reminded of those early issue of JLA from Grant Morrison and Howard Porter. This has been fun so far and I’m intrigued by what else they have in store.

| Published by Marvel

Beasts of Burden: Wise Dogs & Eldritch Men #1 is a very welcome return, even without Jill Thompson for this go around. The artwork from Benjamin Dewey is beautiful as he reminds us that he’s one of the best nature artists in comics, and possible beyond. His animals are just stunning. The story from him and Evan Dorkin is also interesting, suggesting some arcane traps luring in the paranormal. Great stuff for all ages.

| Published by Dark Horse

Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack #12 concludes the series with an epic battle between the forces of heaven and hell as it teaches us the true meaning of friendship. It’s funnier when you actually read it. This has been an entertaining series from John Carpenter, Anthony Burch, Jorge Corona, Gabriel Cassata, and Ed Dukeshire, with this final chapter also delivering a nice farewell to the movie as well.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Black Hammer: Age of Doom #4 has some very interesting revelations that ultimately only lead to more questions than answers. What’s going on isn’t nearly as cut and dried as we were led to believe last issue and the mystery has just deepened. Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, Dave Stewart, and Todd Klein have managed to elevate this story higher again.

| Published by Dark Horse

Black Panther #3 finally parcels out a tidbit of what might actually be going on with the series and the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, just in time for a surprise attack and more action. Thankfully, the art from Daniel Acuña is still overwhelmingly gorgeous.

| Published by Marvel

Britannia: Lost Eagles of Rome #2 is even better than the first issue. The mystery deepens as Antonius and Achillia reach Egypt and find incongruities they don’t expect within this province of the Roman Empire. The artwork from Robert Gill (with colours from José Villarrubia) is probably among the best I’ve seen from him, really bringing some very strong work here with backgrounds, vehicles, and character designs that are particularly impressive.

| Published by Valiant

Cold Spots #1 is the start to another horror series from Cullen Bunn, this time accompanied by Mark Torres with the artwork, and as per many of Bunn’s previous tales, this is a great start. There’s a genuinely creepy atmosphere from Torres’ art and the plot of a missing daughter and her child, amidst the spooky maybe-ghosts, is a good one.

| Published by Image

Daredevil #607 gets into how there can possibly be a Mike Murdock running around New York and it’s an interesting and possibly hazardous diversion. Gorgeous art from Phil Noto.

| Published by Marvel

Die!Die!Die! #2 is more entertaining over-the-top humorous action that feels like it’s channelling Garth Ennis. Great art from Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor #4 is probably the most succinct in sticking to its plot without real deviation of all of these minis. Basically sticking to the thread of these X-women tackling the Femme Fatales. It’s been a relatively decent story from Jim Zub, Thony Silas, and Felipe Sobreiro, even if the art’s been a little uneven. There’s a really nice sequence of Psylocke finding herself again in this issue, though, from Leonard Kirk and Andrew Crossley that has interesting implications going forward.

| Published by Marvel

Jughead: The Hunger #8 is a great jumping-on point for new readers, offering a bit of a history lesson and summary reinterpretation of the events of the overarching plot of the series to date. Great work from Frank Tieri, Pat & Tim Kennedy, Joe Eisma, Bob Smith, Ryan Jampole, Matt Herms, Andre Szymanowicz, and Jack Morelli.

| Published by Archie Comics / Archie’s Madhouse Presents

The Life of Captain Marvel #2 continues what is shaping up to be possibly one of the defining and quintessential Carol Danvers stories. I love what Margaret Stohl is doing in bringing out the backstory and interpersonal dynamics of Carol’s family. The art from Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Fonteriz, and Marcio Menyz in the present day and Marguerite Sauvage’s flashbacks is wonderful.

| Published by Marvel

Mr. & Mrs. X #2 continues this fun ride, tossing in Deadpool and more of the lesser used intergalactic X-characters. The dialogue from Kelly Thompson is hilarious and the art from Oscar Bazaldua and Frank D’Armata is great.

| Published by Marvel

Old Man Logan #46 begins another arc tying up loose ends before the endgame of Dead Man Logan kicks off. Wrapping reconnecting with Alpha Flight around a horror story evoking shades of The Thing and Slither results in a wonderful story perfectly fitting Damian Couciero’s artwork.

| Published by Marvel

The Punisher #1 is both a continuation of Matthew Rosenberg’s stories and ideas from the last volume of the series and a kind of back-to-basics approach to Frank Castle. Basically, he’s lost the War Machine suit, but he’s still taking on the world-spanning super-villains. It’s pretty epic and this is great jumping-on point. The dark humour is perfect, reminding me of Garth Ennis’ work with Castle, and seriously this is probably the best art that Szymon Kudranski has ever done. Along with Antonio Fabela’s colours, it’s like he was born to draw The Punisher.

| Published by Marvel

Royal City #14 is an introspective end of saying farewell to the past and accepting change to move forward. This has been an interesting series from Jeff Lemire, focusing on his most often used theme of family, and it’s been a good exploration of their different dynamics.

| Published by Image

The Sentry #3 is pretty dark, telling the flipside of the first two issues from Billy Turner’s perspective as he goes about stealing Sentry’s identity. This is almost at Kid Miracleman levels of demented. Jeff Lemire is playing with some interesting ideas here, beautifully brought to life by Kim Jacinto, Joshua Cassara, and Rain Beredo.

| Published by Marvel

Shadowman #6 has some truly beautiful artwork from Renato Guedes, as this arc of Jack falling through time visiting the different holders of the shadow loa takes an interesting turn in ancient history.

| Published by Valiant

Shanghai Red #3 is probably the best issue to date, as Molly reunites with Katie, recriminations are hashed out, and we get a bit of a tour of Portland. Christopher Sebela, Joshua Hixson, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou have tapped into something unique here, and this tale of revenge and some of the lesser told side of American history is incredibly compelling.

| Published by Image

TMNT #85 brings Leatherhead back into the fold, with very interesting and potentially dangerous ramifications following the war between the Utroms and Triceratons. Brahm Revel’s clothes-peg take on the Turtles is an interesting visual choice.

| Published by IDW

The Thrilling Adventure Hour #2 I find better than the first issue. The humour hits home a bit more for me and the leads of Sadie and Frank don’t seem nearly as insufferable as the first issue. The art, though, from MJ Erickson and Brittany Peer is just as good as the first. Entertaining stuff.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Venom #5 is another great issue. The mythology-building in this series is just incredible, growing Venom and his world into so much more. Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin, and Clayton Cowles are creating magic.

| Published by Marvel

West Coast Avengers #1 is a great debut, filled with action and humour, as this highly dysfunctional team comes together. It’s nice to see Kelly Thompson doing more Hawkeye and Hawkguy, and the collection of characters coming together to make up the team are bizarre and fitting, carrying on a few of the themes and plot developments of the previous Hawkeye and America series. Though you needn’t have read any of that before you pick this up. Making it nigh unmissable is the gorgeous art from Stefano Caselli and Triona Farrell. This is fun.

| Published by Marvel

Witchblade #7 returns for its second arc, continuing the extremely high level of quality that Caitlin Kittredge, Roberta Ingranata, Bryan Valenza, and Troy Peteri set for themselves.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

X-Men Red #7 advances us a bit further as the X-Men attempt to uncover evidence of Cassandra Nova’s influence on the world and thwart her attack on Atlantis. Tom Taylor has definitely been taking a slow approach to unfurling this story, but it has allowed for the beautiful art from originally Mahmud Asrar and now Carmen Carnero & Rain Beredo time to breathe.

| Published by Marvel

Other Highlights: Amazing Spider-Man #4, Avengers: Wakanda Forever #1, Barbarella #9, Bedtime Games #3, Betty & Veronica: Vixens #9, Curse Words Summer Swimsuit Special #1, Days of Hate #7, DuckTales #11, Gasolina #11, Hack/Slash: Resurrection #10, Hit-Girl #7, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation #6, Lumberjanes #53, Mammon, Mickey Spillane’s Mike #3, Night’s Dominion - Season Three #2, Old Man Hawkeye #8, Quantum & Woody! #9, Red Sonja/Tarzan #4, Redneck #14, Stairway - Volume 1, Star Wars: Darth Vader #20, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #23, Sullivan’s Sluggers, TMNT: Bebop & Rocksteady Hit the Road #4, Wasted Space #4

Recommended Collections: Avengers: Back to Basics, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Cloak & Dagger: Predator & Pray, Deadly Class - Volume 7: Love Like Blood, Giant Days - Volume 8, Jimmy’s Bastards - Volume 2, Li’l Donnie - Volume 1: Executive Privilege, Lockjaw: Who’s a Good Boy, Postal - Volume 7, Sex Criminals - Volume 5: Five-fingered Discount

d. emerson eddy too wonders where all the cowboys have gone. Is it a nefarious plot from some shadowy organization? Or are they all just at the Calgary Stampede?

[ninjastormhawkkat]

Constance’s expression changed from surprised to looking cross. “Fluffy, what are you doing here? You are supposed to stay with Archie. An ambulance and hospital is no place for a spider like you. Why, you could be exposed to dangerous substances and chemicals that could make you sick!” Constance scolded the spider like a child. Fluffy made some chittering sounds and had an expression that looked like he was sorry. But then he turned back to facing Matthew. Fluffy let out a strange cooing noise as he stared directly at the villain, becoming enraptured by Matthew’s presence. Matthew just blinked, looking nervous and unsure on what to do with a large spider on top of him. Victor spoke up in an amused tone. “Huh, I never seen Fluffy behave that way with anyone other than Gene and Archie.” Victor commented. Carl looked at his son with a confused expression. “What do you mean?” The man asked. “Well Fluffy here is pretty attached to Archie, but he also behaves like a cat. Gene has become his favorite human even though he has arachnophobia. Though Fluffy’s presence always makes Gene scream in fear, Fluffy just loves the guy for some reason.” Constance couldn’t help but chuckle at Victor’s explanation. “He’s right. My little grandbaby just loves your son Gene for some reason. I’ve had conversations with Archie who admitted he was jealous at times of the attention and adoration Fluffy has given Gene in the past.” Constance remarked. Carl just stared wide eyed at Constance like she had just grown another set of eyes. “You call that giant spider your grandbaby!” Carl remarked in a stunned tone. Constance gave the man an annoyed look. “Well why not. You have a hybrid alien grandchild not to mention four new mice grandchildren who have already taken to calling your son mama. What rule says that grandchildren have to be human?” Carl did not retort. She had a point there. Constance smirked as she folded her arms in victory. Though her expression fell as a thought came to her. “It’s a shame Gene has a fear of spiders. They can be very helpful creatures. What caused his arachnophobia to develop?” Constance asked Carl. The man gave her a sheepish expression. “You remember I had to bring the kids to work with me one time because Matthew became sick?” Constance nodded silently, letting Carl continue. “Well that was the day one of your associates brought that terrarium of orb weavers so that you two could analyze their behavior patterns. Gene had wandered off and was trying to look for the bathroom. I think the associate left the lights off and the door unlocked by accident because Gene wandered in trying to look for the bathroom. Well he accidentally bumped into the terrarium and all of those orb weavers spilled out and on top of him. I felt my heart stop beating when I heard his blood curdling screams. Luckily none of the spiders bit him. Though Matthew and I spent weeks trying to convince Gene to go outside again after that.” Constance cupped her mouth in embarrassment. “Oh yes I remember that. The poor fellow felt so guilty about it too. I had to reassure him that you weren’t going to strangle him and that it was just an accident. Both you and Matthew were dangerously protective of your kids back then Woody.” Constance playfully chided. Carl couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. It felt good to have a laugh considering all that happened. Back at the home Tristan saw Tim and Bampy approach him and his brother. They both had sympathetic expressions. “How are you holding up son?” Bampy asked with concern. Tristan let out a tired sigh. “I have been better. Thank you for your concerns.” Tristan responded. Tim smiled sadly. “Of course. If there is anything we can do to help right now just let us know. I know you and your husband are superheroes, but even heroes need help now and again.” Tristan flinched a bit at Tim’s words. He had forgotten Tim had seen him and Alex transforming. @dualnaturedscientist

Questions plagued Carl's mind. Was Matthew going to be okay? Were they going to stop Atomic in time? What if they didn't? Was Atomic connected to the B.E.A.W Labs? "It'll be okay." Carl was brought out of his anxiety filled thoughts. Constance was looking at him with a sympathetic look. "It'll be alright Woody. Look. He's like a cockroach." Carl narrowed his eyes at her. She placed her hands up. "I'm not trying to insult him. This time. I'm just saying that he's like a cockroach because he's so damn hard to get rid of." She didn't like seeing him like this. Especially knowing exactly what he's been through. "He's so extremely difficult to get rid of. He's resilient. Though he did allow himself to be taken away. I don't think he'd be easy to get rid of. Besides. You shouldn't be underestimating that woman and your kids. They'll get to him in time. Have trust in them Woody." Carl sighed. "I suppose you're right but it's hard not to worry. He almost died once before. His life is at risk once again. I can't help it." Tears began to well up. Constance frowned at that. "Hey. It'll be alright. I promise. Besides, I don't think the kid would have it in him if they don't arrive in time." Carl was silent for a moment. "I can't help help. I'm scared Constance. Losing him. The thought tore my heart out. I know I shouldn't feel this way but I can't help it. I-" He was interrupted by her. "Hey now. It's okay. You don't need a reason to justify how you feel. You just feel the way you feel. That's all to it. " Carl was surprised at her words. Constance rolled her eyes. "You don't need to look so surprised. I can be wise and knowledgeable too." That earned a genuine laugh out of him. That was better. She didn't want to leave him in his anxiety ridden thoughts. Seeing him like that hurt. "If he does get roughed up. You can be his nurse. I'd be he'd love that. You tending to his wounds." Carl went tomato red. Sputtering her name. "Constance! You're terrible!" She cackled at his reaction. The ride to Dr.Two-Brains wad quiet. Until Maddrix spoke up, he didn't care that it was tense. He needed to speak his mind before they continued. "Atomic. I don't think he is behind anything with the B.E.A.W. Labs." Dr.Two-Brains looked at him. Raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean Matthew?" Margret wanted to make a wisecrack but remained silent. Looking at him as well. "He only went after me. If he was truly with them, he would've took Becky and I back. He would've killed you and the others. But he just wanted to go after me." Margret blinked. "Go on." Matthew was surprised they were willing to hear him out but he continued. "He didn't want to hurt anyone but me. Those who stood in the way. He may have forcefully put them out of the way but his intent with them wasn't malicious. It was personal he went after me. I don't think he knows much about the ray he had." Margret was about to put in her opinion and thoughts about it but they had already arrived at Dr.Two-Brains house. Alex landed next to them. Matthew attempted to walk into the house but he didn't make it far so Alex had to carry him in. Becky was happy to see him. Chirping happily. "Hey Becky. I'm sorry about scaring you earlier." He apologized but she had pong forgiven the man. Only caring if he was okay. Carl got up immediately and ran over to Matthew. Looking up at him with tear filled eyes. Without much thought, Carl placed his hands to Matthew's face and pulled him down into a deep kiss. Allowing it to linger for a moment before pulling away. Leaving Matthew breathless and flushed red. "Oh thank goodness! I was so scared! Don't you ever scare me like that again! I thought you were...I thought you were..."

Noticing how distressed Carl was acting, Matthew snapped into focus and cupped Carl's face. He gently brushed away the man's tears. "I know love. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you like that." Matthew spoke in a gentle tone, interrupting Carl's ramblings. Carl just sighed and stared back at Matthew with intense eyes. "I know you believe you deserve death and suffering after what happened all those years ago," Carl began to speak as tears filled his eyes. "But please! Please don't ever sacrificed your life like that ever again! Don't let yourself be taken or defeated so easily like that ever again! Seeing you dragged away without a fight..it was terrifying and painful to see you give up so easily like that. You may not believe it anymore, but you aren't capable of never being loved again. The thought of losing you again brought me more pain and suffering than what you did nearly 20 years ago. You are not a monster Matthew! Monsters don't feel regret, they don't apologize or feel remorse for their actions. You did that." Matthew stared silently at Carl. Neither man said nothing as they gently placed their foreheads against each other. Tears streaming from both of their eyes now. "I'm...sorry. I'm so sorry. Carl I..." Matthew tried to speak through his tears. "I know. I know." Carl only replied. Matthew didn't have to say anything. He knew what he was thinking. The others remained silent as they watched. None of them really saying anything and giving these two a moment, but also none of them having any negative reactions towards Matthew. Alex looked towards Victor and Two Brains. Both of them were having solemn but also bittersweet reactions. Alex wasn't sure what Victor was thinking, but he highly suspected what Two Brains was. Alex always figured, deep down, Two Brains could never fully hate his father. Whenever he was mentioned before, Two Brains would always have a solemn look, but never a hateful one. Alex figured Two Brains still loved the father that raised and cared for him and his siblings so well, he just hated the killer the man had become. Alex didn't hold it against him. He knew that if his parents and Rebecca were still alive, they wouldn't hold it against him either. Everyone was soon startled by Becky suddenly growling even as Tristan held her. They turned around and saw Atomic was beginning to wake up from the back of Victor's car. Carl, Tristan, Constance, the Chaotic four, Joe, Alan, Agent AA, and the Henchmen begin to tense up. Some of them were looking ready for an attack. Dr. Two Brains raised up his hands to halt them. "Hang on a second everyone. Atomic may be conscious but trust me. He doesn't have access to his powers right now." Dr. Two Brains tried reassuring them. Victor then spoke up. "He's right. Two Brains took his powers. He is out of the game but only temporarily." Atomic began to become lucid and tried to get out of the car. "How did you do that?" Jenkins asked as he still took on a defensive stance. Dr. Two Brains shrugged. "I went Professor Terror on him and shot him with a device from my staff that not only inhibited his powers, but also knocked him out pretty good. I originally designed the device in case Miss Power ever came back but I figured this was still a good time to use it." Two Brains casually explained. As Atomic got to his feet and his mind became more clear, his eyes soon landed on the group. His expression instantly morphed from puzzlement to fury when he spotted Maddrix standing near them still alive. "YOU ARE DEAD MADDRIX!" Atomic yelled before jumping into the air...and later falling back down flat on his face. It was a comedic sight. "Hey Matthew is stubbornness reacting out of emotion an inherited trait from your side of the family?" Two Brains asked in a sarcastic tone as he stared at the fallen Atomic with an annoyed deadpan expression. Matthew shrugged. "Um' shouldn't we still tie him up even though he doesn't have any powers?" Sunshine suggested. "I got this. Fluffy please wrap up the crazy hero." Archie requested his pet spider. @dualnaturedscientist

[bookshopkat]

Fiction Writing: Show and Tell

Image by M. H. Photography

We’ve all heard the age-old advice: “show, don’t tell.”  It is, admittedly, a useful lesson for young writers, but is it really the golden rule of fiction that multitudes of teachers claim it to be? Many argue the point, stating that, like most things, storytelling is too complex to be easily boiled down to such simple guidelines.

There are, of course, many situations in which the adage rings true.  In an article on Helping Writers Become Authors, novelist K.M. Weiland asserts that “Showing gives the readers the details of a scene, including what the character(s) are seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling, thinking, and feeling emotionally.”  This sounds obvious, I know, but it’s an important concept.  As writers, our aim should be not simply to inform readers of the existence of a rose, but to help them see the rose, smell it’s perfume, feel the velvety petals and the prick of sharp thorns.  But only if—and this is the crucial point—the rose is elemental to either the narrative or to character development.

The simple fact is that, while “showing” is vital to helping readers share characters’ experiences and thus building empathy for those characters, too much creates unnecessary bloat and drags a story down.  It can negatively affect the pacing, slowing the action, or, worse still, even confuse readers as they try to figure how all that extraneous information relates to the plot.  At the very least, the end result is likely to be a rather dull narrative.

In 5 Creative Flaws That Will Expose Your Lack of Storytelling Experience, StoryFix provides a three examples of how this can happen.  The first is small talk in your dialogue.  I cannot stress this enough.  There is really no need to give readers the full conversation when only part of it is relevant to the plot.  In fact, William Goldman, a highly-accomplished novelist and screenplay writer, urges authors to “begin our scenes at the last possible moment,” which keeps the narrative moving and the audience engaged.  As such, StoryFix advises replacing pleasantries and chit-chat with a single sentence or phrase.

After a few comments about the weather, Marcus broached the topic most on his mind.  “At the risk of sounding ungrateful, I have to ask: why me?  We both know there are at least a dozen more senior professors in this department, so why ask me to lead this dig?”

It’s easy to see how this would be so much more interesting to read than multiple lines of dialogue about “how are you?” and “do you think we’ll get any rain?”  Thus this is one case where, within certain parameters, telling rather than showing can be appropriate.

Another, once again according to StoryFix, is when dealing with sequential time fillers.  Young writers are often tempted, in the interest of what they perceive as realism, to ply their readers with unnecessary details about a protagonist’s daily life.  Let’s be honest, that quickly becomes dull.  In fact, the best basic rule is that if events don’t provide exposition or vital plot points, we should probably either gloss over them and move on or skip them altogether.

Even in Slice of Life literary fiction, it’s important to choose minutiae with discernment, focusing on particulars that hold significance or poignancy for the main character, or which bring up a thematic thought or memory.  In other forms of fiction, we should be, if anything, even more selective.  For example, let’s suppose someone wanted to illustrate a heroine’s quiet, insular life by describing what she does upon arriving home after a long week at work.  While some information might aid in character building, we still don’t need to hear every detail of her evening routine.  If a writer provides overabundant information about how much this woman—let’s call her Amelia—relishes finally kicking off her high-heels, enjoys her hot shower and the way it relaxes her muscles, and debates over what to make for dinner before finally reaching the relevant part of the scene, readers will quickly become bored.  Those details are not important for the story to continue, and thus become cumbersome literary “baggage,” if you will, bogging down the narrative.

StoryFix recommends again telling rather than showing, and then moving forward.  This can be done either in brief descriptions, or, better yet, as a part of dialogue later in the narrative.  I’ve included examples of both below.  Telling via description might look something like this:

Showered, dressed in comfortable lounge wear, and armed with a glass of Pinot Nior, Amelia brought up her voicemail app before settling on the sofa.  The missed call was from Derrick.

“Ami, listen to me,” his words were strangely ragged and hurried.  “I’m on my way over.  I found something on Xander in the archive, and it’s worse than we thought.  For God’s sake don’t drink the wine he gave you!”

In this case, telling rather than showing Amber’s normal evening activities serves to keep the narrative moving forward while still setting an atmosphere of safe relaxation that can then be shattered.  Leaping straight into the phone message might not allow readers to experience the protagonist’s jarring panic so completely, but taking too much time describing her evening might make the revelation too slow in coming and thus less impactful.  Of course, as mentioned before, this is not the only way to handle the information.  Below is an example of telling through dialogue instead.

Amelia quirked a half-grin.  “The next thing I know you’ll start asking where I was Friday night.”

Detective Perez didn’t laugh.  “And where were you?”

“Seriously?”

He only watched her, face expressionless, and she sighed.

“At home.  Like usual.”

“At home.”  Perez paused for a moment as if waiting for more. “Can you account for your time?”

This was getting ridiculous.

“Well, let’s see,” Amelia stared at him blatantly.  “I came home around 5:35, took off my high heels because those things suck, got in the shower—that was at about 5:40, by the way—put on yoga pants and a t-shirt, fed the cat, started pasta and vegetables in the instant pot—6:27, in case your wondering—and poured a glass of Pinot Noir.  Blackstone Vineyards.  Rich and slightly woody with a fruity finish.  Then I sat on the sofa and checked my voicemail at 6:34.  Is that detailed enough for you or should I draw some illustrations?”

In this way, we learn several things about the protagonist—she lives alone, she is on friendly enough terms with a police detective that being questioned takes her aback, she is snarky, and she might have just become a suspect—all while simultaneously keeping the plot in motion.  It’s not difficult to see why this is preferable to weighing down the narrative with unneeded descriptions.

I should mention, however, that there are a couple of types of fiction in which this is not always strictly the case.  (Those who already see where this is heading will no doubt recognize the reason I chose a mystery scenario as that last example.)  According to an article by Zara Altair on The Thrill Begins, successful authors thrillers and detective fiction often hide clues in plain sight.  One of the ways they do this is by slipping a clue in amid otherwise inconsequential occurrences or conversations.  Many, in fact, take it one step further, emphasizing unimportant details to draw attention away from the important one. Altair refers to this as “secret emphasis,” and it’s one of several great ways to allow readers to share the mentally engaging and sometimes confusing experience of solving a mystery.  So, while our protagonist in our non-existent story, Amber, should not be described going through the motions of her normal evening in great detail, that would change if there were, say, some hidden clue that someone had been in her apartment.  The same is true if she finds herself at an event where one or more suspects are present.  You get the idea.  Again, there still ought to be limits, but in those cases it is alright to include some extraneous detail.

The final example StoryFix provides which relates to showing rather than telling is an odd one: the description of food.  That may sound a little absurd, but you’d be surprised how many young writers describe meals in superfluous detail.  I’ve even seen it in published works sometimes, and trust me, unless there is a really good reason for it—such as a protagonist (and readers) experiencing unfamiliar foods for the first time or a narrative centered upon culinary pursuits—it really is dull.  An audience might find themselves thinking things like: “yes, alright, I know what beef stew is.  Can we move on, please?”

While StoryFix asserts that details about food should never be included, however, I do have to respectfully disagree.  There are some situations where some descriptions of fare are fitting or even vital for the narrative or for character development.  As mentioned before, in fiction with culinary-related themes, such as Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, cooking and the protagonists relationship with food can play an important role.  Similarly, basic descriptions of meals can serve as a way to illustrate characters, such as in Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels.  In these books, the eccentric armchair detective is known for being a gourmet, and his assistant Archie Goodwin often briefly describes his boss’s succulent meals and arguments with the cook, Fritz, about the finer points of culinary arts as a tongue-in-cheek way of further illuminating Wolfe’s character.  However, even in these cases, the authors don’t go overboard with descriptions, and that is a very important point.  While it’s not always wrong to include descriptions of cuisine, these should be told rather than shown.  We don’t need an entire scene detailing every smell, flavor, and presentation.

As you can see, the only truly hard-and-fast rule when it comes to “show and tell” in writing is that there are no hard-and-fast rules. However, this will, perhaps, help you to better recognize situations in which it is preferable to provide brief descriptions rather than detailed scenes.  While “show, don’t tell” may be generally good advice, being aware of these exceptions to the rule may result in more engaging and enjoyable tales.  Although it’s far from the only element of a well-written narrative, telling rather than showing certain details, and choosing those details with discernment, can help writers create stories that are better paced and less weighed down.  Knowing when to show and when to tell is an important building block for penning a truly interesting fiction.

[jerdle-typology]

Enneagram 6 (this description is known to suck)

The Six in Profile

Healthy: Able to engage others and identify with them; steadfast, earnest, and affectionate. Trust important: bonding with others, forming relationships and alliances. / Dedicated to individuals and movements in which they deeply believe. Community builders: responsible, reliable, trustworthy. Good foresight and strong organizational ability: natural troubleshooters. Hardworking and persevering, sacrificing for others; they create stability and security in their world, bringing a cooperative spirit. At Their Best: Become self-affirming, trusting of self and others, independent yet symbiotically interdependent and cooperative, as an equal. Belief in self leads to true courage, positive thinking, leadership, and rich self-expression.

Average: Start investing their time and energy into whatever they believe will be safe and stable. Organizing and structuring, they look to alliances and authorities for security and continuity. Make many commitments to others, hoping they will be reciprocated. Constantly vigilant, anticipating problems. They seek clear guidelines and feel more secure when systems and procedures are well-defined. / To resist having more demands made on them, they react against others passive-aggressively. Become evasive, indecisive, cautious, procrastinating, and ambivalent. Strong self-doubt as well as suspicion about others’ motives. Are highly reactive, anxious, and complaining, giving contradictory “mixed signals.” Internal confusion makes them react unpredictably. / To compensate for insecurities, they become belligerent, mean-spirited, and sarcastic, blaming others for problems. Highly partisan and defensive, dividing people into friends and enemies while looking for threats to their own security. Authoritarian, prejudiced, and fear-instilling to silence their own fears.

Unhealthy: Become clingingly dependent and self-disparaging, with acute inferiority feelings. Seeing themselves as helpless and incompetent, they seek out a stronger authority or belief to resolve all problems. Submissive and masochistic. / Feeling persecuted, that others are “out to get them,” they lash out and act irrationally, bringing about what they fear. Fanaticism, violence. / Hysterical, and seeking to escape punishment, they become self-destructive and suicidal. Alcoholism, drug overdoses, “skid row,” self-abasing behavior.

Key Motivations: Want to have security, to feel supported, to have the approval of others, to test the attitudes of others toward them, to defend their beliefs.

Examples: Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, George Bush, Walter Mondale, Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, Candice Bergen, Gilda Radner, Patrick Swayze, Princess Diana, Julia Roberts, Phil Donahue, Jay Leno, Johnny Carson, Diane Keaton, Woody Allen, Andy Rooney, Jessica Lange, Marilyn Monroe, Oliver North, J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Nixon, Rush Limbaugh, “George Costanza,” and “Archie Bunker.”

AN OVERVIEW OF THE SIX

Sixes are full of contradictions. They can be dependent on others, yet value their independence. They want to be trusted and to trust others, yet constantly test others to allay their own suspicions. They want the protection of authority, yet fear it. They are obedient, yet disobedient; fearful of aggression, yet sometimes highly aggressive themselves. They search for security, yet feel insecure. They are likable and endearing, yet can be mean and hateful. They are reassured by traditional values, yet may subvert those values. They want to escape punishment, yet may bring it on themselves. Sixes are full of contradictions because anxiety makes them ricochet from one psychological state to another. And in response to anxiety, Sixes look to structures, beliefs, allies, and authorities to put their anxiety to rest.

Our system of education teaches us to put our faith in something else—a corporation, a marriage, a trade, a profession, a religion, politics, something, one might almost say anything, which offers us a set of rules we can obey and rewards us for obedience to them. It’s safer to be a domestic animal than a wild one.

(Michael Korda, Power, 254.)

For Sixes, security comes from a rock-of-ages allegiance and an investment of themselves in something outside themselves which they believe will give them stability and safety. Sixes want to feel protected and secure by having something bigger and more powerful than they guiding them. IBM will do, but so will the Communist party, or the Republican party, or the church. The doctrines Sixes believe in are important to them, but so is having someone to trust and believe in.

In the Thinking Triad

Sixes are the primary personality type in the Thinking Triad. They are the most out of touch with the ability to make decisions and act on their own without reference to a trusted person, an institution, or a belief system. In a sense, Sixes have difficulty trusting their own minds, their own ability to know what to do without reference to ideas that are not their own. Thus, once Sixes have found some system of thought that seems reliable to them, they must constantly evaluate any new ideas that either contradict or alter what they have understood to be true. They are looking for something—a set of guidelines, an authority—to supply them with a direction in life, to tell them what they can and cannot do, to give them more clarity, to put limits on them—in a word, they are looking for security. Of course, in one way or another, all nine personality types have some kind of relationship with authority figures and need some guidance and reassurance in life, but whether supporting authority, rebelling against it, or fearing it, Sixes seem to have the most issues in this area.

Sixes are among the most puzzling of the nine personality types because they are reactive, fluctuating from one state to another—sometimes the virtual opposite—very quickly. Sixes can be baffling and frustrating because their emotional states and attitudes can be so contradictory: they can be engaging and funny, then cranky and negative; they can be decisive and self-assertive, then, almost in the next moment, indecisive and self-doubting. While they seek the approval of those who are important to them, they resist being in a position of inferiority. They may be obedient, and then openly disobedient, intentionally deviating from what the authority has told them to do. As a result, because Sixes are the most contradictory of the personality types, they are one of the most difficult to understand. They often remain so enigmatic, even to those closest to them, that the most others can say about them is that they are “easy to like but hard to get to know.”

The key to understanding Sixes is that they are ambivalent: the two distinct sides of their personalities oscillate between aggressive and dependent tendencies. They feel both strong and weak, dependent and independent, passive and aggressive, sweet and sour. It is difficult to predict the state Sixes will be in from moment to moment. At each Level, they display a personality substantially different from what has gone before and what will follow.

To make matters more complicated, Sixes are not only ambivalent toward others, they are ambivalent toward themselves. They like themselves, and then disparage themselves, feeling inferior to others. They have confidence and then feel hopeless and defeated, as if they could not do anything without help from someone else. They feel weak-kneed and cowardly, then suddenly fill with rage and strike out at others. A double set of dependent and aggressive impulses operates in them, continuously interacting in various complex combinations since Sixes react ambivalently not only to the external authority but to the internal authority, their superego.

As much as possible, Sixes want to avoid being in this anxious, ambivalent state, so they work hard to build structures into their lives to give them stability and continuity. As long as they know what the rules of the game are, and have some sense that they are supported by others in their lives, they can be a consistent, steady presence and accomplish a great deal. But herein lies the problem. Sixes make their internal stability dependent on the stability of their external environment: in other words, as long as everything in their lives is running reasonably well, they feel secure and able to cope with things. As soon as problems or areas of uncertainty arise, however, they are quickly thrown into a storm of confusion and emotional reactions. (For this reason, many Sixes mistake themselves for Fours.) Their self-doubt and suspiciousness arise and Sixes are right back into their ambivalence and unsteadiness.

It is impossible to understand Sixes without understanding their oscillating nature. Maintaining their sense of self requires that bothsides of their psyches interact with each other. Sixes cannot emphasize one side of themselves and ignore the other—for instance, they cannot become independent by suppressing their dependent side. For better or worse, they are an amalgam of both sides of themselves. When they are healthy, both sides work hand in hand with each other. However, if tension between their two sides increases, so does anxiety, and therein lies the source of many of their problems.

Problems with Anxiety and Insecurity

All three personality types of the Thinking Triad have a problem with anxiety, but Sixes, as the primary type, have the greatest problem with it. They are the type which is most conscious of anxiety—"anxious that they are anxious"—unlike other personality types who are either unaware of their anxiety or who unconsciously convert it into other symptoms. Fives, for example, displace anxiety by distancing themselves from their own experience; Sevens repress it through constant activity. On the other hand, Sixes are aware that they are anxious: sometimes they are able to resist it, and sometimes they succumb to it.

Sixes tend to use two different methods of coping with their anxiety: a phobic response or a counterphobic response. Sixes who are more phobic often deal with their fears through a dependent stance. They are more aware of their anxiety and turn quickly to others, particularly authority figures, for support. They are more self-doubting and emotionally vulnerable and can resemble type Four. Phobic Sixes believe in keeping a low profile and not causing trouble, especially in those situations to which they have turned for security. They will often pursue a course of appeasement when conflicts arise, and like to stay within well-defined guidelines and procedures. Phobic Sixes are fearful that the people on whom they depend will abandon them.

Sixes who are more counterphobic are much more likely to question, or even rebel against, authorities. They are quicker to confront others and are often more suspicious than phobic Sixes. They are more determined to be independent and resist turning to others for support. In this respect, counterphobic Sixes can resemble Eights. They try to repress their anxiety through action, and in the average Levels, can react strongly and defensively if questioned. They want to know where others stand and may aggressively provoke a response from them to find out. Counterphobic Sixes are fearful that others will try to trick them or take advantage of them. When conflicts arise, they can be highly confrontational and even belligerent. Nevertheless, beneath their bluster, they are just as fearful and anxious as phobic Sixes, but their aggressive behaviors are a reaction to the anxiety rather than a direct expression of it.

It is important to note that no Six is entirely phobic or counterphobic. Rather, each individual person who has personality type Six has some mixture of these attitudes or response patterns, and they are likely to appear in different areas of their lives. For example, one Six may be very aggressive and counterphobic with his or her spouse, but more phobic and dependent in the workplace. In another Six, the exact opposite might be the case. Much of the preference for one of these approaches over the other comes from early childhood. In some cases, the basic approach they were taught was to “turn the other cheek,” to be obedient, and to walk away from bullies and antagonists. Other children are taught to be tough, to not let anyone push them around, and to fight back against bullies and enemies. In either case, Sixes, like everyone else, will carry these lessons and experiences into adulthood, but their responses to fear and to potential danger will be a more central issue than for other types. Sixes in general also tend toward being more phobic at certain Levels of Development, and more counterphobic at others. In fact, the two responses seem to alternate, Level by Level, as we will explore later in this chapter.

All Sixes protect themselves by being extraordinarily vigilant so they can anticipate problems in the environment, particularly problems with other people. Their need to question, their attention to details and problems, their need to know where others stand with them—and eventually, their paranoid tendencies—are all attempts to defend themselves from real or imagined dangers.

As a result, Sixes learn to live in a state of constant alertness about their environment. Because of their fear, they train themselves to watch people and the environment in general so that they can foresee events and take protective steps accordingly. Ironically, Sixes must have “danger” on their minds to feel safe: the more paranoid they become, the more completely defended they try to be.

At the root of their anxiety is a continual feeling of being unsupported. Most fundamentally, Sixes doubt that they can support themselves. They do not trust their ability to know what to do, especially when their decisions affect their security. At the very least, they tend to second-guess themselves, making a decision and then fearing that they made the wrong choice. Because they feel unsure of themselves, Sixes look outside themselves for something to support and reassure them. This could be a spouse, a job, trusted friends, the military, a religion or belief system, a therapist, a spiritual practice, a guru … the possibilities are as varied as the individual circumstances of Sixes’ lives.

Consequently, Sixes must continually monitor their support systems to make sure that they are stable and secure. They worry about how things are going at work, about their investments, about potential legal problems—literally anything that could upset the safety of their world. Particularly, Sixes are compelled to “touch base” with their allies and supporters to make sure that they are still “on the team.” Average Sixes often do not know how others feel toward them: they want people to like them, but often doubt that they do. As a result, they test others to discover the attitudes of others about them, constantly looking for evidence of approval or disapproval. And if average Sixes deteriorate into neurosis, they become so suspicious of others that they become paranoid, anxiety-ridden, and so insecure that they cannot function.

Sixes correspond to Jung’s introverted feeling type. Even though they belong to the Thinking Triad, Sixes are also emotional, because their feelings are affected by anxiety. Unfortunately, Jung’s description of this type is not one of his clearest. Possibly to explain his difficulty in describing this type, Jung says,

It is extremely difficult to give an intellectual account of the introverted feeling process, or even an approximate description of it, although the peculiar nature of this kind of feeling is very noticeable once one has become aware of it.

(C. G. Jung, Psychological Types, 387.)

As we have just seen, it is difficult to describe this personality type in simple terms, because its psyche continually changes. It may be helpful to think of Sixes as “ambiverts,” a mixture of extroverted and introverted feelings. This is why they react to whatever they have done, especially if anxiety has been aroused, by doing the opposite to compensate. They then react to this new state, and then to the next, ad infinitum. For example, they may be affectionate toward someone; then, fearing that they will be taken advantage of or abandoned, they become suspicious of the very person who has just been the object of their warmth. But, becoming anxious about their suspicions, they seek reassurance that the relationship is still all right. As soon as they receive reassurance from the other, Sixes wonder if they have not been too ingratiating, so they overcompensate by becoming defensive, acting as if they did not need the other person. And on it goes. If you have difficulty understanding someone who is a mass of contradictions, you are probably dealing with a Six.

It is also important to understand that while Sixes are emotional, they do not show their emotions directly—as Twos do, for example—even to those they are closest to. Similarly, Sixes are seldom sentimental, preferring to take a less “rose-colored” view of people and the world. Most healthy to average Sixes are, however, fairly clear about how they feel about things. They know who they love and who they dislike. They are uncertain about what they think about things, and they are especially uncertain when it comes to deciding what to do.Because of this uncertainty, they become afraid of taking the wrong action or sending the wrong signal. Their minds turn round and round with conflicting thoughts about what they should be doing while they simultaneously try to figure out what the others in their lives are really up to. Consequently, ambivalence toward both themselves and others causes them to give mixed signals. Or, to put this another way, Sixes react to their feelings—particularly anxiety—and communicate their reactions rather than their feelings. Except when Sixes are very healthy, others can rarely be certain of what is really on their minds.

This is why achieving independence and emotional stability, especially freedom from anxiety, is so important to them. If they are too compliant, their self-esteem suffers: they feel inferior to others, like someone who can be pushed around. On the other hand, if they are too aggressive in their search for independence, they fear that they will alienate the very people who provide them with security and will be punished in some terrible way. The challenge Sixes face is to find a way of maintaining both sides of their personalities, gradually reducing the tensions between their conflicting sides until they form a reciprocal unit—themselves as healthy persons.

Parental Orientation

As the result of their formative experiences, Sixes became connected with their protective-figures. The protective-figure was the adult in the child’s early environment who provided guidelines, structure, and sometimes discipline. This was the person who occupied the traditional patriarchal position in the family. Most often this was their fathers, or a father figure, such as a grandfather or teacher, but in many cases the mother or an older sibling may actually be the protective-figure. As children, Sixes wanted the security of approval by their protective-figures, and felt anxious if they did not receive it. As they grew up, their connection with their protective-figure shifted to an identification with substitutes for this person, such as civil authorities or belief systems from which they could obtain security.

From the perspective of depth psychology, the role of the protective-figure is to help the child break away from the mother so that the child can function independently. Unconsciously, Sixes are looking for people or structures that will help them be more independent. Ironically, the more unsure of themselves Sixes are, the more dependent they become on the people or systems they have turned to for assistance in becoming independent.

Because they are connected to the protective-figure, Sixes powerfully internalize their relationship with that person, whether it is a loving, supportive one, or a difficult, destructive one. They continue to play out in their lives the relationship with the person who held authority in their early childhood years. If Sixes as children perceived that their protective-figure was benevolent, and a reliable source of guidance and encouragement, as adults they will continue to look for similar direction and support from others, be it their spouse, their job, their therapist, or a mentor. They will do their best to please this figure or group, and will dutifully observe the rules and guidelines they have been given. In this case, though, Sixes will feel extremely disappointed and betrayed if the other person or situation violates their trust or fails to live up to their expectation of support.

On the other hand, if Sixes experienced their protective-figures as abusive, unfair, or controlling, they will internalize this relationship with authority and feel themselves always at odds with those who they believe have power over them. They walk through life fearing that they will be “in trouble” and unjustly punished, and adopt a defensive, rebellious attitude as a protection from the cruel protective-figure they project into many of their relationships. Sixes who suffered extremely dysfunctional childhood environments may have been so devalued or ill-treated by their protective-figure that they end up leading self-destructive, wasted lives as they unconsciously live out their protective-figure’s negative image of them.

Furthermore, just as Threes abandon themselves to varying degrees to become more acceptable to their nurturing-figures, Sixes abandon themselves to gain the support of their protective-figures. They believe that if they get enough support, they can become independent. This is because Sixes feel cut off from an internal guidance, their own ability to move forward in the world with confidence. They may act this out directly, through a phobic, dependent approach to life, or they may react against it with assertive, counterphobic behavior. Either way, Sixes are not really experiencing their own inner capacity and strength, and must constantly look outside themselves for reassurance, support, and evidence of their ability to successfully engage with life. As Sixes deteriorate, however, either their dependency on allies and authorities or their hysterical reactions to them increase, until they actually destroy their own security.

Because they have been taught not to trust their own inner guidance, Sixes internally question their activities to see whether they will meet the internalized standards of the protective-figure—their superego. Like Ones, Sixes are often trying to figure out the “right” course of action, and they attempt to do this by thinking about how their various mentors, allies, and authority figures would respond to their choices. Sixes may go around and around in this process for days if the decision is a major one, because they are afraid of alienating any of their supporters. It is as though Sixes must regularly hold committee meetings in their imagination to “check in” with the different people with whom they have identified. Highly counterphobic Sixes may well bluster at authorities they see as unfair, but they too need their support network, and do not want to take actions which might jeopardize it. Of course, less healthy Sixes may undermine their system of support because of their hysterical reactivity and paranoia, but they will then go to great lengths to reconnect with some other source of security. In all Sixes, the pattern of orienting themselves to life by obtaining the reassurance and approval of others is one which is deeply ingrained in their nature.

ANALYZING THE HEALTHY SIX

Level 1: The Valiant Hero

At their best, very healthy Sixes learn to rely on themselves. They are in touch with their own inner authority and are able to trust themselves without the nagging self-doubt which plagues average Sixes. They thus have a positive basis for forming balanced relationships with others and, paradoxically, with themselves. They feel secure, accepted, and comfortable with themselves.

Self-reliance is internal, a process of staying connected with one’s own inner strength, one’s own inner knowing. Once this connection has been made, Sixes are possessed of a clarity of mind that lets them know exactly what they need to do from moment to moment. Furthermore, very healthy Sixes experience in themselves the fortitude and will to accomplish whatever life requires of them. The self-reliance of the healthy Six is a real quality of ground-edness in life and in a kind of support that can only arise in the deepest part of a person’s soul. It is emphatically not the same thing as reacting aggressively out of fear. The self-reliance of very healthy Sixes arises from a realization of their own intrinsic capacity and value without reference to anyone else. Their self-reliance marks a shift from seeing protection and security residing outside themselves, especially in authority figures, to finding a sustaining faith in themselves and in life that is not a belief but a deeply felt, lived experience. Very healthy Sixes are no longer reactive but mature, their own persons. They have faith that their world is not going to fall apart and that they will be able to cope with whatever life brings. Centered in their own being, and as a result are capable of facing even major crises with equanimity, determination, and grace.

Healthy Sixes are also able to give confidence and courage to others because of their own positive thinking and reassuring presence. Their demeanor communicates calm, decisiveness, and a willingness to work tirelessly for a greater good. They find an indomitable courage within them. Thus, very healthy Sixes are willing to face great dangers to champion others’ welfare or to speak out against injustice. (In this respect, they can resemble healthy Eights or Ones.) They are also flexible in their approach to challenges, and can work wonderfully with others, or just as easily tackle problems on their own.

In their relationships, very healthy Sixes achieve a dynamic interdependence, a true reciprocity, which brings out the best in both parties. No one dominates the relationship, and no one is inferior in it. Healthy Sixes are able to support others and be supported by them, to love and be loved, to work by themselves and with others. They are fully cooperative, coequal partners, able to interact with others without anxiety. They feel genuinely secure, because they trust themselves and are consequently able to trust those who are worthy of their trust.

Their deepest feelings are free to emerge, because they have tapped the inner springs of courage—faith in themselves. They no longer reflexively react to situations or their own feelings and so are able to express themselves effectively both personally and in their work. If they have the talent and training, they may become outstanding artists or leaders because they are able to do for themselves those things which sustain and nurture their spirit. Very healthy Sixes are particularly effective leaders because they know what it is like to feel insecure and to look to someone else for help. They are now able to help create genuine security for others. Becoming courageous is a high achievement for Sixes, which is why we see it only in their healthiest state. The courage of very healthy Sixes is all the more praiseworthy because it has been won not merely against external difficulties but against chronic inner doubt. (“The only security is courage."—La Rochefoucauld)

Because anxiety is part of the human condition, it is useful for even very healthy Sixes to remember that they will never be entirely relieved of it. Of course, the more integrated Sixes are, the less anxious they feel, but they also understand that they cannot count on always being totally free from anxiety. Human beings cannot insure themselves against disease, loss, or any of the thousand mishaps of fate. Healthy, self-reliant Sixes therefore do not expect that they will always be absolutely secure, since this is an impossible goal. Rather, they learn to harness the inevitable degree of anxiety which goes with the territory of being human to achieve higher goals.

Level 2: The Engaging Friend

Even relatively healthy Sixes do not always rely on themselves; nor do they feel quite the equal of others. They begin to look for security outside of themselves because, for one reason or another, they fear being abandoned and alone in life. They have lost touch with the support of their own inner strength and believe that they lack the internal resources to survive on their own. They therefore feel they need support from others and that their well-being depends on maintaining secure relationships and structures that will enhance their safety.

Simply put, Sixes are looking for someone or something to trust, because they have begun to lose faith in themselves. At Level 2, this is very subtle, but they have made a distinct change of direction from the self-reliance of Level 1. Sixes begin to scan the environment, trying to find potential allies and supporters or looking for situations that would enhance their security and self-confidence. They move out into the world, looking for ways they can connect with others or get involved with projects. To this end, healthy Sixes develop the capacity to engage others emotionally.

Healthy Sixes have an endearing, personable quality which unconsciously appeals to others. It is sometimes difficult to say exactly what this quality is or how healthy Sixes can so easily engage people. In any case, healthy Sixes know how to arouse strong emotional responses in others, engaging their emotions unconsciously. They have the capacity to get people to respond to them, even though they are usually unconscious of this process themselves.

It may well be that Sixes are able to engage people because of their own genuine curiosity about others and their desire to find mutually beneficial connections. It is as if Sixes were silently asking, "Can we be friends? Can we work together?” Others sense that their friendliness is genuine and so respond positively. Sixes have an inviting, ingratiating quality which stimulates relationships. Even so, their appeal is not always easy to identify, precisely since it can be very subtle—a matter of eye contact, of smiling a lot, and of subliminal body cues—nor is it necessarily overtly seductive or ingratiating in a fawning way.

We might understand their appeal better by observing the same process in children: the qualities of trust, expectation, and love which children display to their parents are the qualities by which healthy Sixes engage others. They are able to communicate the nonverbal message “There is nothing to fear here.” They can be extremely winsome, playful, even silly, with a childlike mischievousness about them. Healthy Sixes also possess a droll, self-deprecating sense of humor, teasing those with whom they want to form a relationship. Good-natured bantering is a sign of affection from Sixes, a sign that they feel secure with others and want to become closer.

Besides their natural affability, healthy Sixes are nothing if not reliable and trustworthy. They make it their business to back up their promises or offers with prompt, consistent action. (In this regard, they can be mistaken for healthy Ones.| They do their best to be the person that others can count on, always offering steadiness and common sense. There is a solid, down-to-earth quality to healthy Sixes that is distinct from the healthy qualities of the Five and the Seven, the other two Thinking types. In their search for support, healthy Sixes make it clear that they offer unwavering support themselves.

Along with this steadiness and reliability, Sixes possess an ability to perceive potential threats and problems before they become unmanageable. Their desire for security attunes them to hazards and pitfalls, so they develop a vigilant alertness, scanning their environment for possible problems and taking measures to make sure everyone around them is safe. This talent serves healthy Sixes and the people in their lives well because the world does present many dangers and difficulties that must be addressed.

Naturally, their attempt to build relationships with others can be mutually beneficial and flattering. Others are asked, more by deed than by word, for their friendship, trust, and support, and are offered friendship, trust, and support in return. Further, in close personal relationships with others, spontaneous nurturing and affectionate qualities emerge which can be delightful and emotionally rewarding for both parties. Note, however, that the desire to engage the other automatically puts the other person in the superior position, something which will have significant consequences later on.

Level 3: The Committed Worker

Once healthy Sixes have begun their search for security and have found some people, ideas, or situations which seem reliable and safe, they naturally begin to fear that they will lose their connections with these things, their feelings of protection and belonging. The very act of engaging someone else at least raises the possibility that the attempt will be rejected or that the relationship will not go well. Having to engage others is sure to raise at least a glimmer of anxiety, even in healthy Sixes. They cannot help but realize that, by seeking security outside themselves in the good will and acceptance of others, they are bound to feel some insecurity. They consequently want to strengthen the friendships, alliances, and security structures they have made to ensure that their safety will be maintained. They do this by fully committing themselves to others and to the jobs and projects in which they have involved themselves.

To this end, healthy Sixes become highly practical, responsible people. They bring discipline and persistence to all of their pursuits, as well as a meticulous attention to detail and craft. Sixes want to feel proud of their work, and proud of the contribution they are making to the projects they have committed to. They are highly effective at keeping organizations running, be they major corporations, small businesses, or family budgets. They are the sort of people who make sure the bills are paid and that there is enough money to pay taxes. They are thrifty, industrious, and hard working, making themselves a valuable asset to any company or partnership. In this way, Sixes seek to make sure that there will be a place for themselves in the world, and that their work will keep them relatively safe and secure.

Many Sixes, particularly if they are talented and educated, have a skill for analysis and troubleshooting. Their vigilance translates well into a facility with details and an ability to both give and take directions well. In general, Sixes enjoy working within structures in which the parameters are clearly defined and understood. Within these structures, Sixes feel safe to work creatively and inventively, whether they are computer programmers, engineers, legal professionals, CPAs, or musicians. They often display a highly developed craftsmanship in their work, which indicates the care and skill they put into their projects. For these reasons, and because they are so likable, healthy Sixes, if they are sufficiently talented, frequently rise in their professions. They succeed like the tenacious tortoise who beats the faster, flashier hare.

Healthy Sixes also help the enterprises they have created or joined by bringing an egalitarian spirit and a strong sense of community welfare. They are respectful of others and are able to create a collegial atmosphere in which everyone feels like a partner or a coworker rather than a superior and a functionary. They understand that their security is largely dependent on the well-being of their place of employment and their community. They therefore work cooperatively with others to maintain the institutions and structures which make their community stable and healthy. They will often get involved in local political matters, joining the school board or committees for improving their town or apartment building. Public service appeals to many Sixes because it gives them an arena for many of their positive values. Similarly, Sixes often become interested in politics at some level, not always on a national level, but at least within their profession or local community. They often see themselves as stewards of their work and their environment, and want to do what they can to protect and preserve them.

At the same time, and for the same reason, healthy Sixes are not afraid to raise questions if they sense there is some impropriety going on around them, or if they perceive that others are abusing power within the systems they are part of. Healthy Sixes will work to rally support against injustices or to inform others of problems in the community or environment. As we will see, however, average Sixes tend to lose their nerve in these situations, using passive-aggressive techniques to confront people or situations they do not like, or actually becoming fear-instilling saboteurs of community stability themselves. In healthy Sixes, though, the willingness to question authority reflects a genuine interest in the general welfare and a commitment to integrity and honesty.

On a personal level, healthy Sixes are able to commit themselves deeply to those with whom they have formed special emotional bonds. They devote their energies to the well-being of others and want to have others respond to them in kind. This is why being part of a family of some kind is often important to them, even if it is only a “family of friends.” The family is virtually a symbol of the kind of emotional support and stability which Sixes seek. They want to have people they can depend on, to have unconditional acceptance, to have a place where they belong. Having close ties with family and friends makes them feel that they are not alone. Being committed to others diminishes the fear of being abandoned.

Some of the virtues of healthy Sixes are not in vogue in today’s “Me first!” “Looking out for number one” society. However, the assets of this personality type—perseverance, faithfulness, honesty, hard work, commitment to family and friends, and to the general welfare of the group—speak for themselves and need no apology.

ANALYZING THE AVERAGE SIX

Level 4: The Dutiful Loyalist

Once Sixes become committed to a person or a group, they may begin to fear doing anything that would jeopardize the stability of the relationship. They become afraid of “rocking the boat,” of moving strongly in any direction for fear of wrecking their security. Sixes feel that they have worked hard to put together a lifestyle that seems solid and steady, and they begin to worry about all the things that could go wrong. They consequently try to further strengthen their “social security” systems by working harder to be accepted and approved by their allies and authorities.

Thus, average Sixes take on even greater commitments and obligations, insisting that they can follow through and get the job done. Their anxiety causes them to load themselves down with responsibilities because they want to ensure that their position is secure and that they will not be left without the structures they have labored to build up around them. They want to “cover all the bases,” to have all of the angles considered and accounted for, and be ready for any possible problems in the future. The Boy Scout motto, “Be prepared,” is quite suitable for average Sixes. At this stage, they may take on multiple sources of employment, or spend their free time maintaining their homes and checking over the family finances. Others wonder if they resent the workloads and pressures they seem to be under, yet Sixes seem eager to fulfill their obligations and duties, finding more work for themselves as soon as their pressure lightens.

In a similar manner, average Sixes become preoccupied with investing themselves, their resources, and their energy in situations and institutions which will continue to support them in the future. For this reason, they are not interested in involving themselves with work, organizations, or institutions that lack a “track record.” They will carefully check the credentials of their doctor, their therapist, their lawyer: they will meticulously inspect the background of a car or home before they purchase it. They want to know that if they commit today, the thing they have committed to will be around for the foreseeable future. A certain cautiousness has begun to color their thinking and consequently limit their choices.

At Level 4, much of the self-reliance seen in the healthier Levels of the Six begins to disappear, and average Sixes become more attached to and identified with particular systems of thought and belief which offer answers or make them feel more sure of themselves. At the same time, they may begin to question and doubt their own ideas and thoughts. As this occurs, Sixes start to seek out the reassurance of people who “seem to know what they are talking about,” as a way of convincing themselves that their ideas are correct. Simply put, they look for confirmation that what they believe is true.

Most of their need for reassurance can be seen as a symptom of their lack of trust in their own decision-making ability. Instead of making decisions themselves, average Sixes increasingly look for precedents and answers in documents, authoritative texts, or in rules and regulations—"scriptures" of one sort or another. (Average Sixes who function as leaders most likely do so by forming committees and governing through consensus rather than by making decisions independently.) Even when they are observing guidelines and protocols, Sixes second-guess themselves and wonder if they are getting it right. They check in with friends or authorities to make sure that their interpretation is “on track.” This can be anyone or anything that the Six sees as authoritative, from a drill sergeant who interprets the army’s rules, to a priest who interprets the church’s rules, to the law itself, which interprets society’s rules. Sixes feel that if they understand the rules, they will be able to avoid criticism and possible punishment. They may choose to break the rules at some point, but they want to know exactly what those rules are and how much they must stretch them before they do.

This does not mean that average Sixes cannot make decisions in some matters, but that they become more conflicted and self-doubting when major decisions arise. Career choices, or decisions which directly affect their families or the stability of their employment become sources of major anxiety. Of course, important decisions are not easy for anyone, but average Sixes can get themselves into real emotional knots over them as they continually reach a conclusion about what to do, and then doubt or negate it. The situation is further complicated because average Sixes resent other people making decisions for them. Thus, they are compelled to go through a storm of anxiety, consultation, and doubt every time an important choice presents itself.

Despite some difficulty with decision-making, however, Sixes at this level are not spineless milquetoasts. They are true believers, who, from their point of view, are merely observing legitimate precepts which should be respected because they have the weight of authority and time-tested traditional values on their side. Average Sixes therefore do not mind getting some form of “permission” before doing things, nor do they mind following rules and official procedures. (Indeed, average Sixes are adept at making the rules and regulations laid down by the authority work for them: having the law or the organization on their side can frequently be very convenient.)

Thus, many average Sixes are comfortable with being traditionalists, organization people, and team players, the main personality type which populates most institutions and bureaucracies—the backbone of groups of all sorts. Instead of being oppressed by having rigorous structure in their lives, average Sixes feel strengthened by it. Belonging to something larger than themselves makes them feel they are not alone but that they are stronger and more secure precisely because they are part of something that is likely to endure. (A fraternity or club or large corporation has this appeal, as do political parties, universities, unions, and religious paths and affiliations.) The security which groups and institutions provide far exceeds the strength of any individual member, and groups are able to achieve many things which individuals alone cannot. Also, close friendships arise (“bonding” on sports teams or among women in an office, for example) which are emotionally satisfying to average Sixes. There are, however, two major drawbacks: first, average Sixes tend to do things because they feel obligated to. Their sense of responsibility begins to wear on them, and they frequently find themselves taking on tasks that they do not really want to do.

Second, identifying one’s self with a group, or a political or religious view, tradition, or organization encourages a parochial way of looking at the world, in which everyone is divided into “them” versus “us” groups. Of course, the world is greatly simplified when people know who thinks like they do, who has the same values, who shares the same convictions about religion, country, and politics. But parochialism also creates unnecessary divisions between people. And even within their own group, average Sixes make it their business to find out who is pulling their weight and who is not. They do not like it when others do not take their duties and obligations as seriously as they do. If others are not as loyal or committed, it not only makes them angry, it threatens them.

The loyalty of average Sixes for the people with whom they have identified is almost without bounds. They find it extremely difficult to break their emotional bonds, even should they desire to do so. (“Once a friend, always a friend.”) If Sixes have given their hearts away, their love may, in time, turn to hatred but never to indifference. For better or worse, they are never entirely free of their attachments, whether to an individual, a football team, a country, or a church. Their commitments last because their commitments are not superficial choices but deep identifications which become important parts of who they are. Consequently, average Sixes become slower to commit to anyone or anything because they are aware of the tremendous energy they will invest in their commitments. They begin to ask themselves who is worthy of their loyalty.

Level 5: The Ambivalent Pessimist

If they have overextended themselves with the duties and commitments they have taken on, Sixes begin to fear that they will not be able to meet the pressures and demands placed on them. However, they are also fearful of losing the security of their alliances and support systems, and do not want to alienate them. This creates a major problem for them. How can they reduce the pressure and stress they are experiencing without disappointing or even angering the people they have committed to? Sixes then begin to walk a narrow path between the expectations of their allies and authorities and their need to resist having any further demands placed on their shoulders.

Eventually, Sixes realize that they cannot be there for all the people they have committed to equally. Clearly, some people and situations are more central to their needs than others, but the difficulties in making decisions become even more painful as Sixes are forced to decide who to “let down.” They therefore want to find out who is really on their side and who will really be a reliable source of support. At this stage, Sixes test others (including their allies and authority figures) to find out how others feel about them. They are anxious about themselves and anxious about others, sometimes reacting defensively toward others, sometimes compliantly. Sometimes, it seems, both ways at the same time.

This dilemma is heightened because average Sixes begin to react strongly to their own thoughts, feelings, and actions. This is actually an intensification of the second-guessing Sixes do at Level 4, but here the emotional content is stronger and more volatile. Average Sixes want to keep a cool head, and as long as things are running smoothly, they generally do; however, when problems arise, their inner order can quickly spin into a high level of nervousness and confusion which often leads to impulsive reactions. In this state, Sixes seem unable to arrive at an appropriate response to their problems. They may decide that they are too obedient, and begin to wonder what others in their group think of them. They may then conclude that maintaining their self-esteem requires that they react against people (including the authority), at least occasionally. Average Sixes begin to suspect that they are being taken advantage of or wonder if others really respect them. So they become more guarded and suspicious. While healthy Sixes are reliable and consistent, average Sixes are increasingly evasive and unpredictable, sometimes in small ways, sometimes by denying responsibility and being openly defensive.

Because of these opposing tensions in themselves and their relationships, average Sixes are deeply ambivalent. As the opposing sides of their alternating psyches surface, average Sixes fluctuate between compliant and aggressive impulses, feeling that others like them and then do not. Or Sixes feel that they like others and then that they do not. Knowing their ambivalence toward others, they cannot help but feel that others are equally ambivalent toward them. And knowing how quickly they can turn on someone else, Sixes feel that others may well turn on them. So they become guarded and evasive.

Healthy Sixes are fairly open-minded and curious, and search for ways to connect with others, but Sixes at Level 5 feel overloaded with their responsibilities and are reluctant to take on any more ideas or acquaintances. They become skeptical of new views and ideas, feeling that they have already put a lot of effort into understanding the perspectives and approaches they already know. Thus, they begin to fear and resist change, seeing it as a potential threat to their security and requiring that they add even more to a mind that to them feels overcrowded. Their thinking and their views therefore become more positional and entrenched. They become more out of touch with the ability to reason clearly, and increasingly resort to sputtering assertions and specious arguments.

Because average Sixes are losing touch with their own inner authority, they now have difficulty doing things on their own, making decisions by themselves, or leading others if they are called upon to do so. They go around in circles, unable to make up their minds, unsure of themselves and what they really want to do, dithering around and procrastinating. If they must act, they are extremely cautious, making decisions timidly, covering all bases with legalisms and precedents which both guide and protect them. When something must get done, they wait until the last moment to get started, and then work under great pressure to meet their obligations.

Ambivalence has been described by psychologists, probably because indecision and anxiety bring a lot of patients into therapy.

The ambivalence of passive-aggressives intrudes constantly into their everyday life, resulting in indecisiveness, fluctuating attitudes, oppositional behaviors and emotions, and a general erraticism and unpredictability. They cannot decide whether to adhere to the desires of others as a means of gaining comfort and security or to turn to themselves for these gains, whether to be obediently dependent on others or defiantly resistant and independent of them, whether to take the initiative in mastering their world or to sit idly by, passively awaiting the leadership of others; they vacillate, then, like the proverbial donkey, moving first one way and then the other, never quite settling on which bale of hay is best.

(Theodore Millon, Disorders of Personality, 244.)

While ambivalence allows Sixes to evade pressure and responsibility for their behavior, it also generates a great deal of emotional stress, causing them to become tense and tired. It is as if they simultaneously had one foot on the accelerator and the other on the brake. Whenever they are under tension of any sort, they complain a lot, and get grumpy and negative. The families and friends of average Sixes know well that their dinner conversations tend to be litanies of complaints about their day and about the people who they believe are causing them problems. They seem grim and fretful, as if everything in their lives was difficult and unpleasant. They “make mountains out of molehills” and can find a problem in any situation or a reason why an idea will not work. Drugs and alcohol, in particular, may be used to ease tensions. However, if Sixes overuse either as a solution to their anxieties, they risk becoming dependent, ironically trading dependency on authorities and belief systems for dependency on something else, perhaps much worse.

At this Level, Sixes become extremely frustrating to deal with because they force others to take responsibility for decisions while sending out mixed signals about their own intentions. One result is that no one can get a straight answer from them: yes means no and vice versa. They may say that they would like to meet someone for dinner, for example, but never agree on a date. They seem to be friendly but are defensive, holding on to people with one hand while putting them off with the other. Their evasiveness forces others to take the lead in everything, while average Sixes continue to react unpredictably, either by going along with or by rejecting what has been decided. If something goes amiss, they complain loudly about it, while avoiding any responsibility for the poor decision.

By being aggressive to others indirectly, average Sixes express the aggressive side of their passive-aggressive nature. For example, a Six who is angry at someone may put that person on hold on the telephone and “forget” to come back. A passive-aggressive employee may frustrate the boss by “forgetting” a deadline or by losing materials. Because of their indirection, passive-aggressive aggressions are never open, so Sixes can avoid responsibility for them.

Passive-aggressive indirection shows up in all their social interactions, even in their humor, which now has an edgy, sarcastic note. Passive-aggressive humor allows Sixes to get in a jab at people indirectly, by saying the opposite of what they mean. (“Of course I respect you—I treat you with all the respect you deserve.”) People may not understand how caustic Sixes’ jokes are until the aggressive subtext sinks in sometime later on.

This Level is a turning point in the deterioration of average Sixes. For the first time they realize that their attitudes toward themselves and others are confused. They begin to be suspicious of others and of themselves. The are not sure of their allegiances to others or how others feel about them. They do not know either their thoughts or their feelings; they are not sure what to do or not do. In short, all kinds of doubts and anxieties enter their minds, and once they do, they are difficult to put to rest.

Level 6: The Authoritarian Rebel

Rather than attempt to resolve their doubts and anxieties, average Sixes react against them, shifting to another reversal of behavior. They fear that their ambivalence and indecision may be costing them the support of their allies and authorities, so they overcompensate by becoming overzealous and aggressive in an effort to prove that they are not anxious, indecisive, or dependent. They want to let others know that they cannot be “pushed around” or taken advantage of. In fact, their fear and anxiety have reached a critical point, and Sixes are attempting to “pull themselves together” and control their fear through bold, forceful actions. To demonstrate their strength and value to their allies and their enemies, they strongly assert the aggressive side of their passive-aggressive ambivalence in an attempt to repress the passive side.

At this stage, whether they are fundamentally phobic or counterphobic, Sixes become more openly counterphobic, trying to master their growing anxieties by battling with whatever seems to have aroused them. In its innocent forms, counterphobia is well employed by people to master their fears—for example, children who are afraid of the dark might purposely go into a dark room to overcome their fear. But at this Level, average Sixes are far from innocent. Counterphobia makes them overcompensate: they blame and berate whatever threatens them. They become rebellious and belligerent, harassing and obstructing others however they can to prove that they cannot be pushed around. Sixes at this stage are full of doubts about themselves and are desperate to latch onto a position or a stance that will make them feel stronger and dispel their feelings of inferiority.

Their overcompensating aggressions are not a sign of true strength, but a way of feeling superior to others by frustrating or isolating them in some way. Ironically, Sixes, who have been afraid of being cut off from others and left without support, start isolating others and cutting off others’ support. At this level, Sixes become masters of intrigue and office politics, and work to knock potential rivals or threats to their security “out of the race.” If they are in positions of power over others, they become exactly the sort of authority figure they detest themselves: arbitrary, unjust, and vindictive. They are caricatures of authority, martinets and petty tyrants, full of bombast and bluster, dangerous but weak—and therefore especially dangerous. Instead of being truly strong, average Sixes at this stage make life difficult for people since they are petty and mean-spirited.

We have already seen that average Sixes identify with groups and positions, but at this Level they are extremely partisan and authoritarian, strictly dividing people according to those who are “for us” and those who are “against us.” Everyone is reduced to bare dichotomies of them against us, outsiders versus insiders, friends versus enemies. Their attitude is “My country (my authority, my leader, my beliefs) right or wrong.” Should their beliefs be challenged, average Sixes see it as an attack on their very way of life. While anxiety is still their underlying problem, at this stage irrational fear and hatred of others is its manifestation.

Authoritarian Sixes are extremely prejudiced and closed-minded in the defense of whatever or whoever they believe is creating their security, reacting with a siege mentality to all outsiders, whom they look on with suspicion as potential enemies. Fearing conspiracies, they will conspire against others. They will use all of their abilities to turn popular opinion against people they perceive as enemies—even against members of their own group who seem to them not to be completely on their side. But because of the dynamics of overcompensation, Sixes ironically often deviate from the very beliefs they have embraced. Sixes who so firmly believe in freedom and democracy become rabid bigots and authoritarians, eager to deny civil rights to fellow citizens. Christians hate, thereby contradicting their beliefs as Christians. The law-and-order person becomes a lawbreaker in the name of the law.

Sixes who are leaders are particularly dangerous at this stage. Less healthy Sixes crop up in politics periodically because they are able to tap into the fears and anxieties of a group and express them, often blaming others for problems but seldom offering substantial, realistic solutions. They may have been sought after as leaders precisely because of their apparent aggressiveness and willingness to go to any length to uphold the group’s “traditional values.” Unfortunately, they usually turn out to be demagogues, inciting insecurities in others so they can acquire the strength of a mob behind them. Insecurity, not courage, is the impetus here.

At Level 6, it is very difficult for a Six to work for something. Instead, their energies are galvanized by being against people and things. They are the classic revolutionaries who, having overcome their enemies, find themselves uninterested in the work of setting up a more just system. Indeed, Sixes at this stage need enemies to discharge their anxieties. If there was no one to blame for their problems, their guilt and fears about themselves would escalate—a prospect intolerable to them at this Level. If there is no clearly defined enemy, overcompensating Sixes will find one, settling on a scapegoat of some sort as the focus for their aggressions. One of the uglier aspects of Sixes at this stage is their need to have a person or group on whom they can release their pent-up anxieties. Their scapegoats are always assigned the basest motives so that Sixes will feel justified in dealing with them in whatever way satisfies their emotional needs. This can occur in office politics, in a family system, between the sexes (or sexual orientations), or in national politics. Often, unpopular authorities become the scapegoat, the sole cause of all of the Sixes’ problems. In other cases, people who are weaker and less supported than the Six become the target. Ironically, the people they typically hate—blacks, Jews, homosexuals, foreigners, “outsiders” of all sorts—often embody the very vulnerabilities and insecurities Sixes fear in themselves. As long as someone must be marginalized it will not be the Six. It is also worth remembering that militancy and bigotry cut in many directions. Obviously, many Sixes are members of minority groups themselves, but at Level 6, they too will find someone to blame and marginalize.

From the Sixes’ perspective, their aggressions are justified because they feel that they have been handed a “raw deal.” They believe that there are powerful forces who are exploiting them, if not out to destroy them. They feel small and helpless in the face of frustrating and seemingly overwhelming odds. Sixes at this Level believe that there must be some cause for their distress. There must be someone who is ruining their lives and they are determined to defend themselves from that threat. Average Sixes agree with the well-known complaint from the film Network: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more!” Sixes feel besieged by problems and riddled with self-doubt. They are angry about their past and are terrified about their futures. Unfortunately, at Level 6, they take their anxieties out on others, and not only on “outsiders,” but also on people in their immediate environment: their families, their pets, weaker coworkers or schoolmates—even strangers who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As in the other types, to be functioning at this Level or lower usually indicates that there were extremely dysfunctional elements in the child’s environment. Since the Six’s issues relate to the connection with the protective-figure, it is likely that the young Six experienced their protective-figure as unjust and dangerous. As a result, the adult Six projects this relationship into the world, seeing threatening, overpowering bullies at every turn. Ironically, because lower average Sixes have unconsciously defined themselves by this troubling early relationship, they end up using many of the same aggressive tactics on others. This is like the person who, as a child, was beaten for crying and who, as an adult, feels aggression and the desire to strike out arise whenever he or she hears a child crying.

It would be difficult to persuade others who did not know them before they became so belligerent and authoritarian that they are, or once were, capable of being likable, endearing people. They are so mean and petty now that they are anything but endearing. Moreover, since the strength of their authoritarian belligerence is built on a shifting psychic foundation, it is not a permanent state. But unfortunately, because their aggressions are real, they may last long enough for Sixes to do serious mischief, or worse harm, to others. As with all of the types at this Level, it is unfortunate that Sixes are in so much suffering, but it is even more unfortunate that their fear causes them to make others suffer as well. If they persist in this behavior for long, however, they will ultimately succeed in alienating many of their allies and making real enemies for themselves. Once this has happened, their position becomes truly threatened and tenuous.

ANALYZING THE UNHEALTHY SIX

Level 7: The Overreacting Dependent

If they act too aggressively or give in to ill-considered episodes of defiance or threat, Sixes may begin to fear that they have jeopardized their security by ruining relationships with their supporters, allies, and authorities. Furthermore, they realize that their words and actions may have created powerful enemies and they will suffer some sort of serious punishment as a result. At the very least, they fully expect to be abandoned by everyone they have depended on. Although they may not have actually run afoul of their supporters, they fear that they have. As a result, they become prey to intense anxiety, seeking reassurances that, no matter what they have done in the past, their relationship with their allies and authority is still intact. (Beneath the armor of the tough authoritarian is a frightened, insecure child.)

Average Sixes who once exhibited a blustering toughness, at moments even feeling that they no longer needed the support of others, have shifted abruptly. Tearful and obsequious, they are disgusted with themselves for not having been tough enough to stand on their own two feet, to defend themselves, to be independent. They feel cowardly because they have not been able to sustain their aggressive stance, although not because they have not tried.

Sixes become trapped in an unhealthy pattern of self-disparagement and massive insecurity which reinforces intense feelings of inferiority and worthlessness, a marked deterioration from the indecision and evasiveness we saw in average Sixes. Unhealthy Sixes are convinced that they are incompetent and unable to do anything on their own. Increasingly anxious, they become clingingly dependent on their allies or authority figures, or, if their friends and protectors have deserted them, on anyone who will take them in.

Healthy loyalty to those they are committed to has deteriorated into dependency. Unhealthy Sixes are massively relieved just to get through their day: taking any decisive, constructive actions for themselves feels impossible to them. As much as they can, they fall back on whatever support systems are available to them. They lean heavily on spouses, friends, or if possible, family, waiting for someone to come along and direct them. They are terrified of making a mistake, lest their few remaining authorities abandon them in disgust. Consequently, they take almost no initiatives, and avoid taking any responsibility for themselves. (“I was just doing what you told me to do”; “The priest said it was all right”; “But my friends were doing it, too.”) But while avoiding responsibility frees average Sixes from much anxiety, it tends to jeopardize their own hope of becoming independent, since they increasingly depend upon someone else to make the key decisions in their lives.

Unhealthy Sixes feel absolutely worthless. They whine and complain and disparage themselves so much that they weaken whatever remaining self-confidence they have and become an emotional drain on everyone. Those around them begin to feel insecure and anxious themselves, because Sixes have the uncanny ability to induce their anxieties, as well as other feelings, in others. Their despondency gets people down, virtually forcing others away. Of course, this only makes unhealthy Sixes all the more clinging, more “morbidly dependent,” in Karen Horney’s phrase, and more difficult to deal with.

They put themselves down constantly, and truly feel inferior to everyone else. (“Anyone who likes me must have something wrong with him.”) By disparaging themselves, they seem to be saying “You ought to love me because I am helpless and no good without you.” They do not believe in themselves, and they cannot believe that anyone else could either. If someone should encourage them, unhealthy Sixes immediately discount anything positive said to them. They are not so much looking for a pep talk, although that helps momentarily, but for the promise that someone strong and decisive will take over for them—a “good” protective-figure.

At the same time, unhealthy Sixes are still suspicious of people, and are often confused by true acts of kindness toward them. In many cases, Sixes who are this unhealthy suffered from extremely abusive authority figures in their youth, and still respond most strongly to people who treat them in a similar manner. Wise counsel, gentleness, or compassion directed toward them feels alien. While unhealthy Sixes may recognize mentally that good advice and help are being offered to them, they seem unable to trust that anyone would really be kind to them, and passive-aggressively push away those who are trying to get them on their feet.

Sadly, unhealthy Sixes seem to be attracted to the same sorts of people who have caused them to suffer in the past. They fall in with “bad company"—people who make them more dependent, encourage their paranoia, or prey on their insecurity in other ways. Sixes often feel a misplaced sense of camaraderie with other disgruntled "outsiders” with whom they can commiserate and complain. They will also seek out abusive or indifferent people for their romantic relationships, again because they cannot trust benevolence at this point. It is too unfamiliar: it increases their anxiety. (“What does she really want from me?”) Bullies, addicts, hysterics, and rogues they at least understand.

At work, their colleagues cannot help but notice their insecurity and anxiety. The quality of their performance is poor, because they are too anxious to concentrate and are frequently absent from work due to mysterious psychosomatic problems, little physical breakdowns which put them in bed for a day or two, or on the bottle for somewhat longer. (Any previous problem with alcohol now worsens considerably because unhealthy Sixes need alcohol—or some other drug—to deaden anxiety and take the edge off insecurity.)

Depression becomes a serious problem for unhealthy Sixes. They are terribly anxious, boiling over with fear and tension; yet they are frightened to express what they are feeling, both for fear that their friends will abandon them and because they might lose control of themselves completely. By repressing their anxiety, however, they become increasingly lethargic, depressed, and incompetent. Day by day, their life passes by with their insecurity and dependency growing and their confidence and prospects for the future diminishing. And underneath their depression, their rage and paranoia are growing, too.

The longer Sixes remain like this, the more hopeless and insecure they feel and the more hopeless and insecure they genuinely become. Others may suspect that they are not really interested in solving their problems, since “having problems” and complaining about them function as ways of obtaining reassurances from others. In fact, unhealthy Sixes have a vested interest in maintaining their problems so that someone will come to their aid and give them the security they crave. If that does not happen, or if the person who does come is as unhealthy as the Six is, the picture becomes frightening indeed.

Level 8: The Paranoid Hysteric

The oscillating nature of their psyches once again makes itself felt: unhealthy Sixes shift from self-disparagement to become overreacting and hysterically anxious. At the previous stage, unhealthy Sixes were anxious because they disparaged themselves and felt inferior. Now, in addition, neurotic Sixes are anxiety-ridden because they have lost the ability to control their anxiety. They are irrational and panicky when they think about themselves, hysterical and paranoid when they think about others.

Insecurity has escalated into a state of free-floating anxiety so great that neurotic Sixes irrationally misperceive reality, turning everything into a crisis. Neurotic Sixes unconsciously project their own aggressions onto others, becoming paranoid about the aggressions they find. This marks yet another “reversal” in their deterioration, because neurotic Sixes no longer see their own inferiority as the main problem, but the hostility which others apparently have toward them. To put this differently, they shift from fearing themselves to fearing others.

In a sense, the fears of average Sixes are replayed in a more intense form when they become neurotic. Average Sixes want to test others to find out how they feel about them. Neurotic Sixes are positive that the verdict is negative, and are sure that others are out to get them. If their boss is gruff, neurotic Sixes irrationally overreact, becoming certain that they are going to be fired. If they get into a conflict with their landlord, they are sure he will evict them, or hire a hit man to retaliate. They see conspiracies plotted against them everywhere; they feel persecuted by everyone, especially by authority figures who, they are convinced, are trying to punish them for their failures. In fact, neurotic Sixes are in a particularly terrible conflict about authority: because they are so anxious, they need the reassurance of authority figures more than ever; yet, because of their paranoia, neurotic Sixes believe the authority is out to destroy them.

At this level, Sixes are furious with the people they have counted on for letting them down, betraying them, or harming them. They are seething with rage and hatred, but are so fraught with anxiety that they are unaware that they are the source of the terrible feelings they are having. Instead, they project them onto others, since their hypervigilant attention is constantly focused outward, expecting danger at any moment. They believe that their hateful, destructive thoughts and feelings are actually the attitudes of others toward them, and they are determined to save themselves from the hostile “others” that seem to surround them. Their mind has become like a sentry that must stay on guard twenty-four hours a day, lest any intruder get through and destroy what remains of their security.

As a result of projecting their fears and aggressions onto others, neurotic Sixes become terrorized by what they find. Everyone and everything seems dangerous. Mere coincidence becomes conclusive fact for them. Even the most innocent remarks confirm their paranoia. They think a stranger walking toward them on the street is a policeman come to arrest them, or a spy who has them under surveillance, or a madman about to attack. Unfortunately, their delusions only succeed in making their fears all the more consuming. Mere suspiciousness has deteriorated into true craziness—insane paranoid delusions.

Paranoid delusions of persecution may alternate with compensating delusions of grandeur and delusions of reference, the notion that they are being watched by someone important—God or the ghost of a childhood hero, for example—providing neurotic Sixes with a sense of importance. Paranoid elements may also be mixed with grandiose delusions: the FBI is out to get them because they alone know about research into a nuclear antigravity device. Or the paranoid elements alone may dominate their delusional thinking: they become convinced that the telephone is bugged, their mail is being read by the CIA, their food is poisoned, their friends are secretly plotting against them. However, more than ever, paranoid Sixes think that they are more realistic than anyone else. They alone see what is really going on.

They fulminate and rant about their enemies, often picking out individuals that they have never met, or whole groups of people, and characterizing them as monsters that must be stopped. Sixes have always had a taste for politics, but here it can become ugly. Terrified individuals, feeling rejected and fearing that other rival groups will destroy what little security they have left, band together in conspiracies whose only mission is to attack or weaken others. If unhealthy Sixes do not join such groups, or have friends who support such extreme ideas, they often become loners, quietly developing their paranoid theories and waiting for an opportunity to strike back at their perceived oppressors.

It is important to understand that neurotic Sixes are bundles of irrational fears; they look for reasons to be afraid. They live under the cloud of dread, absolutely certain that something horrible is about to happen to them, blowing the smallest incidents completely out of proportion. It is, of course, impossible to reason with them. Everything seems like the end of the world to them, and since they undoubtedly have genuinely serious problems, they are thrown into a panic about everything. Precisely when their problems and failures are multiplying, they cannot cope.

The danger here is that unhealthy Sixes are no longer able to restrain their anxiety and may precipitously lash out at their allies or at strangers who represent what the Six most fears, or even at a hero the Six believes has let him down. In its most harmless forms, this can be a hysterical outburst or attack on a spouse or coworker that may result in an estrangement or dismissal. They may smash furniture, scream, or actually get into physical violence with a friend, associate, or relative who has frustrated them or become a symbol for their fears. In its darkest forms, however, this can manifest as an assassination of a political or popular figure the Six has become obsessed with, the random attack of a gunman in a public place, or the collective insanity of mob violence, gangs, and hate groups.

Fortunately, most Sixes do not get trapped at this level of neurosis, and many of those that do have sufficient support and help to prevent them from allowing their fear to lead them into irreversibly destructive actions. But even if neurotic Sixes do not engage in acts of violence, their terror and paranoia have been unrelenting. This condition becomes insufferable, and Sixes may go one step further to escape their anxiety.

Level 9: The Self-Defeating Masochist

If Sixes really have overreacted to their fears with some precipitous action, or if they cannot stop projecting their fear and hostility onto others, they may self-destructively hasten their downfall to provoke some kind of attention from and connection with others. Further, unhealthy Sixes are certain that punishment from their authority figures is inevitable, so they punish themselves both to expiate for any guilt and to escape, or at least lessen, the wrath of the authority.

They become self-defeating, another reversal. Instead of continuing to be anxiety-ridden, living in dread that something awful will happen to them, neurotic Sixes seek to reduce the threat of the environment by punishing themselves first. They bring defeat and degradation on themselves. Ironically, just as they may once have scapegoated and persecuted others, they now turn their aggression against themselves with the same hatred and desire for revenge.

Neurotic Sixes bring disaster of some sort on themselves not to end their relationships with authority figures, but to reestablish a protective one. By bringing defeat on themselves, they at least save themselves from being defeated by someone else. As painful and humiliating as whatever they do to themselves may be, it eases their guilt and defuses the self-condemnations which might push them to suicide. In a sense, then, they defeat and humiliate themselves so they can be rescued from a worse fate.

This does not always work. Sixes at this level of dysfunction are far from rational, and the methods they employ to punish themselves may result in severe debilitation or even death. They may drop out, abasing themselves as vagrants and living in skid row conditions, thus allowing their health and minds to deteriorate to the point of no return. Other Sixes may similarly punish themselves with excessive alcohol and drug intake, literally flirting with death. Still others may engage in suicide attempts that work more effectively than they had planned.

It is also important to understand that neurotic Sixes are masochistic not because they take pleasure in suffering as such, but because they hope their suffering will draw to their side someone who will save them. Masochistic suffering seeks union with another, as if to say, “Punish me because I have been bad. Then you can love me again.”

Wilhelm Reich agreed that behind the masochist’s behavior lay a desire to provoke authority figures, but he disagreed that this was in order to bribe the superego or to execute a dreaded punishment. Rather, he maintained, this grandiose provocation represented a defense against punishment and anxiety by substituting a milder punishment and by placing the provoked authority figure in such a light as to justify the masochist’s reproach, “See how badly you treat me.” Behind such a provocation is a deep disappointment in love, a disappointment of the masochist’s excessive demand for love based on the fear of being left alone.

(Leland E. Hinsie and Robert J. Campbell, Psychiatric Dictionary, 452.)

Even if neurotic Sixes succeed in being punished by someone else, they nevertheless retain an element of control. Hence, their self-esteem is not at absolute zero. They have elicited punishment and gotten the reassurance that they have not been completely abandoned. They are still connected with someone, even if the connection is a painful one. For neurotic Sixes, to be punished by the authority is still to be loved. Someone still cares. This sadly recalls the child who is being beaten and abused by their protective-figure. The relationship may be terrible, but any small child prefers the presence of a horrible parent to being cut off and left without anyone at all to guide them. Thus, masochism avoids the much more threatening problem of being rejected and abandoned, and gives neurotic Sixes a degree of security. When that too is gone, they see little recourse but to end their lives.

THE DYNAMICS OF THE SIX

The Direction of Disintegration: The Six Goes to Three

Starting at Level 4, under conditions of stress, average to unhealthy Sixes begin to act out some of the characteristics of average to unhealthy Threes. Average Sixes are plagued by self-doubt, social insecurity, and a lack of confidence. When they feel particularly unsure of themselves, they compensate for their insecurity by behaving in ways they believe others expect them to, like average Threes. Also like average Threes, they become determined to convince themselves and others of their value, excellence, and capability.

At Level 4, Sixes invest themselves in those alliances, situations, or structures which they believe will enhance their security. They feel obligated to meet others’ demands of them, and want their approval and support in return. Increased stress causes them to move to Three, where they become more intent on developing their careers, achieving recognition, and “getting ahead"—all of which serve as buffers against potential loss of safety. Similarly, they know that resources are limited and that there are only so many opportunities to go around, so they become competitive to secure the desired prestige or position for themselves. Also, because of their identifications with their allies and with whatever systems they have turned to for security, they use the esteem they derive from that identification to bolster their egos, and feel competitive with other systems. ("Harvard is better than Yale”; “I use a Mac, not an IBM clone”; “My Cowboys won the Super Bowl again!”) Sixes at this Level can begin piling up responsibilities and burying themselves in work as ways of repressing their anxiety. Basically, when their insecurity arises, like average Threes, they start working harder.

At Level 5, Sixes feel pressured by their many obligations, and are ambivalent about many of their work situations and the alliances they have made. However, like average Threes, Sixes do not want to alienate others, or to let others know that they are unsure of themselves or the situation. Thus, they turn on the charm, becoming more “friendly” or “professional” as needed. Like Threes, these adaptations are driven by fear of rejection—Sixes believe there is some behavior that would be more appropriate than their genuine response. They try to win people over by adapting themselves to their expectations, and then gauging their responses. Such efforts are usually unsuccessful: Sixes are not Threes, and others can read the uneasiness under the friendly, professional demeanor. Their positive attitude and cheerfulness seem rehearsed and inauthentic. As Sixes realize that others are seeing through their efforts at appearing confident and “together,” they become even more anxious and self-doubting.

At Level 6, Sixes become defiant and aggressive in their attitudes and behavior. They put everyone on notice that they cannot be trifled with, but tend to go too far and bully others. The move to Three at this Level can be seen as a kind of arrogance and highhandedness. Sixes get “big-headed,” overestimating their abilities and inflating their accomplishments to compensate for their growing inferiority feelings. They promote themselves, their business, or the causes and ideologies to which they have attached themselves, assuming a superior position and belittling the people they perceive as rivals. They insist that others recognize their talents or achievements, and can become hostile when such appreciation is not forthcoming. Also, like Threes at this level, Sixes may resort to hyping their meager successes or to sexual conquests to fortify their sagging self-esteem. At the same time, the group competitiveness seen at Level 4 has degenerated into hostility and aggression at Level 6. People get into heated fights over football teams, or tear down rival spiritual or political views. Pride in their affiliations has become a frenzied contest for supremacy.

At Level 7, Sixes fear that they have gone too far and have eroded their base of support. They are terrified that their allies or superiors will call them to task for their wrongdoing. Like unhealthy Threes, Sixes attempt to cover their mistakes and will deny any involvement with problems they have created. Often, unhealthy Sixes will continue to offer assistance to others, both personally and professionally. (“I’ll get that done for you.”) But they are actually too dysfunctional to get much accomplished, and so must deceive people by saying that they have done things that they have not done. They do not necessarily deceive others maliciously, but to escape punishment or abandonment. They believe that they may be able to repair the damage they have caused, or do the work they have claimed to have done, if they can placate others long enough. The fact is, though, that unhealthy Sixes are being untruthful and setting themselves up for greater anxiety and loss of security. Their fabrications become yet another source of pressure and stress, requiring more work and causing more panic.

At Level 8, paranoid Sixes may be getting involved with activities and obsessions which are potentially dangerous and destructive for themselves and others. They live in constant fear that their obsessive hatred as well as any plans of revenge will be uncovered by others. As a result, they become devious and duplicitous, like unhealthy Threes. They are the proverbial “nice, quiet person down the block” who no one pays much attention to until their paranoia erupts in some horrible incident. On a less dramatic level, they may give no indication that they are unhappy with a job or a relationship until they unexpectedly disappear one morning without explanation. Their paranoia may also cause them to create false identities for themselves, or to present themselves to new acquaintances as quite different from who they actually are. It is as if unhealthy Sixes were terrified of being seen without camouflage—one of the last sources of security they feel they have.

At Level 9, Sixes try to punish themselves to avoid being punished by others, but under greater pressure, that may act out the lowest Level of Three behavior, in which their anxiety and rage explode in psychopathic fury. Sixes who go to Three no longer masochistically turn their aggression against themselves; instead, they turn it against others to see them suffer. The authoritarian bigotry and hatred seen in average Sixes returns in a much more aggressive and dangerous form. Deteriorated Sixes strike out at others violently to overcome their inferiority feelings once and for all. They vindictively hurt others, even though their victims may not have been the actual cause of their suffering.

But Sixes at Three remain fundamentally Sixes, and their psychopathic violence is merely another form of self-defeat, but one which demands the strictest punishment. If they have broken the law, Sixes at Three will not succeed in eliciting a response which reconciles them to the other. Instead, they may be imprisoned or executed, or themselves become the object of hatred and revenge.

The Direction of Integration: The Six Goes to Nine

In the simplest terms, Sixes need to resolve their ambivalence and their anxiety about themselves and others. This is precisely what happens when they go to Nine.

Sixes at Nine are much more emotionally open, receptive, and sympathetic toward people, and as a result, their emotional spectrum grows much wider. Integrating Sixes are emotionally stable, peaceful, and self-possessed. They fully overcome their tendencies to be dependent, and instead become autonomous and independent persons on whom others can and do rely. Integrating Sixes are able to reassure and support others rather than seek reassurance and support from others, as we have seen throughout their Levels of Development.

In fact, Sixes at Nine are quite different from even healthy Sixes. A revolutionary change for the better has taken place in the integrating Six: he or she becomes independent and yet, paradoxically, is closer to others than ever before.

One unexpected payoff of this development is that integrating Sixes develop a greater number of friends than they had when they looked to others for protection, either as authority figures or as members of their in-group. No longer reactive to people, they are able to form a stable union with others. Others seek them out because they are so healthy, mature, and well-disposed to people. The playfulness and sense of humor we saw in healthy Sixes has not been left behind, although added to these qualities are the Nine’s sunniness of disposition, optimism, and kindheartedness, traits for which Sixes are not usually known but which they now possess in abundance.

Integrating Sixes at last attain not only security but the ability to trust others, something which has always eluded them. Further, because they now trust themselves, they finally transcend their anxiety and feel grounded and truly at ease in the world.

THE MAJOR SUBTYPES OF THE SIX

The Six with a Five-Wing: “The Defender”

The traits of the Six and those of the Five are in some degree of conflict with each other. The general orientation of Sixes is toward affiliation with others, while the orientation of Fives is toward detachment from people so that they can avoid being influenced by anyone. Sixes and Fives are both looking for safety, but Sixes look to alliances with others and commitment to systems of thought for security, while Fives tend to retreat from others and to tinker with, or even dismantle, established systems of thought. Both tendencies exist in the Six with a Five-wing, producing a subtype which sees itself as fighting for the “little person,” while at the same time being drawn to systems, alliances, and beliefs which often contain strong authoritarian elements. Sixes with a Five-wing can seem like Ones because they are serious, self-controlled, and committed to specific moral, ethical, and political beliefs. Like Eights, they can also, be rather outspoken and passionate in the expression of their beliefs, with less concern about being liked than the Six with a Seven-wing. Noteworthy examples of this subtype include Richard Nixon, Robert F. Kennedy, George Bush, Malcolm X, Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Donahue, Rock Hudson, Billy Graham, Walter Mondale, Alexander Haig, Bob Dole, Joseph McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, Oliver North, Meir Kahane, and John Hinckley, Jr.

Healthy people of this subtype combine the Six’s capacity for organization and personal engagement with the Five’s perceptiveness and curiosity. They may have a strong intellectual streak, depending on how much the Five-wing is in their overall personality. Healthy Sixes with a Five-wing often develop technical expertise and are valued as practical problem solvers; they are good communicators, educators, and pundits. They are also attracted to professions such as medicine, law, and engineering; they desire to master a system of knowledge but within a field where the rules and parameters are established and known. They often get involved with political causes and community service. There is a strong identification with the underdog, and Sixes with a Five-wing may become the spokespeople or champions for groups or individuals they see as disadvantaged. Sixes with a Five-wing possess greater powers of concentration and focus than the other subtype, although they can sometimes be perceived as too narrow in their concerns. They are usually shrewd observers of the environment, particularly people, and put a premium on foresight and predicting how others will react. Their perceptions are more original than those of Sixes with a Seven-wing, but because Six is the basic type, they do come across not as intellectuals but as extremely competent, knowledgeable individuals.

The anxiety we see in average Sixes also causes people of this subtype to be more intense than Sixes with a Seven-wing. Sixes with a Five-wing are more independent than Sixes with a Seven-wing, and are less likely to go to others for reassurance, advice, or to solve their problems. They may have one or two mentors or confidants, but in most cases they will “gut out” their problems and anxieties alone. They can be very hardworking and loyal to the systems or people with whom they have identified, but this can lead to strong partisan stances and a competitiveness with rivals. Persons of this subtype tend to be constricted in the expression of their emotions, and are usually more detached, cerebral, and pessimistic. The Five-wing also adds a tendency toward secretiveness and compartmentalization which fuels the suspiciousness of the average Six. As their insecurities escalate, they tend to see the world as dangerous. They become more reactive and aggressive, and will denounce or scapegoat any perceived threat to their security. They see others as potential enemies and fear that people may be conspiring to ruin them. Ironically, they may respond by hatching plots against others.

Unhealthy persons of this subtype become increasingly paranoid and obsessed with maintaining their security, and may go to great lengths to protect their position. They are extremely needy, and may abuse alcohol or drugs as a way of dealing with anxiety and paranoid delusions, as well as of bolstering their inferiority feelings. The Five-wing adds elements of cynicism and nihilism to the fearful mentality of the unhealthy Six, resulting in growing isolation, desperation, and a capacity for sociopathic actions. Intense stress will likely lead to outbreaks of rage and extremely destructive behavior accompanied by breaks with reality. Self-sabotaging, self-destructive actions bring about humiliation and punishment to atone for guilt, although the extent and nature of their self-destructiveness will be hidden from others because of their reclusive nature. There may be strong propensity for violence as well as sadomasochistic tendencies in sexual expression. Murder and suicide are both real possibilities.

The Six with a Seven-Wing: “The Buddy”

The traits of the Six and the traits of the Seven reinforce each other. This subtype is more clearly extroverted, more interested in having a good time, more sociable, and, for better or worse, is less intensely focused upon either the environment or itself than Sixes with a Five-wing. In this subtype, there is also a dynamic tension between the main type and wing. The Six focuses on commitment, responsibility, and sacrifice of personal pursuits for the sake of security, while the Seven focuses on experience, satisfaction of personal need, and keeping options open. (People of this subtype can sometimes seem like Twos.) They can be affable, supportive, and strongly identified with others. Sixes with a Seven-wing are more eager to be liked and accepted by others than the Six with a Five-wing and are also more hesitant to speak out. The Seven-wing adds sociability, playfulness, and enthusiasm, but the Six component can be uneasy with this, so Sixes with a Seven-wing frequently monitor the reactions of others to see if they are behaving acceptably. Noteworthy examples of this subtype include Jay Leno, Tom Hanks, Johnny Carson, Sally Field, Candice Bergen, Gilda Radner, Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, Julia Roberts, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Reggie Jackson, Patrick Swayze, Tom Selleck, Ted Kennedy, Andy Rooney, Rush Limbaugh, “Fred Mertz,” “Archie Bunker,” and “the Cowardly Lion.”

Healthy persons of this subtype desire to feel not only accepted and secure with others, but also happy, particularly with regard to material well-being. They have broad areas of interest and often have one or more hobbies or pastimes. People in this subtype are friendly and sociable, taking neither themselves nor life that seriously, or at least not solemnly. Many Sixes with a Seven-wing are attracted to the performing arts (acting, popular music) or other professions that allow them to combine their energetic, interpersonal qualities with discipline and craft (advertising, marketing, managing, law). They tend to be self-deprecating, and if possible, turn their fears into occasions for reassurance, further bonding with others, or even humor. Healthy Sixes with a Seven-wing are usually extremely playful and funny, since a sense of humor is one of their most salient means of coping with life and its tensions. They are generally more extroverted than the other subtype.

Average Sixes with a Seven-wing are also hardworking and loyal, but begin to have problems with procrastination and initiating projects. They tend to depend more on others for reassurance and will usually seek advice from a number of sources before coming to an important decision. If they get conflicting advice, they tend to be more indecisive than the Sixes with Five-wings. They do not handle anxiety, tension, or pressure well and often react by becoming impulsive, grumpy, and peevish. Their sense of humor is used to deflect others, and their passive-aggressiveness to get them out of unpleasant situations. Increasingly, the subtype complains, frets, and turns the Seven’s propensity for envisioning options into a tendency to conceive of everything that can go wrong in a situation. At the same time, the Seven-wing causes them to succor themselves with various distractions and compensations. Overeating, drinking, and substance abuse may enter the picture, along with nonproductive “hanging out” (the good ol’ boy, the gal who hangs out at the local bar or club). Sixes with a Seven-wing may not take the strong political stands of Sixes with a Five-wing, but they tend to become highly opinionated and quite vocal about their likes and dislikes. Because they are afraid of confronting the real sources of discontent in their lives, however, their anxieties about personal failings or important relationships are often displaced onto helpless “third parties"—the "kicking the cat” syndrome.

Unhealthy persons of this subtype are more disposed to becoming dependent on others, and do not attempt to disguise the depth of their emotional needs. They may become stuck in abusive working conditions while dependent upon other people, addictive substances, or both. Inferiority feelings combine with the desire to escape from themselves. Unhealthy Sixes with a Seven-wing have few means of dealing with anxiety, and as anxiety gets worse, they become increasingly emotionally erratic. People of this subtype are in a flight from anxiety, tending to become manic rather than paranoid. They act out their unconscious fears, flying into hysterical overreactions much more readily than the other subtype, making them highly unpredictable and reckless. They may alternate between desperately clinging to destructive relationships and lashing out at their supporters. This subtype is also subject to debilitating panic attacks, since anxiety, rather than aggression, has the upper hand. Suicide attempts, as a way of eliciting help, are likely.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

Looking back on the deterioration of Sixes, we can see that they have ruined their desire for security. Unhealthy Sixes are self-defeating persons who are their own worst enemies. If they persist in masochistic, self-defeating behavior, neurotic Sixes will likely drive away everyone on whom they depend. They will be abandoned and alone, the very things they most fear.

There is nothing wrong with forming alliances with others, but it is crucial for Sixes to be aware of the character of their allies, since they have such an important influence on them. Commitment to a good person goes far in helping Sixes to be good themselves; commitment to a person who brings out their aggressions and insecurities will have very bad effects on them indeed.

Sixes fear being abandoned and alone because without at least one other person in their lives they would be completely at the mercy of anxiety. Other people put boundaries on them, governing their fluctuations between anxiety and their response to it, aggression. However, Sixes need some tension in their psyches to maintain their sense of self. Ironically, then, Sixes interact with people both to control anxiety and to stimulate it. But, of course, anxiety is unpleasant and aggression dangerous, so Sixes also look to others to save them from the consequences of both states should they get out of hand. Thus, their psyches present an insoluble conundrum unless Sixes can find a way to completely break out of it. They must learn that they do not have to react to people or depend on them if they trust themselves. Sixes can trust themselves only if they learn that they have a quiet source of inner guidance within themselves. And by trusting that inner guidance, they find the security, support, and direction they have been looking for.

[theartsandmusicjournal]

MAY23All In The Family /The Jeffersons Live On ABC Review Last night (May 23, 2019) ABC put together a cast of some of sit coms and sketch comedy's heavy hitters to revisit The Jeffersons and The Bunkers. Spoiler alert...It was a good try , but fell short of the mark for several reasons. Still over all I would give the one hour-live showcase of All In The Family and The Jeffersons passing grades. Instead of getting great writers to tackle 21st century problems....the producers go to two of my favorite scripts from the shows. In the case of All In The Family ...Henry's Farewell.  The original show marked the very first appearance of George Jefferson (played by Sherman Hemsley.) However, why I always loved this episode is because Mel Stewart as George's brother Henry was featured. When ever Henry Jefferson and Archie Bunker got into discussions of God, Santa Claus or anything....the ideology was always breath taking and funny. In the case of The Jeffersons they revisited the first episode A Friend In Need. I loved early episodes of The Jeffersons as a kid because of the insults. I love the early episodes now because of the subject matter that people sill don't like  to discuss... like inter-racial dating/marriage. Over all I give both efforts a C. I was excited about the prospect of watching these shows in prime time but disappointed with the product. To be fair I don't know if I could have been satisfied. Woody Harrelson as Archie Bunker just didn't work. His Queens, NY accent sounded high school production quality. I guess I am glad he tried. I know it was live television so I am thinking after his nerves settled he got better. He did much better after the first commercial break. Marisa Tomei as Edith Bunker did not get better. No only was she and Woody cast wrongly in these roles. The less said about Tomei's "Edith" the better. Wand Sykes as "Weezy" Jefferson-One of the stronger performances...but over all shows why the casting was off.  Sykes is a great stand up comic...while Isabel Sanford was an accomplished actress with decades of experience before she came to All In The Family.  It may be unfair in asking Sykes to be comparable with one night in an iconic role on live TV...however. I could see the difference in the presentations. Still I am giving Sykes a B-. Jaime Fox as George Jefferson....nope. I was grossly disappointed with his cartooning the iconic character. I won't say much more. Anthony Anderson was actually great. He did not try and recapture Mel Stewart's performance as Henry Jefferson. He let he situation come to him. Also great was the surprise cameo by Marla Gibb. Here is what I would suggest. A. Go to youtube or Dailymotion and watch the original shows. B. If they do this again...and I think  they should. They should follow the way One Day At a Time is presented on Netflix. Same set as the original...21st century problems that still are rarely touched even on cable. One Day At A Time on Neflix gets consistent A level performances from their cast and crew. C. Two Words "ROC" Live! D. Perhaps next time if not an update or new scripts? Then just rebroadcast the original shows in Prime Time much like CBS does with The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy!

[concertmemory]

Day to Day Highlights of my 2017 SXSW Experience

It’s been about 2 weeks and I am still recovering from South By Southwest! This year was BY FAR the most fun I have had at this festival. Because I missed last year’s SXSW, I decided I would attend every one of them until I graduated. This time I took part in 8 days of concerts, parties, and film screenings.

As always, I have to thank the company who gave me the opportunity to attend the music part of SXSW for free. This time it was Esurance, so HUGE SHOUTOUT to them for coming in clutch! You can find their booth at the Austin Convention Center and sign up for a Esurance Pass. Every day during South By, you can go to the Esurance booth and scan your pass for a chance to win an awesome prize! Previous prizes have been GoPros, Mac Books, PS4s, TVs, and other electronics. Next time, DON’T miss out on the cool perks Esurance has to offer!

DAY 1:

Nowadays, I spend more time watching videos on Youtube than watching TV. Therefore, I am very familiar with the Youtube community. AwesomenessTV was kind enough to invite me and some other fans to Toddrick Hall’s “Behind The Curtain” movie premiere. The movie is basically a documentary of Toddrick’s life and how he manages to create these spectacular videos. I had no idea how much effort it went into being an online content creator.

As we walked around 6th, one of my friends spotted Cole Spouse. When I approached him, I realized that KJ Apa, Archie from Riverdale, was with him as well. The funny thing was that KJ couldn’t believe that I knew who he was since most people would only ask Cole for a picture. They both were extremely nice and we had a pretty decent chat about who I liked on Riverdale and my thoughts about the show (by the way... they both said to root for Veronica and f*ck Betty lol). It’s nice to actually have conversations with the people I look up to and realized that they are just as human as I am. ~ Riverdale airs every Thursday at 9/8c on The CW ~

DAY 2:

Before spring break, I saw on Twitter that Prison Break was coming back with a new season! I did some research to see if they were coming to SXSW and they were! Prison Break invited a couple of fans and I to see the first episode of Season 5 and for a Q&A with the cast members. Judging by the first episode, I can tell you that it is going to be a great season! I was left wanting to know more and I even started thinking on some theories for the future. Dominic Purcell, Sarah Wayne Callies, Robert Knepper, and the screenwriters were a blast to hang out with! They were extremely down-to-earth and funny! ~ Prison Break returns April 4th on FOX ~

Oh I also ran into Bill Nye!! BILL BILL BILL! It was definitely one of the highlights of my week! According to the people who attended his movie screening, it is really worth watching!

DAY 3:

I attended the SXSW trade show to witness some cool inventions that are being created and to network with innovative people! From VR to delicious food, I enjoyed every single part of it! The elevator pitches that I heard were really good and motivated me to keep building my brand. While I was at the trade show, I noticed that Matthew Espinosa, a former Viner, was also there! He was such a sweetheart that we bonded over some yummy stroopwafels.

Eventually, I went to see my friends’ band play at Scratchouse later that day! New Waves Concerts were the ones putting the showcase, so I couldn’t miss it! I was able to relax for a bit and listen to a lot of refreshing music from local artists here in Austin, TX. ~You can go check out my friends’ band Teqeela Mockingbirds on FB and Instagram!~

DAY 4:

Concerts on concerts and more concerts! My friends and I started and ended the day with music! By noon, we were watching Lil Yachty perform at the Empire Control Room--courtesy of Mazda (Car company). Lil Yachty is extremely fun to watch live! He even pointed at me during his set haha!

At night, we went to SXSW Takeover Day 1 with Ugly God and other hip-hop performers. I discovered a lot of different rappers and now I listen to their songs all the time! “Gassed Up” by Nebu Kiniza has been stuck in my head ever since that day.

DAY 5:

Thanks to Twix, I was able to get VIP for their SXSW week event at Bar 96. I had never been to this particular bar and I seriously think that I will be going more often; it has a great vibe. At the Twix house, I saw a new rapper called Kweku Collins. There’s something so unique about the way he performs, and I will sure keep an eye out for him! After that, I met Bridgit Mendler and we chatted for a bit. She has a new single called Can’t Bring This Down with rapper Pell which is now available everywhere!

DAY 6:

The Woodie Awards is a must-go during SXSW! The great thing about the Woodies is that their event is 18+ and fans are able to see the biggest artists for free! I attended two years ago and the camera man remembered me haha! This time I saw Young M.A., Khalid, Desiigner, KYLE, D.R.A.M., Lil Yachty, and others!

One of my friends was asked to take pictures of The Cool Kids, so I was able to see them perform that night! My group of friends were the only young ones in that crowd haha! However, The Cool Kids do have great songs that are worth listening to! “Connect 4” has to be my favorite single from their new music!

DAY 7:

I appreciate Vibes for giving me free tickets to Blackbear’s concert! I have been a big fan of him for the longest and being able to see him live for the first time was unreal! Blackbear is an incredible songwriter that manages to make all of his songs extremely relatable. For sure, this concert was the best one I attended that week! If you haven’t heard already, Blackbear is part of a band called Mansionz with Mike Posner and their first album is out now! You can find it on Soundcloud, iTunes & Spotify!

DAY 8:

At this point, I WAS EXHAUSTED. I have no idea how people finished the whole SXSW festival. Anyways, the last performer I saw was Lil Uzi Vert and I am so happy that I did! He was very energetic and everyone was pumped during his set! I had no idea that I knew a lot of his songs haha!

by Matthew Hersh Films

And that’s basically my whole recap on SXSW.. I hope you enjoyed my concert stories and meeting celebrities. I really recommend attending South By Southwest if you live in Texas, it is truly worth it! You can find my previous post on tips and tricks when attending SXSW here.