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emotionally-charged-arson · 4 months ago

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I Am Thinking About The Source Characters Again: How A Years-Long Hyperfixation Colors My Understanding Of Each Character’s Role In The Plot

If you follow me you are probably aware that The Source (2017) by Ayreon is a concept album a lot of people are very normal about. You may not know that I was HUGELY into personality typology at one point of time (like the MBTI, Enneagram, stuff like that). I like to make connections I guess, and think about things way more than I should, so I’ve actually put it into writing now. Woohoo? Anyway yeah this requires a lot of infodumping on my part so it’s all under the cut, proceed at your own risk

A lot of people have heard of the MBTI, funky four letter tags like INFJ and ESTP that are getting wildly popular and often dismissed as fad pseudoscience. Like “I for introvert, E for extrovert” and three more dichotomies like that (peep all three of my mutuals from 16Personalities). Fair but ALSO it gets much more interesting when you bring in Jungian cognitive functions.

Basically a theory Carl Jung had that in daily life, everybody uses eight basic functions. You’ve got functions that help you make decisions, ones that help you take in information, ones that let you introspect, and ones that let you interact with your outside world. Their names bear similarity to the MBTI dichotomies (they are related). Introverted Thinking, or Ti, is the one you use when you consider facts and logic in your own head. Also, it’s classified as a Judging function, and that’s because it’s a decision-making function. Whereas Perceiving functions are those that take in information, rather than decide.

The eight functions are Ti (introverted thinking), Te (extraverted thinking), Fi (introverted feeling), Fe (extraverted feeling), Si (introverted sensing), Se (extraverted sensing), Ni (introverted intuition), and Ne (extraverted intuition). Which ones are the four introverted functions and the four extraverted functions are in their names; you may have noticed there’s not mention of “judging” or “perceiving” yet (the J and P dichotomies in the MBTI). Ti, Te, Fi, and Fe are classified as Judging functions, since they deal with decision making (not like… you’re judging someone, more like being judicious, making decisions, you know). Si, Se, Ni, and Ne are the Perceiving functions, since they’re about perceiving information.

Okay I hope this is comprehensible.

The theory extends further than that. Out of the eight functions, there’s two you will prefer more than most and feel most in the “zone” doing. With personalities like mine, for example, you favor Ti (Introverted Thinking) most, you LIKE logic and analytical things and hard facts and frameworks, it’s just most comfortable, so that’s where your strengths lie. (Or maybe that’s not you at all, maybe your most favored function is like Extraverted Sensing, so you’re most in the zone taking in your surroundings, sensations, and what your body is doing.) Whatever it is, we call it your “dominant function”, and it can be any one of the eight. Now we need a second, or auxiliary, function. But you need one that balances your dominant function. An extraverted auxiliary function to an introverted dominant function, and a perceiving auxiliary function to a judging dominant function, for example. Balances it out. Like you’ve gotta both have some measure of introspection (introverted function) and ability to interact with your surroundings (extraverted) to be functional. Going back to the Ti example, which is introverted and judging, the auxiliary function has to be extraverted and perceiving. This leaves us with two options, Ne or Se.

You’ll notice that 8 possible dominant functions * 2 possible auxiliary function for any dominant function gives exactly 16 “types” which DO correspond exactly to the 16 MBTI types. No time in this infodump for that I’m afraid. I need to start talking about the Source, and how the characters, to me, manifest as different functions that comprise a whole.

So The Diplomat And The Counselor Kind Of Exist To Alleviate Tension But They’re Also Fundamentally Different, Why Is That

So this all kind of started from this one observation. Both exist in different mediator roles; the Diplomat is here to relieve all the interpersonal drama, the Counselor sorts out everybody’s own messiness. I also immediately recognized this as the difference between Fe and Fi. Fe, extraverted feeling, is super attuned to everybody else and their emotions and strives to create harmony. Fi, introverted feeling, is crazy introspective and constantly evaluating what they believe, how they feel, what it means about them as a person, and consequently pretty good at seeing through that for other people. From there I’m like. This is interesting. Okay cool what roles do the other Source characters play in the collective? This is also my attempt to characterize a good number of them, enjoy. Also I’m not giving any of them a full MBTI analysis here, I’m just kind of stating what I think their dominant function(?) is and how that manifests.

Fe (extraverted feeling): the Diplomat

As mentioned above, my guy is constantly trying to go for interpersonal harmony and peace. Go off.

Fi (introverted feeling): the Counselor

Also mentioned above, not only is she an introspective character (i.e. The Dream Dissolves, The Source Will Flow, lots of her monologuing to herself and sorting out who she is as a person), but she’s also able to gently connect with others and heal their hurts.

Also Fi, but kind of different: the Astronomer

Oh so what is my beloved blorbo the Astronomer doing here. What does HE have to do with emotions and stuff. Maybe it’s just that I fixate on him all too much but like. He doesn’t really do a lot you know? Like I’m sure he’s off doing Important Astronomy Things but in story he kind of acts as a vote of confidence or approval. This leaves a LOT of blank space for his personality, I am totally speculating here. I think it’s also that many of my Ayreon mutuals and I have an affinity for Blind Guardian and high fantasy and such that we’ve settled on the collective characterization of “yeah definitely an idealistic and imaginative guy too”. And guess what, Fi does a lot of that.

I also need to clear a misconception. “Feeling types” by MBTI (like INFP, ESFJ, anything with an F in the third position) are not all sentimental, touchy, romantic kind of people. “Feeling” can also be seen as an attunement to one’s own or other’s wants, desires, hopes, so often you get people who are charismatic or very idealistic. Turning that inwards, introverted feeling, gets you a very rich inner world (i.e. imaginations) or very strong values or opinions (i.e. idealism). Everything I said about Fi being introspective and evaluating what they believe and feel still holds though. These functions are nuanced.

“Stubbornly idealistic” is kind of how I’ve settled on characterizing Astro and his motivations throughout the story, he’s really holding onto a love for space and a vision of how the world/planet should be, and this holds up best with the function Fi. It’s just that every person is different so his Fi looks different from Counselor’s Fi. I need to stop sounding so serious talking about fictional characters who hardly exist outside of one earbook I’m okay

Maybe Te (extraverted thinking), maybe Fe: the President

I fear I have not thought about this guy enough so he goes under the Maybe category. Whatever it is, he is making a lot of decisions about other things and people. Both extraverted and judging functions (Te and Fe) do that. Which one he embodies more depends on whether he’s more motivated and attuned to tangible things, efficiency, and cost, or people and their desires. I see a strong case for the latter (Fe) as he spends a lot of time apologizing to others, trying to make things right. Of course, he’s different from Diplomat in that he’s thrust into a role where he has to make a lot of decisions on behalf of others and not just mediate. It’s just that both seem very other-people-conscious in their actions.

Te (extraverted thinking): the Biologist

In any case, I think the more convincing example of extraverted thinking is the Biologist. A lot of this is fanon interpretation, but she’s typically the one who takes a lot of action, if something is discussed she’s the one who confirms and approves it. Te is a lot of logic, making decisions based off what’s most effective, what’s most optimal for everyone. It’s certainly not that they don’t care about feelings and other people, they do! - but their strengths lie in the technical decisions.

Ti (introverted thinking): the Chemist

Oh it’s he who I relate to too much for my own good, of course I had to pinpoint him as the type closest to mine. Like the Chemist, Ti introspects a lot, but more of in a detached manner. They like facts, internal logic and consistency, hence the stereotype of many of them being drawn to the sciences. That’s how I see Chemist. He NEEDS to get this formula right, he’s obsessed with Liquid Eternity and the objective, rational solution to immortality. He spends a lot of time just talking to himself, wrestling with survivor’s guilt, wondering if he’ll ever find peace, eventually just giving it up and “letting go”. It holds up - as much as Ti likes to introspect, Ti also wants everything to fit in its logical, make-sense-able place. What does one do with a big unanswerable feeling like guilt or shame? It’s uncomfortable and sticky and irrational - in unhealthy cases like the Chemist lol, just toss it out I guess.

Ne (extraverted intuition): TH-1

But he’s an android. How am I psychoanalyzing a robot by human measures.

So intuition is all about connecting dots, picking up information that’s not already there, and it’s a perceiving function because it’s taking all that information in. Combined with extraversion, it’s outward oriented, so all about possibilities and what could be. These types also have an affinity for humor and the unconventional because those are things that are just more out there.

And yeah, TH-1 is kind of cheating, he’s a robot. But he has character of his own. He runs through all the scenarios, wired to “think” miles ahead of everyone else and scout out possibilities of survival and such. I don’t know though, there isn’t much to say beyond that, except what we know of his personality says Ne to me. And once he’s exhausted all the possibilities, when there’s no more information left to gather and synthesize, he needs a new purpose.

Ni (introverted intuition): the Prophet

Intuition. Connecting dots, information that’s there. So. Prophecy. Honestly I don’t even have a satisfactory definition of Ni. Like how do you turn a function that’s already so vague and forecasting even further inward? Look I know I just went off about “everyone uses every function, they’re necessary for doing human things”. I guess this is more about forecasting what’s going to happen next based on past events, probably something of gut feelings and subconscious rumination.

With the Prophet it’s a bit easier because he does have the plot device of Literally Having Visions, he is seeing and perceiving things that aren’t apparently there from within his own mind. Within the plot, he is the Starblade’s sense of Ni since he’s the one who goes “hey I thought about this a lot, this might and probably will happen”.

Se (extraverted sensing): the Captain

Ah. The Captain. Our beloved. Literally in what universe is he not a hyperactive and attention seeking little achiever? This seems to be the one characterization for him all across the board, and he is so so distinct and beloved. I mean it’s probably that he’s played by Tobias Sammet but whatever.

This function’s all about taking in your external senses, like what’s happening at the moment, as well as what your body is doing and muscle memory, so often skills like sports or crafts. I feel like this describes our Captain quite well. He’s flashy and flamboyant because external stimuli are fun and cool, he’s constantly achieving for the thrill of doing and also for the hell of it. He probably flies spacecraft for fun, something that involves a lot of taking in a lot of information and reacting to it at once. Makes him a good captain though, he’s a silly goober, but he can take in a lot at once and react decisively to it.

Maybe Se: the Opposition Leader. Actually probably not now that I think about it

I don’t know. OL is the other similarly active and reactionary character, as well as “OL is probably feral and very street-smart” characterizations that make him fit here well. Outspoken and far too aware of everything. But I raise you. Introverted thinking (Ti).

Our other Ti guy was Chemist, and Chemist and OL don’t seem that similar. Chemist’s penchant for logic and internal consistency leads him to Liquid Eternity. On the other hand OL sees the flaws and inconsistencies in others’ plans and the world at large, so he’s quick to criticize and point out what he immediately sees as not lining up, he needs to make it right. “But he’s far too outspoken to be introverted, what about that” (oh yeah having an introverted dominant function means introverted personality type in general, don’t know why that didn’t come up earlier). Fair, but social and outspoken extraverts do very much exist. They just need an internally motivating reason to do so.

Si (introverted sensing): the Historian

And finally, introverted sensing is the one that reflects most on the past and what was. Which is quite literally does, while he narrates, he carefully documents the details and past happenings. I don’t know what else to say here. Historian on the Starblade is just a prime example of this. Often associated with nostalgia and tradition (things past, etcetera) and processing new information in the background to get familiar with it, so characterizing Historian as fairly reserved and nostalgic would fit too.

For what it’s worth my personal headcanon is the Preacher is ISFJ, so also Si-dominant, I however have no backing behind this and should actually think about it.

There’s all the characters. Why did I write all this? If you’ll excuse me getting lost in jargon and definitions and blorbodumping, it’s that the characters of the Source fit the eight “basic” functions shockingly well. I know Arjen didn’t intend this, I know I’m overthinking, but it’s fascinating. They balance each other out, together as a team, they’re, well. Functional. As a team, they have decision-makers, people who reflect and help them move on, people attuned to emotion, people attuned to what could be and more. Of course they all have different personalities, but alll of them serve a necessary role, or else they’d probably fall into disrepair.

I'm sure there's better ways I could have explained my thought process here. This turned into full-on rambling, I don't know if any of this makes sense to anyone else. Maybe I'll rewrite this another day? Who knows

#looking thinking reading respectfully I love this #I love the source I love people putting so much careful thought into these characters after years of only having that for myself #gonna listen to it tomorrow on my full Ayreon discography run #good timing #ayreon #the source #media analysis #arjen anthony lucassen

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