Myers-Briggs Headcanon
-Was all set to crack my knuckles and get some creepy porn down, but then I got caught up in a thread about Myers-Briggs personalities. After much study, I thought, "I wonder if Tomax and Xamot have definable personalities matching one of these?" Then I realized that I had made Tomax an obvious ENTJ. Xamot was more difficult to figure out, but I believe he is an ENFP. Now I might not know what I'm talking about. Watching a few Youtube videos and reading a few web pages isn't going to make me an expert, but it's all about having fun. I thought, "ALRIGHT!! I've got a reason to write about Tomax and Xamot!! YE-YEAH!!1!"
This would make sense with my head canon that Tomax is the thinker and Xamot is the doer. ENTJs have a need to be organized and are good at planning ahead, whereas ENFPs are more spontaneous and relaxed. This could explain why I see Tomax as being 'quieter' than Xamot, yet still forceful and energetic. The ENTJs tend to be the least social of the extroverted types and can even be seen as socially awkward because of how they can be brutally direct and not always in tune with other peoples feelings. When the twins make people uncomfortable and give people the creeps, it might be mostly the fault of Tomax because he gets the first word in an awful lot.
I see Xamot as being the easier to like in a corporate setting. His personality type would make him looser and more relaxed in social settings, while Tomax might come across stiffer and colder. At a company picnic, Xamot might laugh at a person's jokes for the sake of laughing, while Tomax might look at a person as if he/she is retarded, depending on if he thought the joke was funny or not, or if his mind was on something else. -Theoretically. This is assuming they didn't terrify the fuck out of everybody. Maybe a lot of people would see them as like two huge gorillas in suits, or like neanderthals...intelligent, feral, cunning, and capable of breaking a person with their bare hands. They would mostly come across as intense..intense..intense, except that one happens to be intense in an unpredictable kind of way, and the other....just solidly intense.
XAMOT AS THE DOMINANT PERSONALITY:
I had to pause and think a moment, slack jawed. I literally felt like smoke was coming out my ears as I had to figure out how an overly emotional hippie ENFP personality could prevail over an ENTJ, which coupled with Tomax's size would make him a definite alpha male BOSS personality. In fact, the few other people that I've seen interested in these characters saw Tomax as the dominant personality. One fan fiction I read gave Tomax defining qualities that didn't have to do with Xamot, but then Xamot's strongest defining quality was his devotion to keep Tomax alive and safe. Another expressed the idea that Tomax might be manipulative and take advantage of this devotion. They must have seen Xamot's self-sacrificing personality as a weakness. I don't see Xamot as being self-sacrificing, per se, more like quicker to react in the defense of his brother.
If Xamot is the dominant personality, it has to be because Tomax allows him to be because he feels he deserves to be. They probably have been through a lot of power struggles in their relationship that Xamot has won because he is...um...better at some stuff? -More charming? Maybe Xamot earned Tomax's respect when he bailed him out of dangerous situations? It has always made so much sense to me to make Xamot the dominant personality. People are individuals first; these personality types don't put exact definitions on people. This is all fantasy land; I can make them who I want. :-D I see Xamot as being a person of volatile emotions, which would make him really, really aggressive. Tomax might goad him to be an asshole, and Xamot would respond by lashing out in a furious rage, and for a second, want to just destroy him. Then he'd pause and think, I don't want to fuck up Tomax, but if it were anyone else, I totally would. Tomax would think, I like this about him....this killer instinct..
Maybe Tomax and Xamot look at each other and see someone who is exactly like them but better. Xamot might be this kind of guy with swagger who walks around feeling awesome, and Tomax expresses his devotion by playing on this because he is prideful himself, so he boosts Xamot's ego. Xamot expresses his devotion in an over powering and sometimes smothering kind of way, like I could see him saying, "I love you so much I could EAT YOUR FACE!!" *creepy psychotic glare*
WHEN PERSONALITIES CLASH:
I once joked in a fan fiction that Tomax would be working at his desk when suddenly he'd be compelled through their psychic connection to somersault across the room because of Xamot's bored tension. There'd likely be times when Tomax would get irritated at Xamot because ENFPs are easily distracted and sometimes have difficulty focusing on what they'd consider to be boring or mundane tasks. Tomax would get irritated over Xamot's squirreliness, while Xamot might think Tomax is overly serious, overly sedentary, and often focused on one task for too long period of time. Xamot might wonder how it is he's the dominant personality, yet it seems like they do an awful lot of what Tomax wants to do and not enough of what he wants to do.
Xamot wouldn't think this complaint in exactly that way. It would be more abstract. This was a point where I had to think a little. When I first decided to do this post, I thought I'd be able to crank it out all at once during 'me' time after dinner. Then it turned into some deep thinking as I went about my routines for a few days. I came to the conclusion Xamot would wonder why he can't get Tomax to ALWAYS do what he wants, since he's a motivator in this relationship. ENTJs are good at being focused, so sometimes Tomax would be able to tune Xamot out. Their psychic connection makes them always have a need to be around one another, which would frustrate Xamot to no end because ENFPs are independent, but it's not possible for Xamot to be fully independent because of their bond. I could see them getting into arguments that would cause Xamot to leave and do his own thing for a while. Sometimes he'd come back right away; other times Tomax would finally come out of what ever task he's absorbed into and go find him. Inevitably, they'd gravitate toward one another, ending up side by side wordlessly in peace.
I imagine RAH twins would be able to tune each other out better than the cult twins. One would often have a sense of the location of the other (whereas it would be always with cult twins). Tomax would be better at ignoring Xamot and focusing on himself, which is why Xamot is the more anxious of the two. Xamot might have an unconscious need to know where Tomax is at all times, whereas Tomax might not have that need as much, or he can ignore it for a time.
I'll bet it was totes Xamot's idea to install the bars on the side of the Extensive Enterprises building. ENFPs are out of the box thinkers. Tomax, being a practical ENTJ, might have accused him of being frivolous, like, "Do we really need the bars?! How often are we going to use them, srsly?". Then when they came in handy during the scene in Red Rockets Glare, Tomax would concede that, yes, they were a good idea, although later they might have wished they had some on the back of the building when they got kicked into dumpsters by two women. Maybe they weren't on that side of the building because they were less likely to be seen doing awesome flips and laughing like lunatics by the public.
THE BROTHERS OF LIGHT:
This continuity has twins with the same exact personalities except obviously fucked in the head, imho. I thought maybe cult twins might be their introverted counterparts, like INTJ and INFP, being the mystical psychics they are. Then I thought, Oooooohh no. There's no way anyone other than some cray cray extroverts could run a cult full of mesmerized disciples and put up giant statues of themselves. Introverted counterparts wouldn't be the types to get up in front of their disciples and give speeches about how everyone should respect their divine authority. They'd probably get someone else to do that and make a spectacle of how holy they are in the background. If they couldn't get anybody they liked to speak for them, then Tomax would likely do all the talking, while Xamot stood by his side in serene silence. I came up with that scenario because INTJs are natural behind the scenes leaders, but they can step up if they have to.
I've always been intrigued by the idea of the Brothers of Light, just because of how their cult is such a nightmare world, or at least my interpretation of it is. The front of their temple has twin atlases holding up a globe. When visitors enter their temple, it's like entering Tomax and Xamot's fantasy world where they are two powerful gods holding everything together. -But they are but men, and their hold on everything is so very feeble. -So many variables come into play over how their mind control fails, like when they are separated, asleep, or when a victim suffers a hard blow. That's why they have to focus their energy into the eye in the idols, so that their power can stay constant while they attend to their human needs. Do they only have to focus energy into the eye once? I wonder if the eye keeps draining them? What would happen if they actually took their faith world wide and tricked many more people into connecting with them telepathically?
The Brothers of Light are really full of themselves if they really think it's possible to hold the whole world in their hands, -or their heads- and the attempt would turn them into idols themselves. They would become trapped in their own minds, constantly focusing their energy and trying to keep track of all the people whose thoughts they've forced their wills into. It would be like spreading themselves too thin. This idea reminds me of an episode of Batman: The Animated Series where the Riddler traps Batman in a virtual fantasy world of his creation. Batman starts replicating himself and tricks Riddler into doing the same. When there are about a hundred copies of Riddler, Batman asks him how he can focus on being one hundred different people at once, while at the same time able to concentrate on keeping his world together. This blows the Riddlers mind. All of a sudden, the whole virtual world starts collapsing, and Batman is set free. When he finds Riddler, he's sitting there drooling and out of his mind. -Or I should say he was trapped in his own mind as he tried to work his way through the maze of rubble in his broken world to find the way back to reality.
I could imagine something similar happening to the Brothers of Light when they've focused their power into eyes all over the world. They'd spend most of their days in deep concentration, fed and clothed and carried around by their disciples like living statues as they spent every living breathing moment holding their world together. They'd never get to everyone. Screwing each other in their remote oasis is a kind of paradise they don't appreciate fully as they pursue their foolish ambitions. X-D
A nightmare scenario might be if Tomax and Xamot teamed up with Dr. Mindbender to siphon their powers in such a way they could permanently mind control people within twenty minutes (or however long it took in Union of the Snake. I'm not going to check). If people were permanently devoted to them, then it wouldn't be a drain on their energy. I could see Mindbender trying to trick them into forcing their wills into the minds of too many people at once, so that they would become trapped in their own minds and able to be used as figureheads by Mindbender and his cronies.
Side Note: I think Mindbender would the the dark side of an INTJ. He doesn't give a fuuuuck about anybody, only being concerned with how he can use people to benefit his experiments, like Ripcord or the twins. Since he's both a genius and a smart-mouthed prick, he would be arrogant and quick to point out the limitations of others. INTJs can be isolationists, so Mindbender would be happy to spend most of his time alone in his underground laboratory turning his bizarre ideas into living, breathing abominations. If anyone could turn his crack pot diabolical schemes into reality in the most efficient way possible, it would be someone with his personality type. I thought it was funny when he got an eye opener when he smarted off to his boss, who probably was sick of him after spending the day dealing with him. Cobra Commander threatened to feed Mindbender to his giant snake, to which Mindbender replied something like, "I'll try to speak slowly so you understand, asshole..." *gives nuts a lift* "...I know all your secrets. Without me, everyone would know your secrets, and you'd never find another scientist as brilliant and amazing as me." *sneersneersneer* That's when Cobra Commander zapped him with his cane and smashed his hand. Lets just say INTJs aren't the best with people skills.
Anyway, now on to how this relates to the personalities of Cult Twins. People with their personality types might go a little stir crazy in that setting, especially since Tomax and Xamot would have to hide their exuberance whenever they get new visitors. They depend on being able to trick people into entering their temple and becoming mesmerized, so they have to be careful not to come on too strong and intimidate people with their special abilities. That's why they put their hands together and speak in soft, soothing voices as they present proof of being able to read minds, which would unsettle anybody. They probably are able to leave the sanctuary because the eye in the temple reinforces their powers so people stay mesmerized in their absence, yet they probably don't. Disciples are too easily jarred out of the hypnosis so need constant supervision.
I think Tomax would be more likable in this setting, per my head canon. Xamot shows signs of being unstable and abusive, like when he slapped Brother Franz. When Tomax is known as being the 'kind and gentle' one, it's because he's being judged on both his benign priestly look and his ability to control himself. He could be just as big of a dickhead as Xamot, only he's not the one who gets all up in a person's face, screaming shrilly and lashing out at times. When I came up with my ideas, I was basing my character profiles on looks too. IE: Tomax the ENTJ acting cold and aloof wouldn't be seen that way. He would be like the proper mystical psychic. Xamot the ENFP trying to act like the life of the party would come across as a nutjob, like a mad prophet who goes around busting out weird shit all the time.
I almost did an outline for this in a notebook but then thought, "Ooooohh no..there's no way I'd ever finish this if I did that. I'd over think it to death." That's why I winged it over the course of a few days. I've been exhausting myself being busy all week, but in a way that I had time to think of silly stuff while I worked. Weather has still been almost non stop rainy or cloudy. I just checked the ten day report. They have got to be kidding:
The Kankakee River is almost up to the bridges, and the river has submerged bridges in Momence, which is screwed. The sheriff's department released a video showing an aerial view of flooding after Monday's rains. If one looks at 1:10, one can barely see the ripples where the dam is. The high side is level with the low side, and one can only see the top of the arches on the Station Street bridge. I've never seen it like this in all the years I've lived here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO-_Z0ibzOY
This would make sense with my head canon that Tomax is the thinker and Xamot is the doer. ENTJs have a need to be organized and are good at planning ahead, whereas ENFPs are more spontaneous and relaxed. This could explain why I see Tomax as being 'quieter' than Xamot, yet still forceful and energetic. The ENTJs tend to be the least social of the extroverted types and can even be seen as socially awkward because of how they can be brutally direct and not always in tune with other peoples feelings. When the twins make people uncomfortable and give people the creeps, it might be mostly the fault of Tomax because he gets the first word in an awful lot.
I see Xamot as being the easier to like in a corporate setting. His personality type would make him looser and more relaxed in social settings, while Tomax might come across stiffer and colder. At a company picnic, Xamot might laugh at a person's jokes for the sake of laughing, while Tomax might look at a person as if he/she is retarded, depending on if he thought the joke was funny or not, or if his mind was on something else. -Theoretically. This is assuming they didn't terrify the fuck out of everybody. Maybe a lot of people would see them as like two huge gorillas in suits, or like neanderthals...intelligent, feral, cunning, and capable of breaking a person with their bare hands. They would mostly come across as intense..intense..intense, except that one happens to be intense in an unpredictable kind of way, and the other....just solidly intense.
XAMOT AS THE DOMINANT PERSONALITY:
I had to pause and think a moment, slack jawed. I literally felt like smoke was coming out my ears as I had to figure out how an overly emotional hippie ENFP personality could prevail over an ENTJ, which coupled with Tomax's size would make him a definite alpha male BOSS personality. In fact, the few other people that I've seen interested in these characters saw Tomax as the dominant personality. One fan fiction I read gave Tomax defining qualities that didn't have to do with Xamot, but then Xamot's strongest defining quality was his devotion to keep Tomax alive and safe. Another expressed the idea that Tomax might be manipulative and take advantage of this devotion. They must have seen Xamot's self-sacrificing personality as a weakness. I don't see Xamot as being self-sacrificing, per se, more like quicker to react in the defense of his brother.
If Xamot is the dominant personality, it has to be because Tomax allows him to be because he feels he deserves to be. They probably have been through a lot of power struggles in their relationship that Xamot has won because he is...um...better at some stuff? -More charming? Maybe Xamot earned Tomax's respect when he bailed him out of dangerous situations? It has always made so much sense to me to make Xamot the dominant personality. People are individuals first; these personality types don't put exact definitions on people. This is all fantasy land; I can make them who I want. :-D I see Xamot as being a person of volatile emotions, which would make him really, really aggressive. Tomax might goad him to be an asshole, and Xamot would respond by lashing out in a furious rage, and for a second, want to just destroy him. Then he'd pause and think, I don't want to fuck up Tomax, but if it were anyone else, I totally would. Tomax would think, I like this about him....this killer instinct..
Maybe Tomax and Xamot look at each other and see someone who is exactly like them but better. Xamot might be this kind of guy with swagger who walks around feeling awesome, and Tomax expresses his devotion by playing on this because he is prideful himself, so he boosts Xamot's ego. Xamot expresses his devotion in an over powering and sometimes smothering kind of way, like I could see him saying, "I love you so much I could EAT YOUR FACE!!" *creepy psychotic glare*
WHEN PERSONALITIES CLASH:
I once joked in a fan fiction that Tomax would be working at his desk when suddenly he'd be compelled through their psychic connection to somersault across the room because of Xamot's bored tension. There'd likely be times when Tomax would get irritated at Xamot because ENFPs are easily distracted and sometimes have difficulty focusing on what they'd consider to be boring or mundane tasks. Tomax would get irritated over Xamot's squirreliness, while Xamot might think Tomax is overly serious, overly sedentary, and often focused on one task for too long period of time. Xamot might wonder how it is he's the dominant personality, yet it seems like they do an awful lot of what Tomax wants to do and not enough of what he wants to do.
Xamot wouldn't think this complaint in exactly that way. It would be more abstract. This was a point where I had to think a little. When I first decided to do this post, I thought I'd be able to crank it out all at once during 'me' time after dinner. Then it turned into some deep thinking as I went about my routines for a few days. I came to the conclusion Xamot would wonder why he can't get Tomax to ALWAYS do what he wants, since he's a motivator in this relationship. ENTJs are good at being focused, so sometimes Tomax would be able to tune Xamot out. Their psychic connection makes them always have a need to be around one another, which would frustrate Xamot to no end because ENFPs are independent, but it's not possible for Xamot to be fully independent because of their bond. I could see them getting into arguments that would cause Xamot to leave and do his own thing for a while. Sometimes he'd come back right away; other times Tomax would finally come out of what ever task he's absorbed into and go find him. Inevitably, they'd gravitate toward one another, ending up side by side wordlessly in peace.
I imagine RAH twins would be able to tune each other out better than the cult twins. One would often have a sense of the location of the other (whereas it would be always with cult twins). Tomax would be better at ignoring Xamot and focusing on himself, which is why Xamot is the more anxious of the two. Xamot might have an unconscious need to know where Tomax is at all times, whereas Tomax might not have that need as much, or he can ignore it for a time.
I'll bet it was totes Xamot's idea to install the bars on the side of the Extensive Enterprises building. ENFPs are out of the box thinkers. Tomax, being a practical ENTJ, might have accused him of being frivolous, like, "Do we really need the bars?! How often are we going to use them, srsly?". Then when they came in handy during the scene in Red Rockets Glare, Tomax would concede that, yes, they were a good idea, although later they might have wished they had some on the back of the building when they got kicked into dumpsters by two women. Maybe they weren't on that side of the building because they were less likely to be seen doing awesome flips and laughing like lunatics by the public.
THE BROTHERS OF LIGHT:
This continuity has twins with the same exact personalities except obviously fucked in the head, imho. I thought maybe cult twins might be their introverted counterparts, like INTJ and INFP, being the mystical psychics they are. Then I thought, Oooooohh no. There's no way anyone other than some cray cray extroverts could run a cult full of mesmerized disciples and put up giant statues of themselves. Introverted counterparts wouldn't be the types to get up in front of their disciples and give speeches about how everyone should respect their divine authority. They'd probably get someone else to do that and make a spectacle of how holy they are in the background. If they couldn't get anybody they liked to speak for them, then Tomax would likely do all the talking, while Xamot stood by his side in serene silence. I came up with that scenario because INTJs are natural behind the scenes leaders, but they can step up if they have to.
I've always been intrigued by the idea of the Brothers of Light, just because of how their cult is such a nightmare world, or at least my interpretation of it is. The front of their temple has twin atlases holding up a globe. When visitors enter their temple, it's like entering Tomax and Xamot's fantasy world where they are two powerful gods holding everything together. -But they are but men, and their hold on everything is so very feeble. -So many variables come into play over how their mind control fails, like when they are separated, asleep, or when a victim suffers a hard blow. That's why they have to focus their energy into the eye in the idols, so that their power can stay constant while they attend to their human needs. Do they only have to focus energy into the eye once? I wonder if the eye keeps draining them? What would happen if they actually took their faith world wide and tricked many more people into connecting with them telepathically?
The Brothers of Light are really full of themselves if they really think it's possible to hold the whole world in their hands, -or their heads- and the attempt would turn them into idols themselves. They would become trapped in their own minds, constantly focusing their energy and trying to keep track of all the people whose thoughts they've forced their wills into. It would be like spreading themselves too thin. This idea reminds me of an episode of Batman: The Animated Series where the Riddler traps Batman in a virtual fantasy world of his creation. Batman starts replicating himself and tricks Riddler into doing the same. When there are about a hundred copies of Riddler, Batman asks him how he can focus on being one hundred different people at once, while at the same time able to concentrate on keeping his world together. This blows the Riddlers mind. All of a sudden, the whole virtual world starts collapsing, and Batman is set free. When he finds Riddler, he's sitting there drooling and out of his mind. -Or I should say he was trapped in his own mind as he tried to work his way through the maze of rubble in his broken world to find the way back to reality.
I could imagine something similar happening to the Brothers of Light when they've focused their power into eyes all over the world. They'd spend most of their days in deep concentration, fed and clothed and carried around by their disciples like living statues as they spent every living breathing moment holding their world together. They'd never get to everyone. Screwing each other in their remote oasis is a kind of paradise they don't appreciate fully as they pursue their foolish ambitions. X-D
A nightmare scenario might be if Tomax and Xamot teamed up with Dr. Mindbender to siphon their powers in such a way they could permanently mind control people within twenty minutes (or however long it took in Union of the Snake. I'm not going to check). If people were permanently devoted to them, then it wouldn't be a drain on their energy. I could see Mindbender trying to trick them into forcing their wills into the minds of too many people at once, so that they would become trapped in their own minds and able to be used as figureheads by Mindbender and his cronies.
Side Note: I think Mindbender would the the dark side of an INTJ. He doesn't give a fuuuuck about anybody, only being concerned with how he can use people to benefit his experiments, like Ripcord or the twins. Since he's both a genius and a smart-mouthed prick, he would be arrogant and quick to point out the limitations of others. INTJs can be isolationists, so Mindbender would be happy to spend most of his time alone in his underground laboratory turning his bizarre ideas into living, breathing abominations. If anyone could turn his crack pot diabolical schemes into reality in the most efficient way possible, it would be someone with his personality type. I thought it was funny when he got an eye opener when he smarted off to his boss, who probably was sick of him after spending the day dealing with him. Cobra Commander threatened to feed Mindbender to his giant snake, to which Mindbender replied something like, "I'll try to speak slowly so you understand, asshole..." *gives nuts a lift* "...I know all your secrets. Without me, everyone would know your secrets, and you'd never find another scientist as brilliant and amazing as me." *sneersneersneer* That's when Cobra Commander zapped him with his cane and smashed his hand. Lets just say INTJs aren't the best with people skills.
Anyway, now on to how this relates to the personalities of Cult Twins. People with their personality types might go a little stir crazy in that setting, especially since Tomax and Xamot would have to hide their exuberance whenever they get new visitors. They depend on being able to trick people into entering their temple and becoming mesmerized, so they have to be careful not to come on too strong and intimidate people with their special abilities. That's why they put their hands together and speak in soft, soothing voices as they present proof of being able to read minds, which would unsettle anybody. They probably are able to leave the sanctuary because the eye in the temple reinforces their powers so people stay mesmerized in their absence, yet they probably don't. Disciples are too easily jarred out of the hypnosis so need constant supervision.
I think Tomax would be more likable in this setting, per my head canon. Xamot shows signs of being unstable and abusive, like when he slapped Brother Franz. When Tomax is known as being the 'kind and gentle' one, it's because he's being judged on both his benign priestly look and his ability to control himself. He could be just as big of a dickhead as Xamot, only he's not the one who gets all up in a person's face, screaming shrilly and lashing out at times. When I came up with my ideas, I was basing my character profiles on looks too. IE: Tomax the ENTJ acting cold and aloof wouldn't be seen that way. He would be like the proper mystical psychic. Xamot the ENFP trying to act like the life of the party would come across as a nutjob, like a mad prophet who goes around busting out weird shit all the time.
I almost did an outline for this in a notebook but then thought, "Ooooohh no..there's no way I'd ever finish this if I did that. I'd over think it to death." That's why I winged it over the course of a few days. I've been exhausting myself being busy all week, but in a way that I had time to think of silly stuff while I worked. Weather has still been almost non stop rainy or cloudy. I just checked the ten day report. They have got to be kidding:
The Kankakee River is almost up to the bridges, and the river has submerged bridges in Momence, which is screwed. The sheriff's department released a video showing an aerial view of flooding after Monday's rains. If one looks at 1:10, one can barely see the ripples where the dam is. The high side is level with the low side, and one can only see the top of the arches on the Station Street bridge. I've never seen it like this in all the years I've lived here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO-_Z0ibzOY