#tchno 9w8

[enneamage]

I find it interesting how like you said the current dynamic between Phil and Tommy did start as 'well if Wil's my brother-' but progressed to the point of a genuine 'dad' slip up not long ago, with Phil embracing the family dynamic beyond its bit

Where Wilbur started and pushed it, Tommy took it very genuinely, and Phil would end up following suit, as again like you said he does have a 'fartherly' nature (and his own issues with his own father unsurprisingly)

The connecting issues between those three are their personal family life, and the sbi (aside from Techno who seemed quite secure with his family) allows them to play out roles reflecting/coping with said issues (it'd be interesting if their enneagrams lined up with the roles and to what degree family life affects your enneagram)

While there’s definitely a Trauma Reading to be done with the SBI, the good (?) news is it’s not unique to their behavior within it, so it wouldn’t isolate any of them in a harmful way. I was also thinking about how the three of them have turbulent histories that contribute to the way they behave, but their friend-quad turned out to be a net positive so sometimes things work out.

They do seem to have natures that let them enmesh a little (or a lot, depending) but that’s a trait that can exist in any type under the right circumstances. As for type-related stuff, I’ve broadly touched on some of the flavors of connection that they’re leaning into for this situation: Tommy wants his People to be stable, smart and responsive to him. Wilbur wants attention, stimulation and validation. Phil just wants to vibe with friends and is willing to extend a kind hand to do so. Techno is twinning with Phil among all this, glad to have a stable friendgroup.

The thing is, the power of SBI as a ‘family dynamic’ was reenforced about ten times as hard from the outside as it was from the inside. Found Family turned out to be a profoundly popular idea within the audience that found them, so it helped spread their popularity and perpetuate the idea further. Their reputation may have fallen out of sync with reality a bit because of this—whenever I would watch them as a unit I didn’t often see ‘serious’ family behavior beyond being very loyal to an inside joke, although the older ones would give advice to the younger ones in typical age-gap-friendship fashion.

I didn’t get super close to them as a big unit so if there are any deep cut and intense ‘family moments’ I may be out of the loop, so I’m open to hearing from people who have more practical history with them as a quad.

[enneamage]

In SBI dynamic Phil is kind of what is interesting to me. We pretty much already explored TommyxWilbur part and what they seek in this found family trope but how it works with Phil?

If we zero in on Phil, we find a guy who’s been generally known to quietly help out a lot of his streamer peers. I can’t hunt down the clip right now, but there’s a video out there of Ranboo, Tommy, and Wilbur talking about how he took the time to give them all advice + tips without saying anything. In that sense he’s a natural dadfriend, he isn’t in peoples faces or fussing over them excessively, but he’s got a helpfulness area buff.

Phil goes along with the Family Dynamic narrative because he’s got the primary Fatherly roots down with Wilbur, who is the origin of the meme. Since we’ve been talking more lately about Wilbur caretaker-ifying the people around him, returning to the topic of the SBI puts it in a bit of a new light. Phil will often be the first to say that Wilbur really pushed for the family dynamic, and sometimes I get the sense that all Phil had to do was smile and laugh and not fight it. Being Dadza has been fun for him so he won’t kick up too much of a fuss, but it wasn’t his natural idea, just a meme with legs.  

Tommy added another layer to it, turning this into a parentification pyramid scheme—If him and Wilbur are brothers, then Phil must be his dad. It’s just logic.

To Techno, a Phil is a Phil, so Phil never really had to play ‘Dad’ with him. Phil and Techno largely had their own thing going on (Nine to Nine telepathy) but they both valued the group dynamic so were content to go along within it.

[enneamage]

I was just about to send an asking wondering why there are so many 9s in that list before seeing your most recent post!

The 9s just kept going

- technoposting

While one part of my brain is trying to keep the door open for it just being chance, my best cause-and-effect guess is that streaming is kind of a flow activity, especially paired with playing video games. Nines have a bit of a 'merging' quality where they'll kind of flow into the activity they're doing or the people they're around. This is a seven-hour-Twitch-stream in a nutshell.  

This stacks on top of the fact that while they tend to be almost remarkably neutral in most areas of their life, they can get incredibly competitive in specific areas. Me and a friend have both observed that Nines are drawn to videogames for whatever reason (merging with the mechanics? Creating a safe space in life to be competitive?) and some of them are almost scarily good at them. Nines sometimes have a genius-tier skill in a certain area, and some of them can’t even fully explain how they do it. In content creation, sometimes the skill/competitiveness is in the streaming or YouTube video creation itself. As an example, Techno definitely has both of these going at once.

They may like stimulation, sometimes even intensity, so some of them seem to like having a feedback loop with an audience to make them feel accompanied without feeling like they're being barged in on or confronted. They also have a skill for bouncing back and keeping their inner peace (an 'it is what it is' attitude) most of the time, which is useful for surviving the online sphere.

On top of that, Nines integrate to behave a little bit more like Threes when they’re coming into themselves and moving past certain habits of self-forgetting, since Three is their growth point. When they’re moving in this direction, they like to be praised for their effectiveness, finally getting the spotlight as an individual rather than merging into the background. You’ve probably noticed how Techno’s bragging might come off as grating in theory, but in vibe he almost never feels like he’s seriously demanding more than he’s earned and he still has a kind of peaceful, slightly sleepy aura to him. This is the balance that some Nines strike, taking center stage while also keeping their ‘peacemaker’ center.

People can send in more specific asks about the exceptions to this because this is more of a general trend than a rule.

[enneamage]

Hi I’m new here, I’ve had fun reading through your analyses! Was wondering if you’d be willing to share a bit more insight on Techno and why you type him as a 9w8. I know you mentioned flow activities being more of a 9 thing, just curious if there’s any other info crumbs that lead you to that typing. I see a lot of people type him as a 5 due to how he was private and intellectual, but I know these aren’t specific to 5s

Nines in general can be hard to sift out from other types definitely, but with Five it’s extra sticky because of the ‘smart and thoughtful’ part. I try to do my part to separate out the association (in every way I can #oftenwrong) and one of the big ones I turn to is baseline agreeableness, which Fives tend to have less of. On average Fives are much more likely to lead with a ‘no’ or a denial if they don’t want to do something, while Nines tend to go along and get roped into things a bit more. Techno had boundaries, but was overall very agreeable to his friends and liked to go along with them when he could. 

Another thing is Three integration, where self-actualisation looked like putting a saddle on that flow-activity streak and taking it to the top with flare and intentionality. Techno being on that grind and putting his all into taking his unlikely shot (and credit for that shot) was a form of Three integration coming out, and I’m very glad he got to see the massive success that he did when things were at their peak. Fives don’t necessarily grow in that direction as much as they get more nervy with being engaged and wanting things in the irl world, since that's more what they feel cut off from. This gets a bit muddy with Techno’s Eight wing giving him a bit of that flavor, but it wasn’t his arc in the same way. 

Techno was honestly a vibes-call first and foremost, which is probably a frustrating answer but when you know what to look for it’s the most readily available thing about him. He walked a very interesting line of ultimately being very accepting and energetically undemanding, even when he was doing self-promo like crazy. Fives can also feel very self-contained in the name of keeping independence from their surroundings, but they often lack the capacity to merge and really sync up energetically with a wide range of different people like a Nine can without even thinking about it. Some Nines have a particular ‘welcoming without being imposing’ vibe, which a lot of people like. I think he had a distinct balance of these things that lands him in 9w8 territory.

[enneamage]

can you explain why 9w8 instead of 5w6 for technoblade? I dont see his 8 wing.

I don’t think that Techno’s Eight wing was very heavy, but he’s got the ‘don’t bother me and I won’t bother you (unless it’s a video game then it’s war)’ bear-like stance that I associate with the Eight wing. Techno reads as a core Nine to me, with some Three integration for his boosted ambition and ability to work the spotlight. An Eight wing doesn’t have to be angry, but I tell it from the One wing by the sleepy-rounded vibe and the mild defensive stance.

A 5w6 would be wired a bit differently. It’s hard to describe where the differences would lie in a solid way because I’m comparing abstract stereotypes—people tend to reach for Five when someone comes off as analytical or intelligent and reserved, but there’s a bit more to it than that. Fives are a bit less likely to be into flow activities, which are a bigger part of how Nines think and function. Fives tend to be a bit lower on agreeableness—not actively looking for a fight but stubborn and much less likely to go along to get along, which is part of what gives Nine the ‘peacemaker’ nickname in some writings.

[enneamage]

I dont remember if you answered this elsewhere or if its kind of an impossible question to answer, but do you think sbi dynamics would have/could have existed as intensely as it does now if the members had a different enneagram personality type? What changes do you think could also produce what we see today? Like if tommy was a 4 or wilbur was a 6

Usually the idea of type-swapping people changes too much about them to keep them being the same people, but working within the broad strokes of this idea I think I can say something useful-ish. I think if I were to make the ‘roles’ of the SBI into archetype slots I would list them off as follows:

Eldest helper friend, someone with a soothing nature who is also very skilled.

The narrative center of the group, swaps between child-friend and leader in bursts, initiates situations / the visionary.

Also skilled and slightly more independent figure, equal parts kind & ambitious.

Supportive ambivert with both youthful and older-than-given-age energy. Also initiator of situations.

I can imagine a healthy handful of types and subtypes that could fit into those categories, so nature may produce some SBI-alikes in the future. A 9-9-6-3 dynamic isn’t necessarily written in the stars so it’s not essential to them turning out the way they did, it’s much more who they happen to be as unique individuals. Still, I wouldn’t be able to separate their type from who they are.

In general, found family friend quads come in all shapes and sizes and as long as you have one parent-friend a pseudo-family may occur. Time, exposure and shared experiences knit them pretty closely as well, so it was also situational. While they were already close by the pandemic, quarantine basically locked them in a discord call and threw a Tommy in for good measure. On top of everything else, there’s an added baseline of ‘I love you because you are there.’

[enneamage]

I got a link to your page yesterday and have been BINGING your posts. The incredible amount of insight you have, coupled with your ability to convey it so successfully has me audibly saying YES YES YES to so many of the points you make. If I have one ask, it would be for you to apply the Crimeboys breakdown treatment to the TwinsDuo. How this 9w8 was able to have the effect he did on this 3w4 is interesting to me considering that no other 9w8 in his life seems to.

ANON thank you so much it means a lot ;v;.

Ah yes ‘Twinsduo’, one of the original victims of Wilbur’s family-zoning. I can look at them together, but truth be told it would be a lot shorter because my grasp on what Techno thought of Wilbur is loose at best. He’s a bit less driven by specific functions and mechanics than consistent underlying principles and vibes. "I want to make friends. Wilbur is a friend. I will accept him for who he is even when he says some out of pocket shit because it's funny sometimes."

He was steadfast but he didn't bend to Wilbur’s fantasies beyond what was necessary to be friends with him. I’ve talked a bit before how Wilbur lines his nest with Nines so he definitely has a soft spot for them, but Techno might have been right on the line between acceptance and the chase. I think Techno and Phil shared similar energy for Wilbur, the difference being that Phil accepted his role as dad-friend while Techno let the brothers thing slide off of him a bit more. He hung out with him, participated in Wilbur’s projects and had fun alongside him while holding his own space. I didn’t spend too much time with them alone, so I don’t know how Baby Wilbur got with him, but I don’t think things ever went full caregiver for long.

Techno was incredibly fucking talented. There was a lot for Wilbur to admire in Techno, and they bonded during their Minecraft Monday days. Outside of that, they spent time playing the same games and hanging out together; Techno was a great ally and a welcoming companion. They both had ambitious streaks and probably urged each other along in their own goals—the Nine growth point is Three, and Techno occupied it well.

Again, I didn’t spend much time with them as a pair so if they had nuances or quirks beyond this I may be missing massive chunks, but my general sense is they spent a lot of time together and Wilbur admired Techno enormously.