ISTJ, the Inspector, the Sentinel, the Trustee
If Dom Cobb is the director, then Arthur is the Assistant Director, or maybe the Line Producer. If you’ve ever been on a real movie set, you might be surprised to see that it’s less often the Director who’s barking orders than it is the A.D. They’re the one carrying the clipboard with the day’s schedule on it, making sure everyone is exactly where they need to be when they need to be there, relaying the director’s orders to the rest of the crew, and tapping their watches when things go overtime (the Line Producer also worries about the schedule, because they’re keeping track of the budget).
Basically, the director is the big visionary, and the Assistant Director brings the vision to reality. Without Arthur, most of Cobb’s schemes would probably stall out in the early planning stages. Arthur brings the dependability, practicality, and straight-forwardness of the ISTJ to the ever-changing dreamworld.
Dominant Function: Introverted Sensing (Si), “Relive the Experience”
Arthur grounds Cobb’s recklessness and tends to the details of his crazy plans. He’s skeptical of the Inception plan because “that worked so good [last time]!” Practical and cautious, he likes to have all the necessary information he needs before taking action. His thoroughness has served him well, making him seasoned and experienced, so that he goes about his work with practiced professionalism. When he misses the information about Robert Fischer having extraction defense training, he takes it as a personal failure to do his job.
Auxiliary Function: Extraverted Thinking (Te), “Organize the Experience”
As the Point Man, Arthur executes and implements Cobb’s ideas. He dislikes mistakes and oversights, and chews out their first Architect when he gets the carpet wrong. Later, he reams Dom for not telling them they could all die for real on the Inception job. When Cobb is away, Arthur takes Ariadne under wing and explains more of the practical rules of dream-sharing in order to prepare her for the job. Continue reading
Heroes & Villains of MBTI 