ENFP: Malcolm Reynolds, “Firefly”

The Champion, The Energizer, The Discoverer

Oh, boy.

I’m gonna catch a lot of gou shi for this one.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds is a mercurial character, much like the writer who created him. Pinning down his exact personality type is extraordinarily tough. I usually find him typed as an NT, because people see him as a problem-solving scoundrel out for his own profit who occasionally struggles with his conscience.

Mostly, Mal pops up as an ENTP all over the place. Like here, here, and here. I think a lot of my fellow geeks love that one of our favorite heroes could be an ENTP spaceship captain.

I’m going to disagree with them.

Mal presents himself—and his creator Joss Whedon presents him—as an antihero. A Han Solo type. A bizarro Captain Kirk. He’s the one who rebels against the Federation and their utopian ideals and sets off on his own to be a space pirate. With a heart of gold, of course.

He’s really a good guy. Well, maybe he’s just all right.

But just because you rebel against the ideals of utopia doesn’t mean you don’t have ideals yourself. Mal lives like a rogue, but that’s not how he started. As Mal once says in jest, “You can’t open the book of my life and jump in the middle. Like woman, I am a mystery.”

Dominant Function, (Ne) Extraverted Intuition: “Conceptualize from the Experience”

Mal hungers for open skies and boundless possibilities. In our earliest glimpses of him (in flashbacks from “The Message”) he’s carefree and careless, despite fighting a war. He takes up the cause of the Independents because it jives with his Ne need for freedom (and also his Fi ideals). He’s adaptable and resourceful, at times playful, and thrives on the possibilities found outside the borders of the Alliance.

His loss at the Battle of Serenity hardens him, pushing Mal down into his more practical Te, but he’s still out there looking for the next shiny adventure.

The moment he lays eyes on the Serenity, Mal starts dreaming. His second-in-command is skeptical, but Mal encourages Zoë to see what the ship could be, not what she is. At the end of the original pilot episode, after all the trouble they’ve been through, Mal’s just happy to be, “Still flying.”

Mal tries to be gruff and grim, but there are times when he comes off as downright poetic. He’s clearly an inspiring leader to the soldiers under his command, and he’s virtually a fountain of creative metaphors and witticisms. And yes, he’s read a poem, don’t faint.

ENTP: Syndrome, “The Incredibles”

The Inventor, The Trickster, The Debater

Sometimes when you look at a really cool villain too close, they’re kinda sad. Syndrome’s lots of fun and has great comic moments and memorable quotes, but dang it if he isn’t an emotionally damaged dude. I spent the most space on his profile examining his unhealthy tertiary function—his Extraverted Feeling—from which most of his villainy spawns. That, and a death scene that prompted Pixar’s first PG rating, add a touch of tragedy to this otherwise upbeat, carefree bad guy.

Dominant Function: (Ne), Extraverted Intuition, “Conceptualize the Experience”

Little Buddy Pine is just bursting with great ideas. He’s got a million gadgets, and big dreams for being a superhero sidekick. He’s excited to show off his inventions to his hero Mr. Incredible, and rattles on at a mile-a-minute.

As a grown-up, Syndrome still has big ideas, and still loves talking about them. With very little prodding from Mr. Incredible, he gets caught up “monologuing” about his awesome plans. He geeks out over his robots, even when they’re creating carnage, because they’re just so cool.

Syndrome even gets a kick out of the creative ways Mr. Incredible beats his robots and probes. Sure, they’re enemies now, but genius is genius.

ENFP: Unikitty, “The LEGO Movie”

The Champion, The Energizer, The Discoverer

The LEGO Movie is all about championing the freedom of our imagination, and Unikitty embodies the imagination unleashed. She wasn’t even an official LEGO figure before the movie was released—she’s just a bunch of brightly-colored building blocks stuck together with a face on the front. And a horn.

And a whole lot of energy.

Dominant Function, (Ne) Extraverted Intuition: “Conceptualize from the Experience”

Unikitty leads Cloud Cuckoo Land with a kind of cheerful anarchy. “There are no rules…no government, no baby sitters, no bedtimes…!” Anything is allowed, and the weirder and wilder, the better. And there’s “no consistency!”

Unikitty’s very existence is an imaginative squishing of two super-cool creatures together to create a brand new, super-cooler creature. She’s playful and adaptable and always jumping to the next idea. When Emmet and the Master Builders invade Lord Business’ tower, she improvises her way through a fake business meeting, imitating generalized stereotypes of a business-person long enough to distract the bad guys.

ENFP: Corky St. Clair, “Waiting For Guffman”

The Champion, The Energizer, The Discoverer

Corky is the leader of a ragtag group of quirky characters from one of my favorite movies of all time. I’d planned to do a series about the whole lot of them, but like many of our favorite funny characters, once you scrape away at the surface, they’re actually kinda sad and pathetic. We can love them and laugh at them cathartically, but writing about them turned into a bummer.

(Also, the movie’s only 83 minutes long, so there’s not a lot of material to work with.)

Corky, however, storms into the lives of the residents of Blaine, Missouri, and injects them with excitement and meaning for a short, brilliant night in the spotlight. He is everything stereotypical of an ENFP, but in all kinds of lovable ways. Also, he’s the first for-real ENFP in my collection at Heroes and Villains.

Everybody dance!

Dominant Function, (Ne) Extraverted Intuition: “Conceptualize from the Experience”

Corky’s full of ideas, and gets energized when given free rein to work his creative magic on Blaine’s 150th anniversary show. Corky takes moments from Blaine’s history and spins them into original musical numbers (which are actually quite good) and imaginative set pieces. When he learns that prestigious talent agent Mort Guffman is coming to see the show, he dreams even bigger, and gets the whole cast excited about the possibility of taking Red, White, and Blaine to Broadway.

That his cast is mostly a bunch of mediocre, delusional squares doesn’t deter Corky a bit. He sees potential and wonder in every person, and lavishes them with encouragement. Corky inspires everyone he meets, except for the stuffy conductor who’s used to running shows his way.

Later, after the show does not go to Broadway, Corky’s the only person from the cast to land on his feet. Most of them are back where they started, or spinning their wheels as movie extras or retirement home entertainers. Corky’s running a showbiz-souvenir shop in New York, just as excited about it as he is about every venture he undertakes.

ENTP & ESTP: Eames and Yusuf, “Inception”

Eames and Yusuf don’t get as much screen time or character development as the rest of the team (which is to say, very little in a movie that already treats most of its characters as flat archetypes anyway). They’re a little harder to type in MBTI, but they’re quite easy to type as film crew members. With his multiple disguises, Eames is the Actor; and Yusuf, with his potions that enhance the effects of the dreamworld, is the Special Effects guy.

They also provide a nice contrast between two types that I often have trouble distinguishing. ENTPs and ESTPs have very similar function stacks. Both can be quick, clever, adaptable, often impulsive, and not given to think things through. One leads with the concept-driven Extraverted Intuition (Ne), and one leads with the experience-driven Extraverted Sensing (Se). The trick is to figure out which is which.

Eames, ENTP (Ne + Ti + Fe + Si)

Eames definitely leads with Ne, as seen when he tells Arthur, “You musn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling,” before whipping out a grenade launcher to fire at their enemies. And of course, he’s a skilled Actor who adapts other people’s mannerisms and personalities to disguise himself in the dreamworld. He also brainstorms with fellow ENTP Cobb during the planning phase, tossing ideas around until they arrive at the one they need. You’ll often see the Actor and Director in huddles on a movie set discussing how they’re going to approach a scene, so this fits perfectly.

ENTP: Dom Cobb, “Inception”

ENTP, the Inventor, the Trickster, the Debater

Sitting at the head of the movie-making team is the Director, Dom Cobb. He’s the one with the vision, the imagination, the big idea that everyone gets on board for. He doesn’t always know exactly how he’s going to pull it off—sometimes he has only the seed of an idea, a feeling he wants to impress on people—but with the right team rallied around him, he can create amazing things.

Dominant Function: Extraverted Intuition (Ne), “Conceptualize from the Experience”

Dom Cobb is literally an idea man. The first words we hear him speak are in a monologue, all about what an idea is and how it forms in a person’s mind. He’s completely fascinated by the process of imagination and conceptualization, and is drawn to the endless creative possibilities his work provides him.

Cobb’s whole line of work involves digging information out of other people’s minds by interpreting symbols and metaphors in their dreamworlds. He creates representations of important real-life things, people, and concepts in order to build those dreamworlds, an almost-real facsimile of waking life. In the case of an Inception, he implants an idea by finding a way to inspire it in his subject.

“We need to translate [a business strategy] into an emotional concept.” This is the entire goal of the mission that Cobb and his crew take on. They need their subject to perform a specific action when he wakes, and they have to find a way to inspire that action through the symbolism of the dreamworld, to form a conscious action out of a subconscious feeling.

In his waking life (or is it? Dun-dun-DUNNN!!), Cobb is quick on the draw mentally, adaptable to new situations, and always has a new idea or improvised plan to survive.

ENTP: Harry Mudd, “Star Trek: The Original Series”

Harcourt Fenton Mudd lands amongst the earnest crew of the Enterprise in a burst of fun and mischief. He’s less a villain and more a rogue. He’s also the only character outside of members of the crew who appears in more than one episode. On a show not that concerned with continuity or serial storylines, it takes quite a character to make a big enough impression to warrant a return visit.

Dominant Function: Extraverted Intuition (Ne), “The Hiking Trails”

 

Harry’s adaptable and hard to keep down. He always has a new idea to get himself out of a predicament and turn him a profit. He puts on a fake Irish accent when he first meets the crew and improvises a plan to get his cargo—mail-order brides—to a new destination.

Between episodes, Harry somehow escapes imprisonment, swindles a whole planet, escapes their death penalty, and finds himself on a planet full of androids. He makes the most of his situation and soon thrives as Mudd the First on the planet he names Mudd. Later, when the tables have turned, he’s more than able to play along with the Enterprise crew’s improv performance to confuse their android overlords.

Harry’s always on the move. In “I, Mudd,” he confesses to Kirk that his primary motivation for setting out into space was to escape his nagging, shrewish wife. He doesn’t like to be tied down, bores easily, and must be free to follow his own muse. He’s very much an explorer like Kirk, except he’s in it for his own gain rather than any idealistic mission.

ENTP: Peter “Starlord” Quill, “Guardians of the Galaxy”

ENTP, the Inventor, the Trickster, the Debater

What’s the difference between Se (Extraverted Sensing) and Ne (Extraverted Intuition)?

Guardians of the Galaxy is a movie with spaceships and rocket boots and explosions and alien assassins. Seems like it would need an Se in the lead. And for the record–briefly–Se experiences the physical world, while Ne engages in ideas. They’re both Perceiving functions, and the types that lead with them often tend to be archetypal rogues.

I’m an INFP, with Ne in the second (auxiliary) position, so you’d think I’d know it when I see it, but I didn’t immediately jump on ENTP as Quill’s type. I assumed he was ESTP or ESFP at first.

Maybe it’s an Intuitive thing, though, but I started to pick up on a sense of wonder in Quill. Throughout his adventures, it’s as if he realizes that he’s living in a sci-fi movie. He loves the idea of his life in outer space, and isn’t as practical about it as a Sensor would be. He’s not so much responding instantly and physically to his surroundings as he is being inspired to geek out about them.

Dominant Function: Extraverted Intuition (Ne), “Conceptualize from the Experience”

Peter Quill really wants people to call him Starlord. Aside from the fact that it was a nickname given to him by his mother, it just sounds cool. It represents his ideal identity, a legendary, bad-ass outlaw whose name inspires respect and awe.

Unfortunately, no one else gets it.

Quill spends most of the movie trying to live up to the idea of “Starlord.” Quill is able to adapt to his surroundings and brainstorm his way out of any situation. He sees adventure and possibility in every experience, using his own personal soundtrack to turn a walk across a gloomy planet into an epic quest. In the end, when he has nothing left to fight the bad guy with, he busts out into a dance-off.

Quill often uses metaphors and comparisons to describe a situation, even if others don’t understand the connection or the reference. He even imbues his Walkman with meaning, carrying it as a symbolic link to his home and his mother, and he fights to get it back when it’s taken from him. He goes years without opening the last present his mother left him, because the possibilities of what it might contain are more promising than actually opening it.

Quill uses the word “loser” to describe himself and his fellow Guardians, but he re-defines the word to give it and the Guardians a new meaning—not people who are failures, but people who have lost something in their lives.

Quill may not be as bad-ass as he wants to be, but his dominant perceiving function (Ne) allows him to remain open to the people and experiences that will ultimately bring him real meaning in life.

ENTP: Hotep & Huy, “The Prince of Egypt”

ENTP, The Inventor, The Trickster, The Debater

I once interviewed two comedy writers for a podcast, and one of them was a self-reported ENTP. The other was usually more reserved—maybe an INTP?—but when she got together with her bestie, the two women never stopped talking, joking, and brainstorming, jumping from one funny concept to the next as they inspired each other. I said very little during the interview, and our original topic was lost within the first 30 seconds or so. It was extremely difficult to find twenty minutes or so of a coherent conversation to edit into the final podcast, but the recording session itself was tons of fun. I kind of think of those two as a real-life Hotep and Huy.

Dominant Function: Ne/Extraverted Intuition, “Conceptualize from the Experience”

Hotep and Huy are never at a loss for ideas. They quickly invent a way to mimic the water turning to blood, and they turn their staffs into snakes to fight Moses’ serpent. They’re constantly adaptable and flexible in the moment, and they have a million tricks up their sleeves to impress their audience. If you pay attention in their song “Playing With the Big Boys,” they’re literally using smoke and mirrors to create their magic.

Auxiliary Function: Ti/Introverted Thinking, “Analyze the Experience”

For the ENTP, the analytical power of Ti supports the creativity of their Ne, resulting in the archetype name of “The Inventor.” We see Hotep and Huy studying and working hard to counteract the effects of the Ten Plagues. They manage to turn water into “blood,” but after that they’re left stymied.

Tertiary Function: Fe/Extraverted Thinking, “Relate to the Experience”

Hotep and Huy know how to work an audience. Despite the fact that most of what they do is a trick, they never fail to awe and wow. They also see Moses as a threat to their position, and use their power to emotionally manipulate him into cowing before them.

Inferior Function: Si/Introverted Sensing, “Relive the Experience”

I’m not entirely sure how Introverted Sensing acts in the inferior position for an ENTP, except that typically it’s supposed to mean they’re focused more on the future and novelty than on past experience (witness Captain Mal from Firefly, who has a specific scene where he talks about the fact that he never talks about his past). Hotep and Huy have a position in a long-established kingdom to maintain, and they’re also quick to point out the standard of law that requires the death penalty for Moses.

So, once again, I’ve ended up covering all four functions for a mini-profile, but Hotep and Huy are worth it, I think. The Queen and Jethro are up for mini-profiles next, and then we’ll finish the series out with Pharoah himself, Rameses.

ENTP: The Wizard, “The Wizard of Oz”

The Champion

There are two ways we can look at the characters in the land of Oz: one, as fully realized persons in their own right; and two, as personifications of the different parts of Dorothy’s personality. It really depends on whether you go with it all being a dream, or if you prefer to believe it was real. Of course, some people do go both ways.

The Wizard of Oz himself is at once an interesting, complicated character with his own backstory, and also a metaphor for Dorothy’s wild imagination and indecision. Let’s take a look.

Dominant Function – Extraverted Intuition/Ne, “What Could Be”

A mark of a strong Ne user (hi, I’m an INFP!) is the ability to BS our way through new and unfamiliar situations. The Wizard is a master at this. As he tells it, he crash-landed in Oz and was promptly named the Wizard everyone was waiting for (I’m not gonna reference the 2013 James Franco movie here, so you can just forget about that).

“Times being what they were,” the Wizard tells Dorothy and her friends, “I accepted the job.” He clearly had no options or resources, so the Wizard jumped on the new opportunity and went with it. And when we finally meet him in the flesh, he’s been going with it for a very long time, pulling the wool over the eyes of everyone in the Emerald City and in Oz with elaborate, creative deceptions.

Unfortunately, he’s been using his creativity out of fear and selfishness. He clearly has no intention of helping Dorothy and her friends—because he can’t—so he makes up a bunch of excuses and sends them on a dangerous quest to kill the Wicked Witch. Dorothy, at the start of the movie, is also caught up in her own Ne, although it’s lower down in her cognitive function stack. So it’s not her strength, and I think the Wizard’s reckless use of his own Ne-dom reflects the way that Dorothy’s ungrounded desires have led her astray.

It isn’t until Toto unmasks him that the Wizard is forced to use his quick wits to directly help others. Even then, the Wizard is kind of BS-ing it as he pulls tricks from his bag, but this time he’s making helpful connections between what Dorothy and her friends need, and creating meaning from symbols to give them confidence. He’s still kind of conning them, but for a good cause.