Guest post by Andrew, ENTJ

Star Wars

Extroverted Sensing (Se): Anakin shows a knack for piloting from a very young age.  Whether he’s at the controls of a podracer, a starfighter, an airspeeder, or a heavily damaged enemy battle cruiser, Anakin can dodge obstacles and dart through firefights, and fire the kill shot to boot.  He has an excellent aim whenever flying an armed vessel; he saves Obi-Wan’s life by blasting diminutive circuit-wrecking droids off his fighter in the middle of an attack run.  Anakin tends to charge into fights without thinking, and once even abandons an assigned post to rescue his captured mother.  He also has a strong taste for aesthetics, almost letting Obi-Wan die fighting a bounty hunter while he chooses just the right speeder to give chase.  Anakin notices small things about his environment which tend to make a great deal of difference; he notices a speeder of which he’d lost the trail re-emerge many feet below him, as well as Qui-Gon’s lightsaber when the Jedi Master is in disguise.  Anakin reacts quickly and effectively to sudden changes; when his podracer catches fire in the middle of a race, he stays cool, salvaging both the vehicle and the victory.

Introverted Feeling (Fi): Anakin’s values and desires often clash with the Jedi teachings, and he usually follows his own heart rather than what others tell him to do.  He marries Padme, the love of his life, in secret, even though Jedi are forbidden to marry.  He has strong personal loyalties to Padme, Obi-Wan, and Palpatine, but only insofar as their values follow his own; he even turns on Padme and Obi-Wan when he feels that they are conspiring against him.  In his love for Padme, he vows to do everything in his power to keep her alive when he has premonitions of her death.  Anakin only emotes or cries when he is alone, or in the sole presence of someone (like Padme) whom he trusts fully.  The main way he expresses his emotions is through actions: protection (he saves Padme and Obi-Wan at different times, at great risk to his life), giving a token for remembrance (a necklace for Padme that he carved himself), or helping Qui-Gon acquire much-needed ship parts with his podracing services, to name just a few.

Extroverted Thinking (Te): Anakin is good at leading, organizing, commanding, and delegating.  While prepping his podracer for a big race, Anakin supervises all his friends, rather than doing everything himself or ceding authority to Qui-Gon or some other adult.  When the Clone Wars begin, Anakin proves to be an able commander of clone troops, even if he has a tendency to misuse his command position to follow his own aims (trying to rescue Padme instead of capturing Count Dooku).  Anakin is able to draw accurate conclusions from physical evidence; Qui-Gon carries a lightsaber, so he must be a Jedi (Te-Ni).  He can also be too blunt for his own good, especially as a boy, getting on the bad side of a mean-tempered racing opponent, and showing too much impatience and frustration when first in the presence of the Jedi Council (thus endangering his future as a Jedi).

Introverted Intuition (Ni): Although Anakin lives in the moment, he does have some long-term dreams.  As a slave on Tattooine, Anakin wants nothing more than to fly away on a starship and become a Jedi (which he eventually does), and when he meets Padme, he immediately knows that he wants marry her (an aim that he realizes ten years later).  Anakin has tendencies toward paranoia which prove to be his undoing; faced with the prospect of seeing Padme die in childbirth, he becomes obsessed with saving her life, and makes it clear that he will do anything for her.  Through this, he ends up bringing about the very thing that he wished to avoid, as well as becoming a pawn for the newly enthroned Emperor Palpatine.

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Author’s Note: Due to his transformation into Darth Vader, Anakin has received many typings; I’ve come across ENTJ, INTJ, ENFP, ESTJ, ISTJ, ESTP, ISTP, and ESFP.  I chose the last one because it explains his personality extremely well both before and after he falls to the Dark Side.

While describing Anakin’s functions, I deliberately did not include anything that happened after his transformation into Darth Vader, as all these functions manifest themselves very differently afterward.  What happens to Anakin after he becomes Darth Vader is crystal clear: he falls into the grip of his lower functions.  Here’s a breakdown of how his functions change:

Se: Vader takes part in the occasional lightsaber duel or dogfight, but he is much less headstrong and reckless as he was before.  He is much more content to lead from behind than he was before.

Fi: Vader all but loses touch with his values after his fall to the dark side – that is, until he learns that Luke is his son.  Even so, he has lost faith that his morals even matter anymore, until the moment when he saves Luke from Palpatine.

Te: Vader likes giving orders and delegating responsibility much more than in the old days.  He lives to accumulate power, and aims to overthrow Palpatine so he and Luke can rule the galaxy together.

Ni: Vader thinks much further ahead than he ever did as Anakin.  For instance, he actually tests the carbon-freezing chamber on Bespin before attempting to use it to capture Luke.  He can also draw big and accurate conclusions (e.g. the location of the rebel base on Hoth) from small pieces of information (a single, aborted transmission from a probe droid).

Also, while we’re talking about Luke, Vader’s desire to have Luke rule alongside him is NOT an Si trait, as some people assume.  Vader is looking to build a FUTURE with his son, and is not trying to find some connection to his past; there is no evidence that Vader ever gives a thought to his late wife when he is trying to win Luke over.