Guest Post by Andrew, ENTJ

Pokémon Anime Franchise

Introverted Feeling (Fi): More than anything, Dawn feels the need to stay true to herself.  She cares little for what others tell her to do, always brushing off her mother’s words of caution with a cheerful “No need to worry!”  Dawn can take minor slights personally; when Paul doesn’t remember her when they cross paths for the second time, she is highly insulted.  It can take time for Dawn to warm up to people (especially her rivals and the crass Paul), but once she understands them and gets to know them better, she will hear them out when they voice opinions contrary to her own, and will be more gentle in her criticisms of them.  However, she immediately befriends Ash and Brock, whose morals align closely with her own, upon meeting them.

Extroverted Intuition (Ne): As a Pokemon coordinator, Dawn doesn’t set clear long-term objectives, but she never misses an opportunity to add a flashy new move or combination to her repertoire.  In contests, she has an innovative nature that proves to be a double-edged sword; on the one hand, she can think up combinations consisting of “incompatible” moves, or immediately come up with bizarre but workable ways to salvage contest battles that are running against her, but on the other, she can have her Pokemon overdo their moves, not knowing where to stop with her chosen art form.  Dawn likes the novelty of having a Poketch (a watch-like, multipurpose electronic device), and will always download the latest apps for it as they are released.

Introverted Sensing (Si): In following her chosen career path, Dawn is also following in the footsteps of her mother, a former top coordinator.  While traveling with Ash, she spends a great deal of time thinking about to her mother’s achievements, and she gladly takes on the opportunity to compete against her mother’s former rival.  Out of all her own rivals, Dawn is most friendly with Kenny, an acquaintance of hers since her early childhood.  Dawn has a fear of the electric Pokemon Plusle and Minun due to a traumatic experience she had with them in kindergarten.

Extroverted Thinking (Te): Although Dawn does not like compromising her performing style, she can make the necessary changes to fix parts of it that are not working (such as the Ne-driven overkill of her Pokemon’s moves).  Although she can give orders to her Pokemon, she has great trouble bringing the disobedient ones to heel.  It can often take a lot to motivate Dawn to work on her own improvement; it takes a string of bad contest results for her to fix the flaws in her performances, but she does fix them in the end.

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Author’s Note: Dawn is sometimes stereotyped as ESFP on account of her impulsive overconfidence, her love of performing, and the painstaking attention she pays to her appearance (especially her hair).  However, this proves a poor basis for pronouncing Dawn as an Se-dom: she is not an adrenaline junkie, and in her daily life (when not participating in a contest), she is content with not being the center of attention.  Her alleged Se traits can be explained as follows: her high confidence in herself is a product of her Fi; her love of performing is inherited from her mother (and is therefore an Si trait); and her obsession with her looks is linked to her jarring past experience with Plusle and Minun (and is thus another Si trait).