Guest Post by Rory, INTJ

Marvel Universe

Dominant Introverted Thinking (Ti): It’s easy to see that Clint has a different way of thinking from the start of Marvel’s The Avengers. In a room full of very smart, highly trained, literally “the best in the world” scientists, Barton is the only one to think about the Tesseract (and the portal it created) as a door. Seconds before Loki bursts forth into the room, while scientists have been focusing on the Tesseract for a week, Barton, comparatively a simple soldier, is able to rightly suggest that someone is messing with it from the other side. This is because he relies on his own ideas and what makes sense to him. Actual evidence has no importance. He is also known for sitting in high places, getting a broader view, because he feels he sees things from far away. Few people share this notion, but it does seem to work for our purple-wearing archer.

Auxiliary Extroverted Sensing (Se): Starting with Thor, we can see Barton lives in the moment. His initial mission is to take out the intruder (Thor), but while watching the fight, he finds himself rooting for Thor because he’s stronger and taking out soldiers left and right. If you watch his fighting throughout four film appearances, his fighting is more adaptive than routine. He takes on his environment for what it is and then fights accordingly, even willing to turn on allies, despite past shared experiences, if he believes it is the right thing to do. Furthermore, he’ll even turn on new allies to take a deal saving himself. Experience, memories, and shared life have little to do with Barton’s decision-making process.

Tertiary Introverted Intuition (Ni): Remember that scene in Avengers 2: Age of Ultron where Barton is revealed as having a family? Okay. Remember what he and his wife were talking about? And then he and Natasha discussed it later in the movie. House renovations. In those moments, Clint is talking about redoing kitchens, finishing decks, and a myriad of home improvement projects. He’ll talk about the next one before the first is completed, already considering them finished. These are long-term goals that Barton can already envision completed. His focus also seems fairly limited. This is part of why he was able to see the Tesseract the way he was – he saw it for what it was then all the potential surrounding it. In the big battle of Avengers 2, he’s able to pull Scarlet Witch out of the heat and tell her to basically get her head out of the game or get out of the way because she’s really hurting herself and the team’s effort with her lack of focus, fear, and inability to separate her emotions from the moment at hand. And if you watch him, all his jobs, secrecy, and position at SHIELD are for his family and keeping them protected. All else is abandoned and deals are made for him.

Inferior Extroverted Feeling (Fe): Clint is emotionally intuitive by nature. He can read Natasha easily, which is why their friendship works. He’s able to see Scarlet Witch as a scared little girl in the previously mentioned scene and give her an out so she won’t have to fight if she can’t. In Civil War, he chooses to stay with the group bent on keeping their life the same, even if that means turning on his best friend because that’s what they’ve always stood for. And let’s not forget that he’s successful at keeping a happy relationship with a pregnant wife and kids despite being at SHIELD’s beck and call; this would be less successful if Barton were Fi.