Guest Post by Arthur, ENTP

A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin

Dominant Introverted Intuition (Ni): Doran’s political career is largely characterized by two components: precaution and long-term planning. Those two characteristics are key to understanding his political actions. His Ni is especially easy to spot if you look at his goal of restoring the Targaryen dynasty to the Iron Throne. He plots over decades and contacts various magisters in Essos, as well as Willem Darry, then protector of Viserys and Daenerys, with whom he made a deal to marry Arianne when Viserys is ready to claim the rulership. So over decades, his political goals remained unchanged, them being revenge on the Lannisters and restoring Viserys III, and later Daenerys to the throne.

Auxiliary Extroverted Thinking (Te): At first sight, Doran doesn´t look like a Te dom/aux at all. His physical condition, polite manners as well as the thoughts and opinions of the POVs in Dorne seem to indicate not only physical but also mental weakness. If you start to look deeper, you will quickly spot that the opposite is true. After his departure to the Water Gardens, he left a functioning governance system behind, with instructions on what to do; when his stubborn daughter fled to the Reach in order to marry kind and intelligent, but physically handicapped Willas Tyrell, he sent his brother Oberyn to catch her and bring her back, which leads us to the most obvious display of his Te: his control over the red Viper. You have to imagine Oberyn, infamous for not respecting anyone´s save his brother´s authority. The picture of a guy in his fifties, sitting in a wheelchair, giving orders to such a man as his brother is almost comical, but it clearly shows the effect of his Te.

Tertiary Introverted Feeling (Fi): Doran´s ethical considerations are often unaware of the views and opinions of the people around him. For example, he sends his eldest son, Quentin to Ironwood against the will of his wife, or he acts very coldly and dismissively towards his daughter and heir Arianne. This, and his reluctance to take part in large societal events, preferring to stay at the Water Gardens, shows his Fi.

Inferior Extroverted Sensing (Se): As a young man Doran travelled through the free cities, enjoying himself and meeting Mellario of Norvos, who became his wife out of love which was extremely uncommon for a Westerosi nobleman, but he did it because it felt right(Fi) and didn´t care about the possible consequences(Se). His favourite place is the Water Gardens purely because it is physically pleasing to be there.