MBTI Type: ENFJ

In the opening scene of the film, Bane convinces one of his League to remain behind because “they expect to find one of US in the wreckage.” His misguided zeal for anarchy comes from a place of desiring to create a world in which the underprivileged and marginalized rise up and take power from the upper class – to set off a chain reaction of class warfare and use it to his own purposes. And, he’s exceptionally good at rallying the crowd to his side and creating chaos through fear, because he knows what to do and say that cause others to fear the consequences of their disobedience. One example? Introducing them to the only person who can diffuse the reactor, and then snapping his neck to show them the futility of escape. His ideology makes sense to him, and he operates off it, in typical low Ti fashion, even though it accomplishes nothing in the outer world except a city tearing itself apart. Most of what comes out of Bane’s mouth is abstractions, from his pep talks laced with ideological statements to his speech to Bruce about how he cannot belong to the darkness, because it belongs to Bane! “You think the darkness is your ally? But you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man, by then to me it was only blinding. The shadows betray you, because they belong to me!” “It doesn’t matter who we are. What matters is our plan.” “Victory has defeated you.” “Theatricality and deception, powerful agents to the uninitiated, but we are initiated, aren’t we, Bruce? Members of the League of Shadows… and you betrayed us!” He is physically imposing and opportunistic with his tert-Se, but always operating beneath a larger plan – once he lures Bruce into his hideout, he beats and “breaks” him (“I did not know what would break first, your spirit or your body!”). He can be brutish and violent, engaging in hand to hand combat and enjoying the hands-on nature of his killings.

Enneagram: 8w9 sx/so

Bane saw a child who needed him, and appointed himself her protector, in the true fashion of an 8. He convinced the other prisoners of her being their “hope” in survival. He protects her bodily, and is beaten almost to death in the pit after she escapes. But that’s the extent of the good side of his 8 – the protector is also the aggressor, able and willing to dominate others. Control them. Terrorize them. He tells one man not to be “afraid, because the fear comes later.” Bane endures an incredible amount of pain without breaking, and isn’t afraid to inflict it on others. His 9 wing is withdrawn, using quiet force and leadership to get things done. He is doing this all for the love of a woman, who loves him in return (his 8 integrating into 2).