Tag / Idris Elba

by Charity

Paid Request: The Suicide Squad: Robert DuBois / Bloodsport [ISTP 8w9]

Function Order: Ti-Se-Ni-Fe

Bloodsport wound up in prison because he accepts money for killing people, a lucrative business that caused him to set out after Superman with a Kryptonite bullet. He thinks his way through problems in search of solutions that won’t get himself killed, but is also amoral in his logical makeup. When his daughter tells him she got arrested for stealing, Bloodsport is more annoyed that she was so stupid as to get caught (he tells her next time to take a buddy along who can play lookout and warn her, so she can get away) and because she got caught stealing something “stupid” (getting caught is dumb, getting caught stealing something that lame is even dumber) than he considers it a “bad” or “wrong” thing to do. He is often straightforward and doesn’t mince his words, calling out others for idiotic statements, but also willing to admit when they are right (even if it annoys him). Bloodsport adapts quickly to his environment and makes decisions in the spur of the moment; he doesn’t hesitate to blast and fight his way through intense situations, and often makes impulsive decisions without thinking them through (such as when he kills people in the village, only to find out they were the Resistance and useful to them / friends with someone who saved one of the squad’s life). He is quick to scale buildings and confidently leads the squad, although he tells the woman who blackmails him into it at first that he is NOT a leader. It proves true, since he keeps to himself and does his own thing within the group more than he tries to control anyone around him. Bloodsport is quick to catch on to things (he realizes his superior is going to use his daughter against him, and is angry about that), but doesn’t appear to ponder beyond what lies on the surface. He has no morals or scruples, but will lose his temper and scream at people when provoked, escalating into a shouting match with his own daughter rather than knowing she needs comfort and reassurances. Emotions are not his thing.

Enneagram: 8w9 sp/sx

Bloodsport is all about power dynamics and heeding them; he is blunt, forceful in his opinions, and unafraid to use force to accomplish whatever task he has set for himself, whether that includes mounting a rescue mission or killing someone on his own squad for going off-book. He has a bad temper, is always telling people off, bucks authority even to his superiors (and the woman who could blow his head off with the touch of a button), and his answers are often decisive. He has a black and white mentality, you are either for him or against him, but he softens around those in need of protection and rises to the occasion. He and his daughter engage in a screaming match when she comes to him in prison to confess she’s in trouble and needs his help. But he also numbs out and ignores any kind of emotions at times, pushing aside his anger to maintain peace when necessary, and calmly going about his business, even if that means scraping gum off the floor in the prison.

by Charity

Paid Request: Luther: John Luther [ISTP 8w9]

Function Order: Ti-Se-Ni-Fe

John is detached and analytical; when a fellow officer is kidnapped and tortured where he and others can hear him, John tells the others to detach and do their job – he has faith his partner will find his way out of the situation (and he’s right). Much of his internalized thinking happens so quickly, and so effortlessly, that he has to fill in others as to how he reached the conclusions he does. He has such little respect for “outside systems” (such as the police force itself, and its rules) that he frequently does the rational thing, potentially at the cost of his job, by “inventing” new ways to accomplish tasks (even if it means hanging a villain off the side of a building). Arguably, his fascination with Alice Morgan reveals his desire to “understand” a psychopath; he keeps her around, to analyze her, long after she has proven lethal.  He’s physical and present, often impulsive, and sometimes too eager to leap on an opportunity to make something happen. He confronts an armed suspect, takes a beating, and is nearly killed in the process. He douses himself with gasoline, and tricks a murderer into playing a dice game with him – the biggest risk includes handing the murderer a working lighter. John often scares suspects by being “present” and “larger than life.” He also scares his ex-wife, by beating doors and furniture to a pulp whenever he’s furious – breaking windows in the process. Sometimes, his superficial reading of a situation, or his instinctive response, is short-sighted, leaving the door open to later horrific events. His instincts are so solid, his boss goes out on a limb to keep him on the force, because she has such faith in his problem-solving abilities and intuitive leaps. John can sometimes simply put things together no one else sees – he comes up with the idea seemingly out of midair (“He was rolling dice! It’s all a game!”) and runs with it, with total conviction, and without room for improvisation. His extraordinary futuristic thinking comes in handy when reading suspects (“She did it. She’s a narcissistic sociopath…”) or getting himself out of a fix…and yet, it’s so sporadic, that he fails to see the long-term consequences of such things as using brutal tactics on the force, trusting a psychopath with information, or realizing that his bad temper opens him up to being framed for murder.There are two sides to John’s emotions – there’s the warm, considerate, objectively emotional man, who lets a child molester and murderer fall three stories into a coma because he’s a “bad guy,” and who takes in an underage prostitute to keep her safe; and the violent, angry, temperamental tantrum-thrower, whose behavior can be so childish, even inside a professional setting, that he winds up the lead suspect in a murder investigation, because everyone has seen his violent outbursts. He’s exceptional at putting suspects at ease, but failed in his marriage because he wasn’t emotionally “present.”

Enneagram: 8w9 so/sp

Luther focuses on power dynamics and on leveraging situations to his full advantage; he often directly confronts people rather than beats around the bush, insinuating that he knows what is going on in their head or behind their motivations and challenging them to respond to him. He bluntly remarks that it was callous of Alice to shoot her own poor dog in the face and aggressively pursues criminals, sometimes getting into trouble with the disciplinary force as a result (he allows a murderer to fall rather than save his life, after using the situation to demand a confession out of him and tell him where his latest victim has been hidden, and doesn’t care what anyone thinks about that). Luther sees a version of himself in Alice, and keeps going back to her in a perverse fascination with how her mind works, oblivious to the danger in the process but always attempting to keep the upper hand. He has an explosive temper and smashes a door to pieces when his wife tells him she has moved on to another man; he punches a suspect in the face to get a blood sample off him; he threatens Alice and directly confronts her to see what she will do when he makes off with her dog’s ashes. But he often becomes remorseful after his outbursts and calms down, begging people to listen to him and give him another chance, in his desire to understand what drives them and what went wrong in their relationship. Luther goes from hot into cool and controlled very quickly, as his 9 wing decreases his anger and wants others to approve of him and not be angry at his flash of temper.

This character was typed for a reader, per their paid request.
by Charity

The Jungle Book: Shere Khan [ENFJ 8w9]

Functional Order: Fe-Ni-Se-Ti

Judging Functional Axis:

Extroverted Feeling (Fe) / Introverted Thinking (Ti)

Shere Khan’s tactics from the start involve social and emotional dynamics – he abides by the rules of the water hole during peacetime, even though he makes threats against the man cub, but instills a sense of fear in them all by warning them that one day the treaty will end and he’ll come for Mowgli. He comes to the wolf pack, pretends to be compliant with their treaty, then kills their leader and tosses him off a cliff, to establish dominance. To keep the lesser wolves and Mowgli’s mother in line, he entices her children into listening to and playing near him, unaware of the danger, then tells an allegory about how birds who raise young other than their own wind up sacrificing their own children – a deliberate threat. His attack on the wolf leader is because he knows it will incite Mowgli to violence. He manages to stop Mowgli on the burning branch by raising the emotional issue of the wolf’s loss, knowing it will cause Mowgli to turn on him (and give him a chance to kill him). His low Ti shows in his inability to assess when it’s time to pull back and not risk his life in pursuit of the man-cub.

Perceiving Functional Axis:

Introverted Intuition (Ni) / Extroverted Sensing (Se)

Shere Khan knows little of Mowgli, but he intuits that an attack against his loved ones will bring him running back. He claims to have seen Mowgli’s future and every action he takes is oriented to stopping Mowgli from reaching adulthood and becoming a threat. He is so hell-bent on his singular goal of killing Mowgli that he fails to assess the sensory situation around him (that he’s now trapped himself on a branch above an inferno) and unable to adjust to compensate for it. He speaks sometimes in allegorical terms, using metaphors to impress his intentions on others. He clearly already has a plan in mind when he approaches the wolf pack, so his attack is neither impulsive nor spontaneous – and then he simply lounges around, keeping control, and waiting for Mowgli to come to him. When he does engage in physical combat, his sheer strength allows him to fight off most animals – but he miscalculates the sensory world, fails to see Mowgli has established an escape route, and falls to his death.

Enneagram: 8w9 social

He is calm, collected, and powerful… he orders others to give him what he wants and expects obedience. Those who do not give in, he dispatches, without much anger… just sheer determination and a persistent need to push the animals to get what he wants. Part of his anger at the wolves’ rebellion comes from his desire to dominate them; his 8 wants to be seen as “king of the jungle” and does not like disobedience. He is fearless and risk-taking in an effort to maintain control. His 9 fix adds a degree of detached calm to his power-struggles.