A Certain Magical Index: Accelerator (ENTP)

Ne:

“I’m right in the middle of hunting down spies. Do you really think I have time to deal with your stupid drama? But tell me everything. I want to hear it all!”

“Huh. A tiny walking blanket. And it’s talking to me. What does it want?”

“Of all places, this is where my feet carried me?”

“I have you. Now what should I do with you?”

Accelerator is a quirky, eccentric, and probably a bit mentally unstable. He’s a powerhouse that indiscriminately throws attacks everywhere. At one point, he makes a comment about nearly killing himself in his own dust explosion, whimsically noting that he needed to be more careful next time. When alone and not on missions, Accelerator’s actions seem mostly aimless, and he wanders about on whim, frequently surprised at where he ends up. He also frequently allows himself to get distracted from what he’s doing, as demonstrated in the quote about hunting down spies.

In addition to have a somewhat random fighting style, Accelerator talks A LOT. He pretty much talks for the entire duration of every fight, and can’t seem to shut up. He loves to explain what he’s doing before he even does it or as he’s doing it, and oftentimes talks with his enemies before a fight. He asks them a million questions, taunts, and spews a lot of technical terms and science “babble” throughout. Outside of battle, Accelerator is shown briefly discussing his dark past with a lady whom he wasn’t close to, which also suggests that he’s an extravert.

Accelerator gets a thrill out of challenges and enjoys coming across new and interesting techniques. When one of the Misakas comes up with an interesting way to potentially take him down, Accelerator thought it was exciting. He also initially finds fighting Toma to be boring since he’d deemed him too easy. When Accelerator learns new things, he likens the information to an already known concept, like comparing a gadget to a mechanical police dog. In addition, while some information he produces is very detailed, certain past observations are given little to no precedence and end up described conceptually. For instance, he tells Index to go to the doctor “whose face looks like a frog”, and gives her no specific information beyond the hospital name. This also suggests inferior Si, which will be discussed further in a later section.

Ti:

“Wait! What was that? I feel like there’s an idea here.”

“Simply taking the side that makes the most logical sense isn’t good enough.”

“I’m trying, but I can’t figure out what the difference is. Something is different though. I can feel it in the way people look at me.”

“I don’t get shuffling around, looking for a logical reason to help.” – Toma about Accelerator

Accelerator is a relatively obvious thinker. He doesn’t typically display emotion beyond anger. He’s usually sarcastic, hangs up abruptly on people, and at the beginning of the show, he appears to be heartless. However, Accelerator demonstrates no obvious desire to control his environment. When Last Order starts following him around, Accelerator makes no direct effort to get rid of her. He doesn’t really tell her to go away, or even shut up. When she asks to stay with him, he seems genuinely surprised, but just tells her “Whatever. Do what you want.” He does say things occasionally in an attempt to dissuade her from following him around, and even tricks into walking into the wrong apartment twice, but his efforts don’t go beyond that. When he finds his apartment wrecked, he seems unconcerned by the mess or the intrusion, and just lays down on the couch to sleep.

Accelerator also spends time logically analyzing himself and other things. Once Toma defeats him, he keeps analyzing himself, trying to figure out why people were viewing him differently. He specifically notes that he can tell other people are looking at him differently, which is a nod toward Fe, but that’s discussed further in the next section. Accelerator is constantly trying to justify what he’s doing from a logical standpoint, and avoids using morality or values as a reason for his actions. Toma even notes that Accelerator is looking for a logical reason to justify helping.

One can also see Accelerator’s Ti in the way that ideas sometimes come to him in incomplete thoughts, prior to Ne being able to put words to describe it. He has been showing recognizing the potential for an idea, but not immediately being able to explain it since the thought was not fully formed, and Ti users frequently need lots of time to analyze and fully understand what they are thinking.

Fe:

“I thought I could save somebody else, and earn a second chance for myself.”

“It doesn’t matter that you and I are nothing but human scum or what justifications we might make. It’s not about us. It’s about her, and I’m telling you she doesn’t deserve to die.”

“I made a promise long ago that I would become the ultimate villain that would rescue her. I fought all them to the finish and a great darkness swallowed my soul. But this fight is different. Oh yeah, that’s right. I can save her. So there’s no longer any reason for me to be a villain.”

Accelerator’s Fe can be seen in the way that he uses others views to define himself. He always speaks in terms of what others have called him or said about him. He never shares a personal view of his identity. Once he has settled on labeling himself as a villain, he continually spouts off different things that villains do and comments on how certain actions he takes are villainous. He never focuses on his personal intent or motive, simply pointing out that villains kill people and ‘I kill people ergo I am a villain’. In short, he is defining himself by external sources and not by his own inner motives. It wasn’t until he has a battle with Toma toward the end of season 3 that Toma brings him to the realization that only he can define himself.

Other examples of his Fe are the way he wants to help and protect Last Order, effectively adopting her as a little sister, of sorts. Even before he warms up to her, he is attempting to help her, like when she collapses due to the virus. His temperament toward the child is somewhat cold however, showing lower use of his Fe. He appears afraid to show any outright kindness to her beyond keeping her safe and taking care of her. At various points in the show, he proclaims that he is willing to do things that are out of character for himself and also states that he is willing to become whatever he needs to be in order to keep the child safe (anti-Fi).

There are also a bunch of day to day examples of his Fe in the show. A few are: he buys Index a hamburger, even though he doesn’t know her, is impressed with Toma when he lands a punch on him (gives him kudos for it), and harshly warns Yomikawa Aiho that she’s putting a target on her back by letting him live with her. Accelerator also becomes rather emotionally expressive during fights, letting his emotions run wild which makes him seem unhinged.

Si:

“See this is how evil is supposed to work.”

“I’m a villain. I need weapons.”

A typical display of Si is in the knowing of random information, and Accelerator most certainly enjoys sharing his random knowledge during his battles, like asking Toma if he’d ever heard of a phenomenon called a dust explosion and then proceeding to explain the entire cause and effect. Beyond this, Accelerator appears to be in the grip of Si for the majority of the show. Because of all of the evil things that he had done, Accelerator believes himself to be a villain, and that he cannot change. He remains stuck in this state, and continues to associates everything  that he does as villainous in spite of any noble or heroic reasons he may have. He’s determined that he is a villain, and is unable to see passed that mentality. Accelerator even nitpicks his enemies, which is another Si tendency, and schools them on how to be villains, all the while comparing himself to them.