Super Paper Mario: Count Bleck (ENFP)

So, I watched a video on YouTube in order to gather information on this character. About 10 minutes in, I was avidly proclaiming that Bleck was a stereotypical INTJ. However, after I watched the video the whole way through, watched another video to obtain background, context, and lore on the character, and then read a wiki page outlining his entire story, I ended up with a very different conclusion. Let me walk you through my journey and thought process…

Getting about halfway through the first video, I started to realize that something wasn’t sitting right with the INTJ typing. Sure, he had all the stereotypical “I am going to end the world” evil mastermind things going on, but other behaviors, actions, and speech patterns were just not lining up. He was not acting the way you would expect an INTJ to act. He was much too lenient with his minions, had no trace of high Te harshness in his normal actions or speech, and he was constantly and I mean CONSTANTLY going back to the book of prophecy. What does the book say? Everything is going according to plan, just as the book said! Check the book. It soon became apparent that his grand Ni scheme wasn’t that at all. He was simply following the prophecy in the book. He essentially just sat there, read the manual and saw what to do next or what would happen next.

So, at this point, I wanted to switch him to an ISTJ, but I could never bring myself to do that. One, because his assistant girl appeared to be a very stereotypical ISTJ, and he was nothing like her. Two, I had the same problems with the lack of high Te evidence as I did with INTJ. So I had to start breaking it down to figure out what I was seeing function-wise.

His Fi was obvious almost immediately, especially after I got past his surface-level evil villain bit. I was also starting to see things that were supporting lower use of Te. This narrowed the possibilities down to INFP, ISFP, or ENFP. I ruled out ISFP shortly after that, as I determined there was evidence for Si. The first piece of evidence was the way that he kept referencing the book for everything. The second thing was the moments toward the end where he became hopeless and fell into the grip of Si (he saw no solutions or way to overcome the Chaos Heart). I decided, because of those two points, there was enough evidence to support Si use. From there, I got a more filled out understanding of his character from another video and the wiki page.

Those two sources gave a lot of context to the original video. (Amazing what backstory and understanding the overarching storyline can do for you, lol.) I learned what he was like before he became Count Bleck. Three things stuck out the most from the additional information.

1. In spite of his tragic past, he portrayed a happy upbeat mood most of the time.
2. He was always smiling, which was something his henchmen note and liked about him.
3. He seemed to be relatively charismatic as all his henchmen held him in great admiration and seemed to generally like him. They didn’t fear him or worry about what he might do to them if they failed. They saw him more like a friend than a master.

These points led me away from him being an INFP and toward an ENFP. Granted, these characteristics can be found in both types. However, when you consider his backstory, as an INFP you would expect him to be much more brooding. Because never got over the deep pain of losing his love, having Fi as his dominant trait would lead him to internalize on that much more. He would get stuck in an Fi-Si loop and would be generally less charismatic as a result. So, now that I have rambled on about this, I’ll try to give an overview of the evidence for each function.

Ne:

Count Bleck has a relatively flowery way of speaking. This is typical of a high Ne user, as their brain can feed them a vast array of words or phrases at any given moment. This allows them to eloquently construct amusing and witty ways to say things that go beyond the normal use of speech to simply communicate. His general air and demeanor are that of an extraverted perceiving dominant. He seems to care little about his minions’ defeats or the fact that the heroes keep getting closer to defeating him. He leaves mostly everything to his assistant.  She even has to dole out the punishments for failure. He takes no interest in exerting his authority by punishing the others. As a matter of fact, he brushes off most of the failures, thinking nothing of it for the most part. He even praises the strength of the hero rather than focusing on his minions’ defeat.

Fi:

Before turning into Count Bleck, Bulmiere holds strong values. It is said that he cherishes all life and the universe itself. When he falls in love with Timpani, he is caring and devoted himself to her. Even after becoming Count Bleck, he holds his shattered, messed up views very strongly. He is seen getting visibly upset when Tippi tries to argue that the heart has value, claiming it is the most worthless thing of all. He holds tightly to his belief that all things are worthless because of the deep hurt and loss he feels.

Te:

His Te surfaces when he can no longer shrug off a situation, or he is in a situation of direct confrontation. When arguing if anything has worth with Tippi, one of his statements is “You question Count Bleck?!” Also when Mario finally reaches him, he barks out orders sharply at his assistant, commanding her to leave so that he can deal with the hero himself.

Si:

Bleck’s Si manifests in the way that he is constantly checking the prophecy. He doesn’t stray from it, and simply follows what it says in order to reach the end result. You can also see that he is in a Si grip toward the end, when he loses all hope and claims there is no way for the Chaos Heart to be destroyed, claiming that they are all doomed.