Naruto Series: Deidara (ESFP)

Se:

“My man Sasori is going to yell at me again for not being prepared. What can I say? Planning out every little insignificant detail ahead of time just isn’t my style. I prefer to stay flexible dealing with unexpected situations. Developing that kind of sophisticated mindset is the mark of a true artist.”

“But my art goes far beyond this as well. My pieces are versatile. While they hold shape, they are merely objects. But they can also explode, and when it does explode, it makes its existence more sublime, and it finally comes fully into it’s own. I feel that true art lives only in that flash of sublimation. True art is an explosion!”

“What’s taking them? I wish they would just hurry up and get in here!”

“Don’t be absurd. True art only lasts a moment.”

Deidara appears to be an Se dominant. He believes that true art merely lasts a moment, which speaks to the very nature of Se, living and existing purely in the present moment. He also calls art an explosion and a flash, all of which would easily appeal to a high Se user. He would rather create one sudden explosion of “art”, then to patiently create and fine tune something over time. This overwhelming desire for immediacy suggests dominant Se, rather than auxiliary.

Deidara is impatient and impulsive. He enjoys the heat of battle, and is prone to figuring things out as he goes. He prefers to remain flexible, and has no problem dealing with unexpected situations. Sasori is constantly deriding him for being late or unprepared. A good example can be seen during the battle against Gaara when Deidara brings a very limited amount of detonation clay with him. Deidara just assumes that he’ll be good enough to deal with everything as it comes. His flexibility extends to his tendency to just go along with whatever Sasori says. Aside from his art-related values, Deidara is relatively laid back, and shrugs off most of Sasori’s blunt or angry remarks.

Fi:

“Eternal beauty? Are you kidding me? Look, don’t get me wrong. As a fellow artist, I respect your point of view, but true art is fleeting… a flash of beauty burning brightly and then vanishing in a heartbeat.”

“You see, that’s what art is. It’s passionate emotions, recollected in cool tranquility.”

“Look at those fools. They have no appreciation for art…You have to feel art, and true art is an explosion!”

Deidara lives to create art, and all of his values tie back to art. He has very clear standards as to what art is, spouting over and again that art is fleeting, a flash of beauty, and only lasts a moment. He frequently rants about this subject, and is shown arguing with Sasori several times over their conflicting viewpoints. He ties just about everything somehow back to his art, or what it means to be a true artist. For instance, “I prefer to stay flexible dealing with unexpected situations. Developing that kind of sophisticated mindset is the mark of a true artist.”

Consequently, due to the emphasis he places on art, Deidara gets highly offended when his art is mocked or ignored. Additionally, he derides others for their lack of appreciation of art, emphasizing that art must be felt and experienced. Deidara has no problem arguing over his values and beliefs in any scenario. For instance, he is shown arguing with Sasori right in front of the shinobi team that had come to save Gaara. Lastly, Deidara highly values himself, and is very self-assured. He doesn’t rely on others to determine his own self-worth. Of course, he is ultimately willing to die for his art, and turns himself into his final masterpiece.

Te:

“Since you’re an Akatsuki now, stop jabbering so much and learn how to be cool.”

“Just don’t mock my art.”

Deidara’s Te is used primarily to enforce his Fi standards. He is very absolute in what he believes, and reminds everyone around him. The way he constantly enforces these Fi standards and preaches to others is more consistent with a tertiary Te user, since Te is what produces the inflexible nature and the bluntness. Inferior Te would only get this way when specifically triggered. The state for Deidara appears much more natural.

In addition, Deidara often fails when it comes to planning like many low Te users, but he also recognizes this failure to plan as a weakness after the fact, which points to him being a low Te user. He is also shown occasionally asking others what the plan is, like Kabuto after being reanimated. Lastly, Deidara is shown being very excited when a strategy that he had planned in advance was successful (the battle against Gaara), which is typical for any type when managing to successfully utilize a lower function.

Ni:

“I underestimated him. Should have been better prepared. I guess Sasori was right on the money. I hate that.”

“I expected as much. That special sand of his makes quite a tight defense… However. That’s exactly what I was counting on.”

Deidara’s Ni appears to be his greatest weakness. He struggles to stick to long term strategies, and is seen making extreme, sudden decisions. Generally speaking, he’s a bit of a wildcard, which is one of things that frustrates Sasori about him. For instance, during an instance where they are chasing Naruto, he completely abandons the plan in favor of doing whatever he wanted to. Beyond that, an obvious example of an impulsive decision is when he decides to blow himself up to kill Sasuke, which ultimately fails. Lastly, in the example in the dominant Se section, bringing a very limited amount of detonation clay could have gotten Deidara killed.

As a trained and powerful Shinobi, Deidara can utilize Ni for predicting his opponents moves mid-battle, and determining an immediate, in-the-moment strategy. Some of these strategies are very deceptive, and subtle, masked within his more brute force Se attack methods. For instance, when confronting Gaara, Deidara slips his detonation clay into Gaara’s sand, so that when Gaara recalls the sad, there is a resulting weak point in his armor. Another example can be seen when Deidara is fighting Sasuke. Deidara is able to release microscopic clay (C4), which Sasuke unknowingly inhales. This would have won him the battle if not for Sasuke’s lightning style.