Bleach: Rukia Kuchiki (ESTJ)

Te:

“But it’s not like she was soft. Rukia was tougher than most men I know. She didn’t take any crap from anyone. She even kinda talked like a man.” – Renji

“Don’t hesitate. If you’re indecisive, you can’t hope to win.”

“The soul society commanded it. And lest you forget, the laws of the soul society are not arbitrary.”

“Even if no one believes in you, stick out your chest and scream in defiance!”

Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach appears to be a Te dominant. Upon her entrance into the show, Rukia’s most obvious personality traits appear to be her bossy yet overall emotionless temperament. She had no qualms about barking orders and talking down to others. When first dealing with Ichigo, she demands that he fulfill his duty, claiming that he didn’t have the right to refuse. She deems the laws and order of the Soul Society to be of the utmost importance, which points Te’s natural bend toward authority and structure. The natural commanding way about Rukia is further supported in her back story with Renji. She laughs in his face, tells him what to do, steals the spotlight, and etcetera. Of course, the ease at which she does this also supports her being an extravert.

Rukia actively speaks out against allowing emotions to control self or get in the way. Part of this is learned, but she settles into the teaching rather well. She tells people insensitive things like “Please. Get over it already.” She’s a proponent of tough love. When returning to the world of the living at the beginning of the Arrancar Arc, Rukia harshly confronts Ichigo, who was struggling emotionally with feelings of failure and inadequacy which were preventing him from being useful in the real world. She physically attacks him, verbally berates him, and throws him into a battle with a hollow in order to knock him out of his rut. Empathy is most certainly not her go-to method of encouragement.

Rukia is goal and task oriented. While not impulsive or careless, Rukia does emphasize not hesitating, lest the indecision results in death or failure. She also moved into Ichigo’s closet without so much as a word. This further suggests a Te dominant.

Si:

“No, I wouldn’t worry about that. I’m not gonna go anywhere you guys… We’re gonna keep this gang together forever.”

“This feeling again… Like the warmth of the sun slowly moving over my hand. It’s Lieutenant Shiva’s warmth, but that was then.”

“I remember everything about this place. I remember each tree. I remember my feelings constantly shifted between anxiety, excitement, and warmth.”

“Can’t you give me something that paints a more specific picture?”

Rukia is both detail oriented and cautious. Her cautious nature is shown early on, especially when she’s berating Ichigo for being too hasty. She proclaims that a “veteran soul reaper doesn’t take any unnecessary chances when it comes to a hollow.” This mentality would be natural for a high Si user. (IE: avoid risk whenever possible.) Another example can be seen when she yells at her commanding officer Kaien for tossing her unsheathed sword at her.

Rukia is literal, prefers to plan, and wants specifics. When Kaien asks her where her heart is, since Rukia didn’t actually have a real answer, she resorts to giving him a literal one and indicates that it’s in her chest. She also asks Kaien at one point what her purpose was and why she was there. He gives her a broad, general answer about her role being obvious and her being there to fight and defend everything. She gets frustrated with him, and asks for a more specific answer. When dealing with Ichigo at the beginning, she initially gives him a long drawn out explanation when informing him that the hollows are after him.

Lastly of this section, Rukia’s Si comes out when she’s reliving her experiences with Kaien during her fight in Hueco Mundo. She talks about remembering “every last detail.” She runs through her emotions in every moment, mentions remembering every tree, every stroke of their swords during practice, the sun’s warmth on her hand, and etc. This a prime example of Si subjective sensory memory.

Ne:

Rukia’s Ne mostly comes out in her drawings and illustrations. Whenever they are planning, she’s quick to attempt to physically illustrate something via a drawing. This could be considered a low Ne outlet due to the desire to externalize the idea, concept, or etc. You can see her doing this while explaining hollows and general spirit stuff to Ichigo. Her drawings, while simplistic, tend to be odd or eccentric. Of course, her tendency to over explain sometimes can also be tied to her Ne, almost as much as her Si. (We did mention it briefly in her Si section.) The tendency to desire to plan rather than act on spontaneity is also tied to a low extraverted perceiving function, which in this case would be Ne.

Another potential example of her Ne is when Rukia leaves a goodbye message for Ichigo before going back to the Soul Society to face punishment. She wants to say goodbye, but doesn’t want him to have a chance to rescue her, so she delays him by leaving the message encoded, albeit simplistically.

Another example of her Ne is when she comes back to the land of the living after the Soul Society arc. She is disappointed to find out that she isn’t going to be staying in Ichigo’s closet on account that his family knows that she is going to be staying this time. In her mild protest of this change, Rukia excitedly sputters out a list of random things she had brought to spruce up and improve her old closet living space. The random ideas for improving the space coupled with the excited behavior shows the sense of accomplishment she is feeling for coming up with small inventive solutions to improve that living situation. She completely disregards the fact that the new situation is by far improved, which shows that it is coming from a place of Ne inventiveness rather than Te improvement.

Fi:

“Whether I accept it or not is irrelevant.”

“What good is pride to a man if he’s dead?”

Rukia’s Fi appears to be inferior. The first point to make here is her tendency to put down emotions of any kind, although as mentioned in the Te section, part of that was taught. However, aside from not being very empathetic, Rukia doesn’t appear to be highly in tune with herself. When Kaien asks her where her heart is, Rukia appears completely baffled by the question, and basically avoids it by providing a literal answer. Tertiary Fi users tend to be more aware of not knowing what they want on an emotional level (when in this situation), versus Rukia appearing to have never considered this concept before.

Another example of her inferior Fi is her tendency to state that her acceptance of something is irrelevant. However, in addition to that, she doesn’t have as strong of a sense of pride as many of the others. She is baffled by the idea that one’s pride would be worth more than their own life, which suggests an undervaluing of her own Fi… a conscious willingness to give up one’s internal code or value system for the sake of living. This very specifically indicates inferior Fi rather than tertiary Fi, since the IXTJs tend to have a much stronger sense of pride in this regard.