Bleach: Sōsuke Aizen (INFJ)

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MBTI and Myers-Briggs related content

Ni:

“My true identity was beyond them.”

“It’s not a test if I know the outcome.”

“You did not choose me. I chose you.”

“It doesn’t matter whether you approach me recklessly or carefully, or even if you decide not to approach me at all. The end result for all of you will be the same. I’m not talking about things to come. Regardless of what you choose, your demise is inescapable. It is an event of the past.”

Aizen’s personality type aligns with that of an Ni dominant. He relies heavily on deception and manipulating others based on abstract information. His movements and plans are frequently shrouded in uncertainty and his individual actions aren’t clear unless you are able to see the bigger picture and how everything fits together. His plans frequently are layered one on top of the other allowing for contingencies. Even when doing something seemingly nice for Orihime by allowing her to say goodbye to one person, it ultimately is only to frame her. This allowance makes it look like she defected to his side rather than the fact that she had been kidnapped. He has a complicated master plan in which he anticipates everyone else’s moves and plans for it accordingly. The ability of his zanpakuto also fits in nicely with his already deceptive ways.

His plan is also based around a larger vision of how he feels the world should be. He refuses to accept the world as it is and has fashioned his whole plan around changing it to the way that he thinks it should be. Aizen is also calm and patient, emphasizing not to act rashly and to wait for people to come to them, which lines up well with the mentality of an introvert.

Fe:

“So does everybody have a cup of tea now? Good. Please listen carefully to what I have to say.”

“Grimmjow, I appreciate your intentions and your enthusiasm but I’m not finished speaking yet. Could you return to your seat for now?”

“I’ve chosen to show this to you for one reason: to prove that I trust you. You have a phenomenal power. You can negate things that have happened and possess the ability to wipe out entire events. This is an incredible power, a power that is very useful to me. Orihime, you’ll use your power for me, won’t you?”

“You should try to smile. Everyone gets so depressed when the sun doesn’t shine.”

Aizen tends to speak in a mellow or soothing way. He comes across as calming and friendly. He manipulates people on an emotional level, and appears to place value in harmony, although this is not outright stated. During scenes with the Arrancar, he acts very polite and usually phrases his demands in the form of questions, as if giving the person a choice in the matter. He is encouraging and affirmative, making statements like “That’s splendid. Keep up the good work.” Other such Fe-esque statements that drew our attention were phrases like “I’m sorry you feel that way”, “You don’t have to raise your voice”, and general reprimands for rudeness.

Aizen uses Momo’s blind admiration for him as a way to control her. In addition, when dealing with Orihime, he gives her the illusion of choice, so that she will choose to aid his cause and be less likely to try to escape. Ulquiorra describes Aizen’s method as psychological cages versus physical ones. Aizen even allows her to say goodbye to one person before being brought to Hueco Mundo. Once there, he appears to try to gain her trust and make her want to serve him. As a whole, Aizen seems to only use physical methods of control as a last resort, since he appears to desire people to willingly and enthusiastically follow him.

Ti:

“Just as long as you had a good reason, there’s no need to punish you.”

“Trust is the same thing as reliance. It’s a fault of cowards. I have no need for such weakness.”

Aizen has his own personal view of what he thinks makes sense. He even allows others to escape immediate judgement from him if they can somehow manage to justify their actions as either doing it for him or explain it in a way that benefits the cause. In other words, if they could manage to make what they did make sense to him, he would let it slide. This is in stark contrast to how a Te would deal with such a situation. Te tends to accept no excuse for disobeying or not fulfilling orders the exact way that they were given.

Later in the series when the head captain accuses him of being truly cruel by leaving Wonder Weiss’ feelings still intact but removing his free will, Aizen twists the logic back around on itself claiming that he is the good guy because he gave Wonder Weiss purpose. He then proceeds to claim the head captain is the cruel one for tearing Wonder Weiss apart. This is an example of the way that Ti can twist logic into something that makes sense with their own internal system. This is also an example of Ti working with Fe’s desire to appear like the good guy.

Se:

“You’re wasting my time.”

Aizen takes the typical behind-the-scenes approach to his strategies. He gets others to do his bidding, and remains at a distance for most of the time. He deals in illusions so that his actual physical location or state is never fully known by others. While he is usually very calm and patient, he does periodically get frustrated when things are not moving at the pace that he desires or expects. In his desire for power, Aizen alters his body physically to an extreme degree, which can be seen as inferior Se, or devaluing his physical person. However, on a smaller scale, he places value in their physical environment in Hueco Mundo, covering the entire place with a bright sky and sun, rather than allowing it to remain shrouded in darkness. This would be an example of a minor or safe use of Se.

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