Dragon Ball Series: Gohan (INFP)

Fi:

“Look. I’m giving you the chance to end this without violence. I really don’t want to kill you. Even if you are evil, you can still walk away. I’m not interested in fighting you just for the challenge, my Dad’s the one who cares about that stuff…”

“NO!!! I can’t just sit here and do nothing, I’m going down there! Got it!? I’m done waiting!”

“I am he who does not abide evil…the champion of justice!”

Gohan appears to be an Fi dominant. It can be easy to mistake Gohan’s style of Fi as Fe, due to the strong drive toward harmony and tendency to put other’s first. However, harmony is a common desire of feelers, and anyone can be selfless.

Gohan possesses a strong distaste for needless violence. It takes a lot of provoke him, and he tries to give his enemy’s a chance to do the right thing and walk away. When he does fight, he has to rely on his emotions (which fuel his desire to protect those he cares about) to give him the strength to defeat his enemies. While he is usually fairly easy-going and amiable, Gohan struggles to follow another’s lead when he sees that lives are at stake. ISFJ was a type we considered for him, but this is an area where we noticed he deviated. In the heat of the moment, he struggles to maintain caution and follow the plan, being more prone to launching forward at the behest of his Fi values. This is shown on Namek when he’s traveling with Krillin, who often takes the more cautious approach and urges him to hang back.

Once in high school, Gohan takes on a persona whom he dubs “the Great Saiyaman”. Dressed as this superhero, he starts to verbalize his values a lot more. He feels the need to announce his presence and define who he is to the villain or those nearby as not only “the Great Saiyaman” but a “champion of justice” and “he who does not abide evil.” He also gets annoyed when the name is pronounced incorrectly, feeling the need to correct others even when out of uniform. This all suggests Fi identity.

During this arc, another potential clue pointing toward him being an Fi user emerges. Gohan often seems oblivious to the reaction of others, or doesn’t seem significantly concerned by them. Many of his family and friends point out how ridiculous his Great Saiyama persona his, but Gohan typically just reacts shocked or confused and then quickly discards their opinions, unable to believe that others don’t find his persona as enjoyable or epic as he does. This obliviousness is shown in other situations too, like in his dealing with Videl. He frequently misreads or misses her reactions, often resulting in him saying the wrong things or accidentally offending her. (An example being the hair cut suggestion when he’s training her.)

Ne:

“See you at school! Uh, erm… I mean, farewell citizen!”

“But, if you could actually go back and destroy the Androids in the past, what would happen to the ones that are already here? In our present I mean. Would they all just, disappear or something? Or, would it be more like they, well, like they never existed?”

Gohan’s Ne comes out most prominently in the arc that focuses on his Great Saiyaman identity. Gohan takes great pride in inventing his superhero name and persona, which he enjoys acting out for others. The Ne tendency to monologue comes out during this time, since he seems to find it necessary to have a speech to go along with his superhero persona. He enjoys giving himself an epic entrance and even lecturing the villains he comes up against. When first getting his costume, Gohan spends a large amount of time posing and trying out heroic phrases in front of the mirror in his bedroom. He is rather indecisive when working through the process. He’ll come up with one catch phrase and pose, but then quickly switch to another, until he finally settles on one. His tendency to verbalize and dramatize his actions is further emphasized in little things like yelling “transform!” before switching into his costume.

He struggles to manage his alter ego due to his distractable nature. Because of his super hero crime fighting, he struggles to make it to places on time. He is also bad at keeping his own secret, since he struggles to keep his mouth shut. Videl, on multiple occasions, gets suspicious of him because of something he said, like accidentally calling her by her name while in costume. On another occasion, he doesn’t take enough care and gets spotted flying and landing on the roof of the school. In even another instance, he moves Videl’s helicopter and then accidentally shouts see you at school, before bumbling and trying to recover.

Si:

“I’d say those two hours of practice last night just paid off.”

Gohan’s Si comes out in a couple of different ways. Being the son of Chichi, he can be very studious and disciplined, but he also feels the need to practice more minor things like his Great Saiyaman speeches. He’s shown practicing them in the mirror at home so he can get it just right. This shows his attention to detail and dedication toward his Fi-Ne persona. He’d rather perfect it beforehand then just wing it and see what happens, like an Se user might. In addition, this attention to detail in regards to his superhero persona is further demonstrated by his need to incorporate very specific things, like certain poses, catch phrases, and an epic introduction.

He also appears to be skilled at giving detailed explanations when teaching. At one point, Videl convinces him to teach her Ki, and starts coming to his house every day for lessons. Gohan fully explains the concept to her, and gives her an example to illustrate it.

Te:

“You killed my dad. And Krillin too. And the others… Because of you, they’re gone! I’m going to make you pay for what you did to them!”

Gohan’s Te shows up primarily when he gets angry or frustrated. While normally he is a relatively good-natured person, he can get very brash and stubborn when driven to his limit. An instance of this can be seen when, he stops two thugs who are speeding recklessly through the city. When they ask him who he is, he quickly comes up with the name great Saiyaman. After hearing this, they make fun of him. Gohan, becoming both frustrated and embarrassed by this, shouts at them and stomps the ground so hard it cracks the road. He proclaims that he thought really hard to come up with that name. This display demonstrates his lack of control when getting upset which can be tied back to his weak use of Te.

Another Te weakness manifests in his tendency to get cocky during major fights. He has on several occasions gained a level of power and essentially ends up getting drunk off the power, causing him to bumble in these fights. However, his use isn’t completely negative. Being one of the more intelligent Z fighters, the team has on occasion relied upon him to develop an effective strategy, which would require Gohan to draw on his intelligence in combination with his Te.