Once Upon A Time: Emma Swan (ISFP)

Fi:

“People are gonna tell you who you are your whole life. You just gotta punch back and say no, this is who I am.”

“Pan might know facts, but life is made up of more than that; there are moments. He can’t possibly know all of them. The first time you and I connected. You remember that? Not met but connected.”

“It was real for me, for him. Everything that happened happened.”

“But they can’t always understand me. They don’t know what it means to be rejected and misunderstood, not the way I do, not the way you do. And somehow that makes us, I dunno, unique, or maybe even special.”

“I’m sorry, but if it were me, no matter what, I would not harm a defenseless person.”

While many type Emma as a Ti dominant, she actually appears to be leading with Fi. While she is a cynical person due to her difficult life, Emma makes decisions based on her feelings, or what is emotionally consistent with who she is. Some examples of this can be seen in the logic that she borrows from Neal, concerning how to define “home.” She explains that “Home is the place when you leave you just miss it. So yeah, I’m going to keep running until I feel that.” She’s essentially looking for an emotional cue to drive her decision-making. Another instance can be seen when she saves Hook by making him a Dark One in spite of him begging her not to. The decision was completely detached from logic, discouraged by those around her, and driven solely by her feelings. In one final example, we see her save someone from the past (when she and Hook end up trap there), in spite of Hook’s protests otherwise and the obvious logical flaw that she could mess up the future depending on who she saves. This also demonstrates that she’s ultimately value driven.

Another prominent example of her Fi can be seen in her strong desire to return to her fake life in New York with Henry. She doesn’t want him to know the truth, and she doesn’t care that their life wasn’t real. It was real to her and that’s all that mattered. She is essentially defining “reality” by what “feels” real to her, which show Fi logic rather than Ti logic.

Of course, the dominant identity nature in Emma is obvious. We see it right off the bat in the way she relates to Cinderella in the laundry room. She encourages her not to let others define her, to fight back and say “no, this is who I am.” However, she appears to connect with others in an Fi fashion, in spite of her more cynical nature. When trying to reconnect with Regina, Emma focuses on how they both had similar past experiences, and that they could truly understand each other while her family could not. She stated that made they were both special, and unique, which is also indicative of an Fi mentality. Similarly, she claims to understand Elsa. When Elsa questions it, Emma justifies it by saying that she knows herself and that they have similar issues.

Lastly, when making Henry prove that he is no longer possessed by Pan, she asks him to share the first moment when they truly connected, because while Pan could know facts, he couldn’t possibly know all the moments. This demonstrates her more emotion-based focus.

Se:

“Maybe I don’t need answers. Maybe I just need to punch you in the face.”

“How am I supposed to learn magic if I can’t touch anything?”

“Okay, let’s not worry about what-ifs.”

Emma focuses on what is observable, which is why she struggles so much with Henry’s wild claims at the beginning. Granted, many people would, but it takes Emma a long time to admit to things of a more fantastical nature. This struggle of hers is re-emphasized in the Neverland season, when Rumpel chides her for her lack of imagination. She generally prefers not to worry about unnecessary what-ifs, and instead think about what is actionable now.

Emma is action-oriented and tends to be somewhat impulsive. This all leads her to be a fairly direct person when dealing with others. In season one, she cuts down Regina’s apple tree out of anger, in retaliation. She doesn’t try to hide it, pointedly threatens Regina, and tells her that it’s her move now. Of course, her action-oriented nature is reflected in the job that she held prior to arriving in Storybook, as a bails-bondsmen. She used to hunting people down, and turning them back over to law enforcement. Of course, even prior to that, she was a thief. Throughout the show, she doesn’t struggle with being in the midst of the action, and thinking on her feet. A good example of an Se tactic that she uses to end a conflict is shown when she jumps overboard in Neverland, placing herself in danger, in order to get everyone to stop fighting.

As a few last things, when struggling to learn magic, Emma complains about Regina not letting her touch anything, which suggests being a sensor. She’s also observant, which is demonstrated when she explains to Mary Margaret how she knows that she’s still sneaking out with David.

Ni:

“Maybe he’s telling the truth. Maybe that’s why I can’t shake this feeling something is off about Henry.”

Emma tends to lean heavily on her instincts, which is a common lower use of Ni. Regina even points this out when trying to teaching her magic. She explains that everytime Emma successfully managed to use magic, it had been spurred from her instincts. A few examples of her following her instincts can be seen when Regina is undercover, pretending to work with Ursula, Cruella, and Rumpel. Emma sneaks into Geppetto’s workshop after her, because her gut is telling her that something is wrong. This was a risky move, and could have possibly broken Regina’s cover. Similarly, she could feel that something wasn’t quite right with Henry (during the time that he’d been taken over by Pan).

Her tendency to not explain her hunches beyond her general interpretation of them points to Ni use. She never specifically pinpointed why Henry seemed off, but simply that he did. This speaks to the more abstract internal nature of Ni.

Te:

“The only one that saves me is me.”

“How ’bout you stop having to control everything and take a leap of faith?”

Emma’s appears to demonstrate inferior Te. She has a general desire to be control of what’s going on around, due to her lack of trust in others. Pinocchio makes a crack about when he shows randomly to take her out for drinks. He tells her to hop on, and she initially barters with him, so that she could drive herself. See the second quote above this section.

Emma has a hyper independent nature, tending to refuse help from others, because she wants to do everything on her own. This is partially because she is jaded, and thus, leaning into her Te. She tends to fall back into that nature throughout the show when under stress, returning to a state where she blocks everyone out and does everything on her own. This especially surfaces after she becomes a Dark One. During this time, she also becomes far more demanding. For instance, she goes up to Henry and demands that he let her help with Operation Mongoose.

Lastly, a more negative manifestation can be seen in her occasional tendency to deny reality, which can be the result of inferior Te. The situation with her fake life in New York which was mentioned in the Fi section is an obvious example of this. Another example can be seen when Hook’s lips are enchanted. She makes the crack: “Next time you try taking my powers away try enchanting the lips of someone I’ll actually kiss.” This is in spite of the fact that she’d actually kissed him before.