Hunter X Hunter: Meruem (ENTJ)

“I shall crush that madness, and create a fair world, where the concept of inequality will be completely forgotten for all time. I don’t deny that I’ll start by using power and terror to accomplish my objective, but only when absolutely necessary and only to bring about order. You see, I have learned what true power is meant to be used for… to protect the weak, who deserve to live. That is its purpose. Power shouldn’t be used to torment the defeated.”

Te:

“That defies all logic. In the hands of an incompetent, power brings nothing but ruin. This must be the work of imbeciles.”

“Being passive is foreign to me.”

“You will not come unless summoned, so disturb me at your own peril.”

Mereum appears to be leading with extraverted thinking (Te), rather than Ni, as is commonly believed. He focuses primarily on the objective world, making decisions immediately upon being confronted with them. Just after birth, Mereum immediately kills anyone who questions his authority or decisions, including his own mother. He is extremely quick to dole out punishment throughout the series, being more interested in maintaining his command and asserting his power than being cautious and calculated. He even states at one point that being passive is foreign to him, which points to being an extraverted dominant. In other words, ENTJ seems far more likely than INTJ given that mentality.

Mereum hates incompetency, and believes that power should never be in the hands of someone who is incompetent. After all, power in the hands of the incompetent can only bring ruin. However, as a Te dominant, Mereum believes in using power and terror to accomplish his objective and bring order to the world.

Mereum focuses on his goals and objectives. The period during which he kills time is only the result of waiting for the selection to begin. He finds a way to stay busy until that point. His focus on objectives comes out clearly when he’s confronted by Netero and Zeno Zoldyck. He makes sure to confirm their goals and objective with them prior to even fighting. Mereum seems hesitant to fight them at all because it doesn’t serve his own personal goal. Instead, he sees it as a waste of time, until Netero offers him up something that he wants in exchange for winning.

Ni:

“I won’t say it again. Those petty decisions are yours to make, understand? Go away and wait until I summon you.”

“Your point. I suggest you get to it.”

“Youpi. Your own emotional instability, as well as the traitor’s betrayal, we must accept them, and move forward. Humans are a stepping stone meant to help us attain the next level of evolution, a perfect sacrifice. The remnants of human ego within us are variables, as long as we consider them but a transitional phase to our final form.”

Mereum has a laser focus on whatever it is that he wants or is working toward. While waiting for the selection, he trains his mind by way of strategy games. He plays each one until he masters it, and then moves on to the next. When he finally tries Gungi, he’s unable to defeat the current champion of the game. As a result, he plays tirelessly, never wanting to take breaks for any reason whatsoever. It gets to the point that his Royal Guard fear that the game will become a distraction, because he’s unable to tear his focus away.

Mereum focuses on the future, which first surfaces during the strategy games that he plays. During one of the games, he recognizes 22 moves in advance that his opponent has already lost. He then wonders why his opponent doesn’t just surrender. In other words, Mereum has mentally jumped from the present into the future, and the game is already over. Later on in the series, his Ni surfaces more in the way he envisions the evolution of their species. He admonishes Youpi and Pouf not to focus on their past mistakes and current flaws, but rather to move forward. He recognizes the resources that he has available to him, identifies potential variables, and looks beyond it all to form an ideal vision of what the Chimera Ant final form should be.

Lastly, an excess of information or making tedious decisions frustrates Meruem. This points away from Si. He often demands that his subordinates get to the point, and tells them to deal with any petty decisions. As a high Ni user, he only wants to be bothered by what is directly relevant, or important enough to warrant his time. He’s not concerned with accounting for every little detail.

Se:

“Who am I? A nameless king in a borrowed castle. My subjects nothing more than mindless puppets. If this is the mandate the heavens have granted me, I fear nothing except the tedium that it will bring.”

Meruem’s tertiary Se comes out largely in his extreme physical reactions and distaste for boredom. Naturally, some of this is the result of Se in combination with Te-Ni. Right from the beginning of his debut, Mereum displays an impulsive nature. He punches through the wall of the Chimera Ant hideout in order to go straight to the roof because he decides that it will be faster. It wasn’t an actual emergency, just more convenient. Similarly, his instant judgements and the physical punishments that he doles out are indicative of Te-Se. He flippantly kills his own subjects, and even rips off his own arm later in the series.

When questioning his identity, Mereum observes his power and authority, recognizing that he is a king with mindless puppets for subjects. He states that he fears nothing except the “tedium that it will bring.” In other words, he fears boredom. His desire to chase sensory experiences shortly after birth, and his need to stay busy and engaged while waiting for the selection, further supports this. This all points to Se higher than inferior, suggesting tertiary.

Fi:

“I am King, but who am I really? I wonder… for what reason was I born?”

Mereum’s inferior Fi is actually quite prominent in the series, due to an identity crisis that Komugi provokes. She asks for his name, and then he realizes he has none, only a title and position of authority. After that, Mereum starts to question not only who he is, but also his purpose, his reason for being born. He somewhat obsesses over this, questioning the guards and later fighting Netero in order to learn his name.

Furthermore, Mereum struggles to connect to his own feeling, suggesting inferior Fi. He tries to deny them in regard to Komugi. He identifies his feelings for her as a weakness, and tries to talk himself into killing her, in order to smother out that weakness. When he arrives at her room and instead saves her from death, Mereum feels confused by his own actions and the words of sympathy that he expresses to her. Over time, he learns to accept these feelings, and even adopts the belief that power is meant to protect the weak, not torment the defeated.