Personality Bleed: Attack on Titan

Our Attack on Titan marathon was very enjoyable, and actually inspired me to write this Personality Bleed article on the series. Honestly, I forgot about these for a while, until I was reminded by a follower semi-recently. With that in mind, it’s been a really long time since I’ve broached this subject. Naturally, if I have written in a while, then you may never have even read about this subject, unless you’ve been following us for a long, long time. (“Personality Bleed” is a term specific to Practical Typing. I’ve never seen anyone else ever use it.) So, I’ll give you a brief summary of what this term means, and then launch into the subject. Enjoy! (But don’t take this too seriously. It’s more like a game, than anything else. >.>)

What is Personality Bleed?

Every work of art is marked by its creator in some way, and I don’t mean a signature in the corner or a watermark hidden printed on a graphic. I’m referring to a more subconscious signature, the hints of ourselves or our identity that gets imprinted on the creation. It’s impossible to avoid, since we all approach things from our own unique perspective and pull in our own unique combination of experiences. This is especially the case for media such as movies, books, manga, anime, and etcetera.

Story telling requires the creation of characters. Each character possesses its own personality type. Naturally, a story where all the characters have the same personality type would be boring, so the author (who only has a single personality type) must create characters with a variety of personalities. As a result, it’s common for each character to be slightly skewed toward the author’s own personality type. (This may vary based on the experience and skill of the author.) The more realistic and relatable a character is, the better that author did at creating a true-to-form version of that other personality type. Some characters in media are better than others. Some feel deeper, while others feel more canned. We can only write what we know… right?

The other element to consider, besides the characters, is the overarching story theme. Many shows have values and lessons being propagated. These can also leave clues as to the author’s personality type.

Naturally, all of these considerations are only applicable if the work of art has a single author. In addition, some extremely well-rounded creations do not always contain clear clues about the author.

If you wish to read more about this subject, check out this older article: Personality Bleed: Typing Fictional Characters
Previous articles that I’ve written on this subject are Personality Bleed: Typing the Creator of Naruto and Personality Bleed: One Piece. (Although, I occasionally reconsider ENFP for One Piece instead of what I postulated in that article)

Personality Bleed: Attack on Titan

Remember, this is a game. I’m going to make some observations about Attack on Titan, and what they might mean for the author, but I’m not taking an absolute stance or anything like that. I also haven’t done a bunch of research on the author. The content in Attack on Titan is the sole source for the personality bleed speculations that you’re about to read. So, without further ado…

1. The Attack on Titan characters lack Ne

The most noticeable personality gap in Attack on Titan is the lack of high placement Ne among the significant characters. From what I can tell, the show appears to only have one ENXP: Hange, whom people typically type as an ENTP. She is the only NP in the series that I’d really consider to be a main character. Beyond her, there are only two other NPs that are prominent enough to be identified: one INFP and one INTP. Neither get very much screen time, though. (There’s possibly a second INFP, but there isn’t enough information for any semblance of a solid case.) Of course, when I’m listing these characters’ types, it’s important to keep in mind that this is how Ryan and I have typed the characters. Popular opinion does not necessarily agree with us, resulting in even fewer NPs than we are positing.

Now, perhaps you think that three characters in a show is nowhere near few enough for me to declare a lack of Ne. Well, one thing to keep in mind is that Attack on Titan has a vast amount of characters. Three is a rather small number in comparison. In addition, the INFP and the INTP do not display their Ne very prominently. I’m confident enough in their types to identify them as such, but there isn’t enough information to write detailed analyses for either of these characters.

In comparison, there are several SPs and NJs. There are more SJs than NPs, but SPs and NJs seem to have the majority. This suggests to me that the author is likely on the Ni/Se axis.

2. Overall Ni theme within the plot

The plot of this story must have taken advanced planning to pull off so seamlessly. Every season unravels a new layer of the plot, and slowly, episode by episode, the big picture is revealed to the viewers. There is extensive foreshadowing throughout the series, that hints at where everything is going. Furthermore, near the end of season 4, we find out that the ending was essentially fated to occur. Future Eren made sure it would be so by pushing Grisha to do what he did.

In combination with the previous point, this specifically suggests to me that the author might be a high Ni user, or in other words, an NJ.

3. There are no clear values or heroes

Many stories have a hero or set of heroes that embody very specific values. Those values usually provide the main theme for the story, and are constantly reinforced. Attack on Titan is a bit different. The hero ends up not being a hero, and nearly everyone seems to have a dark side. The show doesn’t draw clear boundaries between right and wrong, or between heroes and villains. (Obviously, there are some exceptions.) It even puts forth this idea that to defeat evil, you have to become evil.

This suggested to me that the author might not have Te/Fi. Fi users typically form fairly clear, universal values in the process of self-evaluation. Since Fi focuses on individual values, it often leads to a theme of individual evolution and/or championing a personal cause. In other words, heroism can be a prominent theme, especially in a show such as AoT. However, as stated, it is not. There are no heroes and villains, and the concept doesn’t seem to be focused on (whether in the negative or the positive). Every character is given a sympathetic background story to explain their current state, and no one really stands out in the spotlight as being better or worse.

In addition to that, it’s hard to pin down the theme of Attack on Titan as a whole. There doesn’t appear to be a clear value being put forth, if you look at the “big picture” of the show. It honestly feels like the theme of the show is to reach the end (which to me suggests high Ni). So with that all being said, the lack of clear heroes or values in Attack on Titan suggests to me that perhaps the author has Ti, and was allowing that function to heavily influence his writing.

4. There are a lot of FJ characters specifically

I went through the list of character’s that Ryan and I were able to type, and the FJs won. Many were what I consider to be well-developed, or realistic portrayals of their type. Armin (a widely recognized INFJ) actually verbalized some very clear and succinct Fe/Ti logic on multiple occasions, which is something I don’t see happen very often. He’s also one of the few characters that, in my opinion, got portrayed in an overall positive way, in addition to being identified as special and critical to everyone’s survival.

Conclusion

Based on everything I explained above, I speculate that INFJ is a likely type for this author, and if not INFJ, then INTJ (Judging functions positioned in the middle of the cognitive function stack with Fi in the lower position could also potentially account for the cynical portrayal of the world.) or perhaps ISTP (reversing the function order of INFJ without putting Ni in the inferior position).

Once again, don’t take this too seriously. I view personality bleed articles more like a game, or a fun way to speculate about the influence of personality type on works of art, such as Attack on Titan. I hope you at least found this to be an interesting read. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!