Daredevil: Franklin Nelson [Foggy] (ESFJ)

Franklin Nelson, or Foggy, is a main character from the show Daredevil (2015). Initially, we considered by ENTP and ENFP for Foggy Nelson, but as the show progressed, we landed solidly on Fe dominant, or ESFJ specifically. We also considered ENFJ. Foggy Nelson is actually a fairly realistic example of an ESFJ, and demonstrates the ESFJ’s entire function stack rather well. Hopefully this makes sense! If you’re interested in other characters from this show, make sure to check out our article on Matt Murdock. We likely publish a couple more characters analyses from this show in the near future.

Fe:

“I only ever needed my friend. I wouldn’t have kept this from you, Matt, not from you.”

“This is way more important than a civil union. Come on, we’re gonna be business partners. We’re gonna share everything with each other. Our thoughts, our dreams, bills, crushing debt…”

“And we have to be on the same team, making decisions together.”

“What about the rest of us? Me, Karen… We’re a part of this now, because of you. And we didn’t get a say in that.”

Foggy excels at connecting with others and being a team player. He instantly connected with Matt back when they met at college, and they formed a close friendship. In spite of his personal dreams, Foggy chose to join up with Matt, telling him that “I trust you. If you think this is what we should be doing, then I’m with you. For better or worse.” Foggy very clearly enjoys working together with others, and gets extremely excited when him, Karen, and Matt started working together in season three. He makes a lot of excited comments about it, almost to the extent that the others find it annoying.

While working together, Foggy is far better than Matt at interacting with others in a polite and socially acceptable way. He’s shown frequently reframing things that Matt says to people, in an attempt to make Matt sound less rude or more positive. Foggy is good at paying attention to the little things, and acting in such a way that everyone likes him. That’s demonstrated in the way he interacts at his family gathering, during season three.

Foggy is emotionally intelligent, and very good at dealing with others on an emotional level. When Karen is dealing with her trauma in season one, Foggy knows exactly how to interact with her, and how to help her cope. Foggy always acts real, authentic, and personable, which is partially how he connects with people, like Matt, so fast. Matt appreciated not being tiptoed around because of his blindness, not being treated like he was made of glass. Later on, Foggy refuses to give up on Matt because he recognizes that deep down Matt was hurting himself just as much as he was hurting them.

Foggy tends to view people and relationships in a collective way, which is the mark of a high Fe user, like the ESFJ. When learning of Matt’s secret identity, Foggy blames Matt for the impact his choices might have on them. He tells Matt that him and Karen were a part of this now, because of Matt. In another example, Foggy apologizes to Karen, saying that he should have warned her about Matt. She, as a Fi user, tells him “No you shouldn’t have. Look, if Matt doesn’t want to share his life with me, that is between me and him. The same way that your friendship with Matt is between you and him.”

Si:

“So we should risk everything, our firm, our reputation, and let’s be honest, our safety? We should put it all in the line to help him?”

“Me and you, pal. We’re gonna have big fancy offices one day with steel and glass and chairs you don’t even know how to sit in. Murdock and Nelson! Attorneys at law.”

Foggy tends to be concerned with practical matters, such as safety and money. He struggles with how often Matt turns down cases, knowing that they actually need to make money to keep the lights on. While as a feeling dominant, he can certainly appreciate the idealistic goal that Matt is focused on, Foggy legitimately struggles with the lack of stability and security that it results in. Although, he puts up with it for the longest time because they are doing good. However, later, Matt convinces them to take a case that risks their reputation, their firm, and their safety, but then bails to do Daredevil stuff. After carrying the case entirely by himself, Foggy ends up breaking away from Matt, and finding himself a more stable job situation.

When sharing his dreams, Foggy always expresses a vision that is focused on all the physical marks of success. He imagines the fancy offices, the furniture, the money, etc. Essentially, his dreams appear to be more practical in nature, more tied to reality. This is why he gets so excited when Karen accidentally buys them office equipment. Foggy, especially in that first season, has a tendency to look back at the past, and question his decision to not take the job at the fancy law firm. He bemoans their situation often, repeating what could have been. In other words, he brings up the job offer he could have taken, and the success he might be experiencing right now.

Ne:

“When you didn’t come, I thought of some possibilities, and this was my nightmare scenario.”

Foggy demonstrates a decent amount of Ne. He tends to speculate out loud, in a humorous type of way. This sometimes happens in small quips, such as telling Karen to be nice to the copier because computers will take over eventually. However, he’s also prone to making up entire narratives on the spot. Early in his friendship with Karen, he makes up a humorous scenario about how she’s in love with him, while talking to her directly. When she questions what he’s doing, he jokingly says, “Just let me live in it.”

Foggy doesn’t often tend to leap to conclusions, because he’s aware of different possibilities. When Karen keeps insisting that Matt has come back from the dead, Foggy just shrugs it off, saying that the man in the black mask could have been anyone. Similarly, when Matt is convinced that Fisk orchestrated the Punisher’s escape from jail (because they were in the same cell block), Foggy points out that those two pieces of information don’t directly connect.

Ti:

“When he was around, I knew who I was. Now…”

Foggy’s inferior Ti surfaces in the way he relies on Matt to define who he is. He latches onto Matt’s dreams and ideals, and follows those in spite of what he originally wanted. Of course, he does this because he truly believes in what Matt aims to do. However, he bases his life around Matt’s, allowing Matt to make the decisions and guide his life. After their falling out, after Matt essentially betrays Foggy, Foggy finds another direction to go, but he expresses to a family member what can be interpreted as an inferior Ti struggle. Basically, he states that he knew who he was when Matt was around, and implies that that is no longer the case.