Zuko: ISFP [Avatar: The Last Airbender] 2017 Follower Favorite Winner.
DOMINANT INTROVERTED FEELING: Fi
Zuko uses primarily a perceptual form of judgement throughout his life. He only evaluates a situation as it is happening to him. This can make him quite adaptable, but we see it work to his detriment in his pursuit of the Avatar. Uncle Iroh points this out when Zuko wants to take Appa. Zuko sees Appa and adapts to the situation trying to take Appa, but Iroh points out, “Then what?” Zuko had this same dilemma when he had the Avatar at the end of Book One. If it wasn’t for the Avatar and is friends Zuko would have died because of his dominant functions tendency to simply deal in the moment in any situation, judging as it occurs.
There is more to dominant Fi than the times Zuko doesn’t think a plan through. Fi is the definition of what we imagine of the word intuition, that gut feeling as the determining judgement of a situation. Rather than deal logically a dominant Fi user like Zuko listens to that inner, subjective voice. This is why we get such a focus on how Zuko is feeling. The words he uses to describe his situation is to see if he is living his life according to his inner judgement. When he gets what he thinks he wants it doesn’t feel right to him. There is still something missing. His decision making isn’t in cold logic or even out of social obligation, but based on his personal feelings, of what will jive with his inner most feelings. It is this feeling that drove him to find the Avatar to defeat and the exact same feeling that drives him to help the Avatar defeat his own father.
Fi being based on self experience in the world drove him to try and be the best son he could be. In his experience this is what made someone a good person. If he found the Avatar he could restore his honor and live up to some sort of meaning in his life. As his sense of his own fate shifts we see him still need an inner meaning to his life to drive him in his actions. He sees it as his destiny to help the Avatar.
SECONDARY EXTRAVERTED SENSATION: Se
Zuko learns best through concrete hands-on experience. He isn’t one for theories and metaphors. He is not like Iroh in this way. Zuko only learns the hard way, instead of learning from Iroh’s teachings. He must experience not just with his Fi, but with his Se in order to a lesson or belief to truly cement itself in his mind. We see this in how hard it is for Zuko to wrap his mind around things his Uncle says. It isn’t that Zuko is dumb. Zuko needs to actually interact with the world to understand something. He needs to go out and touch it and live it.
While his sister Azula has dominant Te and can understand firebending and academics using her conceptual logic, Zuko, in contrast, must wrestle with firebending. Only though really using it and learning from his mistakes, through trial and error, does his skill improve.
Zuko’s Se also links him to the present, to what is in front of him. Seeing the patterns and hidden meaning in things does not come naturally to him. He only learns these lessons and explores these possibilities through his actions. This is why he takes such a long journey to find his true self and to find his own potential and purpose.
His secondary function is what it takes to make Zuko a healthy ISFP. His exposure to the world and experiences outside the Fire Nation help form a different self-image for Zuko that gives him objective consequences to his Fi judgments. It isn’t just about him and his honor, but about the world around him and his personal obligation to that world.
TERTIARY INTROVERTED INTUITON: Ni
Zuko is not introduced to us at the beginning as a very healthy character and we see this in the evolution of his tertiary function of Introverted iNtuition. Introverted iNuition helps the user identify with ideas separate from prevailing cultural assumptions. When healthy this helps Zuko come to terms with his choice to go against his father. Zuko at the start does not have this function developed properly so he lives up to his father’s expectations of him. He focuses on this rather than his own individual perspective, putting his father’s priorities over his own. He believes so strongly that finding the Avatar is his singular purpose. This is the self-image he creates for himself.
We watch his Ni evolve when he goes through his sickness in Book Two. Letting Appa go shatters the self-image he had for himself completely and he needs to process it. His mind weaves metaphors and signs for him in his dreams for him to decypher. But not being naturally inclined to this mode of thinking reverts back to his old sense of self at the end of Book Two. However, he clearly is not the same as he was and is dissatisfied because that old self-image, once shattered, is hard to put back the way it was.
His Ni also fuels him to deflect others’ influence on his self-image as well. This is why we see him fight off Iroh all the time. We see him put down Iroh even when Iroh is in prison in the Fire Nation in order to deflect and hide his inner feelings of uncertainty and lack of happiness. Ni motivates the Zuko to do this because he becomes paranoid of others and their intentions, of what they would do if they knew his inner feelings.
INFERIOR EXTRAVERTED THINKING: Te
We can see how inferior this function is in Zuko when we look at his feelings of how his sister who has dominant Te operates. Although she is extreme, he finds her process to be cold. He isn’t wrong, but when we look at how he lead his crew in Book One and how she leads her crew when she is first introduced, my point becomes clearer. Azula didn’t care about the crew but the objective. Zuko on the other hand, though rough, deeply cared for everyone in his crew. His Fi focuses on the individuals, not on the objective itself. He often puts the safety of his crew first. Although Zuko can make the hard choices and utilize Te, it clearly isn’t his default or something that comes naturally to him. He is far more comfortable dealing with people one on one, inspiring others by example rather than through orders and structure.
Zuko often feels he is compromising himself for the structure of the Fire Nation and his role as Prince. He doesn’t realize this fully till he finally turns away from his father. He was putting his father’s priorities above his own. This is what made him dissatisfied with himself and his inner meaning. It didn’t actually add up for him.
We see Zuko in the beginning not deal with his Te properly. He uses a very emotionally driven logic, categorizing people as good and bad according to his subjective will. The Avatar is bad and he is good. Zhao, despite having the same goal is bad. Anything that didn’t conform to his Fi was bad. This is why we have such a defensive and angry Zuko for Book One. While he deals with his inferior impulses throughout Book Two and Three, we see there is this softer ISFP behind it all.
