analyzing tw personality types number 1: corey bryant - ISTP 5w6 sx/sp
hey thats his lacrosse number
so yea he was underdeveloped but i’m gonna try to explain my reasoning. i will probably also do liam, mason, theo and stiles and then maybe some other lads if i don’t give up at that point
also if you dont know what these numbers and letters mean: ISTP is mbti, ti/ne/se whatever is mbti theory, 5w6 is enneagram, and sx/sp is the enneagram subtypes. this post assumes you know more abt it so this is more intended for tw fans experienced with personality theories/personality theory tumblrs that happen to know about tw. cool? cool.
side note: trust me when i say i know what i’m talking about, i used to video edit & i have made so many scenepacks of this invisible fuck that i can quote MANY lines & tell you exactly what he does from start to finish. doubt my mbti knowledge, not my knowledge on side character lore >:)
auxiliary se
we’re starting with se because i can explain ti/fe in the same section & struggled to explain one without the other.
so people generally tend to characterize se as being physically active and aware of your surroundings which uhh isn’t it??? at all??? it’s just being straight to the point and surface level. of course ni helps istps with underlying themes, but their first instinct is gonna be to perceive reality without underlying themes. it’s just plain old vanilla reality.
despite corey consistently defying the se related stereotypes and playing right into the INxP inattentive can’t see shit in front of himself stereotype, he thinks like an auxiliary se user. when mason talks to him about the good guys vs bad guys dichotomy, he just mentions that he wants to stay alive and theo’s side seems to be the best way to do that. intuitives might pick up on underlying themes and patterns more, but corey literally does not give that a second thought. this could also be because of death “darkening his soul” or whatever the show tried to explain half-assed though.
so let’s look at more examples:
>genuinely getting absolutely nothing out of the schrödinger’s cat lesson multiple times. usually not being able to keep up with mason’s rants about things until mason directly explains what they mean. this might’ve been throwaway if it happened once, but it happens a lot. i know not being good at school has nothing to do with cognitive functions, but everything being explained to him are FIGURATIVE concepts, ones not based in concrete reality; xSxPs can find figurative stuff tedious or a waste of time.
>being able to 20/20 see how screwed up beacon hills is and wanting to leave immediately, not even remotely excited about the possibilities of the supernatural. like i know he got his ass kicked multiple times before he could even register that maybe the supernatural would be cool, but i think an ne user might be like “woah what else is there” or smth, even in a morbidly curious way. corey does not give a shit about that. he wants to leave because shit’s demonstrably dangerous as hell.
>”your friends aren’t my friends” is pretty surface level. like dude liam has been mason’s best friend for their entire childhood presumably, or at least since 6th grade. (to be fair liam was also being a douche. they were both douches. douche solidarity.)
>he literally disappears immediately with mason in 5x18. he isn’t taking any chances with scott after, i don’t know, scott claws him in the neck and generally doesn’t give him any help despite helping hayden loads. i’ll come back to this topic one day bc while i like scott as a character (but not a protagonist) this WAS a fucked situation in general. basically se>ne for this too bc for all he knew scott could’ve killed mason & he wasn’t taking his chances like an ne user might.
(please don’t attack me i’m not a scott anti)
>”i just wish i could help her, you know, to-“ — “be alone?” mason is clearly ignoring that lydia told him and corey to shut the fuck up MANY times when he was still there helping, and corey quickly brings him back to reality by saying she literally would do better without their help.
so basically tldr he thinks more literally and concrete than about possibilities than an INxP, even if he has stereotypical INxP energy lol
tertiary ni
so ni users have this thing called “ni tunnel vision” where they can’t see possibilities around them that might be actually viable. the same way si users are so stuck in what worked before that they can’t see what COULD’VE worked. etc etc etc. i have the most rusty idea of ni so if this doesn’t make any sense i will not be even remotely surprised.
but basically you NEVER see corey consider multiple perspectives or ideas. he narrows things down, and that’s the difference between ne and ni. ne expands and can get carried away with all the possibilities, ni narrows and focuses too hard sometimes. it “just knows” things and often doesn’t have concrete reasoning.
so some swaggy ni examples (forewarning, i am kinda grasping at straws. while ti-se seemed obvious to me, ni is pretty hidden & barebones.)
>being hellbent on leaving until he actually needs to stay to help at the lacrosse game, and even that took convincing from mason
>i know “hunches” are one of the dumbest ni stereotypes, but ne/si users might not even be able to catch onto hunches they have, and might think “oh well it just could’ve been this lol.” the fact that he’s sure some shit went down at the library in 6x2 & doesnt consider another possibility seems kinda ni to me??
>honestly the best point i can use to prove the existence of ni is that he uses se. keep in mind that i’m using like 30 minutes of screentime to justify what i’m saying here and ni is the least obvious function for him (and generally a really weird/hard function to spot anyways)
dominant ti/inferior fe
so while i waffle a bit with the n vs s dichotomy for corey, i know DAMN well he’s an IxTP at the very least because of the glaring dominant ti and inferior fe.
at the beginning of the show he tries as hard as he can to stay away from the supernatural. he doesn’t consider the fact that the others might need his help, and he doesn’t ask them for help either. he DOES come to book club, but states that he’s only on chapter 1, and after scott claws him in the neck he’s just about done with helping.
up until 5x10 he pretty much only shares stuff he discovers with mason. in 5x7 (i think) he does look into how the sting he got mysteriously healed, but it takes mason’s intervention for him to even open up about it, and it takes mason’s intervention again for him to try out weights before he subsequently dies. so he’s a generally uninvolved person.
he even tries to go off on his own from the PACK THAT RESURRECTED HIM & asks mason out, and is only thrwarted from this when theo threatens him with sort of a “i brought you back, i can just as easily kill you again” type shtick and then yeah i mean i’d help too. dying doesn’t seem ideal.
basically ti dom/fe inferiors stay pretty uninvolved and personally autonomous. they don’t need a lot of interaction, come off pretty introverted, and usually prefer to be left alone. they can actually come off mean/cold unintentionally, since fe is literally based in group values.
which brings me to my next point. he definitely does come off mean/cold unintentionally.
>”you like me, go out with me.” corey says as the guy he’s allied with literally almost got mason’s best friend to MURDER his alpha
>explaining why him and the others have to “leave” in 5x15 to mason very matter of fact. he’s sad, and he does throw in the let me protect you line, but anyone without feeling in the inferior position would approach that conversation with more tact yk
>”they’re just rumours. they don’t know anything.”— “they know everything.” liam literally asks corey why he only shows up when there’s bad news because he’s so blunt about the situation throughout 6x14.
>6x2 is a good ti vs fi conflict (with mason’s fe on the side since he’s inbetween liam and corey.) liam gets mad at corey in kind of a moralistic way, angry that he didn’t try to help hayden and mason more during the fight against the beast, when corey just remarks that he literally wasn’t physically capable of doing anything useful. & liam doesn’t take that for an answer at first bc he tries to do the right thing & he’s kinda stubborn yk. liam’s definitely more idealistic in that way, and i think it shows how matter of fact corey is by contrast and why he doesn’t really comment on liam’s feelings at all.
another interesting thing to note in the difference between INTPs and ISTPs: ISTPs are (stereo)typically colder. INTPs can actually end up seeming a little nicer/softer than ISTPs, because INTPs can use their ne to sense underlying social patterns, even if they end up awkward and scattered. ISTPs have the double whammy of inferior fe and se seeing everything as just the way it is. this is why “your friends aren’t my friends” and “you like me, go out with me” are very se/inferior fe examples. corey doesn’t see underlying themes as easily, and the inferior fe makes that even worse.
(also if any of this came out harsh, i literally have inferior fe too. this is me personally attacking myself. i will also roast the other characters about their inferior functions so dont you worry)
enneagram 5w6
i’m still considering 9w8 as a valid option for his ennea too, but there are a few reasons why i lean a bit more into 5.
first of all: triads!! remember that they actually do mean things.
what triads do 9 belong to? positive outlook, attachment, and withdrawn.
withdrawn totally checks out. he’s an introverted guy. he literally turns invisible when confronted. if that isn’t the most withdrawn triad shit idk what is.
but things get a bit muddy when we move into the other 2. attachment triad types struggle to separate themselves from others, and after what i discussed before, i think corey has the opposite problem. positive outlook types have a positive outlook. enough said. he’s pretty far from optimstic.
what triads do 5 belong to? competency, rejection, and withdrawn again. i’m damn near certain he’s withdrawn.
competency fits. reactive could kinda work too, but i think competency works the best. when stressed competency types kinda just work as hard as they can & focus on what they can do. corey doesn’t seem to fall into his emotions like a reactive type would, nor does he literally ignore reality like a positive outlook type. he also visibly worries about his ability to do things, like in 6x3 when he had to fight for the first time, and in 6x15 when he’s upset about having stood by while liam “got his ass kicked.”
and rejection is what sold it for me. his family seems neglectful, judging by the fact that they didn’t notice him literally dying. even if that was an exaggeration on corey’s part, you don’t say stuff like that about parents lightly, so they obviously lack some sort of care that parents generally provide. rejection types basically learn at some point in their childhoods that they have to fend for themselves and need to learn how to do that yk. 2s generally try to help everyone else & resist help from others (even if they secretly want affection back,) 8s refuse help because vulnerability feels like weakness and weakness leads to being controlled, and 5s observe the world around them and don’t know how to ask for help or reach out.
so about 5s in general and why i think corey’s a 5: despite lacking in the stereotypically intellectual area of 5s, corey is basically a stereotypical 5. they’re called observers for a reason. when 5s don’t think they know what they’re doing, they retreat. this is literally what corey did for the entirety of season 5 because he thought just being able to turn invisible wouldn’t exactly fare well against werewolves & chimeras and the fucking beast of gevaudan (who turned out to be his boyfriend poor thing) so he retreated. when he realizes he probably has to fight in 6x3, he’s openly insecure about this and needs a ton of reassurance before he can even try.
it’s why 5s sorta stay in their caves and don’t initiate things, they’re afraid of incompetence and stuff. he has no idea how to navigate this world that is already terrifying as all hell for him. 5s are also in the fear triad, and from what i can tell, he’s a 5w6, which is literally DOUBLE fear center!! we love to see it
i also don’t think he’s a 9 because he isn’t scared of conflict. physical conflict sure, but he has every right to be, and that ties into the competency thing. emotional conflict is completely different, and he’s never seen sugarcoating anything or avoiding conflicts to please people, which are hallmark 9 symptoms.
side note that may or may not be canon: so on the tw wiki i found a transcript for superposition (https://teen-wolf-pack.fandom.com/wiki/Superposition/Transcript) and it’s REALLY descriptive. like as an aspiring screenwriter myself i’ve looked for screenplays past 3A and been generally unsuccessful, but some of the descriptions in here are like more descriptive than the actual ACTING in the show, so i wanted to share a couple of them that definitely support my theory:
SCOTT: [voiceover] Previously on Teen Wolf... STILES: If you can explain why this is blue, I'll let it go. LYDIA: The Ghost Riders. The Wild
COREY: I didn't even know it went that high... I'm stuck at a 2.7.
[Mason immediately tries to comfort his boyfriend when he realizes how insecure he is about his academic life]
MASON: Liam, look-- it's not like chameleons are the apex predator of the animal kingdom. All Corey can do is disappear.
[Corey's expression darkens, visibly hurt by Mason's comment, and when Mason realizes what he has just said, he starts to feel guilty for his unintended rudeness. Liam, however, continues to reject their attempts to argue Corey's case]
like??? who wrote this and why is it so descriptive???
anyways if that was what was intended then uhh 10 points for gryffindor
and my w6 explanation. he seems a lot more security oriented and dependent than a 5w4. that’s the only reason. i also don’t really see much 4, although it also seems like the only possible heart fix, so even though i dont really believe in tritypes he’d be a 594 probably. merry christmas tritype fans
sx/sp
let’s look at what the 5 subtypes are so we’re all kinda on the same page because enneagram info on the instinctual variants are so painfully inconsistent that sometimes arguing with other people about them is like arguing with a brick wall because we’re literally going off different definitions.
sp 5: Very protective of personal space and privacy, this type sets clear limits and boundaries and is very comfortable living a relatively solitary life with just a few close friends. They would much rather observe social life than participate in it. Often truly introverted, they prefer not to reveal much of their inner self, finding it difficult to lower their guard for fear of losing their privacy or sense of safety.
sx 5: The typically cool, analytical Five connects to passion in this subtype, focusing that passion on one or two people in an otherwise reserved life. They experience strong ‘chemistry’ with another person, enjoying the connection and trust and openness this permits. They risk depending on this other person to make them feel vibrant and alive, leading them to ‘test’ their partner’s loyalty or resist sharing them with others.
so 5: The SO Five searches for the essence or meaning of situations, with a focus on the big questions as they pursue wisdom and knowledge. They connect with groups or experts who share their brilliance and high ideals, often disconnected from everyday issues or emotions. While sharing values and ideals with energy and enthusiasm, they may resist sharing space, time or inner resources, disconnecting from the people around them
so uhh yeah i think he’s sx/sp/so in that order. he is generally indifferent to having friends throughout the show but seems to really care about mason, and i’m sure if the show went on or we got a spinoff he’d eventually open up to liam and maybe even theo too. 5s are just guarded like that. i don’t see any so 5 so i mean yuh thats about it, it’s pretty self explanatory
conclusion
anyways this ended up way more rambly and long than i intended but if you enjoyed then hope you look forward to the other ones i may or may not write!!
