How would you sort the characters from The Great ?
I only really care about Catherine and Peter in this show (and maybe Marial, maaaybe) so I won't spare braincells trying to sort the others.
Catherine ia NOT a Loyalist. She's not a Snake; as she herself says: she loves Peter, but she loves Russia more. Peter's response "You are not even Russian." is 100% true and what's more I don't think Catherine cares about Russia itself (I find it hard to imagine she would know to explain the tradition and history of her adoptive country if you ever asked her), but about the idea of Russia. So, she's not a Badger either.
This leaveas us with Bird and Lion and I am honestly torn on this one. I am leaning more towards Lion because she has that Internal primary energy. Not to mention, in the finale, she refuses to kill Peter in front of Voltaire because Voltaire is a paragon of virtue and she feels dirty committing murder in front of him. But she had no problem doing it when he wasn't there. I think to a Bird this would be a pretty WTF reasoning.
Bottom line: Catherine is probably a Lion who changed her cause from being a great wife for Peter to being a great Empress for Russia.
Her secondary is harder. She is not a Snake, but starts to develop a model to survive the Russian court. I don't think she's a Badger either, fluid secondaries simply don't fit her. I am in between Lion amd Bird and I am leaning towards the latter. Catherine likes plans and freaks out when they don't really work as she wants. She likes collecting books, ideas and even people once she makes up her mind to overthrow Peter. A good example of what I think is her Burd secondary is the smallpox episode where she turns to books to find a solution and finds out about vaccines.
Peter...oh dear Lord, Peter! He is an awful, awful person who is not easy to sort. My best bet would be he is a Snake Lion. A veeeery immature Snake primary that seems to have his dead mom, his aunt and maybe Georgina and Grigor in his Inner Circle. But his most important person is clearly himself. At least till he falls for Catherine at the end of season 1. Just look at their conflict in the finale: as a Snake he's heartbroken Catherine would choose something as ridiculously abstract as Russia when she already loves him and he loves her and their child.
I am going with Lion secondary because nothing else fits. The idea of Peter as a Snake or a Badger is laughable. He is not a Bird either and it can't be more clear than when you compare him with Catherine. Peter is stubborn, direct, wants to do things NOW. This wouldn't be a bad quality if he wasn't a spoiled brat that have been handed unlimited power. As it is, the Lion secondary is making him even more of a tyrant.
TLDR: Empress Catherine II of Russia - Lion Bird with Snake secondary model
Emperor Peter III of Russia - very immature Snake Lion.











