Zombies Ruin Everything

Hoo buddy lemme tell ya somethin’ right quick. Never before now has the line between Sensing and Intuition been more blurred. Right now there’s an epidemic online and it’s called confusion. It takes place in the mind and if you’re not careful you could end up writing a bunch of nonsense just to get an introduction down.

Here’s a post giving you the simplest way to tell between a Sensor hero and an Intuitive one. Since the two should usually be pretty obvious, this might seem unnecessary. But occasionally we get a character who seems a bit more complex or well-written and it could throw a homey off.

Now let’s get it out of the way that while the Heroes post covered the generalities of each type, I didn’t write anything to unify Sensing or Intuition rather the different groups as wholes. So you may have put a few things together yourself to differentiate S/N as far as fiction goes.

And I don’t really think of it in terms of what seem the most obvious. Saying for example that Sensor stories are straightforward and simple while Intuitive stories are more in depth and complex is…eh, lazy. Like Channing Tatum’s acting or the plot to either Magic Mike movie.

“So like…so like, for THIS one I’m thinkin’ we do what we do, right? But like, we do it in NEW YORK. You feelin’ me yet?” -Magic Mike producers

It is onto something though, I just don’t think it’s that simple. It seems that if you compare heroes of S and N preferences you’ll usually always find that Sensor characters need to deal with the outside world to understand themselves while Intuitive characters need to understand themselves to deal with the outside world.

So for an example of a Sensor character, to start off, we’ll go with our resident good ol’ boy, Captain America. In just about every form, Captain America, whether you believe he’s one type or another, is a Sensor. If you’re saying he’s ESTJ, ISFJ, ESTP, whatever, the guy is a Sensor. Notice that if it’s comics, cartoons, movies, or video games, Steve Rogers doesn’t have any major internal struggle going on.

Does he have problems? Oh yeah. Everyone he knows is dead, he’s living in a world he’s unfamiliar with and specifically one where secrets are the currency. It’s confusing for us, much less a man who was used to a different time.

But through it all, the shootouts, fist fights, in-the-shadows discussions, Rogers begins to learn more and more about himself as he deals with the issues at hand. By the end of the Metal Gear Solid the movie- I mean, uh, the Winter Soldier movie, Steve has dealt with HYDRA, the black handed government whose touch has been slowly corroding the world. From this, he sees things differently. Much of the problem throughout the movie was Steve not having a handle on the way the modern world is. But throughout the film, Steve begins to come to ask himself if he’s believed in something that just isn’t real; are notions of truth and liberty are just naive? Or has the world itself lost its way?

Lies and espionage are the new way of life for those in power. And since he’s Captain America, and a pillar for all the stuff he believes in (Not lies and espionage but truth and liberty) whether the world keeps to it or not, Steve’s ending is more on how the world has changed rather than how much he has. Sure, he’s had to learn a lot in the past several days but really it was more about coming out on the other side of the battle in one piece. And he’s a bit more self-aware because of it.

So that’s our Sensor man. Fixing the problems of others and finding out something new about himself along the way.

And staying in line with Marvel characters, we’ll use Star-Lord as our N character.

Many of us reading this will have seen the Guardians of the Galaxy film. In it, Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, and his group of misfits (Are you immediately thinking of the word rag-tag?) are trying to keep Ronan the Accuser from destroying a race of people. Is that what the movie is about? I was pretty sure it was more about Quill and his team trying to stop fighting long enough to decide whether or not they should do anything other than try and make some money off the Infinity Stone or even each others’ bounties.

Quill goes through life in his own way but the way it seems to be with him is that the simplest thing leads to him tripping over his own shoelaces or just barely escaping death. Sure, we like him. But it’s kind of surprising he’s made it this far.

While each Guardian has their own dilemma to deal with, Quill’s main issue is whether or not he can man up and be the hero for once in his life…or continue being a selfish thief, ripping off anybody that turns their back for even a second.

At times he shows himself to have selfless tendencies, such as saving Gamora, even when he knows it will get them them caught by their enemies. But he also shows himself to retain his more egocentric qualities by specifically stating that he is a hero for doing what he did.

It’s not until the end that he realizes that he can’t keep going the way that he is and that something has got to change. No more sneaking around on his own, it’s time to team-up and do some good. And something bad. Or a little bit of both. Ah, paraphrasing. You get it.

Ultimately, he is his own problem. Quill has seen himself as this great outlaw when he was not only going in the wrong direction, he’s full of pride and selfishness. Sacrificing himself (so he thinks) to grab the stone with his bare hand by the end is his act of selflessness that lets us see how he’s actually changed. Captain America would have done that in the beginning of the movie if circumstances allowed but Quill had to work to get to that point. So yes, Intuitive types are their own worst enemy.

If you’re getting from this again, that S is simple and N is complex, you’re not getting this yet. Sensors deal with the world and by doing so learn about themselves. Intuitives learn about themselves so that they can then deal with the world.

Here’s a short list of S and N characters summed up with their conflict and their dealing of said conflict.

Kung Fu Panda’s Po, ENFP– Finally figures out that his perceived weakness is his strength, is able to defeat villain.

Superman, ESFJ– In dealing with the everyday struggles of Metropolis, Clark Kent learns more and more about himself by observing the humans he protects.

The Matrix’s Neo, INTP– Understands that his lack of faith in himself has been the problem, dies, transcends, defeats Agent Smith.

Katniss Everdeen, ISTP– The longer the Hunger Games/rebellion dredges on, the more Katniss figures out what she’s made of and what her role in life is.

I don’t see this idea as being so airtight nothing could get through it but I do see it as having some validity as it seems to be this way with users in reality as well. Intuitives struggle in their own ways by having to compromise how they are naturally to the way the rest of the world is while Sensors can fairly easily navigate through the practical world but come into conflict with things they have yet to figure out about themselves.

But in the end, it’s really the kids that win.

This entry was posted on 07/30/2015 at 3:11 am and is filed under MBTI Stuff, MBTI Whatever with tags captain america, entp, estj, How to tell the difference between sensing and intuitive characters, star lord. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.