#cause it’s an unpopular take amongst people who know mbti but don’t use functions

[dr-lizortecho]

Love that we're both into MBTI! Could you talk more about how Elena's strengths and weaknesses make her an INFP? I'm asking not because I disagree with you typing her as an INFP - I would too!---but because I'm always trying to better understand her character!!

I adore talking character typing- so I apologize in advance for what this is probably gonna look like. But essentially Elena Gilbert is very much the kind of archetype people slot into the INFP stereotype, she’s angsty and sad and kind and naive. But instead of focusing on all of the qualities that make her fit into the box pretty well (though occasionally falling into ISFJ territory) I’m gonna focus on her function stack since that’s the way I tend to decide where to type characters (aka which section of my Pinterest board to put a crappy picture of them, lol)

“Look, I’m at a crossroads right now where... I could live my life the way I think I probably should, and be successful, and safe, and... probably very happy. Or I could risk all of that for this tiny glimmer of a feeling inside that I... I just can’t shake.”

Fi (introverted feeling)

Introverted feeling as the dominant function appears most often as a deep rooted need or longing for self distinction or individuality and the constant question of who they are and where they fit into the world. This is a semi-universal feeling of course, but for the Fi dominants (INFP/ISFP) it’s the leading force in most of their decision making and life choices. For Elena this is mostly seen through her always asking herself questions and trying to stay true to herself, even at the expense of other things she treasures. This can be seen in anything as simple as her leaving cheerleading or staying on the miss mystic falls court or as big as defending her feelings for Damon when it is a major stressor on every important relationship in her life. But for Elena it’s mostly in that ever present questioning of self and constant shift to be her truest self, until she appears almost fully settled in season six.

I’ve talked before about how her Fi is kinda tricky to pin down (even as an Fi user myself) and that it took me a long while to truly see it. But it was back in season six that it hit me square in the chest, when she chose to erase Damon from her memories because she couldn’t live or function without him. All of this to say that Fe loves and understands through the feeling and understanding of emotions, while Fo loves through the understanding of self (one day I’m going to write about the differences using Max and Isobel Evans- one day). So for Elena a small part of her is actually defined through who she chooses to love, her identity falling into fractals every time someone close to her dies (her parents, Jenna, Alaric, Jeremy, Bonnie, etc.). Leaving her to exhaustingly pick up her pieces and for them back together (until much later in the series when she learns the healthiest thing is to build that on herself- but that’s besides the point). So the scene is set in season six with Elena having lost people over and over and over again, rebuilt herself and turned off her humanity switch and cried her eyes out. And it’s to this point that she has finally built most of herself around the most steady and constant person in her life in the last few years- which shockingly is Damon Salvatore one of the most unstable and sporadic people in her vicinity. So when he dies she’s left spiraling, because that was her last connection, the thing that for her through losing everyone else and always got her back in her feet. She doesn’t even know who she is without him. But all of that to say- Elena’s Fi was the focal point of her character even if really difficult to pin down on page.

Ne (extroverted intuition)

Probably her most visible function- as with a lot of INFP’s once they’re comfortable with you. Extroverted intuition as the auxiliary function appears almost the same as dominant Ne, the only true difference being that it often caters to the dominant function. In this case her Fi- meaning that most uses of Ne will be to assist or help answer (or convolute) the questions she poses to herself while using Fi.

Ne as a function works to make information and organize it, as well as connect it. It’s the realm of possibilities and uncertainties. This function is the primary driving force of the Salvatore brother love triangle and the reason Elena can’t help but to see the potential of who Damon could be. She basically verbalized the function in the season three finale while discussing with Matt which brother she should choose, presenting all the possibilities (that aligned with her Fi) and then creating more once it appeared she had reached an answer.

Si (introverted sensing)

As her tertiary function it’s weaker than her Ne and Fi, but also more predominant in her character than Ne (this is because her dominant loop is Fi-Si). Introverted sensing is how she chooses to interact with knowns and unknowns, how she responds to the world around her as much as how she stores new information.

Si is very rooted in the past and how a persons personal experiences have taught them about the world and cause to affect. Drawing on memories and personal experience to stake claim or predict the present. Elena uses it throughout the whole series, from her diary entries to her response to learning Stefan is a vampire to deciding whether or not to remember Damon. The first being an obvious reflection on her past experiences and how they have shaped her and will continue to do so. While the second show she’d gut reaction to discovering vampirism and Stefan’s potential danger vs her know s about his personality. How she has to draw on the reality behind her instead of in front of her to determine what she believes will occur. As for her memories, she is reluctant to change anything good about her life in favor of having new knowns, because she is relying on a marred version of reality to remember only the monstrous side of Damon. Making it difficult and a leap of her Fi-Ne to pick to alter those memories, because she struggles to grasp that her knowns have been changed, that she’s working with flawed data. Idk if that makes sense.

Te (extroverted thinking)

As her inferior function it’s the weakest in her stack, and the least implemented in her decision making. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not part of the complete process! Extroverted thinking is about cold knowns and seemingly objective truths, about being able to deconstruct and arguement or an idea and rebuild it to prove understanding.

I won’t lie- it rarely appears in and of itself (which makes sense! It mostly shows up in her Ne-ate loop). The first thing that comes to mind is yet again the season three finale in which she attempts to solve a heart issue with objective reality, by choosing who she should love based on who she met first from some sense of owing it to them.