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About the ISTJ type
ISTJ personalities lead with the Introverted Sensing (Si) function. Si influences them to be loyal, concrete, traditional, and to prefer a lifestyle that has a high degree of predictability. ISTJ types, therefore, will move toward the future most confidently with the past as a template. Extraverted Thinking is the auxiliary function for the ISTJ type. As the auxiliary function, Extraverted thinking (Te) helps the ISTJ type logically organize their outer environment in order get tasks done. Te influences the ISTJ to take more of a mechanistic and impersonal approach, preferring to deal with people impartially, and to control their outer environment via rules and regulations. ISTJ types tend to excel at positions where they monitor others.
Game of Thrones ISTJ types
- Stannis Baratheon
- Ser Rodrik Cassel
- Balon Greyjoy
- Tycho Nestoris
- Barristan Selmy – Captain of King’s Guard then Daenyrus’ personal guard
- The High Sparrow
- Ned Stark
- Sansa Stark
- Alliser Thorne: Jon Snow's nemesis at Castle Black
Stannis Baratheon
Integration scale: Low.
Integrity scale: Keeps getting lower, more conflicted, until he dies.
Stannis' motivation doesn't seem to want power so much as the fact that he is the rightful king according to the existing rules (Si). He is, after all the next in line to the throne after the deceased Robert Baratheon. Therefore, it is his duty that he do what it takes to become king. After all, if the rightful king is not on the throne the world will be chaos. His undoing comes from his relationship with his demonic #8 Introverted Intuition (Ni) as illustrated by his relationship with the Red Witch Melisandre. Her intuition guides him to destroy everything that is dear to him including his own daughter in order to become king. Of course, her intuition fails him. He dies at the hand of Brienne of Tarth, telling her, "Do your duty."
Ser Rodrik Cassel
"The law is the law"
Balon Greyjoy
"When you rule the Iron Islands, you can wage all the peace you want. But for now, shut your mouth and obey"
"The ironborn will reave and pillage, as it was in the old days"
Tycho Nestoris
"Across the Narrow Sea, your books are filled with words like "usurper" and "madman" and "blood right." Here, our books are filled with numbers. We prefer the stories they tell. More plain."
Barristan Selmy
Integration scale: Medium.
Integrity scale: High
Here again the theme of honor rings loudly:
"A man of honor keeps his vows even if he's serving a drunk or a lunatic."
Ser Barristan is insulted by his dismissal from the King's Guard by King Geoffrey. But then he uses the dismissal as an opportunity to serve someone he truly admires. In doing so he utilizes his #3 Introverted Feeling.
"Just once in my life before it's over, I want to know what it's like to serve with pride, to fight for someone I believe in."
The first quote regarding honor is about Si loyalty. A person should be loyal, "even if he's serving a drunk or a lunatic." The second quote is about personal Fi values.
The High Sparrow
Integration scale: Low.
Integrity scale: High.
The High Sparrow's primary concern is to make sure the people in the realm, especially those in power, lead their lives according to the precepts set forward in The Seven Pointed Star. He appears to be a man of feeling, but it soon becomes obvious that any feeling he has serves his loyalty (Si) to a standard that he feels obliged to enforce upon others (Te). Therefore, it makes sense that his feeling is the #3 Introverted Feeling of the ISTJ type. Although he makes a good play at being wise and humble, he's not an especially integrated character. For example, in addition to his weak #3 Fi, his inferior Extraverted Intuition (Ne) which could give him a greater sense of flexibility and possibility, does not show any sign of development. It's all "by the book" for the High Sparrow. How could the Seven Pointed Star be wrong?
Ned Stark
Integration scale: Medium.
Integrity scale: High
Many people type Ned Stark as an ISFJ. However, if you look at his feeling closely it becomes apparent that it is an integrated #3 Introverted Feeling rather than #2 Extraverted Feeling which would make him an ISFJ type. Like Stannis and The High Sparrow, Ned Stark is driven to do his duty above all else. His loyalty to the king and his expectation that others in King's Landing would play according to the same rules of honor that he does earns him the first death of a major character in the Game of Thrones series. His Te compels him to make sure others follow the rules, but he is outwitted by Little Finger who plays by his own rules.
His integrated #3 Fi comes to the forefront when he tells King Robert, "I followed you into war, twice, without doubts, without second thoughts. But I will not follow you now." In this case, his personal moral authority trumps his loyalty to his king.
"The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword." He takes no pleasure in taking a life, but feels compelled to take the responsibility for his own rulings. This shows a very integrated Te/Fi loop. He is being the dutiful ISTJ monitor, but at the same time there is a strong statement of sober personal values in that statement.
If only Ned could have utilized his inferior, #4 Extraverted Intuition, it may have given him the fluidity of thought he needed to outwit the trap that was set for him.
Sansa Stark
Integration scale: High by the end of the series, low at the start.
Integrity scale: High by the end of the series, low at the start.
"You have to be smarter than Father. You need to be smarter than Robb. I loved them, I miss them, but they made stupid mistakes, and they both lost their heads for it"
At the beginning of the series Sansa is a girl filled with ideas about what a girl like her should be and who she should love. But none of that is real. Through her trials she becomes a fierce, loyal, and capable leader and administrator. Many people type Sansa as an ESFJ, but the part of her that looked like an ESFJ were simply her girlish expectations that she conform to what girls should be, which is more like an ESFJ than an ISTJ.
Sansa's natural concern is not social harmony as it would be if she were an ESFJ. Rather, her chief concern is making sure that she preserve the Stark home and Stark authority in the north as it has been. She proves capable of monitoring the multitude of logistics in preparing for the war with the dead. There is nothing in her character that suggests extraversion. She is more comfortable alone or with a few people. She's more of a natural controller and monitor, than a natural tender of people's needs. This makes her more of an ISTJ than an ISFJ.
Sansa may be one of the most integrated ISTJ characters in the series. She demonstrates constructive use of her inferior Extraverted Intuition (Ne) rather than being controlled or stymied by it. This constitutes an ideal for the ISTJ personality; An ability to be anchored in the sensibility of tradition and honor, yet able to think fluidly when needed.
Alliser Thorne
Integration scale: Low.
Integrity scale: High.
Alliser's quotable character cuts off almost completely after his #1 Fi and his #2 Te. When his feeling comes out it is often feeling for what has been (Si), and feeling for duty (Si). It's hard to hate him for his bitterness. After all he has a tough job training young ne'er do well recruits for the grim and deadly job of defending the wall. One could imagine that his sense of duty was at one time free of bitterness. There's a goodness under the bitterness, but the bitterness is thick. His Te monitoring is enforced in biting sarcasm and negativity, "Soft fat boys like you. We'd have lasted a fortnight over you and still had bones left over for soup." But he's let the harsh environment make him cruel. His strong Si is evident in many statements:
Heroic Si in preserving tradition. "Brothers! A hundred generations have defended this castle! It's never fallen before, she will not fall tonight!"
Dutiful Si in preserving order. "Jon Snow was my Lord Commander. I had no love for him. That was no secret. But I never once disobeyed an order"
He distrusts Jon Snow's #1 Introverted Feeling, and sees it as a huge danger: "You have a good heart, Jon Snow. It'll get us all killed."
Ultimately he kills Jon Snow because he can't grasp Jon's vision. Jon knows things need to change, but Alliser is terrified of change far more so than his own death. He only sees what has come before. He is blind to anything else. His loyalty to the past is stronger than his duty to Jon as his commander, and he confuses it with his loyalty to the Night's Watch.
"I had a choice, Lord Commander: betray you or betray the Night's Watch. You brought an army of wildlings into our lands. An army of murderers and raiders. If I had to do it all over knowing where I'd end up, I pray I'd make the right choice again."
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