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[MBTI General] Chronicles of Thomas Covenant characters

Mal12345

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Author Stephen R. Donaldson - INFP.
Thomas Covenant (anti-hero) - INFP with strong Si tertiary. Phobic 6w5. Tritype 6-1-4 (questioner - self-disciplinarian - artist). The 6-1-4 is known as the Philosopher, and Covenant is interested in such "fundamental" ethical questions as, "Do one's actions in dreams have any real [viz, 'ethical'] significance?"
Linden Avery - Healer, empath. She is a "damaged" type 4w5 who euthanized her own cancer-stricken mother and watched helplessly as her father committed slow suicide. INFJ.
Lord Foul - ENTJ. His approach to villainy is to send (and/or manipulate) others to do his bidding, but also to affect entire systems until the system itself is destroyed, whether that consists of breaking down someone psychologically or slowly disrupting the inherent system of Laws which governs the Land itself. 8w7, tritype 8-7-3.
Ravers (various names) - They seem to embody, in a disembodied way, the evil side of the type 3.
 

Coriolis

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I am nearly through the Last Chronicles, and have been wondering about the types of the major characters, so thanks for making this thread. I agree about Linden; Foul as an NTJ (not sure E/I). Not so sure about INFP for Covenant. The way he seems to have taken responsibility for others all his life seems more very SJ-ish. Makes me think a bit of Hagrid, actually.
 

Mal12345

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I am nearly through the Last Chronicles, and have been wondering about the types of the major characters, so thanks for making this thread. I agree about Linden; Foul as an NTJ (not sure E/I). Not so sure about INFP for Covenant. The way he seems to have taken responsibility for others all his life seems more very SJ-ish. Makes me think a bit of Hagrid, actually.

That's why I mentioned Si-tertiary. And I considered the fact that he is not exactly mentally healthy especially in the beginning. Neurosis tends to bring out the dark side of the tertiary in the function order. I'm not 100% certain. And I also left, oh, about 200 characters out of the list.
 

Mal12345

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Lord Foul is Te dominant because he thinks like a Te dominant.
 

Totenkindly

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Side note to not spoil Last Chronicles, plot wise.

I agree about Linden totally; I do see elements of INFP in Covenant coupled with ISTJ/e6w5. Phobic 6w5 is right.

Ps. I've met Donaldson. In person he comes across as Ni and J. I read him as INFJ. As an INP, I had more trouble connecting with him than expected.. not Ne savvy.
 

Mal12345

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Side note to not spoil Last Chronicles, plot wise.

I agree about Linden totally; I do see elements of INFP in Covenant coupled with ISTJ/e6w5. Phobic 6w5 is right.

How about Joan Covenant's type?
 

Totenkindly

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How about Joan Covenant's type?

I don't know. I only read the first book of the Last Chronicles, I need to buy the last one so I can just read them all one after the other.

---

Lena: ISFJ?
Atiaran: ESFJ
Trell: ESTJ
High Lord Elena: ENFJ (my best guess)

Saltheart Foamfollower seems like the kind of ISFP everyone loves.

But thoughts about Bannor and Mhoram?

Mhoram's an interesting duck. He seems to reverberate with NF intensity and personal/relational wisdom, while being level-headed and thoughtful. Thinking about it on the way home, I suspect he's actually more the "author's viewpoint/mouthpiece" in the first trilogy than Covenant (as the anti-hero) was.

I think typing Lord Foul is just kind of silly. These guys (Sauron, Lord Foul, Rakoth Maugrim, etc) always are typed by people as ENTJ. Pretty much if you're an evil selfish jerk out to dominate all of existence and crush your enemies under foot, you're automatically deemed ENTJ. It's like one of the five freebie consonants on Wheel of Fortune.
 

Mal12345

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I don't know. I only read the first book of the Last Chronicles, I need to buy the last one so I can just read them all one after the other.

---

Lena: ISFJ?
Atiaran: ESFJ
Trell: ESTJ
High Lord Elena: ENFJ (my best guess)

Saltheart Foamfollower seems like the kind of ISFP everyone loves.

But thoughts about Bannor and Mhoram?

Mhoram's an interesting duck. He seems to reverberate with NF intensity and personal/relational wisdom, while being level-headed and thoughtful. Thinking about it on the way home, I suspect he's actually more the "author's viewpoint/mouthpiece" in the first trilogy than Covenant (as the anti-hero) was.

I think typing Lord Foul is just kind of silly. These guys (Sauron, Lord Foul, Rakoth Maugrim, etc) always are typed by people as ENTJ. Pretty much if you're an evil selfish jerk out to dominate all of existence and crush your enemies under foot, you're automatically deemed ENTJ. It's like one of the five freebie consonants on Wheel of Fortune.

INTJ is the most common typing of evil villains on this forum. That includes Emperor Palpatine. Yes, Palpatine is an ENTJ.

I wouldn't hesitate to say ESTJ or ISTJ if it fit.

We know more about Lord Foul's personality than Joan Covenant's, even after 10 books. She's pretty much the "woman scorned" stereotype, and I think Donaldson portrays her as pretty shallow. For her to try making amends with Thomas at the beginning of book II was pretty silly and shallow considering that she left him on the basis of protecting their only son from his leprosy. She threatened to leave him even before that, because he went a whole year without starting on a new book. Her personality strikes me as being rather ESFPish.

Atarian is characterized as having an "inward" look that betrays her introversion. Being duty-centered, she is either an ISFJ or an ISTJ.
 

Mal12345

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I think Thomas Covenant is an INFP because you can see from his thought-processes revealed in the books that he is a highly sensitive male hiding behind a slew of defense mechanisms caused both by feeling outcast from society and also by his need to maintain self-discipline - and it's obvious that self-discipline does not come easy to him. Furthermore, as an ISTJ Covenant would be less internally contemplative and self-concerned, and more externally duty-oriented. Furthermore, an INFP goes into depression while an ISTJ is more apt to put on a sunny face. INFPs hide their feelings but they wear their hearts on their sleeves. ISTJs act like they don't even have a heart. An ISTJ would not suffer as much as Covenant does. Thomas Covenant is an INFP acting like he doesn't have feelings any more in an effort to protect himself from negative external authority figures (society's view of leprosy). But that's just the real world. In the Land he acts like he doesn't have feelings for beauty in order to protect himself for when he wakes up from his dream, as he would reject his life in the real world in a hopeless desire to return to the Land. These protective measures are motivated by INFP, but the measures themselves come from tertiary Si, or ISTJ.
Compare
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lriPb.jpg

To
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Mal12345

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"Saltheart Foamfollower seems like the kind of ISFP everyone loves."

He's definitely a Feeler. But he doesn't have any immediate compunctions over killing the Land's enemies, and afterwards he suffers pangs of conscience only if he violated the Oath of Peace. Foamfollower is also very duty-oriented, as is everybody we meet in the Land. I'll go with ESFJ.
 

Mal12345

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Author Stephen R. Donaldson - INFP.
Thomas Covenant (anti-hero) - INFP with strong Si tertiary. Phobic 6w5. Tritype 6-1-4 (questioner - self-disciplinarian - artist). The 6-1-4 is known as the Philosopher, and Covenant is interested in such "fundamental" ethical questions as, "Do one's actions in dreams have any real [viz, 'ethical'] significance?"
Linden Avery - Healer, empath. She is a "damaged" type 4w5 who euthanized her own cancer-stricken mother and watched helplessly as her father committed slow suicide. INFJ.
Lord Foul - ENTJ. His approach to villainy is to send (and/or manipulate) others to do his bidding, but also to affect entire systems until the system itself is destroyed, whether that consists of breaking down someone psychologically or slowly disrupting the inherent system of Laws which governs the Land itself. 8w7, tritype 8-7-3.
Ravers (various names) - They seem to embody, in a disembodied way, the evil side of the type 3.

I considered Lord Foul's manner of speaking and decided on ESTJ for him.
 

Mal12345

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I don't know. I only read the first book of the Last Chronicles, I need to buy the last one so I can just read them all one after the other.

---

Lena: ISFJ?
Atiaran: ESFJ
Trell: ESTJ
High Lord Elena: ENFJ (my best guess)

Saltheart Foamfollower seems like the kind of ISFP everyone loves.

But thoughts about Bannor and Mhoram?

Mhoram's an interesting duck. He seems to reverberate with NF intensity and personal/relational wisdom, while being level-headed and thoughtful. Thinking about it on the way home, I suspect he's actually more the "author's viewpoint/mouthpiece" in the first trilogy than Covenant (as the anti-hero) was.

I think typing Lord Foul is just kind of silly. These guys (Sauron, Lord Foul, Rakoth Maugrim, etc) always are typed by people as ENTJ. Pretty much if you're an evil selfish jerk out to dominate all of existence and crush your enemies under foot, you're automatically deemed ENTJ. It's like one of the five freebie consonants on Wheel of Fortune.

I think it's silly to type Sauron, who has no personality in the movies to type. But you're right that ENTJ is overdone as a villain type (along with INTJ). I thought Foul was a typical ENTJ villain, but come to think of it, he has no NT in him at all, which is to say, he doesn't express any interest in Ni concepts. And his speech patterns match those of the ESTJ type. I had to research Rakoth Maugrim because I have no idea who that is.

Bannor and all his people have exactly the same personality: ISTJ.
 

Totenkindly

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Bannor and all his people have exactly the same personality: ISTJ.

Yeah, I think if we were to type the Haruchai as a tribe (the MBTI of their culture), it's ISTJ. Practical, loyal, responsible, sensible, aware of the loyalties of others, etc. They are utterly dependable and task-focused rather than people-focused... and the severity of their fealty is beyond question... they die without pause in the face of their oath. Even the earthpower respected and sealed its integrity.

TBH, in some ways Donaldson reverberates for me more than Tolkien. I just feel like the characters and cultures are explored more psychologically and are more real to me. There were deep-seated emotions and motivations and whatever else in them that I could connect with. And he really explored how the strengths and weaknesses of people were often mirror reflections and irrevocably intertwined; almost every huge loss in those stories comes because someone's strength is distorted and feeds into their weakness. He's a brutal writer.
 

Mal12345

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Yeah, I think if we were to type the Haruchai as a tribe (the MBTI of their culture), it's ISTJ. Practical, loyal, responsible, sensible, aware of the loyalties of others, etc. They are utterly dependable and task-focused rather than people-focused... and the severity of their fealty is beyond question... they die without pause in the face of their oath. Even the earthpower respected and sealed its integrity.

TBH, in some ways Donaldson reverberates for me more than Tolkien. I just feel like the characters and cultures are explored more psychologically and are more real to me. There were deep-seated emotions and motivations and whatever else in them that I could connect with. And he really explored how the strengths and weaknesses of people were often mirror reflections and irrevocably intertwined; almost every huge loss in those stories comes because someone's strength is distorted and feeds into their weakness. He's a brutal writer.

I've been reading the Second Chronicles and changed my mind on Linden's type. She is an ISFJ.
 

Mal12345

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"As long as I don't have any power, there's nothing I can do about Lord Foul. Or the Sunbane. So you're the only reason I've got. Like it or not. I'm here because of you. I'm fighting to stay in one piece because of you. I want to do something"—her fists rose again like a shout, but her voice remained flat—"for this world—or against Foul—because of you. If you go on like this, I'll crack." Abruptly, her control frayed, and pain welled up in her words like blood in a wound. "I need you to at least stop looking so much like my goddamn father."​
Linden Avery, ISFJ.

ISFJ personality | 16Personalities
"There's hardly a better type to make up such a large proportion of the population, nearly 13%. Combining the best of tradition and the desire to do good, ISFJs are found in lines of work with a sense of history behind them, such as medicine, academics and charitable social work."

The description on that page is pretty good, but it lacks the insight to notice that ISFJs live for and through others. "I'm here because of you. I'm fighting to stay in one piece because of you. I want to do something—for this world—or against Foul—because of you."
 

Mal12345

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Vain - any personality there? No. Vain is like a computer. It is programmed, given a sense of self-preservation, sent on a mission, and has no other purpose. And yet, for all that, VAIN IS THE MOST AMAZING CHARACTER!
 

Mal12345

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I am nearly through the Last Chronicles, and have been wondering about the types of the major characters, so thanks for making this thread. I agree about Linden; Foul as an NTJ (not sure E/I). Not so sure about INFP for Covenant. The way he seems to have taken responsibility for others all his life seems more very SJ-ish. Makes me think a bit of Hagrid, actually.

Compare INFP Covenant to ISTJ Hile Troy. They are exact opposites. Covenant is driven by guilt and by the need to redeem himself. He only takes responsibility for others because of the way he feels about himself. Hile Troy is a typical military type. He takes charge of the Lords' army. He will do whatever it takes to win, he feels responsible for his soldiers and none for the enemy. Covenant feels sorry for everybody. Moreover, Hile Troy's mastery of the white gold was instantaneous, where Covenant always had to find a way to trigger it into action.
 

Mal12345

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It is often forgotten that male Feelers sometimes try to come across as Thinkers.

Here is a typical example from INFP Covenant:

"Watch them hard. If they get into trouble, we've got to stop them. I can't stand—" He muttered a curse at himself. "Can't afford to lose them."
 

Mal12345

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INFP Stephen R. Donaldson - focuses on the emotional/intellectual growth of his characters.
 

Totenkindly

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I noted that I met him in person, and he came across as horrifically IJ (not P at all) in real life... regardless of what broad assumptions you want to make about his writing style.
 
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