Manga/Anime - Dragon Ball
INFP
"Look. I’m giving you the chance to end this without violence. I really don’t want to kill you. Even if you are evil, you can still walk away."
Who is Son Gohan?
The peaceful and gentle son of Son Goku, Earth's most powerful fighter, Gohan instead aspires to be a great scholar, but harbours a great and terrible strength within him. Unlike his father, Gohan dislikes fighting and competition, yet again and again he is forced to go against his own moral values to protect the innocent and those he cares for.
Why do I love Gohan as a character?
He's so goddamn innocent, pure, and peaceful at heart. Possibly the most wholesome character ever created. There's actually not a whole lot to say because the beauty of his character is in his simplicity, much like his father Son Goku. He's an aspirational character, a bit unrealistic in his goodness, but as a symbol of virtue, I don't think there's anyone who surpasses him. I love him for the same reason many love Superman, but unlike Superman, his character isn't tied to political/national ideals. He's crafted from the mold of a timeless sense of goodness, of heroism. He overcomes adversity within and without and he does it all from the age of 4. He's essentially a child soldier, when you think about it.
There's also an aspect of Individuation about him. Gohan is very aware of his own shadow, of his rage, and how he can lose control when pushed too far. Despite all of this this, he's not flawless, and never even comes close to being a flat character. That's really impressive character writing, something Dragonball is so often overlooked for.
Also should be noted that I haven't watched/read Dragon Ball Super aside from some of the movies, so I won't be paying it any attention here.
Typing Gohan
There is no difficulty in typing Gohan. He's very clearly INFP. Though most of what we see of him is as a child/pre-teen, so his functions are never explored at their most developed.
Ego: Fi - Ne - Si - Te | Shadow: Fe - Ne - Se - Ti
[Side note: There isn't enough to go on to explore Gohan's shadow functions in much depth, so it'll be mostly inferences and hypotheticals for that section.]
Introverted Feeling (Hero)
Gohan's entire being is Fi. If you asked me to give you an example of Fi, I go straight to Gohan. I've seen people argue other typings but it's almost always from a perspective of looking at Gohan in the context of what's happening to him, not who he is. The core of Gohan is his personal value of: "I don't like violence." That doesn't come from his mother or father, and certainly not from societal influence since he barely experiences wider society until he's 16. It's his moral value, born of his experiences and it informs absolutely everything he does.
Fi>Fe or Symbiotic Extraverted Feeling Dynamic | Balanced | Gohan is far from self-absorbed and feels no need to push his own values onto anyone else. He doesn't judge or begrudge his father for his love of fighting, or Vegeta for his pride and haugtiness (except maybe a bit when it causes problems), he recognises these things as a part of who they are and accepts them gracefully. He also isn't totally insular with his personal woes and actually expresses himself healthily to his friends and family.
Fi>Te or Challenging Extraverted Thinking Dynamic | Pretty Good* | Chi Chi is unknowingly a god-tier mother, because she somehow selected the exact path for Gohan to balance out his inferior function... Gohan's studies - when he gets the chance to do them - allow him access to objective data and information that offsets his subjective outlook. He doesn't often allow his personal feelings and values to be the sole influence in his decision making (except when he's snapped, but we'll get to that), he understands what is objectively sensible most of the time.
A good example is on Namek when he knows that jumping into save Dende is impractical, he knows it could get them all killed, and he really tries to keep himself under control, but ultimately, his Fi values cannot sit by and let Freeza kill the poor Namekian boy. Distorted Fi would have none of that struggle, it would rush in blindly and naive to the objectively poor decision-making.
It could be argued that his seemingly stubborn refusal to fight Cell at full power while his friends and family are getting absolutely tortured by the Cell Juniors is indicative of imbalanced Fi, but he actually makes it clear he isn't just holding back because of his values, he literally can't tap into that power until he becomes angry enough to lose control and is actually quite distraught about that fact, so we know he isn't just being stubborn and selfish.
And while yes, he struggles to do the most obviously logical and practical thing - which would be keeping up with his training so he's prepared for the next inevitable threat that he needs to face - his reasons for doing so are rooted in deep, repeated psychological trauma. Considering he has the highest potential in the series and could easily be Earth's greatest defender, his avoidance could be viewed as somewhat selfish, but Gohan is constantly trying to shield his own psyche from his harrowing experiences, all of which involve fighting.
*When Gohan snaps, he becomes cold and ruthless, his Fi and Te positions essentially flip and both are heavily Distorted. We see this in the way he toys with his opponents in this state, which is not efficient enough to be a good use of Te, and a very distorted reflection of Fi: 'my (Fi) value judgement is that you deserve to suffer, and so I'm going to (Te) enact that'.
Fi>Ti or Dichotomous Introverted Thinking | Balanced | Gohan doesn't have any issues with clashing internal logic and feeling, and interestingly enough, there are very few significant main characters in the series with high Ti, whose logic could clash with his values in this way. Also, Dragon Ball isn't the kind of series to have a lot of interpersonal conflict between characters on the same side in general (aside from Vegeta and everyone Vegeta interacts with).
Extraverted Intuition (Parent)
Gohan is naturally open-minded and free-spirited, if he'd had his way in life he'd probably have spent most of it playing with the animals and (actual) dinosaurs in his backyard (which happens to be an entire mountain, basically). We can see Ne Parent in action all the time just by how agreeable he is to the prospect of new situations, ideas, people, etc. We get to see his creative side with the "Great Saiyaman" persona, where he pulls inspiration from his encounter with the eccentric Ginyu Force to come up with his own super hero pose/dance, complete with dramatic phrases that he has trouble narrowing down to just one.
Ne>Ni or Symbiotic Introverted Intuition Dynamic | Pretty Good | We never really get to see any good examples of this dynamic, especially since Ne is a very understated aspect to Gohan's character. We never see him seriously struggle with having to choose his 'path' in life. Hell, he never even has the chance, it's either laid out before him by his mother or thrust upon him by world-ending threats, but neither is he ever particularly rebellious in the 'don't cage me' kind of way. As previously mentioned in the explanation for Ne, there is a notable instance of him displaying difficulty selecting the 'best' catchphrase and/or pose, so he just opts to go with as many as he can, with uhhh... interesting results.
Ne>Si or Challenging Introverted Sensing Dynamic | Balanced | With a helicopter-mother hell-bent on giving him the best possible home-school education and a martial artist for a father, Gohan is not lacking in discipline or failing at routines because his head's in the clouds. He doesn't dwell on nostalgia either, heading very happy-go-luckily into whatever comes next when circumstances allow it.
Ne>Se or Dichotomous Extraverted Sensing Dynamic | Pretty Good | Due to the nature of Dragon Ball as a shonen battle series, this dynamic is never really showcased. We barely see Gohan get any time to escape from reality on-screen as he's constantly involved in the previously mentioned world-ending threats. There is a scene that stood out to me in the anime where he chases after Videl, assuming she'll be in danger, yet still takes the time to do his full pose choreography after transforming into Great Saiyaman, when there's not even anyone there to witness it. I mean, if Videl actually was in peril, she might have died 'cause Gohan just absolutely had to do his little dance routine.
Introverted Sensing (Child)
We can see Gohan's Si Child manifest mainly in his peaceful nature; this is reinforced by his balanced Fi Hero, which serves as the Child function's role model in a sense. He wants a mundane, calm and humble life as a scholar. It isn't that he just blindly follows his mother's wishes, he's a smart kid, he seems to enjoy learning, and his studies are one of the few things that are ordered and normal in his reality.
Si>Se or Symbiotic Extraverted Sensing Dynamic | Balanced | Gohan never seems to cling to his comfort zone, he welcomes a bit of excitement and often enjoys exploring the great outdoors. He doesn't react negatively if someone disturbs his everyday life - unless it's a villain, but that goes without saying - he doesn't get upset at Goku when he wants to train even though Gohan would prefer to avoid fighting altogether if given the choice. If his reason for going to Namek, and his time there, wasn't so traumatising, he'd probably have found it to be an interesting adventure.
Si>Ne or Challenging Extraverted Intuition Dynamic | Balanced | We never see Gohan have much trouble with embracing new ideas or change, this probably due to his general, highly agreeable, nature.
Si>Ni or Dichotomous Introverted Intuition Dynamic | Pretty Good | Gohan doesn't overvalue the mundane to the point where he refuses to see the bigger picture, in fact the bigger picture is often what leads him into fighting against his will in the first place. That being said, if we were to posit that Gohan's comfort zone is his emotional alignment with his values, then his inability to place the consequences of breaching those values above that internal emotional comfort could be viewed as a meta or deeply unconscious representation of this dynamic, but on the surface at least, it isn't a problem.
Extraverted Thinking (Inferior)
Now we get to the crux of why, despite his simplicity and somewhat unrealitic purity, despite not being a super in-depth exploration of an INFP, Gohan is still a very well-written character. Toriyama masterfully and subtlely portrays the pyschological impact of Gohan's repeatedly traumatic life mainly through this function and it's relationship to his Fi moral values. Gohan's greatest insecurity is his usefulness, his ability to do what is necessary juxtaposed against his desires against doing it and the guilt it causes him whenever he fails, because when he fails, typically someone he loves dies in front of him. The most serious case being of course when his father Goku has to sacrifice himself to stop Cell from destroying the planet, all because Gohan wasted time wanting to make the villain suffer.
Later, when Elder Kai unlocks his potential, we can actually see the integration of Gohan's inferior function. He has a similarly cold, efficient demeanour towards Buu as he did Cell, but doesn't mess around, and only loses because Super Buu is a one crafty son of a bitch.
Te>Ti or Symbiotic Introverted Thinking Dynamic | Balanced | We never see Gohan being dogmatic about objectivity, data or getting things done, nor does he have any difficulty thinking for himself.
Te>Fi or Challenging Introverted Feeling Dynamic | Pretty Good | Even though Gohan hates fighting, we see him create a superhero persona in The Great Saiyaman and actively tries to offset his trauma by continuing to do good in the world and prove his worth to himself through deeds by dealing with petty criminals who aren't remotely a threat to him, thus avoiding the emotional stress he associates with fighting.
Wee also see him able to assert himself and have little aversion to non-violent conflict such as when a classmate mistakes his alter ego as "The Great Mayo-man" and when the criminals mock his poses, but in the former example, his dominant Fi shows through because he fails to see the logic that getting angry about that puts obvious suspicions on his secret identity.
Te>Fe or Dichotomous Extraverted Feeling Dynamic | Balanced | Gohan has no trouble expressing emotion nor any negative perceptions of Fe qualities in others.
Extraverted Feeling (Nemesis)
Fe>Fi or Symbiotic Introverted Feeling Dynamic | Fair | Though it's never really displayed in the series, based on how agreeable and naively good-natured Gohan is, it's easy to see how he could be swayed heavily by the emotional information coming from others.
Fe>Ti or Challenging Introverted Thinking Dynamic | Pretty Good | As a counter to the last point, I also believe that his strong internal logic and sense of self would make him pretty immovable to group-think if push came to shove.
Fe>Te or Dichotomous Extraverted Thinking Dynamic | Pretty Good | Given that he's a fountain of knowledge due to his scholarly pursuits, it's hard to say that any amount of emotional data would outweigh that, but I also believe Gohan would align with feelings over logic if it came to a moral dilemma, for example.
Introverted Intuition (Critic)
Ni>Ne or Symbiotic Extraverted Intuition Dynamic | Balanced | Gohan is far from tunnel-visioned about anything. His mentor and surrogate father-figure Piccolo is also an Ni dom, so we can tell he respects this function.
Ni>Se or Challenging Extraverted Sensing Dynamic | Fair | Gohan's perceived sense of consequences do sometimes stop him in his tracks in times of great stress when it comes to releasing his power. These consequences are related to his Fi values, as in, the consequences of his actions will conflict with those values, leading to not only conflict within himself just for doing that in the first place, but potentially endangering others with his unrestrained anger.
Ni>Si or Dichotomous Introverted Sensing Dynamic | Balanced | Gohan isn't much worried about esoteric meanings, symbolism or discerning the importance of things from each other. He has no problem enjoying the mundane and therefore no judgement towards others who do also.
Extraverted Sensing (Trickster)
Se>Si or Symbiotic Introverted Sensing Dynamic | Balanced | He's hardly the type to be chasing action or excitement in any sense, and, given his own experiences, he's not going to be calling anyone boring for wanting a quiet life anytime soon.
Se>Ni or Challenging Introverted Intuition Dynamic | Balanced | He's not hot-headed or irresponsible with his actions in the slightest except for when he's snapped and he's just 'doing' in accordance to Te and Fi. Se is a thoroughly subservient function for Gohan. He is competent enough with it. No more, no less.
Se>Ne or Dichotomous Extraverted Intuition Dynamic | Balanced | Though we get no external representation of it, we can easily tell Gohan is balanced here due to how measured his responses are, showing a full capability to imagine potential outcomes from an action taken.
Introverted Thinking (Demon)
This is the one part of Gohan's typological shadow I can slightly elaborate on function-wise, since when he's snapped and making Cell regret his existence, he's making all kinds of subjective logical conclusions about his actions being justified by Cell's atrocities. You can practically hear the Demon whispering: "Look at what he's done, it doesn't make any sense to let him off with a quick death!" But of course, from a Te perspective, we know that was faulty logic and only led to more tragedy.
Ti>Te or Symbiotic Extraverted Thinking | Balanced | When not snapped, which is fortunately 99.9% of the time, Gohan has no trouble verifying his own logical assumptions with other opinions or external data (this will come naturally to him as a scholar after all). I also can't think of a single instance of him being stubborn with his personal logic towards others either.
Ti>Fe or Challenging Extraverted Feeling | Balanced | Unfortunately this is another dynamic that gets no attention due to the very limited internal group conflict in Dragon Ball. Both Fe and Ti are significantly developed in Gohan despite being in his shadow functions, it's hard to even postulate which would take precedence over the other.
Ti>Fi or Dichotomous Introverted Feeling Dynamic | Balanced | Obviously since Fi is his dominant function, Ti is never going to overrule it. Definitely no personal logic over emotion in this boy's internal judgements.
How Balanced is Gohan?
Balanced: 15
Pretty Good: 7
Fair: 2
Needs Work: 0
Distorted: 0
Final Verdict: Ideal Role Model
He gets his own category. Again, it must be stressed how much of an aspirational character Gohan is. Especially for his age, he's basically a saint who would be a total Marty Stu in the hands of a more clumsy character writer.
The odds of finding anyone this balanced in real life outside of perhaps spiritual leaders are practically non-existent but isn't that the point of characters like him. Everyone can aspire to be more like Gohan (I know I did). But especially INFPs.
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