ENTP Profile: Tyrion Lannister

Disclaimer: This article contains no spoilers for the first few paragraphs, then I use mostly innocuous scene from S06E02 to dive deepeer into ENTP cognitive functions. Theres a clear warning.

You can find other Thrones MBTI types here, which is updated at least once a week.

That’s what I do. I drink. And I know things. — Tyrion Lannister

Our man had a good night. Finally, we see the half-man in a position that uses all his strengths. Holy shit does he shine. Let’s break this down.

How We Know

This guy ENTPs so hard. Tyrion is most definitely Extraverted, as evidenced by his ability to discourse, debate, and discuss things for days.

The energy produced by social interaction is the hallmark of extraversion; opposite for introverts. Extraverts build energy for isolation through social activity. Introverts build energy for social activity through isolation.

Extraverts build energy for isolation through social activity. Introverts build energy for social activity through isolation.

ENTPs can be a little wonky when it comes to extraversion and introversion. Of all the extraverted types, the ENTP can be found comfortably designing, reading and/or practicing their craft(s) in isolation. We can see this with Tyrion, as he seems to be the only man in the known Thrones universe with a library card.

Tyrion is more interested in ideas and abstract concepts than the tangible and concrete world that exists outside his mind.

He’s literally the most disconnected character on the show, yet consistently offers a fresh, down to earth, non obvious perspective. Over time, he’s demonstrated a consistent preference iNtuition over Sensing.

As an ENTP, Tyrion is more interested in the accuracy of his decisions and conclusions than how these decisions make others feel. I won’t spend much time on this, but Thinking combined with iNtuition gives all Strategists (NTs) a “the end justifies the means” approach.

Tyrion is more interested in the accuracy of his decisions and conclusions than how these decisions make others feel.

Tyrion is flexible in his approach to life, and spends considerable time exploring the many approaches to solve problems prior to deciding on a course of action. This shows a clear preference for Perceiving over Judging.

Now for the fun part. Let’s take a look at how Tyrion uses his cognitive functions, or put more simply “how these preferences manifest into behavior”.

Exploration

Extraverted iNtuition (Ne)

As an ENTP, Tyrion’s most developed cognitive function is Extraverted iNtuition (Ne) or what I like to call Exploration. This is literally the exploration of ideas, possibilities, and theories in social settings.

Those with a preference for Exploration tend to have their best ideas mid-sentence, seemingly coming from nowhere. Other types with a preference for Perspectives (Introverted Intuition) experience this in isolation, where as those with a preference for Exploration need an audience for these insights. Much to the chagrin of the many introverts who find themselves on the receiving end of this onslaught.

Let’s examine this in the context of last nights episode, “Home” (S06E02)

SPOILER THREAT LEVEL: 20%

When Tyrion is in Daenary’s throne room with her (mostly incompetent) court, Tyrion is straight firing with Exploration.

One of the funniest moments in the episode is his interaction with Varys. Lets check the replay with a MBTI lens.

*Tyrion makes eunuch joke about Varys*

*Looks around and sees the unsullied / untesticled. Oops. Uh…*

“I make eunuch jokes, he makes dwarf jokes”

“I don’t make dwarf jokes?” He hears Varys say, basically twisting the knife and offering no help to bail out his friend and sometimes ally.

*Tyrion thinks: asshole. How can I be right about this? Ah, something that can’t be proven*

“No, but you think them.” He says matter-of-factly.

I’m not suggesting this was conscious dialogue on his behalf, it was likely straight intuition, but as someone very close to an ENTP, this happens so frequently you either start assuming they’ve planned all of this ahead of time, or accept that their smartest and best moves are improvised on the spot.

Next, Tyrion is exploring what can be done with the resources they have, talking out loud and improvising mid sentence. Ultimately he lands on the real gold — dragons.

Where as everyone else left this responsibility and authority to the Mother of Dragons and Queen of hilariously long, overly formal titles, Tyrion knows that she’s gone, and he suspects that he knows more than she does about dragons.

As he jumps into the fray, he realizes he knows more about dragons than everyone in the room. This is where we see his second preference kick in.

The next thing ENTPs do with their intuition is what makes them truly terrifying as villains (Joker and Tyler Durden, I’m looking at you) and unlikely heroes (Star Lord, Tony Stark, Deadpool).

Accuracy

Introverted Thinking (Ti)

Unlike their ENFP cousins who also share a preference for Exploration, then check their decisions based on how they align with their values and make others feel, ENTPs look for accuracy and correctness in their intuitions.

He and Varys, an ENFP, share Exploration, their 2nd preference changes their grading system for events and decisions. Varys is looking to see how his decisions affect others and himself — Authenticity (Introverted Feeling).

ENTPs constantly toggle between Exploration and Accuracy, and we see it again in the throne room.

Once Tyrion has established that the dragons are wasting away, he checks this info against his vast internal library. The internal dialogue in between his external dialogue might look like this

“So the Dragons aren’t eating, they have them chained up…do they know what happens when you do that? Do they know how intelligent dragons are? Clearly not, here’s a tale about how what you’re doing is fucking them up. Now for what to do about this, are they dangerous? Has anyone been in the room with them and harmed who wasn’t an enemy of their Mother?”

Next we move to his artful use of the oft dreaded 3rd preference.

Harmony

Extraverted Feeling (Fe)

Like most ENTPs, Tyrion understands that perceptions and perspectives are malleable — his primary strategy is re-framing situations to create conditions for the outcome he wants.

While Tyrion is telling a story about the gradual decline in dragon size over time due to captivity, it must be noted that he is doing this not only for their benefit, but to reach his ultimate conclusion and course of action.

After talking through the dragon’s intelligence and social behavior, he quickly reframes his perspective as being a friend to dragons. Then, using Harmony (Extraverted Feeling) he checks for alignment with his feelings, because he knows that will be key in persuading the dragon (Accuracy).

“I am their friend”

Before Tyrion releases the dragons from their chains, he first reaches for whatever love or admiration he has or once had for dragons. He tells them a story about him as a child when he wanted a dragon, so bad, and couldn’t have one.

Again, this is more for him than the dragons. Just cause he suspects they’re smart, Accuracy tells him that his emotional soup while in their presence will be the biggest factor in winning their friendship.

This is truly masterful use of Harmony, which we only see in mature, developed, self-actualized ENTPs.

He wins them over, and on his way out, perhaps leaves us with a quote encompassing the fallout of the ENTPs moves.

“Next time I have an idea like that, punch me in the face.”

Thanks for reading, lemme know if you liked it.