One Piece: Boa Hancock (ESTJ)
DISCLAIMER: All anime/manga typings are based on the English versions of the characters (dub or sub). The original Japanese versions may or may not be the same, since changes to a character's personality can occur during translation. Since we do not speak Japanese, we cannot account for this.
Note: This is another requested article. To be honest, I’m a bit hesitant about this one. I’ve seen different speculation about her type and I understand a lot of it. I used to gut type her an ENTJ, but an INFP suggestion threw me for a bit of a loop and resulted in me recalculating a bit. Here’s where I’m leaning…
Te:
“Are you deaf, you ridiculous fool? The only way you’re getting past me is in a coffin! “
“I shall be frank. I have no intention of keeping my promise. In other word, I refuse to go to war for you. Still, I rather like my position as a warlord, so I think I shall keep it. Also, you shall give me all the cargo on your ship quickly without complaint.”
“I won’t let anyone control us again!”
Boa Hancock from One Piece is cold, controlling, skeptical, and demanding. She refuses to listen to anyone with an opinion contrary to her own, no matter who they are or how they threaten her. She boldly stands up to the Navy, despite their threats, and demands that they give her everything she wants without any exceptions or compromising her desires in the least. Jinbe even comments that she’s the warlord that always stands her ground and ignores every summons. She usually smothers out her own emotions, thus shocking Gloriosa when she cries in front of Luffy. Gloriosa declares that it had been years since she’d shown even the faintest of emotion. She doesn’t even show much of a soft spot for her sisters, who had endured all the same things as her. (Obviously, Luffy is the exception to her no emotion rule, and all logic goes out the window due to her infatuation with him.) In addition, when Luffy express concern for her illness, she immediately dismisses her own feelings as unimportant and focuses on what he was coming to her for. Hancock is also not swayed by the emotions of others. She coldly destroys any gifts given to her upon her return to her home island, feeling not in the least bit proud or appreciative of their demonstration of worship or love toward her. She also manipulates people in the most obvious way to get what she wants: her beauty. Finally, after the attempted execution of Luffy, Hancock gives him a choice to test him, a choice which I initially pegged as an Ni test. However, it’s worth noting here that she wasn’t actually testing him, but trying to force him to prove what she already believed: that all men are evil.
Si:
“Luffy, be bold but be safe” thought after helping him infiltrate Impel Down
“I’m ready for my explanation now. Specifically, I would like to know how you got onto this island and what you want here.”
“I can’t stand for anyone to know of our past. And I shall make any sacrifice to ensure that. Even if I must deceive my own people.”
“You may be able to fool this country, but the time may come when you can no longer fool yourself, princess. If you truly want to move forward in this world, you must come to terms with what you wear on your back.”
Hancock has been deeply affected by her past, and is unable to move on from it. She does everything she can to hide it, appears to relive it, and avoids any situation where she feels in the least bit powerless. Of course, she has become hyper-controlling as a countermeasure. This appears to be a more literal Si/Ne memory, rather than Ni/Se detached memory. Obviously though, anyone with a tragic past will be affected by it, so I’m not banking on this point for my case. Hancock is very observant. She immediately notices upon her arrival back home that the city defenders were missing. In addition, when given gifts by her subjects, she can’t recognize what the gifts demonstrate and purely sees them for the materials they’re made of: dirt. She declares that they’re defiling the castle and gets rid of them. Also, when packing for Luffy to return to Sabaody (after the 2 year gap), she tries to give him a disguise (for safety reasons) and way over packs. She is very specific about what all she’s packed him when she tells him too. She packs him 50 changes of clothing, 1000 lunches, handkerchiefs and tissues, 5 years worth of towels, 3 years worth of water and snacks, silverware, toothbrushes, soap, hand creams, 3 years worth of bug bite ointment, and more. This is classic Si hyper-preparedness.
Ne:
“But then… what if… I must be prepared for this possibility. Luffy’s appetite is truly voracious. If I want to satisfy him, I must be capable of producing a truly colossal feast.”
“I fear my own subjects. I can’t let anyone come close to me or they might know the truth.”
Hancock’s Ne comes out in her many daydreams about Luffy. She imagines all kind of scenarios involving him and her, and reads too deeply into little things he does, like finally remembering her name. She jumps immediately to them being engaged or married when hearing him say her name correctly. She has very elaborate daydreams, where she entertains scenarios like having to cook for him, them travelling the world, getting married, and etcetera. (You can see the “what-ifs” come out when drumming these scenarios.) She’s also shown inventing a conversation between her and Luffy, outloud, where Gloriosa can here here, while using her thumbs to play the roles of her and Luffy. Beyond all this, she is shown to be a bit paranoid. She expresses a deep-rooted fear of her subjects finding out the truth about her, but never gives a concrete reason why that would be a bad thing. One can only speculate that it would damage her image, but perhaps she has imagined more elaborate real life consequences. In addition, she’s really jealous and paranoid about Luffy’s two female crew members, fearing that they’re trying to steal Luffy from her. I’d speculate this to be the result of Te’s desire for control coupled with Ne what-if paranoia.
Fi:
“I do applaud your conviction. Though I can’t extend that compliment to your men.”
The inferior trait can be extremely hard to differentiate from the dominant, since the two frequently go hand in hand. As I’ve already stated, she smothers out her own emotions to an extreme degree, failing to show empathy to anyone. Her sisters appear very protective to her, but she doesn’t ever seem to return the sentiment. She also doesn’t appear to have any strongly stated values, beyond believing all men to be evil. She does recognize desired traits in others, but it doesn’t usually gain them any kind of reprieve. She does spare a Navy Vice Admiral, but she doesn’t hesitate to turn some of her own subjects to stone, even after claiming “I have a soft spot for hopelessly sincere people.” She also feels a deep shame for having been a slave, and does everything to avoid it being associated with her identity.
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Hi! I’m the one who suggested INFP but it’s great to see your take on it!
The reason I typed her as Fi dom is because she often makes decisions based on how she feels, not what is most practical and efficient like a Te dom would. For example, she refuses to do the pragmatic thing and help the WG because of her hatred for the govt and men. Her dictator-like tendencies also reek of a typical unhealthy Fi dom, forcing people to walk on eggshells around them and utterly disregarding how others feel. She also admits to Luffy that she behaves the way she does because she wants to avoid people seeing her true, vulnerable self.
I had her as Ne aux because she tends to daydream and idealise more than act on her feelings for Luffy. She never directly asks him about Robin or Nami, but makes assumptions and constantly imagines what their relationship could be like. A cover page also shows her blushing and writing an extremely long romantic letter to Luffy, which strikes me more as something an INFP would do rather than an ESTJ.
All the same it’s hard to type someone as immature and unhealthy as Hancock so it’s possible I got her functions all in reverse lol.
Yeah, I did notice a lot of what you called out, and it really made me think. The main thing that made me lean away from her being an Fi dominant is that she doesn’t appear to have any kind of solid value system. Fi doms typically do… even if the values are evil or the Fi dom fails to fulfill them. Hancock doesn’t really show any signs of that, and instead just does whatever she wants to do. Because of that, I want to interpret a lot of her “feeling” based decisions as selfishness and say that any type could be prone to it. But like you said, it’s tough with her because she is immature and unhealthy.
Hancock is ENTJ, she shows no sign of Ni, and acts like an NT