Jaime Lannister personality type: ESTP

We meet Jaime Lannister when he shoves a ten-year-old out of a tower window. A few seasons later, half the audience is rooting for him. Pulling that off is one of the show’s best tricks, and his personality type is how the writers did it.

Jaime is an ESTP, physical, quick and comfortable in the moment. He is the best swordsman in King’s Landing and he knows it. When Catelyn arrests Tyrion, Jaime does not write a letter. He ambushes Ned in the street. When Bran sees him with Cersei, he does not think, he pushes.

Underneath is a blunt private logic that ignores reputation. In the baths at Harrenhal he tells Brienne the true story of the Kingslayer: the Mad King planned to burn the city with wildfire, so Jaime killed him to save half a million people. Nobody asked for his reasons, so he never gave them.

The long view is what he lacks. He has no plan for his life beyond Cersei and the next fight.

That is a Seven with an 8 wing. Sevens stay busy and amused to avoid pain, and early Jaime runs on banter, arrogance and a constant smirk. The 8 wing adds the aggression. Then Locke cuts off his sword hand, and the whole system collapses. A Seven without his favorite escape falls hard, and Jaime stops eating until Brienne calls him a quitter and tells him to live.

His growth starts there. He jumps into the bear pit at Harrenhal to save Brienne, gives her the sword Oathkeeper, and after Cersei lies about fighting the dead, he rides north alone. At Winterfell he knights Brienne the night before the Long Night. It is the best version of him. Then he goes back to King’s Landing and dies with Cersei under the Red Keep. That relapse frustrated many viewers, but it is a realistic Seven move: when the pain gets too big, he runs toward the familiar.

Some fans call Jaime a Three, since the Kingslayer name wounds him so deeply. That is a strong point. I keep Seven because the name hurts him less than boredom, loss and stillness do. He hides his wounds behind jokes, not achievements.