Functional Axis: Fe/Ni/Se/Ti
Dominant Function: Fe
Iroh is a warm and friendly person. He is incredibly soft spoken and understanding towards those around him. While his nephew Zuko often prefers a more confrontational approach to things, he is able to smooth talk himself out of many difficult situations, knowing exactly what he needs to say to please others. This enables him to built the persona of an unassuming and senil old man, while actually being a cunning and immensely powerful fire bender. This ability to know intuitively what others need to hear also makes him a great teacher, not only to Zuko, but also to some of the heroes. He even extends his words of wisdom with Aang later on, trying to bound over their shared troubles with the fire nation and strives to find common ground, putting differences aside to succeed their goals. Iroh is also a very compassionate person that is deeply upset by injustice and seeing others hurt, which are some of the few instances where he can lose his calm and amiable disposition and reveal a more intimidating part of himself. Unlike more villainous members of the fire nation, Iroh does prioritize his personal relationships and his friends and family‘s wellbeing over power or personal fame. Instead he values the human aspect of military and was a highly respected officer during the war, forming alliances left and right. After his son died in battle, Iroh became deeply saddened and adopted a pacificistic philosophy in contrary to the fire nations expansionistic politics.
Auxiliary Function: Ni
Iroh is normally very calm and focused on his own thought and intuitions. He prefers to wait for things to come to him, rather jumping right into them. This often happens in the form of hunches. Iroh is quick to see the potential in things and identify a potential asset or friend even in the most dangerous situations. When him an Zuko are identified by some earthbenders as searched enemies of the Fire Nation, he notices a potential ally in an old man by noticing the symbol of the White Lotus on his playing board (a secret organization that opposes the Fire Nation). Tricking the man to play with him he is able to gain his help and manages to escapes his captors. Overall Iroh shows a vast, but hidden understanding of the inner workings of the world and can see the bigger picture, unlike some of his contemporaries, who mainly follow momentary impulses. He has a holistic perspective on bending, mastering many techniques, by drawing wisdom from different bending cultures (Earth, Water, Air) and synthesizing them. His ability to see the essence of a problem also makes him great at reading through others, identifying their struggles and giving them advise, like when he advises Zuko to be more patient and go with the flow rather than always trying to force his will onto everything. His Ni can also make him seem somewhat lazy and inefficient, as he prefers to ponder over the root of things before taking direct action. Still this can also be an asset as it gives him quite a philosophical outlook on life. He often uses this philosophical wisdom to teach others and give them advise, often using analogies and metaphorical speech to get his points across (like when he tells Aang: Sometimes you do not see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving, you‘ll come to a better place). As his thought process is quite intuitive he can also seem a bit scatterbrained and goofy to those around him.
Tertiary Function: Se
Iroh loves to engage in physical pleasures: He loves good food and drinking tea and often takes delight in the small pleasures of life. He is naturally curious about the world around him and somewhat playful, often behaving in a way that seems to distract him from his mission. When he sees a plant that resembles a delicious tea ingredient, he can‘t prevent himself from trying it out, being aware that it could be poisonous, which later gets him into trouble. Still he normally keeps the bigger picture in check and shows incredible long term thinking (Ni). Under stress he is often able to enjoy the moment to relief stress and also advises others to do so. He is also quick on his feet and has an uncanny awareness of his sourroundings. This makes him naturally skilled in physical combat, which often caughts others off guard, because his rather harmless and oblivious exterior. Still he normally prefers a more contemplative approach to life and more than one time advises Zuko to stay calm and refrain from impulsive action, showing that his Se is in a lower position.
Inferior Function: Ti
Iroh‘s Ti is highly developed. He is quite cunning and analytical if the situation calls from it. During battle he can detach himself from his feelings, but he normally prefers a more personable and emotional style of communication. He is shown to be deeply affected by his feelings for those around him, like his grief over the loss of his son or his care for Zuko.These feelings are the compass with guides him through life rather than any strong logical reasonings or belief systems. When young he followed the fire nations policies without criticism, never questioning their goals. It was only through the destruction of his family and his feelings of loss that he started reevaluating his views and developed his own philosophy of pacifism. During the war Iroh was able to repress his feelings and act cold and calculated, which made him a great strategist (Ti grip). Later on he was able to revise these misguided attempts to conceal his true feelings and started to develop his Ti in a more healthy way. Iroh retained his strategic abilities, but now uses them in strategic games rather than for violence and war
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