After a chaotic and beautiful second season ending with a conclusion that flipped the entire series on it’s head, FX’s Legion is set to premiere is third and final season later this year. Psychology, specifically that of David, plays a significant role throughout the course of the series. So what better way to get more acquainted with some of our favorite characters than to analyze their thoughts and actions through the Myers-Briggs® Type Indicator and see just what exactly it is that makes David Haller take the turns he does throughout the series or how Syd brings herself to love someone with such incomprehensible powers. Spoilers ahead.
Amy Haller: The Consul - ESFJ
There’s this really great episode in season two called “Chapter 14”, in which we follow the David Hallers of the multiverse, peering into what differentiates these different versions of David.
While David changes greatly from universe to universe, a homeless man struggling with his mental illness or a powerful businessman abusing the power of his mind to dominate those around him, one thing that remains a multiversal constant is Amy’s love and support of her brother. Amy is caring, empathetic, and deeply concerned with the wellbeing of those around her. One of the many reasons it’s so deeply affecting when we see how she’s treated throughout the series because of her relation to David.
Melanie Bird: The Consul- ESFJ
Melanie Bird is the human leader and face of Summerland. While her husband Oliver may have disappeared sometime before the events of season one, Melanie is still on the front lines, fighting for mutant rights and liberation. Melanie is more than willing to pick up the cause and fight for her husband and people like her husband. She is empowered by the people around her and she uses them wisely, carefully helping those around her who stand to do the most good in the big picture, paying special attention when David comes along. We later see the emotional toll this position of power takes on her as she breaks down throughout season two after Oliver disappears for the second time.
Kerry Loudermilk: The Virtuoso- ISTP
Kerry Loudermilk, much like her fellow ISTPs Frank Castle, Diego, and Ben Hargreeves from The Umbrella Academy, is a fighter. She’s introverted, stubborn, and quick to judgment. But Kerry can also be very loving and protective as we see illustrated through her relationship with Cary. Kerry is fiercely protective of Cary and willing fight groups of soldiers regularly for his sake - and her pleasure. It’s not the fighting is the only thing that Kerry can do; it’s that fighting is the thing she loves to do. Kerry could be good at just about anything, unfortunately (and sometimes fortunately), for the members of Division 3, the things she chose was kicking ass.
Ptonomy Wallace: The Logistician - ISTJ
You kind of have to assume that someone who has perfect recall of his own memories coupled with the ability to sort through the memories of others is a rather organized individual. Ptonomy is incredibly intelligent, organized, structured, and thoughtful. He is the member of Summerland that is often leaned on whenever a new member needs to deal with past trauma or, perhaps, explore a mental block placed on someone by a mental parasite at birth. Ptonomy isn’t simply just the cataloger of memories, however, he’s also dedicated time developing his physical body as a warrior on the frontlines of the battle for mutant liberation and rights.
Dr. Cary Loudermilk: The Logician - INTP
While Dr. Cary Loudermilk may not be the guy you hope to bring into battle like his counterpart, Kerry, he is exactly the person you need to send a device backward through time to in order to prevent a telepathic apocalypse brought about by David’s unchecked power and ego.
Dr. Loudermilk is often shown to be incredibly nervous and a bit of coward, but it’s often caused by his nervous habit of trying to calculate the outcome of every new variable as it arrises. He’s introverted, brilliant, and capable of stringing together complex plans of action rather quickly when it comes down to him.
Sydney Barrett: The Adventurer- ISFP
Not only has Syd closed off her body to the outside world because of her power, but it seems like it’s that same power that has led her to retreat into the comfort of her own mind as well. Syd is compassionate, intelligent, introspective, and when things take a turn for the worst, like when she’s hurdled into David’s nuclear bomb of a mind, she may not always be able to handle it, but she can definitely roll with the punches. While the ending of season two left many fans questions just where exactly her allegiances lie after her run-in with Amahl Farouk, Syd seems to be slowly working her way out of the shell she’s kept herself hidden in.
Oliver Bird: The Logician - INTP
In a lot of ways, Oliver is a lot like the Jazz music that he appreciates so much. He is open and willing to improvise on a moment’s notice, and never living for any moment other than right now. Typically, after being kept in a freezer for years while one’s mind was lost, adrift in the astral plane, one might expect to relax a bit and gather some bearings. Not Oliver. Inside the astral ice cube hiding from the vast collective unconscious and telepathic monster? Outside the astral ice cube cooking eggs for his special lady, whose name he can’t quite remember? It’s all cool, Daddy-o.
Amahl Farouk: The Architect - INTJ
While we can think of Oliver as a chaotic Jazz melody riding the temporal waves of existence down the river of enlightenment, Amahl Farouk is much more like a piece of classical music, carefully orchestrated, with each note obsessed over endlessly. Amahl is a composer. Composers, much like Amahl claims to be, are the gods of their work, controlling, tweaking, and analyzing every detail to create a cohesive and pleasing piece of music for the composer. Amahl isn’t hoping to ride the music into a new form of understanding like Oliver, the jazz musician. Amahl will painstakingly craft his own form of understanding.
Lenny Busker: The Debater- ENTP
Lenny is all about figuring things out as she goes. A pesky dead sister whose body she stole shows up and tells Lenny that David needs her? Sure. I mean, there’s a little resistance, but give a girl a break. Find a car that teleports itself to the desert before finding a sniper rifle in the trunk? Let’s see how this plays out.
Lenny is probably the only human in existence that can talk her way out of living as a telepathic astral anomaly before being psionically thrust into the body of a friends sister. But hey, it’s a hard-knock life or whatever, right?
David Haller: The Mediator - INFP
David is a complicated character to type for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that he has some form of dissociative identity disorder that hasn’t been fully delved into yet. From what we’ve seen, David is compassionate, loving, tender, and kind. However, the deeper the show delves into David’s fractured mental state, the more we begin to see just how unraveled David has become, or perhaps, always was. Late in the second season, we’re introduced to the idea that it’s entirely possible David has merely been deluding himself into believing that he is indeed “a good person who deserves love.”
