“I am loyal to the throne no matter who sits on it. What are you loyal to?”
Her name isn’t in the title of a Marvel flick. However, it would be a mistake to relegate Okoye to just a supporting role in Black Panther. She is as much a part of T’Challa’s (a.k.a. the Black Panther’s) missions as he is.
She is a subject of Wakanda, ruled by King T’Challa. But Okoye is a leader in her own right and works from a set of principles based on tradition, loyalty, and duty. Besides, her image made it onto promotional posters for the final Avengers movie, Endgame, alongside the surviving Avengers. There’s nothing “sidekick” about that.
And Okoye’s wry sense of humor rounds out the character. Take her comments while advancing to battle intergalactic forces at the end of Avengers: Infinity War:
Okoye: When you said you were going to open Wakanda to the rest of the world, this is not what I imagined.
T’Challa: What did you imagine?
Okoye: The Olympics? Maybe even a Starbucks?
Personality Analysis
We’ve determined that Okoye has an Assertive Logistician (ISTJ-A) personality type. Here’s why:
Introverted
Okoye walks with a quiet confidence. She is a woman of few words, but when she speaks, there is usually wisdom and humor in her words. Occasionally, she makes threats that nobody doubts she will follow through on. But most of her words seem carefully chosen.
She also seems to select her associates carefully and is just as careful about trusting anyone she doesn’t know. Soon after she meets Everett Ross, a CIA agent and potential ally, she tells T’Challa, “If he touches you again, I’m going to impale him on that desk.” None of that speaks to an outgoing nature.
Observant
Okoye lives in a concrete world and deals with concrete things. The Observant trait paired with the Judging trait gives us the Sentinel Role, made up of personality types who are extremely practical and tend to prefer real-time tasks to theory. By this definition, Okoye is a Sentinel. She’s a warrior on a mission in life. The mission must be accomplished. There is no second-guessing or theorizing.
Thinking
Over and over again, Okoye shows that, like most Thinking personalities, she will do what she must rationally do. She doesn’t appear to be the least bit sentimental in how she views her missions. In the quote at the beginning of the article, she shows a cold disregard for the person of the king in favor of serving her country. In her mind, continuity of government is the rational choice and more important than any single person.
Judging
Loyalty and the preservation of order are recurring themes in the portrayal of Okoye. These two qualities are cornerstones of the Judging personality trait. Those who possess it prefer a world that is predictable. While the Marvel Universe is far from a predictable place to live, Okoye does her best to keep order in her corner of it.
She’s somewhat wary of opening Wakanda to the outside world and all the unknown variables that might come with such a new relationship. What will it do to the order of things?
Assertive
Nothing about Okoye’s behavior suggests anything but self-confidence. It is likely that her confidence is something inherent in her, although it’s possible that her training brought her to a level of self-assurance. However, there are no signs of self-doubt or clinging to regrets. She typically moves forward with a sense of certainty and without looking back.
Conclusions
Okoye is a protector of her people and her lifestyle. As a Logistician, she does what Sentinels tend to do. She makes sure, to the best of her ability, that those important to her – the Wakandan people – are taken care of.
When typing fictional characters here at 16Personalities, the type we present is determined only by what we’ve seen of the character’s behavior and actions in the movies or books in which they appear. Ultimately, they are fictional and are used as a way to help others better understand aspects of personality type.
This personality typing is based on the character as portrayed in Marvel’s Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War movies, released in 2018.
What are your thoughts? Please feel free to leave your ideas about Okoye’s personality type in the comments below.
Further Reading
Captain Marvel: A Passionate Personality (Avengers Personality Series)