#chase masterson

ESFJ – the Provider, the Facilitator, the Caretaker

Like Kira, Leeta’s a young Bajoran woman who survived the Occupation. While one of them picked up a gun, though, the other picked up some Dabo skills. Kira’s Fi-dom makes her edgy and angry, while Leeta moves through the world with an Fe-dom’s openness and generosity, making her living as the life of the party in the hub of DS9’s communal bazaar.

They both fall for some pretty weird Introverted dudes, though.

Dominant Function: (Fe) Extraverted Feeling, “The Garden Fountain”

Like her ESFJ boss, Leeta’s gift is hospitality. She entertains guests every day at Quark’s Bar, coaxing their energy up to keep the room lively. Her job is to make sure everyone is happy, enthusiastic, and spending money. She’s something of an amateur sociologist, which comes in handy considering all the diverse people she meets in her line of work.

Leeta’s a very skilled people-person, and quick to make friends. She’s barely known Jadzia for more than a few weeks (like, one episode) before Dax invites her to participate in the very intimate ceremony of sharing a consciousness with one of her past hosts. She coyly flirts with Julian, feigning illness to get his attention; and when it’s time to break up, she finds an amicable way to do it that ensures no hard feelings.

Leeta’s a good judge of character, and sees potential and lovability in Rom long before he does. When he starts a labor union, she helps get the bar employees on board, and encourages Rom in his cause. She waits for him to make the move when it comes to romance, which means she has to wait quite a while. When they have an argument that almost cancels their wedding, she has to vent to her friend Kira, an Fi-dom who patiently listens and then bluntly tells her she doesn’t really mean the angry things she’s saying.

Leeta leaves the station just before the Dominion invasion, accepting Rom’s wishes to keep her out of harm’s way. Before long she’s back, working the Dabo table while secretly joining Kira’s resistance. Now she’s the one fearing for Rom’s safety, as he’s been captured for his sabotage—but Rom doesn’t want to be rescued.

Leeta and Quark, anxious ESFJs that they are, can’t accept this, and they argue with Rom about how stupid he is for refusing their help. Leeta experiences a similar barrier when Nog returns from his surgery after losing his leg. Ezri has to hold back Leeta, now Nog’s step-mother, from comforting her traumatized step-son until he’s ready. When he is, Leeta joins in the family hug to welcome him back.

Auxiliary Function: (Si) Introverted Sensing, “The Study”

Leeta appreciates her Bajoran heritage, introducing Julian to the Rite of Separation when their relationship ends. She wants a traditional Bajoran wedding, and resists Rom’s efforts to get her into something more scanty for the ceremony. In her day job, though, she’s very comfortable in her own skin, and always looks great. She’s so comfortable, in fact, that she answers the door of her quarters without realizing she’s lost her towel.

(And a bit of non-canon info from the post-TV novels, because I think it’s cool: Leeta’s full name was never given because she was orphaned during the Occupation and never knew her family. Once she married a Ferengi, whose people have no family names, it didn’t matter anymore. She stuck quite happily with her single, unique name.)

Tertiary Function: (Ne) Extraverted Intuition, “The Hiking Trails”

Like any Bajoran who had to survive the Occupation, Leeta can be flexible and adaptable. After a few years of working at Quark’s Bar, she experiences anxiety over the lack of direction in her life, feeling like she should do more, and accepts a position at a distant starbase running their café. When Rom confesses his love to her, she changes course again, starting a new life as part of a Ferengi family. She sees the potential of Rom’s labor union, and demands more and better pay from Quark.

Inferior Function: (Ti) Introverted Thinking, “The Laboratory”

When she puts her mind to it, Leeta can be quite formidable. She studies up on the Trill zhian’tara ritual, and helps Jadzia explain it to the group. She’s insulted that Quark thinks she has no brains, appreciating her only for her physical assets, but she puts up a fight more than once when she figures out she can argue for better working conditions.

When she and Rom reach an impasse about signing a pre-nuptial agreement, she breaks off the engagement and complains to Kira about him. She’s trying very hard to convince herself she doesn’t like him, picking at any fault she can think of. But Kira knows she doesn’t mean it, and they eventually work out the problem.

Love between a Bajoran and a Ferengi is an inscrutable thing, but Leeta doesn’t have to think twice about it.