John Sheppard MBTI has become a popular topic among fans of Stargate Atlantis, especially when it comes to understanding his laid-back leadership style and quick-thinking heroics. Portrayed by Joe Flanigan, Sheppard shows strong traits of an ESTPEnneagram7w8. His love of action, sharp instincts in high-stakes situations, and tendency to deflect emotional tension with humor make him a compelling example of the adventurous, resilient “Maverick” personality type.
ESTP 7w8 Characters
Why is John Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis an ESTP 7w8? Continue reading for my argument using cognitive functions! The headers for each section are clickable, so you can easily access more information about the dominant function and the Enneagram type, or discover more characters who share the type.
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Extraverted Sensing
John Sheppard thrives in high-risk environments that allow him to improvise on the fly and is good at making instant decisions, whether that is shooting a commanding officer in the heart when seeing him be tortured by the Wraith, or impulsively (and successfully) improvising on numerous missions (by testing Puddle Jumpers to see if they can swim, going on recon missions, taking on passengers when they are under fire, and rebelling against an invasion force and disabling the ZPMs on multiple levels), or falling in and out of “love” with beautiful aliens.
His ability to instantly react, change a situation to his advantage, improvise on the fly (such as trusting a Wraith, when they are imprisoned together, to help him reach the Gate; or deciding to fight the Replicators by bringing back together his old team), and be restless when he’s not actively doing something physical proves his Se dominance.
Introverted Thinking
ESTPs are good at thinking rationally under pressure, which John does with ease—he immediately sees when their tactics are not working and changes direction. This is best seen when an enemy comes through the Gate to take Weir and Rodney hostage. John instantly logically assesses the situation and starts disabling their command codes, taking out their soldiers, and staying on the run so they can never find him. The situation with his commanding officer in the pilot episode also shows how he can take a logical-humane action without hesitation. He sees his boss is aging rapidly from a hideous Wraith Queen feeding on his life force and is tremendous pain, and rather than let him suffer, John shoots him to end his suffering.
This is part of what makes high Ti users so efficient; they can assess situations and make a rational decision even when things are going wrong.
Extraverted Feeling
Though logical, John becomes incensed when people are being abused, enslaved, or mistreated. He doesn’t have to relate to them to feel angered on their behalf and to want to do something about their situation. In one episode, he has to hold a Puddle Jumper at an invisible location while the Wraith cull an entire village. When Teyla cannot stand seeing people dying anymore and invites them into the Jumper, even though he knows it’s a great risk to their safety, John agrees to save them all. He’s also good at convincing other people to take his side, diffusing tension with subtle humor, and putting others at ease, but is not altogether forthcoming about his feelings, and is awkward and vulnerable whenever he tells Teyla, Rodney, or Ronan how much he appreciates their friendship.
Tertiary-Fe users (ETPs) are often charming, good-natured, and aware of what others need and expect from them and able to provide it, as John does whenever he lives up to Dr. Weir’s expectations of him (or defends her against slander).
Introverted Intuition
On several missions, John has a “hunch” about something being wrong with the situation or hidden from his eyes; he suspects someone is “up to something,” but most of these leads come off the physical environment and the clues people are giving him (body language, his dead buddies showing up to drink a beer, his apartment not being how he left it) rather than his own intuition.
Inferior Ni users usually devalue invisible insights in favor of real-world actions, which John does constantly; he also has no real sense of what he wants for his own future, after Atlantis.
The Enneagram 7
John is immensely good-natured and funny, often diffusing situations with humor and trying to keep things light. When captured by the Wraith and in impossible situations, he prefers to assume that things will (magically) go his way and that he will be home in time for supper. He also has very little respect for authority, a can-do attitude, a healthy sense of self-confidence, and a tendency to think things through while he does them, which makes it hard for anyone other than Dr. Weir to reason with him. He finds Rodney pretty “boring” most of the time, but even tries to bond with him by teasing. And he has a creative imagination; when caught up in a false reality, John creates the “ideal” situation for himself—a giant, lavish apartment with a fridge stocked with beer, arriving pizzas, and a gathering of all his closest war buddies, even those who are dead.
7s keep things light to avoid their pain, and believe things will work out for them, because they don’t like coping with the hard realities of life, which is why John distracts from his traumatic experiences with movement, lightness, and comedy.
The 8 Wing
If you back John into a corner, he will come out swinging and take you down; when an enemy invades Atlantis, John goes rogue and threatens to kill the leader if he harms any of his friends. Several times, he takes a harsh, no-holds-barred stance with people who cross them or Wraith soldiers, because he knows that to appear weak will make them a target. Though he is willing to obey Weir, at first John tests her to see how much he can get away with, and he notoriously rebels against anyone who tries to take her place.
Rather than take a moralizing stance, John just fights back twice as hard, which is the method of an 8 wing and its “the fun is over, now you’re going to respect me and wish you had not messed with me and my friends” gut-level reactivity.
