The Unit MBTI - Lee Geon MBTI
Lee Geon (Madtown) MBTI – ESTJ
Cognitive Functional Stack – Te Si Ne Fi
I love this guy so much so please excuse if this becomes too gushing. It’s gonna be a long ride!
There isn’t a finalist more talkative than Lee Geon in this competition. He’s always remarking or commenting on something, whether his commentary has been solicited or not. (Note the reaction videos of 4th mission – he’s the one making about half the commentary.) This is Dominant Te like crazy. As soon as something goes through his head, he’s said it. It’s kind of like people who don’t have a filter, but Geon is usually in control of his functions enough to ensure that it’s nothing too harmful. However, there have been some notable exceptions during the show which the producers have capitalised on.
From the very beginning, we hear of and see his extremely close friendship with Daewon. Daewon and Lee Geon both mean a lot to each other, hugely so, since they’ve been close since they were little. Nonetheless, they don’t always quite see eye-to-eye as they demonstrate this bond in different ways. This is because they have different primary functions. Whereas Geon has Te, Daewon has Fe. This can leave Daewon sensitive to words or actions that Lee Geon makes that are actually of very little significance to Lee Geon himself.
The first manifestation of this was after their joint audition, when Lee Geon received 6 boots and Daewon only received 1 – Lee Geon was too busy celebrating to realise that Daewon needed some comforting and validation otherwise he’d assume that Lee Geon thought himself as superior as his boot number in comparison to Daewon. The second event was when all the competitors were meeting each other, and Lee Geon didn’t sit with Daewon and Jungha. To Lee Geon, sitting with his close friends would have been closed-minded and a waste of an opportunity when other, interesting people who he wanted to engage with and explore were also inviting him to sit with them. His purpose at that particular moment in time was not loyalty to people he already loved and cared about, but to explore and exploit a new situation to get as much out of it as possible, and to be socially polite to these people who he knew a little less. He didn’t realise that this would hurt or offend both Daewon and Jungha; he didn’t realise they’d feel so rejected.
The climax of all of this is when Daewon calls him up into the boxing ring to vent about it all. Lee Geon is actually horrified; he totally hadn’t realised the effects his actions would have on his best friend, and is also shocked when Jungha backs up Daewon too. He accuses Jungha of stirring, when he actually needed to realise that Jungha was aggrieved of his own accord. He’s so shocked by the confrontation that his Ne shuts down and can’t piece together a witty response because too much of his processing capabilities are busy trying to digest the information that his best friend has been hurt by him. He awkwardly laughs in response, because he’s stuck for words. ESTJs, when faced with their wrongdoings or faults, are quick to shout “shut up” or something similar – Lee Geon is far too polite to do this, but he does try the equally quick get-out clause of “I’m going now”. He’s trying to back out of an emotional situation that he really can’t handle due to his inferior Fi.
His clearest moment of Te-style speaking without thinking is that he apparently told Daewon, when he received a good position, to “enjoy this moment. You’ll go down soon.” This is his Te-Ne just saying whatever passed through his head, without thinking how it would stick with Daewon and actually cause him a great deal of concern. Lee Geon had probably barely remembered that he’d said that, far less actually meant it. He ends up showing his loyalty to Daewon and Jungha in a much more logic-based way – by encouraging Euijin to choose them to be in Question team together.
He has a moment later on when his inferior Fi has a sudden outburst. This occurs after the Question team performance, when they’re in the room afterwards to receive their results. He starts crying and he has difficulty controlling it or dealing with it – a sign of inferior Fi. But his love and devotion for Daewon and the troubles they’d been through just had to burst out at some point, and the stressful situation he was in at that time what with the anticipation of the group results forced it out of him.
Lee Geon is a man of action (Te). His Te is driving him to keep trying to turn his dreams into reality. He says he’s “a total homebody” in spite of being an extrovert, because with Te and Si he basically enjoys tradition and home comforts. He’s also a soccer player, emphasising these Sensor traits.
However, his Ne is quite strong considering it’s his tertiary function. It can be seen in all the weird dances that he does, literally every episode, to celebrate or just to have fun. He has a fantastic sense of humour and a brilliant laugh – he can connect the dots to jokes very quickly (Ne) and has sharp wit and insight (Si-Ne). Nonetheless, his Te often overpowers this Ne, asserting itself as his dominant function. For instance, when Question team meet up, they begin their rehearsal time by messing around and doing silly cover dances – Lee Geon’s Ne even drives him as far as attempting to jump into his teammates in the style of 2pm’s iconic Heartbeat hold. But he changes his tune when they all settle down and he says, “we’re so disorganised it’s bothering me”- total Te-dom.
His Te makes him into a total boss, encouraging others into doing his ideas and fitting into the concepts he’s developed for how he believes things should be done. He’s very precise about what he’s looking for when teaching and helping others. This is seen in his vocal coaching of Sangil, Daewon, and Euijin at various points during the competition. Also in his assertiveness in final mission when he drags Feeldog and Euijin to the front of the line so that they could be seen for the group pose – a logical action but enacted with the obvious conviction of someone who knows they’re definitely right (Te).
Further examples of his Ne are when the final mission group is each creating their own choreography for the song. Daewon says that Lee Geon has never made a choreo before in his life, yet there he is creating one from his head super quickly. Also, when Geon goes over to check how Dongmyeong is getting on, and then Daewon finds him helping with the routine, Geon explains that he’s just “breathing life” into Dongmyeong’s ideas. He then follows this up with a really witty visual gag about doing CPR on the dance – very Ne. He did another very funny visual gag, much to the amusement of his team, back in the first mission rehearsal time. When Red team are discussing seeing girls, and reacting to them, he enacts the boys turning into statues as soon as they look at a girl. It’s one of the funniest moments of the first part of the series, and pure Te-Ne wit.
People often forget that ESTJs are not only methodical and ordered leading-types but also have great wit and humour. Lee Geon displays both exquisitely and is noisy and fun to boot. ESTJs want to be supportive and trustworthy to those around him; he realises the power of loyalty throughout the series and his popularity soars as a result. I wish him the best of luck in the future.
Song you should listen to: Madtown – New World