Ah, and see I have that too! But I'm not an introvert. I just have this sort of mindset of, 'you don't ask someone else to do something if you're not willing to do it yourself.' And yes - not just the pilot, but a lot of first season feels very much like this with John. But see, that's where the chosen family comes in for me - as he develops his relationship with the team, that part of him softens a little bit, also, I think, there's the fact that he's the military commander of Atlantis; sometimes he just doesn't get to make the suicide runs anymore (and I think that probably haunts him more than more straightforward actions, like killing Sumner).

And you're not wrong - I can see him doing things for people he loves in complete AUs too, I just think that normally, in that sort of situation, that sort of thing doesn't come up. If he runs a malt shop and Rodney's a customer, it just feels unlikely that the opportunity for John to do something dark in nature is likely to come up. Unless I'm still reading you wrong here? I mean, yes, there are chances it could come up (the scene in Junk Cheap where John takes down the kid who's threatening them, for example), but it seems less likely to come up in the more fluffy complete AUs.