This post is full of spoilers. Go see the movie so we can all chat freely, mmkay?
When I first started gushing about Finn on Twitter, it never occurred to me that there had been negative criticism about him. Who could possibly gaze upon his beautiful face and see anything less than perfection? Finn clearly exfoliates with brown sugar and smoothes a homemade shea butter whip over his skin. Praise.
But then someone tweeted me with legit apprehension because of some of the criticism they’d read about Finn. Some critics were calling Finn, among other things, comic relief, a token, and a coward. I don’t make a habit of arguing with people’s opinions, but what you’re not gonna do is flatten this character because he doesn’t fit your narrow expectations.
I watched the Dreamworks movie Home a day or two before watching the new Star Wars, and my first assessment of Finn was to draw parallels between him and Oh. Both represent an entertaining but still touching interpretation of the reluctant hero trope. It was an easy link to make, because Finn was running away from the First Order and the Boov are the best at running away. It took a second viewing (“It’s either Joy or Star Wars again,” my friend said. “You pick.”) for me to really appreciate why Finn’s determination to run away is actually an act of bravery.
In many ways Finn’s character is analogous to Han’s in A New Hope: he is pulled into an adventure he didn’t sign up for and he is eager to get the hell out of dodge as soon as possible. The scene between Finn and Rey in Maz Katana’s castle echoes several earlier scenes between Han and Leia: Han starts to leave, and Leia scolds him and asks him to stay and “do the right thing.”
But who says running away isn’t the right thing to do sometimes? As Finn reminds the rest of the crew, we have no idea what he went through in his years with the First Order. The film makes passing mention of them taking Finn away from his family, programming him since childhood, and ordering that he be reconditioned at the first sign of disobedience. There are some gaps to be filled in, either by licensed books/comics or fan theories, but I’ve read enough about totalitarian regimes and cults to know that shit isn’t a walk in the park.
What kind of mental strength and willpower must Finn have to be raised from birth to do the First Order’s bidding, yet decide not to kill for them in his very first battle? Is it not tremendously courageous to run from the evil that indoctrinated him? Even though Finn had no place to go and no one waiting for him that he knew of, he was set on never submitting to the First Order again. Brother didn’t even name himself. Didn’t take any time for introspection or existential pondering. He was just like “fuck this shit, I’m out.”
This is not a small feat, nor is this offense taken lightly by the First Order. General Hux and Captain Phasma are angered that “one of our own” acted against them. Finn is repeatedly called a traitor, and at least one Stormtrooper seems to take the betrayal quite personally. If Stormtroopers form any kind of kinship bonds, Finn clearly broke them.
But after all that risk and sacrifice, Finn comes back. Not to join the Resistance. Not to blow up Death Star 3.0. He comes back to save his friend from the fate he’s running from. Finn volunteers to go right back into the First Order’s clutches. He gets on Death Star III under the pretense of disabling the shields, then promptly admits “I don’t know shit about shields, man, I’m just here for Rey.” Han is aghast—the whole mission hinges on the shields being lowered—but Finn is adamant. Yes, they’ll save the galaxy, but he’s not leaving without Rey.
This is an incredible demonstration of his loyalty and valour. Finn, a raised-to-be-evil Stormtrooper who was ashamed of who he was, already has an unyielding moral code. Recall that none of those Resistance folks talk about rescuing Rey during their plans. They care about Rey, of course, but in an abstract way. Even as Stronger Better Faster Death Star is collapsing, Poe and the other pilots make no effort to rescue their comrades. Sure, they’re glad to see the Millennium Falcon escaping safely, but if the whole crew had exploded they would simply be more casualties of war. Thank goodness Finn doesn’t subscribe to the belief that “the needs of the many override the needs of the few,” and instead does everything he can to protect his friend from whatever horrors he himself had faced.
S.I. Rosenbaum mentioned how great it is that Finn is simply relieved when he sees that Rey had broken out of Kylo Ren’s restraints, not disappointed that he missed the chance to play the hero. This is an important character trait that he demonstrates throughout the movie. After the TIE fighter crashes on Jakku, Finn looks for and tries to save Poe, even though Finn had supposedly “only needed a pilot.” In his first encounter with Rey, Finn runs to save her from would-be droid thieves, but backs off when he sees she’s okay. When the First Order attacks them, Finn grabs Rey’s hand when he runs. Hell, Finn immediately asks Rey if she is okay, even though he is the one who gets knocked out. And in my absolute favorite scene, Finn and Rey enthusiastically congratulate each other on kicking ass with the Millennium Falcon. There is no posturing or bravado, no bickering over whose fault it is that they are being hunted by the First Order — just joy and mutual admiration.
Most of these moments get laughs in the theatre, but the pattern is established: Finn wants his friends to be safe, even when he’s just met them. Finn’s friendships become the emotional core of the film. In fact, while I don’t diss anyone’s ships, I find it hilarious that Finn can be shipped with anyone and everyone, mostly because he genuinely cares about people.
To reduce all of that to “comic relief” and “sidekick” grossly misses the point. Yes, Finn is funny, but The Force Awakens is a funny movie! Boyega had great lines and excellent chemistry with the whole cast. The banter between Finn and Han was especially wonderful. At no point was Finn the gag or the butt of the joke. In a trio of heroes (though, given his limited screen time, does Poe really count?), Finn is also not relegated to a minor role. While Rey is filling the Force-sensitive Chosen One role, Finn is given a complete character arc in this film and is key to the progression of the plot. Sure, Finn was just a sanitation worker. But Rey was just a scavenger, Luke was just a farmer, and Anakin was just a slave. Person of Humble Origins Rises to Greatness is one of the oldest tropes in the world. Rather than detracting from Finn’s awesomeness, his lowly beginnings may hint at unparalleled greatness in the future. After all, that lowly janitor blasts ships out of the sky after getting only a 30-second tutorial on how to work the cannons from Poe Dameron. And he was pretty fucking handy with a lightsaber.
Finn fighting against the only life he’s ever known.
I wonder if the idea that “Finn isn’t a cool enough hero” is tied to perceptions of masculinity. A Washington Post critic was disappointed that Finn got “friend-zoned” by Rey, probably because he doesn’t “exude sex appeal” the way Lando Calrissian did. (Me, myself, personally, I wouldn’t tie the worth of a black man to his sexual prowess, but you do you.) Another critic cited the fact that Finn is knocked out during the climactic fight between Kylo Ren and Rey as evidence that he wasn’t really important. But that happens after Finn lands several good hits on the Sith and holds him off while Rey recovers. It would make no sense for Finn to have the final fight with Kylo Ren; Kylo is very obviously Rey’s enemy and it had to be her who faced him. Rey even has a vision predicting it, just like the vision Luke had about facing Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. Rey getting a moment to shine in no way detracts from Finn’s heroics.
I understand the heightened scrutiny underrepresented groups get when it comes to media portrayals. With so few images of “us” out there, it’s important the few that do exist do not play to stereotypes. The aim is to have a vast assortment of characters that portray the full array of the human experience. Finn is a step in that direction. In conclusion: He is the most compelling character in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. COME AT ME.
In this article we originally referred to the writer of the Washington Post review as a “white lady.” Lonnae O’Neal is Black and we apologize for the mistake.
THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO DON’T LIKE FINN??????
I mean obviously there are but DUDE. Rey has the ~hero’s arc~ the way that it’s traditionally defined, but Finn makes a CHOICE to run away and do the right thing as he sees it. He’s brave and loyal and a freaking Hufflepuff all the damn way which means I have to love him
FUCKING HUFFLEPUFFS FTW.
Thank you for recognizing this in Finn. It hadn’t occurred to me why he was my favorite, but now I realize it’s because we are housemates.
Yuuuup Finn is hardcore Hufflepuff primary/slytherin secondary. Always looking out for the well-being of people, adaptable in many situations. Also who wants to sort all the other characters??
Poe: Gryffindor primary/ravenclaw secondary. Very clearly wants to be the leader/hero, uses his specific tool set to get the job done.
(more info on the primary/secondary sorting system http://sortinghatchats.tumblr.com/) (yes I maybe take this too seriously)
Pretty sure Rey is Gryffindor primary/Hufflepuff secondary, though I could imagine it being reversed and still being accurate. She’s definitely a Gryffinpuff to some degree.
Well she is an excellent finder, since she found [redacted].
“(yes I maybe take this too seriously)”
No, not possible, thank you for this new and productive use of my time.
Kylo-Ren so clearly thinks he is Slytherin and is denying his true hufflepuff nature. Embrace the light Ben Solo! Tickle the pear!
i wish i could +1000000 this
He’s a Hufflyn Slytherpuff!
Emo Kylo Ren agrees: twitter.com/KyloR3n/status/680428824237051904
Yesss excellent sortings.
I like Rey as a Gryffinpuff ala ppyajunebug.
Han: Slytherdor
Leia: full on gryffindor, though she’s learning some Claw secondary for her role as general
Important question: BB-8. I’m leaning Slytherin secondary (deciding to go along with Finn’s story that he’s in the resistance, glomming onto Rey at first opportunity when she saves him), maybe even Slytherin primary too? I would love if the cutest droid ever were a through-and-through Slytherin, but maybe also gryff primary…He is super loyal to Poe and later Rey, but also willing to abandon both of them for the cause when they tell him to (although maybe forced to take orders…)
You’re first line was my first thought as well! How could anyone even be sort of neutral about Finn?
There were criticisms I had with the new movie (I understand throwbacks, but please don’t recycle quite so many plot devices), but I thought everything about Finn was perfect!
I loved his round-about way of asking if Rey was single. “You got a boyfriend back there? Cute boyfriend?” I loved his loyalty (the gif in this article made my heart creak). I loved that he had struggles, the way real people do, but ultimately decided to always do what his heart told him was right.
His hesitancy is what makes him a believable hero. Being brave isn’t lacking common sense or fear, its doing what you feel is right even when you are afraid. Finn is a realistic person and I loved the heck out of him. Can’t wait for the next movie!
P.S.
Feminist mini-rant. Rey did not “friend zone” Finn, she chose to actually get to know him as a friend because they met like 3 days ago. This is a healthy behavior, not a rejection. Sigh. Oh internet.
THIS, co-signed, +1, etc.
ALL HAIL FINN
(I am Left Raccoon.)
I can def be Right Raccoon; I just really like raccoons as well and was initially going to send this picture as an inside joke to Mr. Hieu but it seemed apropos here.
I refuse to acknowledge the existence of anybody who does not love Finn.
yes. i think you’re going about things correctly.
Perfect article is perfect. Full stars.
I’m so glad I didn’t read any reviews of this movie because if people were ragging on any of the new hero trio I would have felt the need to write them a strongly-worded letter. I am also confused that a lot of people don’t see that Rey is the new Luke, Finn is the new Han and Poe is the new Leia. It’s pretty obvious? I have gone on record saying that Han Solo is my ideal man but Finn is a more than adequate analogue. In conclusion, you have my axe.
Rey is definitely the new Luke *cough*Luke’sherdaddy*cough* (the number of times I’ve seen people argue that Rey is Obi-Wan’s daughter like ?????? he died like 40yrs ago in-universe????), and I can certainly see Finn as the new Han (RIP Han, my heart will go ooonnn), but…Poe…the new Leia…? I don’t understand? #LeiaDeservesBetter2kForever
Re Leia: well, Poe DOES spend the beginning of the movie handing off an important piece of war intelligence to a cute droid before being captured and tortured by the Empire/First Order…only to later be saved by a cute guy wearing a stormtrooper outfit…
Which I get and am amused by! Except Leia is the leader of the Resistance & far more significant to the broader plot than Poe, who is essentially a plot device used for 5 minutes.
Well, I mean, OG Leia is still Leia and still in charge of course. But Poe serves a very similar narrative purpose (and hopefully his role will be expanded in the next movie (I’m saying that only 65% because I want more of Oscar Isaac’s face in my life)).
I read (on tumblr, of course) that JJ Abrams said in an interview that originally Poe was supposed to die in the crash, full stop. But later on Poe’s role got extended for sekrit reasons. He’ll probably have a larger role in the rest of the films.
NooooO!!!!! Poe dying in the crash would have been tragic. I’m glad he made it out.
I am sort of dying for a healthy, balanced polyamorous triad. I know it will never happen. I am certain, however, that AO3 has capably addressed this issue.
Exactly! At the beginning of A New Hope, Leia was already an active and valued member of the Rebellion who was on a mission to deliver vital information to her base of operations. In the process she was caught and sent the information ahead in a droid. She was interrogated and tortured by Darth Vader before being rescued by somebody outside the Rebel Alliance who would ultimately be instrumental in taking down the Death Star. So far, so Poe.
Obviously their stories diverge a bit with Poe disappearing for the middle of the movie and their personalities are not exactly the same or anything, but much like Finn is a less snarky and kinder version of Han, Poe is a more cocky version of Leia. I believe in this one-to-one match and will defend it to death!
Poe is no princess…but he might be FINN’S princess. :3
Leia and Poe both start their movies already belonging to the rebels/resistance, kickstart the plot by hiding important information in a droid, manage to keep their cool and confidence when captured by the enemy, and take active roles in their own rescues. We’ll see if the parallels continue in later movies, but for plot purposes they have a lot in common.
I can’t get behind Rey Skywalker. Rey Kenobi FOREVER.
How about Rey Doesn’tNeedSpecialHeritageToBeAwesome? 🙂
THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS! I have serious side eye for those who want to insert her into a family as an explanation for her facility with the Force. Can a girl just LIVE? Can’t she just be awesome without alladat?
Exactly! Leia has virtually no force skills- couldn’t talk her way out of torture, never had a light saber- and she is Luke’s twin. Han doesn’t use the force, yet their kid is the new dark jedi. I hate this idea that Rey has to be the daughter of a jedi.
In a lot of the EU (which has been scrapped but whatever, there’s also some evidence in the films), Leia *is* Force-sensitive. She just isn’t on Luke’s level, nor is she inclined to train to be a Jedi, as she has other shit to do. Rey’s memories and connection to Anakin’s lightsaber point to *some* kind of familial relationship, but obviously you don’t have to be the child of a Jedi to have the abilities, otherwise how the hell would they exist in the first place?
YEAHHHHHHH TOTALLY! I mean where did the other jedi originally come from? They weren’t all part of the same family were they?
THANK YOU annecara SO MUCH!
I’d be equally comfortable with Rey Skywalker or Rey, Student of Skywalker as a Baby, but either way he put her on that planet.
Definitely. I can totally see him treating a child the same way he was treated as a child. But she was older when she was left, she remembers her family so it’s different for her.
I’m holding out for Rey Revan.
Rey is the re-embodiment of all the midichlorians that were originally riding Anakin. Kylo Ren, I am your grandfather!
I saw “Rey is the daughter of Princess Vespa and Lone Starr” go by on the Tumblrs somewhere and this instantly became my preferred headcanon. But since the writers will never ever go for that, I think I’m Team Rey Doesn’tNeedSpecialHeritageToBeAwesome.
Exactly! I liked Poe, but he didn’t have enough of a role for me to understand all the love he is getting. Chewie and Han both played larger parts and interacted more with Rey and Finn. Obviously that could still change but did Poe and Rey actually even interact? It can’t exactly be the new trio of two of the members don’t even know each other.
I was ~really~ confused when he turned back up again. And a little disappointed – it felt cheap to me in sort of the same way that putting everyone in the same family feels kind of cheap.
I didn’t mind because we would have had to be introduced to a new pilot anyway for the destruction of the new and improved DS and the cast was already heavy.
Leia is the new Leia, Poe is… well who knows? I’m pretty sure he had less screen time and DEFINITELY less character arc than Leia did; is it so wrong that I want the new trio to be badass lady scavenger Jedi, ex-stormtrooper with a heart of gold, and grizzled lady space general?
I support this 150%
Han Solo was my ideal man until Finn came along.
Don’t worry – the Finn-Han and Poe-Leia parallels will become much clearer when they hook up in Episode VIII, which is a thing that will happen because it literally must.
I got the feeling Poe was meant to be the ‘new Han’, he’s the guy with the fancy ship and the fighter jock swagger (he’s also enough of a cipher that he could as easily be called the new Chewbacca if the old one wouldn’t rip his arms off for it, so I’ll accept being the guy with the droid who gets captured by Darth Gothy as making him a Leia).
Finn and Rey mix it up in a lot more interesting ways, while Rey’s clearly stuck being the Chosen One who must Master the Force to Defeat The Man In Black she’s also generally competent and proactive in all sorts of ways that Luke never was and gets to do things besides get fucked with by the cosmic powers of destiny, and Finn by contrast doesn’t have any political savvy or know how to do <i abp=”3272″>anything except hold a blaster but still manages to be the core of the story on sheer willpower
If we are making analogies I like Han for Poe and Leia for Finn because swagger and Finn connecting different characters and parts of the story to each other. But really they are a different but super awesome mix.
I refuse to acknowledge that there could even feasibly be people alive in this world who do not like Finn. PEOPLE WUT. To have a movie where the two heroes are a kick-ass lady and a black guy, and a Star Wars movie, no less, is the best thing that ever happened.
The world is a scary and confusing place where there are people who don’t like Finn but there are also a lot of people who want Rey and Kylo Ren to fall in love.
I read this really good tumblr post about how the poster noticed most Reylo shippers were teenage girls, and teenage girls tend to be fed a LOT of media about tortured bad boys who are redeemed by love, so they’ve been primed to read TFA’s cues as the beginning of a romantic arc between Rey and Kylo. Which is messed up! But not necessarily something we should be blaming the shippers for.
I can understand the appeal, as the conflicted bad guy hits one of my narrative kinks. Also, the angry one of the group is usually my favorite–my favorite Turtle is Raphael, for example–so his character hits that narrative kink, too.
I’m old enough now that I can see where my teenage self would have been starry-eyed for Kylo Ren (and rewriting the story in my head so that he didn’t order the extermination of an entire village of noncombatants, and was secretly very upset that it happened), although now it manifests more in an urge to give him a juice box and put him down for a nap.
I feel pretty comfortable saying teenage girls who don’t recognise the difference between wanting to save the “bad boy” and wanting to save the “guy who just slaughtered my new father figure and mythic hero right in front of me after a lifetime of waiting for a family” are out of their damn minds.
I’m not that steeped in current YA trends, but I’m sure there are plenty of bad boy love interests who have done terrible things but had reasons/felt so terribly conflicted about it afterwards and are eventually written as being redeemed.
Also, Snape killed Dumbledore and you know how much of a dent that made in fandom.
But Snape killed Dumbledore because Dumbledore wanted him to… To avoid Draco turning 100% evil or something? I thought Dumbledore asked Snape to do it back when he was first Horcruxed?
But nobody knew that for sure until book 7 came out. Still a strong contingent of Snape supporters in that time (to be fair, many of them correctly guessed or deduced that Snape was acting under orders).
Yeah, but Harry and the fans did not know that when it happened. Which means that, conceivably, Kylo Ren could have an exonerating motive, too. Which fandom is quite able to supply.
Yeah, but Chris Brown.
God help me, I’ve fallen for that trash ship. It’s totally the bad boy/good girl redemption narrative, which is always my weak spot. I have no business loving it, though I’m equally pro-stormpilot and rey/finn/poe. (there’s a really good fic on ao3 that someone else showed me and that’s what changed my mind)
Got a link? For entirely academic purposes, I assure you.
As one who works in a toy store, I can report that it’s not just teen girls who’re drawn to Kylo. For whatever reason he’s the favorite among young boys under the age of 10. They come up to the counter with their little Kylo masks or lightsabers or action figures and their parents happily pay and I just want to ask them, “are you SURE you want your child to idolize someone who committed patricide? REALLY?” From talking to the kids it seems they like him because he gets the most lightsabering time in the movie and he IS fun to watch … so I’ll give them a partial pass. The parents? Not so much.
But pre-New Hope those same kids were all about Darth Vader with a side love of storm troopers and their parents subsidized those wishes. Vader I kinda get (except for the whole killing kids thing though that was off-screen so I see how someone can miss that) but I will never understand the parent who says, “yes, let’s let you be a drone for a totalitarian, evil system. Sounds good to me.”
groooooooooosssss
I swear when Kylo took his helmet off Rey’s expression was like – no, dude, just put that back on.
I … honestly had the same thought.
She had this amazing look of “…wait, really?”
To be fair, his predecessor needed the creepy mask to breathe and was basically a walking android corpse covered in scars, so I read that confusion as “You’re a normal looking human why are you wearing that creepy mask?”
This is a fair point. It was still incredibly anti-climactic.
I saw that moment, and all I could think of was Rick Moranis in SpaceBalls.
I lovelovelove that the two leads are who they are. And this is why I also shrieked witchily when I read that JJ was suggesting he’d like to see a woman directing one of the later films, and Ava was one of his choices. Can you imagine? A WOC directing a MAJOR blockbuster? http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/jj-abrams-says-se… I see from imdb that there are already directors tacked on to both 8 and 9, but hey, who knows, maybe they’ll bail in the meantime.
I am always enthused when a minority director gets to be in charge of a film that’s not specifically about being that minority.
I cried a couple of times during the movie (after the scene with Rey and Finn piloting the Millennium Falcon, and after the fight with Kylo Ren) and if my boyfriend hadn’t been next to me, I probably would have openly wept for most of the movie. I was so overwhelmed by the relief of finally seeing a movie where the kickass lady and kickass dude of color just … are kickass, without it being spun as gimmicky or AMAZING or anything.
(For the record I don’t care if my boyfriend sees me crying at this but I didn’t want to have to explain what was going on mid-movie, which I definitely would have. He did look over and see me wiping tears off my face after the final fight w/Kylo Ren and was very quizzical.)
There was a guy over at The Mary Sue the other week talking about what weak, useless, cowardly character Finn was and Rey was so amazing at everything and when are we going to have a black Jedi like that.
It was difficult for me – the commenter was a black man coming at it from what he saw as a continuation of a legacy of cowardly/comic relief black sidekicks and I don’t want to step on that anger. But at the same time, TMS gets a lot of trolls and he was in EVERY thread going ‘nope, Finn is the WORST’ every time someone wanted to talk about how much they liked him. Parsing out what is a legitimate ‘okay random dude, we get it, Finn isn’t the exact character you were hoping for, but we’d like to talk about him being pretty freaking awesome now’ and what is ‘hey person of colour! Stop being annoyed at your portrayal because whitey wants to squee!’ is something I’m still turning over in my mind.
I saw that thread and that guy too. Thing was, he was perpetuating some pretty sexist tropes as to what a male hero “should” look like.
I want “Stronger Better Faster Death Star” to be the common parlance for Starkiller from now on.
Also, I am 1,000% on board with this. I went into the movie expecting to love the new trio, but I didn’t anticipate just how much I’d love Finn. I’m just enamored with how he’s able to overcome what’s basically lifelong indoctrination in order to help a group of rebels he’s never met. And what a thoroughly charming, compelling, and affecting performance.
ALSO, doesn’t exude sex appeal? Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
Right? I guess he doesn’t exude sex appeal if you don’t like beautiful, brave, competent men who genuinely care about your well-being and forging a real connection instead of just going into Insta-Schmooze Mode.
I mean, you’re right about sex appeal, but I also think that Finn’s concern for others having apparently so little to do with a desire to get inside their pants is something I really appreciate about this movie and Finn especially.
I really really loved Finn, and that his genuine friendship (despite inutial cute flirting over possible boyfriends on Jakku) for Rey was the type female characters don’t usually get in movies as could go into great friendship or romance. Rey also got to be gritty and sweaty! And not in a sexy tomb raider way but a badass ripley way. Loved her and Finn together.
Also i have the majorest crush on Finn so dont understand the lack of sex appeal comments!
The flirting felt really forced to me, as if he was all “this is a thing that people do, and I’m a person now, rather than a mindless kill-bot, so I shall flirt.” And then it got to be too much work, so he reverted to a more normal, comfortable “omg I have a friend, friends are awesome.”
I was coming here to say just this. Have they not looked at John Boyega? The man is gorgeous. I am a lesbian* and I would totally hit that like a freight train.
Finn post stormtrooper reminds me a bit of a newly hatched duckling. He imprints on Po** and Rey and they become His People. It’s beyond touching.
*Well, I’m bi.
**Also, apparently FinnPo exists and I heartily approve of it, as do Oscar Isaac and John Boyega.
Yeah, they’re called Stormpilot and that pairing has been cheering me up something FIERCE this week. I have like a billion fic recs if anyone needs a fix.
Yes please!
Favorites I’ve found so far:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5594872 (She’s just really, really good in general and writes in some of my favorite fandoms) http://archiveofourown.org/works/5456435 (Cute awkward sexytimes) http://archiveofourown.org/works/5548715 (Clothes sharing, obviously) http://archiveofourown.org/works/5589388/chapters… (The only decent AU I’ve seen so far and it’s very charming)
I have one more. It only has one chapter so far, but it’s a long (loong) chapter and I was howling with laughter at 1 am. Accidental Marriage! Name Giving! Clearly Pining Poe! AN AMAZING FINN. For your consideration, “step out into the sun”:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5638204/chapters…
YES! Duckling imprinting is it exactly! I was so annoyed by people who said that Rey and Finn became too close too fast. These are two people WHO HAVE NEVER HAD A FRIEND. Finn literally just got a name. Rey has been living a hermit life on a desert planet longing for someone to come and find her. Add the fact that their first bonding experiences are two high paced escapes from death. I BUY IT. I buy that they care about each other that much that quickly. They’ve got people now. They’ve got like 40 combined years of stored up love potential.
Boyega is so good! Anyone who hasn’t seen Attack the Block, go do so now. It’s the role that landed him Star Wars and it is so enjoyable.
SECONDED. An excellent movie.
I have my fingers in my ears, refusing to listen to the naysayers and haters out there. Finn is awesome, as written, and as portrayed.
(needless to say, I, like many others here, have your back on this, as well as Finn’s)
a) this is great and correct and Finn is for sure the best
b) I was so annoyed by the reaction to the janitor thing, because janitor is one of the best jobs for him to have had!!! That means he knows the layout of the entire base instead of being confined to one room, and he spent years around all the important shit going down while being basically invisible, an on-screen extra to Hux and Kylo and Phasma’s diabolical planning.
How else do you think he knew all that info he gave the Resistance about the base in the first place? the best way to blow it up?? he knows everything there is to know about the base BECAUSE he was in sanitation, and even if he doesn’t have the technical knowledge to disable the shields, he clearly knows who does.
OMG I HAVE BEEN SAYING THAT SINCE DAY ONE, sanitation workers always know EVERYTHING.
It’s like that Junie B Jones book where she decides she wants to be a janitor when she grows up and her classmates laugh at her until she shuts them down with why janitors are awesome and important!!!
(filed under: references that do not land when i talk to people about TFA irl)
I am right there with you.
The real world is run by janitors and secretaries.
They have the keys.
That was not a metaphor.
…
There are people in this world who do not know who Junie B Jones is?
Sometimes I am sad for humanity.
(Also, #Finn&Poe4eva)
Yes! I work as a security guard and let me say no two groups go everywhere in a building as much as sanitation and security. We are all over the place.
This is why every hardboiled detective novel has the PI interrogating the motel housekeeping staff, and why dystopian lit relies heavily on “invisible” service workers providing invaluable insider info. It’s *everywhere.*
I KNOW!! OMG, Finn would be the best person to go in, because he would absolutely know every last hinky thing about the interior structures and maintenance issues. The only thing that could *possibly* have been better was if he had been an HVAC technician. But only a little.
b) I was so annoyed by the reaction to the janitor thing, because janitor is one of the best jobs for him to have had!!! That means he knows the layout of the entire base instead of being confined to one room, and he spent years around all the important shit going down while being basically invisible, an on-screen extra to Hux and Kylo and Phasma’s diabolical planning.
Plus, he didn’t, you know, walk around and kill/torture people like Stormtroopers usually do*. That would have made his character far more complicated.
*Or TRY to do.
How can anyone call Finn a coward? He rescues a Resistance POW and blasts his way out of a Star Destroyer. He also refuses to murder innocent people even knowing that his blaster record will probably be checked and he’ll be punished.
They’re confusing “a person who is genuinely scared, but manages to power through that and be a hero” with “a coward.” Finn ain’t no coward. If Finn was a coward, he would’ve just stayed a Stormtrooper.
Forgot to mention the Finn Funko Pop is the cutest damn thing at my desk, and I have the Marvel Selects Pizza Dog figure here so you know it’s real.
Eeeeeeee! ability…to…resist…getting…one…fading
It is on sale on Amazon today for under $9. I know this, because I could not resist that much cute.
Hrm…$13.99 on amazon.ca, but same price at Best Buy, maybe I could use some of my gift cert and get all 4 of them…
I found one at Walgreens for $10, of all places. So maybe the local drugstore?
Well now I had to buy it. Thanks a lot. (not sarcastic, actually thank you, I needed that in my life.)
I definitely bought the Finn Funko Pop for our department’s holiday toy donation drive (for our patients’ families who can’t afford presents) because it was so cute. I hadn’t even seen the movie yet, but I knew I had to get Finn. When the lady in charge asked, “So is your present for a boy or a girl? Age range?” I said, “It’s for any gender who likes Star Wars.” Because FINN.
Reason #254234234 why I love my husband: he spent a long time debating over whether he wanted the Black Widow or Brienne of Tarth Funko Pop for his office at his new job.
I forget which one he settled on, because I immediately bought the other one for his birthday, so now he has both. He’s considering Captain Phasma now…I just need to discourage him long enough to snap it up for Valentine’s Day.
Oh man. You have excellent taste in husbands.
My brother requested the Black Widow Funko Pop (specifically the Cap 2 movie one) for Christmas. For a little brother, he’s pretty all right 🙂
i impulsively added one into my Amazon cart.
then a Rey one.
then a BB-8 one.
and then all of the sudden there were a lot of Funko Pops in my shopping cart and i think i have to start making some very difficult decisions.
Finn is hella compelling! I certainly wish we could have learned more about what he went through under the First Order and how he was able to resist their indoctrination, but even what we do see is great. He has conflicting desires (run away from horrible life vs. help friends), he expresses a wide range of emotions – he is like the perfect dude.
I actually think that *cough*things are pointing to him maybe being a latent Force user as well? But WE WILL SEE
[and obvs you don’t need the Force to be awesome]
There is an official novella that talks about Finn’s background with the First Order, if you’re interested in reading about it:
http://www.polygon.com/2015/12/30/10690288/the-ca…
I am so baffled by the “Finn is comic relief” criticism. No??? His very first scene is him terrified in the middle of a battle and refusing to slaughter innocents, despite being a stormtrooper???
Also that “friend-zone” comment has me seeing red. In addition to all the usual hatred I have for the term “friendzone,” this is the first movie! There are two more to come! No romantic arc comes to fruition in the first act of the story! The last scene of Rey and Finn has her gazing at him lovingly and kissing his forehead! How do these cues make you think “friendzone”????? (The article probably answers these questions; I am too enraged to read it)
Side note: I was thrilled that Rey didn’t have a love interest in this movie. THRILLED. I am so tired of women being defined by their romantic relationships on screen.
Agreed. And I would be tickled if they just remain best friends for the remaining 2.
Seriously. “He was friend-zoned.” Yes, god forbid that a woman exist without being sexual material for a man. We all know that female human beings, as in fully independent, autonomous people just like men are fully independent and autonomous people, are a mere myth spouted by those mysterious vagina-having creatures.
FU, Washington Post critic. Women do not exist for the sole purpose of being sexual fodder for men.
I get just as angry when I hear women use the term “friend-zone” as I do when I hear women say they don’t consider themselves feminists.
Additionally, as said in this article, black men do not exist to ooze (mildly creepy) sexual charm toward white women. As a kid, I found Lando Calrissian a little uncomfortable. Upon a recent rewatch, I shuddered both at his creepiness and constant hitting on/touching Leia, as well as the fact that the only black guy in the galaxy (apparently) is a narc who betrays his buddy AND tries to mack on his buddy’s girl. I’ll take ugly black stereotypes for $500, Alex.
Let’s compare and contrast the “lame that Finn isn’t sexypantsing Rey by the end of the film!” complaint with the “how can Finn and Rey already be such good friends by the end of one film?” complaint, and then go and set some things on fire.
Me too! That’s the thing I loved most about the movies, no romantic subplot! Also, she kept rescuing herself…. I’m afraid the non-romance will change in movie 2 and 3, and I’ll be a sad puppy. She belongs with neither Poe nor Finn (who obviously belong with each other).
I love that you can tell even through his uniform and mask that he was horrified at the slaughter of the village. I can’t wait to learn more backstory because it’s clear he’s got some heavy Force/Jedi/mitichlorian shit coursing through his veins.
That was some grade A actoring right there. Even without the bloody smear you could tell who Finn was.
If you mean the Washington Post article, no it doesn’t go into detail about the supposed “friendzoning.”
And I agree about how no romantic arc coming into fruiting during the film. Lucas and his collaborators clearly didn’t know who they were setting Leia up with in A New Hope for goodness sake.
I should not have given them any benefit of the doubt, then. Thank you for confirming my rage.
Yeah — he wasn’t NOT freindzoned, but he definitely wasn’t fur sure friendzoned, and also maybe we could put that term on the newer faster death star and blow it the fuck up.
Yesyesyes to the friendzone thing! Why would it be a bad thing, somehow less valuable, if they’re friends but not lovers? ALSO, how glad am I that Rey isn’t reduced so quickly to the status of “love interest”?? Female characters are so often contained in exactly this way. I think it strengthens both Finn’s and Rey’s bona-fides not to be defined by romance at this point in the story arc, whatever may or may not happen later….
Because she calls him friend. So clearly it’s a friendzoning. (sarcasm, but I’ve actually seen it argued)
Mainstream American film has a real issue with black men with white women, so I’m hoping it’s a romance because it’s not depicted often enough as a natural, everyday thing. But that said, I totally buy Finn and Rey as just friends. This isn’t a ‘friendzone’ deal at all, I don’t think either one wants more from the other than they’re willing to give and a romance or a deep friendship would be completely natural and believable to me.
He did not get ‘Friend-zoned’. They became friends.
There’s a huge bloody difference.
Finn isn’t shown to have unrequited feelings for her; which is a large part of what constitutes ‘being friend-zoned’ (at least that’s the theory, whether the ‘friend-zone’ actually exists in another debate for another day)
I’m actually hoping that Rey/Finn doesn’t happen because I like that they’re friends. We don’t get enough examples of male/female close friendship that doesn’t have a romantic aspect to it and both characters are equals. Most of the male/female friendships in media involve one person being secretly in love with the other, or they’re both attracted to eachother but don’t know it, but all their friends do or some such shite.
How can anyone who thinks Finn is a coward have been watching the same damn film as the rest of us?
100% yes, everything you say is perfect. Finn is the triumph of humanity over all else. He cares about people, not a Cause. Without him, the movie would be big explosions and starships and very little heart.
And Rey kinda wanted to bail on the whole thing there for awhile and get back to Sand Planet to wait for her imaginary family, so criticizing Finn for wanting out seems like tunnel vision.
I admire the movie for having the two main characters just want to live in peace. It’s a big difference from how Luke wanted to joining the Rebellion and have a more exciting life and Han being a destructive screw up in the original. I like that the they acknowledge that war is exhausting while doing all the fun action stuff.
Random question – I just recently rewatched the original trilogy for obvious reason, and Luke makes a comment about wanting to go the Imperial Academy? But then gets super excited about the Rebels when he sees the message from Leia – did he actually want to join the Rebellion before his aunt and uncle were killed (and just wanted to use the Academy for training) or was he just looking for any form of excitement and way to get off Tattooine?
Well, he also says to Obi Wan “it’s not like I like the empire, I hate them, but there’s nothing I can do!”
My understanding is that the Empire is like what the world would be like if the Third Reich had taken over. There’s no living outside of it, so joining up with the army isn’t so much indicative of Empire loyalty as it is just “how it is”.
Han was also in the imperial army before he defected to save Chewie! I think it’s just like, the impossibility of opting out of an all-encompassing system, you know?
This was a quibble I had with the movie. Where one second she’s begging him to stay, then five minutes and one bad trip later she’s ready to bail too.
I see no contradiction here. Rey wants Finn to stay *with her,* not with the cause. She has issues with being abandoned, apparently not without cause.
To be fair, if I suddenly started hearing voices and experiencing vivid hallucinations of death and destruction I’d nope the fuck outta there too.
Yeah, fair enough. It’d be better if, instead of randomly stumbling into the woods, Rey sprints to the freighter screaming “wait take me with you!”
<3<3<3
“In many ways Finn’s character is analogous to Han’s in A New Hope: he is pulled into an adventure he didn’t sign up for and he is eager to get the hell out of dodge as soon as possible. ”
Thank you! I saw some one else saying that Poe was the next generation Han, and it really bothered me. Poe is clearly the next generation Leia. (He’s the only one of the new characters with preexisting ties to the Resistance and he’s made a POW in the opening scene. How many more parallel do you need?)
Finn is great. His adjustment to non Stormtrooper life is often played for laughs, but he’s not the but of the joke. (They could have done more with it, but that probably wouldn’t fit in the story.) The friendships with Rey and Han were great for the reasons you mentioned.
Finn is clearly the new Luke though. Certainly personality-wise, and then he loses his whole life abruptly, and he definitely relates to people in that optimistic, all-be-friends way Luke did.
Rey is like 90% Han Solo. Rey has morals and is a Jedi, but she’s very clearly got Han’s personality and is very unlike idealistic Luke. She knows being a hero means losing her whole life to greater pressures and wants none of it.
To be fair a large problem with talking about the new movie is that while a lot of the structure copies ANH the character arcs don’t really. I think you’re right in that Finn is best compared to Luke but I think Rey is more like Anakin. Well, how Anakin should have been portrayed in the prequels anyway. She’s heroic and powerful but clearly has a lot of fear. I mean it’s clear in the movie that Rey could have left Jakku at any time, the only reason she stayed was because she was too afraid to lett go of her past. Not to mention she was clearly going to murder Kylo Ren at the end. You could see the hatred and anger on her face in the second stage of the fight. My guess is that her arc in the next movies will have to do with her being torn between the dark and the light.
IMO the best characters in the movie are Finn and Kylo Ren. Partly because their arcs mirror each other perfectly. Kylo was born in the light and fell to darkness while Finn was raised in darkness before choosing a better way.
My mind boggles at the idea of someone calling Finn a coward. To break free of his conditioning took great strength, to refuse to kill despite his orders took strong morality, to escape and then risk re-capture took enormous courage, to risk re-capture to save his friend took powerful loyalty. Incredibly brave, as Leia said. I loved him.
I also liked that he was a sanitation worker, not some technical wizard. It gives his character room to develop.
(PS was anyone else bothered by the fact that Leia is supposed to be a general, THE general, but all the military planning was done by the men while she just stood there?)
Eh, I think it is semi realistic. The commander gives his/her staff guidance on what they want to happen, the staff develops a plan with several courses of actions, and then presents those options to the commander with pros and cons as well as impacts and a recommendation. The commander would then make the final decision on the action taken, and decide the way ahead.
She’s also not a scientist and the general who figures out the oscillator is (in the novel) explicitly experienced with science and engineering.
Just gonna be all up in this thread talking about the novelization of TFA.
I’m restraining myself so hard from vomiting emotion all over this comments section that my eyes are watering. That is definitely the reason my eyes are watering btw
fiiiiinnnnnnnn! finn finn finn finn finn! F! I! N! N! FINN!!
I LOVE Finn but he and Rey are tied for best character? And they should have all the hugs and hand-holding and kicking butt and discovering the richness of life together, possibly with Poe if they like.
but definitely with BB-8 by their side, giving them encouraging droid thumb ups when needed
Man, I love that droid. So much that I might just have to fold and get the one from the Disney store that makes noises.
That little lighter thumbs-up is just about the most adorable thing i’ve ever seen. I’ve started carrying a lighter around in my purse again for the sole purpose that someday I might be fast enough to whip it out for a thumbs-up of my own.
On the “Rey is awesome” topic, there was a 5- or 6-year-old boy in front of me at the movie theater, and after Rey won the lightsaber battle with Kylo Ren, he cheered, “YAY, SHE WON, SHE BEAT HIM” and it was like the most heartwarming feminism moment of my year.
Dude. My five-year-old son left the theater saying he wants to be Rey for Halloween, so this movie wins forever and always in my heart (as if it hadn’t already).
Awwww! Screw all the people who say boys can only identify with male heroes.
Science has discovered that boys can identify with heroes who are awesome. Girls have the same ability.
I’m going with “best character” is a level and just kinda ignore the “the” in the article title. They are both best characters for me. Other people are welcome to feel differently, but they are of equal importance for many reasons, discussed here and elsewhere.
I mean, I generally agree with you, but the first time I read your comment, I read:
“licking butt”
and I was still ready to cosign, although that seemed awfully specific.
Ha! Yes, I was not going for that level of specificity, though whatever floats one’s boat.
Anyone who calls Finn a coward is wrong. It takes bravery to rescue Poe and leave. I don’t know how else to interpret that. John Boyega is the best. The way in which both Poe and Finn modela masculinity that isn’t the hyper masculinity of Han Solo is really great.
Finn is super great! After I watched the movie with my uncle he kept being confused about the “this guy was a former stormtrooper, how did everyone trust him so quickly??” 1. look at him, look at his face, did you hear him try and convince Rey he was a Big Deal in the resistance I mean really. 2. I also think it says a lot about his character that everyone DID trust him near-immediately. Like projecting that kind of willful caring and openness is not something that would work for everyone! But it works for Finn!
And the movie wasn’t being subtle about how you were supposed to see him as courageous for throwing off his stormtrooper brainwashing. Leia specifically seeks him out to tell him this.
The reason everybody trusted him instantly is that Finn is actually a golden retriever puppy. He just wants to be around his friends! He loves everybody instantly! He’s brave and cute and wants everbody to be save! Obviously a puppy, and who would mistrust a puppy?
If there’s an “awakening” in this movie, it’s Finn’s *moral awakening* and it happens right at the beginning. When have you ever seen a storm trouper acknowledge the fall of another storm trouper? And yet, that’s where Finn is, kneeling at his comrade’s side, getting blood on his helmet.
yes yes yes this times a thousand.
Damn straight
Wait, how do you spell trouper? trooper? trewper?
I always thought that WAS the awakening. It’s certainly a powerful, carthartic moment.
Aaaand then he kills dozens of his former comrades a half hour later. His early heel-face-turn is too rushed and backasswards to really work.
There is literally no reason other than racism to not like Finn. He is completely lovable.
Weirdly some of the criticism I have seen (granted, these are comments on the Internetz, so people could totally be lying about their race) have been from black people. I have seen in a couple of places people being upset because they thought that Rey was characterized as perfect and strong and Finn was basically a loser… which I don’t understand how they got there from that movie. Both Finn and Rey have their “I’m terrified and kind of bad at this” moments (hello, Rey forgets to take the safety off??? Finn would have never made that mistake) and have their awesome moments too.
A character does not have to be perfect to be an awesome character…
VERY YES TO ALL OF THIS. It is inconceivable to me that anyone could possibly disagree with any of this. Or that they could not love Finn. (The friend zone comment is also strange. Who left the movie not in love with John Boyega?!)
Sad, lonely, dead inside people left the movie not in love with John Boyega
Finn is of course precious and wonderful, but I doubt that Boyega puts something as abrasive as sugar anywhere near his skin. He probably has the treatment from “If Lupita Nyong’o Were Your Girlfriend” where people rub your skin with pearls every night.
Unless you are under the impression that people can just retire from the conditioned army of conscript child soldiers, Finn was effectively a slave. Someone needs to tell me how an escaped slave is a coward because he wasn’t Harriet Tubman in the first five minutes of his freedom.
THANK YOU! I adored Finn and have since been utterly disappointed at not finding the over-the-top fan love I think he deserves. I love that he’s an actual REAL PERSON who’s understandably freaked out, not somehow amazing at everything he tries (though dang good at some stuff) and incredibly brave at throwing himself out there in spite of all that. I might be alone in this, but Rey’s character sometimes struck me as a token “strong female character,” more of a defensive response to sexist views than a full character with her own idiosyncrasies. Finn felt more like a real, unique and fully realized person.
Plus it doesn’t hurt that he’s damn cute.
Yeah. . .while the ‘stop taking my hand!’ stuff was funny, it felt a little bit “LOOK AT ME STRONG LADY WHO DOES NOT NEED SAVING”
But, if Rey is the new Luke, her character being a tad bland makes sense. Luke is boring as hell.
I thought that was great! Mostly because it’s really hard to run and hold hands at the same time and yet it’s in so many movies.
I didn’t mind it, because throughout the movie, every time there was a man-saving-a-woman moment, there was shortly afterward a woman-saving-a-man moment, as if the movie was going out of its way to emphasize that these are people saving people and the exact gender arrangement doesn’t matter.
I dunno, I fell entirely for Rey when she’s in the Falcon and her response to landing on Maz’s planet is “I didn’t know there was this much green in the entire galaxy”
I think she’s spent her entire life on Jakku in a state of deprivation – or suspended animation, almost, shut down her emotions for the sake of survival – and it takes her a while to reacclimate to human interaction, and it’s hard to use the Force when you don’t really feel connected to other people/other life. By the end, she’s tapped into the Force, she’s receptive to the hug from Leia even though they’ve never met, and she kisses Finn’s forehead in the hospital, and these attachments help her be centered/ready for the next part of her journey.
It’s more subtle than Finn’s journey, maybe, and potentially more in Daisy Ridley’s face than the writing, but for me it was very powerful.
I fell for her in that the scene in her home where you see her doll, and the way she eats and puts the helmet on for fun — I loved this Tumblr commentary on Rey: http://jedipilotstorm.tumblr.com/post/13658467420…
I thought Rey was a token at first, but if you look at her motivation, not so much. She does the token thing of beating up the male lead but actually, she has a damn good reason and when she demands he, ‘stop holding her hand ‘ it’s also completely reasonable. She doesn’t know this guy from Adam and thought he was a thief *at best* mere moments before. She hits all the tropes, yes. But she’s totally justified in her actions.
Am I the only one who wished we got to see more of Finn’s character developing? I feel like at least two of the fight/chase scenes could have been removed so we got to see him and Rey engage in more actual conversation. The way the movie was structured it seemed like Finn formed these really sudden deep attachments without much time or chance to get to know people, which didn’t make a ton of sense.
The scene where he and Rey are congratulating each other on being awesome was really cool, though. One of my favorites.
I’m always in favor of more character development and less fight scenes, but I think it does make sense that Finn formed these really deep attachments without a chance to get to know people. He’s never had anyone to love in his whole life, sounds like, so he’s instantly very attached to anyone who shows him kindness. I think it’s one of the most compelling things about his character.
I really like that way of looking at things, thanks!
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“These are my friends. I have friends now. Stop fucking with my friends, I will blow up your planet if I have to.”
I see what you’re saying and I too would love (LOVE) more Rey/Finn or Poe/Finn bonding time, but also trust me as children’s mental health professional, one who works with foster children almost exclusively, that Finn’s deep and intense attachment to the first two humans to show him kindness makes a whole lotta sense to me. I see it every single day.
So many foster kid feelings while watching this film. So many.
Yeah I found the movie about 30 minutes too long, and got really bored with all the chasing and fighting and chasing and fighting, and would have LOVED more conversation and back story and stuff!
I just feel like some of it felt unnecessary, it didn’t move the plot forward. Like the bit with the mobeters and monsters in Han’s freighter… Totally didn’t need. Didn’t add anything. The original 3 had many more moments of dialogue and back story and didn’t suffer.
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I mean that’s my general attitude to most movies. More human conversations and political intrigue and details about the economy please.
I think it was somewhere in the battle at Maz Cantana that I actually thought ‘ugh bored now. why am I bored? Oh right its just been people running and shooting for the last 10 minutes, can we go back to them talking the bar please?’
“In fact, while I don’t diss anyone’s ships, I find it hilarious that Finn can be shipped with anyone and everyone, mostly because he genuinely cares about people.”
OK, fine, but the only legitimate ship is Finn and Poe.
:((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
Oh come now. Think about it: Once they get together, HOW cute will that scene where Poe tells Finn he can keep his leather jacket be?
They are adorable and I absolutely ship them but I am very very VERY sad at the idea that Finn/Rey is not ALSO a legitimate ship.
I feel you, but Rey is probably gonna be a Jedi which means she’s not supposed to be in a relationship. She’ll probably come back from the Jedi temple with Luke all trained up, and Finn will be sad about it for about 30 minutes before he realizes he’s never taken off that jacket because something about how it smells just feels like home. . .*
*I do not actually believe that the Star Wars corporate machine is really ready to have a major queer relationship story, but it would just be SO AWESOME if they were
(I also feel that the rule that Jedi can’t have romantic relationships is dumb and want this series to ditch it. I also want Finn to be a Jedi–tease me with lightsaber shots in the trailers!–and a pony my own sentient BB-8 companion. So, you know.)
I agree that the rule is dumb, but I think it’s kind of the point that it’s dumb? Like the Jedi oversimplify dark vs. light and good vs. bad and that’s why they lose good people to the dark side, because the rules are too restrictive and impossible for people to stick with.
although in the EU (RIP) it was okay for the new generation of Jedi to be in love and have babies because in hindsight the rule was Very Dumb soooooooooooooo
(i am still 110% #TeamStormPilot)
I mean, if we start looking closely at who Rey’s parents might be, I think Jedi CAN have romantic relationships and children, it just might not have been explicitly encouraged or promoted as a popular or “best” option.
We can all compromise.
Finn/Rey/Poe OT3 4eva!!
Always in favor of a good OT3. (Yours in friendship, a Nine/Rose/Jack fan)
I love Finn more than anything and he is by far the best character in TFA but I would like to make one minor note in defense of Poe Dameron. While we don’t see it in the movie, there is a scene in the novelization of the film where Leia orders Poe and his team to leave the planet as it is blowing up and Poe blatantly says he isn’t going to leave until he finds his friends. It’s a pretty great scene. Leia is all, “I love them too but you’re the last of our fleet!” and Poe is like, “I am still gonna stay, what do you say guys?” And then the whole team is like, “yeah we’re with you!” And they stay in the exploding planet’s atmosphere looking for the falcon.
The rules for the books are that unless they directly contradict what happens in the movie, they’re canon. So in defense of Poe (who is the only character I as an old lady feel comfortable wanting to touch sexually (other than Leia)), I just wanna say he wouldn’t have left them on the planet the end.
Good to know! I have 6 Star Wars books on hold at the library so I’m not caught up yet. I’m very glad to hear Poe BAEmeron wasn’t gonna leave his friends.
Hmm, commenting as guest as I can’t seem to login:
In the movie, as the Falcon is leaving the planet, Poe zooms in and basically says “we found them! Now let’s go home!” I took it to mean the x-wing pilots had been searching for them, and wanted to act as guards to make sure the Falcon wasn’t attacked as it left by any small ships that were still around.
So yeah, Poe cared! 🙂
“A Washington Post critic was disappointed that Finn got “friend-zoned” by Rey”
I’m honestly surprised that there are people who have seen the movie who apparently don’t ship Finn & Poe like the rest of us normal people do.
I ship them both. Poe/Finn, Finn/Rey, whatever.
I JUST WANT FINN TO BE HAPPY AND TO FIND LOVE
(Also, I have head cannon where Leia needed to blow off some steam post-Han leaving and Poe was there. And it was a nice couple of weeks and Poe was probably quietly freaking out about how cool it is that he got to roll around with his idol and Leia was like, “Thank God I’m the general and I get to have a boytoy. Boy toy, get me a drink!”
This is perfect and I approve.
Omg Poe’s mom is Leia’s good friend and personal pilot during the war so that could maybe be weird.
Also I am super. Super. SUPER invested in Poe being queer (not necessarily with Finn but just in general) but then again I am queer and I would sleep with Leia and Poe so shrug emoji.
OT3! OT3!
I am having such a hard time shipping them as an OT3 because Poe and Rey didn’t get a single scene together. I need fanfic to fill the void.
I ship them as a happily polyamorous triad where Poe’s relationship to Rey is presently “my boyfriend’s boyfriend” but we shall see where the rest of the series takes us!
Anyone who uses the term friend-zone un-ironically has nothing of value to contribute to the discussion.
From the second he (literally) popped up in the first teaser trailer I was in love. No. Scratch that. From the moment I heard that John Boyega was cast I was in love.
Awkward confession time. A long time ago in a state far, far away (lets say eleven/twelve years ago and Texas), I had a very involved, very long, very private bit of fanfiction. Mostly it involved Luke’s friend Tank who managed to get off Tatooine and go to the Academy with Biggs, only my teenaged headcanon was that he became Imperial infantry instead of navy, and he totally looked like this one kid in my grade that I had a massive crush on and… well, that one kid had an eerie resemblance to Mr. Boyega. (I later found out that there was a comic miniseries that he was in and was super stoked. Until I saw their Tank was just another white guy. Marvel, you have the power now. You can correct this. Heck. You could even make Tank a girl. Do it. Please.)
I was having feelings about Finn WAY before that movie came out and anyone who dares besmirch his honor will have to go through me first. Come at me, dirtbags.
Side note, you’ve all seen Attack the Block, right? It is phenomenal and he is perfect in it. (The scene where the nurse sees his room? Oh man. So good.)
Yes yes yes yes seconding this x1 million
YES that movie is great and he’s great in it.
And the fact that he looks older in ATB than in TFA despite the intervening years. And positively exudes threat and menace in ATB. Dude can apparently act unlike some people in the film who seem to play basically the same entirely awesome character their entire careers.
All I’m saying is, if this photo is laying the groundwork for JB taking over (eventually) as Great British Actor Who Is Universally Adored, I am all over that. https://twitter.com/johnboyega/status/67961116194…
OMG, Finn is the bomb and this article gets all the love. He is so believable! I totally understand the way he reacts in every situation, except for I would be shrieking obscenities, like, nonstop. But other than that, dude is just the best. He’s so human, but he’s the BEST human. I mean, I love, love Rey and thank goodness she is a kickass female for all the girls out there, but seriously, Finn is who I identify with as a rational adult that can’t help thinking about consequences but will still do the right thing in the end, and who loves my friends more than my own hide a lot of times.
And John Boyega is super cute.
People who hate on Finn are terrible people.
THANK YOU.
The thing that kills me is that I have seen commenting, on generally forward-thinking websites, that Finn is not a good character and that it sucks that the only black character is so weak.
To which I can’t even respond because I don’t understand how we watched the same movie.
It’s fascinating how emotional strength looks like weakness when you only value macho masculinity.
Finn is by far the strongest character. The strength to love people unconditionally and against all reason and to fight for that love even when it goes against his best interest….like, God. God. How is that not the most amazing thing in the story SPOILER ALERT it is.
Finn weak WHAT? He goes back to the First Order’s base even having no idea what he is doing, but knowing that he has to GET IN THERE AND DO SOMETHING TO HELP REY. I mean, it’s not “strong” in the sense of “thinks he’s strong and tells everyone else he’s the strongest one around,” it’s more in the sense of “being strong and facing your fears.”
A friend of mine has some very strong feelings about this. He loves the character, but feels that he was poorly written and that John Boyega did a lot of the heavy lifting. I disagree with him about the writing, but at the same time I respect his feeling on this because he is looking at it from the perspective of “finally, a hero who looks like me!” and then didn’t get the hero he’d been expecting.
And that is a big problem with lack of diversity, when you *finally* have a bit of representation it ends up having to mean so much. *Everything.* A choice made, a choice not made. The more regularly diverse leading casts become a thing, the less individual choices about each character will have to carry so much weight.
For example: it would be great to have a female character without a romance plot. But what does that mean if the choice is to have a female lead w/o a romance plot *or* to have an interracial romance. But what does that mean if the choice is to have a heterosexual romance plot *or* to have a gay romance plot? When all of these are “that hardly every happens” each choice is exciting and each choice is disappointing. But when we start to let our mainstream storytelling branch out and explore all of these possibilities, we enter the world of “and” instead of “this is like the standard thing, but for this one difference.” Because to hell with standard.
Of course, in this particular case, Finn/Poe and no love interest for Rey would solve all those problems.
But any one of those outcomes is going to be disappointing to someone. My above-mentioned friend who probably like to finally see a hero who looks like him *also* get the girl. Because he rarely gets to see that. Meanwhile, I have friends (including friends that look like Finn) who never get to see themselves as action heroes and also get the guy.
So Finn/Poe doesn’t solve all the problems. What solves all the problems is Moar Storeez! Give us gay heroes and PoC heroes (including WoC) and heroes with missing limbs and heroes who are old and heroes who are fat and…and…and… More stories, more heroes.
These are such important points and I wanted to be careful not to dismiss them because I KNOW THAT FEEL. For example, many folks on tumblr have discussed how frustrating fandom can be with black characters by immediately stripping them of any sexual or romantic storyline. (This was a big deal in the Sleepy Hollow fandom and I’ve heard of ppl shipping Jessica Jones with Kilgrave as if she and Luke Cage aren’t already canon… but I digress.)
That said I agree the solution is more stories. Because making a single story or character have to carry the burden is unfair. To be frank, white male characters get to be flawed and messy and nuanced and grow and change in myriad of ways precisely because they do not have to be representative of anything.
I could write a whole other essay on this. But I won’t. lol
I’ll say this, re: John Boyega doing the heavy lifting: most of the time, that’s the case. As a writer it pains me to admit this but there is so, so much bad writing in movies and television. And the actors are just working their butts off to try and make sense of it for the audience, to create a coherent character. JJ Abrams is no different – we only need to point to Into darkness to prove that. Mind, I thought Finn was a very well constructed character from top to bottom.
Not related to Finn, but related to the diversity thing – I read an article yesterday that made a point that Rey was able to be who she was because she didn’t have to be THE female in the movie. With Leia, Maz, and even Phasma, she had more freedom to not be the automatic love interest/perfect/everything character and could kick butt, be flawed, run away when she freaked out, make mistakes, be good at some things, but not everything. I love Finn (and I love him more after this article), but Rey was so so important to me in this movie.
Finn is the most cinnamon of all cinnamon buns, the specialist of all special snowflakes, and the bravest of all toasters!* His bravery begins at its peak when he refuses to slaughter innocent civilians. If anyone considers his impulse to run as far as fuck away from the First Order cowardice, they are dummies who have been brainwashed to think anything less than dumb, reckless fighting is beneath an action hero.
Finn imprints on Poe and Rey immediately in a totally human need for companionship, and that creates the heart of the whole movie. I left Force Awakens really impressed that I believe in those friendships, in a way that I never believed Luke, Leia, and Han cared about each other until Empire Strikes Back. The original three had to develop their friendships, but because of Finn’s need for companionship, I believed that he had real affection for Rey and Poe from the first moment he met them. He’s the living embodiment of “I never had a group of friends before / I promise that I’ll make y’all proud.”
Also, John Boyega is by far the greatest thing to happen to Star Wars. His child-like joy and genuine enthusiasm for this movie brings people into the experience. When he speaks, I feel like I don’t have to have the right nerd credentials, I don’t have to be an unattached, analytical critic. I am allowed to just buy my ticket and popcorn and enjoy this movie for two hours. And maybe, JB will sit next to me and cheer with me.
*(Heehee where toasters=cylons=stormtroopers, I am cracking myself up with this unintentional pun!)
Suddenly this line makes even more sense, when in the context of Stormtroopers:
“And I am not throwing away my shot.”
Wow, you are so right about the friendship thing and how there is this heart to that wasn’t there before.
Also, “the most cinnamon of all cinnamon buns” = <3
Lemme just say that I love the moment when Rey and Finn are reunited after Finn comes back to The First Order to rescue her. 1) Because of all the reasons stated above and 2) Because this is the first time in Rey’s life when someone cared enough to come back to her and you can see how amazed she is by that and UGH I LOVE IT SO MUCH
Finn is a precious cinnamon roll and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.
“this is the first time in Rey’s life when someone cared enough to come back to her and you can see how amazed she is by that”
YES!!
YES on my second viewing when it got to that part and they literally say “You came back for me!” or “I came back for you!” (I forget who says it) I maaaay have gotten a bit choked up.
I just realized that now and got a little choked up thinking about it
I spent most of opening night weeping with happiness and nostalgia, and that scene happened and I fucking lost it and startled my partner with my stifled sobbing. He was much better prepared when I started crying at that scene on my third trip to the cinema.
I cry at a lot of things.
I am definitely not tearing up thinking about that scene at my desk right now.
I unfortunately clicked on the WP link, mistakenly feeling that “friend-zoned” was as bad as it got. When I read the headline, “What Star Wars gets wrong about blacks and women”, with the white women columnist photo *right underneath it*, I had to hold back an AUDIBLE “what the F*CK” (at work. 😛 )
ahem. FINN IS LOVE, YAY THIS ARTICLE.
Finn is amazing. I just feel like maybe there was a missing scene where Finn introspected about the stormtroopers he’s killing who were his comrades a couple days ago? Smears-Blood-On-Him stormtrooper was an important element of his deconditioning, after all.
Yes to all of the above. Above and beyond Boyega’s considerable charisma, Finn is hugely important because he makes a moral choice to escape the fucked-up tyranny and conditioning that’s the only home he’s ever known. That’s extremely significant to many of us.
That fact that, in this current political and societal climate where Black people and young Black men have their humanity denied at every level in every institution, that the first person we see to truly cross sides and defect, the person whose humanity and conscience is too strong and powerful to be quashed by brainwashing and cult-training, is a young Black man….like. I can’t deal. I don’t think I’ll ever stop crying about that.
“There is no posturing or bravado, no bickering over whose fault it is that they are being hunted by the First Order — just joy and mutual admiration.” One of my favorite things about this movie! Long live Finn! Long live this article!!!
Watching that scene, I wanted to yell at the screen, “Stand closer together so I can hug you both at once.” I loved that bit, and their relationship, and I want more Finn-and-Rey adventures as soon as possible, please.
Yes to all of the above. I have no problem. I just didn’t get the bond between Finn and Rey, and I just have no feeling for his story.
I like that he runs at first. That he wants to run. Sometimes it’s safer, and sometimes you are scared shitless. Rey is excited to have a purpose (fighting off Kylo Ren with the Resistance) because she hasn’t had one beyond “wait here” and “feed yourself.” But Finn was raised to have one purpose, and having free will means being able to escape a terrible fate.
Maybe I relate because I would definitely have run, in his shoes, the same way, in Rey’s shoes, I would’ve stayed.
Ah but remember Rey was running away too when she got captured. She touched the lightsaber, got those Force visions and was like NAH BITCH! BACK TO JAKKU I GO!
Reluctant heroes are my faves 🙂
I like Finn and only argue with one point. It’s clear he is into Rey. I think he fell hard at first site. Would his strong moral code guide him to take the exact same action for a homely, grumpy dude? Don’t think so.
I 100% disagree and think that if he and Poe hadn’t been separated you would have seen Finn take care of him as well.
If Finn is supposed to be a Han parallel, and he absolutely is, then he would clearly also take care of his companions he’s not in love with. Please note that Han saves Luke and Chewie several times. Similarly, Finn showed that he would have saved Poe in the crashed Tie fighter if he had been at all able to.
Finn is a caretaker. He didn’t have immediate feelings for Rey when those two guys were trying to beat her up. He responded to a two-against-one scenario. Because he cares.
That’s pretty obvious, as you can see the flawed logic he was working on with “I like this woman, and she wants to find the Resistance, so I should say I’m with the Resistance” which Han sees through immediately.
I think he definitely loves Rey, but is he IN love with her?I like the fact that it hasn’t been clearly defined yet.
I liked Finn a lot and I definitely agree with the overall point of the article. Having said that, you’re wrong about the author of the Washington Post article, who is black. (See https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/20…
semi-related but John Boyega’s Instagram is the cutest thing ever.
his caption for his (hotttt) GQ photo shoot: “If im being honest I just needed a reason to post this picture lol”
Let’s not even talk about how pissed i was that Ren’s plot armor keeps him from losing an appendage when Finn tees off on him. Finn earned that dismemberment, and he was ROBBED.
Just thought you should know that I’m crying now. Well done Léonicka!
I like Finn also. I quibble with the idea that a “sanitation worker” also goes on important assault missions when they have literally thousands of soldiers for that but hey. maybe they’re like the Marines. It was funny.
He is certainly the most likable character, kinda like Han was in the Original Trilogy, because they’re much more relatable. Luke and Rey have Mystical Journeys to go on, which is important and all, but I like the guys who just need a good blaster by their side instead of hokey religions and ancient weapons. The last three movies did not have a Han Solo type, which was another reason they sucked.
Shout out to Chewbacca who got to kick some ass with his bowcaster, if that dude could speak English he’d be everyone’s favourite too.
also did you guys see how Daisy Ridley can deadlift 176 pounds that chick is a BAMF
Since they’re conditioning the Stormtroopers from infancy, my theory is that they make the older trainees do non-combat work and then move them into combat units when they’ve finished their traiing.
I was guessing “well, the base is done now, so we can recycle all these construction crews as more cannon fodder” but your theory makes more sense, really.
Shitty work duties, sometimes literally, serve well to break down ego and foster obedience and unit cohesion.
I loved Finn and cosign every word of your article. Rey and Finn are on two different journeys in many ways, just like Han, Luke and Leia were all on different journeys. One is neither better nor worse than the other, and Finn’s complexity made him even more compelling. I <3 FINN!
I’m sorry, but I didn’t even bother to finish the article because I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU WERE SAYING. Absolutely.
Finn is such a great character for all your reasons. The scene where they were congratulating each other may have been my favourite moment, it was just so genuine and fresh. You loved these kids so quickly and it was those moments that made it.
Also, if you haven’t yet, watch ‘Attack the Block’ Boyega’s debut and a blistering one at that. The guy is pure charisma.
I had no idea that people disliked Finn! How could you! I liked all the characters, and what I’m about to say is not a criticism of any of them or the actors, just the movie itself:
Maybe its because I’m not super invested in Star Wars anyway, but I really didn’t feel the emotional weight of Finn defecting in the beginning: Like objectively I can see why that should be traumatizing, but I didn’t feel it/have an emotional reaction. When I heard that one of the characters was a stormtrooper who didn’t want to be a stormtrooper anymore, I thought he was going to have seen and done some serious shit and have a serious emotional crisis and PTSD over what had happened and what he’d done.
And maybe its because I’m de-sensitized to battle scenes/slaughter, but I just found that none of it landed; and then they started going on about how it was his first battle and I thought ‘Hold on, how can this guy who’s been indoctrinated for life to fight, pussy* out in his first battle?’
And I don’t mean that Finn as a character a coward, I totally agree with everyone here that choosing to run away and defy the empire would take huge courage; but I didn’t get that when watching the movie.
I mean this is a theme for me with the whole movie (again, super not invested in Star Wars, honestly can’t remember the last time I watched one of the films all the way through), I just feel like it was trying to have super emotional moments and feelings, but they just didn’t land. And don’t even get me started on the damp telegraphed squib that was Han Solo’s death.
*Sorry for the usage of Pussy in a derogatory fashion, its the first word that came to mind and I don’t have mental energy to think of another one right now. Plus man who has been brainwashed by evil empire would def thing in misogynistic toxic patriarchal ways.
I love Finn! I’m so pleased that I loved all three main characters in this movie- idk about you guys, but I never really gave a shit about Luke, he was just so exceptionally “meh”. The original trilogy was all about Han and Leia and Chewie and C3PO and R2D2 for me.
This is so super awesome and amazing. Thank you!
I love this and I love Finn and I love you
finn is just the best, for all the reasons you stated above. i think some of the biggest finn fans are in the fanfic world where people are digging into his backstory.
it takes such a specific kind of strength to be gentle when you’re been trained from birth to kill? not only that, but he takes a joyful approach to life, despite a truly miserable life. how is that character not deeply compelling??
Argh the ‘friendzone’ thing makes me livid. Why is it the woman’s job to validate the male characters by being sexually attracted to them? The best thing about the movie is that her choices are about a whole fuckload of stuff besides “which guy gets to have me and thus win out over all the other guys?” Believe it or not, women sometimes have other things on their minds, like what the f is this lightsaber thing and where is my damn droid now and wow what is this impressive power I seem to have to stop but also commit mindrape?
Finn is the best hero. The best. Who else would have become a hero after having been brought up as a killing machine? NO ONE. And that “friendzone” comment is soooo not correct, note it’s *everyone else* who keeps referring to them as “friends” and every time they do it’s like “friend”, riiiiight. As you can see I ship them. All aboard the good ship Actinopterygius, people!
he was the best -part- of TFA. I just loved his spot-on comic delivery. dude was fucking hilarious. “I need a pilot!”
I found the plot a little too…nothing…too breakneck and frantic, maybe, get too invested in the characters. he was cool wailing on the storm trooper, too, but the trooper really stole that scene. WHY don’t storm troopers get to do their jobs right more often? the movies would be so much more effective if they were an actual threat.
I suppose I can understand why some people didn’t like Finn–SOME PEOPLE ARE STUPID, is why. He and Rey as a duo are about the cutest buddy act I have seen in years, and I personally loved the fact he was given the “I want out of here” wisecracking Han Solo spot, and still got to have a sweetness to him that made him a completely different character. The Force Awakens is a funny movie, yes– and a thrilling one, and Boyega as Finn was a huge part of the reason it worked so well, both himself and his chemistry with everyone else in the cast.
In short, Finn is great and I am about six hundred percent more interested in the rest of this trilogy now that I’ve met him (and Rey, too.) The more adventures they have together, the happier I will be!
Love this article and agree with a lot of your points but the bottom line is he was still underwhelming overall and the writers need to make him a much more valuable asset in the next two films, end of story. I don’t mind that he lost the last battle to Kylo Ren, in fact I expected it as it was clear that battle was Rey’s to lose. But the big battle scene that Finn had before that with the Stormtrooper near Maz’s castle was absolutely pathetic and he got manhandled at every turn. My biggest issue with Finn is that the film didn’t actually address the fact that he was considered to be one of the most promising Stormtroopers the First Order ever had seen, which is something the Force Awaken novel explains:
“FN-2187 has the potential to be one of the finest stormtroopers I have ever seen.”
“From what I just observed, Captain, I agree.”
“But his decision to split the fire-team and return for FN-2003 is problematic. It speaks to a potentially…dangerous level of empathy.”
―Captain Phasma and General Hux
“FN-2187, your targeting was exemplary. According to the simulation, you fired your weapon only thirty-six times, scoring kills with thirty-five of those. You deployed one explosive, which resulted in the achieving of the objective and another six enemies killed. All of you should take your example from FN-2187.”
―Captain Phasma to FN-2187 and his team
In the film we don’t even get an inkling that he has that sort of skill/potential as a soldier, again I agree with the overall tone of your article and also agree Finn is the most compelling character so far. But it felt like in a couple of scenes they tried show how strong Rey was by showcasing how’ weak’ Finn was, when in reality Finn is one of the best Stormtroopers the first order had ever trained and that comes from the mouth of Captain Phasma/General Hux themselves in the force awakens novel. Why couldn’t the film at the very least allude to this fact? Finn&Rey should both be able to be strong in their own right. Yes Rey is the main protagonist, but as the Force Awakens novel proves Finn is a ridiculously skilled fighter in his own right, it would be nice if they actually gave us some scenes that confirmed it, instead of scenes where he simply, “doesn’t die” or “holds his own for a time before ultimately losing”. As for the whole ‘friendzoned’ thing the Washingtonpost article referred to, I don’t know if I would agree that he got friendzoned. If anything I thought Rey showed signs that she was started to gain deeper feelings for him. I mean think about it, Rey waited her whole life for her family to return for her in Jakku and they never did yet Finn overcame his fears to come back for her after she was kidnapped by Kylo. He’s literally the first person in her life to ever come back for her, I don’t think that’s going go unnoticed to Rey, or the writers for that matter. Just because she called him her ‘friend’ at the end of the movie does not mean he was ‘friendzoned’ I mean what were ppl expecting? Was she suppose to have some sort of intense makeout session with an unconscious Finn to confirm she’s developing feelings for him? This is only the first movie in which most of what took place were seeds being planted for the next two films, I don’t see why a romantic relationship between Finn and Rey couldn’t be one of those seeds taking root? Maybe perhaps, Star Wars is taking the more realistic route of having the characters naturally fall in love over time/through multiple films, instead of having that cliched unrealistic action movie ending where the two co-stars suddenly fall in love in the first film after taking down the bad guy?
Finn isn’t just a hero. Finn is us. We are lost and unsure, and fumbling around trying to figure out what’s right. We are scared and selfish and undaunted and faking it until we’re making it. Everyone else is amazing but it’s hard to see ourselves in them. Finn represents when we rise to the occasion to be amazing too. How is that not the ultimate hero?
"Yes, god forbid that a woman exist without being sexual material for a man."
Actually, leaving aside the "sexual material" bit, wouldn't it be the other way around? Rey as the hero with a Great Destiny to achieve; Finn as the quirky love interest who places the hero at the center of his world and lives his life for her sake?
If they do end up together, that's not boy-gets-the-girl; it's girl-gets-the-boy.
FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINN :3
Let’s not forget that Finn is also CLEARLY FORCE SENSITIVE (unexpectedly good at skills the first time he tries them, easily uses lightsabers without training). Another echo from the original trilogy and trio, while Rey is The Force Hero like Luke, Finn is like Leia, also sensitive to the Force, but everyone makes less of a deal about it. He is amazing and I will not hear any arguments to the contrary.
Most? But but but I love them all and I want them to be a family together! (Underpinned by whatever combination of romantic, platonic, and familial ties the writers decide to go for. I’m easy like that. Is there a word for that, like how the romance-focused folks can say “I ship it”?)
Finn isn’t a coward at all. Nor is he comic relief. The way the movie depicts them, he’s a coldblooded and malicious killer. He spends the movie literally cheering as he murders first dozens, then (presumably) thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of his former comrades who (as the movie establishes) mostly didn’t choose to join the first order. Likely, they were abducted as children. Probably they have been subjected to the same brutalization, dehumanization, and trauma as Finn. But Finn has no problem killing the people he is most equipped to understand and sympathize with, whose life experiences are closest to his own, and he is more than happy to do so. Yet he’s supposedly sensitive enough to human suffering that he, alone, of all the stormtroopers, kneels to help a dying comrade, and is disturbed enough by it to desert literally the only people he’s known his whole life. When he has the opportunity to take revenge on his superior, he does so gleefully, dropping her in a trash compactor to (if the OT is any indicator) be slowly crushed to death. I don’t know about you, but that’s one of the most horrible ways I can imagine dying.
Like, one of the twists of this movie is that it establishes that stormtroopers are people. One of the biggest, most surprising moments, is when Finn takes off the mask– because we’ve never seen a stormtrooper take off their mask (CLONE TROOPERS DON’T COUNT). We even see a stormtrooper suffering as they die (the blood moment). And yet he shows not a drop of hesitation or repentance when he kills them. And we’re expected to be happy about it?
This isn’t an inherent problem– the OT had a lot of snappy fighting going on– but this movie establishes so much that points to the people behind the masks that they stop being faceless monsters. Like am I the only person who felt the dissonance of that? Or did we all decide that Finn was special and he of all the monsters was the only one allowed to be human?
The diversity is important– that can’t be emphasized enough– and Boyega did a fantastic job. But the way the movie is built, there’s a central disconnect between his initial motivation (horror at murder and human suffering– what he’s been made to do) and how he behaves when given power over human life. This is a problem with the script, and how the movie was written, but it’s a pretty enormous one that basically makes double demands of its audience. Like if he was serious and focussed in those moments, maybe it would make sense. But nope. He’s childish. He’s flippant. This is part of what makes him work: he’s relatable in a way that people who have suffered dehumanization, military regimentation their whole lives (and witnessed atrocities) rarely are to Western audiences, but that doesn’t make sense in the context of the story.
And this is why I don’t like Finn as a character. Because the dissonance with him points to a simple but insidious about him: he was crafted, as a character, to make us like him. That’s good storytelling. But it’s liking him at the expense of having his character be consistent, or the universe be understandable, but we like him anyway.
We don’t like him just because he’s alone and vulnerable. We don’t like him just because he’s an orphan.
We like him because we want to be him.
We like him because we want to think that we are the special people, part of the machine, who chose to say no to the machine, to run away, or fight, rather than continue.
And then we left the theatre and went back to our lives and bought the merchandise manufactured in China and the taxes off that merchandise went to the governments to give to bloated arms manufacturers to build robots that drop bombs on Pakistan.
And yeah, it’s a popcorn movie designed to entertain us, and yeah, it does tonnes of hella progressive things, and that is so, so, so cool. But the movie had a chance to show us, let us see, how a person dehumanized by a brutal military/industrial structure changes, and finds humanity in himself. And I wouldn’t assess the film against something it didn’t do, but Star Wars is fundamentally about how people change to overcome great power, humanity versus dehumanization, and depicting by inches, the changes that lead to it. And seeing change in characters is the whole point of storytelling.
By not showing those changes, TFA squandered the most radical and most important thing it could have done.
This is delightful and I love your writing voice so much – please write more things all the time.
Yes to all of this!!! Finn & Rey are the most exciting parts about this new installation to me. They are so earnest- I felt very invested in both of them immediately.
I think that reducing Finn to “comic relief” is simply punishing him for how charismatic, charming, & funny he is as an actor. Many of his “funny” lines could have been played straight. It would have been a different character interpretation, & a different direction for the tone on the whole, yes, but it would not have rendered him obsolete, as would be the case if his character was mere comic relief. Like this article says, he is kind of being set up as the new Han (which is also what made his banter with Han so great! Pass that torch!)
In summation, Finn is awesome. Anyone who thinks otherwise… I don’t understand.
Re-reading this article and am appreciating the whole ton of yes it contains.
Finn is an amazing character and subversion of the reluctant hero trope. He’s brilliantly nuanced and interesting in a way that most actual token characters aren’t.