Hi I’m going to talk abt Finn in Star Wars. Some TROS spoilers incase anyone’s avoiding those still.
I’ve seen some ppl throwing shade at John Boyega for being dissatisfied that his story arcs as Finn kept him away from Rey and Ben’s story. Whatever your feelings about the other recent dramas involving his comments and online activity, I don’t think it’s right to use this as a reason to be hateful towards him. (Shouldn’t be being hateful toward him at all, but. That’s not an argument I expect some people can comprehend enough nuance to understand.)
While I do love the last Jedi and think his arc in it is great and important, let’s be fair to Finn.
I DO think he should’ve been included more in Rey and Ben’s journey, ESPECIALLY since it’s now canon that Finn is force sensitive. I don’t understand why TROS would make the choice to give him those abilities and then treat him the way it did, but I don’t understand much of why that movie did anything.
And I will note that his story in TLJ could have worked with this if TROS had been brave enough and smart enough, as I was naive enough to hope, to work with it. But TROS failed to come through for Finn (as it did literally everyone else in the movie) the way it should’ve.
Remember how Finn’s journey (aka the entire plot of the sequel trilogy) starts with Ben-as-Kylo-Ren, the conflicted dark warrior, showing mercy to Finn-as-FN-2187, the stormtrooper who disobeyed orders? How TFA ends with Ben screaming “traitor!” and brutally slashing him in rage and pain because Finn used his weakness, the very mercy he knew he shouldn’t have given him, to escape the First Order and join forces against him?
Finn and Ben needed to come face to face again, not in combat, but in resolving their conflict and understanding eachother. Finn should’ve been able to show him that the weakness of mercy was actually incredible strength, and won’t always only be used to betray you. Ben should’ve learned from Finn what it means to fight for a cause because you believe in it instead of blindly following in someone else’s footsteps.
Finn should’ve learned from Ben that even those still ensconced in the dark are worthy of compassion too. Ben should’ve taught Finn to open himself up to the force and the power he possesses, and shown him what the dark offers.
They should’ve learned from eachother that where you come from, the choices you’ve made, don’t define who you have to be for the rest of your life.
Further, the cutting Finn out of Rey’s relationship with Ben is what truly sidelines him as a character, because as her first real friend, as the first person who came back for her and cared intensely about her wellbeing, that he isn’t privy to this massively important aspect of her life at all suggests that Rey doesn’t value or trust him on anywhere near the same level that he does her. That is deeply sad. Ben is literally her soulmate. And Finn doesn’t, and may never, know this vital piece of who Rey is.
She’s incredibly important to both of them and she should’ve been able to have a open and unconflicted relationship with two of the most important people in her life. Instead she hides the truth about her real relationship with Ben from Finn, and never tries to introduce Ben to even the idea of who her friends are as people and why they’re important to her.
Finn and Ben should understand eachother on a very deep and fundamental level and I’m deeply sad that not only are they both deprived of this incredible relationship, but Finn ALSO never gets to learn about the powers he’s given.
He gets to have “a feeling” whenever the plot needs him to figure something out, “a feeling” that takes credit for things that should be attributed to his moral character and bravery. He doesn’t learn to fight with or connect to the energy that binds the universe; he’s left out of the rooms where the force users (Ben and Rey, Rey and Leia) interact and share their fears and their knowledge about the power that is rightfully his, too.
