While I want a Stormtrooper Rebellion, it’s basically became the go to sole character arc for Finn for people who don’t really put him in the greater scope of things. I want to see Kylo and Finn meet again because they are clear foils to each other. They’re journey began in TFA and it should end IX.
As for Rey, even if Kylo is her cousin, the forced foil TLJ was trying to push just didn’t seem organic. I want Rey on the action, but watching her fight Kylo for the 3rd movie in a row isn’t interesting just because we’ve already seen multiple times that she’s stronger. I hope JJ knows what to do with her.
The problem with Rey is that unlike Finn, she never followed the basic writing elements of the hero’s journey in the first place and by TLJ Johnson just used her as a plot device. Finn wasn’t utilized in TLJ, but that was also his saving grace. You can’t break what you don’t use.
If anything, I think a Finn and Rey vs Kylo and KOR fight would look cool, but JJ will have to put some type of emotion on it to prevent throne room scene part 2.
This is my wish now: Finn and Rey vs. Kylo and the KOR but us getting to know the KOR beforehand. But Finn vs. Kylo and Rey and Luke fighting Snoke sounds like a cool idea too. Anything but a duel where Rey and Kylo are alone.
I really hope the KOR are actually developed in IX and not just villain canon fodder like the twirling lobsters.
This is really the last chance the characters have to define themselves.
In conjunction with your idea that the FO will be at civil war and mine that the KoR will be acting as enforcers to crush internal dissent–what if Finn and Rey and the others’ early missions involve taking out the KoR so that discontented factions of the FO can rebel?
It still bothers me that Kylo Ren never used the Force against Finn. I mean, we’re talking about the guy who’s been shown doing this
and this
and this
also this
and so much more to his enemies and even people who just kind of annoyed him in the moment. The dude has oodles of Force power and is not at all shy about throwing it around. Other Force users are not immune, as shown with Rey who is even more powerful than he is.
So why, in his fight against Finn at the end of TFA, did Ren never even try to use the Force? Finn went running to an unconscious Rey after Ren knocked her out. Finn had even thrown his blaster aside, not that blasters work against Ren as Poe found out at the start of the movie. Why didn’t Ren throw Finn against a tree, too, or lift him into the air and choke him? That’s more like the guy’s usual MO.
Instead Ren not only dueled Finn but even resorted to punching him after disarming him, which had viewers commenting that his animosity against Finn seemed very raw and personal. It is true that Ren seems to have a personal beef against Finn (link), but again, the new Supreme Leader of the First Order has never been hesitant to use Force power against people regardless of how well he knew them or how strongly he felt about them. He revels in making people, from total strangers to hated rivals, helpless with his power. So why not Finn?
My hypothesis is that there’s another layer to Ren’s animosity against Finn beyond the usually-discussed ones of Finn defecting and making the opposite choices he did, and Ren’s hatred being the manifestation of his regrets. That’s a valid point and I have argued it myself (link), but what if there’s something more immediate and visceral going on?
Let’s go back to that moment in the village near the beginning of TFA, when Ren stared for a long moment at Finn before he turned away. He then unfreezes Poe’s blaster beam to strike a pole Finn was standing near, startling him and showering him with sparks.
This is an amazing theory that would add a whole new layer to the lore. It fits perfectly with what we saw in TFA. The only time (iirc) in TLJ Finn was in a Force scene was when Rey moved the boulders. She wasn’t using it on him, of course. He was able to run through it though. 🤔
Thank you! And speaking of that scene, this part where the rocks are moving out of Finn’s way is odd when I look at it now:
Some have said Finn was using the Force to move them out of his way, and others have said Rey cleared them herself. While I love the former theory, I don’t think the movement of the rocks fits either version of events.
For one thing, Force telekinesis has never looked like that as far as I know. Even extremely powerful Force users like Yoda or Kylo Ren have had to reach out, both with the Force and physically, and concentrate in order to move heavy objects.
It’s true Snoke was able to move Rey around quite a bit without hand-reaching, and Kylo Ren had to move Anakin’s lightsaber without reaching out because he was disguising his intentions. But when the effort became strenuous and stealth was no longer needed, as when Kylo Ren strove with Rey for control of the lightsaber, he was right back to physical reaching.
So if this was Finn moving the rocks, then he was doing something unprecedented as a Force user, particularly a first-time user moving heavy objects. He’s putting in less effort and focus than experienced Jedi Masters and moving the rocks practically unconsciously.
Now while I would love this to be true, the movement of the rocks also doesn’t look right for a Force push. Force-pushed or pulled objects tend to move with velocity matching their mass. So a small object like a lightsaber can zip through the air with a Force push or pull, while large and heavy objects pushed or pulled against gravity move more ponderously. These rocks around Finn fly like small objects rather than the large and heavy ones they are. It’s been pointed out that they move in tandem with Finn’s own movements–again, not how Force push has been shown to work at all.
For the same reasons it doesn’t look like Rey was moving the rocks either. On the first point, focus, her concentration was on holding the rocks in the air in a floaty way, not throwing them around in a pushy way. Her hand stayed in the same position throughout until she dropped it on seeing Finn and the Resistance, and she didn’t show the kind of physical movement that would indicate she was clearing away only part of the rocks for Finn and the others. The second point of velocity holds as true for her as it does for Finn–the rocks move too quickly compared to their mass, even setting aside the difficulty of doing this while she’s focused on keeping most of them in the air.
And in fact, when Rey does break concentration and lower her hand the Force telekinesis effect is gone and the rocks all fall, showing that she did in fact need the focus aided by hand movement to keep them in the air. The emotion on her face, the little sob as she starts toward Finn, the way she walks like she’s dreaming oh my heart
So a fully plausible interpretation of this scene is that neither Finn nor Rey was moving the rocks, at least not consciously. Know what the movement of the rocks is consistent with, though? If they were being repelled by something–like a Force-resistant field around Finn, maybe? That would explain why it didn’t take any effort or concentration on Finn’s part, and why the rocks were moving in time to Finn and away from him.
Sadly Rosewood was not the only black town that was destroyed something similar happened in Tulsa
[CW: antiblack racism, antiblack violence, slurs and depictions of violence in linked articles]
I can’t speak about Tulsa, but Rosewood is local to me, and I can share some information I’ve collected for those who want to know more about it.
(Disclaimer: I’m not an expert; I’m just a local hobbyist historian who’s made a point to track down links and share them.)
Rosewood is almost nonexistent in the community memory. I learned about it in passing in school when I was younger because I had a teacher who cared, but most people have absolutely no clue. The town was completely forgotten for a long time, before the history was rediscovered a few decades ago and there came some interest in preserving what was left of the site. Local Black organizing has done quite a bit to get the history more recognized, but it’s still an uphill battle.
As the above tweets say, Rosewood was a predominately Black town that was destroyed over a weeklong period in January of 1923, after a white woman falsely accused a Black man of rape. There’s a fairly comprehensive article about the town and its history on Wikipedia here. Here’s a link to the Rosewood page on BlackPast.org, as well.
The last remaining original building is for sale as of May 2018 for
$500,000. There have been threats made by locals against any Black people who may be interested in purchasing the site, though the current owner of the building, a Japanese woman who was unaware of the history when she first moved in, has been firm in saying she hopes to sell to someone who understands and values the history of the town.
Locals have also been known to threaten and harass school trips to the area, and the sole historical marker for the town has been repeatedly vandalized.
People are actively, to this day, trying to erase the history of what happened there. Fortunately, there are local archaeologists and historians working on uncovering and preserving more of the town. There has been discussion of purchasing the house to turn into a museum, though interested parties haven’t been able to raise the money. I’ve had my ear to the ground in case any crowdfunding efforts crop up, but I haven’t heard anything yet–I’ll be sure to share if anything does go up.
If you can stomach reading more, here are some links from local news sources and historical orgs about the town, what happened, and the current status of the site. I’ve also included a link to the book mentioned in one of the articles:
L.J.'s Obsessions 