I don’t get why people think Finn both being a military leader and having the Force is somehow strange for Star Wars. After all, we have a rather outsized example of this already.
It’s not just the combination of Force and military abilities either, but also the characters’ story positions. Finn being the “war” part of the triad gives him the position Leia should
have occupied in the OT, the character with ties to both the military
and the Force who embodies what the war is about: The human face of the
Empire’s atrocities, the survivor who chose to fight. Leia should have
been the central figure of the war and not Han’s plus-one on what
were essentially his plots and missions.
Done right Leia would have been
more like Katniss in The Hunger Games, damaged and traumatized from her
experiences, inspiring by her story and example. RO tried to shoehorn
Jynn into Katniss’s Mockingjay role except it never worked because Jynn
didn’t have the representative story. Obviously the Mockingjay figures
were Cassian and the Jedhans (Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze), but yet again SW
shied away from giving center stage to victims of wide-scale atrocities.
It shied away again with Finn in TLJ.
This refusal to have central Mockingjay figures, I believe, reflects SW’s basic ambivalence as a franchise that is more comfortable with destined saviors than with exploited and destroyed peoples saving themselves. Maybe that comes of SW being a USAmerican franchise dealing with fascism, the contradiction of a country that is fundamentally fascistic and imperialistic trying to tell itself a story of being antifascist and anti-imperialist. America can’t face the full implication of truly upending its fascist underpinnings, in fiction as in reality. Instead the brutal form of fascism is replaced by the “soft” fascism of worshipping benign supermen.
Then along comes JJ Abrams, someone in a position to know the contradictions and falsity in the story America tells about itself. He shows the New Republic’s compromise with fascism destroying it morally as well as physically, a year ahead of the 2016 election. He shows how the worship of the Skywalkers as the chosen line gave us Kylo Ren. He gives us Finn, one of the First Order’s victims, as a strong and central figure.
Finn in IX could be the character that Leia could have been–the one who ties it all together, the military plot and the Force plot, the story of war with the story of spirituality and morality. He could be the character that embodies both the evil of the First Order and the determination, on a personal, visceral level, to fight it. He could be the character that brings audiences face to face with what it means when people who are considered expendable in the quest for greatness stand up and fight back. He could solve the Star Wars dilemma and finally break the vicious cycle of destruction the galaxy far, far away has become trapped in. I certainly hope so.
That speculation was not baseless at all, given that John was saying in July 2017 that Finn would be in “another form of training” alongside Leia (link). This is so wildly out of line with what we saw in TLJ that I have to wonder if John was led to believe TLJ was going to be a different movie altogether. Or maybe it’s the way his answer was edited and the “alongside General Leia” comment wasn’t meant to go together with the training comment at all. It’s still really weird and yeah, either way a big opportunity was lost to have Finn interact with and learn from Leia.
Remember, if I make a post that comes across as critical of a phenomenon in some manner, I’m personally attacking you and your interest in it, and whatever it is, it’s now illegal.
Ugh so many blogs run by Asians are completely oblivious when it comes to antiblackness. I mean it’s understandable since it’s not part of their experience and they reflect their own communities’ antiblack biases. I’ve never experienced antiblack racism on a personal level and I’m ignorant about it too! The problem is that they’re not willing to listen and correct themselves, or to admit mistakes.
I don’t get why people think Finn both being a military leader and having the Force is somehow strange for Star Wars. After all, we have a rather outsized example of this already.
It’s not just the combination of Force and military abilities either, but also the characters’ story positions. Finn being the “war” part of the triad gives him the position Leia should
have occupied in the OT, the character with ties to both the military
and the Force who embodies what the war is about: The human face of the
Empire’s atrocities, the survivor who chose to fight. Leia should have
been the central figure of the war and not Han’s plus-one on what
were essentially his plots and missions.
Done right Leia would have been
more like Katniss in The Hunger Games, damaged and traumatized from her
experiences, inspiring by her story and example. RO tried to shoehorn
Jynn into Katniss’s Mockingjay role except it never worked because Jynn
didn’t have the representative story. Obviously the Mockingjay figures
were Cassian and the Jedhans (Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze), but yet again SW
shied away from giving center stage to victims of wide-scale atrocities.
It shied away again with Finn in TLJ.
This refusal to have central Mockingjay figures, I believe, reflects SW’s basic ambivalence as a franchise that is more comfortable with destined saviors than with exploited and destroyed peoples saving themselves. Maybe that comes of SW being a USAmerican franchise dealing with fascism, the contradiction of a country that is fundamentally fascistic and imperialistic trying to tell itself a story of being antifascist and anti-imperialist. America can’t face the full implication of truly upending its fascist underpinnings, in fiction as in reality. Instead the brutal form of fascism is replaced by the “soft” fascism of worshipping benign supermen.
Then along comes JJ Abrams, someone in a position to know the contradictions and falsity in the story America tells about itself. He shows the New Republic’s compromise with fascism destroying it morally as well as physically, a year ahead of the 2016 election. He shows how the worship of the Skywalkers as the chosen line gave us Kylo Ren. He gives us Finn, one of the First Order’s victims, as a strong and central figure.
Finn in IX could be the character that Leia could have been–the one who ties it all together, the military plot and the Force plot, the story of war with the story of spirituality and morality. He could be the character that embodies both the evil of the First Order and the determination, on a personal, visceral level, to fight it. He could be the character that brings audiences face to face with what it means when people who are considered expendable in the quest for greatness stand up and fight back. He could solve the Star Wars dilemma and finally break the vicious cycle of destruction the galaxy far, far away has become trapped in. I certainly hope so.
I wish more people acknowledged how historically it was mostly non cis/straight people of color,working class people ,sex workers etc who were more likely to use the label “queer” to describe themselves bc they often did not had the privilege to have access to words and resources to explore and describe their gender and orientations and how they intersected/differentiated from their race/culture .
Most of the lgbtqa circles were dominated mostly by white cis upper/upper-middle class lgbtqa people many of whom were still quite racist,classist and anti sex workers and used to shun those people from accessing their meetings,rallies,resources etc and thus the non cis/straight people of color,working class people,sex workers etc used “queer” to identify themselves as non cis/straight but someone who wasnt specific about their identity.
Trying to paint “queer” as inherently a bad and useless word is not only ahistorical but also erases the existence of those people and their experiences
I’ve been thinking about which roles Finn and Poe could be playing in the Resistance in IX. Since they’re both leadership types there would be a great chance of the two of them tripping over each other narratively if they fill a similar capacity, especially since the Resistance according to Oscar is still very small. But with the new Star Wars show “Resistance” once more emphasizing Poe’s role in espionage I think they might give us general Finn and spy master Poe.
It would let both men play to their strengths and experiences while not tripping over each other plot wise.
Finn is a talented leader and great at inspiration. He has knowledge of, and talent for, unconventional battle tactics that works. One of the reasons Phasma wanted him for the officers track in the First Order before he noped out of that fascist regime in epic fashion. With any kind of sizable time skip, which we’re almost certain to see, Finn would have had to gain experience as well making him an excellent general for the Resistance.
Poe has experience with intelligence gathering and espionage from before he became involved in the Resistance. And a tiny Resistance would rely heavily on correct intel and prior knowledge of targets if their attacks were to have any effect against the First Order and not cost themselves too dearly in soldiers and materiel they cannot afford to lose.
In fact such a division could make for a good set up for roles for the entire heroic quartet as @lj-writes pointed out to me, with Finn leading the Resistance’s martial arm, Poe’s its intelligence capacities, Rey at least for the time being representing its Jedi/mystical capabilities and Rose rounding out the leadership by representing the all important support personnel – mechanics, medics, ect – without which the Resistance would not survive long.
~Mod Mara
The Resistance relying so heavily on intelligence would also be a nice dovetail into Poe being the Resistance’s overall leader, something he was being set up for in… pretty much every piece of franchise material he appeared in, most explicitly in The Last Jedi and the Poe Dameron comic.
This sets up an interesting dynamic between Finn and Poe, among others, because Finn has never been… how shall we say it… good with orders and bosses. I mean, ask the aforementioned Phasma. Wait you can’t lmaoooo
Even aside from the part where Finn understandably flips the bird to fascists, Poe himself tried to give Finn something approaching orders twice in two movies and Finn was 0/2 in following them. “We’re going back to Jakku!” “No, that’s stupid.” “Come back, this mission is a bust!” “Hell 2 the No!!”
This independence of thought is part of Finn’s strength and in fact in the best tradition of the Rebellion, e.g. Cassian, Raddus, Lando…, but it does mean that Poe would be foolish to expect a traditional superior-subordinate relationship with Finn. It’s interesting to speculate how Poe will carry forward his experience with Holdo and Leia in dealing with Finn. (I’m fine with the Holdo episode being quickly forgotten, personally. I mean, literally, “That’s not how the Rebellion works!”)
I think the franchise’s recent emphasis on maintenance and materiel–most prominently fuel–looks promising for Rose’s role. It’s also part of the reason I speculated that supplies will be a major part of Episode IX. As you pointed out, Rose’s technical expertise makes her indispensable to this side of the Resistance’s operations, making her vital for both intelligence and military operations. Rose started her career in the Resistance as a flight mechanic, serving aboard a bomber and providing real-time support in the thick of battle, and with the Resistance understaffed as it is she could reprise that role. It would lead to personal challenges, too, because the Cobalt Squadron book tells us that being responsible for lives in battle took a toll on her preexisting anxiety issues and she always flew with Paige before. The first time she didn’t, well, that was when Paige died.
Rey’s role as the Jedi is the vaguest, in some ways. Like you I am not enamored with the idea of her getting yet a third confrontation with Kylo Ren. This isn’t the Luke situation with Vader, where Luke was able to avoid confrontation with Vader altogether in the first movie, suffered defeat and a shocking revelation in the second, and was primed for a rematch in the third. She’s already beaten Kylo 2 for 2, there’s nothing to prove by kicking his ass a third time. She explicitly tried to replicate Luke’s Vader redemption ending, that bridge is crossed and burned. He tried Palpatine-style temptation on her, again, didn’t work. She was going for the RotJ ending and he for the RotS one, and they both failed. There’s nothing left in that direction that isn’t a boring repeat. As I said before, I’d find it interesting if she took point on eliminating the Knights of Ren so they can’t tamp down discontent in the FO ranks, causing chaos in the FO, kind of a “defeat the middle bosses to unlock the big boss” situation.
It’s Finn, not Rey, who is in Luke’s situation with this series’ Big Bad. Only it’s Luke’s sequence reversed, with a defeat and injury in the first movie and avoidance of confrontation in the second, leaving tension for the final confrontation. His position representative of the Resistance’s martial arm places him on a direct collision course with Kylo Ren. Now that’s a grudge match I’m up for.
L.J.'s Obsessions 