Having Finn be a part of Cobalt Squadron would not only have helped him develop a more organic relationship with the Resistance, something like the Cobalt Squadron book would have given him a much better window into the suffering of the larger galaxy under the First Order than the Canto Bight arc would have. It would even have been a better setup for Finnrose. But nah, RJ just didn’t feel like writing all that because he can’t be arsed to do the job he was contracted to do where Finn was involved.

He had decided on this move a long time ago and had announced it as far back as 2014 (link). Avengers 4 was always going to be his last MCU movie. He didn’t want to become stale in the role–“You want to get off the train before they push you off,“ in his words–and he has wanted for years to do more directing and producing. Being in a huge franchise like Marvel helped launch him into more opportunities, but the schedule didn’t allow him to commit himself to roles behind the camera. This was a long-planned career move on his part and I wish him well.

I haven’t been reading a lot of fanfic in general and the few I do read are generally Finnrey, but the list of Finnpoe fanfics will probably fit the bill (link).

Though short pieces, I have also written non-Finnrey fics that prominently feature Finn and other characters of color.

• Eggshells: A short story inspired by @vague-humanoid‘s ask about Finn and lying. A little bit Finnrey but mostly about Finn’s psychology, arguing that the ability to hide himself and lie was empowering and humanizing for Finn in an environment where his every move was controlled.
• An untitled piece of speculation/headcanon/fanfic about how Poe’s father Kes might react to Poe’s torture in TFA.
• Another untitled piece following up from the above, this time in more traditional fiction format, about Kes and Finn discussing Finn’s trauma post-TLJ. It has a little Finnpoe as well.
• Free: Done for the Day 1 prompt of @finnappreciationweek, this is a solo Finn piece looking at his TFA arc and start of TLJ.
• Running like Mandalorians: This one’s about Force-sensitive warriors Mandalorian Finn and Boba Fett fighting bad guys. It’s set in my alternate SW sequel trilogy.
• Don’t Stop: A Finnrose fanfic back before TLJ when I was actually excited about Finnrose.
• You Don’t Split Sisters Up: A story about Rose and Paige in the same AU setting as Don’t Stop.

Ro seems to have had a complicated relationship with her heritage from early on since she left Bajor out of a sense of shame at her own people, though she rethought this later on when she decided to use her name in its Bajoran form and wear the distinctive earring. From her Memory Alpha description it seems to me that her decision to join the Maquis was more because of her growing attachment to the particular cell she was sent to infiltrate than political belief in the Maquis’ cause (other than the fighting Cardassians part). To me she reads as someone who was looking for something to replace a severed sense of belonging, not someone who was firmly rooted in her Bajoran identity like Kira. While Ro was far from the only Bajoran Maquis fighter, the Maquis do seem to have been made up mostly of settlers of the worlds the Federation ceded to the Cardassians and their sympathizers, not driven primarily by Bajorans.

For example, the valid concern that diversity quotas value color
over merit is valid, but can skip into the bias that white people are
the most qualified. And the concern that racism against white people is
culturally acceptable is a rational concern, but then there are white
supremacists who equate it with genocide.

In conclusion, it is my personal conviction that untainted
individualism is they key to being unracist. Everybody respect Muslims
and people of Middle Eastern descent, ship Finnrey, and recognize that
Rogue One is not anti-white because it only has one white male hero
(Galen.)

---

So there’s a lot to unpack here, but first of all, it’s a false dichotomy that the right believes in individual merit and the left doesn’t. What many on the left do is acknowledge the reality that bigotry against certain groups cuts against the merits and achievements of individuals from these marginalized groups. I’m not sure how that translates into the kind of collectivism that is apparently opposed to individualism. Also if you think the only problem with the American dream lies in the distant past… well. Let’s just say it’s very much an ongoing problem.

At least you recognize the gap between theory and practice when it comes to individualism. In fact, talent and work ethic leading to success is far from the reality for many groups, to the extent that believing that individual merit will prevail in every case has been found to be detrimental to the long-term well-being of marginalized youth (link).

Colorblindness is the ultimate aspiration, yes, but it is not the reality we currently inhabit. We can’t just decide to be colorblind, we have to acknowledge and correct the systemic racism that both leads to large-scale inequalities and infects our own individual perceptions with bias and bigotry. Insisting that you are colorblind without realizing all the ways you are not amounts to self-deception and, in interactions with marginalized people, gaslighting. We don’t get to the mountaintop by pretending we are already there. First we have to realize where we actually are, which is a pretty deep pit in many ways. Only then can we start climbing upward.

#JJShowUsFinnTopless #FrontAndBack

So maybe his racism slightly edged out his sexism where Rey was involved, lol.