Yeah, those leaks about Finn and Poe going off on an unrelated subplot are bloody bs. It’s A. too early for leaks with the filming timeline and B. John and Daisy already confirmed they’d be shooting together, and that will talks that John and Adam were sword training together and that Gleeson said he had been filming with Adam so far, I think it’s safe to say that any leaks of separation are Reylow propaganda.
I ceartainly hope you’re right.
Here’s a tribute video I made to one of my favorite Star Wars characters of all time! Seriously, props to John Boyega for bringing this character to life. It’ll be great to see him in the sequel to TFA come next year for IX! It took for years, but better late than never for a proper sequel.
At first they appeared only as random bystanders, obstacles to be avoided. Then there were more of them, and more, and more. Men and women and children, and suddenly FN-2187 could see only them and not the enemy hiding among them. He could see only those innocents, and in that moment he no longer pull the trigger. [excerpt from Before the Awakening]
uhg, i cannot tell you how much i prefer the sketch to the final piece. so here it is. it’s sloppy and of varying line thickness, but i feel like it had so much more life in it. i hate how finicky i am with this shit lol
Now I’m not for a Kylo redemption personally. I’m more in the let him rot away in jail cut away from the force like Ozai or have him on the run as a wanted fugitive. Nevertheless, one thing I’ll never understand is why does everyone put Reylow and Kylo redemption in the same spot? cousins, siblings, former classmates, or party members in a Fortnite match, nothing is going to change the fact that Kylo and Rey aren’t friends or even close. At this point its clear as day that Finn and Rey are in love with each other and they’re both going to be fighting against Kylo.
Regardless of if Kylo lives, dies, goes into exile or prison, Kylo and Rey will never be anything other than enemies.
God tier is if Finn does turn out to be a Force Void, and after Rey distracts Ren by fighting him to a standstill Finn and Ghost Luke move in to cut Kylo’s ties to the Force, giving him an Ozai ending of powerlessness and jail. If Finn can invert his Force Void and project it on others he would have the raw power to neutralize Kylo’s threat permanently. Luke, who did it to himself in life, has the experience to guide Finn.
Afterward Kylo tries to throw his Force powers around like he’s used to, and imagine how ridiculous he would look–he reaches out at Finn to strangle him and nothing happens. He tries to snatch Rey’s lightsaber and it doesn’t even rattle. He tries to mind-trick the Poe, and at Poe’s order the Resistance tackle the Supreme Leader, cuffing him. (Bonus points if they can work in Leia watching sadly but impassively, maybe by screen.) Ren has an epic meltdown as he’s arrested and we all see him for the ridiculous manchild he is without making him some tragic martyr figure, in-universe or in the real world.
Finn going from unconsciously defending himself with his Force immunity to projecting it outward, btw, would also be a neat parallel to his character arc from being focused on protecting himself and those in his immediate sphere to making changes in the universe at large. If he is a Force Void it’s likely to be his innate powers responding to trauma and danger, so of course its first application would be to shield and defend himself. As he realizes he cannot be free without others and his sphere of protection expands, so the Force Void itself would turn outward and would ultimately reach the level of actively taking out threats.
So basically Rey is Zuko in this scenario who was tortured and mindfucked by Ozai before she defies and leaves him, but refuses to kill him despite having a clear chance because she sees it’s not her path. Ghost Luke is the Lion Turtle, a supernatural font of ancient lost wisdom who knows the source of all power and knows how to cut it off. Finn is Aang, brought up to be an emotionless fighting machine before he runs away, bearer of a unique power that earned him the Big Bad’s undying enmity before he learns the ancient knowledge and neuters the villain without killing him. It would be like the Avatar finale except better foreshadowed and more organically intertwined in the protagonist’s arc.
(And then we end IX with a great big Zukaang kiss, hopefully.)
Anakin: No. Ren is not my grandson. Finn is my only grandson. He carries on my true legacy.
Anakin: Hating sand.
Anakin: Loving badass women.
Anakin: Falling in love with Rebels
Anakin: and running recklessly after the people we love with little to no regard for our safety
(Credit to @panakin-anakin-skywalker for this.)
While on the topic of Finn, it occurred to me today that he does exactly what Kylo’s family/Rey wants Benny Boy to do: reject the First Order and find his place along the “good guys.” Now, this could be completely unrelated, BUT maybe Finn rejecting the First Order and becoming a “good guy” (I honestly don’t know why I feel the need to use quotation marks for this) is foreshadowing of Kylo’s story or maybe a parallel of some sorts? Regardless, Kylo and Finn start out the trilogy in pretty similar positions and then go down very different paths from that point. I’m hoping they have some sort of interaction that highlights the similarities of their stories in Episode IX cause Finn and Kylo actually have a lot in common.
Finn and Kylo are each others’ foils, as they contrast each other in every way.
Finn is not a device for Kylo’s story, he’s a protagonist, so I highly doubt his story is meant to foreshadow Kylo becoming a “good guy.”
Kylo highlights Finn’s heroism, not the other way around. If anything, Finn’s story highlights Kylo’s lack of anything resembling heroism, because Kylo was actually handed freedom from the FO on a silver platter multiple times and refused, while Finn, who made the choice to leave all on his own, had to fight his way out, and put himself at a grave risk by leaving.
There is one sense in which Finn’s choice might be seen as a foreshadowing for Kylo’s redemption: A mistaken one, and it was done in TLJ. Rey’s goal of bringing Kylo to the Light and her belief that he would turn make a lot more sense if she was thinking of Finn and how he turned away from evil. Except Kylo yet again proved himself to be the opposite of Finn and made their contrasts all the clearer. So, in my opinion, the foreshadowing that op theorized about has already been played with and discarded.
I’m also curious, what do Finn and Kylo Ren have in common? I’ve actually tried to think of something, anything, and didn’t come up with much. For the most part I only see contrasts.
Contrasts:
Commonalities:
So I’m not seeing “a lot” in common, personally, maybe I’m missing something.
Let’s see… The movie would open with Finn in the cockpit of the Falcon, which is being piloted by Chewbacca and copiloted by Poe. They’re on a recruitment mission with Rose. Finn is arguing that the remaining FO Stormtroopers are on the verge of mass defection because Phasma is no longer there to keep them in line, and Kylo Ren’s leadership is decimating the troops. Poe is skeptical. He doesn’t trust anyone involved with the FO and considers Finn an anomaly.
Resigned, Finn goes to the cabin to find Rey pacing the floor, book in hand, C3PO tottering beside her. She’s upset. She doesn’t understand the passage she’s reading. To his focused mind, the passage relates to the trooper uprising somehow. Rey says no, this book is about the events of the past. 3PO makes a comment that if it was actually about future events, it would explain other passages. Rey is stunned that she may be holding an actual book of prophesies and, frightened, puts it down.
Finn picks up the book and starts reading it with C3PO. It’s very cryptic, but he starts to put it together. Suddenly, he puts the book down and returns to the cockpit. They need to change course.
*
Basically, I would do three things: Center on Finn (and the Finn and Rey dynamic) again, put Finn in the Jedi storyline and have him lead the Stormtrooper uprising. I think the two latter things will have to overlap if they’re both going to happen.
Of course, the plot will involve Naomie Ackiee’s character. I’d like to see Ackiee as the current leader of a political organization that evolved off of Enfys Nest’s group, but had been separate from the Resistance. Convincing her to join the new rebellion will be a challenge. Members of her group, who are also skeptical, include alien characters played by Dom Monaghan (the film’s comic relief along with 3PO) and Matt Smith. They’ll come around, of course.
Lando, it turns out, is on the planet of the Enfys Nest group, and is stunned to see the Falcon. He knows Han is dead and thinks it’s been stolen – until he sees Chewbacca. He joins them without hesitation, ready to avenge his friend.
Lando will have Luke’s green saber somehow. He keeps it a secret until Finn shares with him that the famous saber was predicted to restore balance when it’s weilders (plural) use it in a battle to end the FO.
The FO plot is important to the uprising arc. I’d put Keri Russel in this arc. If I had full control, the Kylo Ren “angry white man” neonazi allegory would be even more clear. It would pick up what TLJ put down basically, no backtracking.
The FO will lose. Kylo Ren won’t have a happy ending, Rey and Finn will be the hope of the future, two new Jedi leading free ex Stormtroopers and the formerly enslaved from across the Galaxy.
Rey has reason to be upset about prophecies, too, given how she & Luke both made big mistakes by relying too much on their visions of the future. I hope during the time gap Rey & Finn help each other come to grips with the events of TLJ, what Kylo’s manipulation did to her, what being forced and blackmailed to stay with the Resistance and subsequently being willing to sacrifice himself did to him, and how what they each went through affects the other.
“Finn is the military part of the trilogy, him having the force wouldn’t work.”
Characters who have had the force and were also apart of the military aspects:
Kanan Jarrus
Ezra Bridger
Ahsoka Tano
Luke Skywalker
Rey
General Leia Organa
EVERY SINGLE JEDI IN TCW THAT WENT BY GENERAL OR COMMANDER
The force and the military have never been separated. Even TLJ, can’t erase the fact that Rey specifically says she’s with the Resistance and was sent to Luke because of them.
Finn can have the force and be a commander in the Resistance. Y’all just looking for reasons to make him less important. It’s a you problem, not a Finn problem.
It’s kinda funny, because people have been trying to make a case for Han having the Force since 1977, no matter that his arc was about becoming a responsible leader and a general. Funny how having the Force was and is not see as ruining his character and that fans thought it’d work brilliantly for him, but somehow it’s a detriment to Finn?
[insert thinking emoji]
Also missing: any serious fandom speculation of Lando having the Force, despite his piloting and brilliant tactical judgment saving the day. Nah, Lando’s got to be the Everyman even though he clearly isn’t, I wonder why? 🤣
L.J.'s Obsessions 