“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.
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.
she-ra is just the Star Wars sequels if Finn was the main character like….a former enemy soldier defecting and being unsure of themself….someone who was brainwashed from birth….Adora is the Jedi!Finn we wanted
Sorry but Adora / Finn parallels both characters who break away from an organization that indoctrinated them as children once they realized it was morally reprehensible thanks for your time
Whenever I hear that writers should “take risks” these days I’m like “how about NO!” because what most people perceive as risks are elements not natural to the story that exist JUST to forcefully write something “different” or refuse to ever let characters be happy or functional. These “risks” have just become annoying and at this point it’s surprising and refreshing if writers DON’T do this.
Seriously. Truly risky and fresh writing doesn’t arise out of trying to be risky, but rather out of going where the story organically takes you without stepping back from the edge out of discomfort. Finn in his original conception is a risky character for SW because he is new for the movies and raises so many questions about humanity and morality. Stepping back from the implications of his character and borking a Stormtrooper uprising like RJ did in TLJ was cowardice. The titty milk alien or Luke’s momentarily-contemplated murder of Ben Solo, on the other hand, are examples of trying way too hard to be clever and subversive.
I’m not sure if all versions released in China cut out Finn scenes, but I lived in a VERY mono-ethnic city (over 99% Han Chinese), and they were very proudly anti-black, so I’m not surprised that that province cut out a lot of his scenes/lines.
The scenes they cut were ones where he mainly appeared alone, as well as scenes where they would cut out some of his lines to make him appear less important. I also don’t remember seeing him hug Rey when he helps rescue her towards the end. I mostly remember that it left me feeling confused. Like, I could tell that the movie was missing something, that something had been edited. It wasn’t until I downloaded a Korean (? I think?) bootleg version of the movie that I was able to confirm that a lot of Finn’s scenes had been cut.
Again, I wish I could say that I was surprised, but I saw a lot of racist, anti-black shit going on in China that really saddened/disturbed me, as well as a creepy fetish and preoccupation with white people. There were restaurants with black face pictures on the walls. A black friend of mine was deported because his presence was “too frightening” (he was 6′5″ and 300 lbs which apparently made him a threat to public safety). Black people and even non-black Africans were banned from certain jobs (such as teaching English). My roommate (who was African American) was constantly belittled and called “dirty” by Chinese people. One time a woman grabbed my roommate’s arm and pointed out her skin to her child saying, “see? they don’t wash. that’s why their skin is black.” Honestly, I could go on and on with stories like that, stories of my black friends’ experiences in China, but there are too many to list here.
I’m white, so my experience in China was vastly different from that of my roommate’s or my other black friends. On the whole, I had a lot of fun in China and I met a lot of wonderful people, and I don’t want anyone reading this to think that I hate Chinese people or think they’re all racist. But there IS a prevalent culture of anti-blackness in China, at least in some of the smaller cities, that goes unchecked because there is no impetus for them to change their ways. In the West, even though we have our own myriad issues with racism, we have a system that (at least in theory) holds us accountable for our racist words and actions. That system doesn’t exist in China.
Ugh I can see it all too well. It’s in line with what I see in Korea as well, although we’ve learned to be a little sneakier about it and at least we didn’t cut Finn’s scenes (today in the realm of low bars…) Antiblackness in Asia is really serious–like in India there were actual mobs against African residents and a hit movie had villains in blackface–and it needs to be discussed more.
I wanted to put paint on canvas, but I didn’t have an original idea I wanted to explore… so fan art it is. I’m pretty happy with this one. I love painting with a palette knife and creating texture.
You know, that whole thing about Anakin being a false Messiah made me think. Anakin never did do what the Prophecy of the Chosen One said he would, did he? Even if we take the narrow Jedi interpretation of it.
Like he was supposed to a) destroy the Sith and b) bring balance to the Force. But he only managed part one, dying before he could do anything about part two.
Which makes him the Star Wars equivalent of a false Messiah. He never did fulfill the requirements.
Of course we end up once again with the question, what is “bringing balance to the Force” supposed to mean anyway? To destroy the dark side? Or the ability to use the dark side?
In that case not only did Anakin fall woefully short of accomplishing that, the Jedi were truly blind if they thought just destroying the Sith would do that. While the Sith were the strongest dark side group, they were not alone. Not by a long short. We have the Witches of Dathomir just for a start.
And then there’s Yoda’s words about fear, anger and hate leading to the dark side. Which essentially means that the dark side lives in all of us and cannot be erased.
A balance between light and dark? Except the dark is shown as being pretty constantly evil. Like tyranny and genocide kinda evil. Plus that would never have gone down with the Jedi would it?
So how do we bring balance to the Force? And how do we prevent the galaxy from repeating the same story over and over again? That Finn, Rey, Poe, Rose and all the rest 20, 30 or 40 years down the line will be facing the same struggle all over again, the way Leia, Han and Luke did?
“The only fight, against the dark side. Trough the ages evil has taken many forms. The Sith, The Empire. And now the First Order. We must face them. Fight them. All of us.”
These are Maz’s words to Rey when she asks what fight it is Maz is talking about.
The difference between Judaism and Christianity in the view of bringing about the Messianic age is that Christians – white Christians at the least – sits around passively for it to come when God decides it. For Jewish people it is an active process we’re all a part of, and it won’t arrive until we have done the work and are ready for it. It’s a state we work to achieve, not something arbitrarily bestowed upon us from on high.
In the original Star Wars the universe’s equivalence of the “Messianic age” is bestowed upon the galaxy when Anakin kills Palpatine and dies himself, erasing his own sins and bring “balance”.
In Jewish eyes it’s just not that easy.
As I already pointed out Anakin failed in doing anything to address the “imbalance” of the Force. And the rest of the galaxy seemed content to go on its own fucked up way and continue as it had always been. Perhaps because the fight against evil and “the dark side” was something that resided solely in the hands of the Jedi to their way of thinking.
Maz tells us no. It is on everyone if the fight against evil is to be won, if the dark side is to be defeated and the “Messianic age” arrive.
So where does that leave our heroes?
Well, with a whole lot of work cut out for them that’s for sure. And the ST’s conclusion will not be the Christian fairy tale ending that George gave the OT trio. The fight against the dark side and the balancing of the Force is almost certainly going to reach far beyond the ending of IX.
That doesn’t mean that it won’t be hopeful or optimistic. In our current political climate what better message to send that the idea that we can all make a difference. That a better tomorrow is in our own hands. That we can win this fight, though it will be a long one, but we have to stand together. We have to each do our part. We can’t wait for other to come save us, nor should we passively expect rescue. Doing that leaves only room for evil and oppression to win.
But if we do? Then we can win. We can bring evil, the dark side, to its knees.
So rather than passively waiting for an anointed family or an order of clerics to come save them, or the government for that matter (the clerics were government enforcers in the old Republic era, with all the problems that implies), the peoples of the galaxy must rise up themselves to fight oppression? Works for me, and I think in its bumbling and confusing way TLJ set up that endgame by showing the downfall of the “holy family” and “priestly class.” Rey’s faith in both was cruelly dashed by the very men she pinned her hopes on, and she had to realize that she, not they, were the hope the galaxy was looking for.
The same theme can be seen in a roundabout way through Finn’s story. He was trained to see himself as either helpless to stop the overwhelming force of the FO or, to the extent he had any effect, as an expendable cog in the machine. Therefore he swung from the extreme of wanting to run because he couldn’t hope to do anything except get killed, to the other extreme of accepting his own death as a cost in the fight. Rose’s and then Luke’s intervention flipped the script by showing that no, he was not expendable, in fact it’s one of the “chosen” ones who would sacrifice himself for the ordinary Resistance fighters.
Poe’s story can also be seen as him going from reliance on Leia to being a leader in his own right, again in a terribly executed plot but that seems to be the intention. The comics show this angle more clearly by portraying him respectfully disagreeing with Leia on a matter that concerned the very heart and soul of the Resistance and reaching a compromise, then turning out to be right and saving the day. Because Leia trusts him, for a good reason! Because Poe has, in fact, never been a selfish gloryhound who sacrifices people right and left for the sake of victory! And the Rebellion/Resistance has never been the kind of military where the superior expects to be obeyed because she says so without question or input, which is a terrible way to make decisions anyway!
Salt aside, though, I can see TLJ following up from TFA to set up IX for a giant “fuck you” to the supposed Skywalker legacy and for the fight against evil to be a broad-based one, not just a slugout between superpowered beings.
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