jewishcomeradebot:

@lj-writes

I got to thinking. I want a Stormtrooper rebellion as much as anyone, but leading the people out of Egypt wasn’t the only important thing Moses did. There are other important stories with him.

And when we take into account that the founding question of the ST apparently was “What relevance does to Force have in the present day world [in the GFFA universe]” I can’t help but recall that story with the hike up the mountain and the longish talk with G-d that led to a new Covenant and half a score new Commandments.

Are you thinking of Finn in a wilderness, seeking communion with the Force? Haircuts are optional but I hope he doesn’t go for 40 days without eating…😨

The question of the relevance of the Force in the sequel era got me thinking about Rogue One and Chirrut’s story in particular. Though RO is pre-OT timeline wise, it was made in the sequel era with canon meant to be usable in sequel works. What always struck me about Chirrut’s arc was how spiritual it was, with more focus on the will of the Force than on using the Force for what you want to do.

(I mean there are people who miss the hell out of the point, of course: One reviewer said the perfect culmination of Chirrut’s story would have been him flipping the master switch on Scarif with the Force, and I’m like uhhh… no? This same reviewer also said Kylo Ren was the only character who made sense as a human being in TFA, so deliver me from white male geeks basically.)

This spirituality of the Force is supported by the worldbuilding as well, with the Force sects and religions on Chirrut’s native Jedha and elsewhere, like the village Kylo Ren slaughtered at the start of TFA. And with the destruction of Jedha these religious groups are likely to have migrated far and wide along with refugees, which may have been how a branch of the Church of the Force ended up on Jakku. If Finn turns out to be a Jedhan, as we both fondly hope, he would be reclaiming his heritage as well by seeking out the guidance of the Jedhans, maybe to interpret the Jedi texts or something.

If Episode IX is to explore the spirituality of the Force, it may include not only relations to the supernatural but also relations among people, that is how people are allowed or obligated to treat each other. I said in my meta about the contrasts and comparisons of Finn’s and Rey’s backgrounds that if the Republic were to rise again it would have to find some solutions to the existing iniquities that did not go away with the end of the Empire. It looks like a covenant would be a good start to that, with not just top-down policy but bottom-up commitment and demand on the part of the peoples of the GFFA driving change. 

That would be a long leap from Finn at the end of TLJ, of course, so if he has longer hair throughout the movie it’s unlikely to be because he’s on a spiritual quest. One possibility is that he has longer hair to make him a little less recognizable to the FO while he carries out missions in areas where he might have run-ins with them. Or he just wanted a change, who knows. Part of his mission together with Rey might be to seek out groups potentially friendly to the Resistance because they’re in sort of desperate need of allies after getting wiped out in the previous movie for no good reason, and who would be more stridently antifascist than people who lost their home to the Empire? While he gets closer to the Jedhans he might find out about their religion as well and maybe seek guidance on the texts Rey brought back, and the story can go off from there.