Finn wasn’t lying in TFA when he said he could disable Starkiller Base’s shields. He knew he could, and he planned to do it. But he also planned to save Rey. He didn’t tell anyone because he knew they wouldn’t let him go for fear of him failing or lying.
When they landed at Starkiller Base, Finn told Han “we’ll use the Force!” to find a way to shut down the shields. He wasn’t joking. He was completely serious. He genuinely believed they could use the Force to shut down the shields. He knew he would be able to shut down the shields, whether with the Force or with a clever plan. Remember this man was a tactical genius according to First Order standards (99th percentile for all stormtroopers in the First Order in all disciplines, strategy and tactics included).
Finn knew what he was doing when he volunteered to go to Starkiller and he fully intended to shut down Starkiller’s shields from the very beginning. He just had to narrow down the how, which he knew he could because he’s Force-sensitive and a brilliant strategist. He, Han, and Chewie shut the shields down before looking for Rey. He agreed to help Han plant the charges around the base before they went looking for Rey.
Please stop talking about Finn like he’s a sneaky, cowardly, selfish liar who only cares about himself and Rey. He’s a deeply complex character with immense compassion and a brilliant mind.
#Finn ends up leaving Rey on Takodana and went to train with #SidonIthano and #Quiggold as a pirate in the Outer Rim. He has now become a strong and skillful fighter and has now pledged to fight the #FirstOrder with his new strength. He’s now earned the notorious title, “The Phasma Slayer” and will fight to oppose the First Order- for a good price.
Tbh that shot of Finn just chatting it up with Nien at the end of TLJ is so important because all his life Finn was shunned by his peers and now he’s in a totally new place with totally new people and he’s being treated like one of them and having regular conversations and being included in the larger group and just having normal social interaction and it’s what he deserves! He’s waited his whole life to belong and thought there was something wrong with him but then he leaves the First Order and it just happens?
Above all, Finn is a character who gives me hope. Watching his journey from a traumatized and abused soldier to a conscientious defector and a hero who follows his own rules, watching him find amazing relationships and be admired and adored, I have hope that I too can grow beyond emotional abuse and find other, better ways to relate to people. On a broader scale he gives me hope that people in general can rise beyond the toxic ideologies we’ve been indoctrinated with and live together without destroying each other.
Cassian said rebellions are based on hope. How could anyone endure so much and sacrifice so much without some kind of faith that things could get better? Finn is the embodiment of that hope, that even in the deepest darkness there is a spark within people that can be a candle to help us see each other, a fire to warm people and pull them together, a conflagration to burn down oppressive structures and build anew.
My life is better for knowing and loving this remarkable character and being in the fandom surrounding him. The character and the fandom helped me recognize many of my own racist and antiblack biases and try to work past them. For that and the countless hours of laughter, insight, and enjoyment of top-notch content I am so grateful to all of you, including the organizers of Finn Appreciation Week.
There’s really nothing new I can say about Finn that I haven’t already said this past year or said by others but…lemme wax poetic about him anyway. He’s a beacon of hope for abuse survivors. He’s an image of Black masculinity that rejects hyper masculinity and the violence it comes with. He’s beautiful, kind, brave, and brash. He’s a tactical genius. He’s down to earth and untouchable at the same time. And he means so fuckin much to me and a lot of other ppl. Seeing Johns face on billboards w/that lightsaber… having so many expectations and then having them surpassed!!! wow!! Having an even better written Black character than I hoped for played by a phenomenal actor…it’s just… blessed!! The best fiction not only reflects reality but challenges it and forces it to change. Finn’s compassion, loyalty, and willingness to make hard choices not only for himself but for the benefit of others – it’s something that inspires us. It inspires me. Yeah he deserves to be treated better. We all know that. He’s FS and gonna be a jedi. We all know that. But even if his arc in ep 9 is even worse than that trash we got in ep 8… it wont do anything to the fact that Finn continues to be the most interesting character ever to exist in the SW universe! And that’s a fact!! He isn’t a vader wannabe, he isnt a flyboy, and he isnt a clone lily white heroine – he’s bigger and better than them all – he’s FINN!!!! We’re all blessed to see such an iconic character appear on screen while we’re alive and to see such a wonderful, humble, and talented actor like John Boyega play him!! I aint never been part of fandom before Finn and even if it’s been rough at times I’m so so glad if we’re gonna hyper-fixate on movie or kin (ha) any character we got Finn to love on!! What a blessing.
He can understand how the weight of someone’s opinion can push you to doubt your own judgement, to justify actions to yourself that you would otherwise never take.
He can understand being trapped and having no way out, to desperately search for one, while trying to survive in a system that demands total compliance.
But he cannot understand not searching for such an out, understands even less how someone cannot take it when it is offered, not once, but twice. Doesn’t comprehend how anyone can reject that chance of freely offered escape.
There are things Finn can forgive.
The other Stormtroopers, the cadets that trained alongside him, he finds it difficult to judge them harshly. He knows what they all went through, the violence both mentally and physically they were subjected to, the abuses heaped on them to make them comply. He can’t find it in his heart to condemn those that gave in, those that could not find a way out and – knowing that defiance meant death – obeyed orders, though he asks no one else to share his forgiveness of them.
But he cannot forgive those who visited violence on others with malicious glee, those who had a choice, had the rank and influence to choose differently, but didn’t. Nor can he forgive those who inflicted violence on him, those who for their own goals, or their own joy, caused him pain and injury.
This is why he’ll never understand Phasma, nor forgive her.
This is why he’ll never understand Kylo Ren, nor forgive him.
L.J.'s Obsessions 