lj-writes:

What happens when you’re told, “Don’t think about the elephant?” Chances are, you’ll immediately think of an elephant.

I think that’s the problem with the Light Side of the Force as we have known it: So many of the doctrines and practices of the LS, such as the Old Jedi way of not forming attachments, are premised on resisting the temptations of the Dark Side.

If your goal is not to  turn Dark, then what are you going to be thinking about? The Dark Side. This is why puritanism of all stripes is destined to fail, because it’s consumed more with what it’s against (sex! rock ‘n roll! murder!) than what it’s for (eh, love and peace I guess?).

Anakin Skywalker’s story from the prequel trilogy is a prime example of this in the Star Wars saga, walking into the one place you were determined not to go. Intentionally or not, the prequels were an indictment of the Jedi way.

I think similarly, trying not to turn to the Light Side has a polarizing effect on those who turn to the Dark Side of the Force. You can see this with Kylo Ren in the new trilogy, thinking too hard about how not to go Light and then running to bugfucking extremes in the other direction.

The results of such extremism, in turn, are so horrific that the other side becomes understandably all the more preoccupied with, you know, NOT BEING THAT HELL NO and, again, being more anti-Dark than anything else. This doesn’t make the LS morally equivalent to the DS, but it does mean that LS practitioners can fall into the trap of puritanism.

Going to extremes seems to be a major theme of the upcoming movie, The Last Jedi, and Adam Driver who plays Kylo Ren has discussed mass murder committed by “both sides” (maybe this is his character’s perspective, I don’t agree with it) and how he took inspiration from the absolute moral certainty of terrorists in playing his character. As director Rian Johnson has repeatedly said the movie will showcase moral ambiguity, it’s a safe bet that we’ll see the good guys go to extremes, too, something we have also seen in Rogue One.

We can reliably tell where many of the characters old and new fit into this increasingly polarized galaxy: Leia, Poe, Holdo, Rose, Paige, and others on one side, Snoke, Kylo Ren, Phasma, and Hux on the other.

Other characters, on the other hand, stand in notable contrast to the characters whose allegiances are well known. Luke, the character we thought was the Rebel to end all Rebels and the Jediest of them all, not only stayed away for years but still seems reluctant to join the fight. Rey is definitely Resistance-allied, but is still trying to find her place in all this.  “DJ,” a new character, is a cynical outsider who’s only in it for the creds.

Then there’s Finn, who has been in and rejected the First Order and fought alongside the Resistance, but as of the beginning of TLJ is not a committed fighter. Like Luke, he’s wounded from past experience; like Rey, he’s still figuring himself out after his life was turned upside down; and like DJ, he is cynical of causes in general, something I have previously discussed.

In a universe of absolutes Finn stands out with the other uncommitted characters for his refusal, at first, to choose a side. Turning against the First Order does not mean he automatically chose the Resistance, though he has worked with them.

Interestingly, for someone who rejected absolute evil he seems to have very little to prove. He’s not obsessed with trying not to be evil, or with trying to be good by fighting evil. He suffers the undeserved shame of the abused, but he’s not consumed by it. He doesn’t beat himself up over killing Stormtroopers to defend himself or wonder if that makes him as bad as them, a lack of self-flagellation that some fans have criticized him for. He doesn’t agonize over whether he might be a bad person for lying to the Resistance so he could go back for Rey.

Finn is, in other words, the opposite of a puritan. He refuses to do evil, and that’s enough. He’s not consumed by the thought of it. He tries to be good to the people he meets and distrusts causes and grand theories.

Finn is most definitely not Dark Side, but he’s also not the Light Side as we’ve come to understand it, an anti-Dark puritanism. He allegiance, I believe, is to the Balance as near as I understand it, a goodness that is defined by what it supports, not what it opposes, a space that has room for human ambiguity and fallibility without fear of turning to irrevocable evil.

It’s significant to me that right after his arguably most morally questionable and admirably badass decision was revealed–that he had lied to the Resistance to come get Rey–Finn immediately brings up tho Force to a livid Han.

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For @swrebelfinn because the tags are acting up again ;_____;