God, they’d better not be Sleepy Hollow-ing Finn. I mean I’m pretty positive they’re not killing him, but he could still be seriously sidelined.
This isn’t really new they have always had very little Finn merchandise. It’s the same old bull shit Disney has been pulling with there black characters for a very long time. It’s the same reason there’s very little princess Tiana merchandise, Falcon, Iron patriot, Ect.
Disney doesn’t care about there black characters except for the ones from black panther and that’s really an anomaly for them.
What’s the source for Finn being removed from new TFA merch? There is definitely merch that leaves him (but not Poe) off going back to 2015. I have pics to prove it. But I had a much harder time finding FN-2187 merch (blood streaked helmet) until the last year or so. SuperHeroStuff has several Finn shirts for sale, including an FN2187 and a “I’m kind of a big deal” tee I never saw when TFA came out. Not to mention WalMart sells multiple Finn and Rey figure sets and other Finn toys, well more than Poe toys, especially from TFA lines.
So what are they basing it on?
Yeah I’ve had the same experience as you, that Finn merch (and FN-2187 merch) is easier to find now than it has been so far. And no I’m not talking about shops where I’ve been asking about it. I mean just seeing it in the normal toy/figure/SW/whatever section of the shop along side all the rest.
I used to have to dig – or ask – about it, now I can often find it on the shelf. Or at least more often than I used to.
I’m not saying it doesn’t/hasn’t happened, but it conflicts very much with my own experience. So I too would like some actual examples of this.
Disney parks and there stores are a very different situation. They have very little if any Finn merchandise that’s not just an action figure. I know cause every time I go to Disney I ask what Finn merchandise do you have? Shit I was in Disneyland right after tlj came out. All Finn got was a couple figurines Rose didn’t get much either. Yet the porgs where fucking everywhere. They do this with all there non-white Star Wars characters. I made a post about it awhile back and seems nothing has changed.
You can go to Disney official website and see there dismally small supply of Finn merchandise. Meanwhile kylo, rey, luke, Han and Leia are easy to find. Do to the solo movie we did get more Lando merchandise but I see it falling off soon. I remember that campaign about where’s Rey and how she got all new toys and merchandise. Wish we could get that same energy for Finn the current male lead of the series.
But people are saying Finn has been “removed” from new TFA merchandise, not that Disney parks stock less Finn than WalMart, which has been true from the beginning. All that says is that people who shop at Disney are less interested in Finn merch than people who shop at WalMart, where there are a decent number of Finn items.
There’s a big difference between Finn merch not being on shelves vs Finn Merch not being made or removed. If anything, Finn merch sitting on the shelves is a bad thing. It means no one is buying it.
Yup and the only toys I’ve ever seen in the 80% off bargain bin are Kylo and Pretorian guards. The dollar store near me still has unsold $1 Kylo Ren items from three years ago, while the Finn versions are long gone (and I know they were there because I bought some of them). That’s all anecdotal, too – the business journal articles about Kylo items massively underselling aren’t, though. The business of merchandising is separate from the business of making the films (look at FoD, Finn has two episodes, Kylo has zero, yet there was Kylo doll). And in the case of LF, their merchandising Dept has always had tremendous bias in favor of white buyers who want white toys.
What are the business articles describing the underselling off kylo items?
The focus on Kylo merchandise over the heroes, especially Rey, was a scandal in early 2016 covered extensively in the media.
John Marcotte of Heroic Girls was widely quoted after he spoke with Disney execs about the lack of Rey merchandise when TFA was released. He said they were “blindsided” with the lack of interest in Kylo, who they expected to be the breakout character. He said, quote:
“Now they’re stuck with vast amounts of Kylo Ren product that is not moving and a tidal wave of complaints about a lack of Rey items.”
The miscalculation led to a TFA script rewrite to focus more on Finn, Poe and Rey. RJ had planned to focus on his own new characters, as well as Kylo, presumably.
TFA toy sales were huge despite of Disney’s miscalculation. Top TFA toys per Google research were the app enabled BB8, Millennium Falcon toys and Lego sets, Stormtrooper figures, and Rey items once they started rolling out.
It’s also been widely reported that TLJ’s toy sales fell by 47% compared to TFA sales. Hasbro CEO blamed releasing the toys in September, but later noted that Star Wars merchandise was picking up online (where fans have choices beyond leftover TLJ merch like the Pretorian guards that didn’t sell).
The cult of Kylo Ren in fandom and on social media has not translated into blockbuster sales of Kylo merchandise.
Yup, not a prodigal son who returns, but the son of perdition who is lost. Theologian D.A. Carson has suggested that the verse is a reference to Judas Iscariot, the traitor, which seems fitting for Kylo.
Which is yet another reason I want Finn to find his family in IX and reconnect with them. It would once more underscore the juxtaposition between him (the prodigal son) and Kylo (the son of perdition).
I think of Finn more like Moses because the prodigal son went astray from his own mistakes as an adult, but if you leave out that aspect the prodigal son fits the journey of disconnection from family and subsequent return, too!
Oh yeah, I used to be in the fandom back in the day. It was my first fandom and the first time I shared any fiction I wrote with strangers, in fact. I lost interest around Books 5-6 but read all the books and the saw movies up to GoF.
I answered a SW/Hogwarts ask before so enjoy (link)! I haven’t gotten a full Hogwarts AU ask, though. Here’s what I think:
Potterverse Rey would be a street child surviving on her wits and giving her meager earnings from panhandling and dumpster diving to a gang boss in exchange for protection, before she’s picked up by groundskeeper Chewbacca at 11 years of age. Does the wizarding world have any kind of child welfare system, I wonder? The magical authorities know all the children born with magic but won’t lift a finger to help them until they reach 11? Or was Harry’s case an anomaly due to his need to stay with his blood family? Also what happens to children like Rey who aren’t sitting on a vault of Gringott’s gold?
Finn’s background has no analogue in the HP verse unless we’re talking about an alternate world where Voldemort won at least a partial victory and was able to raise an army of child soldiers. Then the letter from Hogwarts comes and, desperate to escape his circumstances, he runs away from Voldyland to attend the still-defiant Hogwarts. This changes the universe too radically, though, so let’s tone it down to Finn being born to the House of Black and abandoning his pureblood supremacist beliefs after meeting Rey and Poe and the others. Basically Sirius and Regulus in one, I guess, but with a much happier ending.
Sorted into Ravenclaw, Rey is unable to believe the stability and plenty she experiences at Hogwarts and thrives despite having recurring issues including hoarding food. She excels at Charms and Muggle Studies, and has nowhere to go during holidays and summers so she stays and helps Chewie with the grounds. Mr. Solo, the Quidditch coach who was a star Chaser when he was younger, is impressed at her broom maintenance and riding skills and she becomes one of the Chasers on the Ravenclaw team. She dislikes the team’s dictatorial captain and Keeper Armitage Hux, however. There’s also something really sinister about their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Snoke.
Finn meanwhile shocks everyone when he is sorted into Gryffindor, and his aunt Phasma sends him a Howler about it. He finds it hard to make friends in his House but one of the Prefects, Poe Dameron, is kind to him. Finn also becomes friends with Rey after they along with Poe’s cat BeeBee escape giant spiders with crazy broom antics. Finn struggles with the beliefs he was raised in but comes increasingly to see these ideas were wrong, which further strains his relationship with his family. With things increasingly unbearable at home, he spends more and more holidays at Hogwarts with Rey. They are both invited to the Dameron home some summers and Christmases, where they have great fun on the farm. Finn takes over as Seeker after Poe’s graduation and finds himself constantly butting heads with Slytherin prefect and Seeker Ben Organa, son of the Minister of Magic and nephew of Headmaster Skywalker.
Through their time spent poking around the grounds Finn and Rey gather clues about a Death Eater group being run in Hogwarts, though they are not sure who the leader is. When they go to Master Skywalker with their suspicions the Headmaster connects the dots himself and attempts to use Legilimency on his nephew to learn the truth. Ben brings down the Slytherin dungeon on Skywalker and gathers his Death Eaters to attack the students and burn down Hogwarts. Finn and Rey along with the other students fight back, however, with Finn and Rey using Anakin Skywalker’s wand against Ben. Together they repel the attack with minimum loss of life–among which was, shockingly, Ben’s own father Mr. Solo. Ben Organa flees from Hogwarts along with the Death Eater students including Hux. Master Skywalker also disappears, some say to track down Ben, others say out of shame. Leia Organa loses her job as Minister of Magic due to the scandal and becomes the new Headmistress. Even as they grieve their losses the students and faculty know they have a bigger fight looming ahead…
Love it
And Finn could be raised by the Death Eaters and trained to be one. They had always been in the background, like a secret cult following. So it’s possible.
It’s ironic though because Snoke and Voldy look alike already 😂
Who’s this world’s version of Snape?
That works! Finn could use his extensive knowledge of the DE as they gather clues about a DE gang on campus and he suffers from undeserved shame at how he was brought up, something Rey and Poe help him through.
Finn and Rey both have understandable issues with authority that lead them not to go to the adults in their lives when they see danger, but Mr. Solo and Chewie are exceptions. They are left horribly traumatized when Solo is murdered before their eyes by his own son. 😦
I thought of Snoke as the Quirrell figure who was revealed to be the Big Bad after the first year and leaves. The discovery of Ben’s DE gang would be a multiyear arc, so if we keep the “curse” on the DADA position there would be a succession of teachers. Maybe Ben could even be the DADA teacher in the year he is discovered (around Year 4?), having taken the posting right after graduation like the elite wizard he is. Then Poe, also a recent graduate, is the next DADA teacher, and is captured by the DE before he apparently dies in a broom crash during his escape. He makes a triumphant return in the next book.
I guess Holdo is Snape, the asshole authority figure who dies heroically, but with the aesthetics and condescension of Umbridge 😂
This is a somewhat unfortunate juxtaposition but Rose could be the Cho Chang figure, the upperclass girl who briefly dates Finn. I’d like to see Finn have a crush on her, too, and for it not to be so one-sided on Rose’s part. Rey is Finn’s amused but supportive wingwoman, and it isn’t until over a year after Finn and Rose’s breakup that she realizes her own feelings for Finn.
Rey also dates other people including fellow Ravenclaw Chaser Jessika Pava, but they break up after Jessika realizes she’s in love with Rose. It makes things awkward on the Quidditch field for a while and brings back Rey’s abandonment issues, but she works things through with the help of her friends and becomes stronger friends and teammates with Jessika than ever. Later, when Rose and Jessika get together and Finn and Rey get together. they go on ironic but fun double dates.
Instead of Cedric Diggory we could have Paige as the sacrificial figure, except she gets a bit more agency in her death. She can be be one of the people to die during Ben’s attack on the school, holding off the DEs so the Ravenclaw dorm can evacuate.
Oh yeah, I used to be in the fandom back in the day. It was my first fandom and the first time I shared any fiction I wrote with strangers, in fact. I lost interest around Books 5-6 but read all the books and the saw movies up to GoF.
I answered a SW/Hogwarts ask before so enjoy (link)! I haven’t gotten a full Hogwarts AU ask, though. Here’s what I think:
Potterverse Rey would be a street child surviving on her wits and giving her meager earnings from panhandling and dumpster diving to a gang boss in exchange for protection, before she’s picked up by groundskeeper Chewbacca at 11 years of age. Does the wizarding world have any kind of child welfare system, I wonder? The magical authorities know all the children born with magic but won’t lift a finger to help them until they reach 11? Or was Harry’s case an anomaly due to his need to stay with his blood family? Also what happens to children like Rey who aren’t sitting on a vault of Gringott’s gold?
Finn’s background has no analogue in the HP verse unless we’re talking about an alternate world where Voldemort won at least a partial victory and was able to raise an army of child soldiers. Then the letter from Hogwarts comes and, desperate to escape his circumstances, he runs away from Voldyland to attend the still-defiant Hogwarts. This changes the universe too radically, though, so let’s tone it down to Finn being born to the House of Black and abandoning his pureblood supremacist beliefs after meeting Rey and Poe and the others. Basically Sirius and Regulus in one, I guess, but with a much happier ending.
Sorted into Ravenclaw, Rey is unable to believe the stability and plenty she experiences at Hogwarts and thrives despite having recurring issues including hoarding food. She excels at Charms and Muggle Studies, and has nowhere to go during holidays and summers so she stays and helps Chewie with the grounds. Mr. Solo, the Quidditch coach who was a star Chaser when he was younger, is impressed at her broom maintenance and riding skills and she becomes one of the Chasers on the Ravenclaw team. She dislikes the team’s dictatorial captain and Keeper Armitage Hux, however. There’s also something really sinister about their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Snoke.
Finn meanwhile shocks everyone when he is sorted into Gryffindor, and his aunt Phasma sends him a Howler about it. He finds it hard to make friends in his House but one of the Prefects, Poe Dameron, is kind to him. Finn also becomes friends with Rey after they along with Poe’s cat BeeBee escape giant spiders with crazy broom antics. Finn struggles with the beliefs he was raised in but comes increasingly to see these ideas were wrong, which further strains his relationship with his family. With things increasingly unbearable at home, he spends more and more holidays at Hogwarts with Rey. They are both invited to the Dameron home some summers and Christmases, where they have great fun on the farm. Finn takes over as Seeker after Poe’s graduation and finds himself constantly butting heads with Slytherin prefect and Seeker Ben Organa, son of the Minister of Magic and nephew of Headmaster Skywalker.
Through their time spent poking around the grounds Finn and Rey gather clues about a Death Eater group being run in Hogwarts, though they are not sure who the leader is. When they go to Master Skywalker with their suspicions the Headmaster connects the dots himself and attempts to use Legilimency on his nephew to learn the truth. Ben brings down the Slytherin dungeon on Skywalker and gathers his Death Eaters to attack the students and burn down Hogwarts. Finn and Rey along with the other students fight back, however, with Finn and Rey using Anakin Skywalker’s wand against Ben. Together they repel the attack with minimum loss of life–among which was, shockingly, Ben’s own father Mr. Solo. Ben Organa flees from Hogwarts along with the Death Eater students including Hux. Master Skywalker also disappears, some say to track down Ben, others say out of shame. Leia Organa loses her job as Minister of Magic due to the scandal and becomes the new Headmistress. Even as they grieve their losses the students and faculty know they have a bigger fight looming ahead…
Love it
And Finn could be raised by the Death Eaters and trained to be one. They had always been in the background, like a secret cult following. So it’s possible.
It’s ironic though because Snoke and Voldy look alike already 😂
Who’s this world’s version of Snape?
That would work! His knowledge of the DE is invaluable in gathering clues about the DE gang on campus, and he also deals with undeserved internalized shame at how he was brought up. Much like Harry, both Finn and Rey would have issues with authority that lead them not to trust adults. Mr. Solo and Chewie are exceptions, but then Solo is murdered at his own son’s hands before their eyes, traumatizing them.
I think of Snoke as the Quirrell figure who turns out to be the Big Bad and leaves after the first year, while uncovering the DEs on campus is a multiyear arc. If we keep the “curse” on the DADA position there would be a succession of teachers like in the books.
Holdo is Snape, I guess, the asshole authority figure who turns out to have been good and dies heroically, but in my head she’s more Umbridge. 😂 She distrusts Finn due to his background and gives Poe a particularly hard time.
This is an unfortunate juxtaposition but Rose could be the Cho Chang figure, an upperclass girl Finn dates before they break up. I’d like for Finn to have a crush on Rose too and for them to be mutually attracted to each other instead of its being so one sided on Rose’s part.
Captain…Commander…Trooper. All titles Rex had held in his lifetime.
But never father.
After the battle of Endor, after fighting alongside Solo, Organa, Skywalker, Calrissian, Bey, and Dameron, and watching them all have families, Rex was starting to think that Cut Lawquane was right. Maybe Rex wanted more than just battle.
timd would pass, and Rez would find a good woman, an old friend of Bey’s. She was kind, smart, a soldier like him. Well, not a Clone of a legendary bounty hunter, but damn was she good with a blaster. Eventually the two of them settled down and had twins, a boy and girl.
Everyone from the Damerons to even Ahsoka gave their congratulations. Ahsoka even mentioned that his children could be force sensitive. Imagine that? Clone Trooper Commander Rex, father of Jedi! Kenobi and Skywalker must have been grinning like idiots from the other side.
Unfortunately Rex knew he wouldn’t be able to watch his children grow up due to his accelerated aging. It was something he made peace with long ago and when the time came, Commander Rex had no regrets. He was remembered a hero, and mourned by many.
Kes and Shara offered Rex’s wife to stay with them for awhile to keep her and the kids company, which she accepted of course. Though Shara never came home after picking up the Trooper’s family.
Shara Bey’s ship had been attacked in the Outer Rim while she was on her way back to Yavin 4. Many thought it was raiders, but in reality it had been the First Order.
The twins had been the only survivors of the attack. Both were indoctrinated into the Stormtrooper program, but both were separated and their relation to never be revealed to the children as to avoid conflicting loyalties.
The girl would grow up to eventually gain the rank of Captain at the brink of the Cold War Between the First Order and New Republic. As Captain she was able to name herself. She chose the name Caro.
The boy on the other hand would grow up to become one of the best Stormtroopers in the entire First Order…and their greatest enemy. The boy deflected and joined the Resistance, and he took on the name Finn.
Finn had accepted long ago that he’d never find him family, but after the infiltration of the Supremacy, BB-8 shows Finn his military file from his Stormtrooper days. He had a sister and she was alive!
But he had no idea how he’d find her.
Since joining the Resistance, Finn had dealt with the silent confliction of fighting Stormtrooper. As a soldier, he never hesitated in battles with troopers, because it was them or him, but it all was catching up to him…it was eating away at him. Finn wanted to liberate them, give them the same option he was given.
So against mass protest from Rose, Poe, and especially a worried sick Rey, Finn decided he would go undercover once more in the First Order and not only find and convince his sister to rebel, but he would start a damn uprising. The Stormtroopers would not be the faceless casualties of this war.
He’d save his sister Captain Caro, and all the Stormtroopers, or die trying. Isn’t that what a real good Trooper does? They never leave a soldier behind. At least, that’s what the old holotapes about Clone Trooper Rex said. Finn always admired him and the other clones. Something about them felt… familiar.
Based off of @lj-writes meta “The Force Sensitive Five”, which you can click the link for the amazing meta goodness, the Force Five is a theory that Finn, Poe, Rose, and Caro, providing she turns out to be force sensitive, will go on to become pupils of Rey. Though more in a student teacher kind of way due to Rey being a learner herself. So it’s kind of like Kotor 2 when Exile trained all of their force sensitive companions as Jedi.
Instead of just reiterating what the above meta talks about, I’ll be listing what role I believe the five will serve in the new Jedi Order.
Some of these listingings are from the Legends canon, but considering force projection was brought back into canon, these count as fair game till proven otherwise.
There are 3 branches of Jedi in the Jedi teachings.
Jedi Guardian:
Knights preferring to take a physically active stance against the dark side of the Force and all other threats to the Republic were known to pursue the title of Guardian. Brandishing their lightsabers proudly, Guardians focused much of their training on perfecting their sparring and athletic skills, as well as the art of unarmed combat. The Force skills studied by the Guardians were typically those used for quickly disabling an opponent and aiding in agility and stamina.
Jedi Counselor:
Focusing not on physical force but on mastery of the Force and the sharpening of mental skills, the Jedi Knights who became Consulars worked closely with the Republic Diplomatic Corps and medical facilities. Overseen by the Council of Reconciliation, Consulars worked as healers, prophets, and researchers, wielding a lightsaber only for self defense.
Jedi Sentinal:
Knights that sought a balance between the intensive combat training of the Jedi Guardians and the wider philosophical views and teaching responsibilities of the Jedi Consulars. These Jedi ferreted out deceit and injustice, bringing it to light. They were generally employed in scouting missions and were skilled in security, computers, or stealth techniques, and also had diplomatic skills.
Rey
Branch: Jedi Guardian
Specialized path: Jedi Peacekeeper
The Jedi Peacekeepers were specialists in the art of policing the galaxy and ensuring that laws are enforced along the Outer Rim. Those Jedi wishing to pursue a peacekeeping role were stationed within planetary or sectoral government’s security agencies where they worked as the area’s special police.
Lightsaber: Double bladded Purple Lightsaber
Finn
Branch: Jedi Sentinal
Specialized path: Jedi Investigator
Jedi specially appointed by the High Council to uncover hidden and obscure threats to the galaxy such as powerful criminal syndicates, corruption and conspiracy against the Republic and other shady menaces. The Jedi investigator would often work alone and undercover to infiltrate suspicious organizations or would be busy investigating some act of crime.
Lightsaber: Dual wielding Orange Lightsabers
Poe Dameron
Branch: Jedi Guardian
Specialized path: Jedi Ace
The Jedi Aces were highly adept pilots and dogfighters. Piloting a variety of different starfighter models over the Order’s history, those specializing as Aces used their battle awareness to increase their firing accuracy and precision far beyond what a non-Force-sensitive pilot could achieve.
Lightsaber: Guard shoto Yellow Lightsaber
Rose Tico
Branch: Jedi Sentinal
Specialized Path: Jedi Artisan
Trying to understand creativity as a central aspect of the will of the Force, the craft pursued by Jedi artisans typically manifested in the construction of lightsabers and holocrons. Having an intrinsic skill with tools and machines, artisans joined their connection to the Force with their mechanical skill to guide their use of tools to create truly artistic and unique objects.
Lightsaber: Single Hilt Teal Lightsaber
Caro
Branch: Jedi Counselor
Specialized Path: Jedi Seer
Highly attuned to the Unifying Force, the Seers of the Jedi Order were gifted with pre- and postcognition, the Force granting them glimpses of things to come and things which have already transpired. Jedi Prophets were a rarity amongst the Seers, and were able to divine such things as the future of the galaxy.
Lightsaber: Curved-hilt Green lightsaber
I’d figure these five could be the building blocks of the New Jedi Order, though I think some elder Force users like Ahsoka, Ezra, and Maz would join due to have more extensive knowledge of the force and its history.
L.J.'s Obsessions 