porgsitter:

I’ve thought quite a lot about how connected Rey’s and Finn’s introductions are in The Force Awakens. When we first see them, they are both completely covered, we don’t see their faces. Interestingly enough the official Star Wars website has published an article that mentions exactly that. What’s nteresting … the article is meant to be about Rey’s introduction to the franchise, yet it can’t talk about it without paralleling it to Finn’s. Which is exactly what I automatically did as well. It also points something out I haven’t realized before. 

“

In this first shot Rey is covered up, including goggles that cover her eyes. It’s impossible to know at this point if this character is male/female, human/alien, old/young, good/bad.

This shot is the second part of a classic match cut The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams chose to use here. The scene right before Rey’s introduction shows a very upset Finn gasping for breath after witnessing (but not participating in) the masscare at Jakku. At the end of the scene he puts back on his blood stained First Order helmet and the closeup of this helmet cuts to the first shot of Rey in her goggles (with a very quick shot of the starry sky in between).

The juxtaposition of a close-up of a character in a helmet with large black eye-shields with another character with goggles of a similar shape covering their eyes is an interesting editorial choice. It’s visually appealing to match the composition of shots in this way, but Abrams is also linking the characters with this transition.

Previous Star Wars characters who have covered their faces have almost always been bad guys, from Darth Vader to Boba Fett to Tusken Raiders. These masks are regularly used a sign of strength and intimidation of other characters as well as, in Darth Vader’s case, a mechanism for survival. [….]

Finn and Rey both use their “masks” only as temporary means of survival in The Force Awakens. Here Finn’s helmet serves as a mask that hides Finn’s horror of what his life has become. It can also be seen even as a form of restraint Finn will need to escape from if he wants to avoid more killings. But why does Rey have her face covered?

Perhaps the filmmakers were simply looking for a visual way to link Finn and Rey and to foreshadow the duo teaming up later on in the film. Abrams also may have chosen this form of introduction to simply increase the mystery of who Rey is with audiences. If we can’t even get a good look at the character, it’s harder to make any snap judgments about her. Will Rey have an immediate conflict to overcome like Finn’s character has on his hands? Is Rey’s “mask” hiding something about her? […] (Plus, Rey’s goggles come from an old stormtrooper helmet, which is just rad.)” source: http://www.starwars.com/news/how-reys-introduction-in-the-force-awakens-tells-its-own-story?cmp=smc%7C1086907311

So we literally have a transition from a struggling Stormtrooper wearing his helmet covered by his colleague’s blood to another character whose face we do not see at first, but who happens to be wearing goggles MADE FROM an old Stormtrooper helmet? These two scenes scream about how there is a connection between these characters that we are absolutely meant to catch before they even meet, down to tiny details!